Alaskan Legal: A Legal Thriller Read online

  I laughed, but I wondered where this was leading. Was my paralegal about to ask me on a date?

  “Asking them is kind of my job, so I guess I feel just fine about them.” I replied when I realized she was waiting for an answer.

  She clapped her hands together, and I was suddenly reminded of a chubby cartoon character I’d loved as a kid.

  “Then we’re going to get along perfectly,” she declared.

  She leaned toward me, and I noticed a sweet smell that clung to her body. Her eyes were locked on my face, and she tapped the bridge of her nose after several seconds of scrutiny.

  “That scar,” she said as she cocked her head for a better look. “What’s the story? Fight against a runaway suspect? Punch from an angry ex?”

  “A little bit of both,” I laughed. “In fact, it was my first case ever. I was conducting a divorce deposition with my client’s wife, soon to be ex-wife, when she punched me in response to a question I asked. She was wearing a ring, a gift from the man I had accused her of sleeping with.”

  Cassandra cringed and shook her head as she pulled back.

  “Ouch,” she sighed.

  I touched the scar for a moment and then stood up abruptly as I remembered I had a new client to attend to. I walked around my desk, collected my jacket, and opened the door. When I turned back to Cassandra, I saw the confused look in her wide eyes.

  “Come on,” I said. “We have a new client.”

  “Wow, you’re tall!” she said as she scurried after me.

  I was slightly above average in height, but given Cassandra’s own height, I’m sure I looked like an NBA player.

  “New client,” she muttered as she stepped into the hall. “That’s exciting.”

  I noticed she didn’t carry a coat and wondered if the cold weather barely affected her through the layers of her suit. I tried not to smile at her formal outfit, as I remembered my younger days in a suit and tie. I’d quickly learned that business casual was the norm of most of the law firms in Alaska, though. Button-up shirts and suits were reserved for court days, which meant today I wore jeans and a gray shirt.

  “How long were you sitting there?” I asked.

  “I came in when the guy on the phone said he was being treated like an outsider,” she replied. “Is that the new client?”

  “It is,” I affirmed. “Unfortunately, you missed the bulk of the conversation, but I can get you caught up to speed later. I’m amazed you managed to find my office on your own. You’re the first paralegal to accomplish that. Well, I’d say you’re the first in several categories.”

  For one thing, none of my previous paralegals had a commanding presence like she did. They also couldn’t fire words like they were bullets.

  Cassandra laughed as she stepped into the elevator at the end of the hall.

  “First of all, the directions weren’t hard to follow,” she replied. “Not sure what your other paralegals had so much trouble with. Second, what do you mean by ‘first in several categories?’ What were you expecting?”

  “Someone who doesn’t stand out,” I admitted. “You remind me of my younger sister, and legal jargon puts her to sleep. You don’t strike me as the type to be in this profession.”

  “I love breaking expectations.” She flashed me a smile and then sighed. “And to be fair, I didn’t know I wanted to be a paralegal until I was halfway through college. Turns out, I don’t know what I want until it’s right in front of me, and I gotta say, I sure prefer wanting things I know I can get than things I can’t.”

  “Was it the same way with Alaska?” I asked. “You haven’t been here very long, judging by your resume.”

  “Sure was,” she agreed. “I thought I’d be back in New York by now, but six months here was all it took. This place is just…”

  We’d reached the front door to the building by then, and I held it open so she could pass through while she tried to come up with the words to describe her new home. We stopped on the pavement, and Cassandra stared off in the distance for a moment.

  I followed her gaze to the mountains that wrapped around Anchorage and understood the sentiment she left unsaid. A cool breeze tousled our hair and clothing, and it carried the smell of the ocean. Somehow, the smell traveled far into the city even when the sound of the waves had been drowned out by the noise of human activity.

  Because the Alaskan Range appeared to wrap itself around Anchorage, it felt like the city was secluded from the rest of the world. It was like some magical place that followed its own special rules, and the spell was broken as soon as you traveled out of its limits. But that was true for the entire state of Alaska. It was a place that followed its own rules in terms of wildlife, seasons, and time. I’d only discovered the true beauty and magic of this place after moving there, and I’d never regretted my decision.

  The bright sun offered a bit of warmth, but even in the middle of summer, I usually still needed a light jacket. So as I glanced at Cassandra again, I couldn’t understand how she could be outside in only a thin blazer and not be shivering. Before I could pull my eyes away, she caught me staring at her and offered another smile.

  “Do you get along with your sister?” she asked as she tucked a loose strand behind her ear.

  The breeze promptly tried to blow it back in her face, so she turned her head slightly to keep the strand from lashing her eyes.

  She waited for me to answer, and I wondered where the question had come from and why she had asked it. Clearly, she took the whole prying questions thing rather seriously.

  “Every now and then,” I said. “And sometimes we argue over stupid things.”

  “Ah, so then it should be the same for us?” she mused.

  I shrugged in response, though I’d never had an arguments with any of my other paralegals. I started toward my car, a trusty old Nissan, and Cassandra hurried after me. Her voice had picked up speed again, and even if I’d wanted to say something, I don’t think I would have been able to squeeze in a comment.

  “I have two older brothers,” she began. “So lucky for you I can make twice the comparisons. I also get into so many stupid arguments with them. It’s worse for me, though, because sometimes they band together and gang up on me. It’s truly unfair.”

  She gave a loud laugh at that point, but we’d reached the car. I unlocked the doors and motioned her to climb inside. The monologue resumed as she opened the door and ducked inside.

  “I just remembered something so silly,” she said as she hunted for the seat belt. “When we were younger… I think I was ten?... Anyway, we got into this big argument about frijoles refritos. They were trying to convince me that using different beans would lead to different flavors, but I knew that wasn’t true. So we decided to do our own test. We snuck into the kitchen while my mom was busy….”

  She finally stopped talking at the sound of the engine starting, and I tried not to sigh too loudly.

  “What are we doing?” she asked.

  “You’re telling me what the weather looks like today,” I said as I pulled into traffic.

  “The weather?” She hesitated as though she needed a moment to remember what the word meant before she could follow through with the task.

  Confusion still showed on her face as she pulled her phone from her blazer’s pocket. She tapped her screen a couple of times, and the information displayed on it changed her expression from confusion to a satisfied smile.

  “Today will be a wonderfully sunny day,” she said. “Are we going on a picnic or something? Eating in the park with the client on the phone?”

  I smirked as I pictured a picnic along the edge of the Arctic.

  “Something like that,” I replied. I’m planning on meeting with him, but unfortunately, we won’t be enjoying a picnic.”

  “What’s the case with him?” she asked.

  “I’ll tell you in just a moment,” I said. “First, call this number for me and tell the guy who picks up to prepare his seaplane.”

  “A seapla
ne?” she repeated with a hint of fear.

  I recited the number for her to call, and after a moment of confusion, she quickly tapped it into her phone.

  “Um, yes,” she said with uncertainty to the man on the other end. “I’m with Mr. Reese Brooks, and he said you should prepare the seaplane.... Well, that was rude. He just hung up on me.”

  “He has a plane to prepare,” I pointed out.

  I felt her gaze on me, and I knew she was waiting for the explanation I had promised her twice now.

  “We’ve got a client named Austin Morris up in Utqiagvik who’s been arrested for murder,” I finally said.

  “Utqiagvik?” Cassandra could barely contain the fascination in her voice. “Ever since I arrived in Alaska, I’ve been dying to go there. I can’t wrap my head around a city that either doesn’t see the sun for a couple of months or only has daylight for days on end. That’s something you have to experience in person. I want to go there in the winter, though, not summer.”

  “Winter?” My surprise amused Cassandra.

  “I know, I know,” she sighed. “I’m such a ray of sunshine. How could I possibly want to spend months in total darkness? Well, you see, my dear Reese, I’m so bright that I don’t need another light source hanging over me twenty-four seven. Besides, it must be so hard to go to sleep when the sun is in the middle of the sky telling you to wake up, come outside, and do something fun. I couldn’t resist such temptation.”

  “That’s what curtains are for,” I replied. “You don’t think months of darkness wouldn’t mess with your head?” I asked.

  “What?” she said as she shook her head. “Like I’d snap and run out into the street and do something crazy.”

  “It’s been known to happen,” I replied. “Although most people usually just end up drinking.”

  “I wouldn’t do either of those things,” she insisted. “The worst that could happen is that I might become a little depressed. And look at me. Do you really think that would make much of a difference?”

  “No,” I managed to squeeze in before she gasped and held up her hands.

  “Maybe that’s what happened,” she exclaimed. “All that daylight fried someone’s brain, so they went completely bonkers, and killed the first person they saw. And our poor client just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Speaking of, who’s the victim? How’d they die?”

  “Victim’s name is Harrison, and that’s all I know,” I said. “I’ll get the full story of what happened once I meet with Mr. Morris and the local police.”

  She nodded and then spent the rest of the trip commenting on the local wildlife. We passed a group of geese wandering through a park, a mink investigating a garbage bin, and a moose munching on some grass near the entrance to the airport.

  “Oooh,” Cassandra cooed. “My first moose!”

  I shook my head as I headed for the small planes area, and then pulled into a spot near the hangar. I turned off the engine, stepped from the car, and then waited for Cassandra to do the same. When she finally emerged, I walked around to the passenger side and dangled the keys in front of her. After a moment, she snatched them from my fingers and stared at me expectantly.

  “Do you know what I want you to do with them?” I asked.

  “Not at all,” she replied. “But I’ve already learned that there’s a reason for every action you take, and you’ll tell me that reason eventually.”

  “Glad to see you’re adapting,” I replied with a chuckle

  “What can I say?” she said with a shrug. “I’m a fast learner. And using my fast brain, I’ve determined you want me to drive your car back to your office and keep the room warm until you return.”

  I gave a short laugh, though I had to admit that I was rather impressed.

  “You wish your job was that easy,” I said. “No, what I want you to do is drive to my house and pack me a traveling bag, then pack yourself a bag, too. I’ll text you my address. We’ll likely end up staying in Utqiagvik overnight while we figure out what the evidence is and who the players are. I’ll call you.”

  “Here’s to hoping you solve the case in less than an hour, so I don’t have to sacrifice my sleep schedule for no-night Utqiagvik,” she replied with an exaggerated sigh. “And may I say, I’m flattered by your trust in me despite this being our first day working together.”

  “If you want to, Cassandra, you could add betraying my trust to the growing lists of things that make you different from all my previous paralegals,” I said with a grin.

  She laughed at this, shook her head, and then walked around the car to the driver’s seat. She climbed in after giving me another sunny smile, and a moment later, the engine rumbled softly as it was brought to life.

  Cassandra reversed out of the parking spot and stuck her hand out of the window to provide a wave of farewell as she drove off the lot and merged with traffic. I turned away from the sight of my shrinking car and hoped I hadn’t just made a huge mistake.

  I shook my head and then headed for the office.

  Colin was already waiting for me just inside the door, and he stood up straight as he caught sight of me approaching. He was a man with long, thin limbs, so when he wasn’t slouching against the filing cabinet or leaning over an engine, he looked like a long, skinny stick.

  We shook hands, grunted our greetings to each other, and then walked out to the narrow strip of water where the seaplane waited. I climbed aboard while Colin untied the plane and then climbed in after me.

  “Where are you headed this time, Reese?” Colin asked as he donned a headset.

  He handed another set of headphones to me, a necessity if we wanted to talk once we were airborne. I took it from him, put it on, and then settled into the other seat in the cockpit.

  “I have a case up in Utqiagvik,” I replied.

  “Utqiagvik,” he repeated. “I’ve never had to fly that far north before, but there’s a first time for everything.”

  “Weather looks good, so we don’t need to worry there,” I told him.

  He nodded in agreement and then powered on the plane. The rumbling of the plane’s engine filled my ears and rattled my teeth, but I’d learned years ago how to avoid biting my tongue as we bounced along the water.

  And then, the water fell away, and we were climbing high into the heavens. I looked down at Anchorage as Colin banked the plane toward the north, and the bird’s eye view of the city, the gulf, and the mountains took my breath away. The side of the mountains that faced Anchorage didn’t have snow during the summer, but this high up, I could see the frozen pack on the far slopes.

  In two short hours, I would be in a city incredibly different from Anchorage in ways other than just size. Murder had no geographical preference, and so it was just as likely to occur in Utqiagvik as it was anywhere else. But that didn’t change the surprise I felt knowing that someone was murdered in that little city. Someone was murdered, and the killer had managed to slip into the general population undetected.

  I traced the scar on my nose as I considered Mr. Morris’ paranoia. Maybe the public knew more than they were willing to admit, but they didn’t mind letting someone they didn’t like take the fall. But I shook my head at the idea after a few minutes. I was confident that way was not the answer. Besides, I’d need the locals on my side if I was going to solve this case and accusing them of railroading my client as soon as I set foot in the town was not the way to win them over.

  But I had two hours to ponder the possibilities, and a pilot who was not one for smalltalk.

  It was time to get to work.

  Chapter 2

  Utqiagvik’s landscape passed below us as the quiet pilot directed the seaplane to the Arctic Ocean. Utqiagvik’s dirt roads and lack of sidewalks were the first details that caught my eye upon seeing the city. The natural landscape this far north of Alaska was already dangerous enough with the threat of polar bears around the corner and harsh weather conditions that forced people indoors, so there was no reason to add m
anmade dangers to the list in the form of paved roads and walkways that constantly iced over.

  The second detail that caught my attention was the layout of the city. Anchorage’s layout was like a puzzle where all the buildings acted as pieces locked together so that no gaps remained. No space was wasted. The city currently below me, however, was a puzzle missing several pieces, and those pieces were lost forever. The buildings dotted the landscape, but even those clustered together offered enough space between them that people could pass through without feeling claustrophobic. The city was also broken up by several lagoons and lakes, and so more gaps were present in this unfinished puzzle.

  Large chunks of ice floated in the ocean off in the far distance, but only smaller, broken pieces floated closer to the coastline. By the time the water lapped against the shore, even those small chunks were gone. This was the part of the ocean Colin aimed for as he brought the plane around for a landing.

  Even ten years on, it still unnerved me to watch the ocean rush up toward the plane. There was a thump as the pontoons touched the water, and we bounced around in the seats for a moment as the aircraft slowed. Water sprayed across the windshield, and then the ride was almost pleasant as we pulled up to the shore.

  I sighed happily at the sound of the engine shutting off and began my post-plane trip ritual of rubbing my temples, a necessary procedure for warding off the headache that normally accompanied hours of my head rattling in a small plane. I felt the water outside lap the side of the plane as the waves pushed us toward the beach, and I was thankful for another safe landing.

  Off to the left of the beach were a line of docks, and ideally, Colin would have pulled the seaplane up to the end of one of the docks to drop me off. But the number of boats still anchored to the docks didn’t allow any space for the plane. So I would need a boat to take me to shore, and I glanced at the pilot as the plane rocked on the waves.

  “He should be here soon,” Colin said as though reading my mind.

  It was the first and only time he had spoken during the entire flight, and for that I was grateful. Aside from leaving me time to contemplate my new case, I also hated trying to carry on mindless conversations with people who insisted on filling every moment of silence with the sound of their voices.