Disclaimer: See my profile.
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'Weird, Alaska'
Chapter Six
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Jacob stepped out of the front door of his house and took a deep breath. He stood on the top step of his porch stairs and looked to the east where he could see the sun was already quite high in the sky. At this time of year the sun rose at approximately six am and set at approximately 9:45 pm; and since the sun was already well on its way, it was obvious he had slept later than he intended to. "I never was a morning person," he grumbled aloud. "That is until the Army forced me to be one." He walked down the steps and over to his garage where the Expedition was parked. He only lived two miles from the lodge, which was just down the street from his office, so the trip was not very long. He parked the vehicle almost directly in front of the lodge and immediately noticed Reid was sitting on the front steps. He climbed out of the Expedition and walked around the front of it to greet him. "Good morning, Agent Reid. You're up earlier than I expected you to be."
Reid looked up at him. "Good morning, Sheriff."
Jacob sat down next to Reid and rested his elbows on his knees. "Beautiful morning, isn't it?"
"Definitely," Reid said, looking around him. "This town is like something out of a movie."
"What kind of a movie?"
"I don't know… It seems so rustic and like it just belongs right where it is." Reid looked over at him. "I'm not sure I'm getting what I mean across very well, Sheriff."
Jacob chuckled. "I get what you mean, Agent Reid."
"You're here earlier than I expected, Jacob." Reid and Jacob turned around to see Lloyd standing on the porch behind them.
"Morning, Lloyd. Are we in a better mood this morning than we were last night?"
"Hmph," Lloyd grumbled. "You coming in or what?" He turned and walked back inside the lodge.
Jacob laughed as he and Reid stood up. "You have to get to know Lloyd a little. Once you do you realize he has a pretty wicked sense of humor."
"The world can always use a little more humor."
"Even if it is a bit warped."
The two men walked inside the lodge. "There you are kid," Morgan said. He was sitting on a sofa in the small lobby waiting for the rest of the team to join him. "I was wondering where you had gotten to."
"I woke up early and decided to sit outside for a while taking in the scenery."
"Okay. Sheriff, Lloyd said to tell you there are some extra donuts available. He said you wouldn't care about the coffee though."
"No, Lloyd knows I don't drink coffee," Jacob said, heading for the small dining area where Lloyd had the coffee and donuts set out, along with some orange juice. He poured himself a glass of orange juice and placed two donuts on a plate before going back into the lobby and sitting down on the sofa. "Care to join me gentlemen?"
Morgan laughed as he sat in an armchair. "You don't drink coffee?"
Jacob shook his head as Reid sat down on the sofa with a mug of coffee. "I never got used to the taste of coffee. I think the aroma is wonderful, but I'd just as soon drink a glass of Coke instead. In college I used to…" He stopped talking as he watched Reid drop five spoonful of sugar into his mug.
Reid became aware of someone watching him and looked up. "What?" he asked, looking from Morgan to Jacob and then back at Morgan.
"You're the only person I've ever seen put that much sugar in their coffee."
"I…well, I like sugar."
"How can you even taste the coffee?"
"I can taste the coffee," Reid protested.
"If you say so," Jacob shrugged. "As I was saying, in college I used to get a two liter bottle of Coke when I was studying late and drink it instead of coffee." He looked up as Penelope Garcia and JJ walked into the room. "Good morning, Agent Jareau, Miss Garcia."
"Hey, JJ, Baby Girl, have a good sleep?"
"It's so quiet," JJ smiled. "I'm just not used to it."
"Me either," Garcia added.
Jacob laughed. "When I first moved here all the quiet drove me nuts. I am originally from Los Angeles after all."
"Trust me, parts of the D.C. area are much louder than most of L.A.," Morgan said.
Prentiss walked up to them and handed JJ some coffee before sitting down and placing a plate of donuts on the table for the three women to share. "So what are we talking about?" she asked eagerly, leaning forward.
"How quiet it is around here," Reid commented.
"Don't worry, you didn't miss much," Morgan joked.
"Well, okay then," Prentiss said before biting into a donut.
"Looks like everyone is here," Rossi joked as he came down the stairs with Hotch right behind him.
"I was the first one up," Reid commented. "I wanted to experience an Alaskan sunrise while I had the chance; however I could not see well enough."
"What time did you wake up?" Hotch asked, as he accepted a cup of coffee Rossi had poured for him.
"5:30 a.m."
"In a few weeks it will be more like 3 a.m., and it will be light until after midnight. You'd be cursing the sunlight," Jacob laughed.
"Not as much as I would curse twenty-two hours of darkness a day," Reid answered.
"Don't be so sure about that, Agent Reid." He looked around at the group. "Is everyone okay with Lloyd's donuts, or should we go over to Carla's Café and have some breakfast?"
"It's after 9 a.m.," Rossi said. "I think the donuts will hold us for two or three hours, don't you?"
"I'll live," Morgan commented.
"Okay, after lunch JJ and Garcia will head to Fairbanks. As soon as we're ready here, Sheriff, why don't you show us your office and around town a little? After lunch we'd like to see where the victims were found," Hotch said.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Rossi said.
"My office is across the street and down a few yards," Jacob said as he stood up. "Carla's is directly across the street from the lodge."
"Everyone all set?" Rossi asked a few minutes later after the cups and plates had been disposed of and the group had donned their jackets.
"I've been ready for hours," Reid commented.
"Naturally," Morgan added.
"Sheriff," Reid said, walking next to him as the group went out the door and down the steps. "What is twenty-two hours of darkness like?"
"Don't you mean twenty-four hours, honey?" Garcia asked.
"Actually Garcia, that's a common misconception. Barrow has a two-month period during the winter when the sun doesn't rise. However, that's the extreme; and the length of the night gets shorter the further south you go. South of the Arctic Circle every location has sunlight at least part of the day."
"Is there sunlight for twenty-four hours a day in the summer?" JJ asked.
"In the summer, all of Alaska above the Arctic Circle gets at least one day of twenty-four hour sunlight at the time of the solstice. Barrow has continuous sunlight for eighty five days. South of the Arctic Circle every location has night time every day; some places very briefly, as in half an hour or so."
"You are correct, Agent Reid. We will get approximately twenty-two hours of darkness in the winter and twenty-two hours of sunlight in the summer. The other two hours is like dusk, the time just before the dark when the sun is setting."
"So, as far as Barrow it really is like in that movie?" Prentiss asked.
"What movie?"
"Thirty Days of Night kid," Morgan answered.
"I never heard of it," Reid said.
"Of course you haven't," Prentiss said.
"What do you mean by that?" Reid asked.
Jacob looked at Prentiss and then at Reid. "It's another movie that takes place in Alaska, Agent Reid. It's set up in Barrow."
"Oh. Barrow is the northernmost community in the United States, and is the economic, transportation, and administrative center for the North Slope Borough. Approximately sixty-one percent of the city's residents are Inupiat Eskimo. The airport, which is served by passenger jets from both Fairbanks and Anchorage, is named the Wiley Post-Will Rogers Airport. The naming was done to commemorate Post and Rogers, who died in a plane crash fifteen miles south of Barrow in 1935."
"Uh, Reid…" Rossi began.
"I know, shut up Reid." He sighed as the group walked up the steps underneath a sign declaring the building to be the Sheriff's Office. "I uh, guess I can talk about Barrow more some other time," he added quietly.
"Preferably when I'm not around," Prentiss mumbled. Reid looked up sharply at her words. He stood aside as Jacob held the door open and JJ, Garcia and Prentiss walked through first, followed by Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, Reid and then Jacob.
"This is it," Jacob said. "I'm sure your offices back at Quantico are a bit fancier, but this works for us." He pointed at a man in his late twenties with straight dark hair who had risen from behind a desk at their entrance. "This is Wade Talbot, my deputy. Wade, this is SSA Jennifer Jareau, SSA Emily Prentiss, Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia, SSA Derek Morgan, SSA David Rossi, SSA Aaron Hotchner, and SSA Spencer Reid."
"Nice to meet all of you. We're really glad you're here."
"We're here to do everything we can to help, Deputy Talbot," Hotch told him. The Deputy nodded.
"There's not much to see, really. We have Wade's desk, and over here through this door I have my broom closet office and my desk. Behind this door, in an old storage room, we have a makeshift library I set up. Through this doorway over here is the room you can work out of. There are a couple of tables, a refrigerator and a coffee maker."
"This will be fine," Rossi commented. "It looks very cozy."
"You have Internet on your computers, correct?" Morgan asked.
Jacob nodded. "Through the satellite bundle. It's not one hundred percent reliable, however. If there's a problem with the dish, not only does our Internet service go down, but so does the cable. Same problem at my house."
"Mine also," Deputy Talbot added.
The group headed out of the office and down the street with Jacob pointing out locations of interest, such as the combination Grocery/General Store/Post Office, and a small craft store. "Del's a real artist," Talbot commented when Jacob pointed out a small shop that advertised hand-made picture frames and furniture were sold there. "He made a beautiful cabinet for my wife's antique china."
"I feel stupid asking this question; but do your children attend school here in town, or do they bus somewhere?" JJ asked.
Jacob laughed. "That's not a stupid question, Agent Jareau. We have a small school here. It looks like your stereotypical one room school house from the outside; however it's actually pretty modern. We don't have that many students, but a while back we all got together and purchased some new computers for them. The high school age students take online courses from the University of Alaska Fairbanks as part of their curriculum. That's another reason we get so irritated with interruptions to our satellite service out here; the kids need it."
"Who do you call if you have a fire?" Morgan asked.
"We call the Tri-Valley Volunteer Fire Department," Talbot answered. "I'm a member myself."
"Anything else we can't handle or we need help with we call the State Police," Jacob added. "Or the F.B.I." His comment drew a smile from Rossi.
"What about your medical needs?" Reid asked.
"We have a clinic down the end of the street there. There's a full-time nurse, but we share a doctor with the clinic down in Healy."
Jacob and Talbot pointed out the Clinic's building and the school, which was surrounded by a chain link fence with a gate facing to the west. Several children played happily on playground equipment and swings while being carefully watched by two adults. "The blond woman pushing the little girl on the swings is my wife Dina," Talbot pointed out with a smile. The children spotted the group and came running over to the fence. They called out to Jacob and Talbot, who walked over to them smiling and introduced their companions as F.B.I. agents. The children seemed to find the presence of the BAU agents to be 'cool'. They stood for several minutes talking to Talbot's wife and the children before waving good-bye and walking away from the school smiling. The children stood near the fence and enthusiastically waved at them.
Reid turned around and made a 'shh' motion to the children. He walked back over to them and asked, "Who likes magic?" Every child raised his or her hand. "I see! Let me see what I can come up with. Hmm…" He pretended to be lost in thought for a minute. "Mrs. Talbot, do you have a dollar bill?"
"Of course," Dina said, reaching into the pocket of her jeans and pulling out a couple of bills. She handed one of them to Reid.
Reid made a production out of folding the dollar bill several times down to the size of a small square; and then he reached over the fence and placed it behind the right ear of one of the female students. She giggled and looked at him wide-eyed. "Maybe we should give Mrs. Talbot back her money," he said.
The little girl reached behind her ear. "It's gone!"
"Hmm… Maybe you should check your pocket?" The little girl stuck her hand in her right pocket and pulled a handful of quarters. She looked at Reid with her mouth open. "How about that?" he said. "You have twelve quarters there; two each for you and your friends." The little girl dutifully kept two quarters for herself and handed two to each of the other children. "Too bad about Mrs. Talbot's dollar bill… I wonder what happened to it?"
"I don't know," the little girl giggled.
"Maybe you could tell her to check behind her ear to see if it's there?"
The six students all began talking at once, trying to tell the Deputy's wife to check behind her ear. She reached behind her left ear and pulled the folded bill out to show the children. "Should I unfold it, kids?" The six children chorused 'yes' in unison; and, laughing she unfolded the dollar bill to find a small earring inside. She looked at it and then felt her left ear. Her earring was indeed missing, and somehow had managed to become folded up inside the bill. She looked over at Reid who simply smiled, said good-bye to the kids and waved before turning around and walking toward the rest of the group.
"Agent Reid does magic?" Jacob asked.
"One of my wonderful Junior G-Man's many hidden talents," Garcia smiled, looking at Reid as he walked toward them.
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A/N: From now on I'm going to refer to Sheriff Reischl as 'Jacob', though some characters will still be calling him 'Sheriff'. It's just easier to handle that way.
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