The Frailty of Flesh

by Sandra Ruttan

  Brandy returned to the kitchen. “I honestly don’t know what more I can tell you.”

  “Why don’t we start with the obvious? You don’t believe Donny murdered Hope.”

  “Of course not. Donny treated Hope like a queen. He was”— she shook her head a little too emphatically—“he is a wonderful person.”

  Craig noted the way she caught herself, but didn’t comment. Ten years in prison was a long time. How much had Donny Lockridge changed from the person he was? “You liked him back then.”

  She folded her arms across her chest and leaned back against the counter. “So?”

  “Maybe you weren’t the most objective person.” When she didn’t respond he said, “Your husband gave you a locket when you got engaged. I saw it in a photo. Do you still have it?”

  Her whole face clouded then. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Do you still have it?”

  “And if I don’t? You’ll be back with a warrant?” She uncrossed her arms and started down the hallway, putting up her hand to indicate he should wait there. After a moment she returned and passed him the necklace. “There. Satisfied?”

  “Why did Darren give you a locket?”

  “Why is that any of your business?”

  “You’re aware that Hope wore a locket that looked exactly like this, and it was never recovered after her murder?”

  “And you think Donny would be so stupid he’d give it to his brother? Go ahead, take it. Do whatever you want with it.” She sighed as her hand landed on her hip. “Truth is, Darren said he had it made for me, but it creeped me out. Hope never took hers off. I wore it for the photo, but that’s it. It reminded me of her a little too much.”

  Craig pulled a form from his pocket and had her sign it, giving him permission to run tests on the locket. The reason he’d come had been to get the necklace, but he hadn’t dared to hope it would be so easy. Pushing Brandy’s buttons wasn’t hard, and she’d responded accordingly. He placed the locket in a plastic bag.

  “Let me ask you something. If Donny’s innocent, who do you think killed Hope?”

  “I don’t know. Her slut of a mother? One of her mother’s boyfriends? That woman had so many guys going in and out of there, half the men around could have gotten their hands on the murder weapon. Lisa Harrington’s one of those women who sleeps her way into pregnancy just to stay on the system and get the extra cash.”

  “Then why would she kill Hope? Wouldn’t she want Hope to stay at home?”

  “Hope wanted to move here with Donny and his family.”

  “Didn’t Donny want her to come with them?”

  Brandy shook her head. “Donny wasn’t going to move. He was going to stay in Langley.”

  “Why?”

  “Why don’t you ask him? Look”—she glanced at the clock on the wall—“Darren will be here soon. You should go.”

  Craig nodded, took out his card and held it out to her. “If you think of anything else.”

  She glared at the card for a second, then snatched it from him. Once he had his boots on and stepped outside he thanked her again, told her where he was staying just in case she remembered something before he left town and walked back to the Rodeo.

  Tain checked his watch and looked at Luke. Not much longer. His cell rang and he looked at it. As though she could read his thoughts.

  “Anything?” he asked as he answered the phone.

  “No. We have the alley behind the house covered. The nice thing about hills is that it’s easy enough to park someone a few blocks up and monitor their back door. I’m telling you, Tain, criminals should invest in trees. They almost make it too easy.”

  “How considerate of them.” He paused. “You okay?”

  “Of course.”

  “Any word from Craig?”

  He heard her breath catch in her throat. “No. I can’t imagine he’s too happy.”

  “No, I suppose not.”

  “Call me as soon as they make contact.”

  The other cell phone rang just as Tain closed his. Luke was hovering over Richard Reimer’s shoulder. Richard answered the phone.

  “You have the money?”

  The voice was muffled, but not in a consistent, professional manner. Tain frowned. It sounded tinny, as though someone was talking through a can. Audio analysis wasn’t his strong suit, but despite the low tone there was something in the voice that made him think it was a woman.

  Richard looked at him and he nodded. Tain had spent the past few hours coaching the man. Now it was time to see which rule book he was playing by.

  “I want to talk to Shannon.”

  “When we get the money.”

  Richard paused and looked at his lawyer before he asked, “How do I know she’s okay?”

  Tain glared at Smythe, who averted his gaze. When he looked back at the desk he saw Richard wipe his brow with a shaky hand. “I want to talk to her.”

  “You pay or you never talk to her again.”

  “Fine, okay. Half a million dollars. I have it.”

  “One million now.”

  “Bu-but you said—”

  “One million. Mrs. Reimer will leave it in a black knapsack at the water park at Rocky Point. She knows the place.”

  Richard’s eyes widened and his lip quivered. It took two false starts for him to get the single word out. “When?”

  “One A.M. Make sure she comes alone. No cops.”

  There was a click as the caller hung up, but Richard cried, “Wait!” and jumped to his feet. “What are we going to do?”

  “You don’t have a million?” Luke asked.

  “What?” Richard blinked. “Of course.” He walked over to his lawyer. “Byron, what if they get her killed? We-we never should have called them!”

  Smythe nudged him toward the other room, and once the door was closed Tain went to the officer who’d handled the tracing relay. The man was about to pass the slip of paper to Luke, but Tain put out his hand.

  “I’ll take that and report to Constable Hart.”

  The officer didn’t question him, and Tain was about to shut the office door behind him before he realized Luke was following him out of the office.

  “Am I part of this investigation or not?” Luke demanded.

  “Who’s in charge of this case?”

  “Your partner.”

  Tain nodded. “And that means when she’s not here, I’m in charge. Do you have a problem with that?”

  “I have a problem with everyone in this department shutting me out.”

  “Then you go home and cry to your mommy and don’t come back until you’re ready to stuff your ego and get to work.” Tain stared at him for a moment, watching the heat rise in the man’s face. “I mean it. Either get back in that office and do your damn job or get the hell out. I don’t have time for your shit.”

  Tain’s cell rang then, but he remained still, staring at Luke. Finally the constable backed off and returned to the office.

  He flipped the cell open and heard the words before it was even at his ear. “What the hell is going on?”

  “I told you I’d call, Ash.”

  “Well, I’ve already had a call from Smythe. He says his client is refusing to cooperate unless we stay out of it.”

  “Oh for Christ’s sake.”

  “Didn’t you talk to him?”

  “No. I was too busy dealing with Luke.”

  “Luke? What his problem now?”

  “I have a new appreciation for Craig’s ability to put up with Geller’s self-centered bullshit all these months.”

  “Tain…”

  “What?

  “Back to the point. Did you get a trace?”

  “Yes.”

  “Same location?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, nobody left here, so that means whoever it is is either in that house or sophisticated enough to have some sort of relay system in place, routing the call source. Details?”

  “They raised i
t to a million. One A.M. in a black knapsack, at the water park at Rocky Point.”

  “Makes a statement, doesn’t it?”

  “And guess who they want to do the drop.”

  “Mrs. Reimer.”

  “Smythe told you?”

  “No. Just a hunch. We’re going to have someone replace us here. Let’s meet at the station in half an hour.”

  “What about Luke?”

  “Buy him a candy and tell him he’s a good boy.”

  “How can I do that after I threatened to send him home to mommy if he doesn’t quit whining?”

  She laughed. “You didn’t.” When he didn’t respond she groaned. “You did. See, I always knew the old Tain was still alive and well under the polite veneer.”

  “It’s your fault.”

  “Hey, don’t hold back on my account. There’s something perversely amusing about seeing you deflate a man’s ego.”

  Ashlyn hung up the phone.

  “The second shift is in place,” Liam told her as he started the car. “You and your partner, you get along?”

  She nodded. “I’ve known him a long time. Ever since I was in plainclothes.”

  He glanced at her. “And judging from your age that’s been, what? Three months?”

  “Almost two years. What about you? No partner?”

  “I’ve been solo for a while. My partner was shot and killed during a call.”

  Ashlyn swallowed. Part of her didn’t want to talk about it, but he seemed pretty relaxed. If she said nothing, would it make him wonder why? “Were you there?”

  He nodded. “You can take every precaution and things still go wrong.”

  “Did you get the shooter?”

  “Sure. We got her. Nine-year-old girl, freaking out because her mother was just shot by her pimp. Guy drops the gun to go through her pockets and the kid picks it up. Just our luck, we aren’t even two blocks away. We’re going in the front, another pair of officers are heading in from the back. John’s in the door first and he’s talking to her, real calm, but the pimp, he flips out and tries to get the gun and bang. Gets John right in the neck.”

  She remembered reading about it then. The other officers had just been coming in. Shot automatically. The pimp and the girl had both died.

  “Sorry.”

  He looked at her. “Yeah, well, we all have our crosses to bear, right? Your partner looked at me like he wasn’t so sure he could trust me.”

  “Yeah, well, Tain watches my back. It’s nothing personal.”

  They made it to Zidani’s office before Tain, and when he walked in the first thing Zidani said was, “Where’s Luke?”

  “Handling Byron Smythe,” Ashlyn said automatically as she avoided Tain’s glance. “The family’s threatening to not cooperate if we’re involved with the drop.”

  She ran him through the details quickly.

  “Okay, those are the facts.” Zidani looked from Ashlyn to Tain. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Everyone was silent for a moment. Liam, who was leaning against the wall, arms folded across his chest, spoke first. “The callers specifically wanted Mrs. Reimer to leave the money. How does that tie in with the theory that this might be someone with a grudge against Mr. Reimer because of his business dealings?”

  Ashlyn paused. “Well, it doesn’t. At least, not that I can tell.”

  “But you knew it was the mother. I heard you on the phone,” Liam said.

  “Look,” she sighed, “there’s no direct proof, and I don’t like to operate on wild theories. But when we went to notify the family about Jeffrey’s murder Mrs. Reimer lied to us.”

  “Christopher Reimer lied as well,” Zidani said.

  “Which can be explained any number of ways. Shock at seeing one or both of his parents murder his little brother. We all know abused kids often protect their abusers, and he may have felt the need to lie to protect what was left of his family. That’s one possibility. Another option is that it wasn’t a family member. Someone was threatening the family, trying to extort money or get them to give up on a business venture. They took it too far and killed Jeffrey. That one has more holes in it. How did Shannon get away after being stabbed? Why demand Mrs. Reimer bring the money? That still doesn’t make sense.”

  “What if Mrs. Reimer was having an affair?” Zidani asked. “Or even Mr. Reimer, and his mistress is planning to kill Tracy Reimer?”

  “There’s no evidence to suggest either Mr. or Mrs. Reimer was having an affair,” Tain said.

  “I’ve had Sims looking at the family hard and running checks on their finances. At least a hint of an affair should have turned up,” Ashlyn said. “Nothing has.”

  “Even in the first scenario, with the murderer being a family member, it doesn’t explain why they’d want Mrs. Reimer to bring the money,” Liam said.

  “But it does make sense if the kidnapper is Shannon,” Tain replied.

  Ashlyn nodded. “Everything makes sense if Shannon’s the one demanding the money.”

  “You mean, you think she is guilty of Jeffrey’s murder?” Zidani rubbed his jaw. “This case is such a mess. I’m beginning to think I should have legally compelled the Reimer family to cooperate with the investigation.”

  “We wouldn’t be here now if you had,” Ashlyn said.

  “Obviously,” Zidani said dryly.

  “No, seriously. I think their behavior has pointed us in the right direction from the start. We’ve explored all the avenues open to us, but from the beginning it’s been clear this was personal. We started off believing one member of the family killed another. We just didn’t know why. I still think that’s likely what happened, just that it wasn’t Shannon. Remember, Shannon was planning to run away. Things went horribly wrong. Her brother was murdered. She was stabbed. Somehow she managed to escape and get treatment, and then she disappeared. Possibly she fled before Jeffrey was killed, which explains why she called 911. Not a guilty girl on the run but a girl running scared. The alleged kidnappers knew how much money the family could access on short notice. They knew the father’s personal cell phone number. And they want Shannon’s mother to deliver the money to the place her son was murdered.”

  “Blood money,” Liam said. “Make her own up to her crime. Maybe that’s the whole reason for the ransom demand. Not because they actually want the cash, but because they want to prove Tracy Reimer’s guilty.”

  “Shannon could have turned herself in and done that,” Zidani said.

  “With the newspapers reporting that she’s a suspect? She’s injured, potentially traumatized from her brother’s death and afraid she’ll go to jail. You can’t expect her to be rational about this,” Ashlyn said.

  “Speaking of newspapers, have you talked to Craig?” Zidani asked.

  “No.”

  “And you haven’t talked to any reporters, have you?”

  “Not since this morning.” Ashlyn glanced at Tain. “She was waiting on my doorstep.”

  “What did you tell her?” Zidani asked.

  “Nothing.”

  Her boss stared at her for a moment, his eyes cold, but he nodded. “Okay. We need to decide how we want to handle this. I’m assuming you plan to monitor the house and take down any suspects once they leave.”

  “No,” Ashlyn said. “I want them to do the drop.”

  “That’s a hell of a risk, isn’t it? Something goes wrong, the press will have your ass.”

  “We have to plan like the drop will go down. For one thing, it’s still possible this is someone who knows how to reroute a call so that the tracing information is incorrect. The address could be bogus. If we monitor the house and don’t do the drop we could lose our only chance to make contact, and if this is a real kidnapping they could kill Shannon. We can’t risk that. This is why I don’t like to waste time playing with theories when we have a clock ticking. Let’s just deal with the facts. There’s a ransom demand. We know the time and place. Shannon’s missing, and injured. Those are the only absolutes we�
��ve got.”

  “Okay. We set up two teams, one at the house, one at Rocky Point,” Zidani said. “I can pull Sims—”

  “No. I want him monitoring Shannon’s cell, just in case. If Shannon does try to take the money, this may be when she uses her phone. Plus, I want us to plant a wire and a video camera at the scene of the drop. Move everything Sims has into a van and we’ve got the site fully monitored.”

  “Where will you be?”

  Ashlyn looked at Tain, then turned back to Zidani. “Liam and I will return to New Westminster. We have to assume if the kidnappers are there, they have a car. We’ll time the trip and be ready to move. Tain will be in charge of the team at the park. I need you to get the van ready for Sims, get the surveillance equipment ready, and prep the team,” she said to Tain. He nodded. She turned to Zidani. “And I need you to smooth things over with Smythe and make sure he understands if his clients don’t cooperate, we’ll charge them for obstructing justice, hindering a police investigation and whatever else we can think of.”

  “Okay. I’ll have Luke report to Tain.”

  “Luke stays where he is.” Before Zidani could argue with her, Ashlyn continued, “Look, at this point, we have no reason to assume the kidnappers will try to make contact again, but they’ve already changed the rules midstream. We can’t take a chance that they’ll try to change the time or the location. If we aren’t monitoring that phone, Smythe might not notify us. I need Luke there.”

  “He’s not going to like it.”

  “Too bad for him. We don’t get to pick and choose our assignments. Sims has been on telephonic surveillance for days and he’s not complaining.”

  After a moment, when she didn’t back down from Zidani’s stare, he nodded. “Okay. Everyone has somewhere they need to be.” After they started moving toward the door he said, “A word, Constable Hart.”

  She exchanged a glance with Tain, ignored Liam’s curious look, and waited until her partner had closed the door. “If this is about Luke—”

  “It’s about Craig. How’s he handling things?”

  “How does he seem to be handling them?”

  He walked around his desk and sat down. “Is that your way of telling me to mind my own business?”