Manhunter. Loreth White Anne

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ

      But the blizzard drove down. The ERT guys were socked in, hours away, choppers grounded. And Gabe, as the senior officer on site, had led his members straight into an ambush in the middle of whiteout.

      It had been orchestrated by Kurtz Steiger. He had one officer and one civilian down inside, and one constable hostage.

      Gabe was backed into a corner, with no help in sight for hours, perhaps days.

      And somehow the bastard knew.

      He knew that Gia belonged to him.

      He’d been playing them all, lurking around town for God knew how long, watching, learning, searching for his next thrill, and the ambush was it.

      Gabe should have done anything but send Gia round the back of the Quonset hut with a young constable, where the Bush Man had come barreling out, blazing a pump-action shotgun as the hut had exploded in a ball of fire behind him.

      Steiger had felled Gia and Gabe’s constable, taking time to get down and look into Gia’s eyes as she died in the snow while the other officers, stunned by the explosion, battled through the blaze to find their fallen comrades and the civilian victim.

      Steiger had then fled into the woods on a snowmobile.

      Blinded by rage and adrenaline, Gabe had given chase, finally running him down and wounding him. In the bloody battle that had ensued, Steiger had managed to crush Gabe’s leg by pinning him between the snowmobile and a tree before Gabe tasered him several times. Steiger, passing in and out of consciousness, had looked directly into Gabe’s eyes, and smiled, told him that he’d enjoyed watching Gia die. Gabe had been about to slit the bastard’s throat with his own hunting knife just as one of his corporals arrived on scene, saving him from an act that would have cost him his badge had there been a witness. The notorious Bush Man was finally taken into custody.

      But the cost was high. And personal.

      The RCMP, while a paramilitary organization, was different from the military in one vital sense. Soldiers were trained to take life. But a Mountie lived and breathed to preserve life. Lethal force was only used as a last resort, and only to protect life under immediate threat. This was so powerfully ingrained in the Mountie psyche that when things turned violent—when people got killed—it was close to impossible to get over.

      Especially when the lives lost were those of fellow members. Especially when that fellow member was your fiancée.

      And her death was your fault.

      But the internal investigation had cleared Gabe. The metal pin in his leg didn’t hurt so badly anymore, and physical therapy had helped him walk again. The funerals in Ottawa were long over, and the shrinks had okayed Gabe for active service.

      But they didn’t know.

      They didn’t know how close Gabe had come to killing Steiger even once the bastard had been incapacitated. They didn’t know that Gabe didn’t trust himself with his own gun anymore.

      He’d never told the psychologists how quickly his rage flared now. How he had to bite down to stop clearing leather with his 9 mm. That he’d become his own worst enemy.

      Perhaps he should have told them, but they would have sidelined him. And he’d needed to work to stay half-sane.

      But until he figured some things out, Gabe thought it best to go work someplace where he could lie low, where the crime rate was virtually zero.

      Where he couldn’t goddamn hurt anyone else.

      Like Black Arrow Falls.

      A deeply buried part of Gabe figured he might just disappear up here. Walk into the wilderness with a fishing rod, maybe dissolve into the fabric of the mountains. Never come back. Forcing himself to embrace living was going to be his ultimate test.

      “So this is the Black Arrow Falls detachment,” Donovan was saying as he wheeled the RCMP vehicle into a gravel parking lot behind a rustic log building atop which a red-and-white Canadian flag flapped in the warm wind.

      Gabe struggled to focus as he followed Donovan into the building.

      His sole absolution was that he’d put Steiger behind bars.

      It was the only way he could justify his sacrifices. The only way he could accept the loss of Gia’s life, the other officers’ lives.

      Steiger would not kill again.

      “And this is Rosie Netro’s desk,” said Donovan, showing Gabe into the reception area of the tiny RCMP detachment. It was a far cry from where he’d worked in the city. Even Williams Lake was sophisticated compared to this.

      “Rosie’s one of our two civilian clerks who handle dispatch and admin. She’s off-duty now, usually works nine to five weekdays. Tabitha Charlie is our weekend dispatcher, a fairly recent addition, but she’s off on maternity leave.” Donovan smiled his clean, earnest smile in his square jaw. “Baby should be along any day now.”

      Donovan waited for a reaction from Gabe, some platitude. A smile, a nod, perhaps.

      Gabe registered it was a great thing, a birth. But he couldn’t seem to make himself respond.

      His reaction was buried down somewhere in his repertoire of expected and acceptable social behaviors, but he didn’t have the inclination to set it free. Emotional dissonance, the shrinks had called it.

      It had grown out of his habit of compartmentalizing things as a homicide cop, and now he seemed to have locked himself down permanently somewhere inside. It was the only way he’d gotten through this past year. It had kept him alive. But it sure as hell wasn’t living.

      Donovan turned his eyes away, a subtle but visible shift in his demeanor. “And this is where we all sit. Constable Annie Lavalle at that desk over there. That’s my station,” he pointed. “And that’s Constable Stan Huong’s desk, and that station by the window will be for the new member, Cade McKenzie. His transfer comes through in a couple of months.”

      “Where are Lavalle and Huong now?” Gabe asked, surveying the mini-bullpen.

      “Huong’s on compassionate leave. His mother passed away. We expect him back in two weeks. Lavalle is attending a court case in Whitehorse—hunting violation. She was called to testify. It’s her first case. She’s fresh out of Depot Division.”

      A new recruit straight out of the academy. Gabe didn’t like the sense of responsibility that gave him. Call him chauvinist, but he didn’t want to put another woman in jeopardy. Ever. It went against his grain as much as it was drummed home to him that they were all equal in the force. He was a born protector. That’s what had given him the black eyes and broken arm at school when he’d stood up in defense of his kid sister and her friends.

      It’s what had made him a good cop.

      “Name like Lavalle—she Québécoise?” he asked.

      “Yeah,” said Donovan. “Accent and feisty temper to match.”

      Gabe grunted. At least there was little to threaten young Constable Annie Lavalle up here in Black Arrow Falls. Apart from wild animals and his own morbidity. He’d have to be careful СКАЧАТЬ