White Heat by Melanie Mcgrath Page A

so.
        'I
told them that,' Sammy said. 'But it didn't seem to bother them.'
        'So
long as they know we're unlikely to find anything.' Qalunaat ventured
north for all kinds of reasons, often not the ones they supposed.
        'Maybe
the body was left in some cave or something, I dunno much about it.'
        'They're
paying?'
        Sammy
nodded. 'The usual.'
        'Why
aren't you doing it then?' She narrowed her eyes, waiting for the catch.
        Her
ex looked at his feet. 'I got council of Elders business.' He drained his beer
and belched. 'Any case, you always get first dibs on Craig, Edie.' This was
true, though he was only saying it to soften her up.
        Edie
thought about the money. 'Sure.'
        She
was still waiting for the catch.
        'They're
arriving on the supply plane tomorrow.' He hesitated. 'There's just one thing.'
        Edie
wrinkled her nose. Right. The same old Sammy; slippery, never giving you the
whole picture, the Sammy she divorced. First dibs on Craig, my ass.
        'All
it is, Bill Fairfax's assistant . . .'He dropped the ring pull into his empty
can and rattled it around a little.'. .. it's that Andy Taylor fellow.'
        The
name came at Edie like an unexpected gust of cold wind. What the hell was Andy
Taylor doing back in Autisaq? Just when she'd squared it with herself to leave
the whole Felix Wagner business alone. Now it was coming right back at her.
        'You
know how I feel about that guy. Can't you do this, I'll do the next one?' A
dark slick of anger seeped over her.
        'Like
I said, Edie, I got business.' Sammy twirled the ring pull round inside the can
some more.
        She
didn't want anything more to do with Andy Taylor. On the other hand, if she
turned this down, she'd have to go to the back of the line for the next gig.
She needed the money and Sammy knew it. He'd backed her into a corner.
        'Don't
worry, I fixed it so you won't have to guide him. You'll be working with the
other one.'
        'Why?
Taylor staying in the settlement?'
        'Not
exactly,' Sammy said. 'He and this Fairfax fellow want go out in two separate
parties, one to the west by Uimmatisatsaq, near where you were before, the
other around Fritjof Fiord in the east. I told them you would take Fairfax to
Fritjof. Joe already agreed to take Taylor.'
        Edie
felt startled. All this time Sammy had been cooking this up and now he'd
somehow cajoled Joe into agreeing to it, without even asking for her opinion.
        'Wait
up just one second, Sammy Inukpuk,' she said. 'You're not letting your son out
with that man. Andy Taylor's a panicker, he's inexperienced, unreliable.' The
look on Sammy's face darkened.
        'You
don't get to tell me how I should treat my son. You abandoned us, remember?' He stood up and swept to the door.
        She'd
seen this before, Sammy trying to take the moral high ground. It was as though,
in his eyes, that was all she had become, some kind of flaky, no good bolter.
She made a grab for her pigtails and saw him bite his lip. At least he knew how
much the A-word hurt her.
        'Three
days, six max,' he said, shaking his head at her.
        She
went after him, reached the internal door to the porch and yanked it open. The
cold felt like a bad dream. 'Sammy?'
        He looked
up from tying his bootlace.
        'This
goes wrong, I won't forgive you.'
        He
finished his lace, stood up and waved her away. 'I'm not asking you to trust
me, Edie, not any more, but try to have some faith in your stepson.'
        She
felt herself blush, a sense of shame needling her belly. Sammy was right. Joe
was a highly competent guide and he knew Craig almost as well as she did. It
wasn't as though Andy Taylor was a bad man. He was just high maintenance was
all.
        'Sure,'
she said, in a chastened tone. He winked at her and smiled. She waited while he
opened the door and stepped out into the