Mike, an Alaska State Trooper is returning to the sleepy mining town of Spruce Hen, AK to run the bar and café for his grandparents. While he loves his job as a Trooper, after fighting a prolonged custody battle with his deceased girlfriend’s family for custody of his son, he’s hesitant to work in such a dangerous occupation, and leave Brandon without a stable, loving home.
Mike’s cousin Alyssa is looking for a re-set on her life. After finding out her husband cheated on her while she was out at sea, she’s newly divorced and discharged from the Navy. She’s coming back to Spruce Hen for the first time since she was a teenager, promising to help Mikey run the bar, and use her skills as an Electrician to make new upgrades to the electrical systems. She hopes that everyone will forget her awkward, chubby teenage years, and the desperate crush she had on Jack, Mike’s best friend.
Tina has been ordered to take a break. Once the top nurse at the #1 trauma unit in Seattle, she had a major nervous breakdown the night the medics wheeled in a case just like her deceased husband’s. Granted 6 months leave, she meets up with Alyssa on her way to stay with a friend in Alaska, and agrees to work at the bar in Spruce Hen, immediately drawn in by her handsome new boss, Mike.
Jack is the middle and considered to be the handsomest of the Walsh brothers. HIs good looks and charm got him into more trouble than he bargained for. Now older and wiser, he’s sworn off women, and has focused on the family mining and RV business out in Spruce Hen. That is until, the gorgeous and all grown up Alyssa shows up with her tools, working her way into his heart.
The two couples find love under the midnight sun in the Alaska interior, until bodies start showing up in the 40-mile river. A killer is on the loose, and the remote region is on edge. Can the four friends unmask the killer in their midst before one or all of them becomes the victims?
Start of Blood on the 40-Mile
For sneak previews and deleted scenes of my upcoming release, sign up for my newsletter below (I promise not to spam, though we do like SPAM here in Alaska, #2 consumers of the canned product after Hawaii):
Subscribe to our newsletter!
A pair of large yellow eyes blinked back at Mike as he killed the truck’s engine. A boreal owl perched in the eaves of the cafe cocked its head to the side and hooted before flying off into the spruce grove behind the bar in search of its evening meal. Normally the drive from Anchorage to Spruce Hen only took seven hours, but with his heavy load and the nasty road conditions along the way it is stretched into ten. He hopped out of the cab into the freezing evening air, and stretched his arms over his head. Late April, and there were still patches of snow on the ground. Not many people were out here this early, but it was a good time to get things together, before the tourists and miners showed up. He grabbed his knapsack off the front seat. He did not even want to think about unloading tonight. Hopefully the cot in the back of the café was in good shape. He had a sandwich somewhere in his bag and a six-pack of beer behind the seat, all he needed to do was unroll his sleeping bag and crawl into it. He would open up the two small cabins tomorrow. Tonight, all he wanted, was a drink and to rest.
He turned his head as he heard a dog bark and a four-wheel vehicle approach. He smiled as he recognized the man on the vehicle.
“Good to see ya’ Mikey.” The muscular brown-haired man said as he stopped the Honda next to him. The large malamute accompanying him sniffed Mike and rubbed against his leg, eager for attention. “We’ve been watching for you all day. Tough drive?”
“To say the least, Jack. From Glenallen to Tok was slow hauling all this weight. And going over Mt. Fairplay it was snowing. I’ve never been so happy to see the 40-mile as I was when I dropped down into the Walker Fork.”
“Need help unloading?”
“Definitely in the morning. But for now, I’m beat.”
“Well, come over to our cabin tonight. I’ll give you a ride. Eric’s wife Jen has made a pot of stew, and we’ve got a fire and beer.” Even though the RV park Jack and Eric ran together was just across the parking lot, their private cabin was in the woods about a half-mile away, across the creek.
“Let me put my stuff in the café, and rollout my bag.”
“Why don’t you just bring it along, at least for tonight? We’ve got room, and the cabin’s warm.”
“You know, I may just take you up on that. I’ve never been so beat by a drive in my life.” He pocketed his keys and handed his knapsack and sleeping bag to Jack. Then he hopped on the back of the four-wheeler and rode over to Jack and Eric’s cabin on the other side of the creek.
*****
“Man, Mikey it’s really good to see you. I was glad when Poppa said you’d be helping out here this summer. So, you going to take over for them?” Eric asked as Jen snuggled against him.
“Thinking about it. I guess you can say this summer is going to be a trial run of sorts. Maybe trial by fire. Fortunately, Alyssa is coming up to help. She just got out of the Navy. You guys remember her, right?”
“How’s Chunky Monkey doing?” Jack asked, with a fond smile.
“Could be better, her asshole husband cheated on her two years ago. So, she decided she was done with him and done with the Navy.”
“How long was she in?” Eric asked, hugging Jen.
“Eight years.” Mike replied.
“Wow that’s impressive.” Jack said, taking a swig of his beer.
“Yeah, she had made chief, and was on the fast track to go far. But she decided enough was enough and she got out. I’m glad she agreed to come up and help me. She’s a fantastic electrician. She’s going to help me wire in the new solar rays and inverters for the bar and cabins. They’re going to get here next week. She’s going to help bartend for the summer and run the café.”
“She still with her husband?” Jen asked, curious.
“No, they got divorced about a year and a half ago. It was a big scandal. The bastard was cheating on her with another sailor while she was still out on the Roosevelt. I’m sorry for Alyssa, she really cared for him, but I always thought he was a dick.” Mikey replied.
“It will be good to see her.” Jack said. “I haven’t seen her since she was about 12 or 13 I think, since I left for college.”
“She’s changed a lot since then. And she hates that nickname.”
They all grinned, thinking of growing up together and their summers out on the 40-mile region and their nicknames for each other, which sometimes could be rather mean.
“Well, it beats ‘Speed Racer’, or ‘Deuce Gigolo’.” Jack replied with a laugh, referring to their nicknames for him, stemming from some of his exploits as a teenager. He blushed a little, thinking of the dumb things he did in his teens and early 20s.
“At, we all grow up eventually,” Mike said with a smile.
“So, what about you?” Jen asked, tucking a lock of her thick, straight, dark hair behind her head. A lot of people in the region assumed she was Alaska native, but she was actually a mixture of Mexican and Japanese. Her large dark eyes were full of empathy as she asked, “are you leaving the troopers?”
Mike looked down at the fire. In his own mind, he was putting off that question as well. “I don’t know yet. I guess a lot depends on how well the summer goes. I’m on a leave of absence until November. The good news is, I finally won full custody of Brandon from Shelley’s family.”
“That’s great!” You’ve been fighting them for what like four years now? I can’t believe the judge awarded custody to a bunch of crackheads over a kid’s father. Judge out to be reprimanded.” Eric said.
“Well, it was complicated.” Mike said, running a hand through his own thick dark hair and sipping his beer. He closed his large brown eyes for a moment, when he opened them Jack was staring at him silently. He gave Jack a nod and looked away.
“Is he coming out here this summer?” Jen asked.
“Yeah, he’s coming out a couple weeks with Nonna and Poppa when they drive their camper up. Speaking of which, Mike, on one of your flights into Anchorage, can you pick up Alyssa? She’s flying up from the lower 48 next week. She’s going to bring up the initial cashbox and some other specialty stuff. I don’t want her to have to do that drive by herself.”
“Sure, so next week?”
“No, the week after, almost two weeks. She’s got to run errands for me and get situated before coming out here for the summer. I gave her your email address. I’ll call her tomorrow on the sat phone and let her know to set something up.”
“Sounds good. Ready to hit the hay? You look beat.” Jack said.
“Definitely,” Mike replied, finishing his beer. He only had one, but that combined with the warm stew, he felt like he had taken a sleeping pill. Eric and Jen stayed outside to enjoy the fire and the evening air. Jack walked inside with him and followed him into the spare room of the spacious cabin.
“Mike it is really good to see you. It has been way too long.”
“I know, it’s been four years or so since last time I saw you.”
“Sorry I didn’t make it to Shelley’s funeral. By the time we heard what happened…”
“Don’t sweat it,” Mike said as he unrolled the sleeping bag, “and I really did appreciate the phone call. That was a rough time.”
“I wish I could’ve been there.” Jack said. The two of them were the same age, and even though they hadn’t seen each other in a long time, they were still best friends.
“I know bro, and thanks for not telling Eric about, well, you know.”
“You really think I would?” Jack asked, incredulous.
“No, but thanks, for everything.” He lay down and shut his eyes.
“No problem Slim Jim.” Jack said with a grin, reminding Mike of his own childhood nickname. Mike grinned back as Jack said, “Tomorrow, Eric and I will help unload that truck.”
“Thanks Deuce, I appreciate it.”
Jack left him alone in the room with a lantern. They had a generator for the park and the cabins, but this early in the season with so few people it was a waste of fuel. The border would not open for another few weeks, not until the Yukon was ice free. It was nice to be without electricity for a few weeks, without the constant hum and buzz. Next week, when Wolfman drove up with a load of frozen stuff and some fresh items he would have to fire up the generator for the café, but hopefully Alyssa could get the new photovoltaic system installed quickly. It would save them a lot on fuel for the generator and switching back and forth when the generators went down. If it worked out well, Eric, Jen and Jack were interested in a larger system to power the RV park. They were now eager to help install the system and see how it worked. The two groups running the separate businesses were really like one large extended family.
Mikey
settled into his bag and closed his eyes, putting off thinking about the future
and whether or not he was going to stay with the troopers. He also shut his
mind against the past. His ex-girlfriend Shelley and her suicide almost 4 years
ago, and his prolonged battle with her dysfunctional family for custody of
Brandon. He could think about those things later. He would have lots of time to
ponder that this summer.