The Frailty of Flesh

by Sandra Ruttan

  “When was the last time you heard from Craig?”

  “He sent me a short text message last night when I was still in New Westminster before the drop.” It seemed like days ago now, when in reality it was only a matter of hours.

  “Did he say anything to suggest he was in trouble?” Zidani asked.

  “No. It was just a short message, saying we’d talk later. I never replied. We were busy with the case…”

  “That’s fine.” Zidani sat down on his desk. “They’re running some tests, just to be on the safe side, but he wasn’t out for long.”

  “Do they have any idea what happened?” Tain asked.

  Zidani drew a breath and looked away. The hesitation was enough.

  “What aren’t you telling us?” Ashlyn heard her words, and she knew she’d said them, but they still sounded far away, like they’d come from someone else. The calm, the lack of emotion, surprised her.

  “We have Donny Lockridge’s parole officer checking on his whereabouts. His family lives in Kelowna.” Zidani’s eyes squeezed shut for a moment, as he rubbed their corners. Then he sighed. Aware of her own fatigue, Ashlyn had forgotten that Zidani had also been working all night. “We understand he spoke to Donny’s sister-in-law yesterday afternoon. A short time later, she ended up in the hospital. Constable Bob Williams informed Craig, and he said he spent a few hours with him last night. Williams dropped him off at his motel shortly before he was found.” Zidani handed her a slip of paper. “There’s the number where he can be reached at the hospital.”

  Once the paper was in her hand she said, “Thanks,” and turned to leave.

  “Tain and Sims can handle things from here. You can cancel your time off?” he asked Tain.

  Ashlyn looked at her partner and saw him nod. Time off? He hadn’t said anything.

  When she looked at Zidani he was watching her. “Go home,” he said. “Call Craig. Make sure he’s okay, fly to Kelowna, whatever. Take a few days off.”

  “Is that what you’d tell Craig to do if I was hurt?”

  “It’s what I’d tell anyone here to do if their partner was assaulted. It’s a family emergency.”

  “It’s not that simple and you know it. Craig was hurt on the job. Maybe if he was a teacher or a mechanic I could see your point, but he and I both knew the risks when we joined the RCMP. You think he’ll be happy if I drop everything and jeopardize this investigation so that I can hold his hand in the hospital?”

  “If it was you—”

  “It isn’t me.” She could hear the edge in her voice, the one that sounded like a barrier being thrown up in a desperate attempt to keep her emotions in check, but it wasn’t succeeding. Ashlyn took a deep breath. “Look, I appreciate the offer. Really, I do. But you’re telling me Craig’s going to be fine. That is what you’re saying?” She waited as Zidani glanced at Tain, then looked back at her and nodded. “Then I have a job to do here.”

  She held up her hand as Tain started to speak. “I know you could handle things without me, but nobody knows as much about this investigation as I do. We’re running out of time before we have to decide what to do about Shannon. Just give me ten minutes to make a phone call.”

  Zidani kept his gaze on the floor as he folded his arms across his chest. Then he looked at her and nodded. “Okay.”

  She reached behind her and opened the door, turned and went back to her desk. Tain hadn’t followed, she assumed to give her as much privacy as possible. It wasn’t until she put the bottled water on the desk and reached for the handset that she realized her hands were shaking.

  How could she be so furious with him and so afraid at the same time? She wondered if Steve was grappling with the same dichotomy of emotions.

  “Shit. Steve.” Did he even know? She sank into her chair, picked up the phone and dialed the hospital. Once they’d patched her through to Craig’s room she listened to the phone ring and ring and ring. No answer.

  Steve answered his phone on the second ring and listened quietly while she told him what they knew.

  “Are you going to Kelowna?” he asked when she was finished.

  “No. I have the Reimer murder investigation.” She paused. “I don’t think Craig would want me to drop everything when he’s going to be okay.”

  “You’re right. He knew the risks of the job when he signed up.”

  “Steve, we haven’t really talked since you came back.”

  His voice was calm. “Ashlyn, this problem with this case he’s on, it’s between him and me. I’m sorry if it makes things tense—”

  “It’s not that, Steve. Well, not just that. Vish Dhaval has been making threats.”

  “How’d you find out?”

  “Craig’s partner said something.”

  “Ash, I don’t know Craig’s new partner, but I can’t imagine Craig telling someone else about something like this.”

  “He didn’t.”

  “So how do you know?”

  Steve’s voice was so calm, so quiet, it was comforting. There was no judgment in his words, though she had no doubt that he could guess the answer. She told him what she’d done.

  “You feel you’ve betrayed his trust, but you’re angry because he kept something from you. In a way, he’s guilty of the same thing you’re beating yourself up for.”

  “It’s all become such a mess. I keep looking back over the last few days and wondering how we got here.”

  “I’m the last person Craig will listen to right now.”

  “I-I know.” She managed to hold back what she was really thinking, her sincere shock that of all people, Craig didn’t trust Steve.

  “If it was the case, Ashlyn, I’d say he did the right thing. Facts first.”

  A sadness had crept into his words, and she knew what he was thinking. It was more than the case. That was the problem.

  “I have to go, Steve. I haven’t been able to reach Craig, and Tain’s waiting for me.”

  “You take care of yourself.”

  “You too.”

  She cut the call, then dialed the hospital again. It took less than a minute for her to be connected to Craig’s room, but again the phone rang and rang, and nobody answered.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  He was aware of the light before he opened his eyes. A shadow passed over him.

  What Craig could hear was the sound of voices, but he couldn’t make out the words. They were muted, the tones hushed. There was a noise, like a bell ringing, over and over and over again. Finally it stopped.

  Where was he? He knew he wasn’t where he was supposed to be. Part of him didn’t know if he should open his eyes until he’d figured things out. What was the last thing he remembered? Driving to Kelowna. Talking to that woman, the jewelry, the courier’s office, a glass of alcohol on a table in a nondescript room. The ringing bell in the distance started again. He’d been in a motel room, looking at his cell phone…

  That’s what the ringing was. A phone. Suddenly it all snapped into place. The constable. The other case. Donny and his brother, suspects. Snow falling hard, and going back to the motel. Darkness pulling itself over his head from behind…

  He was in the hospital. The blurry images of a man in uniform and a nurse standing at the end of his bed greeted him as he opened his eyes. They were both familiar, but it took a moment for him to access their names.

  “Williams.”

  They both turned.

  “I’ll get the doctor,” the nurse said.

  “Julie,” Craig said after she’d left the room.

  Williams glanced at the door, then at Craig, then nodded. “That’s right. That’s good. Always a good sign if you remember who the pretty women are.”

  “What does it say that I remember you?”

  Williams grinned. “Not sure.” The smile faded. “How do you feel?”

  “Like someone clocked me over the head with a sledgehammer.”

  “What do you remember?”

  Craig stared at him. In Williams’s place,
he’d be asking the exact same thing. It was crucial that Craig tell them anything that could help them find the person who’d attacked him…

  “You don’t know who did it?”

  Williams ran a hand over his head. “Well, I can guess. I mean, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist, does it?”

  “They didn’t take anything?”

  “Not as far as we can tell. Your room was ransacked, but your cell phone, wallet, money, computer—none of that was touched. They were looking for something specific, and judging from the way they turned everything upside down, I don’t think they found it.”

  Craig nodded and closed his eyes.

  “Whoa. Don’t go back to sleep just yet. The doctor wants to talk to you.”

  The nurse returned with the doctor. Introductions were a bit of a blur while the doctor checked Craig’s vision, asked a few questions and nodded his approval.

  “I think we’ll keep you overnight just as a precaution.” The doctor scribbled on Craig’s chart, then left.

  “Don’t worry about the hotel,” Williams said. “Once we’ve finished with the room all your things will be packed up and brought here.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Do you know what they were after?”

  “Assuming it was them?”

  “You have anyone else running around who might want to take a swing at you?”

  “Well, maybe not in Kelowna.” He wondered about Vish Dhaval, and how serious his threats were. Not serious enough to follow Craig 395 kilometers into the interior in the winter. “It must have been what Brandy gave me. The locket. It could prove Donny killed Hope.”

  Williams frowned. “Why would that matter now?”

  “The lawsuit.”

  “What did you do with it?”

  Craig closed his eyes. “It’s safe.”

  After a moment, he felt Williams lean toward him. “I know you’re tired. You want me to get you anything? We’ve got officers in the hall.” Craig opened his mouth to protest, but Williams shook his head. “Don’t argue. You’re in my town and as long as you’re here we want you in one piece. Next time you get beat up do it in your own city.”

  “Noted. Maybe a newspaper? Something to read?” Still looking for that distraction. He winced as he tried to sit up. How was it being hit on the head could make your body stiff? It must have been from falling on the floor. “Unless you’ve got any case notes you want to drop off.”

  Williams headed for the door. “I’ll see what they’ve got in the gift shop.”

  “We handed Jody Hoath and Dan Patel back to the New West PD so they can talk to them about their drug dealer,” Sims said. “But everything we have from the phone records confirms their story. Nurani orchestrated the whole thing, and the left hand didn’t know what the right hand was doing.”

  They were gathered in the room Sims had used for monitoring Shannon’s cell phone, Luke and Zidani sitting on one side of the table, Ashlyn and Tain on the other. Sims was at the end. Ever since Smythe had learned they’d found Shannon he’d been putting pressure on Zidani to release her and let Tracy Reimer see her daughter.

  He was also under pressure from his bosses to close this case.

  “She had to be planning it with Shannon. Why else?” Luke said. “I don’t think we should release Shannon. That girl is guilty.”

  “Says what? Your gut? That won’t even get us to trial. We need evidence,” Ashlyn said.

  “You get to bank on your woman’s intuition and that’s okay, but the minute one of us guys relies on our instincts we’re irrational?”

  “That’s not what I’m saying, and if you had half a brain you’d know it. We rely on instincts when we’re tracking leads and looking at suspects, but when it comes to holding someone or charging them, we have to consider the law. I realize it’s a real inconvenience to you that no judge is going to say, ‘Luke Geller thinks she’s guilty? Lock her up and throw away the key!’ but most people go to jail on more than an opinion.”

  The chair Luke had been sitting on clattered to the floor as he jumped to his feet and pounded the table with his fist. “I don’t know who’s worse, you or that jackass of a boyfriend I’ve been stuck with all these months, but I’m sure sick of your attitude. If you weren’t a woman—”

  “Don’t feed me your chauvinistic bullshit. The only reason you won’t touch me is because I’d kick your ass.”

  “Enough!” Zidani glared at them. “Luke, sit down and shut it. Ashlyn is right. We simply don’t have any evidence to hold Shannon.”

  Luke looked like he’d rather reach across the table and throttle Ashlyn, but he picked up the chair and did as he was told. He turned to Zidani and spoke calmly. “She confessed.”

  Ashlyn wondered how Luke knew that. She certainly hadn’t filled him in on what Shannon had said during questioning. “To being responsible for Jeffrey’s death. She doesn’t know anything about her father’s murder. And if you checked with your source, you’d know Shannon only confessed because she doesn’t want to go back to that house.”

  “Have we heard anything from social services?” Zidani asked.

  Tain shook his head. “I tried again after I left your office. Some song and dance about the case worker being off sick and playing catch-up. I told them if we didn’t hear from them today we’d be in their office with a court order tomorrow and would personally make their lives hell.”

  Zidani frowned. “What did they say to that?”

  “The woman laughed and said hell was just a different name for where she was already.”

  The thinly veiled loathing seeped through in Tain’s words, and Ashlyn wondered again about his issues with social services, then reminded herself this wasn’t the time.

  “Okay, what’s next? I feel like we’re running out of options here,” Zidani said.

  “There’s still that witness we weren’t able to track down. We meant to get back there, but the kidnapping situation got in the way.”

  “And we were going to Christopher Reimer’s school,” Tain added. “Now that he’s missing that’s more than just background.”

  Zidani nodded. “Start there. We’ll release Shannon and Tracy Reimer.”

  “What happens when we do have proof of her guilt? We won’t be able to find her again.” Luke swore. “Shannon already tried to run once.”

  “Then you can babysit her,” Ashlyn said.

  Zidani nodded. “Luke, you’ll take the first shift. I’ll make it clear to Smythe that for their own safety, we want police protection.”

  Luke scowled as Ashlyn stood and nodded at Tain. “We’ll go break the news to Shannon.”

  It didn’t look like Shannon Reimer had moved since they left her earlier. Her shoulders sagged, the stain of tears on her skin was still obvious, but her eyes had a resigned look of defeat.

  As though she knew that things were completely out of her control now.

  Tain watched as Ashlyn sat down across from her. “Your mother wants to see you.”

  “So?” The tone was flat, void of emotion, and Shannon didn’t look up.

  “She’s had a pretty rough night,” Ashlyn said.

  “Oh, waah for her.”

  Ashlyn glanced up at Tain.

  Shannon appeared to notice the hesitation and twisted her head to look at him as well. “If you’re going to take a run at the fatherly advice crap, save it.”

  “You’re pretty tough, Shannon. At least, you want to think you are,” Tain said.

  “Whatever.” She turned in her seat, her back to him.

  “We found your dad’s body last night. Shot and killed in your living room.” Tain paused. “Guess that doesn’t bug you.”

  She was still for a moment, then shrugged.

  “You know, all you’re doing is wasting our time.”

  “Then leave.”

  Tain walked around and knelt in front of her. “You can sit there and pretend you don’t care.”

  “I don’t! He’s dead, big deal. Not like it’s a n
ews flash.”

  “I think you do care,” he said softly. “I think you just wish you didn’t. That way, Jeffrey’s death wouldn’t hurt so much, but it’s tearing you apart.” He watched as a tear trickled down her cheek and dripped off her chin. “We want to help you.”

  She hastily brushed the tears away but still didn’t look up.

  “You know what else I think, Shannon? I think everyone’s let you down. Your mom. Your dad. Teachers at school. Social services. Things got so bad at home that you couldn’t take it anymore and decided to run away. But you never meant for Jeffrey to get hurt. Nobody blames you.”

  Her shoulders shook as she started to cry again, and she covered her face with her hands. “I do.”

  “Then help us make it right, Shannon. We need to find your brother.”

  She dropped her hands from her face as her head snapped up.

  “Christopher’s missing. We need to find him.”

  Shannon pulled back as she started shaking her head. “He’s…missing. No.”

  “We’re going to find him. We found you, right?”

  The door opened and Zidani offered a hasty apology as Tracy Reimer pushed past him. She stopped beside Tain. “You don’t have to talk to them anymore, sweetie.”

  “I’m not your ‘sweetie,’ ” Shannon hissed as she turned away and faced the wall.

  “Come on. We’re leaving.” Tracy Reimer didn’t reach for her daughter. The gentle tone she’d used at first had disappeared. “Now.”

  Shannon jumped out of the chair and turned to look at Tain as she backed away from her mother. “Do I have to go with…with her?”

  Tain looked at Ashlyn, then Zidani, who looked at Smythe. The answer was clear.

  Shannon’s back was pressed against the wall as she screamed, “How can you make me go with her? I thought you said you wanted to help me?”

  “Your mom wants to take you home,” Smythe said as he walked into the room and stood beside Tracy. “She’s your mother. Your family.”

  The girl bolted and went for the door, but Zidani stopped her. Smythe and Tracy closed in, each taking an arm. She wriggled and pulled, but with her fatigue was no match for the two of them.