“She’s stable. A broken nose and cheek bone. Two broken ribs. The damage to one eye could be permanent.”
“Damn,” Stonechild muttered under her breath.
“Even though you were off duty, Vermette would like a full report. Are you feeling up to it?”
She nodded. “I had a few hours of sleep and should be good until tonight.”
“I meant your shoulder. Can you type?”
“We’ll soon see.” She smiled for the first time.
His instinct was to smile back but he refrained. “It was a fortunate coincidence that you were at the same place as the man who’d been assaulting women along that stretch of Richmond Road.” He waited while she collected how much she would tell him. The evasion in her eyes gave her away.
“I might have misled you about my living conditions. I never actually found an apartment yet and have been staying just down the street at the YWCA. There were vacancies in the apartment building on Richmond Road and I decided to check out them out. I remembered the area from when we interviewed Glenda Martin after her assault.” She shrugged. “I heard a scream from the trees as I was walking back to my truck.” She met his eyes and didn’t look away this time.
After a few seconds, he looked down. “Richard Kennedy says you busted his arm on purpose.”
“He resisted arrest. I had to control him quickly and get back to the victim.”
Rouleau nodded. “You’ll need to be clear in your report.”
“I will. What have they found out about him?”
“Richard Kennedy’s wife left him last year for his best friend. The two worked construction. They were framers for Chalmers Housing. After his wife walked out, Kennedy upped his coke habit and dreamed about getting even. He was practising taking out his anger on middle-aged women. You were right, by the way. He lives closer to the river but in the same general area.”
“His rage probably didn’t start after his wife left him. Will he press charges, you know, about the arm?”
“Won’t matter if he does. As you say, he resisted arrest. The photos of your injuries confirm this.”
She nodded, her eyes relieved. “Did he give a reason for beating this particular woman?”
“He said this morning that he hadn’t planned to hurt her but she reminded him of his ex-wife.”
“So he’s admitted to all the assaults?”
“No, but we’ve got Glenda Martin coming in to see if she can pick him out of a photo array.”
“Good.”
“You can take the rest of the day off after you finish your report. Vermette’s thrilled, by the way. You might have breathed life into this unit.”
“Thank you, Sir, but I’m going to visit Susan Halliday before I go home.”
“Take Bennett.”
“I will.”
She was nearly at the door when he said, “I don’t want you doing this again.”
“Sir?” She turned and was about to say something but stopped after reading something in his face.
“I know we understand each other,” Rouleau said. Her eyes were bottomless black flint, and for the briefest of moments, defiant. He stared her down until she slowly dropped her head in a nod. He softened his voice. “You could have been seriously hurt. If you do something like this again, I will have to let you go. I can’t have you out there putting yourself in danger. I’m responsible for you and everyone in this unit.”
She kept her head lowered so that he couldn’t see her eyes. “Yes, Sir. It won’t happen again.” She turned away from him again and opened the door.
“Thank you, Stonechild,” he said. “For stopping him. You saved that woman’s life. There’s no doubt in my mind.”
She paused with her back to him and nodded, but she said nothing. He watched her cross the room and sit down at her desk chair. She leaned down to turn on her computer. For the first time, he thought he might have made a mistake in hiring her.
He looked across at his navy suit in the drycleaner bag hanging on the wall hook behind his door. He’d had it cleaned and pressed down the street for Frances’s New Year’s Eve wedding. Just a day away. One day before his wife became somebody else’s. What kind of gift did you buy for this occasion? Did they make cards to mark ex wives’ remarriages? Probably. They made them for everything else.
“So how does it feel to be a hero?” Bennett caught up to her at the main entrance. “You’ve become a legend in the department your first week here.”
“Watch and learn, little grasshopper,” Kala said, holding the door for him with her good arm. “Watch and learn.” She grinned at him. “Just the right place at the right time, that’s all.”
“I think it was more than that. You took the guy down. Impressive. How’s your shoulder?”
“Nothing major. He managed to crack it but I’m a fast healer.”
“He’s not so lucky. You taught him what for.”
“Thanks.” She liked that he’d forgotten the old boys’ club for the moment. Maybe she was teaching him something after all. She followed him outside.
Bennett zipped up his jacket. “Where to now, boss?”
“We’ve got to figure out what’s going on with Susan Halliday. First we’ll drive up to the spot she got into car trouble in the Gatineau Hills. Do some old-fashioned detective work. Then we’ll go talk to her and her husband Clinton. Somehow, we’ll have to get her alone and I’ll need your help with that.”
“Right. Aren’t you tired after last night?”
“I’m getting my second wind.” The key was to keep moving. If she stopped for long, the exhaustion would catch up. She reached into the inside pocket of her parka. “I printed the map and marked the spot where she parked to go skiing.”
He took it from her. “I know the place. I bike up there in the summer.”
“Good. You can drive then.”
Bennett headed north through downtown and crossed the Portage Bridge at the end of Wellington Street into Quebec. He followed Chemin d’Aylmer for a few kilometres before turning right onto the Gatineau Parkway. The road wound steadily skyward into the wooded hills blanketed in glistening snow under the crystal blue sky. Kala felt the tightness in her chest ease. Even the pain in her shoulder was lessening as they progressed into the wilderness.
“It’s been a few days since her accident. What do you expect to find?”
“Don’t know. I just want to get a feel for how it happened.”
“Fair enough.” He fished around in his pocket and pulled out aviator sunglasses. “Shit, that sun is bright. This must take you back home, being out here.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you miss it?”
“You could say that.”
He glanced in her direction and she saw her face reflected back in his glasses. “So did you leave any family or boyfriends behind?”
She stared at his profile. “Just the usual.”
“Must be nice. I’d give anything to get a break from my family, not to mention my ex who still thinks we’re going to get back together. Some women just won’t take no.”
“Why don’t you ask for a transfer?” She was genuinely curious why he would stay in Ottawa if he wanted to leave so badly.
“I