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Story: Deep as the Dead

Chapter Seventeen
When Sergeants Ian McManus and Jonah Bannonwalked into the briefing at the RCMP headquarters the next morning, Alexa was the only one in the room who seemed surprised. There’d been no conversation on the way here from the hotel. Ethan had been on the phone the whole time while Nyle drove. There had, however, been coffee, and Alexa was grateful forthat.
She smiled when the two newcomers seated themselves on either side of her. “Good to meet you in person, Doc,” Ian said gruffly. His tie today was eye-popping fuschia with a pink and purple flamingo onit.
“I thought you’d be taller,” deadpannedJonah.
Alexa laughed. “I used to be. Ethan chewed a couple of inches off meyesterday.”
Ethan looked up, the phone still pressed to his ear and frowned in theirdirection.
“He’s got to realize he can’t treat civilian consultants the way he does the rest of us,” Jonah remarked. “Especially when you don’t have inches tospare.”
Nyle fiddled with the video conferencing equipment. It seemed odd, once it was turned on, to see only two participants instead of four. Steve Friedrich and CaptainCampbell.
“Feels sort of lonely on this side,” remarked the wise-crackingFriedrich.
“Believe me, it was nothing you said,” replied Jonah. “Or wait, maybe itwas.”
“Gentlemen.” The Captain looked sober. “I’m anxious to hear about what went down in Victoria Park lastnight.”
Alexa leaned forward. She’d heard only the barest details from Nyle on the way here this morning. But as Ethan recounted the events from last night, a cold pool of dread pooled in herstomach.
They’d been right. The offender had taken the opportunity the vigil offered and shownup.
“We believe he came armed with Scopolamine,” Ethan said grimly. “When he first started to approach the stand-in, he was holding what looked like aneedle.”
Alexa’s trepidation intensified. Not for what might have happened. She didn’t waste time on could-haves. No, her foreboding was reserved for the evidence of the UNSUB’s recklessness. She’d seen the map Ethan had put up yesterday. It was a green space smack dab in an urban area, with streets bordering all four sides of it. Yes, there were plenty of trees, but she didn’t think there was enough cover that he could have possibly expected to escapedetection.
Either he’d quickly hit upon a foolproof plan, or he’d taken an incredible risk. The type that had, until the last few days, been foreign tohim.
“…IT to get us a clearer picture of the keys he was holding. One of the officers spotted an insignia on it that might be the CarsNow logo, but we need to be certain before we get a production order for the rentalrecords.”
“Oh.” She snapped to attention. “When we do get that order, we’ll be looking for a Toyota Camry. Black or navy, with a light-colored interior.” She smiled in satisfaction when all the men stared at her. “After Ethan gets done filling you in on the events of last night, I’ll tell you aboutmyevening.”
* * *
“And this iswhy I don’t like to let you out of my sight,” Ethan muttered, as he and Alexa walked to the IT area in the Halifax RCMPfacility.
“You have to realize how illogical that is,” she remarked airily, “when you’re the one who refused to let me go with you lastnight.”
“I specifically told you to stay here and answer messages left on the tip line.” He wasn’t angry, not exactly, but she’d describe his mood assmoldering.
“You didn’t tell me to stay here.” They descended the stairway. “YouassumedI’d stay since I had no way of getting home with everyone gone. So as long as I was going to have to summon an Uber anyway, you can hardly quibble that I took one to conduct some interviews inperson.”
“I think you’d be surprised by what I can find to quibble about in that plan.” He was silent for a few moments as they walked down the hallway to the IT offices. “How sure did Owens seem about thevehicle?”
“He was useless when it came to describing the person with Lawler, but was unshakeable when it came to the car. I’m sure that’s a guy thing. Said he drove a red one likeit.”
“I may need to talk tohim.”
“I hope you do.” She rather liked the idea of Owens coming up against Ethan’s implacable persona instead of a woman he thought he couldcharm.
Ethan stopped suddenly enough that Alexa bumped into him. “Looking for OfficerPeters.”
The area was a rabbit warren of desks, with electronic equipment taking up the rest of the available space. “You’ve found him.” A stocky balding man stood up and gave them a wave. “I’ve got some photos for you. Blew up that insignia on the keychain from the video you sent over.” Alexa and Ethan headed for the man’s desk and looked at the sheets he’d spread out on it. “Here’s the clearest I could get.” It was a close-up of a logo, taken, Alexa knew, from this morning’s briefing, of the UNSUB’s keychain. It was still fuzzy enough to make positive IDuncertain.
“I looked on a site we keep of product logos and insignias. I downloaded the ones I think looked close, blew them up to the right size for comparison.” He sat down at the desk and tapped a few keys on his laptop. The insignias appeared. He picked up the image taken from last night’s film and held it up to each on the screen byturn.