Page 8 of Winter’s Heart (Three of Hearts #1)
There was a moment of silence while Nikki waited impatiently, and then Jacob laid the phone on the table in front of them both.
“This is Bitr?dande Poliskommissarie Runar Staaf, the deputy commissioner of the northern regional head of police,” he said by way of introduction, nodding at Nikki to speak.
Gratefully, she sat down and gathered her thoughts.
“Hello, Deputy Commissioner Staaf. Can I ask how my…” she nearly choked on the words and had to clear her throat.
“How my colleagues died?” The room went misty as her eyes filled with sudden tears, but she fought them back.
Now wasn’t the time. She’d have time to grieve for her lost friends later.
Now, she was going to do everything in her power to make sure whoever did this was caught and thrown in jail for life.
At least the shock of the news of their deaths was wearing off.
Jacob’s blunt statement back in the holiday hut had been so horrifying that her body had reacted the only way it could; by blocking out the terrible revelation.
But now, the anguish was quickly being replaced with anger, a burning need for redemption for her coworkers.
In some ways, maybe she could thank Jacob for his brutal revealing of the truth; perhaps it was a little like ripping off a Bandaid. Short and sharp, but necessary.
The last time she’d seen Tammy and Antoine, they’d been about to join a scientific vessel conducting research in the Norwegian fjords; their version of a holiday was to keep doing what they loved.
One of the lead scientists was a colleague of Tammy’s from the University of Oregon, where she lectured, and he had asked her and Antoine to come with him.
There was a spot on the boat for Nikki too, but she’d turned it down, feeling the need to spend some quality time alone on a proper holiday, somewhere away from phones and computers and all technology.
Which was when Tammy had suggested the hut owned by a friend of a friend, Andreas.
Briefly, Nikki wondered what if . What if she’d gone on the trip with them? Would she be dead now too?
There was a brief pause on the other end of the phone before the deputy commissioner replied gruffly, “Hello, Dr. Winter, I’m sorry for your loss.
” The man’s English was good, but his accent was much heavier than Jacob’s, and Nikki had to concentrate to make out his words.
“And I’m equally sorry you’re in such a predicament.
In most normal cases, I would not have agreed to bring you into this conversation.
But this case is very different. At least you will understand what kind of people we’re dealing with if I tell you everything we know.
” The deputy commissioner took another momentary pause, as if gathering his thoughts.
“The man, Antoine Claudet, drowned while scuba diving on a science research boat near Skarberget in Tysfjord fjord with a team of six divers.”
Nikki covered her mouth to stifle a gasp as her eyes once again filled with unwanted tears.
Jacob reached down and briefly touched her shoulder, his message of condolence clear.
When Tammy had suggested it, Antoine had jumped at the chance to go scuba diving in the Norwegian fjords in winter.
He’d been so excited to dive there, going on and on about how crystal clear the water would be, talking about how he might even come face to face with a wild orca.
It was always more challenging to complete a cold-water dive, but the experience made it all worthwhile, he’d said with glee.
The thought of all that freezing water, even wearing the thickest of dry suits, made Nikki quake in her boots.
The deputy commissioner continued, “It was a night dive, which they tell me is common for this site, but it seems he didn’t resurface with the rest of the group.”
“Oh, no,” Nikki whispered. What could’ve possibly gone wrong? Antoine was always prattling about how much care needed to be taken on these night dives. Everyone had a buddy, and they always stayed within sight of each other.
“They couldn’t mount a proper search until first light the next morning,” the deputy commissioner went on. “They found his body caught in a tall stand of kelp forest halfway down the cliff wall. His scuba tank had run out of air.”
Even though Antoine was pedantic about things like checking his oxygen levels and staying within sight of a scuba buddy, it still sounded like a tragic accident to Nikki. Why did they think this might’ve been murder?
“So, what about Tammy?” she asked, even though her stomach roiled at the thought of hearing the answer.
“Yes, well, as you know, Tammy was on the same boat as Antoine, and the entire team returned to Bod? after the tragedy so she could begin making arrangements for his body to be shipped back to France. Of course, even though they still all thought this was a terrible accident, an autopsy was required, and so the family would have to wait until that was completed.”
God, that must’ve been so horrific for Tammy.
Dealing with Antoine’s death, talking to his family, relaying the sad news to the institute, negotiating a strange country’s laws regarding death and funerals and waiting for the autopsy results so they could release the body.
For a second, Nikki wondered why Tammy hadn’t contacted her, but the answer was obvious.
She’d probably tried, but Nikki had been so intent on staying off the grid, remaining blissfully ignorant and technology free, she hadn’t once turned on the satellite phone Andreas had left with her as a safety precaution.
Nikki thumped the palm of her hand onto her forehead.
Stupid. Stupid. How could she have been so selfish?
Jacob’s warm hand landed on her shoulder once more, and she drew strength from his compassion, still not really wanting to hear what came next.
“Reports stated Tammy fell to her death from the eighth-story balcony of her Bod? hotel. This was three days after the death of Antoine, and at first everyone thought it was an awful coincidence.”
Yes, she could understand why, because it did look like a terrible, horrible, unimaginable twist of fate.
But she was getting an inkling of what might be going on here.
The only thing that made sense. The only thing that might link the two murders.
The idea was almost too preposterous to even consider.
Surely no one would stoop to that level?
Surely, people weren’t so inflamed by greed that they would take another person’s life?
“A fall from a balcony is not that uncommon. People fall more than you would expect. They lean too far over the railing so they can see something, or they sit on the railing because they’re too confident of their own abilities.
Or they are just drunk and do things most sober people would not contemplate.
You’d be surprised at how often it happens.
There were also suspicions that perhaps it was a suicide; sometimes, the death of a close friend can affect people like that.
So, as you can imagine, we had many things to contemplate, and murder was not really on our radar. ”
No, she would never do that; she would never take her own life , Nikki wanted to retort, but the deputy commissioner was already speaking again.
“After the media reported her death, however, a witness came forward and said they thought they had seen someone on the balcony with Tammy right before she fell.”
Nikki grasped. “So she was pushed.”
“Maybe. Witnesses are not always reliable; they can get room numbers wrong, floor levels wrong, or you get people who want their fifteen minutes of fame and fabricate stories just to get themselves on the news. But Tammy was supposed to be alone in her room, and the hotel reported that none of the staff had accessed her room; they can tell by the records of the individual swipe cards of each staff member. Tammy hadn’t ordered any room service or reported any issue that would require a staff member to go into her room, so it made us wonder. ”
“But who had access to her room? If someone pushed her, how did they get in?”
“We don’t know yet. It could be as simple as they knocked on the door and she let them in. She wouldn’t have had any reason to suspect someone wanted to do her harm,” the deputy commissioner replied.
Nikki glanced across at Jacob, who was listening avidly to everything the deputy commissioner said. It seemed as if he was hearing this for the first time too. He raised an inquiring eyebrow in her direction, but said nothing, waiting for the deputy commissioner to go on.
“ It wasn’t until I talked to the president of your Marine Conservation Institute, Dr. Morgan, that we thought perhaps something more sinister might be going on.
He told me that the three of you were all working on the same project, investigating the Nordic fish farms belonging to Diàoyú Aquaculture, and that’s when alarm bells began to ring.
So we went back and took a closer look into Antoine’s death.
” The deputy commissioner paused to draw breath, but the hair on the back of Nikki’s neck was already standing on end; she didn’t like where this was going.