Turning Secrets

by Brenda Chapman

  “He was just starting to talk. I’m going to have a chat with Ellington — I need more time. Can you have another Coke and a sandwich brought in to Shawn?”

  “Sure thing.”

  Rouleau was heading to his office when Bennett called him over. “Morrison is getting Dawn’s statement and she thinks you should step in for a minute.”

  “Did Dawn get medical attention?”

  “She refused to go to the hospital with Vanessa but a paramedic at the scene took her vitals and said she’s fine. She wasn’t raped.”

  “Thank God for that.”

  Rouleau found Morrison and Dawn in his office, sitting on the couch. Dawn smiled when she saw him and he wondered at her strength. She reminded him of Stonechild, who was sitting in a chair close by. Taiku was lying at Dawn’s feet. Rouleau crossed the room and took Dawn’s hand. “How are you?”

  “They didn’t hurt me. I wish I could say the same for Vanessa.”

  “We’ll make sure Vanessa is well looked after. You’ve both been extremely brave.”

  “Leo was making her have sex with other men, but I don’t think that’s why they took us. Vanessa saw the dead girl with a man at the Blue Nights Motel. She told Leo that she didn’t get a look at the man, but she told me that she lied about that. They didn’t believe her, anyway. They thought she’d recognized the man, and she had. She said there was no way he’d let anybody find out.”

  “Did she tell you this man’s name?”

  Dawn shook her head. “But Leo was on the phone a lot with somebody who was telling him what to do. They were getting ready to move me and Vanessa somewhere away from Kingston.”

  “Do you know why they took you?”

  Dawn looked at her hands. “I got in the car with Leo and Vanessa after school one day. They drove me to the library. I think they were worried I’d talk about Leo and the car once Vanessa went missing for good. Shawn was mad at Leo for giving me a ride. He said this was all his fault for being so stupid.”

  Rouleau met Kala’s eyes. He could see a cold anger in her that worried him. She was capable of setting out on her own to make these people pay. He asked her to walk with him.

  Stonechild waited until they were alone in the hallway before speaking. “The third person was in the woods where we found Dawn but he slipped away before we caught him. Woodhouse and I saw him pull up in a car and talk to Leo and Shawn before they went looking for Dawn. He stayed in the car and drove up the road, away from us, so we didn’t see him.”

  “You’re sure it was a man?”

  “Quite sure. He might be working for somebody else but I can’t believe a woman would be behind this.” The uncertainty in her voice belied her words.

  “I need to get Shawn to talk.”

  “He’s the weak link, as far as I can see.”

  Rouleau paused. “Dawn is a remarkable kid. You’re doing a great job raising her, Kala.”

  “I can’t take credit but thank you. If they’d laid a hand on her …”

  “Justice will be done. We have to play this by the book.”

  She nodded, but Rouleau wasn’t convinced she agreed. “I’m taking Dawn to see Fisher when she’s finished giving her statement,” she said. “No matter what mistakes he made in his life, he saved hers.”

  “Call me later. And Stonechild …”

  “Yes?”

  Rouleau swallowed his warning. “Nothing. Check in from the hospital.”

  He watched her walk away. He couldn’t shake the feeling that more bad stuff was coming but he didn’t know how to head it off.

  Vera was at her desk and told him that Ellington had gone to a meeting off-site. Rouleau had no choice but to follow orders and stop his interview with Shawn until his lawyer arrived.

  “We could go home if you don’t feel up to seeing your father now,” said Kala, glancing at Dawn. “It’s almost midnight.”

  Dawn looked out the truck’s passenger window. “I want to see him.” She knew that he was still in a coma and that the doctor wasn’t optimistic. He’d suffered severe internal injuries. Kala had told her straight up without sugar-coating the truth. This might be her last chance.

  They parked in the hospital parking lot and took the elevator to the third floor. Dawn waited by the desk until Kala had cleared their visit with the intensive care nurse. The adrenaline and fear that had carried her over the last few hours had been replaced with sadness for her dad. She’d only begun to get to know him, and now, like everyone else in her life, he was being taken from her.

  “I’ll come in for a minute and then wait for you in the hall. You can take as long as you need,” said Kala.

  “You can stay with me if you want.”

  “I think you should have some time alone.”

  Kala didn’t add, to say goodbye, but knew she didn’t need to. Dawn walked slowly up to the bed. Fisher looked so sick and smaller than she remembered. An oxygen mask covered his mouth and nose, and he was hooked up to some machines by a tube taped to his hand. Kala’s fingers rested lightly on her back. “He’s not in any pain.”

  “I’ll sit with him for a while.”

  “I’ll check on Vanessa and get a coffee. Then I’ll be back. Take as long as you need,” Kala said again.

  The room was bright and warm but Dawn didn’t take off the jacket Kala had lent her. It felt like protection against the night and all this suffering. She’d never touched her father before but she didn’t feel weird taking his hand now. His skin was rough and dry against hers. She gently squeezed to let him know she was there. She watched him for a minute. When it felt right, she said, “I’m here, Dad. Kala got me.”

  She thought she saw the trace of a smile. Thought she saw his eyes flutter and try to open — but knew they couldn’t have. It must have been a trick of the light because a nurse was suddenly next to her, and then another, and then a doctor. They all checked machines and Fisher’s pulse and felt his neck.

  “I’m sorry, honey,” said the nurse who’d let them into the room. “Your father’s heart has stopped beating. He’s passed away. Is your aunt still in the building?”

  Dawn nodded.

  “Would you like to sit with him a while longer?”

  Dawn nodded a second time and the activity around Fisher ebbed away. She was left alone with him again, like when the two of them were on the beach. A kind of peace came over her even as she tasted the salt from her tears. She touched his forehead and bent low to kiss his cheek above the rough line of stubble. “I love you, Dad,” she whispered into his ear before straightening and looking at him one last time.

  Kala wasn’t back yet so Dawn walked to the washroom at the end of the hall and took a moment to cry and to wash her face. She hadn’t seen herself in a mirror since she’d been taken by Leo and Shawn and she hardly recognized her tired, haunted face. She raked her fingers through her messy hair, pulling her bangs straight down her forehead into her eyes. Her hair hid the redness if she kept her neck slightly tilted downward.

  She left the washroom and looked down the length of the hallway, still not seeing Kala. She didn’t have a phone to text her and thought maybe she was with Vanessa on the floor below. She didn’t want to stop moving and she needed to be with Kala. The door to the stairwell was behind her. She opened it and stepped through; the door slammed shut behind her. She stood still and listened to the sounds of the building for a moment before hearing another door slam a few flights below her. She stepped back so she couldn’t be seen, not feeling ready to meet other people.

  “You’ve broken up. Damn it.” A man was clomping up the stairs. He stopped at the second floor. Dawn sank to the floor, wrapping her arms around her knees. She should run but then he’d know she was there. She squeezed her eyes shut. Fear kept her frozen in place. She heard a door creak open and he began speaking into his phone again. “I’m in the stairwell now. Are you still there? I gave an order for the cop to go home. Just checking he’s vacated …”

  The door shut.

 
It’s the same voice I heard in the woods. It’s the man who was giving orders to Leo and Shawn before he slipped away in the darkness. And now he’s on the same floor as Vanessa.

  Dawn got to her feet and started quietly down the stairs.

  I need to find Kala and warn her.

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  Kala checked in with the officer sitting outside Vanessa’s room after speaking to the nurse on duty. They’d examined Vanessa thoroughly. She was bruised and scratched up but she’d recover — physically, at least. The hospital psychiatrist had visited earlier and prescribed a strong sedative to help her sleep. She’d been adamant that there’d be no questioning for now, not while Vanessa was so exhausted. There’d be time tomorrow to get her story and to start therapy. Her parents had agreed, united in their resolve to protect her.

  “Where are her parents now?” Kala asked.

  “The doctor sent them home to sleep. They’re going to need their strength as well to hear the details of the trauma she’s suffered and all that lies ahead. You can imagine how devastating this type of information can be to absorb.”

  “Only too well.”

  Kala stepped into the room but didn’t approach the bed. Vanessa looked so young sleeping on her back with her freshly washed hair fanned out on the pillow. Kala wished she could take away all the pain of what she’d lived through and of what was to come. Vanessa was fortunate to have her family’s support, and a key piece of her recovery would be her friendship with Emily and Chelsea — and Dawn.

  After listening to the steady in and out of Vanessa’s breathing, Kala went in search of coffee. The cafeteria was closed but she found a coffee machine in the basement that dispensed a thick black brew. She added three creamers and rode the elevator back up to reception on the main floor to call Gundersund. Her strength was crumbling but she had another hour or so to last before she could get Dawn safely home. More than anything, she wanted to hear Gundersund’s voice.

  The elevator door slid open and she scanned the lobby. Her gaze landed on a curly blond head. He was leaning back in a seat, eyes closed. She smiled and walked over to sit in the chair next to him. “Hey, Gundersund.”

  He opened his eyes and his arms, and she rested her head on his chest. “I could go to sleep right here,” she said.

  “Soon.”

  She looked up into his vivid blue eyes. “Yeah … soon.” She patted his chest and moved away. “I left Dawn with Fisher but I need to get back upstairs.”

  “Should I come with you?”

  “I think Dawn would like that. This isn’t easy for her. She and Fisher had made a connection.”

  In the elevator, Gundersund drew her close. He kissed her until the door opened onto the third floor and she broke away. “You make me forget where I am,” she said.

  “That’s the idea.”

  The nurse on duty met them in front of Fisher’s room. “Isn’t Dawn with you?” she asked. “I thought you’d come back for her already.”

  “I wanted to give her some time alone.”

  The nurse’s expression was apologetic. “Fisher died soon after you left. She wanted to stay with him and I had another patient who needed attention. She said you’d be back and she’d tell you.”

  “She can’t be far. What a sad end to this awful week.” Kala pushed open the door to the room, stepped inside, and approached the bed. She bowed her head to say a silent prayer for this man whom she’d never gotten to know. “Thank you for Dawn,” she said.

  Gundersund was waiting in the hall. “Could Dawn be in the washroom?”

  “I’ll look. She might have gone in search of me. I told her that I’d be visiting Vanessa’s room and then grabbing a coffee before I came back to wait for her here.” The expression in his eyes made her pause. “What is it?”

  “I don’t like her being on her own tonight.”

  Kala caught his worry. “I don’t either.” She ran to the other end of the empty corridor to look inside the washroom. She checked for Dawn’s feet under the stalls but didn’t find her. Gundersund was waiting at the door to the stairs.

  “She’s not in there. Let’s go down to the second. An officer is on duty — he’s likely seen her.”

  “Why don’t I check the basement while you look in on Vanessa,” said Gundersund. “She could have gone to search for you in the cafeteria.”

  “It’s closed, but you’re right. She wouldn’t know that.”

  Kala entered the stairwell and stopped for a second to listen before descending. She was the only one on the stairs as far as she could hear. Why oh why did I leave Dawn alone? She tried to stifle the panic that started with Gundersund’s concern. They’d both been cops long enough to know when something felt off. She could only hope their gut instinct was wrong this time and Dawn wasn’t in danger.

  She stepped into the second-floor corridor and felt the eeriness of the late-night hospital. The lights in the hall had been dimmed and most patients were asleep in their rooms with the doors shut. The nurses who should have been at the desk were either making tea in the kitchen or attending to patients in their rooms. The chair outside Vanessa’s room where the uniformed cop had been sitting was empty. Kala’s heart lurched.

  He should be at his post. Why did he leave her alone?

  She walked softy down the hall and stopped in front of Vanessa’s door. Slowly, slowly, she pushed it open and stepped inside. The sight that greeted her was surreal, shocking, and it took a moment to understand what was happening. A bear-sized man in a long black coat was bending over the bed, his back to Kala. His large hands were holding both sides of a pillow and pressing it down over Vanessa’s face.

  Adrenaline kicked in. Kala lunged across the room, tackling the man at waist level with all her strength. The impact knocked him sideways into the bedside table and she was falling with him, her chin banging against his leg, her right arm taking the brunt of the impact. She barely registered the sharp edge of the table cutting into her forearm. He managed to hang on to the pillow and it buffered his fall as the metal table and the carafe of water that had sat on it clattered to the floor.

  Kala tried to roll upright without success. She screamed as the man pulled himself forward and head-butted her into the wall. Momentarily stunned, she stared at him with dawning horror. None of this made sense — but murder never did. Her fingers blindly searched the floor beside her until her hand found the water jug. She rolled onto her side and lifted it as high as she could, heaving it with all her might at his head. The half-full metal container bounced off his temple but barely slowed him down. He’d scrambled to his feet and he viciously kicked her in the side. His second kick landed on her thigh. She somehow got her hands free and grabbed his foot, wrenching until he fell backward onto the floor. The sound of his head cracking against the bed frame was as loud as a gunshot. He made as if to rise and Kala crab-crawled backward until her back slammed against the wall. She watched Ellington’s bald head loll back as the impact of striking the metal bar made him lose consciousness.

  She grimaced when she raised her arm in front of her. Dark-red blood drenched the sleeve of her jacket and dripped to the floor. A wave of nausea rose up from her stomach and she pressed her arm across her chest to stop the flow. Panting hard, she slid herself up the wall. She ached in every part of her body, but she couldn’t give in now. She steeled herself to step over Ellington and get to Vanessa when the door to the room slammed open. Gundersund’s bulk filled the doorway, his face fierce, his eyes afraid for her. Kala glimpsed Dawn in the hall behind him and the tightness in her chest eased. Ellington hadn’t gotten to Dawn. She could breathe again. She kept herself upright, propped against the wall, gritting back the pain. “He was smothering Vanessa with that pillow. Gundersund, make sure she’s still breathing. Dawn, run for the nurse.”

  They did as she ordered, not stopping to question who lay unconscious on the floor. Gundersund glanced at Ellington and back at Kala with incredulity in his eyes before stepping over him to check o
n Vanessa. “She’s alive. You stopped him in time.”

  He took out his handcuffs and squatted to secure Ellington’s wrist to the bed frame. He looked up at her, then spun around and stood up in one quick motion. “I’ve got you,” he said as she felt herself free-falling into a blessed, pain-free darkness. Later she was uncertain whether she’d heard him add, “And I’m never going to let you go.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Rouleau spent most of the early morning at the hospital, not leaving until Stonechild ordered everybody out so she could get some sleep. Gundersund had already gone home with Dawn and Taiku and planned to spend the day looking after them. Rouleau’s father, Henri, arrived at the hospital at 3:00 a.m. with Marci, who’d picked him up on her way. Rouleau didn’t realize until he saw her how much he’d missed her. The trauma of the past few days was a wake-up call. People could be lost to you without warning. They hugged warmly and made plans for later in the day. Then she and Henri left for breakfast, which she promised to treat him to after she filed a brief story for the morning paper. Rouleau knew he had to go in to HQ to deal with Ellington and all the fallout. He’d fielded phone calls from the police board members all morning.

  Shards of pink and orange filtered through the dark morning sky. Rouleau rolled his window partway down so that cool air filled the car. He inhaled deeply, forcing himself to work through his fatigue. After picking up a large coffee at the Tim Hortons drive-through, he arrived at the station shortly before 6:00 a.m. Vera met him in the hallway on his way to his office.

  “Did you get my text?” she asked.

  “Yes, thanks. I’ll interview Shawn Baxter as soon as his lawyer arrives.”

  “She’s already here. Shawn wants to get this over with so he can go home.”

  “A long shot for him, surely?”

  “His lawyer thinks a judge will grant bail after Shawn signs a statement.”

  “Well, let’s hope he’s stopped playing games. Is this your last day?” Rouleau called after her as she started back down the hallway.