The waitress returned with Ashlyn’s drink and was setting it down.
Ashlyn reached up and grabbed his wrist and twisted it hard, suppressing the wince from the strain on her own arm as the stitches pulled. The fact that Bobby had titled the chair back helped, and he crashed to the floor before her arm gave.
The waitress grinned and gave her a wink. “I’ll be back to take your order in a minute.”
Bobby Hobbs had picked himself up. “That wasn’t very nice.”
“Leave ’er be, Bobby.”
Eddie had joined the party.
“Look, I’m jest tryin’ to have a good time here,” Bobby said. He scowled. “Ya used to be more fun.” Bobby stood and leaned over as he whispered in Ashlyn’s ear, “Be seein’ ya.” Within seconds he’d found another girl to drape his arm around.
“Thanks,” Ashlyn said as she extended her hand. “I’m Ashlyn.”
Eddie looked at her hand for a moment, then reached out and shook it for a second before letting go.
“I’m new in town,” she said. He stood staring at her with huge black eyes. No wonder he’d creeped Melissa out.
“Best take care then,” Eddie said.
“I’ll be fine.”
“You ever hear the story about the Native kids who were stolen from their parents?”
Didn’t he ever blink? Ashlyn reached for her drink and took a slow sip before she responded. “I’m not sure.” She couldn’t believe he’d gone straight for the jugular within seconds of meeting her. Definitely lacking social skills.
“Did you start without me?”
A different voice. Ashlyn turned as Nolan sat down beside her. When she turned back, Eddie was gone. She looked at Nolan. “What are you doing here?”
“What was that all about?” Nolan asked her.
“Just getting acquainted with the locals.”
“Yeah? Interesting that the ones you picked happen to work for a shipping company and drive trucks.”
Ashlyn ignored that. “You haven’t answered my question. What are you doing here?”
He held up his hands. Before he could answer the waitress returned. They both placed simple orders. She left and returned within a minute with Nolan’s drink. When the waitress disappeared again, Nolan shrugged. “Thought it was time we acted like partners.”
“You followed me here?”
“Look, Hart, I was going to ask you if you wanted to have dinner when I saw you leave. After what happened to you before, I’m not going to let you start asking questions without backup.”
“Eddie and Bobby were both friends of Jenny Johnson’s. What I can’t figure out is why they weren’t questioned when she disappeared.”
He leaned back in his chair. “All this time here, and you’re immune to the local charm? Nobody wants to believe it’s someone from here who’d do this. They need it to be a monster from somewhere else so that they don’t have to start locking their doors and living in fear.”
“These girls were lured somehow. If there is a connection with the truck stops—”
Nolan held up his hand. “It’s pure speculation at this point.”
“Why haven’t Hobbs and Campbell been questioned?”
“Tain’s been after those two for a while now. We get too close to them, we risk being accused of harassment.” He reached for his drink and after he’d taken a sip set the glass back down. “People think if you know someone’s dirty, you should just be able to arrest them, like it doesn’t take time or evidence. The shipping company’s been edgy ever since the failed bust in the summer, and they don’t want their employees held up crossing the border, so they don’t mess around.” He nodded in the direction of Hobbs, who still had his arm draped around the girl he’d found after Ashlyn had sent him sprawling across the floor. She was starting to look uncomfortable, a shadow flashing across her face as she brought her arm up between his body and hers and pushed back, trying to work in some distance. He held on tight and pulled her back closer. “They find out you’re a cop, and you’ll be in hot water just for talking to them.”
“You’d think their employer would just cut them loose, save themselves the hassle.”
“Not when the company’s owned by Hobbs’s family. Word around these parts is they built the family fortune during Prohibition and have maintained their bank balance off one form of illegal trade or another for years.”
Ashlyn reached for her Coke. “And yet the locals don’t want to think about their neighbors being criminals.”
“No, monsters. There’s a difference. Bootlegging was one way of sticking it to the man when he tried to keep people down, and smuggling is all about robbing the government of money for taxes.”
“But drugs—”
“They don’t see it that way. You’re from Ontario, right?”
She nodded.
“In Western Canada, there are plenty of people who want less government in their lives. Mostly in Alberta, but some places in BC too. Bringing cheap cigarettes over the border means they save money, so everybody wins, right?”
“But it doesn’t stop there.”
Nolan shook his head. “I know that. You know that. But people have a way of seeing what they want to see. They don’t just turn a blind eye to the cigarette trade they encourage it. And if the cigarette smuggling becomes drugs and weapons and girls, it makes them part of it. They might have to answer to themselves for letting this happen.”
“I think you give them too much credit. Most people have a remarkable ability for dismissing personal responsibility.”
“Maybe so, Hart, but you’ve seen how edgy even our own team is. Remember how Campbell reacted when you asked about coordinating with the tribal police?” Nolan shook his head. “From the beginning, with the task force, there were people it was obvious we should be questioning, leads we should have been following. And that’s exactly what we’ve been stopped from doing.”
“I don’t believe the RCMP would create a task force and then try to keep us from solving the case,” Ashlyn said.
“And what if it is Hobbs and Campbell? What do you think they’ll say when it comes out that we’ve had tips about illegal activity involving these two going back several years?”
“I think we’re a lot better off answering for any mistakes now and putting a stop to it before someone else gets hurt than pretending girls aren’t being murdered.”
“You’re an idealist, Hart.” Nolan reached over and squeezed her hand for a second before letting go of it. “Thing is, there isn’t much in this world that is ideal.”
“So if Tain’s been after these two and you suspect they’re involved, why are you two at each other’s throats all the time?”
“Some reports came in this afternoon.”
She frowned. “I was at the office—”
Nolan shook his head. “I was out with the canine team, searching the woods. Sullivan called and told me. The fire at Blind Creek Inn? It started in the old staff house across the street. Looks like the insurance company will be on the hook for the inn, because even if the house was set on fire deliberately, it doesn’t look like they planned for it to spread.”
“I’m sure they’re happy,” she said, not commenting on the fact that Sullivan had taken information straight to Nolan without informing the rest of the team.
“Something else turned up in the autopsy. The victim in the fire? She was pregnant.”
She felt her eyes widen. “That supports the idea of a connection, although it doesn’t explain—”
Nolan held up his hand. “Enough talk about work.” He reached for his drink. The waitress was coming toward them, plates of hot food in hand.
“Can I get yas anythin’ else?”
“We’re good, thanks,” Nolan said.
Ashlyn smiled as the waitress left, then turned to her partner and opened her mouth.
He glared at her for a moment, a look in his eyes that told her he was done talking about Tain or the investigation. So much for her att
empts at snooping around. Finding out more about Bobby Hobbs and Eddie Campbell and the source of the tension between Nolan and Tain would have to wait.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Eighteen months ago
Ashlyn gently set the bag on the floor and fumbled through the darkness, hand searching for the shape of the small light Tain kept on his desk. When she hit the base of the lamp, she felt her way along the cord until she found the switch and turned it on.
It would have to do.
Picking locks wasn’t her specialty, but she pulled the lamp toward the edge of the desk, got down on her knees and started on Tain’s top desk drawer. Within a minute it was open. The stacks of papers she’d found the day she’d arrived in Nighthawk Crossing were still inside.
Ashlyn stood and looked at the documents. She pulled them up.
There wasn’t anything else in the drawer.
Once the papers were returned and the drawer closed, she opened the next drawer and riffled through the contents, then sank to her knees and opened the bottom drawer. Her initial skim of the papers inside revealed nothing about her unanswered questions regarding the case.
Ashlyn pushed the drawer shut. As she reached up to the edge of the desk, it was the shape of the shadows under the desktop that made her pause.
A legal-sized envelope, taped underneath the work surface.
Ashlyn ran her fingers under the edge until she removed all the tape. The flap wasn’t closed. As she glanced at the door she slid the papers out, skimmed them, then pushed them back in.
She turned Nolan’s desk light on before shutting Tain’s off, and on her way back to Nolan’s desk she grabbed the bag she’d brought with her and put the envelope inside.
Nolan had three drawers, all locked. She started at the top.
Inside, she found a filled notebook from prior casework. She leafed through the pages, checking dates. None of it seemed to connect to the current investigation.
Ashlyn slid the drawer shut and moved on to the next one.
There was a stack of papers inside that was thicker than the one in Tain’s desk, but it wasn’t copies of case files she was looking at. She flipped through the first few pages, then a few more.
The missingpersons files she’d been looking for.
She picked them up, put them inside the bag and riffled through the rest of the drawer. It contained nothing more than blank notepads and a few pens.
Ashlyn pushed it shut and looked at the bottom drawer.
She had what she’d been looking for. One discovery offered reassurance. It didn’t cross every t or dot every i, but it was enough to dispel her doubts, while the other revelation raised more questions than answers.
A quick look at the doorway confirmed she was still alone. Ashlyn picked the last lock and slid the drawer open.
It took her a moment to realize what she was looking at. A glance at her watch told her she had about twenty-five hours. What were the chances that she’d get through all the material before their shift the next day?
Slim, but she could copy it if she had to, and if she found a way to zero in on what she needed…Ashlyn picked up the files and put them in the bag. She zippered the bag, pushed the drawer shut and stood.
There were a few messages on her desk and she walked around to that side to skim through them.
Most were the usual reports of sightings and tips that would need to be followed up. Nothing stood out, so she set them down. They could wait. Two were from Constable Keith, and after she skimmed them, she folded the slips of paper and put them in her pocket. She walked around to Nolan’s desk and turned the light off. One final glance around the office confirmed she was leaving it as she’d found it. She bent down, picked up the bag, and after a quick check stepped out into the hall and walked to the back door.
At the back of the station she took a deep breath before opening the door.
It didn’t look like anyone had arrived while she’d been inside, and she released a breath of air as she hurried to her car. She slid the key in the lock and within seconds had tossed the bag inside and shut the trunk.
Ashlyn walked to the driver’s side door. A couple of quick clicks of a button and that door was unlocked. As she extended her hand she heard a voice behind her and jumped.
“Sullivan said to take the day off.”
She forced herself to take steady breaths as she turned. “So what are you doing here?”
“Believe it or not, looking for you.”
Tain’s face had the solemn expression she’d come to associate with him from time to time, when he’d been intently focused on the details of the case.
When he’d been less interested in hurling insults than in assessing the information they had to work with.
“Why?”
Tain looked to his right, then left. “There are some things I think you need to know.”
“Wow. That’s the understatement of the year.”
The sound of a trash can lid clattering to the ground made them both look toward the alley. As the noise subsided, Ashlyn looked back at Tain, but he remained turned to the side, his hand resting on his still-holstered gun.
She’d yanked the car door open and was halfway inside before she glanced up at him. “I’m sure you mean well—”
Tain looked at her, looked back at the alley, then walked around behind her car and pulled on the passenger door.
She’d flicked the lock as soon as she had her door closed.
“We need to talk,” he said.
“Fine. Give me your cell number.”
“What?”
“Give me your number. I’ll call you when I’m ready and tell you where to meet me.”
“Ashlyn—”
“Take it or leave it, Tain.”
She watched the conflict on his face and then he spat out the number. Ashlyn keyed it into her cell phone and then put the car in reverse.
“I’ll call you.”
He stepped back and she backed out of the spot and drove away.
Ashlyn checked her side mirrors and rearview mirrors. It was so early that attempting to follow her would be obvious, and there wasn’t a moving vehicle anywhere in sight.
Once she was a comfortable distance out of town, she pulled over to the side of the road. The first place they’d look for her would be the cabin. A rented room would connect to a credit card that could be traced.
We know someone’s been feeding information to the Native leaders, Tain.
Nolan’s words from several days before. Meant to deflect suspicion from himself?
Steve’s word should have earned him at least the benefit of doubt, but despite the nuggets Nolan had shared with her during their impromptu dinner the night before, he’d also lied to her and to Sullivan, and lingering questions about why he was hiding the missingpersons files and why he’d gone to see Jenny Johnson’s mother remained unanswered.
Ashlyn got out of the car and opened the trunk. The woods were quiet, but not uncomfortably so. A glance to her right caught the flash of a squirrel’s tail as it jumped onto a different branch, and she could hear the faint chirps of birds.
The woods weren’t holding their breath in fear.
She returned to the car with the bag. The backseat offered the lure of more space, but the front seat offered the use of mirrors and a chance to leave quickly if she felt the need.
Tain had spooked her. The promise she’d made to call him may have been a mistake. She’d be putting herself in the open, at a scheduled time.
Despite the risk, she intended to go through with it. Tain had been on her list for the day before he’d surprised her.
She’d gone in search of answers, and the missingpersons files that had disappeared. What she’d found was more than she’d imagined. The unexpected file from Nolan’s desk was on top, and she pulled it out and flipped through it again.
Jenny Johnson. Blind Creek Shipping. Constable Tain and a failed bust, followed by a series of arrests that hadn’t held up
in court. Drug trafficking, prostitution, illegal firearms possessions…
Bobby Hobbs and Eddie Campbell were suspected of being in the middle of a highly profitable cross-border enterprise, smuggling everything from cheap cigarettes to live girls and raw cocaine into and out of the United States.
Jenny Johnson.
The envelope she’d retrieved from under Tain’s desk was on the bottom of the bag, and it took a minute of shifting other files before she could remove it without ripping it.
She slid the papers out again, confirming they were what she’d thought they were before counting them. Ten papers in all, each removed from a different file. She mentally checked off the list. The only missing person involved in their investigation who didn’t have a sheet in the envelope was Jenny Johnson.
As soon as those papers were replaced, she started skimming through the names on the missingpersons files. Nothing stood out. She exhaled. If she didn’t find a way to narrow it down, she might have to read all of them.
Where had Nolan worked before, when he’d handled the report on the missing girl that was part of their case? She pulled her notebook out of the glove box and flipped through the pages.
Penticton.
Ashlyn started skimming every file to see if Nolan had originally handled it. She was halfway through, and a glance at the clock told her she’d spent a few hours going over what she had so far. None of the girls had lived in Penticton or been reported missing there, and none of the officers who opened the files she’d looked over so far connected to their investigation.
How could she narrow it down?
Ashlyn picked up her phone and started to dial. When the voice mail answered she hung up without leaving a message.
She flipped through the folders again and skimmed the contents one file at a time. When she reached the file labeled KAITLIN COLLINS it clicked into place. As soon as she saw the name in the file, she went back to the top and read it line by line.
Kaitlin had been reported missing from a small town in the interior Ashlyn vaguely recognized. Her date of birth made her…
Fifteen years old.
Ashlyn continued to skim the file. It read like many of the others, the tale of a small-town girl who’d disappeared without much evidence of where she’d gone or why. As she skimmed the folder, she realized that there wasn’t one single thing that readily stood out to make the file any different than the ones officially connected to the investigation, or the ones locked in Nolan’s desk. She slowed down and covered the information line by line until she found it.
Lullaby for the Nameless (Nolan, Hart & Tain Thrillers) Page 55