Polar (Book 2): Polar Day (9 page)
It only took an hour to fly from Fairbanks to Anchorage, but even that short round-trip flight felt like a waste of two hours to Danny. He and Tessa had met with Andrew Cushings and discussed Nick Torrance but found absolutely nothing to link the man to Max Fugate, an outcome which surprised neither of them. They also found nothing in Torrance's present or past to suggest he had any enemies willing to burn him alive.
“I don't think our guy even knew Torrance,” Danny said as he cracked his window to blow out smoke from his newly-lit cigarette. A blast of the steamy hot air outside the car greeted him immediately. He hated opening the window when he had the air conditioning on full-blast, but he knew Tessa hated the cigarette smoke. She wouldn't let him smoke in her car and he actually felt guilty about smoking now while she was in his, but after the irritation of the airport he needed a cigarette.
“I don't think so either,” Tessa said, wrinkling her nose. “Why the hell did you have to take up smoking just when you became my partner?”
“I actually took it back up before I became your partner. You're the one who kept saying I needed to cut back on my drinking. And I did. But I need some kind of vice. Come on.”
“If you quit smoking once before you can do it again.”
“I quit because Caroline hated it and I wanted to marry her more than I wanted to keep smoking.” Danny inhaled a long drag from the cigarette and blew the smoke out the window. “But she's not around to care anymore, is she?”
“She'd be disappointed if she was, I'm sure.”
“I can't worry all that much about disappointing dead people. Let's get back to Torrance,” Danny said. “You know if there's one thing I hate talking about it's Caroline.”
Tessa thought to herself that as far as she could tell there were plenty of things Danny hated talking about beyond his murdered wife, including everything about his previous life in Chicago. Not to mention his near murder at the hands of Aleksei Nechayev. And Nechayev himself, for that matter. Danny had consistently clammed up at even the mention of his name ever since his rescue from Nechayev's Arctic house of horrors.
“Earth to Tessa.”
Tessa heard her partner's voice and turned to look at him. “Sorry. I was just lost in thought for a minute I guess.”
“What were you thinking about?”
“How Nick Torrance was a victim of colossal bad luck. This is the worst case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time I've ever seen,” Tessa said, lying.
“Yeah, I agree there.” Danny paused as he waited for the red light in front of him to turn green. “You think the killer knew Max Fugate?”
“Possible. I wouldn't be surprised. You?”
“My gut tells me he did,” Danny said. “But I have nothing but my gut to back that up. I just feel like he started with someone he knew and was watching. Then he moved on to a random stranger for his big coming out party.”
“I have the same feeling.”
“So what now?” Danny asked.
“There's still the gay link.”
“Yeah.” Danny glanced at the clock on his dashboard. In spite of what felt like days in the airport, it was still only 2:00 in the afternoon. “You want to go check out that reverend with the church that has its members standing on street corners carrying signs about gays burning in hell? What's his name again?
“Richard Phillips.”
“Right. From all I read he’s a real fire and brimstone kind of guy and he hates gays above all else. Why don't we run by his church and see if he's available to chat with us?”
“I guess so. But this whole line of thinking doesn’t ring true to me.”
“Honestly I don’t disagree with you. It’s shoddy police work and we’re grasping at a very thin straw.”
“If we’re operating on the assumption that Nick Torrance was a stranger to our killer then how would he have known the man was gay? It doesn’t add up.”
“It doesn’t. But maybe we’re wrong that Torrance was a stranger. And besides, we don’t have anything else, do we?”
Tessa shrugged. “True enough. You know where the church is?”
“I know it's on Merrill Street. But if you're asking if I know how to get there I know you're being a smartass.”
Tessa laughed. “I admit it, I am. But I think you should know your way around our city better by now.”
“Why when I've got your as my personal GPS? Tell me where to go. And I don't mean hell.”
Tessa chuckled again and gestured towards the windshield. “Turn left at the light,” she said. “It's only about ten minutes from here.”
“Great. I can't wait to meet the Reverend Phillips.”
****
The Reverend Richard Phillips slumped in his chair at his New Church of God office and groaned at the stack of paperwork in front of him on his desk. Getting a new church up and running was a time-consuming endeavor and he longed for enough funding to hire an assistant. But that wasn’t going to happen for quite a while at this rate, so for now he needed to keep trudging along himself. At least he had a volunteer willing to work as his secretary. He wondered how long Linda would be willing to do that but quickly pushed the thought from his mind. No need to borrow trouble.
He’d left Seward back in March and decided to move his church here to Fairbanks instead. He wanted to minister in a bigger city and the frontier atmosphere of Fairbanks appealed to him. It felt like the last stop in civilization before the long trek to the Arctic. His goal was the same as it has always been. He wanted to improve upon that civilization and convert others to his cause.
Phillips had come of age during the era of Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority and had been inspired by the melding of religion and politics during the Reagan years. He believed strongly that the country had lost its way in the decades since and that religion needed a more prominent voice in politics. While he did not condone violence and felt a policy of civil disobedience was the best way to achieve his goals, he also didn’t believe in rolling over and letting what he saw as moral decay take a stronger hold in the country. Or at least not in his beloved home state of Alaska.
He had moved to Fairbanks with the express purpose of growing his church and agitating for the cause of religious liberty in the face of the homosexual agenda. He wasn’t about to sit still while the gays allowed their perverse lifestyle to take over Christian society. He’d had some success at advancing his cause in the months since he’d moved here, but he knew he still had a long road ahead of him. No rest for the righteous was his motto.
One thing Phillips hadn’t planned on when he’d moved to Fairbanks was being confronted with the worst heat he’d ever experienced. He wondered how those in the lower 48 handled these types of temperatures every year. He grabbed a handkerchief from his pocket and mopped his brow before settling back down to work. Unfortunately, he didn’t have more than a minute to work before he was interrupted.
“Reverend? There are two police detectives here to see you.”
Phillips looked up from his paperwork to see Linda standing at the door of his office.
“Police detectives? What do they want?”
“I don’t know. They just said they’d like to talk to you.”
“Send them in then,” he said with a scowl. He didn’t have time for this. “Thank you, Linda.”
“Reverend? I’m Detective Tessa Washington and this is my partner Danny Fitzpatrick. Thanks for meeting with us.”
Phillips got up from his chair and walked to the door where the petite woman stood with her tall partner. He extended his hand to both of them and shook hands politely.
“I doubt I had much of a choice. But I certainly don’t mind.” He gestured for both Danny and Tessa to take the seats across from his desk. “Please, make yourselves comfortable.”
Phillips returned to his own chair. “What can I help you with?”
“We’re investigating two crimes,” Danny answered. “Homicides, actually.” He paused and waited for Phillips’ reaction to the word. He knew he’d get one.
“Homicides? Goodness, I don’t know what I could help you with on something like that. Has something happened to our church members?”
“No, nothing like that,” Danny said. “At least we have no reason to believe they were members of your church and every reason to believe they weren’t.”
“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”
“The two men murdered were both gay, Reverend,” Tessa said.
Phillips sat back in his chair. “Oh. Well I’m sorry to hear that but again I don’t see how I could help you.”
“You preach a great deal about gays, don’t you?” Danny asked.
“I do. But I certainly don’t preach violence.”
“You’ve talked a lot about gays burning in hell though, haven’t you?”
“Yes, I have. That’s what I believe.”
“Do you think any of your preaching might drive someone to get things moving here on earth? Maybe someone who doesn’t think we need to wait for hell. Have you ever thought about that yourself?”
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
“You heard about the fire at the baseball game I’m sure,” Tessa said, taking over the questioning.
“I did, yes.” Phillips paused. “Wait a minute, are you talking about the man who was killed there?”
“The man who was burned alive, yes we are.”
“Dear God. Do you think I had something to do with that?”
“Well we’ve just noticed that you’re very new to our city,” Danny said. “And your entire message seems to be wrapped up in anti-gay rhetoric that regularly employs the fires of hell. So we can’t help but find it a little strange when two gay men turn up burned alive not long after you set up shop here.”
Phillips grabbed his handkerchief and mopped his brow as the color drained from his beefy red face. He muttered a prayer and put the handkerchief back in his pocket.
“I’d never condone such atrocities.”
“But you preach about the fires of hell on a regular basis.”
“Hell is God’s punishment, not mine. It’s not for us here on earth to inflict his punishments. We can only try to preach the word so that as many as possible are spared.”
“But what if they don’t agree with your word? What then?” Danny asked.
“Then they answer to God. Not to me.” Phillips ran his hand through his thinning brown hair. “Listen, I have never condoned violence.”
“I don’t think that’s entirely true, Reverend,” Tessa said. “According to one of your sermons on your own website here, you’ve likened God’s destruction of Canaan for its wickedness to the need to fight against homosexuality today.”
“I’ve warned that we can’t allow our own society to descend into wickedness or we could face the same fate. I didn’t suggest we ourselves should destroy it or the people in it. That will be God’s work as he sees fit.”
“Still, you can see how this kind of rhetoric might get people stirred up, can’t you?” Danny asked.
“I don’t consider it rhetoric. I consider it preaching the word of God.”
“Fair enough,” Danny said. “But we’d like to have a look at your church members and employees. See if anyone has anything in their past that might indicate they could decide to take your warnings into their own hands.”
“You’re welcome to look at whatever you like. We don’t have any employees though. Linda is a volunteer and she is all the help I have. We’re so new we don’t have a membership directory put together yet. And people aren’t required to join the church to come to our services. We welcome anyone who wants to come in.”
“How about donors? Any big donations that have helped you get off the ground?” Danny asked.
“Not really anything that stands out. But Linda can show you a list of our donors and receipts for the donations we’ve received.”
“That would be great,” Tessa said as she stood up from her chair. “I do appreciate your time and your honesty in talking with us.”
Phillips followed her lead and stood up himself. “As I said I’m glad to help. I don’t have anything to hide here.”
The last to leave his chair, Danny followed Tessa and the reverend out of his office and into the main lobby of the church. He tended to believe Phillips and, as he’d told Tessa, didn’t really think he or his church had anything to do with these crimes. He thought this whole exercise was a waste of time and his instincts told him that it wasn’t bringing him any closer to catching their fire-starting murderer. He thought of the letter that had been sent to the police and to the media and his stomach clenched. He only hoped they’d find something substantial before the killer answered his own question and let them all know who was next.
****
Danny and Tessa walked back out into the blazing afternoon sun and immediately started to sweat.
“Lord have mercy,” Tessa said. “I feel like I’m burning in hell.”
Danny chuckled. “Didn’t you chastise me for being overly dramatic about the heat not too long ago?”
“Oh shut up.”
Tessa opened the door to Danny’s car, anxious to get back in the air conditioning. “I may start living in my car if this heat doesn’t let up. I don’t even know if I’ve ever used the AC before. Now I don’t want to get out of it.”
Squinting in the sun, Danny glanced across the street at a woman standing next to a Channel 10 news van.
“Isn’t that Jennifer?” he asked, shielding his eyes with his hand.
Tessa turned in the direction of his gaze. “It is. What is she doing? Following us?”
Danny left the car and strode across the street. He repeated Tessa’s question.
“Are you following us, Jennifer?”
“Fancy meeting you here, Danny. Are you considering joining the church?”
“Spare me the cute. What are you doing here?”
“I’m following up on a lead,” Jennifer said.
“What lead?” Tessa asked.
“I’m not interested in telling you my sources. But I will say it doesn’t take ferreting out a source to follow your nose and find someone in this town who might have been interested in targeting gay men and burning them alive.”
“Aren’t you being a little dramatic?” Danny asked.
“You’re here too, aren’t you? I could ask you the same.”
“Jennifer, leave this alone. We’re working our case, period. This isn’t a news story,” Danny said.
“I think that’s for my producer and me to decide.”
Danny felt a flash of anger. “Dammit…”
“Danny, let it go,” Tessa said, putting her hand on his arm. “Jennifer’s right. If she thinks there’s a story here that’s her business. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Reluctantly, Danny followed Tessa back across the street and got into his car. Jennifer waited for them to back out of their spot and drive away before turning to her cameraman and preparing to record an introduction to her story.
****