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Feb 28, 2024

True Detective: Shadow Land

Chapter 1: Welcome To Hard Times

(After True Detective: Night Country) Chief Elizabeth Danvers finds herself going back to revisit some old demons when missing Inapiut children go missing that tears the town of Ennis, Alaska apart. An unofficial sequel story following Liz Danvers and Evangeline Navarro aka my pitch for season 5 with them.

A/N: I'm a very big fan of Moby's music so hearing "This Wild Darkness" in episode 4 was like watching your team win the Superbowl

August 2, 2024

It had been several months since Danvers had last heard Holden’s voice beneath the ice. She had thought she was finally able to move on from him. She thought she was at peace. No nightmares since that surreal night at Tsalal station. Every once in a while she would have visions of Clark’s frozen body out on the snow. Tonight was different. Her dreams would be about Evangeline now. She hasn't seen her since April when Liz disappeared after she said goodbye at Liz's lake house. Tonight's dream was of Evangeline and Holden together, it was sweet, they were smiling together. Just the three of them in the dream. No one was hurting them.

Liz woke up to the daylight shining through the floor to ceiling windows, squinting her eyes hoping to see Navarro on the porch. Nothing. She picked up her phone checking to see if she got anything from her. She couldn't stop thinking about them. What they were. It was more than friendship. Liz couldn't help but admit inside she missed her greatly, that she wished she knew where she was. Would Navarro even want to be found? Liz didn't want to jump to the thought that she could be dead somewhere. Navarro could hold her own. She knew that.

“I can't come back to Ennis.”

Those words shook Liz to her core, but she understood why. The town was a fever dream. People will disappear and it will be considered normal.

Liz got dressed in her weather appropriate clothes that were not her uniform this time. Black jeans and a canvas black jacket. Although it was going into fall, she hadn't been able to see her for the majority of the summer. The blonde dialed up her number once again waiting for someone to talk on the other end.

“The number you have reached has been disconnected-”

“Fuck!” Liz slammed her phone down and chugged down the last of the coffee in her mug and thought about everything related to the younger woman that had happened. She couldn't bear to think about the night at Tsalal without breaking down in tears about it. She felt stupid for having emotion at 7 in the morning. She thought about going to look for her. Holden's bear. Shit that's right she left the bear at her house. As Liz sped down the terrible roads, she thought about the conversation with Navarro the last time they spoke at the lakehouse. How they both looked at each other with tears in their eyes. Danvers cried herself to sleep that night, holding a pillow like it was her partner's body. The next day she continued her job at the station like nothing had happened. She shoved it all the way in the back of her memory where she wouldn’t be able to think about it for awhile, until the next time she had a mental breakdown in the kitchen, in the breakroom when no one else was around. Evangeline left one written note. A few lines about how she cares about her and that she hopes she’ll be okay, and that it’s okay to be not okay.

“You know where to find me.”

***

The crisp air hit Liz’s face as she exited the suv, she found that the door was once again unlocked. Nothing had changed. She hasn't visited in at least a month. Liz had come to accept that her partner would never come back. This morning it looked like her view would continue down that path.

Liz felt another ache in her heart as she went back home to start her day. She swore to herself she wouldn't cry again about her unless her body was found.

She managed to push down her feelings once again by ignoring all those thoughts, she's been doing what Evangeline told her to do in the letter. Go to therapy, but Liz hasn't been very truthful to the therapist either. She'd mostly try to only talk about Leah as if Navarro never existed. Nothing has helped with forgetting her for the most part. She's alone all the time except for when Leah will come home late at night, usually past 12.

***

Liz closed the door behind her only to feel someone's hot breath on the back of her head. She didn't dare to turn around.

“Don't scream.” The figure said.

Liz could recognize that voice from a mile away. She couldn't bear to let it out now but her voice cracked. “Let me see you.”

“Turn around Liz.”.

Liz turned around. The woman she mourned was standing in her living room. They looked into each other's souls. For a moment Liz swore she could feel her body get warmer.

Evangeline began to speak. “You forgot I'm a lockpicker-”

Liz slapped her. She didn't know why, but it felt right. Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes. She observed the younger woman's face. She looked like she hasn't slept in a long time, like she's spent her night staying up focusing on something she cannot control. Liz stared at her in disbelief.

“The fuck is wrong with you! You can't even wake me up to say goodbye? Instead you- left me a note- I searched for your ass for months!” She yelled not caring if she spat.

“I know you have-”

“Oh? So you've been spying on me too? I thought you were dead! That it had been that long since anyone saw you and that you were out on the ice somewhere. I fucking mourned for you! I didn't know if you were hurt…if you were struggling, if you were- fuck!” She ran a hand through her hair. Her lips trembled with pain.

Navarro took note and lowered her head. “I know you went to my house today. I've been watching you since I left basically. I only came back because someone asked for my help, and that's why I'm here-...”

Liz went to the kitchen and popped some vitamins while she was listening until there was silence. “What? They're vitamins. I'm an old fart, if I want to keep movin’ I gotta take these.”

“I know. Which by the way, watching you try to put on your shoes is entertaining as shit.”

“Fuck you…oh Jesus you didn't see me during bedtime did ya?”

“No, I looked the other way. Anyways I'm here because I need your help on this case with the Inupiat. This cannot be involved with Prior and everyone at the station. Just us.”

“Oh fucking hell- you come back here and expect me to join you after this shit?” Liz shook her head.

“I didn't. The women do. The children are missing, Liz.”

“Then why don't they call us?”

“They don't trust y'all to help, except you. Only because you were with me and gave the autopsy info to them.”

Navarro walked to her and reached for her hand but Liz pulled away quickly.

“Liz I-”

“No…no. Not after this…” Liz wiped her eyes. “Some nights you're here with me, and we would talk. I actually hated myself for how I treated you.”

“I thought about you. All the time. I haven't stopped thinking about you, Liz. Trust me, I did. I still hold on to what happened at Tsalal.” Her voice cracked too. “I felt you slip away from me-”

“Shut up. Stop it…” Liz put on her utility belt and walked out the door. “Get in the car and drive me wherever.”

***

“You…have you been sleeping?” Liz turned to face her, looking at the black eye that was fading away. “Who hit you? I'll kill em.” Before Liz could think about what she was going to say, she spat it out.

Navarro glanced at her and sighed. Liz hasn't been this attentive in forever. Especially threatening a nonexisting perpetrator. That was new. “I got hit by a fucking tree branch, and no, I haven't.”

“You shouldn't be driving.”

“I'm fine.” She got uncomfortable quickly. “So, who was that woman parked out of your house on Monday? Nice looking woman, quite young right?”

“Jesus Christ Navarro. That's my cousin, and she's in her 50s.”

“Oh. Well I was curious because it was weird that you closed the curtains.” She assumed the hotness ran in her family.

“Why were you spying on me in the first place?

“Long story but short story is I was making sure you were okay.”

“Uh huh.”

Liz leaned her head against the seatbelt strap and thought about what Navarro could have seen at her house.

“It's been several months. How's dating? I mean we know you've fucked every guy in town so I don't know who else is left unless Ms Danvers is into women-”

“Can we just not talk? I haven't seen anyone since before Tsalal. Now shut it.”

“That's surprising.”

“What part of shut it do you not get?”

“Hey I'm just trying to ease back into conversations. I don't care about what sex you date Liz…I just, really fucking missed you and I didn't have a choice about a lot of things. I missed a lot of things…we’re here.”

***

As they stood at the doorstep Navarro leaned towards her. Liz was taken aback until she realized she was fixing her shirt under the jacket. Navarro toyed with the zipper and held Liz by the biceps.

“What are you doing?”

“You're skinny. You need to eat more.”

Liz scoffed and released from her grasp. “Sorry I wasn't eating because I was scared shitless about you. Thinking my friend was dead!”

Navarro crossed her arms acting like she was trying to assert dominance. “You haven't changed one bit since Tsalal. A woman in this field needs to be built for the job.”

“You should've told that to Connelly when he was still working there ya know?”

“We're not talking about him-”

The door opened in front of them. Liz ran her hand through her hair again and straightened her back. Liz changed almost completely since Tsalal. Peter would say she was extremely generous towards the other cops, her sarcasm and bluntness was still there but she thought of others thoroughly and made sure everyone at the station was good to work each day.

“-...” Liz didn't speak. She could already feel the horror through the pain in the woman's eyes.

“Last time we talked I believe it was about an autopsy?”

“That is correct…ma'am.”

She moved out of the way to let them in where her and Navarro sat down in the chairs they were in last time. Liz took off her hat and looked around the room, the same 11 women were there. They had looks on their face full of sadness, confusion, rage. Liz felt their pain, she felt the same sorrow when she lost her baby boy. She gulped and looked at Navarro, who had several small scabbed cuts on her face, hair looked dirty. Liz’s gaze was directed when Sutres Meli knocked on the wood.

“I’m going to be very blunt, white woman. Our children are missing. All of their children are missing. They’re disappearing from us. We don’t know how or why. We want answers, we want them back.”

Liz gulped and took out her small notepad from her pocket with a pen. “I would like to talk to each of the parents.”

“Fine, but we want justice. We want our babies back alive.”

“Ms. Meli, I’ll do what it takes to find them-”

“Alive.”

Liz nodded and Sutres removed herself from the seat. Each woman would sit across from her at the table where they each gave their name, name of the kid, where they were last seen, when they vanished. Every possible detail of what happened. This went on for about 45 minutes. Most of them broke down into tears as they spoke. When Liz was done Navarro leaned into her ear. “We can’t bring the feds into this.”

Liz was puzzled. “Why?”

“Because everyone outside this house thinks I’m dead.”

“You’re going to return to society if you like it or not, I don’t have time to put up with this.”

“You don’t get to decide that Liz!”

“Cut the shit Navarro! We have 23 missing children! Just in this town! We’ll talk about this later-”

One of the women came up to her. Eyes wetted. Liz changed her attitude. “Where Gavin disappeared, I want you to look at where he last was…”

“Take me.”

***

The woman walked them to the house where Liz got a glimpse of his room, the childhood innocence left behind by sorrow. Liz looked at the walls. The child's paintings from school pinned to a bulletin board.

Liz held it together well being reminded of painting with Holden. She had to stop, to get over him already, he died almost a decade ago and she was still mourning. “A mother’s love for her child never fades.” She ran her fingers over the paper, the constant reminder that Holden was gone and all that was left was his paintings. Liz snapped out of it when the mother gathered her attention to the back shed.

“I asked him to bring in our broken flower pot, we were going to fix it up- After 10 minutes of him not coming back inside, I got worried so I came out here and…he’s gone.”

Navarro looked inside, the pot of dirt shattered on the wooden floor. “Something ain’t right about this Liz.”

“No shit…” She mumbled. Liz observed the wooden floor, rather it being like a weird residue splashed on to it creating an oily finish. Crouching down looking closer at it, a red dot caught the corner of her eye. She looked closer, A dried drop of crimson.”

“Liz…”

Liz’s heart sank. Did this mean anything could be permanent? No. Did it mean something. Yes. In Liz’s eyes this person must’ve been very good at this, has obviously done it before. The sun beated through the clouds and on to her back, starting to get warm and overwhelmed. “You have a UV light on you by any chance?”

“It’s a keychain-”

“That’ll work.”

Liz pressed down on the button and let the ultraviolet light hit the work. Smears of blank residue were on the wood. Liz knew from her years what this was but it was extremely rare since when most people clean up blood it never goes away, but there’s one chemical that can get rid of it entirely. “What is it?” Navarro observed her face.

“Whoever this is…they know what they’re doing. Do you know what this is Ange?”

Evangeline was surprised by that nickname. Liz hadn’t used it since before Eve killed that bastard back when they were on good terms. “No Liz.”

“I’m not 100% sure, but this person almost left no evidence. There’s one chemical that can get rid of what blood leaves behind. The stuff in Lysol, hydrogen peroxide, and no, not straight out of the can, but the unfiltered, pure chemical. You can’t inhale that shit. Nor can you get it at a Walmart. Shit, you need a special license I think, I don't’ know. I think you can only get it by being a chemistry teacher or something.”

“So, time to call everyone?”

Liz gave her a stare. “Yes. I’m calling Prior and you’re going back to my place, you’ll stay hidden if that’s what you really want, but come up with a story fast if you want to come back…I want you to come back. We miss you…” Liz looked away from her and stood up to call the station. “We need everyone on this. 23 children missing, so far. I have a shed I need specialists on.

***

Pete Prior talked to them first. Evangeline decided to make a return to society and came up with a decent story of how she just wanted to disappear. Pete hugged her and had a full reunion. Liz gave a soft smile and talked to the rest of the cops. Connelly was gone thank god. He got fired at the very least. By the time everyone took notes from the families it was dark out and getting cold fast. Liz heard whispers about how Trooper Navarro was back from the dead or some shit like that. Her blonde strands of hair got in her face, she admired Navarro’s presence from afar. Liz stood by herself on the rocks and put her gloves on. “Everyone! This is the biggest case Ennis has seen. We owe it to these people big time. Our respect, their children. They’re good people. I will do whatever it takes to find these children. We all need to work together, but for now we need to get the feds involved. We cannot do this on our own!”

***

Liz walked over to Peter by the pickup truck and patted his back. He had one of those satellite phones that could call anyone anywhere. She always found that cool. “You on the phone with em?”

Pete hung up.

“So this is what you've been up to all day?”

“You got a problem?”

“I'd just appreciate it if you would let me know about this stuff beforehand?”

“I'm sorry, okay?” The corner of Liz's mouth stretched making a guilty face.

Pete sighed. “They’re going to be here next Thursday. For the whole team. A smaller team will be here Sunday.”

“Shit. Well it’s better than nothing. I’m going home. Fucking late, haven’t eaten anything today. Taking Navarro with me. Don’t let anyone know okay?”

“Of course Chief…be safe?”

Liz nodded before walking off. “Goodnight Pete.”

***

The car ride back to Liz’s lake house was silent. Liz couldn't believe everything that was happening. She wasn't built for this anymore. She wants to scream into the sky, to disappear into the night, it was all bringing back old memories. Now that Navarro was back she couldn’t bring herself to say the whole speech she prepared.

When they entered the house Liz took off her jacket and gave Evangeline a look. “You smell. Go take a shower. Your box of clothes is in the spare bedroom, your name's on it. I’ll make dinner.”

Evangeline felt extremely fortunate that someone cared for her this much. “Liz”

She popped open a beer from the fridge and looked up. “What?”

Navarro was going to say something about her drinking but when she saw her soft face with hardened edges, she let it go. “Thank you.”

For the first time in awhile Liz smiled the softest she could. The memories flooded back to them both. “We're friends right? You don't have to thank me.” Liz set down the beer and walked over to the much taller woman. Liz didn't think at the moment and caressed her cheek. “I'm just happy you're really here. That's all that matters in this moment.” She tried not to cry, she’s saving the tears for later. Right now she’s happy.

***

A half hour later Evangeline came out of the shower. Liz changed into some sweats, wanting at least some comfort in the dark hour. She made the burgers on the George Foreman grill and made the burger just how Navarro liked it; spicy ranch and pickles. Finding comfort in making the table made her feel mother-like in a way again. She shook the image of Holden from her head and sat down. Reading the texts on her phone. Peter saying how all of the crime scenes have traces of dried blood left behind. Everything that could come from that would be a horrible assumption.

Elizabeth Danvers: Ok. Get some sleep. Goodnight.

Evangeline came out of the room shortly after. Dressed in the sweat clothes she Left behind at her house from before. Liz looked up and stared at her. Taking off her glasses to get a better look. She looked breathtaking with her hair down, free from dirt and all. The tall woman sits down and digs into the burger. She clearly hasn't eaten real food in a long time.

***

Dinner was a silent fest unfortunately. Just nothing being said. Liz kelt waiting for Evangeline to say something but it was a bust.

After dinner Liz followed Evangeline to the bedroom where she just simply fixed up her bed for the other woman. Liz picked up Holden's polar bear and played with the off white hairs. Liz grew uncomfortable and broke the silence.

“Can I ask a question? Just one…”

“Okay?”

“Did you have anywhere to stay?” She asked in a quiet, soft tone.

“Some dude's place. His place sucked.”

Liz nodded. “Are you hurt?”

“You said one question.”

“Okay I lied.”

“No…but I could use a massage right here?” Evangeline pointed to a part on her back above the shoulder blades. Liz patted the bed so Navarro could sit down while the older one tended to her. Liz pressed her fingers and thumbs deep into the sore areas, she let out whimpers of pain trying to not let them out of her mouth.

Liz gulped and rubbed the space between the collarbone and shoulder blades. Trying not to hurt her too much. Navarro flinched under her fingers with a hiss.

“Want me to stop?”

“Yeah.”

Danvers swung over her legs so she sat directly next to her on the bed. “I'll sleep on the couch tonight-”

“No you don't have to.”

“But I want to. You need lots of sleep, sleep in if you want. It's no use when you're nodding off on an empty stomach and all on a case. I know what that's like.”

“Okay Danvers.”

“You tired of talking to me?”

Evangeline gave her a glare. “Liz, I don't give a shit about that. It's just, I never wanted to die, I wanted to never be heard from again, but when Sutres came to me about it, I just did not want to believe, but I always wanted to come back to you. I can't stop overthinking about this, it has been haunting my sleep”

“Ange it's okay. Get some sleep. Here.” Liz put Holden's bear in her lap and rubbed her back. “He missed you too.”

When Liz left the room, Evangeline cried a little bit about Liz trusting her with the plush. About how Liz was so gentle with her, how she caressed her face. Evangeline liked her quite a lot, she grew on her over their shared time together. Before Wheeler, she truly was a mentor of hers. She knew Liz like the back of her hand. She thought about her dirty blonde strands of her hair, how they rounded her face so nicely, how her eyes crinkle when she smiles. Danvers was an attractive woman, no doubt about that, especially for her age. She was a sarcastic, blunt person and Evangeline was addicted to her attitude. How she presented herself. She took shit from no one. Being attracted to that legal senior was hard work. She soon fell into a deep slumber. She was back at Tsalal where that night would become the event that would haunt her.

"I'm sorry..." The older woman said. Almost a whisper. Her voice destroyed, sounding so hoarse, the pain and guilt finally leaked out.

Navarro held her close. She could feel her cold breath hit her skin. "I got you. I got you. It's okay." She turned her head so her lips were resting on her forehead. She gave Liz a peck and rubbed her back. The sound of her cries blended in with the howl of the wind outside.

***

When Evangeline woke up she heard the sound of splashing outside. The sun leaked through the crack in the curtains, the ray of sunshine hitting her directly in the eye. She pulled herself out of bed wondering what could make that sound. She unlocked the door and opened it. It was very mild out for Alaska, a wind chill for sure, but this time of year was nice. Out of the corner of her eye she saw water splashing from the lake by the end of the dock.

“Danvers!”

She ran to the edge of the dock getting ready to jump in when Liz's head came up from under the water. She had a grin on her face that confused Evangeline. “Were you about to come in and save me?”

“I thought you were drowning!”

Liz chuckled as she swam over to her, lifting herself out of the water and standing herself up on the dock. “Can you hand me my towel?” She asked about, being in some cargo shorts and a sports bra. She caught Evangeline staring at her soaked figure.

Navarro handed her the towel and shook her head. “What the hell are you doing out here?”

“Swimming?”

“That water is freezing. Do you do this everyday or?”

“I started when you left. I found myself afraid of water so my therapist recommended me doing some exercises for getting used to it again.” Liz saw Evangeline wasn't even looking her in the eyes but paying attention to her strong core. Liz dried herself and snapped her fingers. “Hey I'm talking. What? You surprised I'm not a skinny ass anymore?” Evangeline wanted to touch those rippling abs but god only knows what thoughts in her head would pop up later.

“You're still a skinny ass.” She quipped.

Liz rolled her eyes and whipped her on the ass with her towel. “Asshole.”

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