Black Wolf Rising (Prequel to the Bernadette Callahan Mystery Series)

by Lyle Nicholson

  Susie’s eyes snapped back to focus on him. “What about her? I can finish her any time I want.”

  David shook his head, “Nah, Susie, you mess with her, you get’s in a shit load a trouble. The cops be looking to put you in juvie. Look, girl, right now, here you are smoking a cigarette, and the law changed this year to eighteen to smoke. Those shit head cops can put you in juvie for jus’ that. You know what I mean?”

  Susie reached forward and grabbed David’s hand; she dug her fingernails hard until he yelped. “Don’t you ever tell me what I can do, you useless tit.”

  David nursed his hand. “Jesus, Susie…I’m just trying to help.”

  “He’s sweet on you, Susie,” Leo said. He gave a little snort at this own joke and took a big gulp of his Pepsi.

  “You’re both dumb tits. I just don’t know which is the dumbest,” Susie said. She pounded her cigarette into the ashtray. “Hey, Stavros, how about another coke?”

  Stavros poked his head out, “Sure, how bout you order a pizza or something. You think I feed my family with you drinking three cokes all afternoon?”

  “You don’t want me to get too fat now do you, Stavros?” Susie asked in coy tone. She turned towards him, drawing attention to her growing bosoms.

  Stavros waved his hand in the air and disappeared back in the kitchen.

  “I heard Bernadette be going to some kind of karate class the past month,” Leo said.

  “Ain’t going to help her,” Susie said. “I’ll kick her ass all the same.”

  “But you can’t get close to her,” David said. He said it quietly, pulling both his hands under the table in case Susie wanted to claw him again.

  “You’re a double dumb tit, David. But you got a point. None of us can take on the wrestling team. Those jocks are bad ass,” Susie said.

  “So, what’re you going to do? We just let little karate girl pal around with her chaperons and smile at us like we can’t get to her?” Leo asked.

  Susie lit another cigarette and smiled as Stavros delivered her a coke to their table. “You know, I got some things up my sleeve Bernadette doesn’t know about. I have a way of getting to her. I’ll kick her little ass yet.”

  She blew anther stream of smoke into the air, breaking into a smile. She hadn’t felt this good in a long time.

  16

  Bernadette hated people who said, “Never get too optimistic, because something bad will come your way.” It’s what happened one week after finding the new apartment.

  The following week, after the visit to the new apartment, all Bernadette and her aunt and the kids could talk about was how they’d furnish the new place. They’d made a trip by bus to the big Ikea store, and with the large catalogue of strange-sounding Swedish names for odd-looking furniture in hand, they collectively plotted their new home.

  There would be bunk beds for the kids, a loft bed with desk underneath for Bernadette, and simple fabric sofa and two armchairs for the living room. They’d given notice on their present place and crossed the days off on the calendar until they moved.

  Then something changed in Aunt Mary. She was going to work at the tavern later than usual. They’d meet coming in the door. Bernadette sensed something in her aunt’s face, a look of hesitation, of fear.

  When Bernadette had touched her arm, Aunt Mary pulled it away with a pained look on her face. “You want to tell me what’s going on with you?” she asked.

  “It’s nothing,” Aunt Mary said, but the look in her eyes said volumes.

  Bernadette sent the kids off to the bedroom to play. “’Nothing’ seems to have some pain attached. You’re not good at hiding things—we have that in common.”

  Aunt Mary broke down in tears. “It was the big guy—the one you threw out of the apartment. He goes by the name of Ace, but I think his name is Guy…something.”

  “He’s hassling you at the tavern?”

  “Yeah, he’s been grabbing me when I go by his table…and…last night he tried to force me into the men’s room with him. I was lucky, our cook was walking by and told him to lay off,” Aunt Mary said.

  “Why doesn’t the manager throw him out?” Bernadette asked.

  “The manager is chicken shit. This guy belongs to a bike gang, and he’s afraid he’ll bring the other bikers in and tear up the place. He told me I was the problem. I could either take it or quit.”

  “Wow, that is chicken shit.”

  “Hey, watch your language, young lady.”

  They laughed, hugged hard, and Aunt Mary left for work. The next morning when she returned home, Bernadette got up to check on her. She seemed fine. The rough guy named Ace hadn’t shown up, and she’d had a good shift and made lots of tips.

  Bernadette thought they could deal with it. Maybe Ace had got his rocks off annoying her aunt and would move on. Then she received a note from her homeroom teacher. She was to call Officer Myers at the local police station as soon as possible.

  She waited until after her last morning class to phone Officer Myers. The pay phones near the gym was the least used and the least conspicuous. She dialed the number and got Myers on her cell phone.

  “What’s up?” Bernadette asked.

  “I need to see you; there’s been a development.”

  “What kind of development?” Bernadette asked. She watched three girls walking down the corridor. They were talking loudly and singing the new tune “Crying” by Aerosmith. Bernadette put one finger in her ear to hear. “I said, what kind of development?”

  “Can you get over here?” Myers asked.

  Bernadette sighed loudly. “Sure, I’ll be there right away.”

  Her problem was, no escort. Travis and the team were in the gym doing drills for an upcoming wrestling match. She didn’t want to bother them. Dumping her books in her locker, she headed out from the school on her own.

  She made it to the local police station with no problem. There wasn’t one of Susie’s gang around. The day was getting warm. The snow was melting from a mild breeze, and big, fluffy clouds blew across a bright blue sky.

  A front desk receptionist took Bernadette to a back office where Officer Myers was waiting.

  “Hey, Bernadette, thanks for coming in so soon. I hear you’ve been doing great in class the past month. Sensei thinks you’re a natural. He’s impressed by your attitude and determination…can I offer you a soft drink, water, or tea?” Myers said.

  “I’m fine. Glad to hear I impressed sensei, I thought he was going to throw me out the first session.”

  Myers laughed. “He ejects those who talk in class or don’t try hard enough. You’re good.”

  Bernadette looked down at the desk, then up at Myers. “I’m sorry, but I don’t have a lot of time, I need to get back to my next class. What’s this about?”

  Myer’s arched an eyebrow at Bernadette’s forthright question. “You’re right, and I need to get to the point.” She pulled out a file folder from the side of her desk. “Our detachment got this fax from the RCMP detachment near your reservation. Do you remember a Sergeant McNeil?”

  “Of course I do,” Bernadette said. “He suggested I leave the reservation after…well, after a little incident.”

  “The incident blew up. In this memo, the sergeant says, and I paraphrase, the towns kids discovered the lie told by the Cardinal boys and wanted to beat the hell out of them.” Myers sat back in her chair. “Basically, Bernadette, the three Cardinal boys mentioned here have left the reservation and are looking for you.”

  Bernadette shrugged. “So? They can look all they want, they have no idea I have an aunt here.”

  “Well, now they do.”

  “How’d they find out?”

  “When your aunt Mary phoned your grandmother, your grandmother’s phone wasn’t working, so she called the general store to get hold of her. A guy named…Gus, he went to get your grandmother to get her to the phone.”

  “Oh my god, not Gus,” Bernadette said as she put her hand over her forehead and sighed. “He’s
the biggest gossip on the reservation.” She put her hands down on the desk. “So the Cardinal boys know I’m in Edmonton. Big city, lots of high schools, by the time they find me I’ll be heading for university.”

  “Sure, if it weren’t for this news article,” Myers said. She pulled a paper and shoved it across the desk.

  It was from the local town’s paper. The article read about Bernadette Callahan the upcoming track star savagely beaten in the shower at Western High in Edmonton.

  “How did this get out?” Bernadette asked.

  “Simple,” Myers said. “The police were called to the high school. All the newspaper reporters have police scanners, and someone at the hospital or your school must have blabbed, and your little northern town newspaper picked it up last week.”

  “Damn it. I’m screwed.”

  “Yeah, pretty much,” Myers said. “Do you have any family you can go to in another province? Maybe even somewhere in the United States?”

  “You think I should run?”

  “I called Sergeant McNeil, to see the trouble you might be in with the Cardinal boys, and he thinks this is serious. You made them lose face up there. You kicked their ass—they lied about it and got found out. He said they were muttering about killing you.”

  “Wait a minute, isn’t threatening to kill someone against the law?” Bernadette asked. She sat upright in her chair, staring hard at Myers.

  Officer Myers nodded. “Yes, it is, but in this case it’s just hearsay. What Constable McNeil heard was from another source. We’d have to get the witness to say they’d heard the Cardinals say it and have them make a statement.”

  Bernadette sank back in her chair. “The Cardinal boys have threatened most people on the reservation at one time or another for the slightest thing. Doubt if anyone would come forward for me.”

  “So, you’ll find somewhere to go?”

  Bernadette shook her head. “I’m not sure. I need to take care of my aunt Mary. I don’t like the situation she’s in.”

  “Something I can help with?”

  Bernadette pursed her lips and paused for a moment. Should she confide in Myers? It took her a second to decide. “Some guy by the nickname Ace has been hassling my aunt at the tavern, I think his name is Guy…”

  “Guy Labinski,” Myers said. “He’s a bad ass. We’ve been trying to arrest him for months on drug trafficking. He’s the one supplying drugs to your school.”

  “My school? I had no idea.”

  Myers looked at Bernadette; she scratched her head as a thought crossed her mind. “Bernadette, you need to know, Ace is dangerous. He’s been dealing drugs to a gang at your school.”

  “Susie’s gang?”

  “You got it.”

  “Why haven’t you been able to arrest Ace? Wait, I know you can’t catch him in the act. That’s it, isn’t it?” Bernadette asked, her words coming out fast, as if she’d just discovered the answer to a math problem.

  “My, you’re a quick study. We have no one to infiltrate the gang, and no one school age to approach Ace for a buy,” Myers said slowly. She wondered if what she was doing was right. The detachment had thought about approaching a student so many times but held off—the implications of bringing a child into a drug bust was reprehensible…but Bernadette seemed different, she was older than her years.

  “What if I helped you to nab Ace?” Bernadette asked.

  “Bernadette, you need to understand, this isn’t some game. We’re talking an undercover operation. You’d be wearing a wire, and I’d need to get the Crown Prosecutor involved to allow you to do it. Otherwise, the whole thing gets thrown out of court if we don’t do it right.”

  “How long’s it going to take?”

  Myers rubbed her hands together. “Can you give me a minute? The officers in the narcotics squad are here right now.” She disappeared for a moment and came back with a man and a woman in tow.

  “This is Detectives Mark Salenko and Denise Kruger; they do undercover work in narcotics. Detectives, this is Bernadette Callahan. She’s offered to work undercover and do a drug buy from Ace and his gang.”

  Bernadette looked them over. Mark wore a white muscle shirt tucked into blue jeans. His big hairy arms were covered in tattoos. His black hair was greased back and tied into a ponytail at the back. He looked more hard-core trucker than detective.

  Denise Kruger wore a tight, short, leather skirt. Her face was layered under makeup and bad eyeliner. A tight leopard skin blouse was low cut, showing off her ample cleavage.

  “You’re detectives?” Bernadette asked with a big dose of wonder in her voice.

  Kruger snapped the gum she was chewing. “Yeah, don’t we look the sight? But you know what, dressing up like this gets us in tight with the locals.” She turned to Myers. “What’s it you want us to do with this kid?”

  “I’d go undercover. You know, wear a wire and do a drug buy. Put Ace in the slammer,” Bernadette said. She sat forward in her chair. She couldn’t believe how cool this was sounding.

  “How old are you?” Salenko asked

  “Sixteen—but I’ll be seventeen soon.” Bernadette said.

  “Holy shit, Myers, what the hell do you think you’re doing? We can’t work with kids,” Salenko said. He almost spit as he said it. Wiping his mouth as if he had to get the taste of Myer’s idea from his mouth.

  “But, what about 21 Jump Street? They had all these detectives who acted like high school students to do drug busts and stuff. I’d just be doing it as a real high school student. I’d be good too. I once took a drama class. The teacher said I was a natural,” Bernadette said.

  “Yeah, a natural pain in the ass,” Salenko said. He looked over at Myers. “You’ll never get this past the Crown Prosecutor. Matter of fact, if you even bring it downtown, you’re making a major C.L.M.”

  “What’s a C.L.M?” Bernadette asked.

  “It’s a career-limiting move,” Kruger said. “Police officers only get so many in their job. Making a request like this would have the legal suits downtown put a note on Officer Myer’s file. Not good, Myers, seriously not good.”

  “And don’t even think about mentioning us, Myers, ‘cause we’d never go along on this.” Salenko said. He turned to look at Bernadette. “No offense, kid, but I got a wife and two kids and mortgage to pay. I may look and act the part of scumbag drug dealer, but I’ve had fifteen years in the force. They may use kids down in the US in this 21 Jump Street thing—”

  “It’s a TV show,” Kruger said.

  “Okay, better yet, it’s not real. In real life we don’t use anyone under eighteen in our activities. We’re close to cracking Ace on our own. He’s part of the Devils Undertakers biker gang.” Salenko looked at Myers and smiled. “I know it sounds silly, but the leader of the gang, he doesn’t take to dealing drugs to schools.”

  Kruger laughed. “Yeah, get this, he’s a really family type. Got kids in hockey. Sells his meth to university and colleges. A man with a conscience.”

  “All we gotta do,” Salenko said, “is get the goods on Ace, let his gang leader know he’s dealing to high schools, and this Ace is done. They’ll take him out for us.” He turned to leave. “So thanks for the offer, but you best get back to school and quit watching silly American television. We do real stuff here in Canada.”

  They walked out of the room. Myers and Bernadette sat there in silence. What had started as cool idea and adventure had been trashed. Myers sniffed, pulled out a tissue from a box on her desk, and blew her nose softly. “I guess that’s it then. I think you need to find a new place to live.”

  Bernadette’s fingers dug into the sides of her chair. “No, that’s not it. I’m not going anywhere.” Her eyes narrowed. “You know, one of the first things I was taught in karate was about sanchin—the three battles—”

  Myers nodded. “Yes, the three battles of the mind and body, sight and perception and breath, there are many different elements of each—”

  Bernadette put up her hand. “Sorry
, officer, I don’t need a refresher lesson. What I’m saying is, I have three battles of Susie, Ace, and the Cardinals. I don’t know how I’ll handle it, but running away isn’t one of them.”

  Myers shook her head. “I can’t make you do anything. I can advise you, you’re putting your life in danger by staying where you are.”

  Bernadette got up from the chair. “Thanks, officer, consider me advised. Now, I’ve got classes to attend to.”

  Bernadette walked out of the police station, crossed the street, and walked towards the school. The complexity of the situation was rolling around in her head when she turned a corner and stopped. A half a block away were two of the boys from Susie’s gang.

  17

  Bernadette stood at the corner watching the two boys. Had they seen her? Were they about to move away? They stood midway up the block, smoking and watching the road ahead. They were waiting for something.

  A car drove slowly by and then stopped in front of them. Bernadette crossed the street, making like she was heading somewhere else. She found a large mailbox to hide behind and watched the boys.

  No one got out of the car; instead a hand reached out with a package. The larger boy, Bernadette remembered was Leo, took the package and jammed it into his jacket. He looked up and down the street. He didn’t see Bernadette.

  The car drove away. Bernadette watched it go down the street. She memorized the car and the license number. Who would these boys know who drove what looked like a late model Cadillac?

  Checking her watch, she realized she needed to get to class. These boys were no longer anything but a hindrance between her and an essential math test. This was mid terms and she needed to get this test done or she could lose whatever marks she already had.

  She moved out from behind the mailbox and started to walk down the street. She made it a few hundred metres when she heard the words, “Hey, it’s the Karate Kid.”