Flashback (8 page)

'Easy,' I said and Sam released his arm and stood back, hovering over him as I rolled him on his face and cuffed his right wrist through his belt to his left ankle, bending him in half backwards.
 

'Keep,' I ordered and Sam stood, growling into the man's face as he struggled to breathe. I took a quick look around the cabin. There was nobody else there and from the single six-pack of Kronenbourg beer I figured he was alone. There was a plastic bag on the chest of drawers containing about three ounces of white powder. Angel dust, I figured, from the way he'd acted and I wondered if that was what he'd used to bait Sam, hoping he would turn on me and I'd have to shoot him.
 

In any case he was o.d.'d on something, and needed a hospital. It would take too long for an ambulance to reach us. I had to take him to Parry Sound.
 

I ran back to the office and reached over the desk to pick up the phone. The owner came blustering out of the back but I pulled out a dollar coin and tossed it to him. 'Police business.' I reached the Parry Sound police and told then what had happened. They were on the bit, they promised to have a man at the hospital by the time I got there and to send a narcotics guy to check the motel room.
 

'What's all this about?' The owner stretched up to his full five-foot-six and snarled at me. 'You can't come into my motel and start laying down the law. This is a free country.'
 

'You've got a kid in unit three who's o.d.'d. The OPP are sending a man. Don't disturb anything in there, please, or you're in deep trouble. I'm taking him to hospital.'
 

He had more to say but I didn't listen. I drove over to the unit and opened the rear door of the car.

The kid was fighting fit again but almost helpless. He still tried punching up at me with his free hand, aiming for my groin but I got hold of his arm and levered him on to his free leg and hopped him out to the car. It was a tussle getting him into the seat and he lay there smashing at the door with his free foot as I locked him in. Sam jumped into the front seat and I pulled off the lot and out to the highway, laying rubber up to the hospital.
 

A doctor and a couple of uniformed policemen were waiting for me and we got the kid out and laid him on a gurney while the doctor checked his eyes and then sponged his neck and gave him a shot.
 

It didn't take at once but by the time we reached the treatment room he was drowsy.

'What's he taken?' the doctor demanded.

'PCP, judging by the way he's acting. This was in his room.' I took the plastic bag out of my shirt pocket and gave it to him. He glanced at it, narrowing his eyes.
 

'Hard to say but you could be right. I'll need at least one man to stay with him. There's no knowing when he'll start fighting again.'
 

'We'll stay.' One of the Parry Sound men unlocked my handcuffs and gave them back to me. 'Pretty neat,' he said approvingly. 'Hand and foot together through the belt. Never seen that done.'
 

The doctor was sounding the boy's chest with a stethoscope. 'His heart's going like sixty.' He unclipped the earpieces and looked at me. 'How did you stop him?'
 

'I hit him in the solar plexus with the butt of my stick. I hope I haven't ruptured anything.'

'I hope so too,' the doctor said. 'I'll run some tests. Who is he anyway?'

'Goes by the name Eric Hanson. I want to talk to him when he comes down. Would that be possible?'

'Six hours at least, I'd say.' The doctor picked up the phone. 'Doctor Syme, Treatment Room Two. Can I have a restraint trolley here, please.' He hung up and looked at me levelly. 'What can you tell me about him that might help?'
 

'He was in a motel room. Looked like he'd eaten fried chicken and been drinking beer. He was alone when I found him, listening to loud rap music. He came to the door and went berserk.'
 

The doctor nodded. 'OK. Is he under arrest for anything?'

'Yes, assault police, namely me. And possession of drugs, namely that white powder I showed you. On top of which I want to talk to him about a homicide that occurred at Murphy's Harbour.'
 

The doctor whistled. 'He's been a busy boy. OK. I'll check him out, see what he's taken, see if you injured him. Then I'll sedate him. Are you staying here?'
 

'My wife's upstairs waiting to deliver a baby. I'll be up with her until that happens.' He nodded at me and I finished up the story. 'I don't have jurisdiction in Parry Sound but these officers will handle the arrest for me.'
 

'Fine.' He nodded briskly. 'I'll know where to find you if anything happens.'

I thanked him and went outside to make sure Sam was comfortable, letting him out of the car to mark out a territory for him so he could get out of the car window as he wanted. Then I patted him on the head and said, 'Wish us luck,' and went upstairs to Fred's floor.
 

I was just in time. The nurse told me that she had been put on a Pit drip, which I knew meant they were inducing labour. 'She'll be fine,' she said cheerfully. 'Are you one of the Lamaze fathers?'
 

I confessed and she said, 'When did you eat last?'

'What's that got to do with anything?'

She shook her head and reached under the counter for a lunch bag. 'Here. I've got a sandwich. Eat it now, I don't want you passing out on me.'
 

Well, the instructor had warned me, so I thanked her and ate, gratefully. Then I washed up and changed into a hospital gown. They provided a locker so my gun was safe, but I took the bullets out anyway and put them in my left pocket. They were uncomfortable but a lot less so than they might have been fired into somebody from my Smith and Wesson.
 

Fred was in the delivery room, lying back, her face beaded up with sweat. I kissed her and made nice noises, as per instructions, then wiped her face with a damp cloth and fed her an ice chip to moisten her mouth.
 

The contractions were coming thick and fast and I wasn't able to do as much as I'd have liked because she had a pair of monitors attached to her abdomen but I did manage to turn her on her side and give her a back rub, which made me feel useful at least.
 

Every few minutes the nurse came in to check her drip and the monitors. After a while she started tuning in the baby's heartbeat on the Dopptone and we listened to the galloping noises that told us everything was all right so far.
 

About three o'clock the doctor turned up and things got hectic for Fred. She's got a lot of guts and she didn't make much fuss but it hurt me to see her in such distress. And then, at three-thirty, the miracle happened.
 

'A fine big girl,' Dr Rosen said happily. He turned the baby upside down and slapped her back gently and she cried. She wasn't alone in that.
 

Fred squeezed my hand very hard and I bent to hug her, and the room started to swim. The nurse grabbed me and steered me to a stool. 'Caught you,' she said brightly. 'Why is it always the big tough guys who fall apart.'
 

After a moment I felt better and moved the stool over beside the bed and took Fred's hand. 'Sorry about that.'

She squeezed my hand. Already she had her strength back, and her control. She pulled on my arm and I leant over and kissed her.
 

'You big suck,' she said gently. 'She's perfect. We did it.'

'You did,' I told her and sat there until she judged I was fit to hold the baby. She was red and wrinkled but I said, 'She reminds me of my kid sister.'
 

'We'll call her Louise. And Ann, for my mother.' Fred said.

After a while I was shooed away and I went and showered and got back into uniform and reloaded my gun again.

The same nurse was at her desk and she got me a cup of coffee, insisting on sugaring it but leaving it black. She found out which floor Hanson was on and I thanked her for everything and left.
 

My world had changed. Fred was well, and at thirty-eight I was a father for the first time. The nagging anxieties of the last few months were gone and I felt whole again. It was like coming back to the world from 'Nam.
 

One of the Parry Sound men was on duty at Hanson's bedside. Hanson was awake, his eyes wide. I saw the strap over his chest, buckled low to one side where he couldn't reach it. The cop yawned. 'How'd it go? Your wife OK?'
 

'Yeah, fine, thanks. Had a little girl.'

He shook my hand and congratulated me. 'They reckon the baby's the same sex as the bossiest parent,' he said. 'Look at me, I got three girls.'
 

In my euphoria I laughed with him and said, 'Why don't you take a break? I'll sit with this guy a few minutes.'

'Wouldn't mind,' he said. 'He's been quiet. The doctor says he's not damaged any.'

He left and I stood at the foot of the bed looking at Hanson. 'Hi, how're you feeling?'

'Sore,' he said. 'My gut hurts.' His voice was different from what I remembered. He had dropped the roughness of his accent and he was a quiet, well-spoken kid again. Well, maybe not a kid, in his twenties, perhaps close to thirty. Had he been wearing make-up that morning? I wasn't sure.
 

'Feel like talking?' I wasn't going to force him. After what had happened upstairs the milk of human kindness was overflowing in me.
 

'Why not? I'm wide awake.' He seemed in control of himself so I put the questions to him.

'What was that nonsense at Murphy's Harbour yesterday? You're not a gang member.'

'Didn't convince you, huh?'

'Not really. What were you doing?'

'Research.' He tried to smile.

'How much research did you do?'

'Look, are you charging me over that?'

'I don't have to.' A nice neutral answer.

'I'll compensate the Frenchman at the baitstore. I didn't mean them to make a mess like they did.'

So he had done the swarming. 'Compensation should end that problem,' I told him. 'But there are a couple of other things I want to know about?'
 

'Like what?' He was wary.

'Like who loaded you up with PCP?'

'I don't know.'

'You didn't recognize the guy? Or you didn't see him?'

'I don't know anything about it.' He was firm now. 'Drugs aren't my thing. The odd joint at a party but nothing else.'

'Right now you're charged with possession of around four ounces of angel dust that I found in your room. Are you aware of that?'
 

He nodded. 'Yes. The cop who was here before you told me. He read me a whole song and dance about rights.'

'Did he mention anything else to you?'

'Isn't that enough?' It sounded like he'd been rehearsing that line. It came out perfectly.

'Did you go and your gang do anything else in your research project? Now's the time to tell me.'

'We swarmed the grocery at Pointe au Baril.' His pronunciation was perfect although the natives usually say Point-oh-Barrel.

'I know about that. What about the car?'

He frowned fleetingly. 'Car? You mean the Ford? I borrowed that from a friend of mine in Toronto.'

'What about the Accord you borrowed from Parry Sound?'

He was puzzled, or acting convincingly puzzled. 'Parry Sound? I didn't get up to anything in Parry Sound. The other stuff was research for a part I'm after. If I'd have come into Parry Sound it might have gotten ugly. I didn't need that.'
 

'Well, where did you get the Accord?'

'What Accord?' He tried to sit up, raising his shoulders as high as he could with the belt around his chest. 'I don't know what in Hell you're talking about.'
 

'Tell me about these other kids who were with you.' I kept my voice conversational. A nurse who was passing the open door paused to look in and I acknowledged her with a little wave. She nodded and went on.
 

'I picked them up in Wasaga Beach. Saw them bumming around together and turned them into a gang.'

'Where are they now?'

He shrugged. 'I split hours ago.'

'Did any of the others get into the angel dust?'

It was hard to tell whether he was giving me a performance but he looked anguished and close to tears. 'I was alone and I don't know anything about any drugs and that's the truth.'
 

'OK then. I'll just ask you one more question. Answer that and I'm through with you. Deal?'

I knew he was lying by his answer. 'I don't care how many questions you ask. I don't know anything about any drugs.'

It was all I was going to get out of him but I put my question anyway. 'Who joined you, at the motel, when you were kicking back, drinking your beer?'
 

'Nobody did. I was on my own.'

'One last thing, then. What are the names of the other kids?'

He relaxed, lying back and giving a little sigh. 'Let me see. The big one's name is Chuck. I don't know any last names but the other guys were Fred and Glenn and Phil.'
 

I took my notebook out of my shirt pocket and copied down all the names and the descriptions he gave me, then thanked him as if he'd been a help and went out to the door to wave the Parry Sound cop back in. 'Watch him. He's acting innocent but he figures he's smarter than we are. Don't let him out of your sight.'
 

The cop was young and handsome with a little moustache. He didn't like my suggesting he might goof. He just nodded and went back in to sit with the kid. I left, hoping he would stay alert. Hanson was tricky.
 

Sam jumped out of the car window and bounded to greet me, wagging his tail. He was none the worse for his virgil but I fussed him and told him he was an uncle and then put him in the car and drove down to the Parry Sound police station.
 

There was only a lone uniformed man on duty in the station but he knew me and let me look at the arrest report they had drawn up on Hanson. He was charged with assaulting me and possession of a restricted substance. There was a space left on the page for the chemical name to be added once their forensic people had checked out the powder. I thanked him and was about to leave when I saw a golf bag leaning against the wall in the corner of the office.