A Winter for Killing

by Jason Mason

  “Ah, Mr. Desjardins,” she started. “It’s so good to see you again, I didn’t know you were coming here today.”

  “I’m not here for a client this time, Mrs. Tucker, I’m here to talk to a detective about a missing person,” Baker replied with a hint of the phony charm he’s worked on since law school.

  “What’s the name?” she asked as she looked down at her computer screen.

  “Mary Green,” Connie piped up.

  The receptionist smiled as she typed into her computer searching for the information.

  “Ah yes, that file is being handled by detective Jeff Jones,” she replied looking up from her computer. “One second and I’ll run and grab him.”

  As the receptionist went to the back to find the detective, Connie and Baker sat down on a cold wooden bench in the waiting area. Baker pulled out his phone to check for messages and emails while Connie just stared ahead deep in thought.

  As Baker was going through his emails, he noticed a recent one from Ashley. Damn, it looks like one of the new associates is having some trouble with a former client of his and now the client was emailing him directly. He forwarded the email to his associate and he told the associate that if he couldn’t handle the client, Baker would just do it himself. That’s how he would have preferred to do it anyways.

  Sitting in silence while Baker worked on his phone was too much for Connie so finally she spoke up.

  “He won’t do anything, he doesn’t care,” she said breaking the silence.

  “Who won’t?” Baker didn’t even look up from his phone as he asked.

  “Detective Jones. I spoke to him earlier when I came here and he doesn’t seem to think this is serious.”

  “I’m not sure about that, I’ve seen Detective Jones in court,” Baker responded as he put his phone down on his lap. He left it facing up so he could tell when that associate emailed him back.

  He thought back to a trial he had recently conducted. Detective Jones was a good police officer, and doesn’t make very many mistakes. Baker did everything he could for his client to impeach the credibility of Jones but it had very little impact on the judge, though it might have had some impact on the jury. His client at that trial was found not guilty, after all, but that probably wasn’t a result of Jones’ character.

  “He’s a decent cop, if a little overworked, and he’s getting far too excited about his upcoming retirement. But regardless, Connie, he seems like a man who can get the job done. I have faith in him doing the right thing.”

  “I hope you’re right,” was all she said while still staring straight ahead.

  Baker went back to his phone and was too engaged in responding to emails on his phone to notice Caroline come back to the reception area a few minutes later. Connie got up off the bench, which still didn’t trigger a reaction in Baker.

  “Please follow me,” Caroline said, as she turned to take them into the back to one of the meeting rooms, finally getting Baker up off his ass. Of course, he could have found his way to that room without a lead, he’s interviewed his fair share of criminals in it in the past.

  ◆◆◆

  In the small windowless meeting room, Baker and Connie sat and waited patiently until the door opened and a slightly overweight, middle-aged, graying Detective Jeffrey Jones entered the room, dropping a very small file folder onto the table in front of them.

  “Hello Ms. Winston, it’s good to see you again,” the detective said smiling at Connie. He then turned to face the defence attorney and the smile was no longer anywhere to be seen.

  “Baker.”

  “It’s good to see you too Detective Jones,” he responded, ignoring the slight. “How is the investigation going?”

  “Well,” said the detective flipping open the file. “Here’s what we know so far. The last text Mary sent out was at 12:03 PM last Thursday night to a person named Danielle Crosby. Her phone company confirmed that there were no other texts or phone calls sent out from that number since that time. Her apartment is locked up and there is no response from it, but there doesn’t seem to be any signs of forced entry and her neighbours don’t recall seeing her come home. Since it was late at night though, it’s impossible to say whether she came to her apartment or not.”

  “Who’s Danielle Crosby?” Baker whispered to Connie.

  “She’s one of the girls who was out with Mary that night,” Connie whispered back.

  “That makes sense.”

  “Have you sent out patrols or started looking for her?” Baker questioned in an adversarial tone, turning his attention back to detective Jones.

  “That’s not the way it works son,” the detective glared at Baker as he spoke. “You know that. We don’t have nearly enough resources to stop all of the actual crimes in progress, let alone…”

  “Let alone what?” Connie demanded emotionally getting up from her seat.

  “Let alone something that may not even be a crime,” the detective responded with a sigh. “Look, I know she hasn’t responded to you in a few days but she’s an adult. You even told me that she had just recently broke up with her boyfriend, and before you ask, yes we spoke to him and he was away that whole night in Banff with some friends that can vouch for his whereabouts. He told me that she was trying to convince him to go on a trip to a resort in Mexico for the last couple of months and it’s possible that she might have just used this opportunity to just take the trip by herself.”

  “No,” Connie said sternly. “That’s my sister, I know she wouldn’t have just run off like that without telling me or our parents. That’s not like her at all.”

  “And I’ve told you ma’am, I’m looking into it but where she is an adult until there is proof or evidence of some sort of foul play we can’t open an official missing person’s case.” Jones sounded like he had to say that, but didn’t believe it himself.

  “But its Monday afternoon, have you spoken to anyone at the University? She’s probably missed classes already,” Baker grilled the detective seizing on the opportunity.

  “I have, Mr. Desjardins,” he replied. “Believe it or not I am a competent police officer, despite what you’ve argued in court before. We spoke to her Master’s thesis supervisor and he said that she doesn’t have any classes this semester and most of what she does is just research at home. He hadn’t spoken to her since Thursday, but he also said it wasn’t uncommon to go a few weeks without hearing from her so that there was nothing to be concerned about, at least so far as the university is concerned.”

  “There has to be more you can do,” Connie begged.

  “Ma’am, we’re doing everything we can under the circumstances,” Detective Jones answered putting his file back together. “If you can think of anything else that might help us find your sister call me directly. I know you’re worried, but there’s a really good chance in this situation that she is just on a vacation and will be back when she’s ready.”

  “Thank you for your time, detective,” Baker pre-empted Connie before she said something she may regret.

  He shook the detective’s hand and walked out of the meeting room together with a cold, despondent Connie. They put on their warm winter jackets which they had hung on the backs of their chairs as they left to combat the cold. This was a disappointing result, but not unexpected. The police force was very busy and no matter how good of a cop he is, Baker doesn’t blame Jones for not trusting him. Not after all the things he’s argued in court against Jones and the rest of the Edmonton Police Force. When he does that he’s only doing right by his clients and what justice demands, or at least that what he tells himself, but now that he needs the police force’s help he is beginning to regret how aggressively he goes after them in court sometimes.

  “Is there anything more you can do?” Connie asked him once they left the building, assuming the answer would be no.

  “I’m not sure Connie, but I know Mary. Maybe not as well as you do but I still know her. To me she really didn’t seem like the type of girl who wo
uld just go to Mexico alone and not tell anyone. I just don’t believe it.”

  “She isn’t that type of person at all.”

  “But Jones is right, since she is an adult they can’t open an official missing persons investigation until there is some proof that something went on,” Baker scratched his head as he talked through his thoughts. “They won’t just believe us that Mary’s not like this, that’s not how the law works.”

  “What can we do though?” she asked looking him in the eyes.

  “If we can find something more that will force the police to get up off their asses then they’ll have to. So we need to find out as much as we can about that bar that she went to that night, and what all her friends were saying and doing before she went missing. Do you know who she went out with?”

  “Yeah, I’ve hung out with her and her friends a few times. I may not know all of them but I know Lauren, Danielle, and Amata were with Mary at the Thirsty Lion that night. I have Lauren and Danielle on Facebook so I can talk to them that way.”

  “Well that’s a start. Look, call them up and see if they can meet with us tomorrow at around five PM. I have a trial in the morning and unfortunately I have to go back to the office now and prepare for it, but once that trial’s done for the day I can spent some time and help you find your sister,” Baker smiled apologetically as he looked over at her.

  “How long is your trial?”

  “Shouldn’t be longer than five days, maybe two weeks tops,” Baker responded. It sounded short in his mind, but to Connie it sounded like forever.

  “Always working,” Connie sadly mused to herself. “What should I do until then?”

  “Go see your parents, they must be just as worried as you are. Tell them the police are looking for Mary and I’m going to help you after work too. They always liked me, maybe that will help them feel better.”

  Connie smiled and nodded sadly. Baker was a partner at his firm now, does he really need to be the person running all of these trials, or could he get a junior associate to run it? She wasn’t a lawyer but she knew that when Baker was a young lawyer the senior partners would let him run some of the more straightforward trials, and sometimes those senior lawyers would even go to the hearings and give him support. But that was never Baker’s way of business, he always wanted to do everything himself because that was the only way he could be sure it was done right.

  But while Baker Desjardins wasn’t perfect (nobody is), Connie needed his work ethic and meticulous attention to detail is she was ever going to find her sister. If only he could focus on that for a few days she was sure they could find Mary.

  If only.

  ◆◆◆

  Mary Green. Meaghan Toews. And just this morning Christine Rivers.

  That’s three women in the last month that were reported missing, thought Detective Jones. They don’t know each other, and there didn’t seem to be any foul play in any of the disappearances so there was no connection made between them within the police force but what if there was a connection?

  Jones sipped his coffee as he looked at the two other missing persons files, which he’ll now ask to have reassigned to him. It was probably nothing, but these girls were about the same age, about the same build and all seem to have went missing from the bar scene at night. The last investigator apparently didn’t do a very thorough job on the Toews missing person request but he was going to make sure that he personally investigated Christine Rivers.

  Jones finished his coffee then took his travel mug to get some more. There wasn’t too much investigating he could do from his desk anymore. He was going to go out there and find out what happened to these women.

  Even if that meant helping Baker Desjardins. That jerk.

  Chapter 5

  TheTrial Prep

  It was nearly eight o’clock and Baker had just barely finished drafting his cross-examination questions. After hours of painstakingly examining the documents, reviewing all the police notes and photographs, and going over his recordings of the things his client told him, he came to a solid, well-reasoned, and unavoidable conclusion.

  His client was guilty.

  That’s never stopped him before and everyone is entitled to the best legal defence they can afford so if the police made any procedural errors, like not reading his client his rights on the arrest, then he knew he would be able to get his otherwise-guilty client out on a technicality. But he wasn’t finding any technicalities, no matter how hard he looked. And it wasn’t as if this was just a minor crime, his client was charged with trafficking crystal meth and he was found with three ounces on him. There would be no pleading this one down to simple possession.

  “Just give me something,” Baker shouted at his papers.

  “How about a back rub?” called out a voice from the hallway.

  “What? Hey, the office is closed,” Baker yelled back getting up from his desk and feeling embarrassed about being caught talking to himself. Then his partner Sam Allen popped his head into his office with a giant, dumb grin on his face beneath his hipster moustache.

  “Hi-dee ho, neighbourino,” Sam greeted Baker in his best Ned Flanders impression.

  Baker was relieved it wasn’t a client or one of the juniors. He can let his guard down around his business partner Sam, they’ve been friends since shortly after Baker graduated law school. It wasn’t like any of the associates here where he had to portray a certain aura that comes with being a named partner.

  “What are you doing here?” Baker asked, cognisant of the time. Sam didn’t normally work nearly as late as Baker did.

  “Well it wouldn’t be called ‘Allen and Desjardins Defence Attorneys LLP’ if I weren’t here every now and then too,” Sam laughed. “I guess it would just be called ‘Desjardins Defence Attorneys’ but that just grammatically doesn’t make sense. So I guess you’re stuck with me.”

  Baker laughed, “No I mean, what are you doing here so late? You don’t have a trial tomorrow do you?”

  “Nope, no trial,” Sam replied. “Just came to pick something up. I’m taking the missus out to dinner. Hey wait, are you here this late for a trial? Jeeze, you need to take a vacation Baker.”

  “Yeah, it’s a big drug trafficker the cops busted with a bunch of meth. I just can’t find anything.”

  “Did he do it?” Sam asked.

  “Yeah, well of course. If he wasn’t selling meth he wouldn’t be able to hire me with the salary from his nominal job at Costco,” Baker joked.

  “Well if he did it, tell him to plead guilty and try and get a good deal. Then you can go home and try to see what life is like on the outside of the office for a change.”

  Baker looked back down at his papers and figured he would be here for at least another hour or so. At the same time Sam’s phone started ringing.

  “Hello? Yes. Oh no, why not? I didn’t think they could call you in like that,” Sam checked his watch. “Yes I know you’re a nurse, we’ve been married ten years. Yeah, no I meant eleven. Ok, well have a good night. When will you be home? Ok I’ll be back by then,” Sam hung up and put the phone back in his pocket.

  “Well,” he told Baker. “Nancy won’t be able to make it out tonight. But that’s good news for you, have you eaten yet?”

  “I was planning on eating when I got home,” Baker replied. He was starting to get hungry though, and started thinking that maybe he could get some Chinese food delivered.

  “Yeah, knowing you that won’t be until after midnight. Close that laptop, we’re going to grab a bite.”

  ◆◆◆

  “You can’t be working on the fifth!” Sam exclaimed between bites of his burger.

  “Why not?” Baker asked, already knowing the response.

  “Well first, it’s Saturday, and nobody works on Saturdays. That’s the day you drink and sin before you go to church on Sunday and then work again on Monday. Seriously, you keep working all of your weekends and you’re going to have a heart attack. My blood pressure is already through the roof
so I can only imagine yours is… well pretty bad too, sorry I couldn’t think of a more clever line. But secondly, and most importantly, the fifth is the day of the big indoor paintball tournament!”

  “That’s coming up already?” Baker wondered aloud. “I guess it has been a year hasn’t it.”

  “Yes, it’s every year and we have to defend our crown against the crowns! Like every year it’s the prosecutors verses the defence attorneys of Edmonton in a ferocious battle to the death, or at least a battle to the last paint splatter. Oh, and I think we raise money for some charity or another,” Sam recalled with food still in his mouth. “Either way, we won last year because of you! The other firms wouldn’t ever forgive me if I didn’t bring you back to help us retain the title!”

  Baker smiled at the memory as he twirled his chicken alfredo with his fork. He was the last man standing on his team, and though he only got one kill in the game, it was the final one that counted for the most.

  “So, who cares if they don’t forgive you?”

  “It could be terrible! Those limey bastards in the other firms might get a murderous, drug dealing, rapist walk in right through their doors, stare them all down like they’re his next victims, drop his murder weapon on the receptionist’s desk next to a kilo of coke… and then not send him our way!” Sam laughed. “Can you imagine just letting a lunker like that go get defended by Bradley and Co? You have to come out!”

  “Yeah, I’ll have to see if I can make it,” Baker told him, not confident that he could.

  “Do you remember how you won that last one?” Sam asked him.

  Baker smiled. Of course he did.