Northern Lights Read Free Page A

bigger than the kitchen's but not by much. It didn't rate a tub, but the shower stall would do him well enough.
    "Got your gear, chief." Jerk hauled in two suitcases and a duffel as if they were empty. He dumped them on the bed where their weight sagged the mattress. "Need me for anything, I'll be downstairs grabbing a meal. I'll bunk here tonight, fly back to Talkeetna in the morning."
    He tapped a finger on his forehead in salute and clomped out again.
    "Shit. Hold on." Nate started to dig into his pocket.
    "I'll take care of tipping him," Hopp said. "Till you're on the clock, you're a guest of the Lunacy town council."
    "Appreciate it."
    "I plan to see you work for it, so we'll see how it goes."
    "Room service!" Charlene sang it when she carried a tray into the room. Her hips swayed like a metronome as she walked over to set it on the table. "Brought you up some nice fish chowder, chief, and a good man-sized sandwich. Coffee's hot."
    "Smells great. I appreciate it, Ms. Hidel."
    "Oh now, that's Charlene to you." She batted the baby blues, and yeah, Nate thought, she practiced. "We're just one big happy family around here."
    "That were the case, we wouldn't need a chief of police."
    "Oh, don't go scaring him off, Hopp. Is the room all right for you, Ignatious?"
    "Nate. Yes, thanks. It's fine."
    "Put some food in your belly and get some rest," Hopp advised. "You get your second wind, just give me a call. I'll show you around. Your first official duty will be attending the meeting tomorrow afternoon at Town Hall, where we'll introduce you to everybody who cares to attend. You'll want to see the station house before that, meet your two deputies and Peach. And we'll get you that star."
    "Star?"
    "Jesse wanted to make sure you were getting a star. Come on, Charlene. Let's leave the man alone."
    "You call downstairs you need any little thing." Charlene sent him an invitational smile. " Any little thing."
    Behind Charlene's back, Hopp rolled her eyes toward heaven. To settle the matter, she clamped a hand on Charlene's arm, yanked her toward the door. There was a clatter of heels on wood, a feminine squeak, then the slam of the door behind them.
    Through it, Nate could hear Charlene's hushed and insulted: "What's the matter with you, Hopp. I was only being friendly."
    "There's innkeeper friendly, then there's bordello friendly. One of these days, you're going to figure out the difference."
    He waited until he was sure they were gone before he crossed over to flip the locks. Then he pulled off his parka, let it fall to the floor, dragged off his watch cap, dropped it. Unwound his scarf, dropped that. Unzipped his insulated vest and added it to the heap.
    Down to shirt, pants, thermal underwear and boots, he went to the table, picked up the soup, a spoon, and carried both to the dark windows.
    Three-thirty in the afternoon, according to the bedside clock—and dark as midnight.There were streetlights glowing, he noted as he spooned up soup, and he could make out the shapes of buildings. Christmas decorations in colored lights, in rooftop Santas and cartoon reindeers.
    But no people, no life, no movement.
    He ate mechanically, too tired, too hungry to notice the taste.
    There was nothing out that window but the movie set, he thought. The buildings might have been false fronts, the handful of people he'd met downstairs just characters in the illusion.
    Maybe this was all some elaborate hallucination, born out of depression, grief, anger—whatever ugly mix had sent him pinwheeling into the void.
    He'd wake up back in his own place in Baltimore and try to drum up the energy to go through the motions for another day.
    He got the sandwich, ate that standing at the window as well, looking out at the empty black-and-white world with its oddly celebrational lights.
    Maybe he'd walk out there, into that empty world. He'd become a character in the odd illusion. Then he'd fade to black, like the last reel of an old movie. And it would be