“You said you did some staking. What’s a staker?” I asked.

“A guy drives in stakes.”

“To register a claim.”

“You’re quick, little lady.”

“Seriously quick.”

Tyne pointed two fingers at me. “Once Fipke found his pipe, all hell broke loose. Made the Klondike rush look like a garden party.” Tyne hiccup-laughed again. “’Course, that’s ancient history. Today there’s not a square inch of tundra hasn’t been staked by some bonehead hoping to strike it rich. And the big boys have sucked up every claim worth a spit. Rio Tinto. BHP Billiton. De Beers.”

“What’s a pipe?” I asked.

Tyne’s eyes went flat. “Thought your interest was in Annaliese Ruben.”

“It is,” Ryan said. “Did Annaliese live with Farley?”

“Farley wasn’t the parenting type. Spawned ’em and left ’em, kinda like carp.”

“Annaliese lived with her mother?”

“Micah Ruben. Then she changed it to Micah Lee. Don’t think she ever married. Those two just liked changing up names.”

“Oh?”

“Micah named the kid Alice. At one point she was Alexandra. Then Anastasia. Thought they sounded fancier.”

“What happened to Micah?”

“She was a drinker. Five, seven years back a neighbor found her lying in the snow, a human Popsicle.”

I remembered the DNA. “Was Micah aboriginal?”

“Dene.”

“Farley?”

“Plain old white bread. Farley passed not long after Micah. Two thousand seven, I think.”

“How old was Annaliese?”

Tyne appeared to give that some thought. “I think she’d just started at the high school. What would that make her? Fourteen? Fifteen? ’Course, Annaliese wasn’t the sharpest stick in the bag. She could have been older.”

“How did Farley die?”

“Crashed his Cessna into Lac La Martre. Hunter saw it go down. Searchers found debris, not Farley.” Tyne paused. “I think Annaliese may have been living with her daddy then. Because of Micah being gone.”

“Where was that?” I felt a tickle of excitement.

“Little shithole in Yellowknife.” Tyne wagged his head. “Farley lived month to month. When the deposit was gone, orphan or not, the kid got the boot. Her siblings didn’t reach out, so I let her crash with me for a while. I was living in town then.”

“And?”

“And then she left.”

“To do what?”

Tyne shrugged. “Girl had to survive.”

“Meaning prostitution,” Ryan said.

“I’m only guessing. Based on her ma.”

“Did you try to intervene?” The tickle of excitement was morphing to disgust. “Urge her to stay in school?”

“I’m not kin. I had no say.”

“She was—”

Sensing my hostility, Ryan cut me off. “You say she had siblings.”

“All’s I know about are a half brother and a half sister.” Again the hitchy laugh. “Probably a whole platoon out there. Farley had a way with the ladies.”

Dazzled with the squeeters. I didn’t say it.

“Who was the half brother?”

“A guy named Daryl Beck. Different mother. Beck was a bit older than Al—Annaliese.”