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John Winters’ absence was like a missing tooth in the face of a grinning hockey player.

The mood in the Chief Constable’s office was solemn. No one chatted about the weather, last night’s game, about this and that. They stared at their notebooks and accepted the coffee Barb passed around. Before anyone said a word, Barb knew it was going to be rough.

She sat down and opened the laptop computer on which she’d take the minutes.

“I’m ready to bring Eliza Winters in,” Madison said, without preamble. He had a strange sort of half-smile on his face, and Barb didn’t trust him one bit.

She glanced at the Chief. He looked stunned. “You’ve learned something since we last spoke?”

“Nothing new, no. Just reinforcing my impressions.”

“Then you’ve got fuck all,” Lopez said. “The idea is preposterous. You bring her down here, she’ll have a good case for laying a complaint.”

“I’m with Ray,” Ron Gavin said. “You go to court with that you’ll be laughed out the door.”

“You have a hunch, a suspicion, not a single thing that can stand up in court,” Keller grabbed a can of coke out of the fridge behind his desk. He hadn’t finished his coffee yet. “Yes, Mrs. Winters was in the deceased’s hotel room shortly before he was killed. So was the room service waiter, but I hope you’re not planning on arresting him too. You have no evidence. Nothing.”

“I don’t need your approval, Chief Constable,” Madison said. “This is my investigation, and we’re not going to vote on it. However, as a professional courtesy,” his voice dripped with sarcasm, “I’m informing you. I intend to detain Eliza Winters, allow her to
assist us with our inquiries
. However, if it will make you feel better, I don’t believe she killed Rudolph Steiner.”

***

“Frank Spencer is such an involved dad,” Smith said. Her face was on Winters but she was looking at Adam Tocek out of the corner of her eyes. “Guy looks like he hasn’t slept in a week. His wife works nights, here at the hospital, so I bet she comes home to a quiet house with the kiddies and the dog at day care and has a nice long sleep. And he gets them at night, after working all day.”

“The dog goes to day care,” Adam said, “Really?”

“Yeah, I…”

“What?” Winters said. “You’ve thought of something, I can see it written all over your face.”

“The dog. The house on Elm Street, the one that was broken into. They had a dog too. I didn’t see it, but I remember seeing a dog toy on the floor. They don’t have kids. Did you see a dog when you were there?”

“No, no I didn’t.”

“Maybe it was still at the kennel,” Adam said. “If they just got home they might not have picked it up yet.”

“The first house we went to, they have a dog,” Winters said. “They’d put it in that kennel on the highway as you head out of town. Houses number two and three had a dog, because one of the first things we checked, looking for something they all had in common, was if they used the same kennel. They didn’t, and as I remember at least one of the families took the dog with them on vacation, so that line of inquiry closed.” His mind raced. The two young officers watched him.

“This is the first I’ve heard of any dog day care,” he said at last.

***

“You’re out of your mind,” the Chief yelled over the din. Barb could think of a thing or two to say to the man from IHIT but she kept her head down, and concentrated on typing.

“That’s ridiculous,” Ray Lopez said.

“If you people can’t keep your emotions out of it then this meeting is over,” Madison said.

“It’s over when I say it is,” Keller snapped back.

“John Winters knew his wife was screwing around with her old flame. Hell, maybe she was thinking of getting back with him. We know the guy was dying, maybe he played the pity card.”

“Maybe he played the idiot card,” Lopez muttered, so low only Barb could hear. She didn’t enter that into the minutes.

“Winters went to the hotel after she left and shot him,” Madison continued.

“Steiner wasn’t killed with a Glock,” Gavin said.

“I don’t think for a minute Winters is stupid enough to use his own service weapon. I’ve run his passport and see he went to Florida a couple of weeks ago.”

“His wife’s parents are in Florida,” Lopez almost shouted, seeing where this was going. “Half the old people in Canada go to Florida for the winter.”

“The reason doesn’t matter. It was the opportunity for him to purchase an illegal weapon.”

“My wife and I went on a tour to Russia last year,” Keller said. “Where I had the opportunity to purchase weapons grade plutonium on the black market. I did not.”

“In my experience,” Madison said, “the sort of man who’s most likely to resort to violence at his wife’s infidelities is the one who’s screwing around himself. Winters is having an affair with Constable Smith.”

She was so shocked, Barb stopped typing.

Keller laughed. “Now you’re right around the bend.”

“I saw them together yesterday as it happens.”

“I don’t believe it,” Lopez said. “Where?”

“That coffee place around the corner. Looking quite intimate. It was most touching.”

“Intimate at Big Eddie’s! Oh, yeah, if I was having a secret assignation, I’d conduct it at a place I could be sure most of my colleagues would pass through in any given day.”

Everyone spoke at once, and Barb could tell the room was not behind Madison. Even the other member of the IHIT team looked unhappy.

“If you pursue this,” Keller said. “I will make a formal complaint. I will state that I believe you have a personal vendetta against a member of this force and are exercising improper judgment. In light of the recent difficulties the RCMP is having with its public image, I don’t imagine your bosses will be too happy about that.”

Madison stiffened. “I would have thought we’re all interested in seeing justice done no matter who’s the perpetrator.”

“Now see here.” Keller began to stand up.

“See justice done, exactly,” Ray Lopez raised his voice. “I’d like to talk about the brother, Dennis Jones.” Keller dropped back down. He drained his can of pop, and crushed it in his right hand.

“We have motive and opportunity.” Lopez emphasized the points by counting them off on his fingers, “The killer had to be someone close to Steiner. You’re forgetting, Sergeant, that Steiner invited this person into his room, and went to the bathroom to be sick. Would he have turned his back on someone he didn’t trust?”

***

“Molly, get back to everyone who’s had a B&E, confirm that they own a dog, and find out what they do with it during the day.” Winters remembered where he was and stopped issuing orders. “Sorry, forgot. You’re kind of busy right now.”

“I’ll be at work tomorrow, and I can do it then, if you don’t mind waiting a day. I probably don’t have to talk to them personally, a phone call should do it. Do you think we’re onto something?”

“I’ve been trying and trying to come up with what these victims all have in common. So far nothing. This might be a stretch, but it’s worth a couple of phone calls. Don’t worry about it, I’ll call them myself later. You just worry about your dad.”

“Dog day care,” she said, stretching the words out as if she were tasting them. “I know someone who works at such a place.”

“Give me their address and I’ll go around.”

“No,” she said. “That wouldn’t work. I don’t mean you can’t do it, I mean it’s a special case.” She explained quickly about Amy and her new job. “Amy knows me, and I think she likes me. She might not open up to you.”

She looked at her watch. “I’ll stay with Mom until Dad’s out of surgery and back in his room, and then pay Amy a visit.”

***

“Dennis Jones owes a hundred thousand dollars to credit cards and his bank. I’d guess he probably owes a lot more to sources I haven’t found yet. He’s a maintenance man at a hotel, not much money in that. His long-lost brother arrives in town, flashing the cash, the trophy wife, the assistant. There was already a lot of bad blood between the brothers. Jones was seen on that floor around five o’clock. He says he was replacing a broken lamp, which may or may not be true, but it’s good odds he dropped in on his brother at the same time. Rudy refused to give him money, they had an argument, Jones stews about it for a couple of hours and comes back later to continue the fight. Steiner won’t give in, Jones looses it, and pop. Jones wears baggy workingman’s overalls and carries a belt load of equipment on him. Easy enough to hide a handgun. You don’t have to go out of Canada to buy a gun, you know. They’re available right here if you know where to look, and Jones is likely to know where to look.”

“You’re still forgetting about the sneaking up from behind part,” Kevin Farzaneh said. “First, let me say I’ve seen Molly Smith and Winters together and if they’re doing the dirty, I’ll…” he touched his shiny dome, “eat my hair.” They all, except Madison, laughed. The laughter was tight and forced, nothing but relief at the chance to momentarily break the tension.

Keller looked at Barb. She tried to read his mind, but couldn’t. She gave him what she hoped was a supporting smile. He didn’t smile back, but perhaps some of the strain lifted from his face.

“Go on,” he said to Farzaneh.

“The mob angle. How we can sit here and not even mention that there is a known mobster in town, who happens to be staying at the same hotel in which the murder was committed, where the wife is still staying, I can’t imagine.”

“This is the first I’ve heard of this,” Keller said. “I’ve read the report about Mrs. Steiner’s father, and I know her father’s lawyer came to town
poste haste.
Are you saying someone else from Marais’ organization is here?”

“That’s what I’m saying, saw him myself. What’s this about Mrs. Steiner’s father? You’re saying he’s a made man?” Farzaneh turned to Madison. “Why didn’t you tell me this?”

“Because you didn’t need to know. You’re here to help with the forensics.”

“Mrs. Steiner’s father is Guy Marais,” Keller said.

“What the hell? You know I worked organized crime in New Brunswick. You didn’t think I might have something to contribute to this?” Farzaneh threw up his hands.

“That’s neither here nor there,” Keller said. “I’ll let you sort out the lines of communication. Kevin’s right. We have a known criminal connection. The long arm of Mrs. Steiner’s father. Why aren’t we paying a lot more attention to that?”

“Or to Mrs. Steiner.” Alison Townshend spoke for the first time. “Rather than gossiping about who might be fooling around with who.” She threw Madison a poisonous look. He didn’t react. “Let’s talk about who was definitely fooling around. Josie Steiner was married to a much older guy who’s about to kick the bucket. She has criminal connections, no problem at all about getting a weapon, she probably found a new one in her Christmas stocking every year. The marriage was odd, to say the least, perhaps she decided to get out of it the easy way.

“What’s her story for the time he died?”

“Not much,” Lopez said. “That lawyer watches over her like a mother lion. She says what he allows her to say, and that’s that she left Steiner’s room around seven after looking at the day’s photographs, and was alone in her own room, having a glass of wine, with the TV on loud, for the rest of the evening. Not much of an alibi. Room service records show she orders a bottle of wine, sometimes two, every night. The bottles are empty when picked up in the morning.”

“She, above all the people previously mentioned,” Townshend said with a satisfied nod, “would be able to walk up behind her husband upchucking into the toilet. I think that’s one of the things they cover in the for better or for worse part of the marriage vows.”

***

They agreed Winters would head back to the office and find out if the homeowners all used the same facility for their dogs. Molly would go around to Amy’s later, unofficially, and talk to her about the day care.

“Anything I can do?” Adam asked.

“You could send Norman into the joint, undercover.”

“He could sniff around, smell out the word on the street.”

They smiled at each other, in a way that made Winters feel as if he wasn’t in the room.

Winters wanted to find Madison and smack some sense into the creep. It wasn’t easy, he knew, for women to get accepted in this job. It was in many ways still an old boy’s club. Molly shouldn’t have had to fear that reporting Charlie Bassing’s harassment would make her colleagues think any the less of her. Whether or not it would have didn’t really matter as long as she thought it would.

The last thing she needed were rumors, no matter how ill-founded, that she was aiming for promotion by sleeping with her superior officer.

“I’ll say good-bye to your mom,” he said. “And as for that matter we talked about yesterday, I’ll be doing something about it this afternoon.”

“Thanks.”

“What matter?” Tocek asked.

“Nothing,” Smith and Winters said in unison.

Tocek didn’t look convinced.

“Anything?” Smith asked her mother when they walked into the waiting room.

“Not a peep,” Lucky said.

“I’m going into work,” Winters said. “If you need anything, be sure to call.”

“Thank you.”

The door opened and a man walked in. He was dressed in blue scrubs too long for his short legs. A woman followed him, wearing a nice business suit.

The man approached Lucky. He had coke-bottle-bottom glasses propped on the top of his head, and smelled of the human body. The woman with him had deep, serious eyes, and she was not smiling.

Lucky got to her feet, a bit shakily, her eyes round as she tried to read their faces. Jane Reynolds put down her knitting. Molly and her brother stood on either side of their mom. She was so short, and looked so frail, between them.

Adam Tocek and John Winters glanced at each other. They’d given the bad news many times, to many families. They knew that expression, the look in the eyes.

“Mrs. Smith,” the doctor said. “I am so very sorry to have to tell you this, but Mr. Smith did not survive the procedure.”

“What?” Lucky said as all the color drained from her face.

The woman, almost certainly a grief councilor, stepped forward. “Why don’t you sit down, Mrs. Smith.”