Читать книгу Tumbled Graves - Brenda Chapman - Страница 14

Kala finished her Tim Hortons coffee and tossed the cup into the garbage can on her way to the morgue. She wasn’t looking forward to spending the next couple of hours with Fiona Gundersund, her partner’s on-again, off-again wife. The way Fiona watched her when nobody else was looking made Kala uncomfortable. Behind the direct stare was a barely hidden dislike and Kala had a good idea why. Fiona saw any woman connected to her husband as a threat. She was territorial. An emotional leech. A wife who wasn’t going to let go of him even if she was getting it on with other men. Kala had heard the rumours. She thought Gundersund might be a fool for his devotion but she wasn’t going to get involved in his pitiful personal life. She’d done the relationship thing with a separated married man once before and never again. Especially not with her work partner.

Even if she found the kindness in the man attractive.

She pushed open the door to Fiona’s workshop and crossed over to the slab where Fiona was preparing to cut into Adele Delaney’s corpse. Classical music provided a soothing background to the whirring sound of a saw. The air was chilly and the smells disturbing but Kala normally took autopsies in stride. She’d shot and dressed deer in a past life. Only the violence of what had been done to Adele made this a difficult viewing. Even in death, Adele’s face was strong-boned in perfect symmetry, light reflecting off the golden highlights in her long brown hair. She’d been a good-looking woman and Ivo Delaney was far from a catch. Kala tried to reconcile the idea of the two of them together, but failed.

Fiona turned off the saw and looked at Kala through her protective glasses. Her long blond hair was tucked under a plastic cap. “Nice of you to join me, Detective. Your timing’s perfect. Ivo Delaney identified her this morning so everything is in order. The man could barely stand, he was so distraught. I think they took him directly to the hospital. I’m about to start cutting open her chest.”

Kala nodded. “You’re not wasting any time on this one.”

“Rouleau’s lucky it’s been a slow month. I have nothing else pressing at the moment.”

“Do you know what killed her?”

“You weren’t at the crime scene this morning with Paul?”

“No.”

Kala watched the expressions flit across Fiona’s face as she assessed this information before she spoke. “It was likely the knife wounds in her stomach. She bled out but not where her body was found. Her abdomen is a mess.” She whipped the sheet away from Adele’s body to show the jagged gashes that crisscrossed Adele’s stomach. It looked as if an operation had been performed without the final suturing to close the openings. “It would have taken a lot of stitches to close these wounds, as you can see. Not that any surgeon would have made a mess like this.”

Kala frowned. Why had the killer carved up Adele’s stomach? Was there a message in choosing to brutalize this part of her body? To disfigure a woman so terribly seemed personal. Angry. The door behind Kala opened and she turned. Bennett nodded hello and came over to stand next to her. He took one look before averting his gaze from the table.

“Rouleau sent me to observe.”

“Your first time?”

“Yeah. Does it always smell so bad?”

Kala exchanged a glance with Fiona. Fiona’s lips curved up and she turned on the saw. The whirring noise cut off conversation. She lowered her head and began cutting into Adele’s ribs.

Kala nudged Bennett with her elbow. She leaned in and spoke loudly into his ear. “If you need to get some air, just step outside. I can fill you in later. The first time is always the hardest.”

“I can handle it.” A muscle twitched in his square jaw.

“Of course.”

Fiona was skillful and methodical, Kala would give her that. She spoke into a microphone and recorded her findings as she went. By the time she’d removed and weighed Adele’s heart, Bennett was the colour of a pierogi.

Kala took pity. “Ready to make a coffee run?”

“Sure.”

He didn’t need to be asked twice. Kala figured he wouldn’t be in any rush to get back. Twenty minutes later she got a text from Bennett that he’d been corralled by Rouleau. He was on his way to the Delaney house to help with the search for Violet. He was sorry about the coffee. Kala smiled to herself before turning her attention back to Fiona and the work at hand.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before. Someone removed several of her internal organs, including her uterus, appendix, and spleen. I’ve heard of killers cutting off fingers so the victim can’t be identified, but never this. It’s … bizarre.” Fiona jumped up to unplug the whistling kettle. The autopsy had finished late in the afternoon. She turned her back on Kala and filled the teapot with water, then placed the pot and two cups on the desk between them. “I have sugar but no milk.”

“Black is fine.”

Fiona mashed the teabags with the back of a spoon before pouring. She handed Kala a mug with the words “Made in Canada” stamped on the side. Kala wondered if the double entendre was intentional. Fiona took a sip and sat back in her leather chair. “Heaven. My arms are aching.” She looked over at Kala and continued their conversation about the autopsy as if no break had occurred. “So what do you make of it?”

“Not sure yet.”

“She died somewhere else but not long before she was dumped on the highway. The marks on her face were from being tossed onto the pavement from a moving vehicle.”

“So time of death?”

“I’d say between seven and eleven that evening. She had bruising on her wrists and ankles from being tied up. I found sores on her mouth from been gagged. How was her marriage?”

“Her husband said all was going great.”

“Do you believe him?”

“We’re looking into their relationship, but it’s tough since they were reclusive for the most part.” Kala wasn’t keen to speculate at this point in the investigation. Fiona seemed in tune with her thoughts because she shifted subjects after another sip of tea.

“I guess you’ve heard that Paul and I aren’t together at the moment.”

Kala held up both hands. “None of my business.”

“I know you say that, but the station is a small family. Anyhow, I just want you to know that Paul and I’ve weathered a lot. I’d like to get back with him but he’s tentative, even though we’ve gotten, well, intimate again. I hope … well I hope that you’ll respect that we’re trying to make our marriage right.” She opened her blue eyes wider as if she was opening herself to Kala.

Kala’s cellphone beeped. Saved by the bell, she thought. She lifted the phone from the desk where she’d set it and clicked on Paul Gundersund’s text. Meeting at the Merchant in ten. She thumbed in an okay before standing and looking down at Fiona.

“I have a debrief to get to. Sorry to run. I wish you well getting your marriage back on track. Believe me that you have nothing to worry about on my account. I meant it when I said your relationship with your husband is none of my business.” And you don’t need to know that I’m off to meet him now. “Thanks for the tea.”

Ten minutes later, Kala was in her truck heading down Division Street to Princess. The Merchant Tap House was at the bottom of Princess, not far from the Holiday Inn that looked out over Lake Ontario. She and Gundersund liked to meet at the Merchant when they had notes to compare. She found a parking spot a street over and was only fifteen minutes late when she walked in the front door. She checked out the main room first before crossing the hall to the smaller room to the right of the main entrance. Gundersund looked up from his beer and smiled at her. Rouleau was with him. She slid into the empty seat between them. A waitress arrived immediately afterward with a cranberry soda and lime.

“I took the liberty of ordering for you.” Gundersund grinned. “On me.”

She took a swallow and set the glass down. “Thanks. I think my drinking habits are getting predictable.”

“Not at all.”

She looked at Rouleau. “Any word on the child?”

“Nothing yet. Bennett and Woodhouse are still at the Delaneys. I expect they’ll be closing down for the night. Her body could be anywhere with the currents. She might have gotten lodged somewhere but so far, no sign.”

“Has Ivo Delaney confessed to anything?”

“He’s in the hospital. He insisted on seeing Adele’s body against everyone’s advice, so the ambulance made a stop at the morgue before taking him to the General. The psychiatrist he’s been seeing has been called in to check him out.”

“He’s been having mental problems? Can’t say that I’m surprised.”

“I haven’t been able to reach the doctor to get any details, but we understand that Ivo has an underlying condition. We’ll need to follow up and hopefully get some information that isn’t doctor-patient protected. We’re in the process of getting a search warrant to go through his house and car. A judge should be signing off within the hour.”

Kala grimaced. “What a mess. From the autopsy, whoever killed Adele Delaney appears to have been either a sadist or mentally ill.” She repeated the results of Fiona’s observations. “So what time do you want me to meet you at the Delaney house tonight?” She caught the briefest of eye contact between Rouleau and Gundersund. She fixed her eyes on Rouleau.

“You don’t need to come out tonight. Gundersund and I will be there, as will Woodhouse and Bennett.”

“But …”

Rouleau held up a hand. “It’s overkill to have all of us there. You’re better off spending time with Dawn this evening and getting a good night’s sleep.”

“I don’t want special treatment because of my personal life. You could have called me in to the crime scene this morning.”

“We’re a team and there’ll be times when you have to carry more of the load when another member of our squad needs time to deal with their commitments.”

“I didn’t ask for any favours.”

“I know, and none are being given. We’re just doing some of the grunt work so you can get Dawn settled into your life. That’s what well-functioning teams do.”

Gundersund ran his fingers across the scar on his cheek. He’d watched their exchange without comment. Kala was grateful when he broke the silence that descended by turning focus back to the case. It gave her a chance to hide her frustration.

“What would spark Delaney to drown his daughter and then mutilate his wife? What did we miss when we searched his property?”

Rouleau looked away from Kala and clicked on his cellphone. “You sent a message that Delaney was out in his car this morning when you arrived. Did he say where?”

“On a drive to clear his head in Bath, and home on Highways 33 and 2, although it could as easily have been the 401. I wonder if he would have been as forthcoming if we hadn’t caught him returning home at six a.m.”

“The man just keeps looking more and more suspicious. If I had to guess, I’d say that he had her in the woods tied up and decided to get rid of her before the police stumbled across her body. We just didn’t look in the right spot. How can we prove he didn’t dump her on the 401 without a witness?”

The waitress returned with menus. Gundersund and Rouleau accepted but Kala declined. “It’s getting late and I have to get home to my commitment.” She smiled at Rouleau to soften her words. “Thanks.”

“No thanks needed.”

“Do we have a plan of attack for tomorrow?”

Rouleau looked up at the waitress. “We need a few minutes. I’ll motion you over when we’re ready.” When she’d gone, he answered. “We’ll give the search for Violet another day and will expand the search to take in more of the woods around the Delaney property. If we’re lucky, we’ll find where she was being held. I’d like you both to interview Ivo when we get the go ahead from the doctor. It might not be tomorrow though. I’d like you both to return and interview Adele’s sister in Gananoque.”

Kala had forgotten about her. “Has she been informed?”

“Yeah. She decided not to view the body today. She wants to remember Adele alive. She’s expecting you tomorrow around nine.”

Gundersund looked at Kala. “I’ll pick you up at eight.”

Kala thought about turning him down but that made no sense. She was crazy to even think about how it would look to Fiona. “I’ll be ready.” She stood. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. If you find anything tonight, give me a call. I’m up until midnight.”

“You got it,” Rouleau said. “If you don’t hear from me before then, Gundersund will fill you in tomorrow when he picks you up.”