Egan, p.7
Egan, page 7
He shook his head and stared at her. “That response doesn’t go a long way to bolster your own credibility. So let me rephrase the question for you and see if we can clean it up. When did you last see Yegorahn before he died?”
Sighing, Cherry allowed her shoulders to slump.
He nodded. “That’s what I thought. Now shall we get to the truth here? The real truth that you’ve been trying so damn hard to cover up?”
She shook her head. “No, we can’t talk about anything.” She crossed her arms. “Besides, you’re not here in an official capacity anyway.”
He turned, saw one of the MPs lurking at the far end of the hall and stepped back a bit so she could see. Turning back, he looked at her with a gaze that could split stones. “Listen to me, and listen well. You’ll either answer my questions or I’ll order him to escort you to Ted right now,” he stated, his tone clipped. “What’ll it be?”
She gasped and stared at him.
“Yeah, that would be quite public, and everybody would know something’s up. So, if that’s the way you want to do it, that’s your choice.”
“I hate you,” she spat.
“I don’t give a fuck,” Egan replied, stressing every syllable as he glowered at her. “Believe me. All of this will be on record now too.”
When a voice broke in behind him, tentative, almost like soothing oil on troubled waters, he knew it was Berry.
“What’s going on?” Berry asked.
At that, Cherry turned to her sister and snapped, “He wants me to go down and answer more questions about Yegorahn’s death.”
“I didn’t say questions about his death,” Egan snapped back. “I simply asked you for the truth as to when you last saw him, and you immediately gave me nothing but flack, which is why I’ve brought in the MP to take you down to talk to Ted and the panel—just in case you still feel I don’t have the credentials to have this conversation.”
She glared at him, then looked at her sister and whispered, “I don’t want to go.”
“Jesus, Cherry, then why aren’t you talking to him here? Because he will take you down there, past everybody, with an MP, and you’ll just be in trouble for obstruction too. You know what gossip around the base will start then.”
“All of this is starting talk,” Cherry stated, glaring at him. “You didn’t have to come here at all.”
He stared at her nonplussed. “Seriously? Do you really think that nobody will find out that some of these interviews were missing information?”
“Maybe Ted should have asked the right questions then,” Cherry retorted, with a sneer.
That was the last straw. Egan had had enough of her BS. He reached up a thumb and signaled to the MP, who came immediately down, and, on Egan’s orders, Cherry was grabbed by the shoulders and escorted down the hallway.
She protested the whole way, and Egan turned to look back at Berry, knowing she would find it hard to forgive him for that. Instead, she chewed on her bottom lip, as her sister was hauled away.
“I’m sorry,” Berry said. “She’s her own worst enemy.”
“Ya think? We could have done this nice and quiet.”
“Did you have to do it at all?” she asked.
“Yes, I did, because, in her recorded statement, Ted asked her point-blank about Yegorahn’s last day, and she stated that she never saw him the previous day at all.”
Berry gasped. “Seriously?”
He nodded. “Apparently, according to her, nighttime is not the same as the previous day.”
She closed her eyes at that and nodded. “She’s always been a little spoiled.”
“Always been a little spoiled, even in the military?”
“She handles the military because it’s an enforcement system she understands, but she doesn’t acknowledge any other authority outside of it. And,” Berry admitted, “Cherry’s good at getting around all authority anyway.”
“And how does she feel about …” He looked down at her, then left it unsaid. “Look. I have to get down there. Ted’s expecting me.”
She nodded and asked, “What about me? Can I come?”
“Nope,” Egan replied. “Nothing you can do to save your sister. She’s gotten into this on her own.”
Berry nodded, but crossed her arms and stared up at him. “I know it’s too much to ask, but go easy on her.”
He raised his eyebrows at that. “You do know that we’re not the bad guys here, right? We’re just trying to find out what happened to somebody that Cherry was apparently close to, yet she’s not making any attempt to help us get answers or to even cooperate,” Egan detailed. “That makes everybody suspicious of Cherry—even her friend Ted.”
At that, her eyes rounded. “Oh my God. No, no, no. You don’t honestly think … You don’t think she had anything to do with Yegorahn’s death, do you?”
He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter what I think. The fact of the matter is, her actions make it appear as if she’s guilty as hell.” And, with that, he gave her a nod. “I’m sorry it’s your sister, but now I have to go deal with her and Ted, who won’t be very happy either.”
Day 3, Late Afternoon
Upset and needing something to distract herself from what Berry knew would be a difficult conversation for her sister, Berry headed outside over to the dogs. She didn’t bundle up quite the same, just putting on her heavy parka, some warming packets, and gloves. By the time she burst into the area where the dogs were kept and where Joe had made his home, she already felt the chill. Still, it was beautiful and sunny outside, so the snow-blindness reflection came off the snow all around her.
As she hopped inside, Joe looked up and grinned. “Who are you trying to avoid now?”
She winced. “Do people only come here to get away?”
He nodded. “Usually, yeah, unless we’re out on training, and that’s a whole different story.”
“Great,” she muttered. “So, yeah, I guess I’m trying to find something to take my mind off what’s going on. And hoping some dog cuddles will do it.” Just then Queenie appeared, an almost white dog with a few black markings around her cheeks. Berry dropped to her knees and cuddled her.
Joe’s eyebrows shot up. “What’s going on?”
Berry winced and then shrugged. “I guess you’ll find out anyway. My sister was having an affair with the Russian who died, Yegorahn.”
Joe nodded. “Can’t say I’m surprised. She’s a good-looking woman.”
“Yes, she is, but she didn’t tell the investigators that she was with him the previous night, so she’s being interviewed right now.”
He winced, then shook his head. “Ain’t no point in hiding shit like that,” Joe stated, with a careful look. “You can bet somebody else around here knew about it, and it would have gotten out eventually.”
“That’s the thing,” Berry murmured. “I think my sister fudged a bit by making the question a little too literal in order to not effectively lie.” Queenie head-butted her, a reminder to keep scratching her head.
“Same thing as a lie,” Joe declared, “and shame on her for not cooperating to the fullest to try and find out what happened to him. If he was good enough to sleep with, surely he was good enough to tell the truth about and to help find out what happened to him, right?”
“I think she was afraid that people would judge her for it.”
He snorted. “So, she’s more afraid about saving face than worrying about what happened to this guy that she supposedly liked enough to sleep with?”
“And that’s why she’ll have a hard time today,” Berry admitted, with a groan, as she stood up, still rubbing Queenie’s ear. “I guess people will judge her for that then too, won’t they?”
“Sure, they will,” Joe snapped, “and I will too. That man didn’t deserve to die out here, a long way from his home. Plus, if somebody really cared about him, they sure as hell should have been first in line to cooperate to ensure that—while there was still an opportunity to catch somebody who might have done this to him—they had all the information they needed to do so.”
Berry walked toward where one of the injured dogs was curled up on the hay. “How’s this guy doing?” She was trying desperately to change the conversation, knowing it would likely be foremost on everybody’s minds after this got out. “This is Benji, right?”
“Yeah. He’s doing pretty well,” Joe replied, his voice softening. “At this point we all will be happy to go home though.”
“And yet for you this is what it’s all about anyway, isn’t it?”
“Sure, but it’s not the same as being at home with my wife,” he noted, with a half smile. “I’m here for the duration though. I signed up, and I’ll stick it out,” he muttered, as he shifted on his chair. “But the weather is not being very cooperative, so we’re not getting out as much as normal. Thus, everybody here is getting pretty antsy.” Joe looked out the little slit they called a window. “It doesn’t help that we’ve had people go missing, people showing up dead, murdered even, and people with information deliberately not sharing it.”
An awful lot was packed into that statement, but Berry understood what he meant. A beautiful husky with two different colored eyes came in through the dog door, a blanket of snow on her back. She launched herself at Berry.
“Stay down, Bella,” Joe barked, but the dog was too happy to see Berry. Within seconds she was wearing the snow brought in by Bella and was laughing at the dog’s antics. “She’s beautiful.” Berry sighed. “I’m sorry for my sister though. I think, when it happened, when Yegorahn first went missing, she was just so shocked and grieving that she didn’t quite know what to say.” She cuddled Bella.
“The truth would have been a good choice,” he pointed out.
She winced. “Yeah, and I think she’ll feel the impact of that decision for a while.”
“Yeah, you’re not kidding.” Joe shook his head. “I won’t say anything to her, but you can bet a bunch of people around here will be looking at her suspiciously now—especially the Russian team.”
“And yet she didn’t have the physical strength to do anything to hurt Yegorahn.”
He frowned at that. “Women more likely use poison. No strength needed. Plus Sydney would know something more about Yegorahn’s cause of death. However, I don’t think she had anything definitive at this point. They didn’t release much in the way of details, and yet speculations and rumors are everywhere you go. So your guess is as good as mine.”
She nodded. “So, it may not have taken any strength at all.”
“That’s another reason why they’ll have to question everybody again because now Yegorahn’s movements will get filled in a little more, and they’ll refine their questions a bit to try and get at the truth and to fill in more holes.”
“Right.” She groaned. “I don’t even know when he was killed.”
“And that’s why they need to know where he was because, up here in these conditions, his body would have frozen over much faster, making the timeline of his death much harder to pinpoint. Cherry’s lies have lost them valuable hours. And remember, Yegorahn isn’t the only missing person out there. So Cherry’s gonna have a lot of haters on her now—and deservedly so. People who lost loved ones and just people with morals and empathy and humanity. You two may be twins, but you ain’t nothing like that Cherry. And you should thank God for that. And you need to stop coddling her. Your sister is a liar, putting her own boyfriend at risk of death, and I hope she is punished accordingly.”
Taking another round of hits for her sister was not something Berry was up for, so she just nodded, straightened, and repeated, “I just came out here to get away, knowing that the interview was happening right now.”
“Cherry’s made this mess, and Cherry’s gotta take her lumps. Nothing you can do for her. Just let her take her lumps,” Joe stated briskly, “so you might as well help me with these harnesses.”
She walked over to him and asked, “What are we doing?”
“We’re oiling them up. Everything out here cracks in these temperatures, so I do this daily.”
She grabbed several of the leather harnesses.
“We’re inspecting them for any wear and tear, cracking, or any fraying on the edges,” he explained. “All of that matters when we’re out there. It’s all about safety.”
And, with his lecture tone firmly emphasizing various points about caring for the dogs and their equipment, she realized that, while they’d been talking, several others had joined them. He nodded. “This is a safety session, one of the sledding lectures I’ll be giving,” he told her. Then raising his voice, he called out, “So, everybody grab a harness, and let’s go over it, piece by piece.”
For the next several hours she helped him through the class, making sure that all the harnesses were in good shape and that everything was oiled up and ready to go, just in case they needed a dogsled in an emergency, in case the weather broke, and they could get back out sledding again.
When the class ended, Berry smiled at Joe. “Thank you.”
He nodded. “Keep that damn sister under control—if you can.”
And with that reminder that people would expect just that, Berry replied, “You do know that’s not possible, right?”
He sighed and then nodded reluctantly. “And it wasn’t fair of me to say it. It’s not your responsibility. Your sister will face the consequences of her actions and inactions on her own,” he muttered. “And, up here in these close confines, that could be a little harder than she’s expecting.”
“Maybe they’ll ship her out,” Berry suggested, a question in her tone.
“I doubt it. Why would they? She might as well suffer here, with everybody else.” Joe chuckled. “Not that we’re suffering, mind you. It’s just the weather being what it is has everybody cooped up and makes for very short tempers and frustrated people. I don’t see them shipping her out.”
“I’m not even sure we can blame the weather for the attitudes as much as the circumstances around right now.”
“Exactly, which is why your sister’s actions are beyond questionable.”
With that, Berry took her leave, feeling as if she’d had more than enough exposure to how people might react to Cherry. Waving at Joe, she said goodbye to the dogs and quickly stepped outside. The wind had picked up, and the snow blew heavily. There was always a safety line from this building to the main base. They were connected, but it was pretty damn easy—even with the safety line out here—to get turned around, especially when you couldn’t see anything but white. Grabbing the safety line, she quickly made her way back to the main building. As she stepped inside, the change in temperature was shocking.
She quickly took off her parka, stomped her feet out of the mukluks, switched into her inside boots that she wore, which were packed with heavy felt, then headed toward the kitchen to get a hot cup of tea.
As she walked in, Chef looked up at her, then quickly glanced away. She looked around at several other people, noticing that their glances immediately shifted away from her as soon as they caught her looking at them, and she groaned. “Nice day out there, isn’t it?” she asked in a sarcastic tone.
One of the men snorted. “Hey, at least you’re alive.”
She wasn’t sure if that was a beef about her sister, the dead Russian she had dated, the temperature outside, or just because too many people had died. Deciding to refrain from answering, she carried her tea to one of the tables.
Almost as soon as she sat down, the people at the table got up and left. She sighed, not waiting long until the room completely emptied, then looked over Chef. “So am I a pariah now?”
He glanced at her, turned away, and shrugged.
“I’m not my sister,” she stated in exasperation.
“And yet you knew,” he declared, turning to look back at her. Such force filled his words that she stopped dead for a moment.
“I didn’t know that she didn’t say anything. … We were interviewed separately, and nobody asked me. I told them when I had last seen him, and I didn’t realize Cherry didn’t tell them about her last night with him.”
He stopped, considered that, and then nodded. “That might help your case,” he admitted in a clipped tone. “At this moment, however, people are looking at you as having enabled her.”
“I didn’t,” she argued. “I just didn’t know she hadn’t told them they were together. They didn’t ask me, and I knew that they were talking to her, so I figured she would tell them everything, but apparently she told them nothing.”
“How did they find out?” Chef asked.
She winced and, in a lowered voice, replied begrudgingly, “That would have been me.”
“That would have helped if people had known early on.”
“Yeah, it should have been earlier,” Berry admitted. “Believe me. I feel terrible now because of all the time that’s gone by. Maybe they could have learned something else.”
“Maybe, but I have to admit I’m pretty damn glad they are taking another look at it.”
“Any idea why they’re taking another look at it?”
“Because that missing man is now a dead man. All because the searchers and the investigations had inconsistent information.”
She winced at that. “Yeah, that would be my sister.” She shook her head. “She was just trying to keep private something that was personal to her.”
“For the wrong reasons,” Chef snapped, putting down the pan too hard. “A man died, and you’d think that somebody would give a damn, particularly somebody who slept with him.”
“Yeah.” Berry held up a hand. “Look. I get it, and I get that people will hold that against me. That isn’t fair because I didn’t have anything to do with it, and I did my part as soon as I realized there was a problem,” she explained. “Which is precisely why my sister is getting raked over the coals right now.”
“And she deserves it and more,” Chef declared, pointing a spatula at her. “So, if you want to stay in good stead in any way with those around you, don’t try to make your sister look like anything else but a selfish liar.”
