‘TINA!’ Millar yelled as he burst through his front door. There was no reply. He ran upstairs, taking the stairs two at a time, to check her room. Empty. He checked the bathroom, his study, his bedroom. Empty. He went back down to the main floor. Turning on the light in the living room, he saw one of his books open on the coffee table. Profiling. She was using his own information to frame him for murder. But why? Was he really that bad a father that she wanted him locked up for murder? And how could she actually take someone’s life? Four lives, that they knew of. Could there be more? Millar thought he was going to be sick. He ran into the basement, but, again, Tina wasn’t there. ‘Think, Millar, think,’ he said out loud. He had to figure out where she was running to. Just because she wasn’t home yet, didn’t mean that she wasn’t headed here. In his experience, most suspects head for home after committing a crime. They go where they feel comfortable. Maybe she was still on her way here. The garage. He hadn’t checked the garage. Millar ran upstairs and threw open the garage door. She wasn’t there, and neither was her bike. When he saw her old, pink, bike helmet sitting on the shelf, he felt his legs start to shake and had to lean against the hood of his car. He had spent a lifetime solving crimes, locking up murderers and criminals, never expecting to have to search for his own daughter.
Millar suddenly went cold. Half of the police force were currently out looking for his daughter, who was on the run. And they didn’t know they were chasing a teenage girl. She was a murder suspect and was considered armed and dangerous. If she made any sudden moves…Millar needed to make sure that didn’t happen. He opened his car door and turned on his police radio. ‘This is Detective Millar. All units currently searching for the suspect wearing the black hooded sweater, do not use excessive force if you encounter her, she’s only armed with a baton. She does not have a gun. Please, I repeat, do not shoot, she’s—,’ he choked on the words as a tear rolled down his cheek. ‘She’s my daughter.’ He dropped the radio handpiece into the front seat of this car, wiping away the tear. Taking a deep breath, he pulled himself up, realizing he needed to find his daughter. If she wasn’t here yet, chances were she wasn’t going to make it home with all of the roadblocks being set up. His best bet was to be out looking for her in backyards and alleys. He left the garage and slowly started to jog towards Penner’s car parked at the end of the street. He knew he should hurry, but he just couldn’t. His legs felt like lead and his mind was still spinning. Why would Tina do this? And what was going to happen to her now? He shook off the waves of nausea and focussed on getting to Penner’s car. Ten feet away, he heard a gun shot ring out in the eastern night sky.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
The sound of the shot propelled Millar into Penner’s car, just as the radio cracked to life.
‘This is Constable Curry. I need an ambulance at the corner of Sheppard and Carling. Suspect has been shot. I repeat, suspect has been shot.’
‘Ambulance is en route,’ dispatch reported.
‘My God, she’s just a kid! I thought she was a man! She’s so tall, and…and bald. Get that ambulance here now! Suspect is bleeding out from her right thigh. I’m going to tie it off to try and control the bleeding.’
‘Ambulance is about five minutes out. Confirm the scene is safe for the paramedics to assist.’
‘Roger, suspect has been cuffed and searched, no weapons found. I was sure she had a gun!’
Millar looked at Penner as she peeled away from the curb, determined to get to the scene as quickly as possible. ‘He was doing his job, Millar. Don’t do anything stupid when we get there, right?’ Penner said, shooting him a sideways glance. Millar didn’t respond, but she could see the clenched fists in his lap. As they turned onto Sheppard Street, Penner saw the lights of the ambulance ahead of her. Millar jumped out of the car before she could even put it in park. Without waiting, he raced to where he could see two paramedics working on his daughter. Tina lay on the blood-soaked ground, pale and still.
‘Tina. Tina! Are you okay?’ There was so much blood.
‘She’s unresponsive,’ one of the paramedics said into his radio. ‘Ron, get an IV going. We’ve gotta get her to the hospital now!’ he said to the other paramedic as he re-tied the tourniquet around her leg, trying to control the bleeding before moving her. Millar leaned down to try and hold her hand. ‘Sir, we need space to work,’ the paramedic said to him.
Millar stood up and gave them some room. He knew Tina was in good hands, and he couldn’t do anything for her right now.
The paramedics inserted a needle in Tina’s right arm and hooked up the IV bag. Fluids started to flow and they loaded her onto a stretcher. Her left arm flopped down to her side. She didn’t try to bring it back up.
‘What hospital are you going to?’ Millar asked as they put Tina in the back of the ambulance.
‘The General,’ the first paramedic said, closing the door behind him. The ambulance sped off, with lights and sirens.
Millar turned to walk back towards Penner’s car.
* * *
Penner found Constable Curry standing apart from the other officers at the scene. He seemed to be very shaken up. ‘What happened?’ she asked him. ‘Why did you shoot?’
‘I was sure she had a gun,’ Constable Curry said, shaking his head. ‘I saw her running down Carling so I called out. I yelled that I was the police and told her to freeze. She kept running. I ran after her and started to close the distance between the two of us. I called out again. This time she stopped and turned towards me. I thought she had a gun. I thought she was a he. I yelled to drop the weapon and she took a step towards me. I don’t remember pulling the trigger, but I must have. She just fell right there, grabbing her leg. I never shot anyone before. Never even pulled my gun.’
Out of the corner of her eye, Penner saw Millar change direction and start walking towards them. ‘Constable, go to your car. If you can, drive yourself to the precinct and see the Captain. If you need to, get one of the other officers to drive you.’ Constable Curry didn’t move. He just stood there with his hands in his pockets. ‘Constable, did you hear me?’ Penner said, more forcefully this time. Constable Curry looked up, just as Millar’s fist was heading for his face.
* * *
Thankfully, the ‘shots fired’ call had brought several officers to the scene. It took three of them to pull Millar off of Constable Curry.
‘You really shouldn’t have done that,’ Penner said, buckling her seatbelt and turning to Millar in the passenger seat. She looked in her rearview mirror and saw Constable Curry being helped to his feet, holding his nose.
‘What would you have done?’ Millar asked, holding his hand. His knuckles had started to swell.
‘Honestly? I probably would have shot him,’ Penner said, pulling away from the side of the street in the direction of the hospital. ‘Nice hit by the way.’ Millar didn’t say anything—he just stared out of the window, rubbing his hand. ‘How you doing, Terry?’
‘I really don’t know,’ Millar answered. ‘I kinda feel numb, like it’s some kind of surreal dream. How could she kill someone? I don’t get it. She was unpredictable—mad, sad, extreme mood swings—but I just figured that’s how teens were, ya know? I never saw this coming. I failed her. I failed as both a dad and a cop. I should have seen this coming.’
‘Don’t blame yourself. No one saw this coming. I’m sure the school would have reported something if there were signs. Or her coach, or her mom,’ Penner said. ‘You’re not the only adult in her life. You can’t blame yourself. Right now, you have to get into dad mode and be there for her. This is not going to be easy for her. She’s going to need you to be strong. Get in touch with your lawyer, or John Sharp. He’s one of the best defense lawyers in town. Expensive, I’m sure, but maybe you can get an advance from your publisher for another book or something.’
‘Who’s going to read a book on profiling written by a guy who couldn’t see his own daughter was a serial killer?’ Millar said, turning to Penner. ‘I just don’t get it.’
Penner didn’t know what to say. As she pulled into the hospital emergency entrance, she noticed Arden Wall and his camera man filming where Tina would have been transferred out of the ambulance. ‘You go in—I’ll deal with him,’ Penner said to Millar as she parked the car.
‘Detective Millar! Is it true that your daughter is the serial killer?’ Arden yelled out as Millar walked by him, staring straight ahead. It took everything Millar had to keep walking. ‘Why did she do it? Was she abused at home?’ With this, Millar stopped in his tracks and started to turn.
‘Don’t Millar, just go in. I got this,’ Penner called out. Millar took a deep breath and continued into the hospital. He looked around and saw the nurses’ station to his right. He still felt like he was walking in a fog, and blindly headed over, not paying any attention to what was going on around him. An orderly pushing a stretcher had to dodge around him—Millar didn’t even notice.
‘Can you tell me where they took Tina Millar?’ he asked as he got to the desk. The nurse sitting on the other side didn’t look up from the computer.
‘Sorry, who?’ she asked.
‘Tina Millar. She just got brought in with a gun shot wound to her leg. I’m her father,’ Millar said.
The nurse looked up. ‘Detective Millar? I didn’t realize she was your daughter. I thought they said she was the suspect…’
‘She is. And she is. Can you tell me where they took her, please?’ Millar asked, sounding defeated.
The nurse typed on her computer. ‘She’s being prepped for surgery. Not sure if she’s conscious or not. She wasn’t when she was brought in. Even if she is, she may have already received some meds and anesthetic, so she may not be coherent. Steve, can you bring Detective Millar to pre-op?’ the nurse called out to another orderly who was passing by.
‘This way, Detective.’ The orderly beckoned to him, not even breaking his stride.
‘Thanks,’ Millar said to the nurse. She just nodded, not knowing what to say. As Millar followed after the orderly, he heard running steps behind him and paused, waiting for Penner to catch up. She was holding her right hand a bit awkwardly. ‘Don’t tell me,’ Millar said.
‘He’s not going to run the story until our PR team gets in touch with him,’ said Penner. ‘He may run a story on police brutality, but we’ll see.’
‘Thanks, Sue,’ Millar said as the orderly pointed them towards the pre-op room. An officer stood outside the room, and two more were inside. Tina lay on a bed with her eyes closed. Her pants were cut up to her waist and covered with blood. Various tubes ran into her arms, one up her nose, and she was hooked up to a heart monitor. Millar found it hard to look at her. He walked to her side and put his hand on her forehead. She didn’t move.
‘She’s already under.’ Millar started at the sound of the doctor’s voice. He hadn’t even noticed him when he walked in.
‘How’s she doing?’ Millar asked, afraid to hear the answer.
‘She’s lost a lot of blood, the bullet hit the artery. It did a lot of damage, but we won’t know the extent until we get her in surgery. She’s lucky she got here as quickly as she did, otherwise she probably would have bled out,’ the doctor said.
‘Real lucky,’ Millar thought as the orderly returned, wearing a mask. ‘How long’s the surgery going to be?’ he asked as he watched them prepare to take Tina to the operating room.
‘Hard to say. It really depends on how much damage was done, but I’d say at least a couple of hours. If you want, go home and we’ll call you,’ the doctor said, washing up at the sink.
Millar leaned down and kissed Tina on the cheek as she was wheeled by. ‘I’m so sorry,’ he whispered.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Millar and Penner found themselves walking to the hospital’s cafeteria to get a cup coffee. Millar knew there was no way that he could go home, and Penner knew she couldn’t leave him alone. Millar grabbed a table as Penner went to the counter to pay.
‘Thought I’d find you here,’ Penner turned around to see Grant standing behind here with his own cup of coffee. ‘How’s he doing? Is it really his daughter?’ Grant asked, paying for all the coffees.
‘Afraid so,’ Penner said. ‘He’s doing about as well as can be expected, which isn’t very well at all. They just took Tina to surgery. It’s going to be several hours before she’s out.’
‘I saw Spicy—I mean, Constable Curry. Think his nose is broken,’ Grant said with a smile.
‘Lucky he’s still alive, really,’ Penner said as they walked together over to the table. Penner handed Millar his coffee.
‘Thanks,’ Millar said. ‘Grant,’ he added with a nod.
‘Sir,’ Grant said.
‘We’ve been through a lot, call me Millar,’ he offered a weak smile to Grant. ‘I guess everyone’s talking?’
‘They’re all just hoping for the best,’ Grant said. He took a sip of his coffee. He’s wasn’t sure what to say or how to act.
They sat around the cafeteria table in silence, barely aware of the hospital activity around them.
Three hours and five coffees later, Penner saw the Captain walk in. She nudged Millar’s arm. ‘Great, just what I need,’ Millar said under his breath.
The Captain pulled up a chair and sat down. He looked at the three of them. ‘How’s Tina doing?’
‘We haven’t heard yet, sir. She’s still in surgery,’ Penner answered.
‘Constable Grant, go to the admin desk and see if you can get an update,’ the Captain ordered.
‘Yes, sir.’ Grant pushed back his chair and stood up, taking his cue to leave.
The Captain turned to Penner first. ‘So, I had a talk with that reporter, Arden Wall.’ Penner sank in her seat a bit. ‘Seems like he tripped over a cable and fell, getting a black eye. Shame. He won’t look his best on the evening news for a while.’
‘Really?’ Penner said with relief. ‘Thank you, sir.’
‘We’ll discuss it further at a later date,’ the Captain said, turning to Millar. ‘And, I spoke with Constable Curry.’ Millar looked up. ‘He won’t tell me what happened to his nose, but I have a pretty good idea based on the gossip I’ve already been hearing. To be fair, I’m impressed you didn’t do anything worse.’
‘I wasn’t thinking clearly, sir. If I was, I would have done much worse and blamed it on stress,’ Millar replied.
‘Well, good that you weren’t thinking clearly then. That would’ve been the last thing you needed right now.’ The Captain paused before asking, ‘Have you had a chance to contact a lawyer for Tina?’
‘Yeah, he’ll be here once Tina’s out of surgery and ready to talk. No point in having him sit around here on the clock. It’s going to cost me enough as it is,’ Millar said.
‘We’re going to take this slow. I’ve already spoken with the Crown Attorney and explained the situation. I’m trying to convince him to charge her as a minor, but its going to be tough. Hopefully they go for it, that way she’d only be incarcerated until her eighteenth birthday. She’ll likely be committed to psychiatric care afterward to make sure she gets the mental help she needs, but then she should be back out by the time she’s thirty,’ the Captain said. ‘Otherwise, charged as an adult, it would be twenty-five years minimum before she was eligible for parole. I don’t think that’s best for her at all, but it’s not my call. The Crown is going to have to discuss it with the families. Getting four families on board is going to be really tough. Even if they agree, who knows if the judge will accept it.’ The Captain took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. ‘Whatever happens, it’s going to take time. You know how this works. I doubt the trial will even be for another year or so.’
Millar’s head was spinning. Even though Tina didn’t have a record, he couldn’t see how she would be charged as a minor. She had killed four people. Intentionally. With premeditation. A big part of him wanted to go. Just run as far as he could and forget this was even happening. At least give himself a week to clear his head, but he knew he co
uldn’t. He had to be there for Tina, no matter what happened. She was still his daughter and he had to protect her the best he could.
‘Thank you, sir. I hope this all works out for the best, but I have my doubts. I don’t even know what the best thing is anymore,’ Millar said. The Captain just lowered his eyes.
The silence was broken when Penner’s phone suddenly rang. ‘Sorry,’ she said as she looked at the number. ‘Penner. It’s done? And?’ There was a long pause as Penner looked over at Millar. ‘Really. Okay, thanks for letting me know.’ She hung up her phone and bit her lip, thinking about what she had just heard.
‘What’s going on?’ asked the Captain.
‘That was forensics. The DNA test of Millar’s hair came back as a match to the hair we found at the second murder scene,’ Penner said.
‘I wasn’t there—we’ve been through this—I was out of town,’ Millar said as the Captain stared at him. ‘Look, you know how much hair I lose on a regular basis. It must have fallen out during the autopsy. Ask Faye—it’s happened before.’
‘The hair was found at the scene, not at the autopsy. Besides, Constable Grant and I attended the autopsy—you were still out of town,’ Penner said, looking at the Captain, trying to read his thoughts.
‘It must have been on Tina’s clothes or something. Look!’ Millar pointed to the table. ‘There’s two of my hairs right there. It could have been stuck to Tina’s sweater and dropped off while she was carrying the body.’
The Captain seemed to be looking at a spot on the wall over Millar’s head. ‘How do we know you weren’t working together?’ he finally asked. ‘We haven’t been able to verify your whereabouts. You could have easily been there together…’
‘You have got to be kidding me!’ Millar stood up suddenly, his voice raised.
‘Sit down before I have Penner cuff you,’ the Captain said. Penner stood up, but she didn’t know what to do. Her hand went to the cuffs on her belt, but she hesitated.
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