Jada and I exchanged glances. Henry and Mandy had been playing with fire—cornering men who had everything to lose if their secret lives came out.
Jada frowned. “And that isn’t even the worst part. One of the men must be a computer genius. He figured out Mandy’s and Henry’s names and where they live. They’ve each received a death threat. Somebody tried to run Henry down on his way to school this morning.”
“Did you get a licence number?”
Henry shook his head. “It happened so fast. I think it was a grey car. By the time I picked myself up, it was around the corner.”
“Where’s Mandy?” I asked.
“I can’t reach her,” Henry said. His eyes filled with worry. “She’s stopped answering her phone. Jada called a cop friend to check up on her.”
“Johnny Shaw is looking into it,” Jada added. “I’m not leaving Henry until I know what we’re dealing with.”
My cellphone began to ring in my pocket. I took it out and glanced at the name. I looked over at Jada as I held the phone up to my ear. “Shaw,” I said. “Let’s hope he’s got something good to tell us.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Shaw and I had not been friends when I was on the Ottawa police force. In fact, I’d disliked the guy. If he had a sense of humour, I hadn’t been able to locate it. He was rough and tough, a cop nearing retirement with missing social skills. Nobody was more surprised than me that we’d become a crime-solving team—off the record, of course.
“What have you got?” I asked.
“Hello to you too, Sweet. You up to speed?”
“Pretty much.”
“Well, there’s nothing pretty about what I’m about to tell you. I didn’t want to call your partner’s phone in case this whack job’s tapped into it.”
“I’m with her and Henry now.” I looked across at the two of them. Both sets of eyes were studying me like a couple of hawks on a mouse.
“Good. You should get down here as soon as you can. Have Jada stay with the kid.” He paused as if searching for a way to tell me something bad.
“What is it, Shaw?”
“We found a girl’s body in a dumpster behind the Gadfly Bar on Elgin. Her ID says Mandy Blair.”
“I’m on my way.”
I ended the call. I kept my voice even. “I’m going downtown to check something out.” I tilted my head toward the door. Jada took the hint and followed me outside.
“Tell me,” she said. Her face was a grim mirror of my own.
I stepped close to her to make sure Henry couldn’t hear. “Looks like they’ve found Mandy’s body.” I grabbed onto Jada’s arm as she slumped against the wall. She clamped a hand across her mouth to keep Henry from hearing her curses.
“I know,” I said. “This is a nightmare.”
“How . . . ?”
“I’m going to find out now. Shaw says that you’re to stay here with Henry.”
“What am I going to tell him? He’s going to be destroyed.”
“I know. We have to keep Henry safe now. I need you to get the names of the men and their contact information from him. Can you do that?”
She nodded. “I’ll get him to write it all down. Are you coming back?”
“Me or Nick. I’m going to bring him in on this case if that’s okay.” I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and gave her a hug. “Stay strong, partner. Tell Henry to hang in there too. We’ll find who did this to Mandy and make them pay. I promise you that.”
• • • • • • • • • •
The Ottawa Police had taped off the crime scene by the time I arrived at ten forty-five. My long night was about to get a lot longer. Shaw was standing with another officer just inside the tape. Lights had been brought in and the area was as bright as day. Mandy’s body was lying on the ground, covered with a white sheet. The coating of snow from earlier that evening hadn’t stuck around. The air had actually warmed, with a southerly breeze gusting in. Officers in white suits and with bags over their shoes were busy taking photos and looking for evidence. Shaw called me over.
“Who found her?” I asked.
Shaw pointed toward the back entrance of the restaurant. “The cook came out for a smoke. He had a small bag of garbage to throw in the dumpster. When he opened it up, he saw the body.”
I looked over at a man sitting on the ground. A police officer kneeled next to him. I looked back at Shaw. “Do you know how she died?”
“Strangled. Her parents reported her missing when she didn’t come home from school. Her mother checked and she was in class today. That narrows time of death to after three thirty.”
“No idea where she went after her last class?”
“No. Her parents said that she often went to the mall. They don’t seem to know her friends.”
Car doors slammed. We all turned to see a frantic-looking man and woman racing toward us.
“Here we go,” Shaw muttered. He ducked under the tape and headed them off.
I watched him calm the woman, who had to be Mandy’s mother. She was tall and slim with curly brown hair. The man was shorter than she was, probably five seven, and balding. He looked fit in jeans and a leather jacket. Shaw talked for quite a while until the woman appeared to accept what he was saying. She took the man’s hand and they moved closer together. Then Shaw had an officer pull back the sheet from the body. I glimpsed long brown hair and a heart-shaped face. Young. Much too young.
Mandy’s parents stood frozen, their faces crumpling in shock and pain. The man nodded at Shaw, and the woman turned to bury her face in his shoulder. Her sobs filled the silence. I blinked back my own tears.
“Anna!”
I turned as Nick reached me. I’d phoned him on my way over and told him what was going on. He took a look at my face.
“You okay?” he asked.
“Sure. I’m not the one who just lost my kid.” My words came out rougher than I’d meant them to.
Nick didn’t respond to my anger. Instead, he handed me a folded piece of paper. “I went by the motel and got the list of men from Henry, like you asked. He quickly looked them up on the computer in the motel lobby.”
I took the page and opened it up. I read the names to myself: Derek Lee, teacher. Frank Campbell, city bus driver. Rudy Vine . . . I lifted my head.
Nick was staring at me. “Jada said you’d recognize the last name,” he said.
“Yeah,” I tucked the list into my jacket pocket. I looked over Nick’s right shoulder. “Rudy Vine is Johnny Shaw’s sergeant. That’s Vine standing right over there.”
Vine seemed to sense that we were looking at him. Just over six feet tall, he was a bull of a man. Shaved head, arms like tree trunks, and the palest blue eyes I’d ever seen. He walked over to Shaw, who was standing several feet from us. Vine pointed in our direction and said, “That one looks familiar. Who is she?”
Shaw turned and looked at me. He shrugged. “Just an interested citizen.”
Vine spat on the ground. “Well, get those vultures out of here. This is a crime scene, not a bloody gawk show.”
“Nice guy,” Nick said as Vine stomped over to talk to the line of reporters who had gathered at the edge of the crime scene.
“Yeah.” I studied Vine for a few seconds before turning to leave. I glanced at Nick as he started walking alongside me. “Let’s just hope he’s not a killer, too.”
CHAPTER FIVE
The next morning at seven, Shaw met me for breakfast at Fils Diner. I was surprised when my brother-in-law Jimmy Wilson trailed in behind him. They sat down in the booth across from me. Shaw signalled the waitress for coffee.
“I feel like hell,” he said after she set down their cups.
“You look it, too,” Jimmy said. He reached for the sugar. “Like something the cat dragged in.”
“Thanks. Could you possibly make me feel any worse?” Shaw stirred cream into his mug while he looked at me. “Jimmy’s agreed to help with the homicide investigation. I want someone not on my team work
ing this case.”
He didn’t have to say why. Investigating your sergeant could be career-limiting. The police force was a tightly knit group. They wouldn’t like having one of their own as a suspect. Jimmy and Shaw knew what they were up against.
“Jada and Henry are my clients, so to speak,” I said. “I’m not going to walk away from this one.”
Shaw narrowed his eyes and frowned at me. “Like that’s a surprise. I’ve asked Jimmy to work with you. Official but with some wiggle room. I’m looking for a delicate hand.”
“If you think I’m going to be part of a cover up—”
Jimmy held up a hand. “Whoa, Anna. We aren’t asking you to do that. If Rudy Vine is guilty, we’ll nail him. We just have to go about it carefully. The man hates being crossed by anyone. He goes to great lengths to get even. Plus, he has a lot of friends and influence on the force. Not to mention, his wife is a cop on the fraud squad. But you already knew that.”
“It’s hard to know who to trust,” Shaw said. “If someone else killed Mandy Blair, Vine never has to know we suspected him.”
I looked from one to the other. They each had a lot to lose by sharing information with me. But I had a lot to lose, too. Like my peace of mind. Jimmy and I had been dancing around each other ever since I flew home from Kermit, Texas, a few months back. He was married to my sister Cheri, but we had a history together. We’d been rookie cops on the Ottawa force and engaged to be married. When he jumped in bed with Cheri, he’d destroyed any chance of happily ever after for the two of us.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll play nice. But that means turning over every rock to see what crawls out. If Sergeant Rudy Vine killed Mandy to keep her from talking, I intend to be her voice.”
Jimmy raised his coffee mug in my direction. “You won’t be alone. However, we have to make sure our evidence is solid before we bring out the loud speakers.”
• • • • • • • • • •
Jimmy and I drove to the Blairs’ house in our own cars. I intended to have as little alone time with him as possible. No long car rides. No drinks in the bar at the end of the day. This was going to be strictly business. I owed myself that.
The Blairs lived on a couple of acres overlooking the Rideau River. The house was sprawling and slightly smaller than a school. Three cars were in their driveway when we pulled up. It was another grey November day—heavy cloud cover but too warm for snow. I hoped the rain would hold off.
“No way Mandy and Henry were in the same class,” I said when I joined Jimmy at the front door. “They don’t live anywhere near each other.”
“They both went to Canterbury. It’s the only arts high school in the city for gifted kids.”
“That explains it, then.”
Jimmy rang the bell. A housekeeper checked Jimmy’s ID and led us down a long hallway into the living room. Cathedral ceilings angled skyward. The room was furnished with white leather furniture and priceless paintings.
The short, balding man from the night before stood to greet us. His face was deeply lined in grief. He’d aged a lifetime since the night before. “I’m Peter Blair,” he said. “I’m Mandy’s father. My wife Nicole is lying down. This is Nicole’s brother, Reverend Ben Thompson, and his wife, Iris.” A middle-aged, average-looking couple nodded at us.
“We’re very sorry for your loss,” Jimmy said. “I apologize for disturbing you this morning, but we just have a few questions.”
“Of course,” Peter said, sitting back down. He invited us to sit in the two empty chairs. “Officers were here all night going through Mandy’s room. Nicole and I will do anything to help find whoever killed our daughter.”
“I still can’t believe somebody would hurt her,” Iris said. She was a large woman, early fifties, grey hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her eyes were red from crying.
Her husband shifted next to her on the couch. Ben was tall with sandy brown hair like his sister Nicole. “We just can’t get our heads around somebody killing our niece.” His brown eyes pierced through me. They were pools of dark intensity. I could imagine him giving a rousing sermon to a church full of devoted followers.
Jimmy looked at Peter. “Could you tell us the last time you saw Mandy? Also, where you were yesterday? The information will help us to get a full picture.”
I took out my notebook and pen. We’d agreed that Jimmy would take the lead before we arrived.
Peter stared straight ahead, as if Mandy was standing in front of him. “I saw Mandy two nights ago at supper. She ate with us and seemed upset about something. I guess that wasn’t unusual. Nicole tried to get Mandy to talk about what was bothering her, but she refused. That wasn’t unusual either. Around eight, Mandy told us that she was going for a walk. I heard her come in around nine thirty. She went straight up to her room.” He looked at Iris and Ben. “I have no idea who would hurt her or why.”
“It’s the act of a crazy person,” Iris said.
“And where were you yesterday?” Jimmy asked Peter.
“I left for work at seven like I do every morning. I own a company that builds and operates satellites. Nicole told me that she left for a workout before Mandy got up. Neither of us saw her yesterday.” He looked toward the hallway. “I’m just going to go check on my wife now, if that’s okay?”
“Go ahead,” Jimmy said. “We’d like to speak with her if she’s up to it.”
“I’ll see how she’s feeling. This has been very tough on her.” Peter rose from the chair as if his body was having difficulty moving. We silently watched him walk out of the room. I forced down my sadness for this family. Feeling sad wouldn’t help us sift through the stories and find her killer.
Jimmy turned to Ben and Iris. “And both of you?”
“We only moved back to Ottawa a few months ago,” Iris said. “Ben was transferred to a church outside Oakville about five years ago. We were happy to come back.”
“I’m a United Church minister,” Ben explained. “We’re living in a half double on Maitland Avenue in the west end. My goodness, was it only two Sundays ago that we all had dinner together? Who knew it would be the last time we were all together as a family.”
“And how did Mandy seem?”
“She was a troubled girl,” Ben said. “Very few friends. Not a big fan of school.”
Iris nodded. “Mandy started giving them problems when she became a teenager. Peter and Nicole are worried Frannie will go through the same phase. She just turned twelve, but so far so good. She’s off at a friend’s house now. Peter’s trying to keep her busy.”
“Is that a picture of the sisters?” Anna asked. She pointed to a framed portrait of two girls, one about fourteen years old and the other eight or nine. They had the same heart-shaped faces with big blue eyes.
“That’s Mandy and Frannie, a few years ago,” Iris said. She dabbed at her face with a Kleenex.
Anna moved closer to the photo. They were pretty girls, but something in Mandy’s eyes was angry. Frayed at the edges. “Mandy looks . . . unhappy,” she said.
Ben frowned. “I’ve seen kids on drugs before. They only ask for help when they’re ready.”
“So, you think Mandy was taking drugs?” Jimmy asked.
Ben shrugged. “Signs were there. Like lying about where she was. Making up stories. Nobody wanted to bring her behaviour into the light. My sister was worried about her. I was glad to move back so that we could help. Now . . . I wish Iris and I could have come back sooner.”
“Well, we’re here to help with Frannie,” Iris said.
“And yesterday morning?” Jimmy asked.
“I left for church around seven thirty and spent the day there.”
“And I went shopping at nine,” Iris added. “I dropped by the church to arrange flowers late in the afternoon. Then I came home to make supper.”
Peter entered the living room and stood just inside the doorway. He ran his hand over his head, looking unsure of what he should do next. “Nicole is sleeping,” he said. “T
he doctor has sedated her.”
“That’s okay,” Jimmy said. He motioned to me that we should leave. “We’ll be on our way now. We’ll come back another time after we’ve had a chance to go through the evidence.”
“Come back anytime. We’ll do all that we can to help,” Peter said. “I won’t be able to sleep until I know who killed my daughter.”
CHAPTER SIX
“That was as sad as it gets,” Jimmy said. “I hate this part of the job.”
“I know.”
Jimmy unlocked his car door and turned to look at me. “So, where to next?”
“I suggest we pay bus driver Frank Campbell and teacher Derek Lee a visit. Hopefully, one of them is the killer so we don’t have to tackle Sergeant Vine. Jada tracked down their work addresses and sent them to me. She’s using the motel’s computer. Sounds like she’s going stir crazy stuck in that room with Henry.”
Jimmy wrote down the addresses in his notepad. “How much longer are they holed up at the Bluebell?”
“Shaw says to keep Henry tucked away for a few more days. The pressure is on you and me to crack this fast.”
“Then let’s get a move on. Lee’s school is on the way to your dad’s. We could drop by his place for lunch after we interview Lee.”
“You missed some great ribs last night.”
“I know. I’m hoping there are a few left over.”
“Should be. I’ll meet you in the school parking lot.”
• • • • • • • • • •
Derek Lee was a five foot two Asian man with crater-sized dimples. We found him in a classroom marking Grade Eleven math tests. He had another half-hour before his next class.
Jimmy flashed his badge and Lee’s beaming smile disappeared. “We’d like to ask you a few questions,” Jimmy said.
Derek’s eyes darted from Jimmy to me and back to Jimmy. “Yeah. I should have known.” He sighed and pointed to the back of the classroom. “Let’s go sit at the table.”
We took seats across from him. “What did you mean that you should have known?” I asked.
To Keep a Secret Page 2