Northern Lights

size-specific or color-coded?"
    "Don't worry, Burke, you get a nice fat check in that column, too," Meg interjected. She flipped him a glance that was full of appreciation and understanding. He was keeping it light and easy for the widow. As much as he could. She looked over at Carrie. "You always looked good together. Like a team."
    "We were a good team. Maybe I never got that big, hot burst, but I'll tell you when I fell in love with him—really, absolutely, no-going-back in love with him. It was when he held our daughter for the first time. The look on his face when he lifted her up that first time, the way he looked at me when he did. All that shock and wonder, the thrill and the terror, all of it on his face. So I didn't get an explosion, but what I got was warm and steady and real.
    "He didn't kill your father, Meg." She looked out the window again. "The man who held that baby the way he did, he couldn't have killed anyone. I know you have reason to think different, and I want you to know how much I value and appreciate your . . . kindness in taking me today."
    "We both lost someone we loved. It wouldn't prove anything if we slapped each other about it."
    Women, Nate thought, were tougher and more resilient than any man he knew. Including himself.
     
     
    HE TRACKED DOWN COBEN as soon as they landed, and though it felt callous, he left Meg with Carrie to deal with the arrangements and release of Max's ashes.
    "Thomas Kijinski aka Two-Toes. He looks like the best bet. There's a pilot, Loukes, works out of Fairbanks now, and a couple others Galloway used occasionally." He set the list he'd made on Coben's desk. "But Kijinski pops for me. He ends up dead, a couple of weeks after Galloway."
    "Stabbing, investigated and deemed a mugging." Coben drew in a breath. "Kijinski played with some bad boys. He gambled pretty heavy, was suspected of running drugs. Time of his death he had markers out for somewhere in the neighborhood of ten large. Investigating officer believed one of his IOUs was collected in flesh, but he couldn't prove it."
    "And you're buying that kind of coincidence?"
    "I'm not buying anything. The fact is, Kijinski lived a bad life and met a bad end. If he happened to be the pilot who took Galloway on his last climb, he isn't going to tell us about it."
    "Then it shouldn't be a problem for you to give me a copy of the file on him."
    Coben sucked air through his nose again. "I've got the press on my ass on this, Burke."
    "Yeah, I've caught some of the reports. I've given some reporters an official statement."
    "You've seen crap like this?" He yanked a copy of a tabloid out of a drawer, tossed it down. The headline screamed:
     
    ICE MAN RECOVERED FROM FROZEN GRAVE
     
    There was a picture of Galloway, as he'd been in the cave, in lurid color under the boldface type.
    "You had to expect shit like this," Nate began.
    "One of the recovery team had to take that shot. One of them cashed in, made a few bucks by selling it to the tabloids. My lieutenant's breathing down my neck. I don't need you doing the same."
    "There was a third man on the mountain."
    "Yeah, there was, according to Galloway's journal. Of course, we can't prove he died after that last journal entry. With sixteen years between, we've got a lot of room on time of death. Could've been then, or a month after. Six months after."
    "You know better than that."
    "What I know." Coben lifted one hand. "What I can prove." Then the other. "ME ruled suicide, and my lieutenant likes it. Too damn bad Hawbaker didn't name names in his note."
    "Give me the file, and I'll get names. You can smell it the same as I can, Coben. If you want to close the lid on the stink, that's up to you. But I've got a memorial to go to and a woman with two kids who deserves to know the truth, so she can learn to live with it. I can take a few days and go hunting for information here in Anchorage, or you can give me the file and let me get back to Lunacy."
    "If I'd wanted to close the lid, I wouldn't have given you Galloway's journal." Frustration rippled around him in nearly visible waves. "I've got brass to answer to, and they want the lid closed. The prevailing theory is that Hawbaker killed Galloway, and the third man—the one who was injured according to the journal. And if you look at this straight on, that's what plays. Why would Galloway's killer spare an injured man, a potential witness? Hawbaker does them both.Then fear of exposure, remorse, and he offs