Lost in the Wild by Leigh Mayberry (i am malala young readers edition txt) 📕

Fairbanks for business. Very few people left on a Monday evening flight. That meant she had some privacy sitting in the terminal with Wilcox.

“I don’t have anything to say to Garret. We had our conversations years ago. I don’t want to go back again.”

“I can appreciate that. This business with Wyatt and you should get resolution. It’s not good to let friendships stagnate over poor business dealings.”

“Is that what you’re calling it?” Meghan shook her head. “I felt like she had an agenda the minute she got here. All these years, I thought she was a better friend than an agent. I can say that because I don’t think I’m out of line with that observation. She made it her mission to destroy my credibility and almost got me fired.”

“You might want to reconsider that last part. You almost got you fired. Wyatt put you together with other agency professionals, and you know how it all works. You’re not new to that. This business between you and Wyatt doesn’t have anything to do with how you handled the situation with Cadet Holmes. I’m surprised you let him get the better of you. But you probably ruined his career in any law enforcement capacity. You likely caused permanent nerve damage and tore the ligaments around his thumb.

“I won’t condone excessive force. I only wish the camera wasn’t focused on your suspect at the time you took care of Holmes. I can tell you that Vincent Atkinson’s face at the time you broke Holmes’ thumb was priceless. I’m not surprised if his reaction won’t become some interoffice meme at some point.”

“I know it wasn’t my best moment. And it won’t help the guy if I said sorry.”

“I think you shouldn’t worry about what happens to Holmes. You don’t need me to tell you to not allow your emotions to get the better of you. This business with Holmes or that business with Eugene Tuktu, you kicking him, I don’t want to see you strong arming people to get confessions out of them.” Wilcox held up his hand to stop Meghan from launching into protecting a predator. “You don’t have to worry about Tuktu. We claimed his laptop and have IP addresses for a few of his friends he’s sharing images, a few of them are here in Alaska. The FBI will take care of the rest of them. My point is, I know you’re allowing your work to get the better of you. I’ve seen good agents fall under the pressure of catching bad guys. I hate the Bureau lost you because of what happened. Don’t let these people lose you because you’re leading with your emotions instead of your head.”

Meghan needed to know. “Did Garrett say anything to you about Dana?”

“You should ask him.”

“You know that’s not going to happen.”

“You know we spend a lot of time trying to strengthen our ties to local law enforcement. We’re looking at the model created here to make sure it doesn’t happen again. I don’t know what your relationship was with Agent Wyatt, but I can tell you from direct observation, she wanted to prove something to you. I saw it in how she handled the Amber Alert, and how she handled the on the ground operations.” Wilcox waited to talk again, listening to the intercom boarding announcement.

Meghan never saw a point using the intercom in the Kinguyakkii commercial flight terminal. The space was a little bigger than the whole police department. It had a luggage claim area that was literally a hole in the wall where cargo handlers fed passenger baggage down a small chute with a collection bin. The desk attendant only needed to speak at normal volume to reach everyone inside the place. It was a system that she didn’t control and on top of all the things that happened over the last week, Meghan didn’t worry about it.

“My relationship with Dana isn’t what I thought it was,” Meghan said. “I guess I realized that it wasn’t as friendly as I thought when she got here.”

“I know she’s not a good fit for the Anchorage office.”

Meghan frowned. “Is that what she wanted?”

“She expressed some interest in it when we came here.”

“That seems weird to me.”

“Well, I think it has to do with you. She saw how you have a perfect operation and walk in a big shadow.”

“If I had a perfect operation, none of that would have happened.”

“You made that happen, Meghan. It wasn’t Dana. You allowed her to control the operation. I came to you and was ready to hand it all over to you. Instead, you let us keep it, and you did your own thing.”

“I agree that I did my own thing. And I think if I had the rest of the operation, Eugene wouldn’t face the charges he has now.”

“I agree. Just don’t let it happen again.”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Leaving the airport when Wilcox boarded the plane, Meghan had a sense of pride she hadn’t felt in a long time. She didn’t go back to the police department immediately. There were a lot of emails and reports to catch up, but Meghan wanted a little more time by herself to take in the rest of what she almost lost. Living in Alaska wasn’t for everyone. Living in Kinguyakkii took a particular type of person. Meghan knew she had both pieces to make up the whole. As the night fell over the city, a wind picked up. She made a phone call as she saw the truck surveying the neighborhood and the large two-story house where the Warrens lived.

“Hey, what’s up, I’m on my way to a track meet. It’s the last for the year.”

“You know how I talked about getting out of Alaska,” Meghan said.

The noise on the other end had a lot of female laughter. Brittany, among her friends