Stonechild and Rouleau Mysteries 5-Book Bundle. Brenda Chapman

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СКАЧАТЬ other woman just kicked Susan.”

      Rouleau ran faster than she could have imagined and she was right behind him. Unfortunately, they couldn’t hide their approach. The woman in white looked up at them from where she was crouched, undoing Susan’s coat. Dark sunglasses hid her eyes but Kala recognized Pauline. Her lips were clasped tightly together, her face determined. She looked from them back down at Susan, bending to grab under her arms. Pauline’s back heaved with exertion as she pulled the dead weight backwards through the reeds bowed with ice. She was making slow progress closer to the river’s edge.

      “It’s too late,” Pauline screamed. “You’re too late.”

      Rouleau held out a hand. “Let us help you.”

      “Then help me pull this bitch onto the ice.” Pauline’s hysterical laughter travelled across the eerily frigid landscape to where they stood motionless. They were a hundred metres away and there was nowhere for Pauline to go. She wouldn’t be able to drag Susan far. Pauline gave another frantic pull at Susan’s arm and then straightened up and looked at them. She let Susan’s arm drop into the snow. She stared at them for a moment longer before turning in one swift movement and stomping through the reeds toward the river.

      “Stop!” yelled Kala, but she knew Pauline was past listening. She was picking up speed and running full tilt toward the deeper part of the river. As Kala watched, Pauline zigzagged around sections, trying frantically to find ice thick enough to bear her weight.

      Rouleau reached the river bank first and took tentative steps onto the ice before Kala reached him. She looked down at Susan lying awkwardly just above the frozen water line then across the white expanse of river to where Pauline was making her way. Rouleau kept calling for her to come back but had stopped following.

      Pauline turned and must have seen that nobody was coming after her. She slowed her pace, now testing her steps more tentatively on the ice. She wasn’t even a third of the way across.

      Kala shouted to Rouleau not to follow. It was too dangerous. He looked back at her, his face filled with indecision. She waved her arms for him to come back.

      Suddenly, a cracking noise filled the silence, carried by the wind back to where they stood. Rouleau turned back toward the river in time to hear Pauline scream, her arms flailing above her head, her legs slipping out from under her. She seemed to skid several feet before she disappeared into a gaping hole. Dark, jagged fissures in the ice snaked toward the shoreline. Rouleau took a step forward.

      “Don’t do it.” Kala yelled into the wind. “Pauline can’t be saved.” She knew it was true. Her last glance at the river had witnessed Pauline’s head disappearing into the darkness of the black hole. He wouldn’t have time to reach her even if the ice held his weight.

      Rouleau hesitated and Kala held her breath. She willed him back to shore. Rouleau’s shoulders dropped in defeat. He slowly turned and started back toward her. “She’s gone,” he said. He scrambled up the incline and squatted next to Susan, zipping up her coat. She writhed in the snow and moaned, her eyes still closed.

      “She’s been drugged. Let’s get her moving before she freezes and we lose both of them,” Rouleau looked up at Kala. The papery lines in his face were deeper than they’d been seconds before. He stood and pulled out his cellphone. He looked out across the river while he called for an ambulance and police backup.

      Together they grabbed Susan under the arms and started down the path the way they’d come, carrying her limp body between them. The path was barely wide enough for three and the going was awkward. Susan was a dead weight between them. Nearly half an hour later, they reached the opening to the parking lot. A siren wailed from somewhere close by.

      Kala looked over Susan’s head at Rouleau. “It’s better this way, Sir, for everyone. You couldn’t have saved her.”

      “Maybe.”

      “We had no way of knowing what she was planning,” Kala said. She felt a sudden urgency to convince him. “She had everyone fooled.”

      “Not everyone,” said Rouleau, meeting her eyes. “I should have trusted your judgement and moved sooner back on the path.”

      “It could easily have gone the other way.”

      “You were closer to the case than I was. You have good instincts and I should have remembered.”

      “And I should have pieced it together sooner. We did the best we could.”

      39

      Wednesday, February 29, 4:30. p.m.

      They met after work in the Royal Oak on Bank Street, another pub furnished in the British tradition. Grayson and Malik were already well into their first quart of beer when Kala and Whelan arrived. Kala took off her jacket and sat across from them while Whelan went to the bar to order their drinks. He returned a minute later, carrying a Guinness and a club soda. He lowered his bulk with a grunt in the seat next to Kala and slid her drink over to her.

      Malik raised his glass in her direction. “To our new colleague who broke the case. You’re a credit to the Ottawa Police force and to mankind in general.”

      “Here, here,” said Whelan.

      They clinked glasses and drank.

      “The paperwork and interviews made it almost not worth solving this thing,” said Kala. “You should have warned me.”

      “You’d have been better off if Pauline Underwood hadn’t drowned while you were trying to apprehend her. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be under the scrutiny her death has subjected you to,” said Malik. “Has it been rough?”

      “Rough enough. SIU has zero personality and they take themselves extremely seriously.”

      She looked at Grayson. He was hunched over his beer as if the amber liquid was keeping him warm. He met her eyes and lifted his glass in her direction. “Good work, Stonechild.”

      “Thanks.” He almost looked like he meant it. She glanced around the table. “Any word on how Pauline’s family is doing?”

      “Yeah, not every day your mother murders your father and then gets killed trying to kill her best friend,” said Whelan. “Might make you question your genetic pool.”

      “I know I’d think twice before having kids,” agreed Malik.

      “Geraldine Oliver put her house on the market yesterday,” Whelan commented. “She and her baby have moved in with the brother.”

      “Hunter?” asked Kala.

      “Yeah. Apparently she’s giving up the high life.” Malik pointed at Grayson. “Tell Kala about the big business deal her father’s company was working on.”

      “It fell through. While the murder investigation was going on, an American company offered the inventor Archambault a better deal and he went for it. From what I hear, J.P. Belliveau and company are in a great deal of financial trouble.”

      “It just doesn’t get any better for that family, does it?” said Kala.

      “Say, did anyone invite Rouleau?” asked Whelan, looking toward the door.

      “He’s СКАЧАТЬ