Free What Burns Within by Sandra Ruttan

is in side.”
“Good point.” Quinlan stood. “Let’s go.”
“I’ll just call Tain and have him meet us there.”
     
“Constable Tain,” a voice called.
Tain stopped midstride, turning to see the smartly dressed officer—the one who’d escorted Mrs. Brennen away the day before when Tain had stopped her from assaulting her son—approaching him in the hallway.
“Constable Sims, right?”
The man nodded. He was one of those people who instantly pissed Tain off on some levels, with a uniform that seemed perfectly in place, like it was designed for him. Sims wasn’t a big man, but he was fit, with short, dark hair, no glasses to conceal his blue eyes, and a dimple that seemed eager to show itself without the man even properly smiling. Hawkins was the poster boy for the leaders and established career officers. Sims was the quintessential pin-up boy for the recruits.
“Sergeant Daly asked me to run a background check on Mrs. Brennen yesterday. I thought I should update you.”
Tain glanced at his watch. “Can you drive me to meet my partner?”
“Sure. I did the check. As you probably already know, there wasn’t anything on file with social services. No reports of abuse, no reason for intervention with the family at all. Parents divorced three years ago.”
Sims was right. Social services had told him that yesterday. Tain followed Sims to a car and waited until they were both inside to ask, “Is that all?”
“Mom has a record. Nothing new since her kids were born, but there was a time she was pretty active in the system.”
Tain relayed the address he needed to be dropped off at. “Let me guess.”
“Solicitation.” Sims started the car. “And assault.”
Tain thought of the way Connie Brennen’s hand had struck him the day before, like someone accustomed to using her fists to make a point. “Who filed the charges?”
“Her alleged pimp. A guy with the street name John-John.”
Tain snorted. “That’s original.”
“I did a search. I wasn’t sure if you were familiar with him.”
Sims paused again. Tain let the silence be his answer.
“He’s been in and out of the system forever. Street fights, money hustling, a series of break-and-enter charges, an armed robbery conviction that didn’t stick on appeal. He did a two-year stretch for breaking the jaw of one of his working girls, and he was the main suspect in the abduction of a five-year-old child of another woman who worked for him.”
“But not charged?”
“No. The child turned up suddenly when the cops started putting the heat on. Then the mother disappeared with her kid. The mother was the one who’d filed the initial report when the kid went missing, so without her and without a missing child to look for…” Sims switched lanes.
Tain frowned. Without a missing child the case dissolved, as though there’d never been a crime. If this got out prematurely, it could keep them from taking control of the abduction cases. He’d have to check it out quietly. “Did you find anything on why the investigating officers thought he did it?”
“Rumors she was holding out on him, taking some straight dope jobs on the side and not cutting him in.”
Tain frowned. Why would John-John be interested in Connie Brennen’s daughter now?
“The lead investigator was Corporal Frank Hay. He transferred to Vancouver Island a few years ago. His partner during the time of the case was Tim Winters.”
“Corporal Tim Winters?”
“Yeah.” Sims paused. “Didn’t you work with him?”
“Yes,” Tain said sharply. Sims looked like a puppy dog waiting to be patted on the head, eager to earn approval. On the one hand, if Daly was going to assign someone to collect data, at least Sims wasn’t useless. But there could be such a thing as being too eager to please.
“Well, I’m sure he’ll be able to tell you more, but there might just be a reason why John-John would be interested in Taylor Brennen now.”
Tain glared at Sims, waiting for him to