Page 24 of The Bone Code

“And yet?”

“A medical waste container dumped into the ocean. Bodies wrapped in plastic sheeting and secured with wire. Two female victims. A single bullet to the brain. Severed fingers and smashed teeth.”

“That’s a shit ton of coincidence.”

“It is.”

Anne thought about that a long time. Then, “Why do you suppose that case went cold?”

“Duh. We never ID’d the vics.” A little too sharp.

“But why?”

A question I’d wrestled with repeatedly over the years. Why hadn’t we?

“Back then was a raucous time for Montreal law enforcement.”

“That whole Quebec separation thing?”

I shook my head. “La guerre des motards.”

Anne raised one brow.

“The biker war.”

“What bikers?”

“Motorcycle gangs. Beginning in the mid-nineties, the Hells Angels and some local talent called the Rock Machine began slugging it out over control of the Quebec drug trade. From then until around 2002, it was unbridled killing and bombing on both sides.”

“How did it end?”

“In March 2001, a joint effort by the Mounties, the Ontario provincial force, the Sûreté du Québec, and the Montreal police resulted in the arrests of Angels all over Canada. Something like one hundred thirty-eight in Quebec alone, another fifty-one in Calgary.”

“Good score.”

“It was. But the violence didn’t stop with that. In 2006, the Bandidos, then the only possible rivals to what remained of the Angels, self-destructed with the killing of eight of their own members in Ontario. The media dubbed it the Shedden massacre.”

“Judas on a trampoline. Sounds like a wild ride back then.”

“It was. And a lot of the bodies ended up in my lab.”

“What does all this have to do with your container case?”

“Maybe a lot. The container washed ashore in 2006, not long after the Shedden massacre. That same week, a man was shot to death shortly after his release from prison. His body was found in a burning car not far from the site where the container turned up. The guy was some gang wannabe, and torching a vehicle was a common biker MO, so it was assumed to be an Angels or Bandidos hit.”

“Which generated fear that the war was about to reignite.”

“Exactly.”

“So that investigation got more attention than your container case.”

“That’s an understatement. Everyone was focused on it. The Ontario and Quebec provincial police, the Montreal city PD, what remained of the task forces. And the slaughter of the Bandidos was all anyone was talking about. Other than Ryan, myself, and his small group at Crimes contre la Personne, no one was interested in old bones washed up from the St. Lawrence. Our case was largely neglected.”

Birdie chose that moment to make his entrance. Hopping onto the sofa, he stretched full length between us.

“Also, all the separate investigations created a lot of false leads,” I said. “Which led to loss of time and waste of resources.”

“That must have been frustrating.”