Randi replied flatly. "This man killed the other members of your expedition in cold blood, the teammates he'd lived and worked with for over six months. He slaughtered them all like sheep, and I'll bet for no better reason than money."
Kropodkin's jaw dropped. "The others...dead? I do not believe this! No! This is insane! I am no killer! Doctor, tell her! Tell this woman who I am!"
"Please, Ms. Russell!" Trowbridge's voice strengthened in protest. "You have no grounds to make such...drastic accusations. We have no real proof that anyone has been killed here yet."
"Yes, we do, Doctor. Last evening I found Kayla Brown's body on the hill below the radio tower. Someone had used an ice axe on her. That one, I suspect." Randi nodded toward the axe that lay on the table beside the submachine gun, the axe Kropodkin had been carrying. "I have no doubt DNA testing will prove the point. They'll probably also find blood traces from Dr. Gupta and Dr. Hasegawa as well. You took out Creston and Rutherford by other means, didn't you, Kropodkin?"
The graduate student half rose from the bunk, straining at the nylon bands around his wrists. "I tell you, I have killed no one!"
Randi's hand covered the grip of the MP-5. The muzzle traversed half an inch, indexing in line with Kropodkin's chest. "Sit down."
He stiffened and subsided into the bunk.
Trowbridge stood watching the developing tableau, a totally blasted expression on his face. The revelation about Kayla Brown's corpse had been another of those things that shouldn't happen in his existence, another boulder in the accelerating avalanche that was sweeping his life and carefully ordered career into scandal and chaos. His only escape lay in denial. "You have no proof that any of the expedition members are responsible for any of this," he protested hoarsely.
"I'm afraid I do." Leaning back in her chair, Randi caught up the model 12 Winchester Kropodkin had been carrying, the camp's polar bear deterrent. "This shotgun has a three-round magazine capacity. It's a safe assumption that there were three shells in it when it left this camp."
She jacked the model 12's pump action repeatedly, but only a single round of magnum-load buckshot ejected to clatter on the tabletop. "Three shells in the gun when it left the camp, three men with this gun when it left the camp. One of each came back. Do the math."
"I fired those shells as a signal, Doctor, out on the ice pack! Will you make this woman listen?"
"The boy is right," Trowbridge protested with growing vehemence. "At least he has the right to be heard."
Randi's cold stare never left Kropodkin's face. "All right. That's fine with me. Let's hear him. Where's he been? What happened to the others?"
"Yes, Stefan," Trowbridge interjected almost eagerly. "Tell us what happened."
"I have been trapped out on the damned pack ice for two nights, and I have been wondering what happened to the others!" He took a deep, shuddering breath, bringing himself under control. "Dr. Creston, Ian, and I were looking for Dr. Gupta and Dr. Hasegawa. We thought maybe they had gone out onto the pack after a specimen or to get around the ice jam along the shore. Somehow, when we went out onto the pack, I became separated from the others. The ice near the island is very broken, with many hummocks and pressure ridges.
"Then the wind shifted and a lead opened in the ice. I was cut off from the island! I couldn't get back to shore. I called for help! I fired shots. Nobody came!" Kropodkin's eyes closed, and his head sank onto his chest. "I had no food. I have not eaten for two days. No heat. No shelter but the ice. I thought I was going to die out there."
Randi was unimpressed. She picked the single shotgun shell up from the table. "The standard firearm distress signal is three shots fired into the air."
Kropodkin's head snapped up. "We found signs of a polar bear out there! I kept the one shell for him! I didn't want to be devoured on top of dead!"
"And how did you get back?" Randi kept her words emotionless.
"Tonight the lead in the ice closed. The wind must have changed, and I managed to get back to the shore. Then I came straight back to the camp. All I wanted was to get warm again!"
"That's odd," Randi said. "I was out there tonight, too, and the wind seemed to be holding steady from the north,