Victim in Victoria

by Pamela Kenney

  Phil and Sue freaked out but were outnumbered and out-gunned so in short order, they were handcuffed and being monitored by the muscle men.

  As the officer walked towards me, sitting on my chair, I said, ”You must be Grant Peterson.”

  “Which one of my neighbours has been blabbing?” he asked, a smile breaking out across his weather-beaten face.

  Grant Peterson was a solid man in his fifties, still in good shape but someone who obviously liked a beer at the end of each day. The type you could picture taking a sailboat out with any and all available free time. Weathered, that’s how he looked. Suntanned. Like a nut. With striking blue eyes.

  “You’ll never make me talk.” I smiled, as he bent on one knee to undo the rope around my ankles.

  “I see they didn’t kill you yet.” Grant directed his comment towards my ankle, but I could still see a smile breaking out across his face.

  “No, but they were discussing how to do just that, in the seconds before you arrived.”

  “Phil was?” Grant, looking up with alarm, the smile vanishing from his face.

  “No. But Sue was talking him round.”

  Once the ropes were untied, I pushed myself out of the chair and stood up, feeling pins and needles from the extra tightness of my binds, this time around. Stomping my feet and rubbing my arms, Grant asked, “Still in one piece?”

  “I’ll let you know in a few minutes,” I said, holding out my hand to shake his. “I gotta stop meeting people like this.”

  “Grant Peterson,” he said, sticking his hand out towards me.

  “Meg Spencer, Toronto PD,” I said, out of habit more than anything.

  “You’re a long way from home, Meg Spencer.”

  “Well I forgot to mention that I’m retired.”

  Grant’s eyebrows rose and he nodded, smiling with admiration.

  “Good for you. Best to get out while you’re still young enough to enjoy it.”

  “Exactly.” I smiled, glad to find a kindred spirit.

  “So what are you doing messed up with this?”

  I rolled my eyes and said, “I found a dead body this morning at my hotel in Victoria, and my curiosity got the better of me.”

  “Isn’t that always the way.” Grant nodded with understanding.

  “So how did you find me here anyway?”

  “Well I got a frantic call from a certain Liam Perkins in Victoria. Seems he was having a phone conversation with you that ended rather abruptly and he was concerned. Said you were here in Landsend looking for Phil Harris and possibly his girlfriend, Sue Price. So I decided to check out some of Phil’s favourite hangouts. As I was getting close to this place, I heard you screaming rather loudly.”

  I nodded and smiled. “I’m so glad you did.”

  “Are you injured? Did they hurt you?”

  “Just my pride. With the two of them, they were able to overpower me and tie me up. It was frustrating more than anything.”

  “But they were planning …”

  “Oh yeah,” I interrupted, rubbing my arms to get rid of the sudden chill gripping my body. “They were planning to do me in. Well she was for sure. You’re the one with the gun, so I think you need to be the person who deals with her from now on.”

  “No problem. I’ll do that. So what now? These two both have to go back to Victoria?”

  “Yes. But not together in the same car. Do you have a sergeant or deputy or are you a one-man band?”

  “The latter. With one cop car to my name.” Grant rubbed his chin, looking at me with one eyebrow raised.

  “Well, I do have to drive back to Victoria,” I said.

  “And you probably have a big empty back seat,” Grant mused.

  “How many rules and regulations will I be breaking if I do this?”

  “I won’t tell if you don’t.”

  “Okay, I’ll take Phil. He seems like the less lethal one. Do you have more than one set of handcuffs?”

  “Yes,” he said, handing over a pair. “But only one gun. Are you going to be all right?”

  We looked over at Phil, being guarded by one of the sailors, crying his eyes out.

  “I think I’ll be okay,” I said.

  “Okay great,” Grant said. “Then I’ll get one of the guys to drive you back to your car. Where’s it parked?”

  “Over near town hall.”

  “Good. So I’ll follow along behind in the cruiser. Then I’ll follow your car into Victoria.”

  “Sounds like a plan.”

  Fifteen minutes later, I was walking Phil over to my car and couldn’t help feeling some excitement. With more than an hour’s drive back to Victoria, maybe I could get this whole thing solved before I got back to the hotel. That would be a great start to my holiday. A sense of accomplishment and all my questions answered. It would be great, knowing what happened. Solving the crime. My curiosity quenched.

  “Okay, I’ll follow you,” Grant said, standing by his car, with a screaming and cursing Sue, kicking away inside.

  “You might need earplugs,” I said.

  “Trust me, I can tune them right out.”

  I unlocked my car and slid into the driver’s seat.

  Chapter Ten

  I didn’t even get a chance to do up my seatbelt before Phil started talking.

  Maybe things were looking up, I thought, maybe I’ll get a confession out of him before we even reach the city limits.

  “What am I going to do?” Phil wailed.

  “The judge will go easier on you if you just confess,” I said. “Judges like people who admit to their crimes. Trust me.”

  In the rear view mirror, I could see Phil look confused for a moment before he said, ”No. I mean, what am I going to do about Sue? Should we break up?”

  “Ummm,” I started to speak, startled by his thought process, before he rushed ahead, yapping away again.

  “Because she’s a great girl. I’ve been waiting my whole life for a girl like that, you know?”

  “Really?”

  “We have so much in common. Sure, we work together and that’s often hard on a relationship, isn’t it? But we’re in sync about so many things. She likes swing dancing. I like swing dancing. She likes corn dogs at the fair.”

  “Listen…”

  “But what am I going to do? I mean she’s sweet and kind and wonderful. I want to have a million kids with her. But should a woman with murderous tendencies really be a mother? Cause I mean she was really going to kill you back there, wasn’t she?”

  “I …”

  “And once someone has murderous tendencies, those can never go away, can they? I mean any kind of stress and there they are, popping up again, kill, kill, kill, am I right? Have you ever seen a case where someone who acted like that could change? Is it possible for someone to stop thinking like a killer just because they have kids? I mean having kids probably makes the murderous tendencies more intense, right?”

  “The…” I said, stopping myself before he got a chance to interrupt me again. But then I realized all was silent in the car. I looked in the rear view mirror at Phil who was gazing expectantly in my direction, waiting for my words of wisdom. “The thing is that these questions are for another time and place, Phil. What you need to do now is concentrate on telling me what happened at the hotel.”

  “But this is really important. In all your years of experience has anyone ever changed their murderous instincts?”

  “No,” I said, telling the truth, which was more than Phil could handle.

  “Really? Never? Surely some people can change? I mean if they really want to. If they have enough incentive. Like if they’re madly in love, for example. Do you think?”

  I groaned inwardly and focussed on the road. Why do I always get the philosophical ones? All I wanted to know was who killed the guy. That’s it. That’s all. Not a lot to ask. Pretty straight forward.

  But no, instead I get clobbered on the head,
threatened with death and now I’m supposed to be dear Abby or something. And I’m retired. Not five days ago, I gave up crime fighting forever. I swore to everyone within hearing distance that I would never be in this situation ever again. And yet here I was, stuck in it, up to my neck. Again.

  There’s a reason they say curiosity killed the cat, I thought, looking in the rear view mirror, checking to see if Phil was still blabbering away back there. I was not disappointed.

  If I could just control my curiosity, all of my problems would disappear. I wouldn’t feel the need to know all the answers. I wouldn’t feel the need to fight injustice. I could just go about my days in search of leisure and relaxation. Eating bonbons and getting manicures and sleeping till noon.

  And I CAN be that person, I swear. Dammit it’s worth a try. I’m going to become a useless drag on society.

  The first step in my brand new life was to drop this turkey off at the hotel and then go sightseeing. I’m going to walk around the Empress Hotel like a gazillion other tourists then I’m going to see some damn whales, I thought angrily, hitting the steering wheel for emphasis. My new life was starting now.

  Stomping my foot on the gas, I swerved into the other lane to accelerate past someone.

  Chapter Eleven

  It wasn’t until we were back in downtown Victoria that I started to tune in again to what Phil was saying. He’d kept up a continuous stream of consciousness, waxing poetic about his relationship, for the entire journey. But we were only a few blocks away from the hotel and I needed answers. Now.

  “I mean I know I’m only 23 years old and my mother says there are other fish in the sea but I think that Sue really completes me, you know? It’s so hard to find a girl who understands what I do for a living. She even knows how to crack a safe. Can you believe that? She’s a real find. My mother just doesn’t understand.”

  “Shut up,” I said, in a normal tone of voice.

  “Not that I would want to raise a whole crew of safe crackers but you know maybe we could move into a whole new field, like …”

  “I don’t give a crap! Just shut up and tell me who killed Jimmy!”

  My screams reverberated around the small interior of the rental car quite effectively. Looking in the rear view, I could see Phil back there in stunned silence.

  “You know, Jimmy Butzen. Your partner in crime. The guy who was supposed to be your friend. Although how you considered yourself his friend, when you stole his girl, is beyond me.”

  I could see Phil’s face turning red.

  “You remember Jimmy Butzen? He’s dead. You know. Dead.”

  “Yeah I know.”

  “So what the hell happened, Phil? Did you two have an argument?”

  “No.”

  “Did he want to keep the loot for himself?”

  “No.”

  “Was he mad about Sue?”

  “No. Well, I mean, yes. But that was months ago. He’d gotten over it.”

  “How special. So what the hell happened then?”

  “I have no idea. Everything started out all right but then it went nuts. Stan and Sue let us know it was a good night for us to visit. So Stan kept watch at the front desk while Sue kept a lookout in the lobby downstairs. Then Jimmy did the rooms in the east hallway while I stood watch at the top of the stairs. When he was done, I started to do the rooms in the west hallway while he was supposed to watch. Only, after I did one room, I came out and couldn’t see Jimmy anywhere. So I went back to the lobby and looked around. There was no sign of him. I went downstairs and couldn’t find Sue or Stan anywhere.

  “By this time it was getting light out and I didn’t want to stick around anymore. So I went outside, looking for them but couldn’t find anybody. Then as I was walking along, I heard someone yell, ‘All I want is a crime free life!’ which I figured was my cue to get the hell out of there. I took off running and got in my car.”

  Great, I thought, this was just getting more and more convoluted.

  I pressed my foot on the gas and was happy to see the roofline of the hotel appearing further down the block.

  Chapter Twelve

  I slid my car into a parking space and shut it off. Taking a deep breath, I tried to centre myself and have a moment of calm before I got out of the vehicle. Thankfully Phil was quiet for a moment too, sitting in the back seat staring up with apprehension at the hotel, looming above us. With that expression on his face, he looked like a teenager again, complete with zits.

  “Right,” I said, then pushed open the door and went around to the passenger side.

  Before I could open Phil’s door, I saw Grant drive into the parking lot, looking around for a space. I nodded at him in response to his small wave then pulled open the car door.

  Since Phil’s left wrist was handcuffed to the door handle, I fished around in my pocket for the key. Phil was in another world, gazing over to where Sue was sitting in the other car.

  “Do you think Sue…?” Phil started to say something but petered off and was soon lost in thought again.

  “All right, out,” I said, unlocking the handcuffs from the door handle, then after allowing him barely enough room to get out of the car, I spun him around and cuffed his wrists together behind his back.

  On the other side of the lot, I could see Grant going through the same procedure, only he was having a little more difficulty than I was, what with Sue trying to wrench her arms free and make a run for it.

  “I love you, Phil!” she bellowed across the parking lot.

  Those words wrenched Phil out of his reverie but when he opened his mouth to respond, only a couple words petered out.

  “I love …”

  “Don’t say anything, Phil. Just be cool,” Sue screamed before Grant decided to put her back in the car again, until we were in the hotel.

  In the sudden quiet, I could tell that Phil was even more dejected than before. At that moment, I felt pity for the guy. He fell in love with the wrong woman and his life was going downhill fast.

  But it’s moments like these that police long for. A time when the criminal is vulnerable and more likely to spill the beans by confessing and/or ratting out one of his colleagues. So there was no way I was going to squander this opportunity, no matter how badly I felt for him.

  “Phil,” I said quietly, leading him towards the hotel. “When did you and Sue start going out?”

  “Three months ago,” Phil said, a wistful smile on his face, remembering all the good times.

  “So she broke up with Jimmy when?”

  “Four months ago, I think. They’d had a big fight. And Sue and I got talking. She said she wanted to be with a good guy for a change.”

  Phil smiled at the memory as I slowed our pace, almost to the long staircase that led up to the front door of the hotel.

  “So Sue never wanted anything else with do with Jimmy at that point?”

  “No, she hated his guts.”

  “She hated his guts? Oh come on, she didn’t hate his guts.”

  “Yeah she did. She told me all the nasty ways he treated her.”

  “Like what?”

  “He slept around on her. He’d never call. He was a total asshole to her.”

  “So you’re saying she couldn’t care less if he lived or died?”

  “Definitely,” Phil said, arriving at the top of the stairs where he turned to me, a strange look on his face, like he dreaded what I was about to say. Like I was going to confirm a nagging doubt he’d always had at the back of his mind.

  “So why did she start bawling her eyes out when she found him dead?”

  “No, she wouldn’t,” Phil searched my face to see if I was lying, dismayed to see I wasn’t. “She despised everything about him. She told me so.”

  I leaned against the front door, making sure it stayed shut. I didn’t want anyone interrupting me.

  “Phil, she was bawling her eyes out. She said she’d always love him. Said she couldn’t liv
e without him. We had to tear her off of him.”

  Tears welled up in Phil’s eyes as his face contorted with rage. To be screwed over by the woman he loved. To be used by the love of his life while all the time, behind his back, they were going at it, making fun of him. His fury reached a fever pitch just as Sue and Grant came around the corner of the building, heading for the staircase.

  “How could you do that to me?” Phil screamed down the staircase at Sue.

  Screeching to a halt, Sue looked up at the rage in Phil’s face and tried to retreat back around the building.

  “Were you still sleeping with Jimmy?”

  Apparently the guilty look on Sue’s face was all the confirmation that Phil needed.

  “Why? Why would you do that? After all he did to you? He treated you like shit and you still went back for more?”

  “Babe, it’s not like that. Listen to me…”

  “Shut up! All I ever tried to do was love you and protect you and this is what you do to me? What the hell is wrong with you?”

  Suddenly Phil turned to face me and started talking a mile a minute.

  “Sue is the one who wanted to rob every room in the hotel. We’d only ever robbed one or two rooms in the past but she wanted to steal as much as she could from every room last night, then get out of town. She hated it here. She said we were going to run away together.”

  “Shut up, Phil,” Sue screamed up the staircase. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

  “I know exactly what I’m talking about. She convinced me that we needed Jimmy in order to get it all done in one night. She said we couldn’t do this without him.”

  “Shut your stupid mouth, Phil. The more you talk, the more you sink the both of us.”

  “Oh and don’t forget Stan. He was helping us too.”

  At that point, Sue just started screaming and screaming, hoping the noise would drown out the sound of Phil’s voice. But when Phil continued talking, Sue interrupted him, raging at him.

  “Why in hell would I want to run away with you? When you can’t even keep your mouth shut for one stupid second. What the hell is wrong with you, Phil? And you wonder why I would still see Jimmy? I’ll tell you why. Because he was a man, Phil. A real man. That’s something you’ll never be. Never. You make me sick. I hate you. You’re a scumbag. I hope you rot in hell.”