Broken Faith

by Lois Cloarec Hart

  "Right across the street from little Rhi. Born and raised right there, damn their worthless hides," Olive said, glaring at a faded brown house on the opposite side of the road. "Had the nicest mother, but their Daddy was a worthless low-life. They're just chips off the old block. Wishta hell they'd move away."

  With deliberate casualness, Lee asked, "So, when you saw them last night, did they seem...oh, I dunno...different or anything."

  Olive narrowed her bright eyes at the big woman speculatively. "You some kind of cop?"

  "No. I'm in private security, but I am worried about Rhi. She had two near misses yesterday, and that just strikes me as more than coincidental."

  "And yer thinkin' Pike and Eddie mighta had somepin to do with that?" Olive took one final drag from her cigarette butt and ground it under her shoe.

  "I don't know. I've had run-ins with them before." Lee watched the intelligent old face closely.

  "Who hasn't?" Olive snorted. "The whole damn neighbourhood has crossed them one time or 'nother." She sighed deeply. "Hell, if I could tell ya somepin to nail them, I would, but they was just standin' there like the rest of us, watchin' the fire." She pushed her purse back on her thin arm and nodded briskly. "Gotta get goin'. Bin nice talkin' with ya. Give my regards to little Rhiannon."

  "I will. Thanks."

  Lee watched the elderly woman hobble briskly off, before turning to stare at the brothers' home. There was no sign of life about the place. Blinds were drawn, and the only living thing in the yard was a skinny mongrel nosing through piles of debris. Two motorcycles sat in the dirt driveway, and Lee crossed the street to take a closer look.

  Examining the bikes, she saw a thin layer of soot coating the bright chrome and surmised that the Harleys hadn't been moved since before the fire. Impulsively, she climbed the two stairs to the porch. Frowning at the flies buzzing around an overturned beer can and a half-eaten piece of pizza under a plastic chair, she shook her head and knocked on the door. There was no answer, and she tried twice more before giving up. The King brothers may have watched the excitement the previous night, but they were nowhere around now.

  Returning to Dana's car, she sat behind the wheel and pondered the situation. Her instincts were telling her there was much more here than met the eye, and that there were simply too many coincidences. Why had arsonists chosen this house to burn? She ran through the possibilities. Had Rhi angered her nasty neighbours to the point where they'd taken their revenge? Had Rhi's aunt burned her own house for the insurance? Was Rhi's near miss with the car connected to the fire in some way?

  Lee considered the first option. Certainly Pike and Eddie weren't above arson. She didn't think they were above anything as long as it was in their interests. But somehow she doubted that one run-in weeks previously would have triggered them to burn Rhi's house. She would need to check with Rhi to see if any additional incidents had occurred between her and the brothers since the confrontation in the alley. She would also need to check whether Hettie was in for a big insurance pay-off. The fact that she'd been playing cards with her friends might be important...or it could be sheer coincidence. It was the near miss with the car that really bothered Lee though, as it seemed to have set the chain of events in motion.

  Chewing on her lip, Lee decided it was time to do some digging...starting with the King brothers and what they'd been up to recently. Deciding on the perfect place to begin her enquiries, she started the engine and, with one last glance at the blackened ruins of the old, yellow house, drove away.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  "THANKS."

  Lee nodded at the taciturn bartender and dropped a couple of two-dollar coins on the bar. She'd spent most of the day searching for Pike and Eddie, calling in favours from all over the city's lower strata. The brothers had gone to ground, and while learning some very interesting things about their recent activities, she'd been unable to locate them. The big woman finally ended up back in the place her search had begun, a seedy, smoke-filled bar that was the brothers' usual haunt.

  Sitting quietly at the end of the bar, Lee nursed a beer while she waited. Dressed down for the occasion in ragged jeans, boots and a grubby black t-shirt, she was indistinguishable from the rest of the bar's shabby patrons. For the umpteenth time, her eyes subtly swept the interior of the bar as if to ferret out the answers she was seeking. Each person entering or leaving was evaluated and, thus far, dismissed.

  Lee had compiled a pretty clear picture of the brothers' associates, and she was now looking for a slender Asian man that had been reported in their company in this very bar on a regular basis. None of her contacts had been able to provide a name, but one had told her that, judging by the way they'd been throwing it around on women, partying and vehicles, Pike and Eddie were apparently on to a good deal that was putting a lot of cash in their pockets. Lee didn't doubt that. The Harleys in the brothers' driveway had been virtually brand new and definitely not cheap.

  Taking a tiny sip of her beer, Lee's eye was caught by a newcomer slipping into the bar. She felt a little thrill of excitement as she discreetly examined him. The slight Oriental man was dressed much too smartly for the bar he'd just entered, and the big woman saw his eyes darting around as if he were searching for someone. Surreptitiously, she leaned farther back into the shadowed corner, watching out of the corner of her eye as he completed his survey and made his way to the bar. She couldn't hear what he said to the bartender, but his agitation was apparent to her practiced eye.

  Watching the interrogation for a few moments, Lee made a decision. Pushing her barely touched glass aside, she stood and ambled out of the bar. Blinking as she emerged into the afternoon sun, the big woman made her way to Dana's car parked halfway down the block. Sliding into the driver's seat, she put on her sunglasses and waited, eyes fixed on the bar's entrance.

  As she'd expected, she saw the Oriental man leave and hasten to an older model Honda. When he drove away, she waited a few beats before pulling out into traffic herself. Trailing him, Lee was amused when he headed directly for a bar she'd already checked in her search for the elusive King brothers. When he parked and entered the bar, she pulled in too and strolled up the sidewalk to his car. Quickly noting his licence number, she returned to her vehicle.

  Keeping one eye on the bar's entrance, Lee retrieved her cell phone from the glove compartment, punched in a number and listened to it ring. When it was answered, she grinned and said, "Vincent! My man!"

  She laughed as she heard the answering groan. "Aw, c'mon, Vinny. Is that any way to talk to an old friend?"

  Tracing the steering wheel with her finger, the big woman listened to the exasperated voice. "Sure we're friends. Didn't I get you a month's worth of Flames tickets the last time we spoke?"

  Lee let Vincent complain for a few moments and then cut in. "Look, Vinny...I need a favour. Can you look up a licence for me?"

  She knew he'd come through for her, but she also knew he had to make his ritual protests first. "Yeah, I know, but if you do me this one tiny favour, I'll get you Stamps tickets for the next four home games and a forty of the beverage of your choice. Whaddaya say?"

  Grinning in triumph at his reluctantly muttered acquiescence, she rattled off the plate number. As Vincent was pulling up the information for her, she saw the Oriental man come out of the bar and head for his car. She was surprised when he slammed his fist down on the hood. Narrowing her eyes behind the dark lenses, she was intrigued by the man's body language. He was clearly upset about something, but he also appeared to be fighting to regain his composure. He stood unmoving, his head lowered for long moments, then straightened up and got into his car.

  At that moment, Vincent came back on the line with the desired information and, getting him to spell the unfamiliar name, she jotted it down along with an address.

  "Thanks, Vinny. I'll drop those tickets off later in the week."

  Hanging up, Lee again pulled out several cars back of her quarry, but this time when he stopped at a pool hall, she
continued on. Given that he'd gone to three of the places she'd already covered in her search for Pike and Eddie, she was certain he was on the same trail and would be just as unsuccessful as she'd been.

  "Have fun, Gao Qui-jian," Lee muttered, driving past the pool hall and leaving the inner city. She drove to the address that Vincent had given her, an attractive block of apartments in the southeast quadrant of the city.

  Parking in the visitor spots opposite the main entrance, Lee waited until she saw an older woman making her way from the bus stop to the door of the building, struggling with an armload of bags. Walking up behind her, she offered genially, "Looks like you've got quite the load there, ma'am. Can I give you a hand in?"

  The chubby matron smiled gratefully as Lee took some of the heavy bags. "Thank you, dear. I really shouldn't have spent so much, but I ran into the best sale..."

  As the woman unlocked the front door, she rambled on about the sale and how much money she'd saved, while Lee nodded interestedly and murmured acknowledgements in the appropriate spots. Hooking her foot around the door, Lee held it open for her companion then followed after her with the bags. The woman talked all the way to her ninth floor apartment and then invited Lee in for some iced tea.

  Declining politely, Lee explained that her brother was waiting for her and she really had to get going. She set the bags inside the door and waved as she walked down the hall to the bank of elevators. Taking the lift down to the fifth floor, the big woman was pleased to see the hall was empty. She was even more pleased to see that Gao's door had no more than a standard lock on it.

  Knocking twice to ensure the apartment was empty, Lee smiled as she flashed back on Willem's hilarious early efforts to teach her how to pick a lock. Pulling an ever-present pick out of her wallet, she had the door open in thirty seconds. Slipping inside, she held perfectly still, letting her eyes sweep for any apparent security alarms. When all remained quiet, she did a quick check of the hallway closet and then a thorough walk through of the rest of the small apartment.

  Once satisfied that there were no security devices installed, Lee stopped and took stock of her surroundings. The place was neat, clean and sparsely equipped with generic furnishings. There was little to give away the taste or personality of the inhabitant.

  Moving swiftly now, Lee searched the apartment, being careful to leave no indications of her passage. She found nothing of interest until she got to Gao's bedroom. Pulling open a bedside table, she stared at the H&K P7M13 with narrowed eyes. German engineered with a double stack magazine, the expensive handgun was not something ordinarily found in the average Canadian household and would've had to have been bought on the black market.

  "Tchh, tchh. I bet you're breaking half a dozen laws having that there, aren't you, Gao?" Lee said with mock disapproval. "Too bad I can't exactly turn you in for it."

  Closing the drawer without disturbing the weapon, she finished off her search of the bedroom. Pausing at the new-looking Powerbook G4 on the small workstation, she wished that her computer savvy were up to coaxing the machine to yield its secrets. Knowing that was beyond her, Lee rifled through the three drawers, finding nothing of interest except a manila folder in the bottom drawer. Extracting it, she opened it to find a sheaf of handwritten notes.

  Written in a shorthand of Chinese characters and English, Lee managed to decipher that it was a list of times and places. Focusing on the topmost sheet, she caught the words, 'lawyer, Banff, Cochrane, zoo' and the dates indicated that the notes were from the past weekend. A chill ran through Lee as she recalled that Marika had mentioned that she and Rhi had driven to Banff on Saturday and gone to the zoo with Terry and Jan on Sunday. Quickly checking the earliest date on the notes, she replaced them carefully in the folder and returned it to the drawer. She longed to take them with her to have them completely translated, but she didn't want to alert Gao prematurely.

  Deciding she'd pushed her luck far enough for one day, Lee left the room and exited the apartment without incident. Once back in her car, she sat quietly, mulling over her new information.

  "C'mon, Lee, you've got most of the pieces of the puzzle. You just have to put them together." Talking to herself was an old habit, and helped her order her thoughts. "Somehow, there's a connection between Pike, Eddie, Gao and Rhi. What the hell could the kid have gotten mixed up in that she'd be targeted by a bunch of thugs?"

  Frowning, Lee shook her head in puzzlement. "Maybe something at work?" Knowing that Rhi dealt exclusively in immigration cases, she worried at it from that angle. "If the key is work, then Rika has to be involved too, but she hasn't said anything about any problematic cases. I mean she had the hearing out in Vancouver..."

  Suddenly, Lee sat upright. The date on the first notes! It coincided with the day her two friends had returned from Vancouver! The big woman searched her memory for details of the immigration hearing, but couldn't recall anything unusual that her friend had mentioned.

  "Oh, Christ!" Lee stared sightlessly across the parking spaces, remembering what had happened in Vancouver. Cass! Was Rika's bete noire conceivably involved? Had the lawyer's discovery of the woman's other identity possibly set off the chain of events endangering Rhi's life? But why Rhi? Why not Rika?

  Unable to answer that question, the ex-policewoman's agile mind began trying on and discarding theories until something clicked. What if it's both of them, but Rhi just happened to be first in line?

  "Would Cass do that? Kill two people because they found out about her alter ego?"

  Lee instinctively knew even as she voiced the question that Cass would be perfectly capable of harming anyone who crossed her. She'd never forgotten the flat, dead look in the woman's eyes the day she and Dana had met Cass coming out of Marika's condo. Not much scared her, but the memory of those eyes still haunted her. She'd never seen orbs so devoid of the slightest trace of humanity. Nor had she forgotten the look of cold triumph in those opaque, brown eyes as Cass had left Marika traumatized on the floor of her own bedroom.

  Quickly making a decision, Lee called her partner. "Willem? Is Barb in the office today?"

  Listening to her partner's response, the big woman started up the engine. "Good, tell her I'll pick her up in front of our building in twenty-five minutes. And, Will? Tell her to bring all her equipment."

  Pulling out of the apartment complex, Lee turned north, back to the heart of the city, conscious of a deepening fear for her friends.

  * * *

  "Geez, Rika, do you think we got enough here?" Rhi teased as she juggled half of the shopping bags. "I mean, I think there was at least one store with clothes still left in it."

  The lawyer grinned at her companion over the bags in her own arms. "Well, cute as you look in my clothes, you really can't go back to work in shorts and t-shirts."

  The smaller woman laughed and followed her friend out of the elevator as it deposited them on the 15th floor. It had been a full day. First thing in the morning, she had done the paperwork to replace the documents burned up in her wallet, her passport proving invaluable as identification. They'd gone to the bank where her salvaged passbook had speeded the acquisition of another bankcard and access to her account. Then they'd gone shopping, and capped the day off with dinner in an Italian restaurant.

  Despite the trauma of the preceding 24 hours, Rhi was feeling very contented with life. Accustomed to shopping in second hand and low end stores for her clothes, she'd initially balked at Marika's gentle suggestions that she try some different places, but she was glad now that she'd listened to her friend's advice.

  Rhi had never concerned herself much with style, unconsciously even selecting garments that would allow her to remain invisible as much as possible. But now, for the first time, she wanted to look good in someone's eyes, and she'd accepted Marika's advice on colours and selections, thrilling to the look of approval in the blonde's eyes as she tried on various items. She'd spent all of the money in the envelope and several hundred of her own savings, but didn't regret it a bit. F
or the first time in a decade, she felt attractive, and she was reveling in the sensation.

  "I'll clear out one side of my closet and a drawer in the bureau for you to put your clothes away until we can pick up a freestanding wardrobe for the den this weekend, okay?" Marika called over her shoulder as she fumbled to insert her key in the lock. "Oh, and don't let me forget to give you the spare key too."

  "Okay," Rhi agreed as she trailed the lawyer into the apartment. She almost ran into Marika as the blonde stopped short.

  "Lee! Hi, I wasn't expecting you until later," Marika said warmly.

  Poking her head around the taller woman, Rhi saw their friend seated at the dining room table with some items on a paper towel in front of her.

  "Hi, Lee," she piped up, subsiding as she took in the serious look on the broad, open face regarding them intently.

  "Hey, you two. Come sit down. I need to talk to you."

  Marika and Rhi shot a look at each other at the unusually sober tone of Lee's voice, but did as she bade them, setting the bags down and seating themselves at the table.

  "What's going on, Lee?" Marika began.

  Lee rubbed her forehead tiredly. "I need you two to listen to me. Let me tell you what I've found out first, and then we'll talk it all over, okay?"

  Rhi felt apprehension rising within her, but she and the lawyer nodded agreement concomitantly.

  Lee pushed at the small metallic items in front of her and said bluntly, "I had Barb sweep your apartment this afternoon. She found bugs in every room of the place, and your phone and computer had both been tapped."

  Rhi stared incredulously at their friend as she heard Marika gasp in shock beside her.

  Continuing, Lee outlined her suspicions about Rhi having two brushes with death in 24 hours, and the steps she'd taken to investigate. Rhi couldn't help smiling at the recitation of the big woman's encounter with Grammy Olive. The feisty old woman had been the one bright spot in her youth, and she resolved to get back there soon to visit the woman whose rough kindness and homemade cookies had made it easier to endure her bleak sojourn with Hettie.