Tain had driven Ashlyn from the hospital to the station. She’d had a chance to shower and change before driving to the address Alison Daly had given her for the dinner party.
It didn’t take long to get to the house, which was in the south part of Port Moody, on a relatively quiet street with lots of trees. As she sat in her car, listening to nothing but the sound of wind rustling leaves and the far-off calls of kids in a nearby park, she realized she’d been on autopi lot, avoiding all the thoughts she kept suppressing.
She got out of the car and started limping to the sidewalk when she saw the Rodeo pull up. Even then, it didn’t fully register, and when she realized whose vehicle it was she felt her cheeks burn.
He smiled as he got out of his vehicle. Craig looked exactly as she remembered him. Mentally she was kicking herself. She should have known right away who Steve and Alison would want her to have dinner with. Maybe she’d just been in denial.
All she knew was she was glad she had her hand on her car because her knees almost gave out.
“It’s been a while,” he said.
She nodded and limped forward.
Craig looked down at her leg. “What happened?”
She shrugged and offered a sheepish smile. “All in the line of duty.”
The front door opened. “No crutches?” Daly asked.
Her eyes narrowed. “Try not to sound so disappointed.”
“I might not complain about an excuse to keep you at a desk for a few days right now. You should still keep off that leg, give it a chance to heal.”
Ashlyn blew out a deep breath. “I will. I’ll rest it all night while I sleep.”
Daly led them into the living room. “Ashlyn, you might think you’re getting away with this now, but I will speak to you about this.”
“You just can’t accept the fact that I might get hurt on the job. We wouldn’t even be having this conversation if it had been Tain or Craig.”
“Craig and Tain obey orders.”
“What planet are you on? You must be living in a parallel universe.” Her cheeks were burning now, and she forced herself to stare at Daly so that she didn’t have to see the look on Craig’s face.
“Stop trying to deflect responsibility by bringing up my past transgressions, Ashlyn. What did she do, Dad?”
She glared at him. “Craig—”
“I thought we agreed there would be no talk about work,” Alison said as she walked into the room. “This is a house warming party for Craig, not an inquisition.”
“This is your house?”
“Whose house did you think it was?” he asked.
She hadn’t thought it was possible for her face to get any hotter, but she’d been wrong. “But there’s furniture.”
“Courtesy of my parents.”
“Oh, is that why there isn’t plastic on it?”
“I took it off when I got here,” Alison said.
“I didn’t even know you were working in the lower mainland until now, Ashlyn,” Craig said. “Someone neglected to mention that.”
“I should have called. First it was the arson investigation, and then I got partnered with Tain on these child abductions.”
“Where are things at with the arson cases?” Daly asked her. “With everything else going on, I keep forgetting.”
“I’ve gone over everything that Robinson had for the fires June fourteenth, July eighth and July twenty-fifth,” Ashlyn said. She noticed Craig’s eyes pinch together, the twist of his jaw that had always betrayed the fact that he was thinking about work when they were partnered. “To be honest, we’ve got as much from the two fires this past weekend as we do from the earlier ones, which isn’t much.”
Alison called from the kitchen, reminding them that there was to be no talk about work and asking for help. Ashlyn got up, hobbling out of the living room, leaving the conversation about the cases to continue without her.
Daly relayed the status of the investigations, right up to Ashlyn’s trip to the hospital.
“Do you have a working theory on your case?” Craig asked.
“Well, right now, best we can figure is that the arsons and the abductions are connected somehow. Julie and Isabella were both found at arson scenes connected to the cases Ashlyn is working on. What is it?” Daly asked. His eyes narrowed as he looked at Craig’s face.
Craig opened his mouth to answer.
“Okay, dinner is ready. And I’ve already warned you about talking about work twice. We’re going to have a pleasant evening socializing without any mention of crime,” Alison said. Her eyes met Daly’s first, then Craig’s. “Understood?”
After dinner the conversation eventually returned to work.
“I don’t think I’ve ever heard you mention Tain,” Alison said to Steve.
“That’s surprising,” Ashlyn said. “Tain has quite a reputation.”
Craig said, “Actually, Dad never talks about work at home, unless I’m there.”
“What? Total separation of the job and marriage?”
“You think I want to go home and talk about you guys?” Daly said. “That’s precious time I’d never get back, and I can think of plenty of better things to waste it on if I’m just looking to fill hours. It’s called having a life.”
“Maybe you should teach that class at the Depot, Steve,” Ashlyn said, lifting her glass. “How to Be a Police Officer and Still Be a Person 101.”
“You two would have failed,” Daly said.
They took their dessert to the living room.
“I hope you don’t mind,” Alison said. “This gives Ashlyn a chance to elevate her leg.”
Craig shook his head. “You know me, I’m not fussy. Strawberry-rhubarb crumble. You made all my favorites.”
“That was the idea,” Alison said. “So, what do you think of your present?”
“It’s funny, I was just thinking about patio furniture the other day.”
“Ah.” Daly stood up. “Then you haven’t seen what else is out there. Come on, I’ll show you the barbecue. Just your basic starter, but I suspect you’ll get a lot of use out of it.”
“You mean I’m supposed to cook?” Craig followed Daly outside. “Are you going to give her a reprimand?”
Daly sighed. “Don’t start.”
“Come on. You and I both know there’ve been times you’ve crossed the line when you thought it was necessary.”
“She almost got herself killed today, Craig. You have to be prepared to carry a lot in this job, but I’m not prepared to shoulder unnecessary risks.” Daly sank into one of the patio chairs, and Craig followed suit, noticing that the evening was unusually dark, despite the fact that it was early.
“I thought it was unfair to put Ashlyn with a partner she’d have to keep an eye on, but Hawkins insisted.” Daly rubbed the side of his face. “Turns out Tain is the reliable one.”
Craig looked past Daly, in through the patio doors to where Ashlyn sat on the smaller sofa, chatting casually with Daly’s wife. “You’re being a bit harsh, don’t you think? Would we even be having this conversation if it had been Tain?”
“No, because you’d think he deserved what he got. Just because you and Ashlyn worked together before…” Daly leaned back, looking up at the sky, his thought left unfinished.
“Why didn’t you tell me she was here?”
“You were having enough problems with Lori. Did you want me to throw it in your face? ‘Oh, by the way, Craig, the one person you actually have gotten along with over the years is here, in the lower mainland, but she’s working with Tain.’ I didn’t think it was the right time to mention it.”
Daly stood and started walking back to the house. He glanced over his shoulder as he opened the patio door.
Craig got up and followed him inside without another word. Alison was in the living room by herself. He left his parents and found Ashlyn in the kitchen.
“I told Alison she didn’t have to do that.”
“She didn’t. After all, she cooked.”
&nbs
p; Craig took the tea towel off the stove and intercepted the dish Ashlyn was about to set in the drainer.
“They can air dry, you know.”
“And they could’ve been washed mechanically if I’d phoned the repairman.” He watched her silently, her hair hang-ing just past her shoulders now, a few inches longer than it had been when he first met her, her eagle eyes surveying his yard in the meticulous way he’d seen her survey crime scene after crime scene. “What’s it like, working with Tain again?”
The corners of her eyes crinkled, and she shrugged. “Not as bad as I thought it would be.” She glanced up at him and smiled. “Really. He almost took my head off at a crime scene before he knew it was me.”
“Ah, so he has retained his unique charm.”
“Older and a slight bit wiser, but don’t tell him I said that.”
“Which makes you, what? Just a bit older?”
Her eyes pinched together as she glanced at him. “Steve told you.”
“He’ll get over it.”
“You mean he didn’t send you in here to lecture me?”
“Ashlyn, do you really think I need him to ask me to? If I thought it would do any good, I’d tear a strip off you myself.”
“So you think I’m hopeless?” The murmur of voices from the other room sounded like they were getting closer.
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
He didn’t avert his gaze when she looked up at him again, a shadow passing behind her eyes so quickly that he almost thought he’d imagined it, but when his parents walked in and she turned toward them it was a forced smile that emerged. One that didn’t reach her eyes.
“How long do you need to go easy on that leg?” Daly asked her.
She shrugged. “A couple of days.”
“That’s good. Then you won’t be able to go anywhere tomorrow. That will give you plenty of time to rest.”
“Tain can drive. The doctor said it’s actually good for me to get up a bit, keep the blood circulating.”
“Tain can handle things without you, and you can do your hobbling at home. You’re taking the day off.”
She opened her mouth to protest, and he raised his hand. Craig knew the look on Daly’s face, and a quick glance at Ashlyn told him that deep down, she knew better than to argue with Daly when he got like this.
Craig thanked them for the dinner, and Ashlyn didn’t try to avoid leaving when his parents made their exit. Part of him wanted to ask her to wait, but one look at his parents told him it wasn’t a good idea. Not to night.
Once they were gone he drifted around the main floor, not really thinking about what he was doing. Within a few minutes, he’d settled down on the smaller sofa, staring vacuously at the fireplace, his thoughts drifting back to that case last fall.
If it hadn’t been for the temporary transfer he hadn’t wanted—and had tried hard to get out of—he wouldn’t have met Tain and Ashlyn almost a year ago.
It wasn’t that he hadn’t wanted to keep in touch. He’d picked up the phone more times than he could recall and dialed Ashlyn’s number, but every time, he’d felt at a loss to know what to say and replaced the handset before the call went through.
There’d been so much he could have said in the weeks after, but he’d been wound too tight, fighting too hard to stay in control, dealing with too much of his life being exposed and the wounds still being raw.
He glanced at the solitary glass on the coffee table, wished he had more than juice and water on hand, and stood up. Craig flicked the light off and took the glass to the kitchen, wondering how well Tain and Ashlyn worked together.
Wondering why it bothered him so much that she seemed happy.
Lori sat on the edge of the bed, overdressed compared to her usual sleeping attire, blankly gazing through the window to the darkness in the sky, listening to the whir of the electronic toothbrush, the sound of water running, silence, then the splash of fluid being spit against the sink.
The usual bathroom sounds were just the background blur as she sat there, not really knowing what she should think about, not really knowing what was next. It had all come out from under her in a heartbeat, that second when she turned to find someone moving toward her in the darkness, someone who would change everything for her.
Send her life spiraling out of control, turn her world upside down or pull the rug out from under her feet…How many ways were there to politely say that someone had made a choice and that the result was that she had to get an HIV test, go through STD screenings, that she had to make a statement about what it felt like to have someone force her down on her own bed.
Lori yelped and realized she’d dug her nails into the flesh of her palms. She knew she’d heard the footsteps approaching, somewhere in the layers of sound and sensation her brain was pro cessing, but she still jumped when she felt his hand on her shoulder and pulled forward from his grasp instinctively.
“I…don’t think I can sleep in here anymore,” she said, standing suddenly, reaching for her house coat to pull over her already-covered body.
“I thought the doctor said it was best for you to try to regain control of your life, to not let this person take away anything more than he already had.”
Anything more than he already had …What is that, exactly? Her sense of security, her self-confidence, her dignity? She fumbled with the cord on her house coat, her hand shaking so violently she had to physically force herself to stop and draw a deep breath as hot tears stung her eyes.
“You’ve got it all figured out, haven’t you? Doesn’t bother you to sleep in the bed I was raped on.”
He got up from the bed and followed her toward the hallway. “Lori, you’re being ridiculous. Yesterday you said—”
“Yesterday I was wrong,” she snapped. “Oh, I’m sorry. You expect me to have this all figured out in a matter of hours and just move on. Well this isn’t like charting a course for a sailboat, Vish, so give me a goddamned fucking break if it takes me a while to get it together.”
She stomped down the hall, and the whole house shuddered with the force she used to slam the door to the den behind her, her shoulders quivering as she slumped back against it, her body sliding down as she covered her mouth and choked back her sobs.
Ashlyn’s shoulders lifted before she forced her torso down again, remembering that her leg injury meant she had to sleep on her back and forgo the usual tossing and turning she did on any given night.
“Damn,” she muttered, her eyes staring up at the blackness, only a thin shimmer of moonlight glistening on the chimes above her bed.
Bear chimes that Craig had bought her. To remind you, his note had said.
As though she could forget.
The next day, he’d been gone.
It had been glossed over, with terms like “unexpected” and “sudden departure” and “serious case” being thrown about to mask what it really was for her: Craig had been ripped from her life. She hadn’t known until then how much she’d relied on him when they worked together before.
She squeezed her eyes shut, but all she could see was the look on Craig’s face the first night she’d met him….
When she opened her eyes his image remained.
She brushed the tears aside, the ones that always came when she thought of that case. Maybe that was the real reason Craig seemed so damned important to her. He’d gotten her through it all. Then he’d been gone in the blink of an eye.
Her thoughts shifted to the girls they were looking for, the body of Isabella Bertini lying on the cement in front of her, and she shut her eyes again, this time, her mind ready to rest.
“Martha.”
“No, what’s your real name?”
“Shhh. I don’t want to get lashed.”
For a moment, Taylor thought that the girl was going to listen to her, but then she heard the quietest steps coming toward her and felt the bed sag as the girl sat down beside her.
“My name’s Lindsay.”
“He says to c
all you Delilah.”
“That’s not my real name, and I don’t like it.”
“It’s God’s chosen name for you.”
“Then why didn’t God tell me Himself?”
Taylor opened her mouth to answer, then closed it again.
“What’s your real name?”
She mashed her lips together, saying nothing.
“Are you Taylor?”
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