Kate Shugak 01 - A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow

Author:Dana Stabenow
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Alaska, Women Sleuths, Women detectives --Alaska --Fiction., Alaska --Fiction.
Publisher: Gere Donovan Press
Published: 2011-03-09T16:00:00+00:00

Six

He had his headphones on, lost in a wide-band frequency fog, and didn’t answer when Kate knocked, so she opened the door that was always unlocked and went in and tapped him on the shoulder.

He jumped about a foot off his chair and slewed around to glare at her. Recognition came at once. “Goddam, woman,” he roared, ripping his headphones off and slamming them down, “I told you a million times not to sneak up on me like that!”

Mutt jumped up to rest her forepaws on his shoulders and swiped at his face with a long pink tongue. “Goddam, woman,” Bobby roared again, fending her off, “you got that fucking wolf with you! I told you before, no fucking wolves in the house!”

Unintimidated, Mutt swiped at him again and, formal greetings duly exchanged, got down and trotted over to the fireplace to root purposefully through the wood box, eventually producing something roughly on the scale of the femur of a stegosaurus. Bobby, a forward thinker, always had something in the wood box to keep the wolves at bay. Mutt settled down in the front of the fireplace and began to gnaw with an expression of almost sinful content.

Kate wiped Bobby’s scowling face and leaned forward to kiss him. The roar shut off and he leaned into the kiss with enthusiasm. He opened one eye in the middle of the kiss to make sure she was enjoying it as much as he was and saw Abel standing in the open doorway regarding them with deep disapproval and a terrifying scowl.

“Oh,” Bobby said, freeing his lips but not noticeably terrified and not releasing Kate. “Hello, Abel.”

“Bobby,” Abel said, nodding. “I got you here safe, girl. I’m heading over to Ekaterina’s now. I’ll be back in the morning.”

“You’re welcome to stay here, Abel,” Bobby said. He let one enormous paw settle on Kate’s left hip.

The old man bent his head stiffly. “’Preciate it, Bobby, but it’s been a bit since I stirred up the old broad. I’m looking forward to it.” He looked around Bobby’s cabin with raised brows. “And she’s always got a room”—he emphasized the word pointedly—“for me.”

“Abel?” Kate said, twisting in Bobby’s hands to look at him. “Thanks.”

Abel bent his head again, and left.

Bobby watched the door close behind him. “Don’t mind him, Bobby,” she said in a low voice. “He’s just old.”

“I don’t,” he said, and then, surprisingly, “He reminds me of my old man. He wouldn’t approve of this either.” Bobby grinned lecherously and kissed Kate again, and then a sneaky third time before she could wriggle free.

“Who are you talking to tonight?” she said, breathless, tugging away from him with difficulty and indicating the radio.

“King Hussein of Jordan,” he said. She laughed, and he raised his eyebrows and said, “You want to say hello?”

Diverted, she said, “Really? Hussein’s a ham?”

“Virginia smoked, like myself,” he said. “Want to talk to him?”

“I’d rather talk to Viktor.”

“Ah, that sumbitchin’ spy must have got himself arrested in the latest coup; he ain’t been on the air for six months now.

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