Stone Cold

by Dean Crawford

  ‘That rules out a presence, not assistance in the crime,’ Griffin pointed out.

  ‘Not much we can do about that,’ Maietta replied, ‘until we have a suspect.’

  They walked up the garden path and climbed the steps to the front door. The door opened for them and they walked inside, the man who had let them in careful to remain out of sight.

  A broad foyer greeted them, a grand staircase facing them that split half way up and climbed to opposite landings above the foyer. Two doorways to the left and right in the foyer led to the living room and dining room, and two corridors either side of the staircase led to the rear of the house and presumably the kitchen.

  ‘Kinda pokey,’ Maietta quipped.

  A sergeant dressed in casual attire appeared and gestured with a jab of his thumb toward the living room to their left.

  ‘Owner of the house is in there.’

  ‘Forensics cleaned up?’ Griffin asked. ‘Find anything?’

  A small forensics and technical team had been sent into the house under cover of darkness, while Dale McKenzie was out, to both check the house for evidence and install a phone–monitoring system.

  ‘Just the spilled blood. It’s being analysed as we speak, but chances are it’s Sheila McKenzie’s.’

  Griffin nodded as he followed Maietta into the living room. Sumptuous carpets inches deep, couches yards long, an immense fireplace large enough to sit in and a plasma screen mounted on one wall that would have shamed a small–town cinema. Dale McKenzie sat on the enormous couch, his hands clasped in his lap.

  On the coffee table, a phone was wired to a laptop computer being monitored by a technical officer. If the abductors called about the ransom, it would give law enforcement a chance to pin down their location.

  ‘Detectives,’ McKenzie said, standing and glancing at their uniforms. ‘Anything yet?’

  ‘Nothing,’ Griffin said, ‘but we’re investigating every possible avenue.’

  Dale McKenzie was wearing casual clothes after his day on duty, but Griffin could tell that he was hiding considerable emotional strain.

  ‘Of course,’ he replied quietly.

  Griffin had to maintain the essence of a man isolated on his own, to keep McKenzie as far from any suspicion of police activity as possible. The men in the house with him would be gone soon and would monitor his phone line remotely.

  ‘This won’t take long,’ Griffin assured the captain. ‘You have a flight to take?’

  ‘Daily schedule to Las Vegas,’ McKenzie replied, ‘due out in about an hour.’

  ‘Just stick with your normal routine,’ Griffin said. ‘Anything changes, the abductors are going to suspect you’ve come to us and that could become a real problem. You just keep holdin’ it together, okay?’

  McKenzie nodded. ‘It helps not to be sitting about here,’ he said. ‘I feel better if I’ve got something to do.’

  ‘Okay, I’ll make this quick,’ Griffin said, checking his notes. ‘You were away from home for just over forty–eight hours during the period in which your wife was presumably abducted.’

  ‘Presumably?’ McKenzie echoed. ‘I showed you the ransom note, remember?’

  ‘Yes sir I do, but a ransom note does not necessarily mean that there is a ransom demand.’

  McKenzie’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Griffin. ‘You still think that Sheila is somehow behind all of this?’

  ‘I didn’t say that,’ Griffin pointed out. ‘We have to explore any possible motive or outcome. It’s what I imagine you’d want us to do?’

  ‘I want you to find my wife!’ McKenzie snapped. ‘How the hell could I have anything to do with this?’

  ‘Sometimes there’s a partner involved,’ Maietta said. ‘Somebody who can do the dirty work while providing a convenient alibi for the brains behind the crime.’

  McKenzie stared at her for a long moment.

  ‘And supposing I was the brains behind some kind of bizarre abduction scheme, and a benefactor paid on my behalf for my wife’s liberation? What then? I couldn’t launder the money, because I wouldn’t know where to start. I couldn’t spend it, because to do so would expose me as the guilty party. I would be utterly unable to touch a single dime.’

  ‘Patience,’ Griffin said, ‘is a virtue.’

  ‘And mine is running out,’ McKenzie snarled as he stood and jabbed a finger hard into Griffin’s chest. ‘My wife is missing and yet again you’re standing here questioning a victim!’

  ‘Don’t do that,’ Griffin said as he batted McKenzie’s hand aside. ‘You don’t want to end up in a cell yourself, right?’

  McKenzie backed off, apparently surprised by the threat. Maietta moved in, taking her cue naturally from Griffin. Good cop, bad cop.

  ‘Mister McKenzie we’re not here to accuse you, we’re here to find answers and if we miss something, your wife might not return. Do you understand?’

  ‘I’m not an idiot,’ McKenzie snapped, clearly trying to restrain his anger and keep his voice down. ‘I know what you have to do, but these theories make no sense at all and you’re wasting what time we have. Forty eight hours, isn’t it? Before the chances of an abductee surviving their ordeal are drastically reduced? It’s been more than twenty four already, we’ve had no contact from the abductors and you’re no closer to finding my wife than when I first called!’

  Griffin slipped his notebook into his pocket and looked the pilot in the eye.

  ‘Is it possible, captain, however unlikely, that your wife might somehow have leaked the security codes from your alarm system to somebody else?’

  ‘I doubt it,’ McKenzie replied. ‘Sheila is very paranoid about security, especially at home.’

  ‘Any reason for that?’ Maietta asked.

  ‘Like I said, she grew up an orphan,’ McKenzie replied. ‘She’s used to having nobody to fall back upon but herself. I imagine her childhood was quite lonely, intimidating even. People like that grow up security conscious.’

  ‘Like you?’ Griffin asked. ‘You’re an orphan too, you said?’

  ‘I am,’ McKenzie replied, ‘but we men are not quite the target that attractive, successful women can be.’

  ‘Sheila’s abductor was either allowed into this house or knew the code well enough to enter the property and then re–set the alarm before they left. Somebody, somewhere, knew the code.’

  ‘I don’t know how that could be,’ McKenzie insisted. ‘I’m the only other person who knows it.’

  ‘I think that you may know something, even if you’re not sure yourself,’ Griffin pressured him. ‘Could Sheila have been unhappy in her life, decided that she would skip town maybe, and then decided that she would arrange an abduction situation to extort you for money?’

  McKenzie shook his head.

  ‘No, it doesn’t make sense, she wasn’t unhappy. We were due to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary, she was making plans. Everything was fine.’

  ‘Can you define fine for me, Mr McKenzie?’ Griffin asked.

  ‘Scott,’ Maietta said, ‘that’s enough.’

  ‘Jesus, you really want to pin this on me don’t you?’ the pilot asked in horror. ‘Is that why you’re here?’

  ‘I’m here,’ Griffin said, ignoring his partner, ‘because I cannot fathom why anybody who was planning an abduction or extortion would have targeted you or your family. If I were an abductor I’d target somebody wealthy, famous and ideally stupid and neither you nor your wife fit that category.’

  At once both insulted and complimented, McKenzie wasn’t sure how to react. He settled for glancing at his watch.

  ‘I have to go,’ he uttered.

  Griffin watched the pilot walk away as Maietta turned to him. ‘What the hell was that?’

  ‘That was my job,’ Griffin replied with a shrug.

  ‘You were interrogating our victim,’ Maietta snapped. ‘Not exactly the caring and sharing policy Olsen likes us to project onto the community, Scott.’

  ‘I don’t care about the
damned policies,’ Griffin shot back. ‘I care about finding that man’s wife as soon as possible, and right now I don’t have a damned clue how to go about it.’

  Maietta watched Griffin for a long moment before she replied. ‘What’s eating at you?’

  ‘Nothing,’ Griffin snapped in reply.

  ‘Well, take a hint,’ Maietta replied, ‘poking Dale McKenzie in the eyes isn’t the way. You’re on thin ice right now, Scott.’

  Griffin offered his partner a tight smile as he checked his watch. ‘It’ll be a lot damned thinner if we don’t find Sheila.’

  ***

  18

  Kathryn awoke earlier than usual.

  Maybe it was the buzz in her heart, the first flush of true excitement over her new and bold undertaking that aroused her from a deep and dreamless sleep. Stephen had spent the night facing away from her, his legs curled up in a foetal position that she had once found rather endearing. Now, she wondered if the experiences of their previous night’s escapades had shrivelled his masculinity and left him huddled protectively around what was left of it. Whatever.

  Stephen had awoken early and left before dawn, leaving her to enjoy the luxury of their bed on her own. Sunlight streamed into the room between the blinds. Christ, for once it wasn’t bloody raining, as Ally would say, her British obsession with the weather remaining fully intact. There were, it seemed, suddenly no end to the wonders blessing Kathryn with every passing day.

  Kathryn got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. She turned on the shower until steam puffed around her in clouds and stepped in, luxuriating in the heat. It was bizarre, ridiculous and certainly not real, not in a real sense, but she had not felt so alive in what felt like years. Decades, perhaps, even. Her skin tingled with delight and she lathered herself from head to foot, humming tunes to herself.

  When they had returned home from the restaurant the previous night, Kathryn glowing with delight and looking constantly at the ring she had bought for herself the day before, Stephen subdued and troubled, she had taken it upon herself to soothe his suffering. Magnanimous in victory and revelling in her new found power over him, she had decided that he should endure no longer. Or not exactly suffer, anyway. Even lying, cheating bastards needed a break sometimes, and her grand design required a certain degree of finesse to play out the way she wanted.

  Despite his protestations, she had pinned him against the wall of their bedroom and unzipped him before sinking to her knees and giving him precisely the kind of attention no man would be able to ignore for long. She had undressed herself at the same time, tossing her lingerie to one side as she yanked his pants off and then stood up and shoved Stephen toward their bed. And then she had ridden him as though he were the last man alive on Earth, bouncing up and down as though she were a teenager until he climaxed inside her.

  Exhausted and quite probably stunned into a disbelieving silence, Stephen had promptly fallen asleep, which suited Kathryn fine. The quieter he was, the better she felt about things.

  Kathryn stepped out of the shower and towelled herself down. She was halfway back to the bedroom to fetch her clothes when she heard the front door of the apartment open and close and Stephen walked into the bedroom.

  ‘You’re back?’ she asked, surprised.

  ‘Sorry,’ he replied as he lifted a bag filled with food. ‘Thought you might want some breakfast?’

  Kathryn blinked in surprise once more, and smiled as she took the bag from him. ‘Sounds good to me.’

  She turned and made her way into the kitchen and prepared breakfast. Bacon and eggs, sausages, mushrooms, coffee and orange juice – the whole nine yards.

  The aroma of food had the desired effect, and she heard Stephen plod his way into the shower and the hiss of the water as he splashed himself out of his torpor. As much a man as he ever was, he appeared in the kitchen just minutes later as though carried aloft by the scent of food.

  Kathryn breezed by him and reached up on tip–toe to kiss him on the cheek. ‘Did you sleep well?’

  ‘Like the dead.’

  Don’t tempt me. Kathryn gestured at him with the flickering blade of a bread knife. ‘Sit.’

  Stephen plonked obediently down into a chair and stared at the splendid array of food before him. ‘I feel like I’m living in a dream.’

  ‘Glad you approve,’ Kathryn said as she sat down opposite him and nibbled a piece of toast. She reached out for a brochure and began flipping the pages.

  Stephen tucked into his breakfast and coffee, but it took him only moments to notice the brochure.

  ‘What’s that?’

  Kathryn leafed casually through the pages without looking at him as she replied. ‘Baby clothes. I picked it up the other day in town.’

  ‘Baby clothes?’

  ‘They do wear clothes you know,’ she replied. ‘Little ones.’

  ‘Yeah, I know, but we don’t have one.’

  ‘Not yet we don’t,’ she winked and smiled in reply. ‘If I were you though, I’d brace myself.’

  Stephen stared at her, a dribble of egg yolk heading south for his chin. ‘We only…’

  ‘Last night?’ she cut across him, and then leafed through another page of the magazine. ‘I know, first time in about a month wasn’t it. The thing is, we were having sex so rarely that I came off the pill a while back.’

  Stephen coughed. One hand flew to his mouth to keep his food inside it as he swallowed. His eyes glistened with tears from the strain. ‘You’re not taking any contraception?’ he wheezed.

  ‘No,’ she said, still munching happily on her toast. ‘Were you?’

  Stephen appeared stunned once again. ‘Were you planning on telling me this sooner?’

  Kathryn searched the air above her head for a moment as though looking for an answer. ‘No, not really.’ She grinned mischievously. ‘Last night changed everything.’

  Stephen looked as though he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

  ‘Kathryn, we only just got engaged.’

  ‘Engaged,’ she echoed in a delighted whisper. ‘Don’t you just love how that sounds?’

  ‘It sounds expensive,’ Stephen muttered as he cut into a sausage.

  ‘Oh you’re so romantic sometimes,’ she chided. ‘Look, we’ve only got one life and I’m damned if I’m going to sit around waiting for the things that I want to happen to just fall into my lap. I want to get married, Stephen. I want us to have children. Hell, I might even buy a little dog.’

  ‘The hell you will.’

  ‘It’s my money, remember?’ Kathryn said. ‘I earn my own salary now and I can spend it on what I want.’

  ‘And me?’ Stephen asked around a mouthful of sausage and egg. ‘What about my money? Apparently you’ve spent about half a million for us already, what with your new house, children, dog and what not. You going to cover all of that?’

  Kathryn flashed him a devil’s smile. ‘That’s why it’s called marriage, darling. Husband and wife.’ She held the smile for a moment, the bread knife still close by. ‘Til death do us part.’

  ‘Now who’s being romantic?’

  ‘It’s not just children we need to think about,’ Kathryn said as she switched to another brochure. ‘Life’s not been easy for us this past year, and when the children arrive it’ll be tough for us to get away. I thought that we should book a vacation while we still can. I thought that maybe we could combine our wedding with your idea of the Bahamas and get married out there.’

  ‘Get married,’ Stephen replied, ‘in the Bahamas, before we have children and get a giant new house in the city. Is this before or after we buy Montana?’

  Kathryn chuckled and then pulled an excited face. ‘Oooh, that reminds me, there’s a travel company doing big discounts at the moment. I’m not sure which one it was, hang on a moment…’

  Kathryn turned to her handbag and yanked out a thick wedge of brochures. She flipped through several of them before finding the right one.

  ‘Ah, here it is. Great Escap
es. Have you heard of them?’

  Stephen shook his head, one hand holding his fork close to his mouth, the other gripping his knife.

  ‘Maybe we could head over there this afternoon and chat to their staff, they’re headquartered on the other side of the city.’

  Stephen, his mouth full of food, shook his head vigorously.

  ‘What?’ Kathryn asked. ‘It could be a real bonus if we could get a deal on travel and accommodation through them. It can’t be every day that customers walk through their doors and besides, after our triumphs of last night, maybe we’ll get even luckier?’

  Stephen shook his head again and swallowed his food with some effort.

  ‘Don’t you think you’re trying to do everything just a little too quickly?’

  ‘Look, right now we’re at least free of any other obligations, right?’ Kathryn said. ‘In future years, we’ll have a mortgage, kids and everything that goes with having a family. My thinking is that right now is the time to have a little fun before it’s too late for both of us.’

  ‘I think that we should take our time a little, think about all of this.’

  Kathryn shrugged and closed the airline brochure. Then she waved airline tickets in the air with one hand. ‘So what do you want me to do with these then?’

  Stephen looked at the tickets and his eyes flew wide. ‘Jesus, you haven’t?!’

  Kathryn grinned. ‘I have.’

  Stephen’s shoulders slumped. ‘Kathryn, we can’t just take off on holiday!’

  ‘Why not?’ she asked. ‘Why not just say “to hell with it all”?’

  ‘Because then my boss will say “to hell with him” and we’ll be even more broke than we are now!’ Stephen sighed. ‘Look, I know you’re trying to do the right thing for us, but that’s too much Kathryn, really.’

  Kathryn dropped the tickets back into the brochure and set it aside. ‘Okay, okay, I’ll get a refund.’ She switched back to the images of babies for a moment. ‘Would you prefer a boy or a girl?’

  ‘Kathryn, I don’t know that….’

  ‘Twins!’ Kathryn gushed. ‘Imagine that, if we had one of each right off the bat!’