Deadline

by Craig McLay

  Colin made it through the door and found himself in a dark, narrow hallway that led past an empty manager’s office to a set of stairs. He raced up the stairs and found himself facing a metal emergency door that appeared to be the only way out. A faded red and white warning on the handle advised that the alarm would sound if he pushed it. Colin, however, was way past worrying about that, and shoved the door open without a second thought.

  Colin burst outside and ploughed directly into three men standing in the alley behind the building.

  The first of the three was Barry Zito, aged 23, a drug dealer with a long and undistinguished record of arrests. He was about Colin’s height, had roughly the same hair colour and was also wearing a black leather jacket, although his was the zip-up kind with elasticized wrists and waist. He liked to do most of his business in the network of alleys off Norfolk Street because there were a lot of options for getting in and out if he got into a jam, either with the cops, a client or a competitor.

  The second of the three was Thomas O’Riordan, 48, the owner of Tommy’s Bar & Grill on Carlyle. O’Riordan was there with his head bouncer, Teshaun Brandlebury, 31. O’Riordan was a tiny man with thinning red hair and a lisp that caused many of his clientele to think that he was gay. He was there to buy some uppers for his night staff, as strippers didn’t tend to make quite as many drink sales if they kept falling asleep in their client’s laps. He always brought Teshaun, who was not nicknamed “Black Thor” for no reason, along on these deals just to make sure everything went according to plan.

  Which everything was, right up until Colin came out of nowhere and knocked two of them to the ground.

  “What the f—” was all Zito got out as the red pills flew out of the bag and scattered on the wet pavement like candy from a piñata.

  O’Riordan, meanwhile, just made a dull “ooof!” sound as Colin’s elbow ended up in his solar plexus and he went flying to the ground himself. Zito tried to get out of the way, tripped over his own ankle, and landed on his ass.

  Brandlebury was leaning down to intervene when he heard the sirens. It occurred to him at that point that he didn’t particularly enjoy accompanying his boss on these little pharmaceutical runs anymore and now would be as good a time as any to look for another line of work.

  -54-

  Giordino burst through the back door to find a small, red-haired man with a confused expression on his face sitting in a puddle.

  “Where’d he go?” Giordino yelled, looking around wildly.

  “That ath-hole!” said the red-haired man. “He juth took off!”

  Giordino looked down and noticed red pills scattered on the ground. The man in the puddle, meanwhile, had just noticed that the woman with the sopping hair who had just come through the door was also carrying a gun. Giordino elected to ignore the pills. The red-haired man decided it was a good idea to become as cooperative as possible.

  “That way!” he said, pointing down one of the alleys. “I wath cutting through here on the way to work and he attacked me!”

  Giordino ran around the man and checked her surroundings. Many of the buildings on Norfolk and Carlyle were heritage buildings, which meant that they had been built before modern considerations like transport trucks and receiving entrances had taken precedence. There were at least eight separate alleys that led out of the centre. Some were dead ends and others came out onto the street. None of them were lit up or wide enough for a car, which made them a popular destination for junkies, hookers, muggers and other members of the downtown glitterati.

  She spotted Mitchell running down the alley that the red-haired man had indicated. He was only about 30 meters away. She raised the walkie-talkie she’d grabbed from one of the uniforms when she’d doubled back through the park.

  “I’ve got Mitchell!” she said. “He’s in the alley behind the dry cleaners! He’s heading for Wright Street near the cell phone place!”

  Giordino stuffed the walkie-talkie back in her pocket and took off after Mitchell at full speed. He wasn’t moving very fast. He appeared to be limping. Must have trashed his ankle when he jumped the fence. Probably took some of the adrenaline wearing off before he noticed.

  She jumped over an overturned garbage can and continued to make up ground. Because of the clouds and the rain, it was hard to see much, but she could tell that Mitchell was really labouring now. He was actually holding his leg while he ran and appeared to be in serious pain.

  He was almost at the entrance to the alley when the blue and white pulled up with lights and blaring siren to block him in. Mitchell stopped and tried to turn around, which was when she jumped on him from behind.

  “You’re under arrest!” she said, pinning him to the ground with her knee while she fished out her handcuffs. She pulled them off her belt and locked Mitchell’s hands behind his back while the two uniforms got out of the cruiser, guns drawn. She made sure Mitchell’s hands were firmly secured and then stood up to flip him over.

  Except it wasn’t Mitchell.

  “Who the hell are you?” Giordino yelled at the stranger lying on the ground underneath her. He was roughly Mitchell’s height and build, but he had a beaky nose and drawn, rat-like face that was oddly familiar.

  “Hey, I know this guy!” said one of the uniforms. “I’ve busted him a couple times for dealing over by the high school. How ya doin’, Zito?”

  The man on the ground looked up at them with a sour expression. “I want my lawyer, man. This is, like, brutalistic treatment.”

  “Where the hell is Mitchell?” Giordino asked.

  Zito looked confused. “Mitchell who? I’m, like, an innocent bystander, lady.”

  Giordino cursed and sagged against the wall. She had lost him. If he had taken one of the other alleys, Mitchell could be almost anywhere.

  The key question, she knew, was trying to figure out where he was going next.

  -55-

  Devries did not like having to use the regular staff bathroom.

  The lights worked on a money-saving but faulty motion sensor device that had a habit of cutting out unpredictably. The admin building staff had complained about it numerous times to maintenance, but they couldn’t seem to figure out what the problem was. Devries couldn’t use the private washroom adjoining his office because they were reinstalling new quartz countertops and the room was a mess, so he had been forced to go down the hall to use the other one.

  All the stress he was under was playing hell with his digestion. No amount of oat bran seemed to be making any difference, so he had gone to his doctor to see what kind of medical options were open. The stuff he had prescribed had worked all right, but that wasn’t much help when you were halfway through your business when the lights went out. He had tried waving his arms, but that hadn’t made any difference. The sensor only went off if the door was opened or closed. The lights were supposed to stay on for eight minutes before shutting off again.

  He felt his way to the sink, washed his hands, and groped blindly for the paper towel. He found the dispenser, but there was no towel in it. He cursed quietly and dried his hands on his trousers while he staggered towards the door. Fortunately, no one came in while he was there.

  It was almost 4 p.m. and the building was practically deserted. Most of the staff tried to arrange their schedules so that they could cut out a little earlier on Fridays, but all the media attention on the murders had turned the place into more of a ghost town than usual. Many of the staff were calling in sick or insisting on security detail to walk them to their cars every morning and afternoon. Ludnick had balked at that idea, saying he wasn’t about to waste his already scarce resources babysitting a bunch of academics who were terrified of their own shadows.

  Devries made his way back to his office. The only light on was the small green lamp on his desk. He crossed the room quickly and bent down to start packing up his briefcase.

  Except it wasn’t there.

  He frowned. He was sure he had left it sitting next to the private file cabinet be
hind his desk. He hadn’t taken it with him to the bathroom. He was sure of that. He walked around the desk and checked the other side with mounting panic. Not only were there papers in there that he didn’t want anyone else to see, the Glock was in there, too. Had somebody come in while he was out and stolen it? He was just getting down on all fours to check under his seat when a voice interrupted him.

  “So what was it worth, Peter?”

  Devries let out a squeak and jumped, hitting his head on the underside of the desk. He stood up and looked around the room. “Who’s there?”

  The lamp flicked on next to the meeting area opposite his desk. Colin was sitting in one of the leather armchairs. His hair was wet and unruly, but otherwise he looked totally relaxed. Devries realized that he had walked right past him without even noticing.

  “The cops are looking for you!” Devries said.

  “Yes, I know,” Colin said. “You didn’t answer my question.”

  Devries noticed that his briefcase was sitting on the table in front of Colin. It was still closed. Maybe he had come back into the office before Colin had been able to start going through it. Was it locked? He honestly couldn’t remember. If Colin hadn’t looked through it, the situation might still be salvageable. Maybe he could stall long enough until help arrived. Hell, maybe he could even talk the guy into giving himself up.

  “Look, Colin,” Devries said, adopting what he hoped was a more reasonable tone. “I know you’ve somehow gotten mixed up in some trouble. We’ve had our differences in the past, but I promise I’ll do everything I can to help you.”

  Colin smiled. “That’s awfully nice of you, Pete. Hell, maybe if I’m arrested and locked away for a while, I can just re-apply when I get out. You’d make a lot more money from me that way.”

  Devries swallowed. “I don’t know what you—”

  Colin stood up. “The Fresh Start Educational Rehabilitation Community Partnership Program.”

  Devries started backing towards his desk. “How did you get in here?”

  “Through the door,” Colin said. “Your secretary is having an affair with the facilities maintenance supervisor. All those dental appointments she had last month weren’t really dental appointments, although there were probably some similarities. Let’s not beat the undergrowth to death here, though. You still haven’t answered my question.”

  “What—”

  “I asked you how much it was worth,” Colin said. “Ballpark it for me.”

  Devries saw Colin walking around the table and started moving the other way. If he could just get to his briefcase…

  “Ballpark what?”

  “Shalene Nakogee,” Colin said. “How much was her life worth?”

  Devries did his best to look confused. “What?”

  “Devane, I don’t care about so much,” Colin said. “I think the world’s probably better off without him. Seth, I don’t know. He was an ass and probably a drug dealer, but still. Shalene was a nice girl desperately trying to get out of a shitty situation. She deserved better.”

  Devries continued to edge around the table. Colin didn’t seem to understand what he was doing. Just a few more feet…

  “I don’t understand,” Devries said.

  Colin laughed. “Why am I not surprised?”

  Devries made a dive for the briefcase, spinning it around and opening it up. The Glock wasn’t there.

  “You’re looking for this, I imagine?”

  Devries turned around to see Colin holding the gun. The colour went out of his face.

  “I’m not sure why you’d want this,” Colin said. “It’s actually the least dangerous item in that case.”

  “Don’t shoot me,” Devries said, holding up his hands.

  Colin laughed. “I have to admit, it is tempting,” he said. “You know, Peter, I almost have to give you some credit on this one. On the surface, it looks almost noble. You take violent offenders and give them a second shot at a college education. But that’s not really what this is about.”

  “What do you want?” Devries said, keeping his hands in the air.

  “I want you to answer my question,” Colin said. “The prison proposal. That was the key. That was the thing that got this whole rotten business started. Prisons are like toxic waste dumps. No one wants one of those in their backyard. How do you get people on side? The good, old-fashioned way, of course—you back a dump truck full of money up to the property line and keep pouring until you can’t hear them anymore.”

  Colin motioned for Devries to sit down. He obeyed.

  “The Fresh Start program was just your little slice of that pie,” Colin continued. “Well, not so little, really. Literally billions of dollars. And all that money for upgrades you never made. Lighting. Security systems. Structural changes and new construction. I would ask where all of that went, but I’ve got a pretty good idea,”

  “That program’s still in the development stages—” Devries said.

  “It’s not in the fucking development stages because one of them’s running around here killing people!” Colin spat. “You cast too wide a net, Peter. You were supposed to start with the non-violent ones—the fraudsters, the petty drug stuff—but you went straight after the big money, didn’t you? The more serious the offence, the more money you get. Shit, I’ll bet half of them don’t even know they’re enrolled.”

  Devries’s mouth was opening and closing, but no sounds were coming out of it. “We…uh…”

  “But then you got something you weren’t expecting,” Colin said. “Your wide net pulled in a homicidal psycho wired into a thousand years’ worth of religious whack job craziness. A guy like that on a college campus? That’s like putting Freddy Krueger in charge of a daycare.”

  “Every one of the candidates was carefully screened by Corrections prior to—”

  “Oh, I’m sure,” Colin said. “Anyone who shows up on the first day carrying a chainsaw and a severed human head is told to go home. Just like our friend Devane. You ignored all the nasty shit he was up to until he crushed that kid’s hand in the lift. At which point you just quietly gave him the boot and got Ludnick to pull all the reports. How many other times has Ludnick done that for you?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Devries said, his throat dry.

  “You know who it is, don’t you?” Colin said, his eyes narrowing. He held up the gun. “Is that why you’re carrying this around? Are you and Ludnick hoping to take care of business all by yourselves again?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous!” Devries said. “That’s…a different matter.”

  “Just need the money, do you, Peter?” Colin said. “What is it? Drugs? Gambling? Women? All three? You might as well tell me, because I’ll find out eventually. There sure are a lot of online betting sites bookmarked on your laptop. A lot of nasty emails from somebody with the same initials as the justice minister, too. Have you been failing to make some of your promised campaign contributions for getting all this business steered in your direction?”

  Devries sagged. “What would it take for you to forget all this?”

  Colin shook his head. “See, the last time we were in this position, you started with bribery and worked your way down. What made you think it would work this time?”

  Before Devries could answer, a third voice cut him off.

  “Okay, kid, let’s put down the gun.”

  -56-

  Colin turned to see Jerome Ludnick step cautiously into the room.

  “Oh good,” Colin said sarcastically. “It’s security.”

  Ludnick held his hand out. “Gimmie the gun, kid. We all know you ain’t gonna shoot anybody. Just gimmie the gun and we’ll all sit quietly and wait for the cops like a bunch of good boys.”

  “You called the cops?” Devries said, alarmed. “Jerome, we can’t hand him over to the police! He knows—”

  “Shut up, Peter,” Ludnick snapped. “He’s a wanted murderer. Almost killed a cop in the park. Nobody’s gonna believe a damn thing h
e says.”

  “But—”

  “I said shut it,” Ludnick said. He considered trying to tackle Colin, but it had been a long time since he’d had to do anything like that and he wasn’t confident that he would be able to get a hold of the gun before something happened. He was quite confident that he could handle Colin once the gun was no longer an issue.

  Colin turned and pointed the gun at Ludnick. “Stop walking or I’ll shoot you in the nuts.”

  Ludnick laughed and shook his head. “You ain’t gonna shoot anybody.”

  Colin shot Ludnick in the nuts.

  Ludnick screamed like a bear and collapsed on the ground, grabbing his leg. Colin stood there for a moment, stunned. He couldn’t believe he had actually done it. He looked at Ludnick, who was writhing on the carpet, and noticed that he hadn’t actually hit him in the nuts. The bullet had gone in high up on the security chief’s thigh.

  Devries sat in the leather armchair, wide-eyed with fear. If he had believed Colin was unstable and unpredictable five minutes ago, he was now absolutely convinced of it.

  “I told him I would shoot him in the nuts if he didn’t stop walking, didn’t I?” Colin said.

  Devries nodded vigorously.

  “I mean, it’s not like I didn’t warn him.”

  Ludnick let out a screech and called Colin something that was not printable in a family newspaper. Blood was welling up under his palm and pooling on the dark green carpet.

  “I’ve never actually shot anybody before,” Colin said. “You know how people always tell you something’s not like they expected it would be? Well, that was pretty much exactly like I expected it would be.”

  Devries nodded again. He didn’t know what else to do. He was convinced that Colin was going to shoot him next.

  “And with that, I think I should probably be going,” Colin said. “Peter, you and I will need to continue our interview at a future date.”

  “Sure,” Devries said. Maybe he wasn’t going to be shot after all. “Anytime.”

  Colin walked around the writhing head of security and out the door. His phone beeped as he entered the hallway. He pulled it out and noticed that he had just received a very large email attachment from an unknown address. His filter had pegged it as junk, but he moved it back into the main inbox. He had a feeling it was a file he was going to want to examine closely.