The Boy Who Stole from the Dead

CHAPTER 10

LAUREN SAT BESIDE the pilot in the helicopter’s cockpit. The engine droned. Blades whirred. Headphones muffled the noise. A microphone mouthpiece extended from the side of her headgear to her lips. She’d met with Ambrose’s cousin at the Kotzebue Airport. That woman, in turn, had given Lauren a hot lead on Bobby Kungenook. Now she was en route to Anchorage in pursuit of that lead.

The pilot’s name was Dan Garner. He had the complexion of a leather bomber jacket.

“My father was a bush pilot, and my granddaddy was a bush pilot before him,” Garner said. “Yes, ma’am. Before he became a pilot, my granddaddy worked for Wyatt Earp right around the turn of the century. During the Nome Gold Rush.”

Lauren flashed him a look of disbelief. “The Wyatt Earp?”

“The one and only. That was around 1895, about fifteen years after he and Doc Holliday shot those cowboys in the parking lot outside the O.K. Corral. Tombstone was a silver-mining boom town, you see. And Wyatt Earp had business interests in mining and gambling.”

“How did he end up in Alaska?”

“The Klondike Gold Rush in the Yukon triggered a stampede in 1880. He came with the former mayor of Tombstone.”

“How’d they do?”

“By the time they got there the beach gold was gone. You needed sophisticated equipment to mine what was left.”

“So they struck out.”

“Hardly. They opened a saloon, catered to the miners with food and prostitutes and the other basic necessities of life, and went back to California four years later with a hundred grand.”

Lauren had never heard of anyone referring to prostitutes as one of life’s basic necessities. She cast an uncertain glance in Garner’s direction. “How about that.”

“The smart ones don’t gamble. The smart ones supply the gamblers with their basic needs.”

“Is that what a bush pilot does?”

“I don’t follow.”

“Bring supplies to remote areas of Alaska? Bring whatever the people need?”

“That’s right. Living in Alaska is a gamble. That means everyone’s a gambler in Alaska. It takes an adventuresome heart to live here. Plenty of gamblers in Nome back then. Jack London, the writer. And Swiftwater Bill Gates, the fortune hunter.”

“Bill Gates? No relation, I’m sure.”

“No, but William H. Gates I, grandfather of Mr. Microsoft, was at the gold fields in Nome at the same time as Swiftwater Bill.”

Lauren couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. “I’m going to have to look that one up.”

Garner nodded as though pleased she couldn’t read him. “The Nome Gold Rush was pretty much a bust, too. Then the Eskimos got bent out of shape because the white folks hunted their moose and their caribou, and the smaller game, too. They said the white man made it harder for them to survive. Can you believe that? Truth is it was time for them to learn they’re part of America, and America is the white man’s country.”

Lauren paused to make sure she’d heard him correctly, then fantasized about kicking the door open and sending him flying into the rotors. “How much longer to Anchorage?”

“About half an hour. What brought you to Nome, if you don’t mind my asking?”

“I’m a sports reporter. I’m working on a story about a high school boy in New York. He’s a promising hockey player, a once-in-a-lifetime prospect. And he’s from Kotzebue.”

“You’re kidding me. What’s his name?”

“Bobby Kungenook.” Lauren eyed Garner. “Ever hear of him?”

He pursed his lips, then shook his head. “No. Sorry. If he was that good you’d think we’d have heard about him in Nome.”

“Exactly. No one knows anything about this boy. He was given up for adoption at an early age but there’s no record of it. It looks to me as though he was born in Kotzebue, went to live with someone who speaks fluent Ukrainian, and showed up in New York City at age seventeen.”

“Ukrainian?”

“And Russian.”

“Plenty of Russian history in Alaska, that’s for sure. If he’s an Inupiaq, his parents might have tried to find a home for him with another Inupiaq family. If they failed, no white American family would take one of theirs, so it makes sense it would be some sort of Russian.”

Lauren shuddered. “Hopefully I’ll get some clarity in Anchorage.”

“You meeting someone there who knows the boy’s story?”

“I got a lead in Kotzebue. I’m not sure this man knows the whole story, but I think he’s met him. I think he knows something about him.”

“Good for you. Is this going to be a television story or a newspaper story?”

“Both.”

“Hot dog. I can’t wait to read it. And see it. By God you’ve got me curious. I need to know how this ends.”

They sat quietly the rest of the flight. Garner landed the helicopter at the Campbell Heliport near the Anchorage airport. A blue sedan idled by the runway.

“Is that your man?” Garner said.

Lauren handed him the headphones. “No. Those are agents of the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. Anchorage field office.”

The creases in Garner’s face deepened.

“You’re my man, Dan. You know that.”

Garner’s lower lip twitched.

“Last May you flew a boy and a woman into OTZ. They were met at the airport by police Captain Robert Seelick. They stayed in town for a couple of days, and then you flew them out.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Then let me explain. There are one hundred twenty-nine dry communities in Alaska, where it’s illegal to sell or consume alcohol. That creates opportunity for bootleggers. A bottle of liquor that costs ten dollars in Anchorage may cost a hundred fifty in a dry town like Point Hope. You, Dan, are a bootlegger. How did you put it? Oh, yeah. You supply the people with their basic needs. And since alcoholism is a huge problem among the Native Americans, obviously it’s a basic need. Am I right?”

Garner blanched.

“In fact, alcoholism is such a huge problem that in a wet village, homicide is six times more likely than in a dry one; assault is four times more likely; and sexual assault is three times more likely. The end result is that a lot of people don’t like you, Dan. A lot of people blame you for their family’s problems, hence one person’s willingness to rat you out to me. Now, you have two choices. Either you tell me everything you know about the boy and I tell those agents I have the wrong man, or they’re going to turn your life upside down. Which is it going to be, Dan? Do you want to go home, or do you want to go to jail?”

Garner regarded her with contempt. “I want to go home.”

“Good. I want you to look at this picture very carefully. And I already know the answer so don’t waste my time lying. This is just a warm-up for the important questions.” Lauren pulled a photo of Bobby Kungenook from her briefcase. “Is this the boy you flew into Kotzebue last year?”