Until the Night jc-6

by Giles Blunt

  In the middle of all this, Cardinal had to go out to the meeting room to try to calm down Ronnie Babstock. He’d showed up with a laptop that he opened on the board table to the video recording of his daughter. She was dressed like the other victims, in blue down jacket, new boots, no gloves, no scarf. Nothing else visible in the frame but ice.

  Her breaths were shallow, visible intermittently as fog against the blue of her jacket. She appeared to try to speak, but no words came out.

  “She’s going to die, John. I need to know what is being done.”

  “Ron, we looked at this the minute you zapped it over. It doesn’t contain anything we can use, and we have another lead to follow up right now-a strong lead. We’re heading out in a few minutes. You go back home and I’ll call you soon as we know.”

  “He’s on Axel Heiberg, John. Tell me the Mounties are there.”

  “They’re on their way. They don’t have an outpost on that island, but they’re in the air right at this moment. Listen, Ron, that is only to make sure. We don’t think he made it up there.”

  “He left the numbers. The coordinates.”

  “Yes, it was his plan. He wanted us to arrive too late. But he was in a car accident. He’s injured. There’s no way he could fly a plane that far. We believe he’s here now. There’s nothing in the video that couldn’t be right here in Algonquin Bay.”

  “This is a recording.” Babstock pointed to the laptop, the image of his daughter curled up on the ice, a chain winding out of the bottom of the frame. “It wasn’t even live when he sent it.”

  The cottage was near the tip of Cole’s Landing. The assault had to be coordinated with Jerry Commanda and OPP SWAT. He had asked Cardinal what they could expect.

  “We don’t know. Durie’s sister told us the cottage never contained any weapons of any kind when they were growing up. Their father wasn’t a hunter or anything. But he’s had plenty of time to stock it up with whatever he wants. We’ve had plainclothes get as close as they can. So far, there’s no signs of life, no signs of recent activity. We don’t know if he’s in there or if the girl’s in there alone, or what. If she’s with him, he could shoot her the minute he sees us.”

  A stillness had settled over the lake, no trace of last week’s freak wind, or any wind at all. Sun hanging low over the Manitou Islands, radiating nothing but cold. The quiet sawn in two by a snowmobile heading out through the fishing shacks. Not too many of those would be occupied on a day like this. Thirty below, and that was in the sun. It was hard to believe anyone could die on such a beautiful day, but if Hayley Babstock was out in this, she surely would.

  “Jesus, this is hellish,” Cardinal said, “and we’re dressed for it.”

  Delorme said nothing. She had been keeping her distance all morning. He had congratulated her on the Priest case and wanted to arrange a dinner or some time they could catch up, but she had pulled out her cellphone and feigned sudden interest in a text.

  Not that he could worry about that now. He had McLeod and Szelagy at the ready behind a rock cut on the west side of the cottage. From there, they had a clear shot at the walkout on the lake side should anyone decide to make a run for it.

  He and Delorme were taking the front, but OPP would be first in. Cardinal had briefed them thoroughly and he had no reason to fear they’d blow it.

  “I think I saw a curtain move,” Delorme said.

  “I didn’t.”

  “I could be wrong. Staring too hard.”

  The curtains had been drawn all morning as far as the drive-bys could ascertain. There was smoke coming from the chimney, but that meant nothing. All houses kept some degree of heat on throughout the winter to prevent pipes bursting.

  Jerry Commanda’s voice over the radio. “Everyone in place?”

  Cardinal told him they were ready.

  “All right, then. Let’s hope she’s in there.”

  Despite their vantage point halfway up the hill, he couldn’t see Jerry and the SWAT team until they emerged from the bush like so many ninjas-ninjas plump with parkas and weaponry. He saw the point team heave the boomer into the door and a split-second later heard the crash of it.

  He and Delorme ran down the hill and into the house.

  “They’re not here,” Jerry told them, “but it looks like they were.”

  There were dishes in the sink, bloody bandages in the bathroom. They found a coat in a heap on the floor that Cardinal recognized from photos of Hayley Babstock. He went to the wide front window and looked out across the lake. To the north, the blocky outlines of fishing huts silhouetted against the sun. To the west, the reflected sun was almost as bright as the real thing. It was a moment before Cardinal realized the reflection was coming from Babstock’s lake house, those glass rectangles hurling the sun right back in bolts of fire.

  “Do we have any idea where he might be headed next?” Jerry said.

  “Somewhere cold.”

  “That could be anywhere.”

  “It could.”

  “And we don’t know what he’s driving.”

  “No.”

  “You gonna order up your ident team?”

  “They’re on the way,” Cardinal said.

  “What’s wrong? What are you staring at?”

  “Ronnie Babstock’s house. Glass one over there.”

  “I thought he owned that huge place on MacClintock.”

  Cardinal was about to answer when there was a flash followed by a tremendous bang. All those bright reflections vanished in billowing clouds of black and grey.

  “My God,” Jerry said.

  They both pulled out their phones. Jerry issued terse requests for fire and ambulance. “Is that Outlook Drive he’s on?”

  “Outlook, yeah.”

  Jerry told them Outlook, hung up and ordered everyone to head over to the fire.

  Ronnie Babstock answered Cardinal’s call and Cardinal asked him to hold on. He covered the mouthpiece. “Jerry, he’s probably trying to draw us away.”

  “I know that. But we have to respond. She could be in that fire.”

  Cardinal stepped away and covered one ear to block out the mayhem around him. “Ron. No, we haven’t found her yet. But I have a question for you.”

  “What’s going on there? What’s all that noise? Have you got the guy?”

  “No. Listen, Ron. That day you were up in the Arctic. The flare. How far would you say you were from where that flare went up?”

  “What? I don’t get you.”

  “How far were you? Best guess.”

  “I don’t know. More than four kilometres. Less than six.”

  Delorme grabbed his arm. “Are you coming?”

  “Go with Jerry. I’ll be over in a minute.”

  Delorme looked at him and he couldn’t read her expression, this woman he thought he knew so well now an unknown quantity. She turned from him and followed the others.

  “Why are you asking this, John? What’s going on?”

  “Karson Durie was aiming for some kind of symmetry. Wanted to take Hayley to the exact spot he nearly died, but got stopped. Four to six kilometres is your best guess? What kind of angle was it?”

  “What?”

  “From where you stood. You were on a ridge, right? From where you stood on that ridge to where that flare went up.”

  “You know about the ridge? I didn’t tell you about the ridge.”

  “The angle, Ron. The angle. Now.”

  “It was about two o’clock from where I stood.”

  “Two o’clock. So you’d say about ten degrees?”

  “Two o’clock would be seven point five-but look, I didn’t do a compass reading.”

  “Understood. Another question for you-is there anyone at your lakeside house right now? Cleaning lady? Caterer? Anyone like that?”

  “No, I don’t go out there when it’s this cold. Why?”

  Cardinal went to the nearest neighbour’s place and banged on the door and yelled “Police.” There were two cars in the d
riveway, one snowmobile trailer. Someone was home.

  A man came to the door in his bathrobe.

  “What the hell’s going on? I was in the shower, for God’s sake.”

  “I believe you own a snowmobile.”

  “Yeah. So?”

  “The sooner you hand me the keys, the sooner you can get back to that shower.”

  Smoke was still unfurling in fat black thunderclouds from where Ronnie Babstock’s house used to be. Cardinal was no master of snowmobiles, but he knew enough to get it moving in the right direction and at a speed that felt insane after the car.

  The cold scorched his face, and by the time he’d got himself in line with the fire he was wishing he had a balaclava. He’d dropped his woollen cap in the cottage or somewhere else and his ears were already beginning to go numb.

  At this moment, he was the only thing moving across the ice, the only thing making a racket. He cut across a rocky point and got within two hundred metres of the smoke. The fire trucks were there, but it was a question how well their pumps would work in this deep-freeze.

  He spun the machine around to face south across the lake. He had to thumb the fog off his sunglasses to see. The shadowy humps of the Manitou Islands, the random fishing huts. With his back to Ron’s house, two o’clock put him in line with the smallest of the islands. Five kilometres would definitely put him on the island. But there were a lot of huts in between.

  He gunned it and the machine leapt forward. There were patches where the winds of the past week had blown the surface completely clean. It flashed beneath him in a jittery blur of black and silver.

  Not all the fishing huts that had been blown from their original locations by the freak wind had been dragged back. Orange warning signs were posted near the exposed holes. The holes had frozen over again, but they would not be ready to hold the weight of a person, let alone a snow machine.

  A slim, dark object off to one side caught Cardinal’s eye, and he slowed and stopped. He got off the machine and went to the object and knelt over it. A small video camera, still fixed into its tripod. A smear of blood across the brand name.

  You aren’t carrying anybody to those islands, Cardinal said. You aren’t anywhere far.

  He left the camera where it was and got back on the snowmobile, heading for the huts that lay between him and the nearest island. He had to veer around exposed fishing holes. The cold sank hooks into his face. It’ll be even worse, he thought, if that pain disappears.

  Usually there was smoke curling from the roof pipes of the huts. Not today. He counted only three with smoke. Those he ruled out right away. If Hayley was in a hut, it would be one without heat, and if she was dressed like the other victims, she’d be dead or right next door to dead.

  Cardinal had heard that the RCMP-or was it the military? — were developing a stealth snowmobile, and he was wishing he had one now. If Durie was in any one of these cabins, he was going to hear him coming. And he would hear that he was alone.

  Sometimes, Cardinal thought, you have to pretend you don’t know something. I’m not making a sound. Invisible, too.

  He drove right up to the door of the first hut. There was no snow machine nearby’ there wouldn’t be if Hayley was alone. The hut was a crooked wreck not much bigger than a garden shed, but he came off the machine with his Beretta in hand and kicked the door open. Coleman stove, empty Labatt cases, porn magazines.

  The next hut had windows blinded with frost. He broke one with his elbow and saw at a glance the place was empty.

  He moved to the next one. His fingers were barely working and he had to put his hand with the Beretta in his pocket. Again no snowmobile. Windows opaque. Drag marks where the hut had slid out of position. An unmarked fishing hole nearby, the danger sign flat on the ice.

  This cabin was bigger than the others and there was blood on the doorsill. Cardinal took his gun out and checked that the safety was off. The padlock on the door was big, but it didn’t matter. Two kicks tore the hasp from the frame. He pushed the door open.

  Hayley Babstock lay half-curled on a bench. Blue down jacket like the others. New boots.

  “I have a Glock. 45 pointed at your spine.” The voice came from behind him. “Place the gun on the ice and kick it back here.”

  “Just let me help the girl,” Cardinal said.

  “Gun on the ice, Detective. You’re not rescuing anyone today.” It was a dry voice, an exhausted voice. The voice of a ghost.

  “Look at her, Durie. She’s young. A teacher, but practically a kid herself.”

  The shot ripped into the door frame.

  “Gun on the ice.”

  Cardinal lowered the gun and kicked it back. He heard the man gasp as he picked it up.

  Cardinal turned around. Durie’s face was a perfect match with his voice-grey, drawn, desiccated-the face of the walking dead. “Let’s at least get inside,” Cardinal said.

  “Not that one,” Durie said. He gestured with the gun at the cabin behind him.

  “I think we should go in here with Hayley. You should see exactly what you’re doing. Exactly who you’re killing.”

  “I’ve seen it before.”

  “You mean Rebecca.”

  The man flinched. Black spark in the hollow of his eyes.

  “I’ve read your notebook. I know you had to watch her die. But I don’t think you watched Marjorie Flint or Laura Lacroix or Brenda Gauthier.”

  “Ronald Babstock is the one who should be watching. Unfortunately… technical difficulties.”

  Cardinal pointed inside the hut. “Hate Ron Babstock all you want. He and his daughter are not the same person. Hayley never harmed you in any way.”

  “Everyone’s accusing me of hate. Hate is not required.”

  “You’re not like this. This isn’t you. It’s obvious from your diary-your blue notebook. You’re an intelligent man, a passionate man. A man capable of love. A man who recognizes the good qualities in others. A scientist. Observant. Curious. You loved someone, remember?”

  “That was in another country.” The dry voice. A whisper among reeds. “You flip that switch, push that button. Love turns into something else, but it isn’t hate.”

  “I also know-”

  “You don’t know anything.”

  “From your notebook. Rebecca was also passionate, loving, a scientist-curious, rational, brave. She loved you. Loved her husband too, I think. But she saw the good qualities in you.”

  “I frightened her.”

  “From what you wrote, I think it was her own feelings that scared her.”

  Durie shook his head.

  “I believe every word you wrote. What I don’t understand is why the jury didn’t believe you. Why did they think you killed the others?”

  “I was holding the murder weapon when they found me.”

  “There’s plenty of reason for that.”

  “If you’ve read to the end of my notebook, you know her husband testified against me. Told them I’d gone on a rampage in a desperate attempt to steal his wife. Now there’s hate for you. Odd thing is, I don’t even blame Kurt, really. I didn’t even at the time. I understood it completely. I’d like to tell him so, but he died of natural causes before I got the chance.”

  “You got a bad deal.”

  “Eighteen years for four murders. The judge was marvellously impartial, considering. Took Arctic stresses into account.”

  “The woman you loved died too young. Hayley doesn’t have to.”

  “Nor did Rebecca.”

  “Honour the person she was, then. She would beg you to stop. It’s there, in everything you write about her.”

  “Rebecca can’t care anymore. Being dead.”

  “Durie, listen. Here we are in the exact same circumstances you were in twenty years ago. A young woman is about to freeze to death, only this time it doesn’t have to happen. This time you can save her. In some ways, I think that’s why you’ve been doing this-hoping that somehow, against all odds, this time it would turn out
right. Well, it can. This time you can save her.”

  “And what about me?”

  “You’ll probably die in prison.”

  “I was joking.”

  “But you’ll be a better man. A better human being. The one that young woman loved so long ago.”

  “Karson Durie died twenty years ago, Detective. I’m just a ghost.”

  “Fine. At least they have heating in prison.”

  “You imagine I’m afraid of the cold.”

  “I don’t think you’re afraid of anything.”

  “I’m made of cold.”

  Durie opened his parka. He shifted the gun from one hand to the other and back, letting the coat drop from his shoulders to the ice. Underneath, he was wearing a dark sweater, khaki pants.

  “It’s what I was wearing that day. You believe that? They actually gave them back to me in a parcel the day I was released. They’re a little big on me now. Would’ve been nice if they’d given me back my toes and fingers.”

  Cardinal took a step toward him. A searing pain like a scalpel across his arm before he even heard the shot.

  Durie took two steps to the side, his limp severe. Then he stepped onto the fishing hole as if he were stepping onto the down escalator, both feet firmly in the circle.

  The briefest pause.

  Over the course of the next month, Cardinal would have to explain many times why he thought Durie would suddenly choose this course of action. He said, every time, that he did not know. Durie could have killed Cardinal, and the girl would have died the way he had intended. Maybe his thirst for revenge had been slaked sooner than he expected. Maybe he was just tired of killing. His own injuries were life-threatening-the autopsy showed deep cuts, seven fractured ribs, a punctured lung, and a torn spleen-and he must have known at this point he was unlikely to survive them. Or maybe it was that Hayley Babstock was too much like the woman he had loved so long ago, and he couldn’t, in the end, bear to take her life. Or maybe it was as he had said, maybe Karson Durie had really died all those years ago.

  The ice gave way beneath him and he vanished. Cardinal crawled to the hole but could see nothing beyond shards of ice. Water like ink. He plunged his arm in up to the shoulder and the pain made him shout. He rolled back from the edge, gasping.