The Taken

It was midday Tuesday and all was quiet in the detachment. Apart from the ongoing intrigue concerning the trapped man, there was nothing of interest to report. A couple of traffic tickets was all. The cityfolk had returned to their city, and the locals were sweeping up. Summer, with all its danger and amusement, was soon to be upon them. It was time for a coat of paint and a restocking of shelves.

PC Bail had been keeping an eye on the internet film. It was ru

Hazel thanked her and went into her office. She opened the laptop there and confirmed what Bail had said: the film sequence had not changed. It made almost twenty-four hours of the same loop playing over and over. She would have to keep herself occupied with about three weeks of daily reports piled on her desk for her perusal. Most of these she’d seen already -Wingate had brought them to the house in dribs and drabs, but evidently, he wasn’t confident enough to have them filed with only his initials on them. There was still nothing more interesting than a stolen iPod in week one, and week two had a complaint from a Mr. Stoneham about a scratch on his car. The current week’s files, which she hadn’t seen, were three strong: a domestic, a stolen bicycle, a beef in a café that escalated into someone throwing a teacup. That might be the quintessential Port Dundas crime, she thought. A fight that ends with someone getting scalded by Darjeeling.

Wingate knocked. “Come,” she said.

“Are you busy?”

She screwed her mouth up at him. “Are you for real?”

“How’d your visit to Bellocque go?”

“It was fine. Better than fine. Too bad he’s not single.”

Wingate gave her a crooked smile. “I gather nothing has changed onscreen.”

“No. Every hour that passes though, I feel more and more the victim of a prank. What’s the deal with Eldwin?”

“Nothing yet.”

“Jesus.”

“Claire Eldwin promised she’d call the second he turned up.”

“She sure didn’t sound like she was baking him a Welcome Home cake. You kind of got the feeling she’d be happy if he stayed away as long as he liked.”

“You starting to think he’s tied to a chair in his own basement?”

“Can’t rule it out,” said Hazel. “He doesn’t sound like the kind of guy a lot of people would miss.”

“Well, the ma

“Hmm,” said Hazel. “Where’s the loose thread here, Wingate? What about Jellinek? Do we know where he is?”

“We can find out.” He opened his notebook and flipped a couple of pages, then picked up the phone on her desk and dialled. “Is this Cal Jellinek?” He listened for a moment, then cupped the phone. “Do you want me to ask him if he’s currently being held in a basement and/or being threatened with a knife?”

“Ask him if Pat Barlow is there.”

Wingate did, and then passed Hazel the phone when she gestured for it. “Ms. Barlow?”

“Yes.”

“How did you know where that ma

Wingate creased his eyes at her. “What?” said Barlow.

“You must have known exactly where it was if you drove your customers right to it.”

“Jesus Christ! Are you kidding me?”

“Well?”

“It’s bad enough the lake is full of fry this year, Detective Inspector. You really think I make up for bad fishing with jokes?”

“So you just happened upon that thing.”

There was a pause. “I had no idea what was down there,” Barlow said slowly. “I’m not lying.”

“If you were, that’s what you’d say anyway.”

“If you want to arrest me for something, do it,” said Barlow angrily. “But if you just want to blow smoke up my ass, leave a message next time.” She slammed the phone down and Hazel pulled her head back smartly. Wingate was looking at her with an unimpressed look on his face.

“It was worth a try,” she said.

“Was it?”

“Look, something has to give here! Someone is waving their hand in front of our face: hey! look here, look here! But what are we supposed to be doing?”

“What can we do?” he asked. “We can’t inspect every basement in the county.”

“It would be better than sitting on our rear ends.”

“I’m frustrated too,” he said.

She held up the last folder she’d been reading. “I’m starting to think I’ve got a better chance of clearing the Darjeeling Caper than making heads or tails of what turned up in Ga

“Will do,” said Wingate.

She closed the files that were in front of her and pushed them to him across the desk. “I’m done with these.”

Wingate was about to leave the paperwork when there was a knock at the door, and Cartwright pushed it open partway. “Busy?”

“I was just leaving,” said Wingate, and he slipped past her in the doorway. Cartwright came in with a coffee and a giant chocolate muffin, both of which she put down on Hazel’s desk.

“Early birthday present,” she said.

Wingate bent back into the doorway. “Your birthday?”

“Thursday,” said Hazel. “I’m going to be thirty-nine again.” He looked blankly at her. No one had got her Jack Be

She was aware of the shadows of her perso

She got out a scrap of paper from a drawer and wrote down in point form some of the things she thought she should bring up with Willan tomorrow morning. She’d try at first to focus on what they were actually doing in Port Dundas before he trotted out his ratios and his per-capitas. She wanted him to hear what they were dealing with, especially now, and how important the police department was in the community. Willan was going to use the word catchment and talk about efficiencies. He was going to tell her Port Dundas would take on the mantle of county HQ, and she’d be in charge of more people than she was now: it was going to be a challenge and he knew she could rise to it. And when she told him it would mean lost jobs and fewer services and maybe not being able to solve crimes like the one they were working on right now, he was going to shrug and tell her redistribution of employees would amount to a couple of lucrative early retirements, a couple of redeployments, no one was getting fired, and all they’d have to do after the rearranging would be to stay on top of their game… just like they are now! She’d never met this man – apart from the letter that had been sent around to her beat cops, she didn’t know a thing about him – and already she didn’t like him.