Turning Secrets

by Brenda Chapman

  “Worth a try.”

  Kala straightened. The idea appeared to renew her resolve as Gundersund had intended. She took a step away from him. “I’ll get my jacket. Come, Taiku.”

  The lawn was slick with rain and their flashlights crisscrossed on the ground as the four of them made their way to the lake, led by an eager Taiku. Gundersund had left Minnie inside so as not to distract Taiku. The wind was stronger than it had been when he’d walked up the road to Kala’s house and he heard the waves battering against the beach as he climbed onto the rocky strip of shoreline. Taiku charged ahead and they chased after him, their way hampered by uneven rocks and long shadows piercing through the gloom and mist. Gundersund’s flashlight cut left in time to catch the dog disappearing into the woods. They changed course after him and reached the edge of the brush. Chow took the lead. “Wait here,” he said to Gundersund and Kala. “Come with me, Officer Pagett.”

  He took a few steps into the trees and squatted down while Pagett kept her flashlight pointed on the ground in front of him. “What’s this?” He put on gloves and moved aside a sleeping bag to find a knapsack which he carefully opened. He looked back at their waiting faces. “Someone’s been sleeping rough here. Without jumping to conclusions, it’s a good bet it was the man who got hit by the car.” Chow opened the side pocket of the knapsack and pulled out a wallet. He flipped through it. “Do either of you know a Fisher Dumont?”

  Stonechild let out a cry. “He’s Dawn’s father.” She stumbled back against Gundersund. “He’s been hiding out in our woods and must have made contact. What the hell has he gotten her into?”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  Shawn B. crowded uncomfortably close to Dawn and she made herself as small and still as she could, one hip pressed against the passenger door. She knew who he was because Leo had yelled Shawn’s name to make sure he was in the car before hitting the gas. The guy who Vanessa said wanted to date her.

  Leo clicked the locks down as soon as Shawn slammed the door closed and they sped up Old Front Road. She rocked against Shawn when Leo pulled a sudden U-turn. The car rocketed forward and she thought they’d struck something big from the sound of the thunk, but Leo let out a loud whoop and kept going, only slowing when they reached the turn onto the main road. He swivelled his head around and said to Shawn, “What in the hell was that all about?”

  Shawn punched the back of the passenger seat. He looked daggers at the back of Leo’s head. Dawn heard sarcasm with an undertone of anger when he spoke. “No idea, but I think you took care of the problem.” He shook his head and dropped his voice. “You stupid motherfucker.”

  Leo let out another excited yell. “Woohoo! Are we having fun yet?” The tires squealed on the wet pavement as he braked. He swivelled his head to look at Shawn. “Shit, we were supposed to get her to write a note.”

  “Too late now. Cool it and stick to the plan,” Shawn said. He turned to Dawn. “Hand over your phone.”

  “I don’t …”

  He grabbed her arm and squeezed. “Now.”

  She found it in her pocket and gave it to him without saying anything. He released her arm and fiddled with the phone, opening the back and removing the battery. He lowered the window and tossed it out.

  These last five minutes since Shawn had forced her into the car had a surreal quality, as if she were watching herself from outside her own body. She felt the same fear she had when Gil had robbed a store with her in the back seat and then taken her and her mom on the road to escape the police. But the cops had found them anyway and chased them across half of Saskatchewan before arresting Gil and her mom. She hadn’t spoken then either. It was as if her voice shut down and her brain went into slow motion.

  Shawn slapped the back of Leo’s seat. “Go the speed limit, idiot. You don’t want to get pulled over now.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Leo raised a dismissive hand without turning around.

  Shawn levelled his gaze on her. “You’re a freakin’ quiet one,” he said, as if her silence irritated him. His tone was aggressive, meant to make her crumble.

  She could feel him looking at her but she kept staring out the side window. He pinched her arm through her jacket and she jumped but swallowed the cry of pain before it reached her lips. “Why are you doing this?” she asked to stop him hurting her further. She knew from watching Gil with her mother that men wanted to feel like they’d scared you into submission. The worst beatings Rose had ever endured came after she’d stood her ground — but that was only at the beginning. After a few months of standing her ground, Rose had shut down and let Gil do whatever he wanted.

  “Because lover boy up front had you in his car.”

  “Why does that matter?” She was honestly puzzled. Then she remembered that Vanessa was supposed to have run off with Leo to pay back her mother for grounding her. “Is Vanessa worried I’ll say something? Where is she, anyway?”

  Shawn was quiet for a moment. “She wanted us to come get you so she could tell you something.”

  Dawn knew that he was lying but she nodded as if what he’d said made sense. Like she’d forgotten already what he did to her phone. Leo was driving toward downtown Kingston, taking the street along the waterfront. If the door wasn’t locked, she could have opened it at a stoplight and made a run for it. Shawn was checking the road through the back window. They passed Rouleau’s condo building and kept going past the Holiday Inn. She tried to see if Kala’s truck was parked near the Merchant, but the intersection came and went and then they were passing the Leon Centre and the ferry to Wolfe Island. They crossed the causeway onto Highway 2 and followed a line of cars out of town.

  “Where’s Vanessa?” she asked.

  Shawn pulled his eyes away from the back window. “Not far. She’ll be glad to see you.”

  Dawn was quiet for the rest of the ride and made note of the street sign as they turned onto Rudd Avenue. She’d never been in this section of town before. The houses on the right backed onto the lake but didn’t have thickets of trees and bush like the ones on Old Front Road. These houses were a mix of cottages and fancier homes. The ones on the left were newer and set back from the road by long sloping lawns. Leo pulled into the last laneway on the right. The one-storey house in front of them looked like a small cottage with yellow siding, a peaked, brown-shingled roof, and two small windows facing the road. Lights were on in the house next door but nobody was outside to see them leave the car. Shawn took her arm and walked her quickly through the backyard.

  Dawn nearly gagged at the mess inside. The kitchen stank like mildew and rot. Dirty dishes filled the sink and lined the counter along with empty beer bottles. Takeout containers and pizza boxes were tossed on the floor near an overflowing garbage can. She saw a phone on the wall near the fridge and wondered if it worked before quickly lowering her head. She didn’t know if Shawn had seen her looking at it.

  “This way,” he said, giving her a shove from behind. Attached to the kitchen was a living room with an old couch and a couple of tattered-looking chairs. A cheap coffee table held an overflowing ashtray and more empty beer bottles. He pointed to one of the chairs. “Have a seat.”

  She could hear Leo talking to somebody on the phone in the kitchen as she sat down. His voice rose in anger and then dropped to a mumble. Less than a minute later, he appeared in the doorway, tucking a cellphone into his pocket. He looked upset. “He says something’s come up. We can’t move them until tomorrow.”

  “What the hell?”

  “I know. We have to keep them here tonight.”

  “I don’t like this. We’re deviating from the plan.”

  “Can’t be helped.”

  “Then you’ll be spending the night here. I have somewhere to be.”

  “Since when?”

  Shawn glared at him. “Since I don’t have to answer to you. And since I haven’t seen any of the money you promised.”

  “You’ll get your money.” Leo looked over at Dawn. “Let’s go see Vanessa. Sorry, you’ll
be in cramped quarters for tonight but we’ll get you in a bigger bedroom soon.” He grinned.

  Dawn stood up. He told her to return to the kitchen and he opened the door to the basement. As she passed him, he ran a hand down her back and let it rest on her rear end. “Too bad we’re not allowed to party,” he said close to her ear. “But I have my orders.” He motioned her to get down the stairs.

  She knew the chances of making a run for it were slim and thought she might have a better opportunity once Shawn left. The steps were steep and narrow and the stone walls damp with mould. She shivered at the cold air that rose up to meet her from the concrete floor. A bare lightbulb cast minimal light and she felt her way carefully, testing each stair before putting her weight on it. The door slammed behind her and she heard the lock click.

  “Vanessa?” she whispered, then repeated her name more loudly. She heard whimpering and tried to locate the sound. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the shadows. A cot was in the far corner of the room and someone was sitting up on it, their eyes glinting in the feeble light. Dawn moved slowly forward until she reached the figure. Vanessa. Dawn bent down and touched one of Vanessa’s arms which were wrapped around her stomach. “Vanessa, are you okay?”

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” Vanessa was rocking back and forth, her voice breaking into a wail. Her hair was tangled and she clutched a filthy grey blanket. A sour smell came off her, like rancid milk and fear.

  Dawn ignored the bad taste in her mouth and sat on a corner of the cot, wrapping an arm around Vanessa’s shoulders. “You weren’t the one who dragged us here. What’s going on?”

  “They’re evil.”

  “What do they want?” Dawn felt Vanessa’s body go rigid. She rubbed Vanessa’s back, not knowing what else to do. Vanessa gradually relaxed against her.

  “They’re getting rid of us.”

  “I don’t understand. Leo’s your boyfriend.”

  “They made me do awful things. I’d rather die than let my parents know. I hate them. I hate them!” Her voice rose and echoed against the bare walls.

  Dawn swallowed down the sick feeling in her stomach that made her want to vomit and waited for Vanessa to stop shaking again. “You don’t have to talk about it. You’re not to blame for anything.”

  “How do you know? Leo picked me. He must have known that I’d …” Her voice trailed away. She shuddered and cried, “I didn’t stop them from going after you.”

  Why hadn’t Vanessa warned her? Dawn remembered her casually suggesting a “double date.” She wanted to lash out at Vanessa but knew it wouldn’t help anything. She said with more conviction than she felt, “I don’t think you could have stopped them.”

  “Leo acted so crazy about me at first. I sent him photos like he asked because I thought he loved me. Then he made me do things with him and with Shawn and with other men at the Blue Nights.”

  Dawn stared at her, horror making her own body begin to tremble. “Is that where you went after school?”

  “If my mother finds out …” Vanessa was crying now. Big gulping sobs. Letting the tears roll down her cheeks without trying to wipe them away.

  “I’m not going to say anything.” We might not have a chance to tell anybody. Dawn looked around the basement and leaned her head back to look at the window. Think about how to get out, she told herself. Don’t think about what happened to her. She waited until Vanessa’s noisy crying had subsided before asking, “Have you tried to escape?”

  “The door’s locked.”

  “Did you try the window up there?”

  “No. I can’t reach it and it’s too small to fit through.”

  Her voice had turned sulky but Dawn couldn’t care about that now. She had to think of a way out of this. She needed to stay calm, to think through options like her aunt Kala would. “Maybe we can find something to hit them with when they come to get us. Have you checked the entire basement?”

  “No, it’s too creepy. I’ll bet there are rats in the corners.”

  Dawn got up from the cot. “I’m going to see what I can find.” She took a few steps and then turned around.

  “Why did they take us?”

  “I dunno.”

  “Leo was talking to somebody on the phone about what to do with us. Do you know who he was talking to?”

  “No.”

  Dawn wasn’t sure if she believed Vanessa; she’d hesitated before answering both times and Dawn bet she knew more than she was letting on. Rose had lied too when she felt cornered. She’d made stuff up to make Gil look less like the abuser he was. Rose had even blamed herself for provoking him. But Dawn kept her voice reassuring so she wouldn’t alienate Vanessa. She would need her co-operation once she came up with a plan. “Try to remember what he told you before he brought you here while I check the room.”

  It took Dawn a while to make it through the entire basement. Concrete poles held up the ceiling at regular intervals and she clunked her head against one, making her slow down her steps even more. The musty, dank smell made her nauseous and she tried breathing through her mouth. The one bare lightbulb at the bottom of the stairs didn’t cast any light into the corners, so she had to feel her way. An oil furnace took up one end of the room like a hulking dark monster. It wasn’t turned on and she remembered seeing a woodstove in the living room. They probably lit it on cooler nights to warm the cottage. She was chilled through by the time she made it back to Vanessa. She knew that the temperature dropped to just above freezing on these spring nights. Vanessa’s eyes were wide.

  “Did you find anything?”

  “No. Move over.” Dawn climbed onto the cot and pulled a corner of the blanket across her legs. “It’s freezing.”

  “At least we’ll warm each other up.”

  “What about going to the bathroom … and food and water? Have they given you anything to eat?”

  “They’ve left cold pizza on the top step. When I pound on the door, they let me go to the bathroom and I get a drink then.”

  “In all the shows I’ve ever seen about kidnapping they tie people up.”

  “I guess they aren’t worried about us escaping or about anybody hearing us. They seem to be improvising,” she added as if the idea was only now occurring to her. She tugged the blanket from where she’d tucked it under herself and pulled it across Dawn’s stomach. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have stood up to them. I was just … so scared … and I didn’t know what they’d do.”

  Dawn felt her shivering with fear or cold — she couldn’t tell which. “We’ll get out of this,” she said, looking up at the window. It was narrow and out of reach, with bars across it. If they were going to escape, it would have to be through the door at the top of the stairs. She turned to say quietly into Vanessa’s ear, “It’s two against two. We need to bide our time and surprise-attack when they least expect it.”

  She thought about Kala and how panicked her aunt would be when she didn’t come home. Would Kala think she’d run off like she had in foster care or would she know that something bad had happened? Dawn closed her eyes and pictured Kala and Taiku in the kitchen and wondered what they were doing at this moment. She’d give anything to be there with them, making supper and listening to music on the radio. No matter where Leo and Shawn took them tomorrow — or for how long — she could close her eyes and see home. She could feel Kala telling her not to give up.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Rouleau looked around the meeting space at the team’s grim faces. They’d put in a long night and only resolve, adrenaline, and strong coffee were keeping them all going. Bedouin had missed the overnight shift but he was ready to fill in for those needing sleep. Rouleau had sent Kala home a half hour earlier. She’d been at her breaking point and he’d told her that she would be of no use if she didn’t get some rest. She’d finally agreed when he brooked no argument but he could tell she wasn’t happy about it.

  Woodhouse and Bennett had arrived minutes before the meeting, having combed th
e downtown streets through the morning hours for any sign of the two girls. Rouleau had unilaterally given the go-ahead for the AMBER Alert at 6:00 a.m. The missing girls’ photos and descriptions were now being broadcast across media channels and a team of officers was manning the phone lines.

  “We don’t know if the girls are still in the city or if they’ve been moved,” said Rouleau. “Two reported sightings from the alert haven’t panned out. We need to consider the possibility that their disappearance is linked to Nadia Armstrong’s murder, although there’s no evidence yet.”

  “What about the hit-and-run victim? How’s he implicated?” asked Bedouin.

  “Fisher Dumont is Dawn’s biological father. Kala shared that Dawn’s mother, Rose, who is serving time for armed robbery, had asked her to keep Dumont away from Dawn. We’re not sure if Dawn was in contact with him but he’d been camping out in the woods at the end of Kala’s property.”

  From where he stood leaning against the wall, Gundersund added, “Dumont hasn’t regained consciousness and his condition is critical. The doctor reports that he’d recently been beaten up and those injuries hadn’t completely healed. He was living in Toronto, so we’ve put in calls to the Toronto police and to his parole officer.”

  “Was Stonechild aware —” began Bedouin.

  “That he was hanging around her property?” finished Gundersund. “Of course not.”

  “No, I meant did she know that he was out on parole?”

  “Yes.”

  Rouleau waited for Bedouin to look back at him before speaking. “Even if the abductions are top priority, we need to keep going with the murder investigation. Bedouin and Morrison, I want you to check up on the Simmons brothers and look through the apartment buildings again. Revisit the basement where Jeff Simmons keeps a cot. Show up at their homes and get inside if you can. The search warrants don’t cover another entry so you’ll have to be creative. You can take a couple of officers with you.”