The Frailty of Flesh (34 page)

“You can’t beat yourself up, Ash. It won’t help anyone.”

She smiled wryly. “If you say it’s hormones—”

“You’re passionate about justice, about your job. Parker and Smythe both screwed up. You know the only reason I’m annoyed is because when you lose your temper I can’t.”

“That’s how it works, is it? One of us always has to stay rational?”

“It keeps us from ever doing anything really stupid.”

She was silent for a moment, then said, “I’m not so sure about that.”

It didn’t take long to reach the Patel house and get the team organized. Once everyone was in position Ashlyn pounded on the front door, identifying them as police with a search warrant.

Tain watched as first one light went on upstairs, then another, and then light spilled down to the main floor. They could hear footsteps and voices, but the murmurs were too low for him to make out the words. Ashlyn knocked again.

“Mr. and Mrs. Patel, this is the RCMP. We have a search warrant. If you don’t open the door we’re going to use force.”

There was a moment of silence, followed by the sound of the dead bolt sliding back as the door was unlocked. When the man opened the door Ashlyn asked, “Are you Mr. Patel?”

He nodded. Mr. Patel was a thin man, not particularly tall, with dark hair, dark eyes, a lean face. He had a calm look about him. Ashlyn handed him the warrant and advised him of his rights, nudging him aside as officers entered the house.

“What is it you want?” Mr. Patel asked.

Tain could see Mrs. Patel, Nurani, a boy he assumed was her younger brother and a younger girl standing near the foot of the stairs. Nurani towered over her mother, and the girl’s streamlined figure emphasized Mrs. Patel’s round body. The boy and girl looked like they would be tall as well, and both were a healthy weight. Tain was struck by how quiet they were, despite being woken up in the middle of the night by armed police officers.

Ashlyn nodded at them. “Is this your entire family?”

“My older son is away.”

“Nobody else lives in the house?”

Mr. Patel shook his head.

Ashlyn walked past him, down the hall, looking through doorways. “Mr. Patel, bring your family in here, please,” she said as she gestured into one of the rooms.

Tain waited until they’d filed in, then followed Ashlyn.

“What is it you want?” Mr. Patel asked again.

“I’m sure you’re aware that your daughter has a close friend from school who’s been missing for several days,” Ashlyn said.

Mr. Patel didn’t even look at his daughter, just nodded. Tain noticed Mrs. Patel’s eyes widened with fear.

“And I’m sure your daughter informed you that we spoke to her last week about Shannon,” Ashlyn said.

That did provoke a response. Mr. Patel’s eyes narrowed, and he glanced at his daughter quickly. “My daughter cannot help you.”

“Can’t or won’t?” Ashlyn passed him a second document. He took it in his hands, and began to read it. “This is to inform you that the New Westminster Police Department is executing a search warrant at the residence marked on that document.” She leaned forward and tapped a spot on the paper. “A residence owned by one of your companies.”

“What is the reason for this?” Mr. Patel was starting to lose the look of calm he’d had when he first opened the door. The paper quivered in his hand.

“Someone at that residence placed a call to a private cell phone owned by Richard Reimer. They claimed they’d kidnapped Shannon and demanded a ransom of one million dollars.”

Tain watched as Nurani stiffened. She was looking at the carpet, sitting on the far side of her father. Her mother and siblings were on his other side.

“And you think we have kidnapped Shannon? That is ridiculous! Look at our house. What is a million dollars to us?”

The room was lavish, silk cushions, imported furnishings, polished floors, not a speck of dust anywhere. A collection of elephant carvings in glass cases along the wall looked expensive to Tain’s untrained eye. He wasn’t an art connoisseur, but he knew the difference between professional products and cheap knock-offs. Just the fact that they lived in this part of the Lower Mainland, in a house bigger than some apartment buildings, hinted at how much money the Patels had. They were wealthier than the Reimer family.

“We don’t think you kidnapped Shannon,” Ashlyn said. “But we want to know who’s in that house.”

“It is vacant. Your police officers will see. We are having work done next month, and the property will be empty until the renovations are finished.”

“I don’t think it is vacant,” Ashlyn said.

“You think someone is staying at my house and has kidnapped my daughter’s friend?”

“We don’t think she was kidnapped at all. We think Nurani knows where Shannon is.”

Nurani didn’t move. Mr. Patel sat staring at Ashlyn and didn’t respond. Mrs. Patel averted her gaze as she fussed over the younger children, despite the fact they were sitting still.

“We have enough evidence to arrest your daughter, Mr. Patel,” Tain said. “She could face criminal charges for extortion and hindering a criminal investigation.”

Mr. Patel turned to look at his daughter. “Tell them whatever you know.”

Her head snapped up. “Papa, I—”

“You will do as I tell you.”

Ashlyn pulled a stool over in front of the couch and sat down right in front of Nurani. “We know Shannon was being abused. We know Jeffrey was being abused too. We also know Shannon didn’t kill her little brother. She was injured, and she went to the hospital. She might still need medical treatment, Nurani. And we also know all her friends would be scared that if we found her she might go to jail, or be sent back home. I think you just wanted to help.”

Nurani looked at her father, then back at Ashlyn.

A cell phone rang, and it only took a few seconds to identify it as Ashlyn’s. She pulled it out.

“Constable Hart.”

She was silent while she listened to the voice on the other end, then looked up at Tain and nodded. “Right.” She paused. “Really. That is interesting. Can you do me a favor?” Another pause. “You read my mind. Thanks, Liam.” Ashlyn closed the phone. “That was the New Westminster police.”

Nurani buried her face in her hands and started to cry. While Ashlyn waited with professional calm, Tain wondered how she could be so patient with the girl. He knew part of her was still furious about the murder of Richard Reimer. Not because she blamed Parker or Smythe, although that was part of it, but primarily because she blamed herself. If they’d pushed Nurani and Matt harder, if they’d brought them in for questioning…

If, if, if. It was so easy to look back and tell yourself things would be better if you’d done just this one thing differently. On some level, he knew Ashlyn was asking herself if the reason they’d failed to find Shannon—and that another person was dead and another child missing—was partly because Ashlyn’s emotions had clouded her judgment. He also knew nothing he could say would make much of a difference. For someone as levelheaded as Ashlyn normally was, she was pushed to the limit by the events of the past week.

Mr. Patel looked at his daughter but made no effort to comfort her. The first hint of anger crept into his features as he scowled. “And what do they say?”

“Maybe you should ask your daughter,” Ashlyn said.

Nurani looked up then, tears still rolling down her face. “Papa—”

Her father raised his voice. “Tell me now! What have you done?”

Tain hadn’t been certain if Nurani was faking her tears until that moment. Then he knew she’d been putting on a show, because she really started to cry. The selfishness of the teen rankled him, and he wanted to shake her by the shoulders and tell her to stop acting like a child. He couldn’t put his finger on exactly what it was about her that convinced him she was only upset because she’d been caught, and that her tears were primarily for herself.

“When the alleged kidnappers contacted Richard Reimer, we were able to trace the call to the house you own in New Westminster,” Ashlyn said as she turned to look at Mr. Patel. “We began monitoring the house to see if anyone entered or left the premises. Nobody did. Another call was placed, again from that address. The alleged kidnappers gave very clear instructions for Mrs. Reimer to leave the money in the park where Jeffrey Reimer was killed.”

Mrs. Patel gasped, but her husband ignored her. “But if nobody left the house to get the money, what does this have to do with us?”

“The person who came to the park to get the money was Matt Lewis,” Ashlyn said.

Mr. Patel’s nostrils flared as he turned to his daughter. Whatever he was about to say remained unspoken as Ashlyn continued, her voice calm, her words measured.

“The police in New West found Jody Hoath at the property you own, along with a young man named Dan Patel and some substances neither have any business possessing. You know, when we question teenagers it’s always interesting. At first they try to be so tough, but it never takes long for them to break. Now your son has been arrested in possession of illegal drugs. And your daughter”—Ashlyn gestured at the girl, who was still sobbing— “is an accomplice to murder.”

“What?” Nurani shrieked, at the same time her father gasped and Mrs. Patel cried out. “You’re lying! I had nothing to do with it. Is that what Jody says? That bitch.” The teenager sprang to her feet. “I don’t have to listen to this!”

Tain stepped in front of her to block her way and pulled out his handcuffs. “Then we’ll arrest you right now for hindering a criminal investigation.”

“We have Jody admitting you asked her to make the phone calls. That’s extortion, Nurani.” Ashlyn got up and stood behind the girl. “And we’ve already talked to Matt Lewis. We have enough to get a court order for your phone records, and our boss is already looking after that. They’ll prove that Jody and Matt are telling the truth, that you asked them to do these favors for you.

“What threw me off was that I really believed Matt when he told me Shannon was running away, and that she hadn’t told him where she was going so that he wouldn’t have to try to lie to the police. I don’t know, something about his face.”

Tain nodded. “He seemed genuine. I believed him too.”

“My mistake was thinking that extended to you. Matt said Shannon never told him, but when I think back to that day we chatted, you never said that. You never actually denied knowing where Shannon was. You just let Matt talk.”

Nurani spun around, arms folded across her chest. “I won’t tell you.”

Mr. Patel sprung to his feet then. “For God’s sake, Nurani, you will tell them right now. What have I raised you to be? Your friends are sluts who sleep with older men and do drugs? You are a criminal! You’re a disgrace to this family!”

By then, the boy and girl were crying, and so was Mrs. Patel. She wrapped her arms around her younger children and shushed them quietly, wiping their tears as her own fell unchecked.

“Me, Papa? Ask your wife where Shannon is!”

“Nurani!” Mrs. Patel gasped, then said something in a foreign language.

Mr. Patel spun around then. “You are involved in this?”

His wife cowered as though afraid he would strike her. “She was being abused. For God’s sake, she’d been stabbed.”

Mr. Patel’s face was so tight Tain thought he might have a stroke. The calm he’d shown earlier had been replaced by a consuming rage, complete with clenched fists, and spit flying from his mouth as he yelled, “You foolish woman!”

The sound of the front door opening and voices as people came inside interrupted them, and Tain turned to see an officer lead another woman into the room.

“Who’s this?” Ashlyn asked as Mrs. Patel cried out. She clamped her hand over her mouth as the stream of tears turned into a flood.

“Our housekeeper,” Mr. Patel snapped.

“I thought you told me only the family lived here.”

“In the house. She lives in an apartment above the garage.”

“And she wasn’t alone,” the officer said. He nodded at the entrance. Another officer appeared, leading a pale teenager, hands cuffed behind her.

Shannon Reimer.

Ashlyn watched Zidani tap his fingers on his desk. The sergeant had been silent for a few long minutes. Finally, he sighed and tossed up his hands.

“Go ahead. Just be careful.”

As she reached for the door, Zidani stopped her. “There’s one thing I want to know. Why have Mrs. Reimer do the drop? Aren’t we thinking this was most likely a setup to get to Richard?”

“He was physical with Christopher when we first met him,” Tain said. “Although I’ve never seen bruises on Mrs. Reimer, it’s possible he abuses her as well.”

“Their neighbor said Christopher was the only one who ever fought back,” Ashlyn murmured.

“Maybe Jeffrey’s murder changed that,” Tain said softly. “It actually explains Mrs. Reimer’s odd reactions.”

“More afraid of her husband than scared for her children.”

A quick glance at Tain was all Ashlyn needed to confirm he was wondering the same thing.

“I know it doesn’t look good,” Ashlyn said, “but I still think Shannon’s innocent in all of this. Okay, not innocent of running away or of trying to get money from her family. But I don’t think she murdered anyone.”