Chapter Two #2
After visiting his father’s cabin one last time, just to convince the cops his father really wasn’t there, he waited for an interminable hour in a private lounge area, while Viskten and four other officers searched the ship.
The female constable remained as his companion—or perhaps she was really his guardian—probably to make sure he didn’t suddenly disappear as well.
She stood by the window staring out at the partly frozen ocean, mercifully staying quiet, while he paced back-and-forth across the carpet.
He couldn’t bear any more platitudes right now.
His nerves were worn so thin, he might just explode.
It was hot in here, and even though he’d flung off his thick winter jacket and hung it over the back of a chair next to the constable’s uniform jacket, he was still sweating inside his thermal shirt and fleece.
They kept all the rooms on the cruise ship at a very comfortable twenty-two degrees, but right now, as overheated and stressed as he was, he would welcome a blast of the frozen air from outside.
He unzipped his fleece and threw it on the chair next to his jacket, then continued pacing.
The constable never even moved a muscle; only her eyes followed him as he walked.
It suddenly dawned on him he didn’t even know her name.
To give his mind something else to do apart from turning scenarios of his father lying freezing to death in the snow over and over in his head, he said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name back at the reception desk.”
“Oh, yes. Constable Aurora Karlsson, at your service.” She stood at attention, clicking her heels together, her formal manner bringing a reluctant smile to his lips.
An unusual name, but it suited her. Named perhaps for the northern lights that people from all over the world come and see up here?
She seemed very…enthusiastic. Eager to be of help.
And when she fixed those enormous dark eyes of hers on him…
well, it sent a prickle of awareness through him.
That dark-blue uniform, the way it hugged her legs and backside, following the curve of her breasts, and the navy-blue peaked hat that sat jauntily on her head; it was more than a little sexy.
He’d never really thought of a woman in uniform as being sexy before, but now…
When he’d first rushed through the main door of the police building, he’d thought her to be incredibly young, sitting there behind the large desk—even though she’d been highly efficient, he couldn’t fault her on that—and he assumed she was a green rookie straight out of cadet school.
Now that he had a better chance to really look at her, he could see she wasn’t as young as he first thought.
Probably closer to his own age, in her late twenties.
But she deferred to the male cop, who was obviously her senior, which made him think that perhaps his first assessment of her being a rookie cop was correct.
Perhaps, rather than coming to the force straight out of school, maybe she’d taken a few years to come to the decision and joined up a little later in life.
To get his mind off the attractive woman in the dark blue uniform, he said, “Do you know how much longer this is going to take?” Jiro was normally a fairly patient man.
Working with the wolves at the rehabilitation centre, spending hours quietly surveilling them from a distance had taught him how to be still, how to remain focused and not let small irritations get to him.
But this was altogether different. It felt like his insides had become a washing machine, swirling and tossing around so much that he might even throw up.
It was almost impossible to stand still.
“It shouldn’t be too much longer now,” she replied, a typical cop answer, and he wanted to growl that he didn’t need platitudes, he needed action.
Almost as if she could see he was about to lose it, she added, “Maybe you could fill me in on exactly what you and your father got up to at Lule? Adventures. That might help to narrow down our search area if we know exactly where you both were.”
Was she hoping to distract him? He’d already told the inspector that his father had stayed back at the barbecue lodge while he’d partaken in some of the other activities on offer, but he guessed it couldn’t hurt to give more details. Fine, he’d play her game, if only to keep himself distracted.
“The place was pretty well organized,” he admitted grudgingly—he still wasn’t sure how the owners hadn’t realized one of their visiting tourists had failed to rejoin the party and board the bus, and he wasn’t about to forgive any of the staff before he’d talked to them first. Surely someone must’ve seen his father in the hour before they boarded the bus to return to the ship.
He had to allow that the place had been well run, tidy, and the animals had seemed well-cared for.
Not like some of the other run-down, barely scraping by tourist attractions he’d been to in the US.
“They took on a reindeer experience first, introduced us to their tame herd, and we got to feed them and pat them,” he continued, remembering his joy as he warily stroked the fur of the mythical creatures—almost as if he was waiting for the animals to leap into the air and take off pulling Saint Nick’s sled.
But his father’s bad mood remained like a wet blanket around his shoulders, sucking away the delight he felt and replacing it with disappointment.
Disappointment with his father for reverting to his predictable, surly self.
And disappointment in himself for allowing his father’s bad disposition to affect his own.
“We both decided to do the dog-sled ride next,” Jiro said, stopping his pacing long enough to stare out of the window as memories returned.
Sitting next to his father, who said nothing for the whole ride, Jiro had relished the feel of the icy wind brushing past his cheeks, and the sound of the joyful yips from the huskies who obviously loved their job.
The huskies reminded him of the wolves he tended at the centre on the outskirts of San Diego.
Their yellow, omnipotent eyes that seemed to look right through you.
That aura of restrained menace, a feeling of wilderness kept leashed just below their skin.
Huskies were domesticated dogs, however, and even though they were bred to work and live in the snow, they still welcomed a human touch.
The wolves, on the other hand, could never be trusted.
They would always remain a wild animal, which suited Jiro fine, because that’s where they belonged.
“After we finished, everyone returned to the barbecue hut for lunch and a hot coffee to warm us all up.” While Jiro could’ve kept riding that dog sled forever, his sense of duty made him take his father back into the hut so that he didn’t get too chilled.
“Later, I decided to take the ice plunge challenge, while my father remained behind to drink mulled wine. He said he might go back and pat the reindeer one more time, but he was done with the cold for now.” Jiro didn’t tell her that he’d used the activity as an excuse to get away from his father.
The ice plunge had been a shock to his system, the frosty water only one or two degrees above freezing, sending an immediate, painful ache deep into his bones and making his balls shrivel to the size of raisins.
But he was glad he’d done it, as he chatted with the other brave souls who had also completed the challenge back in the thawing warmth of the sauna.
He should’ve stayed with his father instead, and that was why the guilt was now eating him alive.
It was his fault Kenichi was missing. Instead of being the obedient son and staying by his side, in a fit of pique he’d gone off to have more fun, leaving his father alone and unguarded.
“Hmm.” The constable pouted with that pretty mouth of hers as she mulled over Jiro’s revelations. “So you don’t know whether he went back to the reindeer enclosure?”
“No. I left him sitting on a chair drinking his wine.” Jiro didn’t add that his father had sat alone at the back of the hut for a reason.
Not one for making easy conversation, Kenichi hadn’t encouraged anyone to sit with him and hadn’t made any friends on the cruise, preferring to stay within the bubble of his son’s presence.
So it wasn’t a complete surprise that no one seemed to have noticed him leave, or known where he went afterward.
“So there would be no reason for him not to want to return to the ship?”
“No, none. He was looking forward to our next stop across the gulf in Oulu, Finland. We only had another three days left on the cruise, and he wanted to make the most of each and every day” Well, he had done up until that phone call had altered everything last night.
Had his father changed his mind? Did he not want to continue the cruise?
Jiro didn’t know the answer. And then there was the strange voicemail from his brother left on his phone this morning.
If Jiro didn’t know better, his brother had been trying to warn him about something, but it was unclear exactly what the threat entailed.
He hadn’t had time to return the call, and he hadn’t wanted to broach the subject with Papa and ask if he’d also heard from Taro; any mention of his older brother always brought tension to the room, as if there wasn’t enough tension already.
Even if he didn’t say it, his father’s common mantra would hang in the air like a bad smell “Why can’t you be more like your brother?
” leaving Jiro to feel less-than, unworthy, like a second cousin.
But perhaps he should’ve screwed up his courage and done so anyway.