Deadly Summers in Alaska

By S. A. E. Sam

A serial killer is on the loose in Alaska, killing women who all look alike. Each woman is found abandoned in the uninhabited wilderness, and the only commonality among them is that they all physically resemble Denise Birdie Beardtom, an Alaska State Trooper. It would appear that someone wants Birdie dead, and it could be her abusive ex-husband.

Her partner, Miles, is concerned for Birdies safety. He enlists local friends Myrna Elam and John Lebowan to keep an eye on her. But Myrna has problems of her own, as she faces nightly dreams that seem strangely similar to the recent murder spree. Is it safe for Myrna to stay near Birdie, or could Myrna need protection as well?

As more bodies pile up, the crew calls for backup from the Fairbanks State Troopers Office. Due to the lack of evidence, however, they too are perplexed by the case. Running out of options, Birdie realizes she may be the only key to catching a killereven if she has to act as bait. Can Birdie stop a madman before he kills again, or will she become his next and final victim?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Abbott Press
• Release date: Jun 11, 2013
• ISBN: 9781458209788

S. A. E. Sam

S. A. E. Sam is an Athabascan Indian, born and raised in rural Alaska. She grew up with a deep respect for her native land, water, and animals. Sam still lives in Alaska along with her husband, children, and grandchildren. She is also the author of Deadly Summers in Alaska.

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Copyright © 2013 S. A. E. Sam.

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ISBN: 978-1-4582-0979-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4582-0978-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013909719

Abbott Press rev. date: 06/10/2013

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

This book is for my husband Darrell, my children Alexandria, Kate, Tyson, Patricia, Starlene, and D2 and my grandchildren Isaiah, Cherish, Blake and Riley thank you for the encouragement you gave me while I was writing this book and most of all thank you for believing in me.

CHAPTER 1

Summer 2010

T he woman was running for her life, the man who she vaguely remembered from the local bar in Galen, was chasing her, her beautiful hazel eyed were wild with terror. She remembered how charming he was at the bar and she left after drinking a couple of White Russian drinks with him, she remembered it was close to 2am when she left and headed for her truck and someone came up behind her. That was the last she remembered until waking up, naked, tied and blindfolded, in what sounded like a small plane. The plane was landing somewhere on water, she could tell from the feel of the landing that it was water. Someone dragged her out of the plane and cut her ties and took off her blindfold and told her to run if she wanted to live. His words were run for your life if you escape you live if not your dead. She didn’t even hesitate she ran for the trees, but her legs were cramped from lack of movement and she almost fell but her hard training as a mountain climber helped as she ran and jumped over dead trees and stumps. Though she’s short she has hard muscles from climbing mountains all over North America. The thorns and branches caught on her curly brown hair and scratched her naked skin while the debris on the ground cut her feet but she kept running never looking back because she could hear him behind her, laughing and taunting her. It was getting darker and she figured it was about 12 midnight as it never fully got dark during the summer in Alaska. She was slowly getting tired and stitches were throbbing in her sides and legs were starting to cramp, but she kept running. All of sudden she tripped and fell on a log or something and slammed her head into a tree, she was stunned and trying to hold on to consciousness but everything went black. As she looked up through the dark canopy of the pine trees she realized she was going to get caught and god knows what the bastard had planned for her, she was sure of one thing whatever he was going to do was not going to be good.

The man was over the woman tied to a pine tree by her feet and tied to young pine trees by her wrists. A knife was pressed against her throat as her captor was raping her. Her hazel eyes were glazed over with pain and terror. She had no fight left in her, not even the will to survive. She thought of her friends warning of never talking to strangers and wept with despair as she knew death was certain. Her thoughts shifted to the things she never got to do, the mountains she dreamed of climbing, the wish to go and climb Mt. McKinley. All that will never happen. The killer taunted her as he slowly trailed the knife down her chest, drawing a slow trickle of blood. He laughed as he thought of how easy it was to trap her. She screamed as he plunged the knife in her chest and again in her abdomen. He watched the blood gushing out, spurting into his face. He laughed with glee as the life started ebbing out of her. With one final thrust into her he came and at the same time he stabbed her one final time into her heart. He hummed a tune to himself and he prepared her for his final plan.

CHAPTER 2

Summer 2011

T he day was hot and dusty in early afternoon at the Athabascan village of Humingville. Population soared to 290 as the construction season began. State trooper Denise Beardtom, referred to as Birdie much to her dismay, was just landing her single engine Cessna in the Koyukuk River at Humingville. Birdie is 44 years old and is 5'3" with an athletic built, skin that’s lightly tanned and burnt red in some spots, long curly dusty blond hair and blue eyes that are shadowed with exhaustion from the past two days of nearly nonstop search for a young woman who has gone missing. People often told her that she’s beautiful, without being a knockout, she was good enough to look at that she was asked on dates of and on, nothing serious. As Trooper Beardtom alighted of her plane she was immediately swarmed by mosquitos. The natives of Humingville flocked out to greet her, arriving by four wheelers and trucks or just walking, all were Athabascan Indians who were dressed lightly in t-shirts with trunks, their skin bronzed by the summer sun beating relentlessly down on them.

Standing ahead of everyone was tribal chief Myrna Elam, a dark exotic beauty who is about 5'4, 130 pounds, a muscular Athabascan woman in her early 30’s, with short dark brown hair and intelligent brown eyes her skin also darkened by the sun. She became chief after the previous chief spent too much time traveling and gambling away the tribe’s money at expensive casinos in Las Vegas and other areas of Nevada under the guise of traveling for meetings. Hey Birdie, what’s the haps?" Chief Myrna Elam asked Trooper Beardtom as she tossed her a can of mosquito dope.

Gratefully catching the can of mosquito repellant Trooper Beardtom looked at her quietly for a moment before saying she needs to speak to the village as a group about the disappearance of two young women by the name of Nikki Wills and Christy Batis. The villagers quickly because quiet and distrustful of the trooper, as if the trooper was accusing them of something to do with the girls missing. Well we can talk right now as it’s still early in the day before supper, Chief Elam said noting the fatigue and concern in the troopers eyes.

The villagers slowly made their way to the community hall to hear what was to be said of the young women. After most everyone arrived at the community hall, built of logs in the ’70’s it was large enough to accommodate everyone. Rising off on of the wooden benches that lined the walls, State Trooper Beardtom addressed the group by saying that a young woman age 23 Nikki Wills, was last seen in the local bar at Galen last summer on June 12th, 2010, and no has seen or heard of her since, she failed to report to work at the local fish and game office, where she worked as a receptionist. She is mixed Caucasian and African-American, with hazel eyes and curly brown hair, about 5'4" and 110 pounds. The villages murmured amongst each other for a few minutes and shook their heads that they haven’t seen her.

The other young woman was Christy Batis, disappeared from the village of Koyukuk about two days ago. Ms. Batis is a 33 year old Caucasian, blond and blue eyed, and about 5'6", weighs about 120 pounds. Ms. Batis works at the environmental office as a technician in Galen and was traveling to Koyukuk to help out in their environmental office. Last seen leaving work at 5pm on June 10th, 2011, walking to her friend’s house, walking is a known preference for her as part of her exercise program with the local Galen wellness club. No one seen her stopping to talk to anyone, but her route runs through a little dirt path between the office and the main road. The path is in dense brush and trees that is about a quarter mile away from the banks of the Yukon River. There was no sign of a struggle and recent signs of people walking are obscured because of the hard packed ground. She was staying at her friends, a local’s house, that were out of town on a trip to Jackson and weren’t due back until the next day, when Ms. Batis was scheduled to take the evening flight back to Galen, she failed to show up for work at the Koyukuk Environmental Office the next day and hasn’t called or been heard from since. Once again the villagers talked amongst themselves and shook their heads negatively as no one has seen Ms. Batis either.

Well said Chief Elam with obvious concern we certainly will contact you immediately if we hear anything about the girls, can’t say it looks promising though we usually know when a stranger arrives in town within a few hours. But sometimes we miss a couple people who go out camping, hunting, or fishing right off the plane or who pass through by boat, but no one has been out that we know of in the last couple days. With fishing just starting we have people who go out round trip to the river forks at Koyukuk and Dulbi, that’s downriver about 30 miles.

The trooper was thinking of the amount of fishers on the river and how many hundreds of square miles surrounding the area to cover in dense forests and no roads in or out. I’ll be flying down to the station, referring to the native village of Koyukuk located 120 air miles downriver from Humingville and about 200 miles by boat, and will look around on the river and banks for anyone who could have been traveling with the girl by boat, Trooper Beardtom replied. In the meantime you have the contact number for the trooper’s office in Galen if you hear anything. If no answer leave a message and also contact the fish and game office at their number in Galen too. I sure appreciate you all taking the time to come out and talk and I’ll be walking around for a couple of hours checking with the locals who are not here to see if they seen or heard anything. Right now it’s a missing person case and no foul play is suspected but we sure would like to know the whereabouts of Ms. Wills and Ms. Batis, there is no known connection between the two cases but we are looking into it because we never came up with anything about Ms. Wills last summer and are really concerned.

One of the villagers, Matt Thomas, spoke up Me and the boys will be driving down to the station for some fishing in about an hour so we’ll keep a lookout for the girl and ask anyone else traveling if they may have seen Ms. Batis or if they have information on Ms. Wills, we’ll be back tomorrow night. Thank you any help is appreciated, replied Trooper Beardtom and anyone else who’s out on the river keep a lookout and radio immediately to the nearest village if you see or hear anything suspicious, no matter how small it may seem, it may be important.

One of the women said Do you think we’re safe? Well both girls were white so I doubt if anyone would harm the Indians, a man replied. Well just don’t go out to isolated spots by yourself, another man added. Which seemed ridiculous as it’s almost berry picking time and most of the women go out by themselves to get their share of berries for the winter. Also when you go out to cut fish make sure you got someone with you and bring a dog, too, was more advice. Make sure Darrell and Shirley know about this so they’ll be extra careful when they go out running, one of the elders said.

So far there has been no connection of the women to this village so it’s pretty much safe to say that you’ll all be alright with a few extra precautions, Trooper Beardtom soothed the villagers, but make sure you keep a lookout for anything you think may be of interest regarding this case and like I said no matter how small it may seem it might be important. Most people downriver are searching day and night for the girl and are getting a little tired and more worried as time goes by with no sign of Ms. Batis. And if you have any more concerns, ideas, or would like to volunteer to help just give me or anyone else in the trooper’s office in Galen a call because we could use all the help we could get.

Do you think we should have our search and rescue team get together to discuss this? Never mind we are all here right now and so I think we should help these people out any way we can, they would do the same for us and have done a lot search and rescue for us in the past, right now we have about $4000 in the funds, we could use some of that for gas and supplies maybe some food and have a fund raiser if need be, John Lebowan whose the chairman of the Humingville Search and Rescue Team and have worked well with the troopers and other villages in the past coordinating search and rescue efforts. A lot were successful and unfortunately a lot were not happy endings.

Boy, that certainly well be appreciated and I will let you know what’s the plans for search and rescue efforts when I get back to Galen and meet with their search and rescue team tomorrow. The other villages have their search and rescue teams on hold, so I will let them know you all are coming down this way, just wait until tomorrow to hear from me or someone else from the Galen offices. Right now I have the lead in the search and am coordinating with the villages so any information comes and goes through me. We will activate the teams from here, Koyukuk, Galen, Jackson, and Kalan and discuss the ones further up river past Galen tomorrow and hope for the best, Trooper Beardtom said with a feeling of thankfulness for the natives continued willingness to go above and beyond for each other in times of need and always offer help instead of having to be asked. So I should make my way around the village now before the day goes by, I want to thank you all again for listening in and deciding to pitch in and help out. Trooper Beardtom said as she prepared for her walk, dousing herself with more bug dope.

Trooper Beardtom walked out of the community hall and Chief Elam caught up with her saying Well Birdie that certainly went well, you now have our resources to help out with the search and everyone knows to be aware of what is happening downriver and to be careful. I’m also going to have Ronnie Irvin, the local VPSO, patrol during the night in the village and on the outskirts too. Can’t hurt any to be extra cautious until the troopers get to the bottom of this. Everyone here has radios in their cabins and there are some people in Koyukuk and Galen who has radios so we should be able to locate Ms. Batis sometime soon or someone should be able to radio some information on her whereabouts after word gets out.

Trooper Beardtom turned to Chief Elam with concern in her eyes and said, I have a bad feeling about this one Myrna, it just doesn’t seem right, Ms. Wills lived alone and her family states that she is a very bright and friendly young woman who always takes the time to talk to just about anyone, but she’s also very responsible and calls or emails her family whenever she is taking a trip, no matter how short or long she will be gone. Just doesn’t fit her behavior to be gone a whole year with no word, not even calling in to her family, she’s known to go out mountain climbing on a couple day trips but never this long and not without a radio and flares to signal if she gets in trouble. Her family is very worried. And Ms. Badis also lives alone and a very avid hiker who also carries a radio and flares with her on her hikes, and she also tells someone where she is going too. Both women are also known to be very fit and in good health, very outgoing and athletic, they would be able to do ok for themselves if lost outside the villages for a certain amount of time, but it would be only a matter of time for them to succumb to the wilderness Trooper Beardtom sighed and said, yeah I got a very bad feeling about all this.

Well, Chief Elam said, Let’s take a walk around town and stop at grandma and grandpa’s house for some supper before you take off, I heard they got some fresh salmon from downriver." They started off from the community hall which is the hub of the village along with the local Episcopalian Church, Post Office, Ball Park, City Office, and Tribal Office. The village was set on a sand shelf, so it was pretty dusty during the dry June month but the birch and cotton wood trees with their dark green leaves provided some relief from the dust and hot sun. A few people were settled under the trees or sitting in shade of their porches as they walked. Both were lost in thought and concern over the missing girls.

CHAPTER 3

C hristy Batis was scared, she remembered leaving the meeting at the local tribal run environmental office in Koyukuk and decided to take a shortcut through the woods to get back to her friend’s house faster so she can go out for a hike up the road. She rounded the corner leading off from a cabin and started enjoying the singing of the red robins that were sitting in the dense brush, when she heard a noise behind her, before she could turn around something covered her mouth and she was out.

She woke up groggily and realized that her hands and feet were tied and her eyes were covered with something, her arms and legs were cramped from being in the same position, her mouth was dry from nothing to drink, her stomach rumbled with hunger. Shocked and embarrassed she realized she was also naked and her skin itched from being burned by the sun. The only sounds she heard was the sound of something hitting water over and over and movement like in a boat. She thought she vaguely heard the sound of breathing but could not be sure. Who’s there? she asked, Why are you doing this? Where are you taking me? There was no response only the same sounds of something hitting the water must be paddles she thought, and the same breathing. She kept asking the same questions over and over, until the noise stopped and she heard movement and felt a container being put to her mouth, she drank deeply for a few moments then a rag was tied over her mouth to keep her quiet. Then the paddling, she assumed, started again.

She didn’t know how long she was out so she didn’t know if anyone missed her yet or how far she was from Koyukuk. So she had no way of knowing where she was or where she was being taken. A cold thought came to her as she remembered the young lady, what was her name, oh yeah, Nikki Wills, who has been missing since last summer. Could this be the same person who took Nikki and what did he do to her. She started shaking with fear as the paddling continued and the air was getting colder and she sensed night was approaching. She realized she was getting very sleepy and thought the water must have been drugged, groggily she realized with sadness that she might find it more peaceful to be asleep while they were going to god knows where to do god knows what, she welcomed the drugged sleep and silently prayed that someone would spot them soon.

CHAPTER 4

T rooper Beardtom and Chief Elam were getting nowhere walking around and talking to the locals about the missing girls, and they talked to just about everyone who was not at the meeting, the rest were out of town. Nothing stood out in the talks with the various people, not even a word of anyone seeing or hearing a single thing. A few people were familiar with Ms. Batis as she traveled to a few villages in the area surrounding Galen, but not a hint of what happened to her. We might as well stop at grandpa and grandma’s house and get something to eat and drink, it looks like we aren’t going to find out anything from anyone here, Chief Elam offered. Okay, I’m bushed anyway and haven’t had much time to eat much of anything the last couple days searching, Trooper Beardtom replied, as there wasn’t anything left to do in the village and no one left to talk to. She was famished, she remembered eating a granola bar and drinking a little water on the flight. They stopped by an older two story log cabin that had grass in the yard, which was a luxury in the village built on a sand shelf. The cotton and birch trees swayed gently around the house and looked so serene and peaceful.

Hi grandpa, hi grandma Myrna shouted as they walked in, hardly anyone knocks on their door, just walk right in that’s how welcoming they are and two older people were just sitting down to a meal. Hi, said grandma, you’re just in time for supper.

The cabin was filled with an assortment of furniture and the table was the centerpiece of it all. Every wall was filled with pictures of Tony & Emily’s 16 children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren. There was hardly any space left for any more pictures. Potted plants dotted windows and end tables giving the cabin warmth.

You remember Trooper Beardtom from Galen Myrna shouted, She just came in today to ask around about missing girls. Well sit down, eat and then tell us about it grandpa said with concern. Trooper Beardtom thanked the old couple and sat down, she breathed in the good cooking and waited until everyone sat down to eat and as was the native custom the older couple served themselves first, there was some fish and rice with fresh vegetables.

We just got some half dried salmon sent up to us from our boy in Galen and I got some fresh lettuce and carrots from my garden so you’re just in time, grandma said with warmth. Grandma was Emily Elam who was known as grandma to everyone along the rivers, she a slight old woman, with a hair of grey and dark brown eyes full of wisdom. She always had a kind smile for everyone and welcomed everyone to her home to eat and visit.

Grandpa was Tony Elam a tall heavy set gray haired athabascan with brown eyes and he too had a warm smile and same welcome as grandma, also a mischievous demeanor, always had a teasing word for everyone. "So any criminals heading back with you? grandpa asked with a smile.

No, not today, Trooper Beardtom replied with laughter in her voice. It was a little joke between them, since she had to come to Humingville to pick up a tribal council member who was on