The Drowning Child

58

Ren arrived back at Tate PD on Wednesday morning. Ruddock was in his office. He had ordered proper coffee and blueberry muffins from a café in town.

‘God bless you,’ said Ren.

‘Welcome back,’ said Ruddock. He pointed to the table. ‘Good timing...’

‘Thank you, kindly,’ said Ren, grabbing a muffin. ‘Yes – it is. I can sense four things from a thousand yards: coffee, pancakes, blueberry-flavored foodstuff, and Cinnabons.’ Plus wine, beer, champagne, and carnal opportunities.

There were three long black boxes on his desk, the kind that held photos.

His wife’s...

Ruddock saw her noticing. ‘I’m channeling my wife. The local newspaper is running a memorial for an old teacher from town who died.’ He paused. ‘Took his own life, in fact.’

‘Was that the guy in the retirement home?’ said Ren. ‘Beckman mentioned it.’

Ruddock nodded. ‘He was the swim coach for years at the school.’ He paused. ‘You just never know what’s going on in people’s heads, do you?’

You sure don’t. ‘You sure don’t,’ said Ren. ‘Any updates on the case?’ She looked at him properly.

Jesus – he looks shattered.

‘I’m sorry to say, there was an incident Monday night,’ said Ruddock. ‘With Gil... and Seth Fuller.’

What?

‘Gil assaulted him,’ said Ruddock. ‘He messed him up pretty badly, but we got him to the hospital, he’s been patched up, he’s OK... some damage to his back, but mainly cuts and bruises, a black eye. He’s had a few stitches, he’s in pain, but he’ll live to fight another day.’

‘What happened?’ said Ren.

‘According to Gil, it was over a pool debt. Seth owed him fifty dollars.’

Buuuullshit did this happen over $50. She scanned Ruddock’s face. You don’t believe that either, surely...

She nodded politely.

‘Our saving grace,’ said Ruddock, ‘is that Seth’s keeping it quiet, and he’s not pressing charges. At the hospital, he told doctors he didn’t know who the assailant was. And it wasn’t his plan to tell his aunt either.’

You are so fucking lucky. But why would Seth cover for Wiley? Is he afraid of him, like Clyde is?

‘And where’s Wiley now?’ said Ren.

‘Well, he’s taken a short leave of absence,’ said Ruddock. ‘But, he’s extremely contrite, nothing like this has ever happened before. He’s under... personal stresses. I don’t want his standing in the community to be impacted on, either – it’s a very visible post – so once he’s cooled off, I will have him back on different duties. You won’t have to deal with him any further on the investigation.’

Damn fucking right we won’t.

‘Well,’ said Ren, ‘I’m sorry to hear all that. You look like you’ve had a long night.’

Ruddock nodded. ‘Yes. Yes, I have.’

I want to hug you.

Gary was waiting for her outside the CARD team’s office.

‘How did Denver go?’

‘They’re circling around me,’ said Ren.

He held up a hand to stop her walking on through the door.

She ‘This meeting was about me, Gary. This was person—’

‘What? No, it wasn’t,’ said Gary. ‘It was standard going-back-over-the-facts—’

‘It wasn’t,’ said Ren. ‘They know something, I’m telling you. Why else would they have told you two inspectors were going to be there who weren’t.’

‘What? Who was there?’

‘Neubig and Brinks. Do you know them?’

‘No, I do not.’

‘Well, that’s reassuring,’ said Ren. ‘They switched them at the last minute to fuck with us.’

‘Ren, that sounds a little paranoid.’

‘It’s not paranoia,’ said Ren. ‘They’re questioning me, wondering if I should be working at all. They’re—’

‘You’ve been cleared to work,’ said Gary. ‘You’ve passed your psych eval—’

‘But—’

‘Ren!’ said Gary. ‘Pause for one second. Do you think there is any evidence anywhere that that meeting was an intervention? Think about it: none of this was in writing. The only people who knew were me, Ben and Matt. It was only spoken about on my landline. And you know that neither Ben nor Matt would have betrayed either mine or your confidence. Janine didn’t know, but would have been no less trustworthy if she did. Everett didn’t know. Joe Lucchesi didn’t know. OK? So relax.’

‘Why are they asking those questions, then?’ said Ren.

‘Standard procedure,’ said Gary. ‘It was a major incident.’ He looked at her. ‘It’s over. You’re back here. You still have your job.’

‘For now,’ said Ren. ‘They want me to come in again.’

‘They know nothing. Relax.’

Why do people ever tell people to relax? Who reacts well to “relax”? Who actually relaxes?

‘Yikes about Wiley,’ said Ren.

Gary nodded.

‘It was only a matter of time,’ said Ren. ‘I thought if he was going to assault anyone, it would be me.’

When they went into the office, Paul Louderback waved them over. His laptop was open on a screen-grab from a traffic cam. Ruddock walked in to join them.

‘So,’ said Paul. ‘It turns out Seth Fuller was not at The Crow Bar the night Aaron drowned. Not for the entire night, anyway. He was parked for a lot of it on Richmond Road – a residential street. He doesn’t get out of his truck. It looks like he was the only one in it.’

‘Any recent burglaries in the area?’ said Ren to Ruddock. ‘Could he have been up to no good? Why else wouldn’t he have told us?’

‘No burglaries reported,’ said Ruddock.

‘He could have been waiting for a woman,’ said Ren. ‘One who didn’t show. A married woman? Stalking someone? How long was he there?’

‘Three hours,’ said Paul.

Ren opened up a street view of the area on her laptop.

‘Can we get a list of the addresses on this street?’ she said. ‘Who owns them, who’s living there?’

She zoomed out. ‘Hold on – this is the Middle School right here? And there was a dance on there that night? He was parked here for three hours during that time?’

‘Yes,’ said Ruddock.

Everyone looked at each other.

No, Seth. No. You need to be innocent for me to have faith in humanity... and trust in my gut.

‘And now for my next trick,’ said Paul. He handed Ren a printout. ‘Nice call on the PlayStation.’

She read the results. ‘So, Caleb Veir has played it,’ she said. ‘I fucking give up.’ She read the results again. ‘Hold on – he was the first person to play it?’

Paul nodded.

‘That’s very weird,’ said Ren. ‘No kid is going to let another kid play it before they do.’

‘No,’ said Paul.

‘I think I may need to pay another visit to The Crow Bar,’ said Ren.