Blue Rubicon (15 page)

She nodded.

“And we could use some backup. Maybe we can
borrow their TRU team.” Tactics and Rescue Unit, yet another nicer sounding
acronym than SWAT. The TRU team started in 1975 and is now one of the top
hostage rescue teams in North America. I never bothered going for it. The
training would have been awesome—rappelling, basic sniper, concealment, VIP
security, hostage rescue, explosives disposal—but the physical requirements
weren’t something I was willing to train for. The idea of covering two miles
with a fifty-pound vest on while doing other tasks didn’t appeal to me.

And that was just the beginning. Complete
that and you might get to go on one of the most difficult selection courses in
the world for non-military—nine days of torture.

“What about notifying London?” Kara said.

“We’ll have to at least let someone know.
It’ll have to be high up the command. We still don’t know who Carter’s killer
is.”

“Shit. Right. You sure got yourself… us,
into a hell of a mess, Link. I’m starting to wish you’d just let it go as a
suicide.”

“You wouldn’t have done that either.”

“I know, but—”

“No buts, Kara. Someone has to have the
integrity to do the job right. Know what I was told by my coach officer when I
first hit the street?”

She shook her head. I was surprised I
hadn’t told her that story yet.

“He said, ‘now that you’re a cop you have
to watch out for the domestic abusers, the alcholics, the drug addicts, the
drug dealers, the drunk drivers, the sex offenders, the thieves and fraudsters,
the violent ones, even the pedophiles.’ He paused for a second to let it all
sink in then added, ‘and you need to keep an eye on the public, too.’”

It took Kara at least a minute to stop
laughing. “Truer words were never spoken. Kind of sad, eh?”

“It’s reality. We’re human. The public
expects us all to be paragons of virtue but it’s not the case. We can be just
as dumb, greedy and impulsive as the rest of the world. Problem is—and it’s
going to be worse when this gets out—one cop gets charged with something—impaired,
excessive force, doesn’t matter—and people see all cops the same way.”

“Which isn’t fair.”

“No, but it’s reality again, Kara. What do
you think of priests?”

“Perverts.”

“Scout leaders?”

“Same.”

“Why? Because a few have been pedophiles?
They’re an identifiable group. Makes it easy to paint them all at once. We’re
no different.”

“Yeah. People are going to have a heyday
with it.”

“True,” I said. “And odds are there’ll be
some fallout for us. Stupid cops pissed off at us for ruining the image of the
service. It doesn’t help the situation that we’ve got this bullshit police
culture that no one on the outside can crack or even hope to understand. It
alienates us.”

Kara took a drink of what had to be a
lukewarm coffee. “You’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

“It’s just the way I do things,” I said,
mock bravado obscured at the end by a chuckle. “Seriously though, this ‘blue
line’ bullshit needs to end. The idea of protecting our own, and if you don’t
you might as well quit rather than deal with the rumours, the comments, the
potential for not getting backed up—it’s all ridiculous.”

“Really? That happens?”

I knew she was talking about the backup. It
wasn’t as common for us since there were so few of us working the street at a
time, but I’d heard about it in larger forces. Someone no one likes or who’s
been branded a ‘rat’ calls for backup and the radio goes silent. I’ve never
heard about it for an emergency situation, just when the officer is asking for
someone to assist before going to arrest someone, or knock on a door. I’d hope
no matter what every one of us would rush to the rescue of an officer in
danger.

“Yeah, for going to do a door knock or
arrest. Nobody wants to assist them. It’s stupid. We shouldn’t have to protect
our own. Here’s an idea: don’t fuck up. Whatever happened to personal responsibility?
If you fuck up, it’s your fault, not the cop that caught you.”

Kara was laughing, not that it was by any
means something she found funny. I knew it was because of my delivery. I was
getting agitated, this was something that drove me nuts.

“You going to be all right?”

“In a minute. Just drives me nuts. Almost
every problem in this world boils down to a lack of personal responsibility and
an overabundance of entitlement issues.”

“You need to think less about things.”

Funny. That’s what the shrink told me when
I was forced into psychiatric sessions after shooting Saunders—and breaking
down in my SIU interview. And he was getting paid probably five times what Kara
was, all to tell me the same thing.

“Give Chen a call,” Kara said, looking at
the time. “Let him know we’ll meet him in an hour.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. Pick somewhere in the south
end, somewhere we can talk.”

I thought about it for a minute then came
up with a Thai restaurant just off the 401. It was usually quiet enough that we
could have a private conversation, even one of this magnitude.

“Chen?” I said after his cell phone picked
up.

“Link, fuck. You okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. How’d you even know?”

“I couldn’t get a hold of you. Kept trying
and trying. So I drove into town and by the house.”

“That’ll do it.”

“Papers said everyone got out okay, so that
helped. Where’ve you been?”

“Poland,” I said. “I took Kat and the kids
to her parents. They need to be somewhere safe.”

“Right. What’s up?”

“Can you meet in London, one hour?”

“Yeah, name the place.”

I told Chen where we were going and gave
him directions. He knew London well enough that I didn’t have to worry about
him getting lost. Once all was arranged we said our goodbyes and hung up.

“You think he’s ready for all of this?”

“Chen was born ready. Anyway, he’s probably
thinking right now about how all of this was destined and wondering what the
future holds.”

Kara laughed. “Maybe he’s right.”

“You too? Seriously?”

A shrug. “There seems to be a lot of
coincidence and happenstance going on here, maybe there’s more to it.”

Had everyone lost their minds? Was I the
only one who still believed that our lives were not preordained?

I didn’t have anything else to say. It was
far from the time to get into an existentialist argument. And my phone ringing
didn’t give us the chance.

Private number.

“Hello?” I said, expecting Chen. The voice
on the other end was distorted. I pulled the phone from my ear and put it on
speaker.

“Back off, Munroe,” the voice said.

“Why?”

“Don’t be a dick, just listen. Back off or Algonquin
goes public.”

How did they even know about that? The file
was sealed and privatized. But they had an Inspector on their side. He’d have
the rank and the clout to view it or get it opened.

“Go ahead,” I said. There was nothing I
could do if they wanted to go to the press. I’d done nothing wrong back then,
it had been investigated and I’d been cleared. Not that they could have charged
an eight-year-old for murder anyway.

A distorted laugh. “You don’t think the
public will take it well, do you?”

“I don’t give a shit. I’m not backing off.”

I hung up the phone and Kara and I both
looked at each other, not sure of what to say.

* * *

Chen walked in two minutes after Kara and I
were given our table.

“I just drove past a Chinese restaurant
with authentic
dim sum
. Why are we here?”

“Really?” I had to laugh. “Don’t you ever
get sick of Chinese food?”

My answer came in the form of a single
extended digit. “When you get sick of hamburgers, I’ll be sick of Chinese.”

Valid point. My family heritage had been
lost through the slave years and thereafter, there wasn’t much tradition left.
We weren’t even sure where in Africa my ancestors had been taken from, but we
were pretty certain it was in the area of the Congo. My diet as a result
consisted of all the standard Canadian fare. Some authentic food would have
been nice, a link to the past.

“So,” Chen said. “What’s the plan?”

“First, and I’m sorry Chen, but did you
tell anyone about Jeffries?”

Chen looked hurt. “Of course not, only my
supervisor. The Commissioner wanted to keep it under wraps. Why?”

“I just got a call, distorted. They
threatened to go public with it if I didn’t back off.”

“Shit. Sorry, Link. How’d they even find
out?”

“They have an Inspector on payroll.”

Chen nodded. “What’d you tell them?”

“That I wasn’t backing off.” Chen nodded
and I continued with the task at hand. “Anyone back home you can trust, someone
high up?”

“The Superintendent is a great guy, Wyatt
Brown. He’s helped me out in the past.”

Wyatt. Not a name heard too often anymore,
but fitting if he was a decent lawman.

“Roger,” I said. “Call him, let him know
what’s going on. Tell him we don’t know how far it goes here and even the upper
echelon might be compromised. From everything Carter had they get a shipment
every Friday night around 2300hrs.”

“Makes sense,” Kara said. “The London
coppers would be up to their necks in calls. Not many people would be paying
attention to anything else going on, especially in the south end.”

“We’re going to need a TRU team,” I said.
“They’ll breach the gate to the compound. It’s a shit lock and chain, they can
drive through if they need to. We’ll also need two uniform cruisers, two cops
to a car, parked behind the neighbouring building. They’ve rigged up an escape
route through the fence, pretty ingenious set up.”

Now was not the time to drool over their
engineering. I continued, “TRU can do the sweep and hold the exterior. Then
we’ll take their places and let them move in. These guys were bringing heavy
weapons into the building, we have to assume they’re willing to use them.
Combat shotguns, assault rifles, machine pistols. We have to assume that they
could have a sniper as well.”

“They’re not messing around,” Chen said.

“Well, there’s not as much money in varmint
rifles. Kara and I will be Alpha Team and, Chen… Kara, what do you think of
Dan?”

Her new partner in homicide, down but not
out yet.

“I trust him,” she said. “And he’s new to
this area, so I doubt he’s involved. He’s a hell of a shot, just don’t make him
run.”

Young and svelte he was not. But that didn’t
matter—if he could shoot well and be trusted, we needed him.

“Talk to him, if he’s in he and Chen will
be Bravo Team.”

Chen nodded, although there was some
apprehension. It helped to know your team going into something like this. I
should have switched the teams, but I didn’t want to put Chen in Alpha. As much
as I wanted to protect Kara, Chen needed protection more. I was dragging him
into this, and I had to make sure he went home to his kids. Nothing could
happen to him.

“So it’s settled, then?”

Kara and Chen both nodded. I took the bag
containing all of Carter’s evidence, the thumb drive and papers, and handed it
to Chen.

“I don’t know why, but I think it’s safer
with you,” I said.

He didn’t ask a single question, just took
the bag and put it in his coat pocket. A slight nod was his only response.

“We’ll stage behind the Leon’s up the
street,” I said. “And we’ll need some surveillance in place so we know when the
truck is pulling in. If we can get them while they’re unloading hopefully they
won’t be ready for us.”

It was time for us to break. Chen had to
return to the college and Kara and I needed to find a place to stay—separate
places.

We settled on a hotel just down the street
from the restaurant and booked into separate rooms. It wasn’t safe for Kara to
go home, they’d probably be watching for her.

I paid cash for both rooms, not wanting to
leave a paper trail of any sort. Once I was in the room, my luggage
unceremoniously dropped on the floor, I flopped down onto the double bed ready
to sleep.

My phone rang.

It just wasn’t my day.

“Hello?”

“Detective Munroe? It’s Laura Carter.”

I sat up fast. Jakob’s widow. She sounded
upset, scared. “What’s wrong?”

“They know. I… I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. What do they know?”

“Everything. They called me a week ago,
private number, and the voice was distorted. They told me they were watching
me, said they could see me standing in the kitchen and asked how long Noah
usually napped for. I’d just put him down.”