The Frailty of Flesh

by Sandra Ruttan

  “I know you can’t make lunch. That’s why we’re eating out.”

  She turned and gave him a look. “Very funny.”

  He held up his hands as he sat down. “It wasn’t a shot at your culinary skills.” He smiled. “Or lack thereof.”

  Ashlyn’s eyes pinched as she leaned back against his desk and glared at him. “My peanut butter sandwiches are as good as anyone’s.”

  Said with jest, but there was something in her eyes. A weight. “You guys catch something bad?” he asked.

  “A murder. Four-year-old boy.”

  “Domestic?”

  She opened her mouth to answer, but said nothing. Craig was used to the vacuous look she got when she was deep in thought. In as much time as it took to snap your fingers the look was gone. She glanced at Luke and shook her head. “It’s…messy.”

  Craig looked at Luke, who was again avoiding eye contact. He seemed to have an endless supply of fascinating paperwork to read. Couldn’t the guy take a hint and go find himself a cup of coffee or a window to stare out of?

  “And you haven’t got time to eat?”

  A thin smile. “We’ve been summoned to the sergeant’s office.”

  “Lucky you.”

  Her eyebrow rose and the hint of a real smile tugged at her mouth for a few seconds, then faded. “It’ll probably go further than that. This one’s bad.”

  Children always were, for a variety of reasons, but something about the way she said it made him suspect this one was more complicated than usual. “You know where to find me.”

  She nodded. “What about you? Working on something interesting?”

  He surveyed the thin pile of paperwork on his desk. “More annoying than anything.” Craig made the mistake of looking up in time to see the softening around her eyes. The longer he was kept on the sidelines at work the more she worried about him.

  Tain approached them and Craig offered a quick nod. “Tough case, I hear.”

  No hint of emotion on Tain’s face, just a one-word reply. “Yeah.” Tain had a way of packing so much meaning into one single syllable. When Craig, Ashlyn and Tain had first worked together Craig and Tain had barely moved from open hostility to thinly veiled loathing.

  In the end, they’d both earned a grudging respect for each other. Then, when they’d all been transferred to the Tri-Cities they’d ended up working together. Ashlyn and Tain had been partnered, and when the case was finished they continued working together.

  Once Ashlyn had been cleared to return to active duty.

  “Zidani’s waiting for us,” Tain said as he glanced at his partner.

  “Lambs to the slaughter.” She straightened up and followed Tain out the doorway.

  Craig rolled his chair toward his desk and picked up the note she’d started to write. She’d only written that she couldn’t make lunch, nothing more. He’d interrupted her before she’d even had a chance to sign it.

  She’d never leave anything too personal for him at work anyway. It wasn’t her style.

  He crunched up the slip of paper and tossed the ball in the garbage can beside his desk and was about to pick up the phone when he took a second glance.

  Other than the note he’d just thrown in, the garbage can was empty.

  A quick glance at the can sitting beside Luke’s desk confirmed it was half-full.

  He looked up. For once, Luke had made himself scarce and disappeared so quietly Craig couldn’t even be sure if he’d left when Tain had arrived, or afterward.

  Craig decided to take the opportunity to make one quick call before his partner returned. It only took a few seconds to dial his stepmother’s phone number.

  And it only took a minute to confirm there was still no answer.

  When Ashlyn and Tain arrived at Sergeant Frank Zidani’s office—his temporary office, which still had the name Steve Daly posted outside—Zidani didn’t invite them to sit down or even offer a casual greeting. Instead, he glared at Ashlyn.

  “Have you screwed this up already?”

  Her only response was to stare back. The muscles in the back of her neck pulled tight, and she knew her instinctive retort would lead to more trouble than it was worth, even if it would feel so good for a moment to tell Zidani off, just once.

  “Well, what have you got?” It was supposed to be a question, but he had a way of growling the words so they sounded aggressive, accusing.

  “Four-year-old boy named Jeffrey Reimer. Found at the water park in Rocky Point Park in Port Moody. He—”

  “How’d the call come in?”

  Ashlyn swallowed. Zidani refused to just let them run through the details. He had to keep them off balance and jump all over the place.

  “He was located by Port Moody police officers after an anonymous 911 call about an assault at the park.”

  “I take it you haven’t tracked the source of the call yet.” Zidani leaned back in his chair, arms folded across his chest, scowl firmly in place.

  “We located a witness who’s identified a possible suspect.”

  “Who’s this witness?”

  “Christopher Reimer, the older brother o—”

  “How much older?”

  “He’s eleven.” Ashlyn bit back the urge to slap a sarcastic “sir” on the end of that.

  “Who’d he identify as the killer?”

  “Shannon Reimer, age sixteen.”

  The scowl deepened. “Motive?”

  Ashlyn paused. “We haven’t been able to establish that yet.”

  Zidani leaned forward. “Constable Hart, what exactly have you been doing all this time?”

  “What do you think?”

  Zidani pounded his fist against the desk and then pointed a meaty finger at her. “I asked you a question. I expect a direct answer, not some smart-ass remark.” He leaned back in his chair and proffered a heartless smile. “Now, I’m going to pretend you didn’t just get mouthy with a superior officer. Let’s try this again. What have you been doing all this time?”

  “My job.” Ashlyn felt her chin jut out. As hard as she tried to stay calm she could feel her cheeks flush with anger. Zidani had no right to question the quality of their work. A few hours into the call and they already had an eyewitness who’d identified a suspect. “We worked the scene and did an extensive search. Constable Sims is still on site, in charge. Once we located the witness and identified the victim and potential suspect, Constable Tain and I went to the Reimer house to make notification to the parents, but they insisted on calling their lawyer before we told them their daughter is a suspect and—”

  “Who’s the lawyer?”

  “Byron Smythe.”

  “The dead kid…” Zidani snapped his fingers a few times. “What’s his dad’s name?”

  Tain answered. “Richard Reimer.”

  Zidani didn’t acknowledge Tain and kept his gaze on Ashlyn. “Known criminal connections?”

  “We haven’t been able to check yet. We didn’t know Smythe was the family lawyer until he arrived and right after they left you called us in.”

  “What about the daughter? Is Smythe bringing her in for questioning?”

  “She’s missing.”

  “She’s missing? What the hell are you doing here?”

  “You called us and ordered us to report in.” Before he could do more than snarl at her Ashlyn continued. “We have her photo and information in circulation. We’re going to check her friends, extended family talk to the teachers. A teenage girl is more likely to go to someone she knows, and the uniforms have the streets covered.”

  Zidani glowered at her for a moment. It appeared he couldn’t think of a way to argue with that, but guessing what was going through his mind wasn’t her main concern.

  “How was the boy killed?” he asked.

  “Beaten to death. Possibly a baseball bat. We’ll be waiting on the coroner’s report, but there was a note made at the scene about a splinter of wood in one of the wounds. Speculation is a blow to the back of the head is what ul
timately caused death.”

  “Reporters are going to be all over this.” Zidani tapped his fingers on the desk. “It may be best to reassign the case.”

  “On what grounds?” Ashlyn demanded. She felt her body stiffen.

  “Are you questioning me?” Zidani stood, the scowl deepening.

  “Damn right I am,” Ashlyn said, ignoring the light touch of Tain’s hand on her arm. “We’ve handled this case like professionals, and you have no grounds to remove us.”

  “What about the little matter of a series of child murders you two worked? Didn’t end so well, did it? You shot the suspect, Hart, and he jumped out a window. To his death. And as though that wasn’t enough for one day, you killed a cop.”

  “You make it sound like I’m trigger happy and reckless, and you are way off base.” She could feel the heat in her cheeks. “I was cleared of any wrongdoing in both incidents, and you have no right to stick that in my face.”

  “I have no right? Well, what about those reporters out there? You think they made your life difficult before? You wait until they publicly question your ability to handle this. The RCMP doesn’t need another scandal right now, and I don’t think you’re emotionally able to handle the pressure. How you’ve responded to me is proof of that.”

  “No, it isn’t. I’m pissed off with you because I’m sick of your sexist bullshit. You pull me in here, prevent me from giving a proper report and then jump down my throat with accusations. Same crap we’ve had from you since day one. What you’re really saying is you aren’t prepared to back me because you don’t like me.”

  Zidani planted both hands on his desk and leaned forward. “You think you can handle this, Hart? Then you’d better. Because if you screw this up I’ll actually enjoy watching the press and senior brass chew you up and spit you out.”

  She returned his stare for a moment. “Is that all?”

  He glared back for another few seconds and then jerked his head in the direction of the door. She turned and yanked it open, and stomped down the hallway.

  “Ash.” She sensed Tain reach for her arm and pulled it from beyond his grasp, but did turn to face him.

  “I’m sick of his garbage, Tain. I’m—” Ashlyn pulled in a shaky breath. Her eyes were burning with hot tears, unshed, and she blinked them back rapidly. Tain reached out and squeezed her shoulder.

  “It’s a tough case, and he’s an asshole. You can’t let him get to you. You’re the best partner I’ve ever had.”

  “I’m the only partner you’ve had who’s lasted.” Her hand went to her mouth even as she spoke the words, as she realized what she’d said, and she squeezed her eyes shut. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

  “It’s okay.”

  When she opened her eyes she could see the hurt, but there wasn’t anger. Tain had earned a name for himself. He was known for being difficult to work with, and he was aware of what his colleagues thought of him. She knew that. He’d admitted once that he worked hard to maintain his standing as a hard-ass, and she was a threat to his image. One of the things she liked about him was that he didn’t pretend it was unfair, either. He knew his reputation was more than justified.

  But she also knew there was a lot more to Tain than the person he’d been a few years ago.

  She released her breath and rubbed her forehead, which allowed her to look down for a moment and get herself together. When she looked back up he gave her a pat on the arm.

  “What’s next?” he asked her.

  “Shannon’s school. Let’s see if we can find out if any of her friends missed class today.”

  Tain nodded. “School it is.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “I have three possibles,” Ashlyn said as she joined Tain near the school parking lot. “Don’t take it personally.”

  “Why should I? Just because a man with an RCMP badge is still a man and girls are less likely to talk to him…” Tain shrugged. “It’s no big deal. People often underestimate the strengths of partnering with a woman. You can charm the socks off anyone.”

  Ashlyn felt her nose wrinkle instinctively. “Not that I want to.”

  Tain nodded at the notebook in her hand. “So what did you find out?”

  “Three good friends who aren’t here today either. The teachers I spoke to confirmed Shannon should have been in class this morning, but wasn’t, but they’d only speak to me strictly off the record.” Ashlyn followed his gaze, which was now on the students returning from lunch break. “Any special reason you’re here?”

  “Looking for the boyfriend.”

  Ashlyn shook her head and smiled. “How’d you get that?”

  “You know how it is. Guys will talk to guys. They’d be too busy hitting on you to think about your questions.”

  “Is that supporting sexism or just using it in your favor?”

  “I’ve seen you flirt to get someone to talk to you.”

  “In your dreams, maybe.”

  “You know that’s why guys like Zidani are afraid of you.”

  “What?” She said it so loudly a few heads turned and she drew a deep breath. “First you call me a flirt and now you say Zidani’s scared of me because of it. You’re nuts.”

  Tain shook his head. “I didn’t call you a flirt. You just use your charm to your advantage. It’s no different for guys.”

  Ashlyn thought about that. “All those rape cases last year. The women all talked to Craig.”

  Tain nodded. “He made them feel secure. None of them would talk to Lori.”

  Although he suppressed it quickly, Ashlyn had seen the passing look of regret the moment Lori’s name slipped out. She hadn’t liked Lori much as a person, but she’d never had as much guilt over killing Lori as Tain and Craig thought.

  Lori had shot and killed an unarmed man, and critically wounded Craig. Ashlyn did what she had to do. Lori died.

  Ashlyn chose not to focus on that. “It’s okay, you know. I’m not going to fall apart if you say her name.”

  “I know.” Tain gave her one of his looks. During the months they’d worked together she’d learned to read him about ninety percent of the time, but this wasn’t one of those easily decipherable expressions. It made her wonder if he worried about her, if he thought she’d been scarred by what had happened.

  He nodded at a car pulling into the lot. She turned and saw an old Mustang with a personalized license plate on the front pull in.

  “This should be him,” Tain said.

  Ashlyn let Tain take the lead and followed him to the parking lot. As the teenager got out of his car Tain held up his ID. “Matt Lewis?”

  The gangly youth pushed his floppy brown hair back from his face, glanced at Tain’s ID, then looked at Ashlyn. Matt held a small stack of books with one arm and stood with the door to the car still open.

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m Constable Tain, and this is Constable Hart. We’d like to ask you a few questions.”

  Still no sign of surprise, confusion or any emotion on Matt’s face. “Uh…okay.”

  “Do you know what this is about?” Ashlyn asked him.

  He gaped at her for a second, then shut his mouth and shook his head.

  “Yet you have no problem answering questions for us.” From the corner of her eye, Ashlyn noticed Tain giving her a look, and this was one of his looks she had no trouble reading at all. She ignored him.

  Matt shrugged. “Should I? You going to jack me up on some bogus charge?”

  Tain shook his head. “We were hoping we could ask you about Shannon Reimer.”

  Matt shifted the books from one arm to the other and pushed his car door shut. “What about her?”

  “You know her?” Tain asked.

  “Sure. She’s my girlfriend.” He shrugged again. “You wouldn’t be asking me about her if you didn’t know that already.”

  Ashlyn bit her lip. From another kid this would be pure wise-ass commentary, but Matt Lewis had a casual, unaffected way of talking that made it sound like an innoc
ent observation. “Have you seen Shannon today?”

  Matt shook his head. “She hasn’t been in class.”

  “We’re trying to track down some of her close friends. Can you tell us if there’s anyone else we should talk to?” Ashlyn passed him the slip of paper listing the names she’d been given.

  Matt looked at it and shook his head. “They’re her best friends.”

  Ashlyn didn’t reach for the list as he tried to pass it back. “Any of them missing from school today?”

  For the first time Matt exhaled and his brow wrinkled, but he looked at the list and said, “Jody Hoath.”

  He extended his hand again, and Ashlyn forced the nicest smile she could manage. “Do you have their phone numbers or addresses, by chance? All of them, just in case.”

  Matt paused. He propped the books up on his knee, dug in his pockets until he found a pen. Then he fished in his other pocket until he pulled out a cell phone. He punched some buttons and then made a note on the slip of paper. After the third note, when he tried to hand it back to Ashlyn, she took it from him.

  Street addresses and phone numbers for all three girls.

  “If that’s all…” Matt started to walk away from them, toward the school building.

  “You know, Matt, most people would want to know why we’re asking about their girlfriend. Most people wouldn’t be too quick to give out phone numbers and addresses if they didn’t know what we wanted to talk to their friends about.”

  He stopped but didn’t look back. “Is that a question?”

  “No,” Ashlyn said. “Just an observation. Tell me something.” She waited until he did turn around. His mouth was in a tight line, but his wide-eyed look gave it away. He was scared.

  “You said you hadn’t seen Shannon today. Have you spoken to her?”

  They stood for a moment, staring at each other. She could see the color draining from his face. Then the school bell rung, and Matt jerked his thumb in the direction of the building.

  “I’ve gotta go.”

  Ashlyn nodded at his car. “You might want to lock this first, though.”