Black Fly Season. Giles Blunt

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СКАЧАТЬ to see if there was a missing person report on the redhead. The duty sergeant joked around with him; Jerry was with the Ontario Provincial Police, now, but he’d worked for the city before that, and the sergeant was an old friend. No missing redheads on file.

      Jerry thought about what would need to be done for her. It would be a city problem, not his, but if the hospital didn’t admit the girl, they’d have to find her a place to stay, maybe the Crisis Centre. And if it turned out she was the victim of an assault, it would mean going back to the bar and finding out if anybody knew her, trying to back-track to when she came in and where she was before that. He wondered how she came to be in the woods. She wasn’t dressed for camping.

      He found John Cardinal signing forms, talking to the young man behind the counter. The guy was listening, nodding attentively. Cardinal had always had the knack of making people feel that what they did was important, that how they handled the details mattered. It was a knack that could mean the difference between making a case and blowing it. Jerry waited for him to finish.

      ‘I think I got a case for you,’ he said. ‘I know you don’t have enough to do.’

      ‘I told you never to call me here, Jerry.’

      ‘I know. But without you, I’m only half a cop. My life is a stony, barren place.’

      ‘Haven’t seen you around lately. I suppose you’ve been snorkelling down in Florida or somewhere.’

      ‘I wish. Been stuck in Reed’s Falls working surveillance. Came across something in town tonight, though. Bit of an anomaly.’ Jerry told him about the redhead.

      ‘No drugs? Sounds like she took a knock on the head.’

      ‘Yeah. No ID, no keys, no nothing.’

      Dr Fortis came back from radiology, a worried expression on his face.

      ‘Something unexpected,’ he said to Jerry. ‘Come and take a look.’

      ‘John should probably be in on it. She’ll be a city case. You know Detective Cardinal?’

      ‘Of course. Come this way.’

      Cardinal followed them down the hall to an office where darkened X-rays were clamped to light boards. Dr Fortis snapped on the light, and the gracile cranium and neck bones of the young woman glowed before them, front and side views.

      ‘I think we’ve found why our redheaded friend is in such a placid mood. In fact, we’re going to be sending her down to Toronto for surgery,’ Dr Fortis said. ‘You see here?’ He pointed to a bright spot in the middle of the lateral view.

      ‘Is that what I think it is?’ Cardinal said.

      ‘I can tell you I’m feeling pretty incompetent right about now. Totally missed it on physical examination. I can only plead the thickness and colour of her hair.’

      ‘Looks like a .32,’ Jerry said.

      ‘Entered through the right parietal region and partially severed the frontal lobes,’ Dr Fortis said. ‘Hence the flattened affect.’

      ‘Will that be permanent?’ Jerry said.

      ‘I’m no expert, but people do make amazing recoveries from these sorts of things. This is really one for the medical journals, though: self-inflicted lobotomy.’

      ‘Maybe not self-inflicted,’ Cardinal said. ‘Women who want to commit suicide almost never shoot themselves. They take an overdose, they use the car exhaust. We’ll get ident to do a gunshot-residue on her hand.’

      ‘Might not have to,’ Jerry said.

      The girl was in a wheelchair at the door, still smiling, an orderly behind her.

      ‘We’ve got the EEG results,’ the orderly said.

      Dr Fortis examined the printout.

      Jerry turned to him. ‘You said the entry wound is on the right?’

      ‘That’s correct. The right temple.’

      ‘Hey, Red.’ Jerry took a pen from his pocket. ‘Catch.’

      He tossed the pen over her head. A pale hand shot up and snagged it out of the air. Her left hand.

      ‘Well,’ Cardinal said. ‘So much for suicide.’

       2

      Algonquin Bay, with a population of 58,000 and only two small hospitals, cannot lay claim to any neurosurgeons of its own, which was why, forty-five minutes later, Cardinal was barrelling down Highway 11 toward Toronto, four hours south.

      When Dr Fortis had scanned the EEG results, he had ordered the redhead put into a neck brace and shot her full of antibiotics and anti-seizure medication. Then he ordered up an ambulance. ‘She appears stable,’ he said, ‘but I’m seeing some seizure activity on her readout. They’ll want to operate on her right away.’

      ‘I’m pretty sure she’s not a suicide attempt,’ Cardinal said, ‘but I’ll get ident to do a gunshot-residue on her before we leave.’

      ‘We?’

      ‘I’m going to have to accompany her. Be there when that bullet comes out of her head.’

      ‘Of course. Chain of evidence and all that. Have to be quick, though. The sooner she’s in surgery the better.’

      Using electric clippers, Dr Fortis shaved a small patch of hair away from the girl’s right temple. A placid smile played across her features, but otherwise she didn’t react at all.

      ‘Perfectly round entrance wound,’ Cardinal noted. ‘No burn, no smudge, and no tattooing.’

      ‘There’s no way that gun was fired within a foot of this girl,’ Jerry said. ‘I hope you find whoever pulled the trigger. Let me know if I can be any help. I’m heading home to enjoy what’s left of my day off.’ He waved at the girl. ‘You take care, Red.’

      The girl’s smile was frozen in place. The anti-seizure medication was starting to take hold.

      Cardinal put in a call to Detective Sergeant Daniel Chouinard at home.

      ‘What is it, Cardinal? I’m watching Homicide, here.’

      ‘I thought that was off the air.’

      ‘Not in my house. I own the entire first three seasons on DVD. There’s something soothing about watching cops with problems a lot worse than mine.’

      Cardinal told him about the girl.

      ‘Well, you’ve got to go to Toronto and see that bullet come out. Is there anything else?’

      ‘That’s it.’

      ‘Good. Now, I’m going to go back and watch how those big-city cops handle things.’

      Bob СКАЧАТЬ