The survivor

Eighteen

Striker cut through the school foyer, the heels of his boots sounding loud in the empty antechamber. He was headed for the cafeteria, to check out the gunmen he’d shot — a task which was causing his stomach to rise and his heart to clench. He’d liked to have done it hours ago, but nothing this day had gone well.

He’d barely made it halfway across the foyer when the school’s front doors swung open and Felicia walked inside. A soft wind followed her. The air was clean and cold and crisp; it smelled of fall leaves.

Striker breathed it in — to counteract the smell of old, dried blood. The metallic stench was all around him. On the walls, the floors, in the air. Even on his body, making him feel sticky, grimy.

He wiped the thought from his mind, waved Felicia over. ‘How’d it go?’ he asked.

She had a pissed-off look on her face, and a stack of yellow papers in her hands. She walked over, not bothering with the pleasantries, and said, ‘Here you go. You can rule out Nava Sanghera. She’s in Saint Paul’s Hospital getting her appendix out as we speak.’

‘And the other kid, that student helper, what was his name — Sherman Chan?’

Felicia shook her head. ‘Can’t locate him. He hasn’t reported in with any of the teachers and he isn’t on the list.’

‘What list?’

‘This one.’ She held up the yellow bundle of papers and beamed. ‘List of the dead.’

‘Jesus, Felicia, you don’t have to say it with such enthusiasm,’ Striker said. ‘These are dead kids we’re talking about.’

For a moment the words just hung there. Then Striker reached for the list. ‘Let me see that.’ He took the pages, and Felicia gave them up, almost unwillingly. Lists of injured and lists of the dead. The bundle felt thick in his hands.

The list of the dead was sorted by surnames, with the additional info of where the body had been found. Striker ran his finger down each page, stopping on page six where he found the heading: Cafeteria. Just the sight of the word made his stomach queasy. When he read on, he saw that only three girls were listed in this section, and before he could figure out which was the one from the video, Felicia spoke up.

‘Chantelle O’Riley.’

Striker looked up from the list. ‘What?’

‘The girl from the cafeteria. The one they shot in the corner. Her name is Chantelle O’Riley.’

‘But how did-’

‘I talked to Ich.’ She pointed at the stack of papers. ‘All the names are right there, updated as little as five minutes ago. I got it directly from Principal Myers.’

Striker ruffled through the pages, stopped, let out a heavy breath. ‘How is Caroline holding up?’

‘She’ll make it.’

Striker nodded absently. ‘She’ll have to.’ He scanned through the names. There were now twenty. But only three names stuck out to him:

Conrad MacMillan.

Tina Chow.

Chantelle O’Riley.

The first two kids were ones he knew; the last one was a stranger. These three had been targeted. After talking to the witness, Megan Ling, he was sure of that. But why? What was the connection? He stared at the pages, desperately hoping for something to jump out at him. A familiar ethnicity, a social link, a similar age or class.

But nothing did.

He had no idea what Chantelle O’Riley was about as a student or a person, but he did know Conrad MacMillan and Tina Chow. At least, he had four years ago. And they couldn’t have been more different. Conrad was in Grade Twelve now, and by all accounts, popular; Tina was a Grade Ten kid and relatively unknown.

Polar opposites.

So why these two?

There was something there. An unknown connection lurking somewhere beneath the violent surface. There always was. The body of the iceberg, so to speak. Striker took out his pen and circled their names.

‘We’re missing something with these three.’

Felicia crossed her arms. ‘There’s over twenty dead kids on that list, Jacob, not to mention the dozens injured. There could be a hundred different connections.’

‘But these three were singled out.’

‘We’re assuming.’

He didn’t respond right away. He just looked over the pages with a despondent feeling. This was no longer just about the case, it was about these kids’ lives, and the lives of their families. Striker wondered how many of their parents had even been notified yet? Being a father himself, he could understand the devastation the news would bring, and the thought of informing these parents was unbearable. It hurt even to imagine it.

‘Follow me,’ he finally said to Felicia.

‘Where we going?’

‘To the cafeteria. I need to see the bodies.’

Striker moved quickly down the halls, and Felicia followed silently. The mention of the cafeteria had done something to her; Striker could see it, as easily as the deepening lines under her eyes.

And he understood it completely. He felt it, too.

Now, filled with cops and paramedics, the entranceway seemed ordinary and safe, if not a little cluttered and disorganised. It certainly felt nothing like the war zone it had been earlier this morning. Striker stopped. He turned and looked into Felicia’s face.

‘You okay?’

She nodded. ‘Yeah. I’m fine.’

‘Good, good. We okay then?’

She gave him a sideways glance. ‘Why wouldn’t we be?’

‘You acted kinda funny back there, in Caroline’s office. When I sent you to check up on that Nava Sanghera kid.’

Felicia sighed, like he just didn’t get it, then said, ‘You gave me an order, Jacob. A fucking order. And in front of everyone.’ When he didn’t apologise, and instead looked back at her in confusion, her face darkened. ‘I’m not being mentored here, Jacob, I work here. And I have for the past six months. I’ve been the primary on more files than anyone else in the office and I’ve got the highest solvability rate — you’d know that if you’d been around for ten seconds.’

She finished venting, and Striker let the air clear for a moment.

He smiled. ‘Wow, you really go for the jugular, don’t you?’

‘Hey, I’m part-vampire, right? What do you expect?’ She crossed her arms, went on: ‘And don’t talk to me about being fair. You’re never fair. Not once, in as long as I can remember, have you ever been fair.’

‘We talking about work again, or our relationship?’

‘There you go again, always with the jokes.’

‘I was just trying to lighten-’

‘You can’t lighten this. I’m not the rookie any more. Not in Homicide, and certainly not on the job. And I don’t like being treated that way. Hell, you’re the one who just came back. If anyone should be giving orders around here, it’s me.’

He let out a bemused chuckle. ‘I’m a ten-year Homicide vet, Feleesh, what do you expect? Shit, I got more time on lunch than you got on the job. Which makes me senior. I’m the primary on this case and I always will be.’

‘Self-appointed.’

‘Maybe so, but by right.’

Felicia opened her mouth like she was going to say more, then gave up. Her posture sagged, as if all the fight had drained out of her system. She looked down the hall, in the direction of the cafeteria, and when she spoke again, the fire in her eyes had gone out, and her voice was quiet.

‘Let’s just get this over with.’

Striker agreed. He reached out, touched her arm. ‘Look, Felicia, I’m sorry. Really. I didn’t mean a thing by it. I didn’t even know I was doing it.’

She just nodded.

‘I talked to some kids,’ she said. ‘They knew where Courtney was. Said she’d taken off to Metrotown Mall. Gone looking for costumes for the Parade of Lost Souls party on Friday. She’s been seen there since the shooting started. So she’s fine, Jacob. She’s safe. She’s just ignoring you like always.’

He exhaled slowly. ‘Thanks.’

‘I thought you should know.’ When he didn’t respond, Felicia gave him a puzzled look. ‘You know, it’s okay to be relieved. You’re human, after all. Far as I can tell.’

He tried to smile at her comment, but couldn’t. Learning that Courtney was safe was paramount, even if he had believed it from the beginning. But it didn’t relieve the stress he felt, the burden that weighed heavily on every decision he made. He looked back at Felicia and said, ‘I tagged him.’

‘What?’

‘The gunman, the one who escaped — Red Mask. I tagged him once, when I shot out the rear window of the car. I know it, I can feel it. I got him. And he’s hurt.’

‘I know,’ Felicia said. ‘That’s great.’

‘It’s not great, it’s a disaster.’ When Felicia gave him a confused stare, he continued: ‘There’s nothing more desperate than a wounded animal. If he was planning on killing more kids, I’ve just done the worst thing possible — I’ve sped up his plans.’ As Striker finished speaking the words, a cold, dark feeling filled his core. And he knew instinctively that something bad was going to happen. Something for which he would be responsible. Something he would regret.

There was no doubt about it. More death was coming.