Free Blue Rubicon by Harrison Drake Page B

street and wanted to
attend the funeral.
    “You didn’t bring that evidence back
yesterday.”
    “Shit,” I said. “I never even got a chance
to look at it. Got called out to the street right after I picked it up. I’ll
deal with it and bring it back next shift.”
    “You’d better,” Moore said, feigning a
smile. He opened the door to the chapel and I was alone again.
     
    * * *
     
    I went home and relieved our neighbour who
looked happy to see Link and Kasia leave. With three kids of her own, all under
five, she didn’t need any extras.
    “Thanks, Sarah,” I said.
    “Anytime.” Pleasant, although a ‘but
hopefully not for a while’ was clear. “You weren’t gone long.”
    “No, it was really crowded. I didn’t know
him well, I figured I’d leave room for those who did.”
    She nodded, then a child crying from
another room drew her away.
    Once we got home Link and Kasia were
sequestered to the basement with a movie and some snacks and out came the
vacuum, mop, cloths, duster, Windex, Febreze and everything else I could need.
I could have saved myself a lot of trouble and gone to the Yellow Pages under
“Cleaning Services”. But I was, as always, cheap, and hated paying someone to
do something I could do myself.
    Three hours later I was drenched in sweat
but marvelling at a sparkling house. The spare bedsheets were tumbling at
high-speed in the dryer and the mushrooms and onions were chopped and ready to
go. A Caesar salad sat in the fridge awaiting dressing, potatoes were washed
and ready to be baked, beers were chilling in the fridge. All that was left was
for Kat to bring home the steaks.
    She wouldn’t be home for an hour and a half
and the Chens were likely just reaching Toronto, still a couple of hours to go.
I joined the kids who were long done their movie, popcorn and juices and put
another movie in for them. I didn’t hear anything until Kat yelled down the
stairs for me to wake up, and the kids laughed in the background.
    And after all the times I’d told them not
to tattle.
    I’d barely had time to rub the sleep from
my eyes before Aidan and Anya were ringing the doorbell and banging away. Link
was first to the door, throwing it open hard enough to leave a dent in the
metal when it hit the doorstop.
    Four young voices filled the room and once
Chen and Julie came to the door the noise was bordering on unbearable. The kids
were banished to the basement, Julie and Kat sat in the living room catching up
and Chen and I were tasked with unpacking the vehicles. He and I brought
everything down past the screaming children and into the spare bedroom. Chen
and Julie would sleep in there, the kids on the sofa bed. I was sure Link and
Kasia would crash on the floor or anywhere else they could find a spot.
    It would be far from a peaceful getaway for
Chen and Julie, stuck in the basement bedroom with four children in the next
room pretending to sleep. And Kat and I, we’d be enjoying the sleep of the just
two floors above, far removed from the noise and boundless energy.
    Few seconds had passed from the time the
vehicles were unloaded and locked up to the time Chen and I each had a beer in
our hands, sitting with our wives and enjoying some well-earned relaxation. The
pause and slight clearing of the throat were enough to tell me what Chen was
about to bring up.
    “Not here, Chen.”
    “Wha—”
    “No Algonquin. I’ll explain.”
    Chen had been wanting some more answers and
I’d promised him that the time would come. When I’d left him in Algonquin Park,
with my father’s watch I had stolen from the crime scene, we both believed my
father had killed Jeffries. But when I went to speak to the Commissioner of the
force, everything changed.
    I saw him. William Jeffries. The man who
had abducted me while I was camping with my father. The man who had beaten me
into unconsciousness and broken my arm. The man who would have raped and
murdered me had my father not found me in the darkness. The man