What Burns Within

by Sandra Ruttan

  Mullins arched an eyebrow and stared down at the table, her grip on her pen tightening as her jaw clenched.

  Ashlyn pretended to scratch her neck and took the opportunity to pull her shirt up slightly. She could feel Quinlan’s eyes lingering on her and was fighting the urge to squirm in her chair.

  This was going to be a long meeting. She reached for a glass of water.

  Craig tossed another folder on the negative file and rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger. A quick visual survey convinced him he hadn’t yet covered a tenth of the reports he had to wade through.

  A glance at his watch told him it was already half past ten. He didn’t know what was worse, being stuck with a partner you had little use for, or relying on her to help do the leg work only to have them fall short.

  He started reviewing the files with a different system. Anyone with a connection to the lower mainland or something in their MO that correlated to the current crimes was flagged. Everyone else was tossed aside.

  It wasn’t the type of methodical background he normally went for. He remembered going over files with Ashlyn, watching her work a hunch, seeing her take the initiative on a case.

  There’d been other partners he’d respected. Other partners he’d crossed the lines with, he reminded himself. Ashlyn had always been different. Maybe it was because she knew more about him than any of the other women ever had, and they’d still been able to work together, to even forge a bit of trust.

  He’d meant to call her. Every time he picked up the phone…He sighed as he flipped open another file.

  There was no sense beating himself up about it now. Not with a ton of work and a deadline.

  And a deadbeat partner, he thought as he looked at the empty desk across from him.

  “Constable Nolan?”

  Craig spun in his chair. “Yes. What can I do for you?”

  “I’m Constable Sims. I was supposed to look into some information for Constable Tain. Have you seen him?”

  Craig opened his mouth to speak and then realized he didn’t have a clue what to say. “Ah, sorry. No.”

  Sims glanced at his watch. “He must still be in his meeting with Sergeant Daly. If you see him, could you tell him I was looking for him?”

  “Sure.”

  Craig stared at the straight back as it moved away. Could there be another Tain working for the RCMP? Something in Craig’s gut told him he already knew the answer, leaving him to wonder what the hell Tain was doing meeting with Daly.

  And why his dad had failed to mention that Tain was working in the Tri-Cities.

  “This is what we do know. Julie Darrens was abducted on June fourteenth. That’s the date of the first arson we have in this particular set. Isabella Bertini was abducted July eighth. That was the date of the second arson we’ve definitely linked. Julie Darrens’s body was found at the fire on July twenty-fifth. I have another fire on July eighteenth, which doesn’t seem to tie in at this point. Isabella’s body was found at a fire on August eighteenth, and we were at the scene of the sixth fire yesterday when we got the call about Lindsay Eckert. I wouldn’t exactly call that a thin link.”

  The dark eyes narrowed and Zoe Mullins turned her glare away from Ashlyn to the end of the table.

  “But how does this help us with the case? As far as I can tell, we have no more leads now than we did a week ago, and yet we’ve recovered another body and have two more children missing.”

  “We do have evidence to review from last night,” Ashlyn said. “There’s a security tape from the hallway and we’ve reconstructed the abduction. A necklace Lindsay was wearing was recovered, which gives us a clear route to work with, something we don’t have for Taylor Brennen. We’re confident that whoever took Lindsay was familiar with Southside Recreation and Fitness Center. They used a fire door with a broken alarm, which meant nobody would notice when it was opened. Our guy waited in a secondary corridor that clientele had no reason for using. He parked in a secluded area around the back, near some trees. He didn’t just get lucky. He knew what he was doing.”

  “We’re still waiting on fingerprint results from where we believe the perp was hiding,” Tain added. “It’s the best lead we have so far.”

  “Do any of the members have records?”

  “That’s next on the list. Tain and Ashlyn are going to have their hands full reviewing the material we have so far,” Daly said. “We’ll let you know if there are any leads that come up as a result of the information we have.”

  Zoe’s eyes narrowed again. “You mean none of this material has been reviewed? It’s been about fifteen hours since Lindsay Eckert went missing, and with every second the trail is getting colder. What has your staff been doing?”

  “Constable Mullins, Constable Hart and Constable Tain have been operating on my orders. Neither had slept since Friday. I ordered them to get eight hours, and I closed the scene personally. As much as I agree that the first hours are critical, we have to be pragmatic with this investigation. We now have four girls who’ve been abducted. Two were abducted this weekend, and the body of a third was recovered this weekend as well. Constable Hart is also still working the arson investigation, and there have been two fires this weekend. My officers simply cannot work five cases in a row without rest and be expected to perform their duties. To be blunt, until this weekend, this was your case. Your unit has had it for over a month, and has worked two abductions and one body recovery during that time. These two have dealt with more in the past forty-eight hours than you have in the past forty-eight days.”

  Ashlyn saw Zoe bite her lip and turn her head sharply, directing her gaze at her note pad.

  “Sergeant Daly is right,” Quinlan added. “We can’t expect everyone to work until they drop. We have to pace ourselves and make sure we’re sharp, focused. Tired officers make sloppy mistakes. This isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon.”

  “Not that we expect to work banker’s hours while this case is going,” Tain said. “We’re prepared to put in what ever time is necessary to get results. I’ve faced three sets of grieving parents this weekend. As far as I’m concerned, I’m going to do everything I can to make sure there isn’t another set of parents added to that list anytime soon.”

  There was silence at the table. Daly lifted his glass to his lips and took a drink of water. Then he looked up with a polite smile. “Any other questions?”

  “What can my team do to help?” Quinlan folded his hands as he leaned forward and turned to look at Daly.

  “We need to go through everything there is about these girls,” Ashlyn said automatically. “Teachers, school friends, instructors, camp counselors, the names of their dentists and hairdressers. Everything. If our guy is picking specific girls, he has to know them from somewhere. We need to see if there’s a link between Julie, Isabella, Taylor and Lindsay.”

  Quinlan smiled at her. “Absolutely.” He turned to his constables with a more intimidating gaze. “Constable Urquhart and Constable Mullins will find out everything, no matter how insignificant it may seem. Start with Julie and Isabella, and then we’ll see how far Ashlyn and Tain have gotten. Since they’ve got a lot of material to go through, we’ll work on Taylor and Lindsay if your team hasn’t gotten there already,” he finished, looking at Daly.

  Daly glanced at Tain and Ashlyn, who exchanged a quick look and then nodded. “Right. Everybody knows what we’re doing. This isn’t about saving face. It’s about getting this guy before he hurts anybody else. I suggest we meet back here tomorrow at ten AM. Review everything we have and see if there’s anything promising that turns up.”

  Quinlan and Daly stood and shook hands, and Urquhart and Mullins turned and bolted out the door as quickly as they could as Quinlan walked down to their end of the table.

  “It was a pleasure to meet you.” He extended his hand, offering Ashlyn a warm smile. The expression cooled a degree or two when he shook Tain’s hand.

  Once Quinlan and Daly had left the room, Ashlyn glanced at Tain. “
I was sure you’d be begging Zoe for her phone number.”

  “Don’t be jealous, Ashlyn. All the women start batting their eyelashes when they see my charming face.”

  “If I’d known I wouldn’t have agreed to work this with you. I don’t want to get in the way of true love.”

  “You know, if I said that I could be up on harassment charges.”

  Ashlyn smiled at him as they walked down the hall. “You have said stuff like that and worse. And yet you’re still blessing us with your presence.”

  “Until Quinlan hears how I talk to you. He’ll have me out on my ass faster than I can say abuse of authority. How do you deal with guys like that?”

  She shrugged. “I think I’ve just tuned it out.”

  “You were getting a little hot under the collar.”

  “Is that why you moved closer to me?”

  “Like I need an excuse?”

  She gave him a light smack on the arm. “Stop it, Tain. We’re friends. Old friends, even, by comparison to everyone else around here. And I love the fact that I can relax with you and don’t have to go through all that pretense and bullshit, finding my feet with someone I don’t know. But you don’t need to lay it on so thick.”

  “I thought that was part of my charm.”

  “Nothing if not per sis tent?”

  “Squeaky wheels and all that.”

  Her nose wrinkled as she sat down at her desk, resting her chin against her hand.

  “What?”

  “I was just wondering what you do with your dog when you have to work for a few days straight.”

  “Chinook has a great day care. They operate a kennel too, and I know the owner. She’s the breeder I got him from. I have a special deal with them, so when I’m working Chinook stays with her.”

  “I see.”

  He glanced up at her. She didn’t even try to hold back the smile or the twinkle in her eyes.

  “Look, she recently got some new purebreds. She’s trying to persuade me to do some breeding.”

  “Is that what you’re calling it?”

  “Strictly a business proposition.”

  “How romantic.” Ashlyn grabbed the list of Southside Recreation and Fitness Center employees from the top of the pile.

  “That was so funny I forgot to laugh,” Tain said. He picked up his phone and dialed. “Corporal Winters, please.”

  “Is that all you have?” Daly asked as he skimmed the notes while he ate.

  Craig nodded. “I haven’t been able to go through all the reports in detail. So far, I’ve identified five cases nationally that could fit with our rapist as part of a pattern of escalation, but even those are a bit of a stretch.”

  “With those rapes leading up to the current ones?”

  “It doesn’t seem possible that this guy is new. I think he’s been at it for a while.”

  “What about local parolees?”

  “Three who are long shots.”

  “Nobody who’s really jumping out at you, who you favor?”

  Craig shook his head. “Not yet. But like I said, I haven’t read through everything in detail yet.”

  Daly watched Craig while he took a drink of milk, then asked, “What do you want me to do about this?”

  Craig speared a potato with his fork and then glanced up. “What would you do if it was anyone else?”

  “Is that really a fair question?”

  “It should be.”

  “I can take Lori off this, no problem. But that leaves you on it alone.”

  “I’m not sure I see any difference between that and my current status. ”

  Daly reached for the salt. “One way or the other, Lori’s got some questions to answer. You don’t have to worry about her coming through unscathed.”

  “But?”

  Daly returned Craig’s stare. “But you have to stop working alone. If anything, you’ve gotten worse since you came back to Coquitlam.”

  “Once you’ve had a decent partner, it’s hard going back to dealing with imbeciles.”

  “Craig—”

  “I know, I know. I have to give people a chance.”

  “You do, you know. You can’t always assume you know best or that other people won’t carry their weight.” Daly sighed. “So you were right this time. That doesn’t mean that next time you won’t get paired off with someone better.”

  Craig looked him straight in the eyes. “I heard something interesting today.”

  “Oh?”

  “You never told me Tain had transferred to Coquitlam.”

  Daly flinched. “Where’d you hear that?”

  “Constable Sims was looking for him.”

  “Why?”

  “I didn’t interrogate the guy.”

  Daly pushed his tray aside. “I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about Tain working in the same department as you again.”

  Craig’s cell phone rang. After a few short words he hung up.

  “As though this case wasn’t bad enough already—”

  “Another rape?” Daly asked as he stood up.

  “And if it’s the same guy, he’s officially graduated.” Craig let out a deep breath. “This woman’s been murdered.”

  Tain turned away from Ashlyn as he responded to the person on the phone and lowered his voice. “Thanks for getting back to me, Tim.”

  “You know, when you worked out here in the sticks, you never had to lower your voice. Don’t tell me people actually like you now.”

  “Can’t you just turn up the volume on your hearing aid?”

  “Know what the best thing about having those things stuck in your ears is, Tain?”

  “Enlighten me.”

  “It’s the closest thing to having a mute button for the wife.”

  Tain laughed. “That’s something to strive for then.”

  “What can I do for you?” There was a quick pause before Tim continued. “Don’t deny it. You’re lousy at keeping in touch. And you’re at work, so there’s no way this is a social chat.”

  “You worked a case some years back,” Tain began.

  “I worked a lot of cases some years back. You’ll have to do better than that.”

  “John-John.”

  “John-John? Is he still plying his trade? Filthy slime, that one. What do you want to know?”

  “Well, clearly you remember him.”

  “Oh, I remember that guy. We were looking to put him down for the abduction of a little girl, the kid of one of his working girls. When we got close, the kid suddenly turned up on her doorstep and then the mother skipped town with her. No complaining victim, no remaining witnesses.”

  “Prosecutor wasn’t prepared to take it further?”

  “No way. Dropped it. I was always looking for a way to get back at John-John, but he may as well have been playing for the Canucks.”

  “Why? Always on the road?”

  “No,’ cause he skated on everything.”

  “Shame that bump on the head didn’t do something about your sense of humor, Tim.”

  “Yeah, well, my short-term memory has never come back, you know. One minute I’m following up a lead, and the next I’m being signed up for hypnotherapy.”

  “Geez. So you could never identify the punks who clobbered you?” Tim had been attacked while working a case. Tain had been reassigned to work it.

  One of those cases that became a lingering nightmare, the kind you could never purge from memory, no matter how much you drank or prayed or cried.

  “What difference does it make?” Tim said. “You guys—you, Craig, Ashlyn—you got them. Speaking of which, how’s Craig doing?”

  “I haven’t seen him.”

  “Really?”

  “You never even met him, did you?”

  “No, but his name lives on around here.”

  Tain almost smiled. “I’ll bet it does.”

  “What are you looking at John-John for, anyway?”

  “You know the missing kids cases that have been in the news?” T
ain glanced at Ashlyn, who was staring at her notes just a little too intently. He turned as far as the phone cord would let him. “Well, he might connect to one of them, but I need to keep it quiet. For now.”

  Tim Winters, Tim Winters…Ashlyn’s eyes widened as it clicked into place for her. She wondered why Tain would be phoning him.