The Drowning Child

35

Two fire trucks, an ambulance and two squad cars were parked outside the Veirs’ house. Ren parked across the street. A weak strand of smoke drifted up from behind the house.

There were neighbors standing out front, others watching from their windows. Ren walked up to the open ambulance doors. An EMT was finishing his checks on John Veir, who was sitting in the back, dressed in pajama bottoms and a T-shirt, his bare feet on the metal step. There was a blanket around his shoulders. He jumped up when he saw Ren, stormed over to her. He raised his hand and stabbed a finger at her, sending a waft of kerosene her way.

‘This is your fucking fault!’ he said. ‘All your fault. This was Merrifield! You’re all wasting your time on me when it’s clearly fucking Merrifield—’

Whoa, whoa, whoa. What the fuck? ‘OK,’ said Ren, ‘first of all – stop pointing at me.’

‘How else can you explain this?’ said John, gesturing toward the house. ‘The guy’s a fucking arsonist!’

Ren held her two palms up to him. ‘John, we asked you about Merrifield, day one, and you told us there were no issues between you, that you didn’t really know him. Is there anything you’d like to say now?’

‘How has Merrifield not been found?’ said John. ‘And we have to pay the price—’

This is all very strange. ‘Why don’t you sit back down, and tell me why you would think that Merrifield would abduct your son, then come back and carry out an arson attack on your house? Or do you think he’s responsible only for the arson attack?’

He looked at her, dead-eyed. ‘Both, obviously.’

‘Yet – you were the one to shut that avenue down immediately.’

John sat back down on the step of the ambulance. Ren nodded to the EMT to give them space.

‘Maybe I’m just clutching at straws...’

Ren looked around. ‘Where’s your wife?’

‘Luckily, she’s at Patti’s – she swapped nights with one of her friends.’

‘OK, talk me through what happened tonight,’ said Ren.

‘Someone spray-painted the wall and lit the garbage on fire.’

‘Let’s start at the beginning,’ said Ren.

‘Uh... OK,’ said John. ‘I was taking a shower. When I came into the bedroom, I saw smoke at the window. I threw on some clothes, ran down and out into the back garden, saw the flames. I called 9-1-1. Then I thought of the garden hose. I went around the side of the house, got that going. I was putting it out by the time the fire trucks arrived.’

Hmm.

‘What did they spray paint?’ said Ren.

‘Pedophile killer,’ said John. ‘F-I-L-E, though. And K-I-L-L-R, no “e”. Whoever did it emptied out the recycling container, lit that on fire. Looks like they took a drum of kerosene out of the garage.’

‘The garage was open?’ said Ren.

John nodded. ‘I leave it open... in case...’ he shrugged. ‘In case Caleb comes back.’

‘You don’t think he would ring the doorbell?’ said Ren. I’m sorry, but seriously.

‘None of this makes sense,’ said John. ‘Anything’s a possibility, as far as I’m concerned.’

Yes. Such as you are the person responsible for this circus.

Ren walked over to the officer guarding the driveway, flashed her creds, and went around the back of the house. Smoke was rising from a damp pile of garbage. There was a heavy smell of burnt plastic and kerosene.

Ruddock was standing with his hands on his hips in the middle of the garden. A hose was discarded on the grass. The patio was drenched. Ren followed his gaze to the back wall of the garage where PEDOFILE KILLR was spray-painted shakily.

‘Needs a plus sign... or ampersand,’ said Ren. ‘Unless they’re saying he killed a pedophile, whereupon I don’t see a problem. I might look through my cabinet of pedo-files...’

Ruddock smiled.

‘Any sign of the paint can?’ said Ren.

Ruddock shook his head. ‘No.’

‘Veir did this, right?’ said Ren.

Ruddock gave her a measured look.

‘Where’s Wiley?’ said Ren.

‘I don’t know,’ said Ruddock. ‘He got the same message as everyone else.’

Ren walked down to the back of the garden, and turned to face the house. She took a step back. She tripped, landed on her butt.

‘Shit.’

Ruddock rushed over to her, helped her up.

‘Thank you,’ said Ren. Wet ass. Great.

They both looked down to see what she had tripped over, ran the beams of their flashlights over the grass. It was a small piece of a flagstone.

‘There’s another one,’ said Ren. ‘It looks like part of a path... to nowhere.’

‘Maybe there was another structure down here at some stage,’ said Ruddock.

They walked back toward the house, and met Gary, Sylvie and Paul coming toward them.

Ren filled them in.

‘Did you talk to Veir on the way in?’ she said.

‘Not yet,’ said Gary.

‘Isn’t it a little convenient?’ said Ren. ‘An arson attack while an arsonist is on the loose? And who spray paints a message on the back wall of a house? Isn’t the point to expose someone to their whole community as a KILLR? With no “e”...’

‘Someone might have wanted the message to go only to John Veir and were covering their own ass by choosing the back of the house – quick escape over the back fence,’ said Gary.

‘We all know that bad spelling bullshit is done by people trying to seem dumb,’ said Ren. ‘Is anyone buying the fact that this anonymous arsonist arrived with no kerosene, fingers crossed the garage door would be open, would contain fuel, etc., etc.?’

Yeah, didn’t think so.

‘I think Veir did it,’ said Ren. ‘And when Teddy wasn’t home? There could be a pattern there: Teddy’s gone, John Veir does bad things...’ She paused. ‘Can I just say that I don’t think there’s a lot more for me to do here? I have a pounding headache.’ She lied. ‘So I’d like to absent myself from thinking about this big wet fiery distraction any further. Night, everyone.’

She walked away.

Fuck this bullshit.

She went around the front of the house, and had no choice but to walk past John Veir.

The smile is for the EMTs. The burrowing eye-fuck is for you.

What are you hiding?

Oh. Just one more thing...

She jogged over to him. ‘John – was there ever a building behind your house?’

Eye-dart. ‘Yes.’ He paused. ‘We bought the house off a family – they had built a separate dwelling for the grandmother.’

‘What happened to it?’ said Ren.

‘We knocked it down to have more room for Caleb to play.’

Why the eye-dart?