The Frailty of Flesh (24 page)

Zidani leaned back in his chair. Craig had no idea what he was thinking, but he really didn’t care. The more he thought about the case, the more he wondered what he was caught in the middle of. The department could have settled quietly right away if they’d been worried about their image, but the lawsuit was already in the papers. The damage was done.

Settling now would be an admission of guilt. As Craig looked at Zidani, he wondered if that was the point. Bicknell was retired, already on a pension, and the department would cover the suit. If this was a witch hunt, it wasn’t about him. They couldn’t really hurt him now.

He’d pinned Zidani between his own rock and hard place. Almost as though Zidani knew what he was thinking, he nodded.

“You’ll leave in the morning?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll be in the interior for one night, two at the most?”

Craig nodded as he reached for the door handle.

“Just remember something, Nolan. A lot of people are watching you.”

“That’s good.”

“Why’s that?”

“They’ll know I’ve been thorough and honest.” He opened the door and then paused and looked at Zidani. “You want to know why I never minded working for my father? I never needed to hide anything from him. Even my mistakes.”

Craig walked out of the office before Zidani had a chance to say anything else. He’d baited Zidani and done it without playing the one card he was still holding back.

Smythe pointed a finger at Tain. “I’m telling you, this is a waste of time and an unnecessary strain on my clients.”

“And if someone really did kidnap Shannon Reimer and we do nothing to pursue this, you’ll file another multimillion dollar suit against the RCMP for negligence.”

After Ashlyn had left, Tain had sent someone to get him a sandwich and a newspaper. The pressure his partner had been under and the reason Craig wasn’t available to help on their case was starting to become clear, and he felt a pang of guilt for being so hard on her.

“Look, I understand all the blue wall crap, how you cops look after your own, but my client is innocent. And that has nothing to do with this case.”

“Just because the kidnappers haven’t phoned back yet doesn’t mean they won’t. Right now our top priority is finding Shannon Reimer. Preferably alive and well. If we have to babysit this phone until the New Year that’s what we’ll do.”

“Suit yourself. At least that bitch left.”

Tain grabbed Smythe’s arm as he turned away. “Don’t you ever speak about my partner that way.”

The lawyer wrenched his arm free. “Or what? I’ll get another beating? You just keep her the hell away from me.”

Smythe hobbled over to his desk, and Mrs. Reimer ran in from the other room, Mr. Reimer behind her.

“How much longer do we have to put up with this?” said Richard Reimer, pointing a finger at Smythe.

“Look, I don’t like it, but the cops have a job to do.”

“I can’t take much more of this!” There wasn’t just a lone, quiet note of hysteria in Tracy Reimer’s voice: There was a full orchestra performing.

Tain took one look at them and made a decision. He slipped into the other room and gently nudged the door shut. Christopher was still sitting on the floor in the corner, slumped against the wall.

“Can I get you anything?”

Christopher snorted, but didn’t look up.

“Come on. You must be hungry.” Tain looked at his watch. “It’s almost time for dinner.”

No response. Christopher’s tousled hair framed a pale face with a hard edge to it. He didn’t fidget, didn’t look around trying to make sense of what was going on. Suddenly, sitting in the corner made sense to Tain. Christopher was in control of his world, he could see everything coming at him. That gave him a sense of security and empowerment. Although the logic was flawed Tain could understand why the boy would embrace it.

“We know Shannon didn’t kill Jeffrey.”

Christopher’s head snapped up then. After staring at Tain for a minute his mouth formed a hard line.

“Don’t you want to help us find her?” Tain asked.

“If you know so much why haven’t you found her already?”

“We’re working on it.”

Christopher leaned his head back against the wall and stared up at Tain. “Haven’t you heard? She’s been kidnapped. What the fuck do I know about that?”

The boy’s lip curled and he looked away.

“You sure I can’t get you a burger, tacos, anything?” Too late. He heard the sound of the door opening and footsteps behind him, even as he said the words.

“We’ll look after him. You leave him alone!”

Richard Reimer had his hand on his wife’s back and was pushing her toward the couch. He glanced at his son, then looked at Tain. “Get out.”

Tain glanced at Christopher. The boy never flinched or smiled. His expression was set in stone. As Tain walked through the doorway he took one look back and saw no indication that Christopher was even aware his parents had returned. He had disconnected himself from the world around him.

CHAPTER TEN

First they’d been held back by the family, unable to get straight answers or assistance that might help them find Shannon. Then police incompetence had been a contributing factor, prolonging a search that should have been over within hours instead of dragging on for days.

Most avenues of investigation had been stalled by the weekend. What limited information they did have from the parents, including the name of Christopher’s school and the day care Jeffrey attended, had done them little good. They’d been set on the back burner, something to follow up on Monday.

Now most of Monday was gone. Only a few hours remained of the day, and it was far too late to talk to school staff. The alleged kidnapping was either the breakthrough they needed or a threat that could derail the entire investigation.

If Ashlyn believed it was a legitimate possibility…

That was the root of the problem. She was beginning to wonder if Byron Smythe was smarter than she gave him credit for. He’d turned over an address book, so smudged and manhandled that they couldn’t get any useful prints off it. The only thing it contained that seemed helpful was the billing information for Shannon’s cell phone.

And they’d begun monitoring her calls.

Maybe Smythe had figured Ashlyn would do that herself. That providing one small piece of useful information would stall the investigation from the outset. And when it failed to keep them from questioning the neighbors they had to come up with another plan. Another way to stretch the police to their limits.

What better way than to have an alleged call from someone claiming they’d kidnapped Shannon Reimer?

And Richard Reimer had handed over a pay-and-talk cell number. No chance they’d accidentally monitor a call with a business associate or stumble across an address book in his phone. They couldn’t even trace the alleged call from the kidnappers.

Part of her understood why Zidani wasn’t pushing the family hard. And part of her wondered if they’d painted themselves into a corner and if it was already too late to come through this clean.

“The guy over there bought this for you.”

Ashlyn looked up at the guy who’d brought her the drink. “He should have saved his money.”

The waiter—who she judged to be a few years younger, probably a Simon Fraser University student working his way through a degree—gave her a wry smile. “I’ll be sure to tell him you said so.”

He turned to take the drink to the man, but Ashlyn’s would-be companion had gotten up and walked toward them. He took the drink from the waiter, who looked at Ashlyn. She lifted her hand just enough to signal him to hold back as the man sat down at the table and pushed the drink toward her.

She pushed it back, and he moved his hand to stop her. When he struck the glass some of the alcohol spilled over on Ashlyn’s hand.

“I’m just leaving.” She grabbed a napkin to mop up the booze, then pushed her drink aside. Before she had a chance to say anything else, he grabbed her arm.

“Aw, c’mon darlin’. What’s the rush? We’re just getting to know each other.”

“If you don’t let go of me, you’ll get more than you bargained for.”

The waiter hadn’t left, and Ashlyn figured he was hovering between calling security and trying to play hero himself. She twisted her arm around to free it from the man’s grasp, grabbed his wrist and pulled it behind his back as she stood up and pushed him toward the table.

“We never got to introduce ourselves.” She pulled out her ID and held it in front of him. “You can call me Constable Hart.”

Ashlyn let go of him. He was your average guy, dark hair cut short, maybe an extra twenty pounds that wasn’t all muscle, and his face was flushed. She smiled at the waiter, put some money on the table and walked outside. It was a cold night with a clear sky, and Ashlyn pulled her jacket around herself. Her breath warmed her hands. After fiddling with the radio for a moment she pushed in a CD. Springsteen’s
Tunnel of Love.

How could so much change in such a short time? All she wanted to do was go home, soak in a hot bath and go to bed, but that wasn’t an option. Too many things were left unsettled between her and Craig, and she knew maintaining the stalemate would only make it harder to work them through.

But she also knew that the root of their issues remained elusive, just beyond her ability to grasp. The misunderstandings had exposed mistrust, and that made her uncomfortable. Her working relationship with Craig had forged a strong bond between them. He’d proven himself to her through the job, and it hadn’t been until after the case where she first worked plain-clothes, the case where she first met Tain and Craig, that she realized just how much she’d come to depend on Craig.

She’d thought it would be hard to find her feet on a big investigation, working with other officers who had more experience. Instead, what had been brutal was when it ended and they’d all been reassigned. Tain had been disciplined and they’d both been transferred out to different detachments, and she had felt the loss of her partners deeply. She’d relied on them more than she’d admitted to herself at the time, and had to learn to stand on her own in her new assignment.

And then they’d all been transferred to the Tri-Cities and ended up working together again.

It wasn’t as simple for her and Craig now that they weren’t just colleagues. Their relationship made what happened to them on the job more personal. She couldn’t be objective about his assignment or his willingness to investigate his own father. The doubts and concerns she had would have been the same for any other cop, but it was hard to extract the emotion when the person you were worried about was someone you loved.

There was no perfect situation waiting for her at home. A cold fear was barely being held at bay waiting to be unleashed if Craig wasn’t at the house. She didn’t know what that would mean for them, and she didn’t think she had the strength to look for him. Another part of her was tired and hoped he’d be asleep so that they wouldn’t have to fight. With all the tension between herself and Zidani over the past few months, and the spats between herself and Tain over the last few days, she was desperate to sort things out.

The problem was, she knew she couldn’t fix things on her own.

When she pulled in the driveway she could see dim lights on inside. She knew as soon as she opened the door that Craig was there, because she could smell the food.

He came into the hall as she slid off her coat. “You came home.”

She opened the closet and reached for a hanger. “Zidani has a second shift monitoring the kidnapping angle.”

His voice was quiet. “That wasn’t what I meant.”

Ashlyn pulled her shoe off and dropped it on the closet floor, but said nothing.

Craig exhaled. “It’s pretty late.”

“You know this is a crazy case.” She dropped the other shoe and slid the closet door shut, still not trusting herself to look at him.

“Tain called here looking for you hours ago.”

Her head snapped up then. “Why? Did he have a lead?” She reached in her bag for her cell phone. It was still on, fully charged. “You could have called me.”

“So it’s my fault that I didn’t know where you were and you didn’t call to tell me?”

“We’re not going to get anywhere blaming each other.”

“Then why don’t you tell me where you were?”

“I needed some time to clear my head before I came home.”

“Why?”

“Because of this. I knew if you were here we’d end up having another argument.”

“If I was here? Where else would I be?” He disappeared into the kitchen, and she walked down the hall.

“You didn’t come home the other night.”

Craig poked a fork in the contents of a pot and turned off the burner. “So that’s your excuse to justify doing whatever you want now?”

“Where’d you go?”

Part of her dreaded what he’d say. It wasn’t even the question that was weighing on her mind, but she couldn’t ask that one. She wasn’t sure she could bear to face the answer.

“You first,” he said.

“I needed to clear my head.”

“Yeah, I can smell how you cleared it from here.”

Ashlyn felt her cheeks burn as she glared at him. “I wasn’t drinking. And you’re one to talk.” There was a half-empty bottle of wine on the counter.

“Sure, you smell like a brewery, but you never touched a drop.”

“Craig, look.” There was a knock at the door, but she ignored it. “I know you were upset—”

“Upset?” He pushed his way past her, moved down the hall and opened the door, but didn’t stop to greet their guest. Craig turned around and walked back to the kitchen. “Upset would be a bit of an understatement, Ash. Don’t you think I had the right to be angry?”

Tain shut the door. From where Ashlyn stood in the hallway, outside the entrance to the kitchen, she could see both of them, depending on which way she turned. She faced her work partner. “Did something come up on the case?”

“Craig called.” Tain glanced at the entry to the kitchen. “You hadn’t come home and he was worried.”

She turned to look at Craig. He was leaning against the counter, fingers within reach of a wineglass. “You call around checking up on me, but don’t even try my cell phone? I don’t believe this.”

“Well, at least I cared enough to phone. Now you want to know where I went the other night, but you didn’t call me then, did you?”

“You left your cell phone here. How the hell was I supposed to call you? Don’t you dare turn this around as though it’s my fault.”

“No, it’s all my fault, isn’t it? I’m late and I think you’ve gone home, but because I talk to that reporter I must have been up to something.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You want to know what bothered me most? Do you? When you came home you didn’t even come looking for me. You went straight to the living room, back to your case files.”

“You’ve never been distracted by a case? And you know this is personal. There’s a lawsuit against my dad over this investigation.”

“Which is exactly why you shouldn’t even be involved with it. The way you were talking made it sound like you were convinced your dad did something wrong. You’re way too close to this to be objective. Can’t you see what you’re doing? You’ve been on light duty for months because the bosses thought you let your feelings cloud your judgment and you’re proving them right.”

“Zidani’s the one who ordered me to investigate. You think anyone else cares about finding the truth? If my dad did something wrong, I’ll be the first to stand up and say so.”

“And you’ll be back on the streets while his career is ruined.”

“If that happens, he did it to himself. It isn’t my fault. Besides, I may have evidence that will help dig him out of this mess.”

“And people will really trust that. ‘Steve Daly accused of wrongdoing, but don’t worry, his son says he’s clean.’ How can you honestly think anyone will take you seriously? You’re only making things worse.”

“No. I haven’t done anything. Whatever happened on this case, it had nothing to do with me. All I’m doing is making sure it was done right. If something bad comes out of it, it’s on Dad, it’s on his partner, and it’s on the department.”

“And what about your dad? What if you’re right, and you get the proof that he’s innocent. You think he’s going to just pat you on the back and say he knew you were just doing your job?” she said. “You doubt him. Can’t you imagine what it would be like to have a son doubt you, how much it would hurt? Hasn’t he earned your trust and your support?” Ashlyn paused. When Craig remained silent she continued. “You accused Zidani of being after his job months ago, and now he hands you a knife to stick in your own father’s back and you’re willing to do it?”

“You don’t understand.”

“You’re right about that. I don’t.”

Craig grabbed the wineglass, drained it, and put it back on the counter. “There’s chicken in the oven.” He started down the hall, toward the stairs. “I have to pack.”

The cold fear inside her spread through her body. “Wait—”

He stopped and looked at her. There was a hardness in his eyes she hadn’t seen before. “I have to go to Kelowna to question somebody. I leave in the morning.”

His footsteps were heavy on the stairs. Once she heard the bedroom door shut she looked at Tain and choked down the lump in her throat. “I’m sorry.”

“I’ll go. Let you two talk.”

“No.” She put up her hand to stop him. “Have you eaten?”

He shook his head. Ashlyn walked down the hall to the dining room and turned on the light. She stopped cold.

The table was covered with the crime-scene photos and files. She took a step forward and looked at one of the pictures. Hope Harrington’s body, beaten so badly what little skin was left untouched was covered in blood. Her stomach twisted violently and she stood still, willing the nausea to pass.

“Ash—”

She covered her mouth and ran to the bathroom. There was so little in her stomach that it wasn’t long before she was sure the worst was over, but she still shook a bit as she stood. Once she rinsed her mouth, she flushed the toilet and opened the door.