Flashback (29 page)

'Jean! Elaine!' I shouted, and heard a muffled half scream. I stepped away from Kershaw, carrying his shotgun in one hand, my service revolver in the other, and crouched to look around the door jamb into the kitchen.
 

Both women were lying face down on the floor, hands and mouths tied with strips of tea-towels. Elaine looked up at me. 'Is there anyone else?' I shouted it, in case the shots had deafened her. She shook her head and I took a quick look back at Kershaw. He hadn't moved and I pulled a knife off the magnetic strip and cut her hands free, then Jean Horn's.
 

'He's down. Watch him,' I said as they untied their gags. I grabbed the phone and rang the station. Walker answered and I filled him in. I was trembling with tension and fury. 'The bastard could have killed my family,' I shouted.
 

'Be right there. Take care of the women.'

Walker hung up and I turned to the women. 'Did he hurt you?'

Jean spoke first. 'No. He said he was going to have some fun when you were dead. He didn't want to take the time until then.' She was calm but pale.
 

'Sit down,' I told her. 'You too, Elaine.'

Elaine sat, weeping. 'I'm sorry, Reid. I was sitting having a coffee with Jean and he just walked in on us with that gun. I should have been doing my job.'
 

'Forget it. Sit down. I'll get my wife and baby in.'

Elaine stayed where she was but Jean came out to the living-room where Kershaw was sitting, blank-faced, pressing his hands uselessly against the wound in his side. 'He's hurt bad,'Jean said. 'Leave him. Get Fred. Take her in the back way.'
 

I touched her on the shoulder in gratitude and ran back out to Fred. She was in the front seat of the car, the baby in her arms, talking softly to her. 'It's over,' I said. 'You can come in now.'
 

She looked up at me, rocking gently with the baby, her face chalk white. 'I can't take this,' she said softly. 'I love you. You know that. But I saw that door explode. You could be lying there now, dead.'
 

She began to weep, tears spouting from her open eyes. I bent and held her very close and she forced her head into my shoulder, wiping her eyes to and fro against my shirt front. 'It's over,' I told her. 'I'll quit this job if you want.'
 

'It's never over,' she sobbed. And then Jean Horn came out of the house. She came over and touched me on the back and I let go of Fred and stood up.
 

Jean knelt beside her. 'What a beautiful baby.' She held out her hands and slowly Fred gave up Louise and Jean took her, crooning to her in Ojibway.
 

Fred wiped her eyes on her sleeve and got to her feet. 'Let's get inside,' she said.

Jean straightened up, carrying the baby, and I took Fred's arm and led her to the back door. Elaine Harper opened it without speaking and Fred stepped up inside. 'Where is he?' she asked me.
 

'In the front, by the door. Stay with Elaine, please.'

Elaine steered her to a chair and I went to Kershaw. His head had slumped forward and his jaw had dropped. I knew he was dead.

I was crouching there and I heard a car pull up outside. Walker and the other detective came up the steps, the superintendent behind them. Walker bent and felt Kershaw's throat. 'Well, he won't make any more trouble,' he said softly.
 

The superintendent was puffing. 'What the hell happened here?'

'I'll tell you in a minute. Right now I've got to look after my family.'

The superintendent looked at me sharply. 'You can't just walk away,' he began.

'Watch me,' I told him.

I went back to the kitchen. It was empty. Fred and Elaine were standing outside with Jean Horn who was still holding the baby. 'You can't take her into the house with that thing in the door,' Jean said. 'I'll take them home with me until it's cleared up.'
 

Fred protested but Jean clung to the baby, crooning. 'It's better,' she said.

I took Fred's arm. 'It really is, dear. I won't be long here. Then I'll pack us a bag and we'll take right off for your folks.'

'Maybe,' she said and I was happy to see the first of the steel coming back into her voice.

I drove them over in the scout car and came back to find the ambulance crew taking Kershaw's body out of the house. The superintendent was talking to Elaine Harper and he looked at me as I came in.
 

'I hear you were too smart for him.'

'Seems that way. I hope you've got all the pictures you need. I'm going to scrub that blood out of the walls and get a new door put in.'
 

'We don't need pictures. We have first-hand evidence from PW Harper,' he said. 'Go ahead.'

And so I did it, changing the cleaning water four times before every trace of the blood was gone. Then I called the lumber yard and got them to send a new door right away, and a handyman. After that I sat down and made a formal statement to the OPP.
 

'You're free and clear,' Walker said. 'Clear case of self-defence.'

'Good.' I was still not talking much. 'Now I want you to take the prisoners away. I'm through. Right now I'm hanging up my skates.'
 

'For keeps?' he asked in surprise. 'Hell, Reid, don't be too hasty on this. You've got a good little place here.'

'If my wife wants me out, I'm quitting. Right now I'm taking time off.'

'Good idea.' The superintendent had come out of the house and was listening. 'We'll tidy up the ends.'

And take whatever credit was around, I thought without bitterness. 'We got statements from everybody,' Walker said. 'What a bunch of whiners, they were all so eager to get off that they've incriminated the hell out of one another.'
 

'What did they do about a lawyer?'

'Hell, shysters came down like flies on honey,' Walker laughed. 'Two from Parry Sound, three from Midland, phone calls from as far away as Toronto.'
 

'But the suspects all talked?'

'Yeah. Sang like birds,' Walker said happily. 'We got everything. Bill Holland came down with Inspector Dupuy from Parry Sound. He says you called the whole shot on it.'
 

'Walk me through it,' I said and the superintendent stepped in. 'You're still in shock,' he said. 'Do you have a drink in the house?'
 

'Yes. Good idea. I'm off duty now.'

I got my bottle of Black Velvet rye and after a little polite headshaking they all joined me. I poured myself a solid double, the others took them lighter and Walker relaxed with his drink on his knee.
 

'Waites was at the bottom of everything. Him and Jeffries. They were running coke over the border at the Soo and down to Toronto. They were working for some sleazebucket Waites defended one time in court. Jeffries was the pipeline. He'd pick it up and bring it this far, then Waites' wife would bring it down. Only she didn't know what was going on until a couple of weeks ago when her friend Carolyn found Jeffries changing the suitcase Moira had brought up for a new one, full of junk. The women talked about it and Moira Waites was going to blow the whistle.'
 

That all made sense and I nodded. 'And Waites sprung Kershaw to kill her?'

'Right. He set her up, Kershaw killed her and put the car in the lake, slashing the seats so you'd think it was a gang thing. Then Waites rang the Jeffries and told them what had happened. They panicked and ran. Ms Tracy met them on a side-road and put them into a motel. Kershaw and Hanson were already staying at the other place, where you found Hanson.'
 

'What was Tracy's angle? Money for her movie, what?'

'Yes. Waites promised to get her the money she needed if and when the murder came off as planned. Her end was to create a disturbance and take care of Kershaw. That's why she organized young Hanson to fake this gang crap.'
 

'What went wrong?' They'd all got what they wanted, I thought.

'Kershaw wanted more money. He'd been paid ten grand but he knew he had Waites over a barrel. He went after more. And at the same time Jeffries made trouble. He had money in a safety deposit box in the bank but he couldn't get it. So he went to Pickerel Point to have it out with Waites and they fought and he killed him and took the case, knowing it was loaded with coke and he could get money on that.'
 

'And Kershaw went after the case.'

'Right. Ms Tracy helped him, told him where the Jeffries were hiding and lent him her car. Only she acted too fast. She realized you'd come asking questions when you saw her car was missing. That's why she banged her face up and said she'd been assaulted.' Walker raised his glass triumphantly. 'But we got 'em.'
 

The superintendent sipped his rye slowly. 'Kershaw's been up here ever since he got away from Toronto. When you found Hanson at the motel he got out of the back window and ran. That night he hid out, stole food from the grocery. He didn't want to kill you until he'd got more money to get away. He figured he'd get more from Waites, he was counting on it. He didn't know Waites was going to be killed.'
 

'And Ms Tracy set him up to kill me?'

'Yeah,' the superintendent said. He didn't like telling this part of the story, but maybe the drink had loosened him up a little. 'She figured by then that you were pretty good at your job. That's why she'd had Hanson pull this gang caper. But when you were right behind her, stepping on her heels every move she made, she figured you had to go.'
 

It was as close to a compliment as I would ever get from this man. I changed the subject. 'Why did she involve young Freund?'

Walker explained it. 'She had Hanson pick up Kershaw's kid in the beginning, so she would have something to hold over Kershaw's head. Apparently he wanted to see the boy, despite the divorce.'
 

'But in the end he tried to have him kidnapped,' I protested.

'When he didn't get the coke and didn't get any of the money Waites had promised him, yeah. He figured, kill two birds with one stone: spend time with his kid, have his ex-wife pay him as well.'
 

There was a tap on the door and I went out to find the guys from the lumber yard there. No carpenter. They were sorry but he was sick.
 

That did it for me. I shoved the OPP guys out and spent an hour hanging the door and fitting a new lock. Then I drove over to the Horns' place.
 

Fred came to the door when I got there. She said nothing for about half a minute, we stood and looked at one another and then she kissed me, gently. 'Let's go home,' she said. 'I'll get Louise.'
 

So I thanked Jean and drove my wife and baby back to the house. She looked at the new door. 'Pretty neat. Ever think of taking up carpentry as a career?'
 

'I can do,' I said carefully. 'I'm off now and I'm not going back.'

She undid the straps around our daughter. 'Not for a month anyway,' she said. 'We'll go out west first, think things over from a distance.'
 

'OK.' I put my arm around her shoulders and we walked slowly up the steps to the house, feeling my way back into my life, wondering if anything would be the same from here on.