LITMIR.BIZ

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only been married to you for five months,” she said. “You better not be coming home with any bullet holes in you!”

      “Hey, you’re a doctor. You could patch me up.” Her silence told Jack that levity was not an option. “If, by some remote chance, it wasn’t a coincidence, it had to be a moron to make a mistake like this. We’ll find out who did it. In the meantime, make sure nobody pulls into the underground parking behind you. Check the camera before buzzing anybody in.”

      “You on your way home?”

      “I’m going to drop by B.C. Children’s. Meet the victim’s wife. See if I can get a feel for all this. If her husband is dirty, she’ll know.”

      “Jack...”

      “What is it?”

      “I love you.”

      “I love you, too.”

      Jack made his inquiries at the hospital. Charlie Taggart, barely a year old, was in critical condition in the operating room. His mom and sister were both in a private room talking with a hospital counsellor.

      The room was not difficult to locate. Jack could hear the crying and sobbing from within. He stood outside and waited. Even if the guy was dirty, listening to this is bloody awful. He decided to stroll down the hallway.

      Eventually, Holly, with Jenny wrapped under one arm, left the room. She anxiously glanced at a doctor who approached, but he continued past. She could have stayed in the room with the counsellor but thought it would delay news of her son. Jack watched as she nervously stood in the corridor. When she noticed Jack approaching, she pulled Jenny closer.

      Her face ... she hasn’t a clue what is going on. Her eyes are as innocent as her little girl’s. This is somehow a terrible mistake. Her husband shouldn’t be in the morgue ... or Charlie on the operating table.

      Jack’s brain screamed at him like two separate entities. They were ripped apart because of me! It’s me who should be in the morgue!

       No! It can’t be. This is all a coincidence ... nothing to do with me.

      Jack didn’t give his name to Holly but showed her his badge while introducing himself as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He ushered Holly and Jenny to a waiting area and gently asked for the details of what happened.

      Holly’s response was in a monotone as she stared past Jack down the hall. She had told the other officer everything, she said. She opened her purse and handed Jack a business card. Integrated Homicide Investigation Team — Cpl. Connie Crane. Jack gave her the card back.

      “I’ll talk with Connie,” said Jack.

      “Are you a policeman?” asked Jenny.

      “Yes,” replied Jack. He tried to smile at the child but felt awkward to be smiling in front of Holly.

      “My name’s Jenny. What’s your name?”

      “I should be going,” said Jack, looking at Holly. He stood up.

      “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name,” said Holly.

      Jack took a deep breath and then let it out as he sat down again. “My name is Jack Taggart.”

      Holly shook her head and said, “No, I asked you what your name is.”

      Jack swallowed, and then explained that Jack Taggart was his name, too.

      “That’s my daddy’s name,” said Jenny. “That’s funny!” She laughed and then said, “Isn’t that funny, Mommy?”

      Jack looked at Holly and said, “I don’t work on Homicide. I work on an intelligence section dealing with organized crime. Corporal Crane called me to tell me about your husband. She thinks he may have been murdered as a result of mistaken identity.”

      “Oh,” Holly said, and then stared past him down the hall. Jack wrote his own phone numbers down for her, including his cell, his office, and his home phones.

      “If there is anything, anything at all, that I can do for you. Please ... please call me.”

      Holly nodded and gave a perfunctory smile before slipping the information into her purse.

      Jack saw the counsellor watching from across the hall and spoke with her as he was leaving.

      “I’m a policeman,” he said. “Where’s her family? Why isn’t someone here?”

      “Jenny and Charlie are her only family now. Neither she nor her husband had siblings. Her husband’s parents are in a nursing home and her own parents died several years ago.”

      “Neighbours? Someone?”

      “I asked. She said she didn’t live in the sort of neighbourhood that was conducive to making friends. Sounds like she didn’t have the time or the money to go out. She was either waitressing in a coffee shop or looking after her children while her husband went to school.”

      “There has to be somebody!”

      “Apparently not. I’ll watch her. She won’t be going anywhere as long as her son is in OR.”

      “And if he doesn’t make it?”

      The counsellor bit her bottom lip and didn’t reply.

      Jack reached for his wallet and said, “If that happens, please call me. I’ll help.” He gave her his business card and included all his numbers.

      Jack was just leaving the hospital when he met Connie Crane coming in.

      “What are you doing here?” she demanded.

      Jack looked at her and said, “That sounds familiar. Think you’ve asked me that before.”

      “I did on another investigation, and you didn’t mind your own business then, either.”

      “I just wanted to see her. See what she looked like.” “Did you?”

      Jack nodded.

      “No tattoos,” said Connie. “No weathered face. If her makeup wasn’t smeared all over she would look like what I think she is.”

      “How’s that?”

      “Innocent!”

      Jack sighed. “That’s my read too.”

      “So I’m just having a hard time believing your crap that it’s all a coincidence. I want names. Who do you suspect?”

      “That’s just it, I don’t suspect anyone.”

      “You take down a bunch of Satans Wrath labs today and think it’s all a coincidence?”

      “They know me. They also know Natasha and they know we don’t have any children. It’s not them. I have a good source. If it turns out to be some low-level punks working the bottom end of the labs, I’ll find out.”

      “These guys were professional. Cold and calculating. They shot him in the heart first. Didn’t care that he was holding his baby. That’s when his wife and daughter showed up. Then they stepped forward and shot him in the back of the head. After that, they just turned and walked away. These were no punks. These bastards have killed before.”

      “It still could be a coincidence. Completely unrelated to me.”

      “Could be, but I want you to think about it. Tomorrow morning I want a list of possibilities. After that, keep your head low and butt out this time!”

      “If this isn’t personal, that is exactly what I intend to do.”

      “And if it is?”

      Jack turned on his heel and walked away.

      chapter three

      It was nine o’clock in the morning when Staff Sergeant Luigi

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