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“James Marsh took him. He had help. Looks like my predecessor got a little too involved with the Chilkoots.”
Sam’s jaw dropped. “Agent Useless?”
“Is that what you call him? He’s a little worse than useless. He’s a goddamn traitor. I thought he was reassigned, but he never left Alaska.”
No wonder the agent had been no help. He’d been working against the investigation that whole time. That was how they’d known Sam was surveilling them. Was he paid by the Chilkoots? In love with a Chilkoot? Who knew?
Luke would know. And he’d know where Jimmy was headed—or, if they were in separate Chilkoot factions, he might have a guess.
“Where’s Luke? Did you lose him too?”
A phone call confirmed that Luke was still in custody.
“Let me talk to him,” Sam said urgently “You owe me that much.”
“I’m in the middle of something. I can’t leave here.” When Sam continued to glare at him, he spoke into the phone. “I’m sending someone over to interview Chilkoot. He’ll be there in five.” He hung up. “I’m sending an agent with you, and you have ten minutes, tops. I need everyone back here, you included.”
Four minutes later, Sam was sitting across the table from Luke Chilkoot outside the Blackbear federal holding cell. Two officers and an FBI agent stood guard.
“Where is Jimmy taking Molly and Elias?”
Luke set his jaw. Under his beard, he looked paler than usual, his face showing lines of fatigue. His expression was both dour and determined. He said nothing as he fixed his gaze on the table.
“They haven’t done anything to you. Neither one has anything to do with your…master plan.”
Luke glanced up, finally showing a gleam of interest. “What do you mean?”
Words. Progress. “Ice Falls. I know all about it, and that’s why it’s going to fail.”
“It won’t fail,” he growled. “You’re too late. The young ones were right about that much.”
The young ones? “You mean Soraya? Jimmy Marsh?”
Luke’s expression shifted, and he clamped his mouth shut.
“If we’re talking about young ones, Jimmy Marsh is the one who sold you out. And Soraya warned me not to trust you. Why are you protecting them?”
Luke stared at him stonily.
“Come on, man. You know me. You invited me to your place.”
“I don’t care about you. I knew you were spying on us. It was because of her.”
“Molly? Why?”
“Thought she might be trouble. I needed to know. I needed to see her…”
As Sam waited for him to finish, it clicked. “You thought she might be one of the women whose children you’d kidnapped. A redhead looking for her lost child.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time,” Luke muttered.
Sam tried to remember another redhead coming to town, and couldn’t. Must have been before his time. “What happened to her?”
No answer. Jesus. He could guess. Another frozen corpse in the Alaskan wilderness. Wasn’t there a story people told about a skier who’d fallen off the glacier near Ice Falls?
“Luke. Please.” Sam leaned forward on his elbows. He had to find a way through to this man. He ran through everything he’d observed and gleaned and put together about this case. “You never wanted things to get violent, did you? You just want to live on your land and be left alone. A man’s house is his castle. You built something special out there. Healthy kids. Self-sufficient. Protected from all the mess of the rest of the world.”
Luke’s eyes lifted to meet his, and he caught a spark of…gratification. The man wanted to be seen and respected. Like everyone.
