Split

by Tara Moss

  So much for the shy theory, she thought as he rattled off the provocative drink names.

  Mak blinked once, reflecting on the name of the beverage, then said, “Sure. Um, give me one Slippery Nipple, please.”

  Maybe later she would have Sex on the Beach.

  The shot would take the edge off. It had to. Makedde wasn’t much of a drinker, but it was supposed to relax people, and that was the kind of thing you did at bars, right?

  She thought Roddy may have given her a sideways glance before he turned his back to prepare her drink. Mak realised that she had never really ordered a serious drink from him. After busying himself behind the bar, he presented her with a milk-chocolate coloured concoction in a shot glass.

  Oh, boy. Is this a good idea?

  “Here you go, Mak. This one’s on me. Tell me if you like it.”

  “Thanks, Roddy. You don’t have to do that.”

  “It’s my pleasure. Enjoy.” And with that, he left her to her drink.

  Mak lifted the glass to her nose. It smelled creamy and sweet. Baileys. Yum. She wasn’t sure about the mammary reference, but she imagined the little mixture would taste good. She stared at the lifted glass for a moment, overcame her hesitation, then downed it in a single gulp.

  Whoa.

  Very strong.

  Mak might have choked on the heady drink were it not so delightfully smooth. It sent a charge through her nerves, followed by a deep, mellow sensation. Very yum.

  She licked her lips and scanned the bar.

  Where is that boy, dammit?

  And then, inevitably, Makedde found that she was not on her own any more.

  “Hiya. Would you like another drink?” American accent. Definitely not the security guard.

  Mak looked beside her to find a slick-looking man with greying hair, a deep and crispy foreign tan and the whitest teeth she had ever seen.

  She obviously didn’t respond fast enough to keep up with his routine, so the dental-poster boy continued without encouragement. “Hi. I’m Richard. What’s your name?”

  “Hi, Richard. I am waiting for someone, so thanks for the offer, but I’m just fine.” She gave him a closed smile.

  “I was just watchin’ you sittin’ over here all by yourself, and I wondered, ‘What is that pretty lady doin’ alone?’ I’m up here from Hollywood shooting a film with—”

  “Yeah, with Michael Ironside and…What is that other actor’s name? From Miami Vice?”

  “Which one?”

  “Oh, never mind. Look, like I said, I’m waiting for someone so if you don’t mind…”

  “Well, I could just keep you company until she—”

  “He,” she corrected him, drawing the word out to make her point.

  “Until he arrives,” the man finished.

  Makedde swivelled around to face him directly, raising her chin and giving him a steady glare down the end of her nose.

  “Okay, okay,” he finally said, throwing his hands up. “But if you change your mind…”

  “Bye now,” she said, turning back around to face the bar.

  Out of the corner of her eye she saw him wander back to his table to receive some high fives from a few of his buddies. She overheard one of them say, “Ooooh, strike out for Richo!”

  Irritating.

  Makedde placed her coat on the stool beside her to avoid further mishaps and looked at her watch. It was well past eight o’clock and there was still no sign of her date. Now she was definitely feeling weird drinking alone, fending off strangers and waiting for…well, waiting for a stranger.

  She looked around the room but he was still nowhere to be found. She pulled her mobile phone out of her bag and checked the messages. None.

  Maybe I should just leave?

  She decided she’d wait just a couple more minutes before leaving and never speaking to that Roy Blake character again. She looked at her watch, and counted down the minutes on the second hand. If he isn’t here in sixty seconds…fifty-nine…fifty-eight…

  At twenty past eight, she felt a cool breeze on her neck and looked up from her watch. There he was.

  Twenty minutes isn’t so late, Mak.

  Makedde took a good look at her date as he came towards her. Perhaps the drink gave her a little added confidence. He was impressively tall and masculine, and not overly slick. He was a bit of a cowboy, perhaps, and a handsome one at that. He had dark-brown eyes and a full, sensuous mouth. His hair was light-brown and curly, and he had it cropped short. She decided that he was good-looking in a raw kind of way. She liked that. Although he came across as charming and polite, Makedde suspected that there might be a bit of an edge to him beneath it. She imagined he could be intense and passionate.

  Roy was dressed casually, and she realised that she probably liked him a little better in uniform. Or perhaps she liked him better when she knew Andy was around? Had she really wanted to make Andy jealous? No, she simply wanted him to know she had moved on, that was all. She wanted him to know that there was no possibility of a romance forming between them again. No chance at all.

  Who are you trying to convince, Makedde?

  She removed her coat from the stool beside her, and Roy took a seat. His lips were curved into a pleasant smile, and he smelled of Azzaro cologne. She could pick it now. It hadn’t had the chance to settle into his skin, and it had a certain sharpness to it. Pleasant, but sharp.

  “Hello.” His voice was deep.

  “Hi.”

  She found him very attractive, but she still felt the urge to bolt.

  Oh, God, I’m not into this. Damn you, Andy! It’s your fault!

  “How was the conference this afternoon?” Roy asked. “I’m sorry I missed out.”

  “Oh, it was good,” she said, managing to sound pretty much normal. She needed to slow down. She wasn’t going to bolt. She was going to sit right there and enjoy herself.

  “It was nice seeing you at lunch. I’m sorry my break doesn’t give me much time.”

  “That’s okay. I wasn’t expecting any company.” And suddenly there was company all over the place. “How are you? How was work?” she asked, trying to deflect attention from herself. She wished the drink would just take effect and calm her down.

  “I’m so sorry I’m late,” Roy said. Mak had been wondering if he would apologise. “It was work,” he went on. “I was supposed to finish more than an hour ago but something came up right at the very last minute. Quite sad, really.” He lowered his head and looked forlornly at the bar top.

  Sad? “What happened?”

  “Oh, I’m being so rude. Would you like another drink?”

  Mak noticed that Roddy had removed the empty shot glass when she wasn’t looking. She was grateful for it. Roy was pointing to her half-finished mineral water.

  “Do you want a fresh one?”

  She felt the Slippery Nipple starting to take effect. Even with her Amazonian height, drinks tended to take effect quickly. She supposed it was because she only began having the odd drink fairly recently.

  “No, I’m fine for now. Thanks anyway.”

  “Do you mind if I get a beer?”

  “No, of course not. Are you kidding?”

  He just smiled and called the bartender over. Roddy reacted to his presence with a slight pause. He was used to Makedde being there with her girlfriends. She wondered if Roy picked up on his reaction.

  “Hmm, what do you have?” He glanced around the bar. “Could I have a Moosehead, please?”

  Mak felt herself relax a little more. This is just a normal date, Mak. You do remember what a normal date is, don’t you?

  Roy turned to Makedde and smiled. “You look fantastic,” he said.

  Oh, don’t blush, Mak. Please don’t blush.

  Makedde’s Dutch complexion had the habit of displaying her emotions a little too clearly. Her cheeks were like red beacons when she felt awkward or embarrassed, and her face was easily robbed of all colour when she became tired and stressed.

  “Tha
nk you.” She desperately wanted to change the subject. “So what’s it like working in security? Do your powers differ much from the local police?”

  “Oh yeah, you said your father was a detective inspector,” he commented.

  Sometimes he thinks he still is, she thought to herself and grinned. He still had the respect of the police on both sides of the water, and he certainly still had that unerring desire to know exactly what was going on at all times, particularly in his daughter’s life.

  “Well, I’m afraid our powers of arrest are pretty much that of every Canadian citizen. We can’t arrest someone unless we actually witness them committing an indictable offence. We have a lot less power than the police, who simply need probable cause.”

  “Right. So if you catch someone breaking a window you can arrest them and hand them over to the police?”

  “Exactly. And if I find someone chasing a suspect and saying that they saw such a thing, we could arrest the person and hand them over.”

  Mak had on occasion heard tales of the frustration of security guards, and now she was starting to understand why.

  “Do you have a partner that you always work with?”

  “We all pretty much know each other, but we work alone generally, as staffing requirements don’t permit doubling up. We have to patrol an area with five hundred and one buildings and over thirty thousand people.”

  More frustration.

  “What happened tonight?” she asked, continuing what was turning out to be an interrogation of sorts. “You said something was sad.”

  “Oh…yeah.” Roy paused and a sombre, faraway look came over his face. “I, umm, I was called to investigate a bit of a racket at one of the residences at UBC. And when I got there, this woman was banging on the door to one of the apartments, hysterical and crying. She wanted her daughter to open the door for her.”

  His tone was sincere, and Mak was touched to see this big man talking in such an emotional way.

  “What really choked me up though, was that I knew who the woman was,” he went on. “I recognised her last name. She has a kind of unusual name, so I remembered it. You see, her daughter was reported missing recently. It was on one of the bulletins.”

  Makedde’s stomach twisted at the thought. “Oh. How terrible,” she said.

  “I know. I checked afterwards to be sure, and it was definitely the missing girl’s place. I mean she didn’t really have any reason to think her daughter would be in there.” He shook his head. “I tried to calm the lady down, but she wasn’t thinking clearly. She was obviously suffering from a lot of grief. It’s so sad to see stuff like that.”

  Who is missing? Makedde wanted to ask, but didn’t. She could see how much his work affected him, and she thought it was probably a good idea to change the subject.

  “Why don’t I order a drink, and we’ll make a toast to new friends?” she suggested.

  Roy broke into a smile and nodded in agreement. “Good idea.”

  “Roddy, could I have your Martini Special?”

  “Coming right up.”

  “Oh…hang on.” Mak stopped him by leaning across the bar and reaching out for the back of his shirt. “What is the Martini Special?” she asked.

  He laughed. “Chocolate.”

  “Chocolate?”

  “Yes, a chocolate martini. You’ll like it.”

  “Okay, Roddy. Whatever you say.”

  Her drink came in a flash and Roy insisted on paying. After a brief struggle, she agreed to let him. “I’ll get the next round,” she said.

  “Can I have my beer in a glass then?” he asked before Roddy took off. He turned to Mak. “Just to make it seem a little more fancy,” he explained.

  Makedde smiled, amused. With his beer in glass and her martini in hand, they raised their glasses for a toast.

  Clink.

  “To new friends.”

  Mak nodded. “To new friends.”

  And to moving on from the past.

  CHAPTER 24

  Grant frowned when the phone rang. Reluctantly, he extracted himself from Amanda’s side and made for the mobile ringing in his coat pocket on the dresser.

  Hate that thing.

  “Wilson,” he answered in a low voice.

  “Grant, it’s Mike.”

  He knew it would be.

  “What now?” he asked. “Not another one?”

  “No, not another one. Worse.”

  “Worse?” He caught Amanda’s attention and held a finger up to suggest that he’d just be a minute. She smiled with her hazel eyes in response. He could see she was tired. “Hang on a sec…”

  He walked into the hallway and closed the bedroom door behind him. Cherrie was still out with her boyfriend, and the house was quiet and dark.

  “Worse? What’s worse?”

  “Well, not worse exactly…” Mike began.

  Grant took a deep breath. He was still irritated that Mike had let his brother come along to their last gym session. That was just one more stress that he didn’t need. “Mike, stop beating around the bush and just tell me what it is.”

  “I got a call from my brother…”

  Speak of the devil.

  “He’s upset that one of our guys questioned him.”

  “One of our guys questioned Evan? About what?”

  “He was out around the Nahatlatch. Not far from the dump sites.”

  Grant actually hit his forehead with the palm of his hand. “Idiot. What the hell does he think he’s doing?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he’s just curious.”

  “Curious?” That man was definitely a loose cannon. Grant found it unsettling that Mike’s brother just happened to decide to attend a conference on psychopathy and watch the presentation of the Profiler that was helping them on the case. That smelled off to him. Since when did Evan attend conferences on anything? Apparently it was open to the public, though he was sure the organisers must have had psychology students in mind as attendees, rather than bartenders in strip joints. What was his game?

  “Curious?” he repeated, incredulous.

  “Well, you know Evan,” Mike said.

  “No, you know Evan. I choose to know as little about him as possible.” Grant leaned against the wall and ran a hand over his face. He tried to imagine Evan poking around the woods with a flashlight, or something similar. Why? He tried to imagine him getting stopped by the RCMP, asked about his reasons for being there…

  “He thinks he may be in some sort of trouble,” Mike said of his brother.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing. It’s just that he’s concerned that they suspect him now for some reason…You know, just ’cause he was out there.”

  “Well, was he being suspicious? I mean, more suspicious than usual?”

  “Now, Grant…”

  “That was a dumb thing for him to do, Mike, but if he hasn’t done anything wrong then tell him he’s got nothing to worry about. It’s that simple.”

  “Could you just call that FBI agent up for me, Grant? Just ask him story, you know…ask him if my brother’s a suspect.”

  Oh, great. He thought about that. He didn’t like the gist of the phone call. What if Evan really was guilty of something? Would Mike be compelled to cover it up? “I’ll make the call, but no promises, okay?”

  “Fine, Grant, no problem.”

  I don’t like this, he thought. I don’t like this one bit.

  Mike changed the subject. “How’s Cherrie?”

  “She hasn’t come home yet.”

  “And Amanda…?”

  “Same as usual. I’ll talk to you later, Mike. I’ll make some inquiries.”

  “Thanks for that, Grant.”

  He returned to the bedroom and Amanda was there, waiting for him. To him she was the most beautiful woman in the world, even now. Even like this. She had suffered limb paralysis, and it was increasingly difficult for her to speak or swallow. They had to suction the moisture out of the back of her throat so she wouldn
’t die from inhaling the amount of saliva that healthy people routinely swallow.

  Lou Gehrig’s Disease was more common in older men, but here she was, not yet fifty, and already the disease was destroying her motor neurons at an alarming pace. Her muscles were deteriorating rapidly, and through it all that wonderful mind of hers was just as it had always been. She had been diagnosed just over a year earlier, and the doctors said she had a few months left in her at the most.

  “Sorry, honey, I just need to make a call, and I’ll be back with you in a moment,” he told her.

  She didn’t reply, but he knew she understood.

  He grabbed his wallet off the table and walked back into the hallway, carefully closing the bedroom door. He had Dr Harris’s card with the number for his room at the Renaissance Hotel scrawled on the back. Mike had already programmed the number into the mobile phone for him, but he didn’t have the slightest idea how to retrieve it.

  Dr Harris picked up almost immediately.

  “Bob speaking.”

  “Dr Harris, it’s Sergeant Wilson.”

  “Grant. How are you?”

  “Fine, Bob. Except…Well, to tell you the truth I’m calling because…umm. Is Evan Rose on a list of possible suspects in the Nahatlatch Murders Case?”

  “Ahhhh…He’s your colleague’s brother, am I right?”

  “Yeah, that’s right. Look, don’t get me wrong, I know he’s trouble, but he’s not that kind of trouble.”

  “What exactly do you mean?”

  Grant did his best to backtrack, realising what he’d said. “I don’t mean anything by that. I just mean that—”

  “This is a little awkward,” Dr Harris said. “Perhaps we should get together and talk about this? And I don’t think it’s a good idea to discuss this with your partner, if you haven’t already.”

  “Why does Evan interest you?” Grant asked.

  “He was lurking around the dump sites. He holds a current hunting licence,” Bob said. “And he’s a UBC dropout.”

  “I know, but…why is that relevant?”

  “This is just routine,” he assured him. “He was out snooping around the area and we need to eliminate him as a suspect. I’m sure you’ll agree. We’ll discuss it tomorrow. In the meantime, if you could throw some cold water on the situation with your partner that would be great.”