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  Flashback

  A Reid Bennett Mystery

  Ted Wood

  For Bill, Beryl and all the rest of the Aussie Woods

  CHAPTER 1

  Five kids were standing around an old Ford Fairlane on Main Street. I weighed them up as I jogged out of the trees on to the dusty road surface of Main Street. After three years as police chief in Murphy's Harbour I know every one of the locals by sight, and most of the regular visitors. This bunch was out of tune with the town and I jogged over to the wall of the grocery store in my running shorts and T-shirt and pretended to stretch against the wall while I weighed them up.

  They weren't sporting any gang regalia, colours or the same baseball caps worn backwards but the way they lounged on the fenders of the car, smoking, showed they had something to prove.

  Only one was an individual threat, the biggest, he could have been twenty or even older, the same height as me, six one, about 175 useful pounds, boxer's muscles although his face was unmarked.

  One of the others was carrying a baseball bat and he looked the most knotted up. He was around sixteen, fair hair and a neat little rat tail tickling his neck. One of the smokers said something to him and he said something hard and flat in return and they all laughed, yukking it up like actors. Then he made his move, along the front street in my direction towards a mongrel dog tied by its leash to a post at the other end of the store.

  He picked up speed and cocked the bat and I sprang. He was five yards from the dog, I was ten but I covered the ground in four strides. The kid stopped when he saw me coming but drew the bat back and stood ready to swing. He figured I would halt, out of range, and use my silver tongue. Instead I took the two extra steps and straight-armed him in the upraised elbow.

  He sprawled backwards, dropping the bat. I grabbed it before one of the others could. They were on the move, springing away from the car, closing on me, shouting. Then the big one held his hand up and they stopped.

  'Pretty tough, shovin' people around?' He was doing his best to sound rough but he had an educated voice.

  'I'm the chief of police here. What's your name?'

  He ignored the question, cocking his head to his claque. 'Some pussy town you got here, chiefy, if that's how you dress.'

  The rest of them had surrounded me, sniggering. I was glad I'd picked up the bat. I had to keep control or be swarmed.

  I reversed it in my hands, holding it like a rifle and bayonet, butt towards him, and moved in on him, fast. He backed off, which gave me whatever psychological advantage there was but the others were still around me. 'In the car, son, and head out.' I told him, not raising my voice.

  'Or what?' he sneered, but he licked his lips.

  'I'm counting three.'

  He looked around at his guys and nodded and they started inching in again.

  'One,' I said clearly. They were four feet from me now, all around.

  'Two.' He stood his ground.

  'Three.' I reversed the bat and slammed the handle down on his toe. Not a recommended move. It did no more than embarrass him, making him swear and hop on one toe. But it worked, making it look like I didn't need to do more than humiliate him. I whirled, to face the next biggest. 'Get him in the car and out of town or you're next.'

  He tried to stare me down for a moment, then took the other guy's elbow. 'Come on, Eric, the hell with this place.'

  The guy shook him off and hobbled to the car and I watched as he got into the passenger seat and sat there, glaring at me.

  The other three scrambled into the rear of the car, one of them saying, 'You ain't seen the last of us.' Then the driver spurted away, spinning the car in a U-turn that tore a rut in the unpaved roadway and left a plume of dust as they roared back down the road towards the highway.

  I heard a woman's voice saying, 'They were going to kill Ragamuffin.' It was one of our regular summer people bending over the dog which had roused itself at last and was standing, shaking off the dust it had gathered.

  'Maybe not,' I said. Why sow anxieties? 'They're just kids.'

  She's a fussy little woman, a widow in her seventies. 'Well, you sure showed them, Chief. Thank you.' She hoisted her grocery bag tighter under her arm and unwound the dog's leash from the post. 'Come on, Ragamuffin, let's go home.'

  I glanced around the street. The usual crowd of youngsters was standing on the patch of dusty grass against the end of the bridge. It's the gathering place for teenagers, where the girls can giggle and the boys arm-wrestle and swear at one another in their newly broken voices. Occasionally I have to ask them to keep the music down to a dull roar, other than that they're harmless.

  I went over to them and asked. 'Hi, did you know any of those guys?'

  They didn't. Even the boys were glad to tell me that. Usually they're too cool to talk, letting the girls do it for them, but they were against the gang, strangers on their turf.

  I nodded and left them, cutting my run short to go down to the police station which is south of the bridge, instead of crossing over and making my usual five-mile circuit of the water, both sides, both bridges. I wanted to let the other police know what was happening. Most of the towns hereabouts don't have police of their own, they depend on the Ontario Provincial Police, the OPP.

  I called the Parry Sound detachment and alerted them, giving the licence of the Ford and a rough description of the kids. Then I checked the car's ownership. It belonged to a Walter Patton at an East Toronto address. I knew that Toronto has teen-gang problems so that didn't surprise me, but I wondered what they were doing this far north. Setting up a branch plant?

  I hung up and sat for a moment glancing around my domain. Pretty good by the standards of cottage country. The office has a counter between me and the front door with a bench for the few people who linger long enough to sit down. There's the usual clutter of police posters and a rack of public information brochures on things like road safety and child abuse that nobody ever comes in to pick up. My side of the fence contains a desk with the original muscle-powered typewriter that was new when the office was built in the 'sixties. Behind the desk there's a stool that was once used by our civilian employee, the 'mister' in police slang. But he was let go a couple of years back when he got into trouble and the town's been too cheap to replace him since, so its seat is getting dull. Then there are a couple of grey filing cabinets, a teletype machine and, new this month, a Fax.

  There were a couple of messages on the teletype. A wide load would be heading up the highway the following night. If possible, I should be at the highway entrance when it passed, routine. But the second one stopped me. George Kershaw, white male, forty-two years old, five-ten, had eluded the guard who had been sent with him on a day pass from Joyceville, a medium security jail. He'd skipped from Toronto, at the Skydome where he had been attending a baseball game. He was wearing a blue shirt and slacks, was unarmed but should be considered dangerous.

  I tore the message off and clipped it on the board I keep for special news. I knew he was dangerous. I'd been the guy who locked him away, five years ago, in Toronto, where he had held up a bank, shooting the manager and taking a female hostage. My partner and I cornered him half an hour later. He'd used the woman as a shield, threatening to blow her away, his words, until I told him I'd shoot him through the mouth and he'd be dead before he could react. Then he shoved her away and dived, shooting at me but I hit him first, taking the fight out of him, He'd sworn at his trial that he would get me. A lot of them do that but I had a hunch he meant it. And I've put a few guys in jail since I've been here, so I was sure he knew where to come looking.

  That did it. I stuck the baseball bat under the counter, on a ledge that contained a pile of accident forms and a six-pack of empty pop bottles. Then I locked the station, shoved the key back in the pouch o
n my shoe and headed home.

  Freda was watering the garden when I got back. Wearing a big hat and the striped dress she had made for her pregnancy and usually referred to as 'the tent'. She was full term now and had been flagging for the last couple of weeks as the July heat picked up, but today she was full of energy, spraying the tomato plants.

  'You're back early. Have a good run?'

  'OK, as far as it went, but there was a hassle in town. Nothing serious, but I figured I should hold off on the exercise until later.' I put my arm around her shoulder and she gave me a quick kiss, buckling the brim of her hat against my forehead. Sam, my big German shepherd, got up from the porch and came down to greet me, looking a little aggrieved. He figures he's my shadow and was until Freda and I got together. With my wife vulnerable, I felt more protective than usual. That's why I'd left Sam with Fred when I went out. Fred? It's her own joking diminutive of Freda. Not many women could carry off a name like that without having cynics raise their eyebrows, but she's a charmer and the name fits her like the men's hats some girls wear.

  She patted me on the shoulder. 'Right now a shower is a pretty high priority, old sport. Go for it. I'll make us a salad with some of this abundance here.'

  'I'm in danger of ending up healthy,' I said, 'if this marriage lasts,' and ducked as she turned the hose on me.

  We were eating lunch when the phone rang. I wondered if it would be one of our storekeepers to report the boys were back in town but it was a citizen with another problem. There was a car in the lake on the far shore. He'd noticed it while he was fishing off a rock.

  Fred said she was going to read for a while, so I left Sam on watch in case Kershaw intended keeping his promise. I figured his presence would be enough to keep her safe and she didn't have to know I was worried for her. She had enough on her mind anyway. Then I drove off over the bridge at the north lock and down the west shore of the waterway, our section of the Derwent River system although this stretch is really a narrow lake.

  I saw a crowd on the rock the fisherman had told me about. They were staring down and when I joined them I saw the car's rear end, a couple of feet underwater.

  I asked, 'Is Tom Fielding here?'

  A lean young guy with an expensive graphite fishing-rod said, 'I'm Fielding.'

  'Thank you for calling in. When did you see the car?'

  'About half an hour before I called you. I ran back home and telephoned. Is it stolen.'

  'Can't say without seeing the licence plate, but it shouldn't be in there, that's certain. There's a car missing from Parry Sound.' I looked around at the crowd. Most of them would have been in bed before the car was even stolen, I figured, we get only a couple of TV channels locally. There's not much to do after dark but slap mosquitoes.

  'Does any of you live close by?'

  A woman nodded, she was about my age, late thirties. A looker but not working at it, lean, self-possessed, a cool, managerial type, I knew her by sight. 'That's my place over there.' She pointed to a white-painted cottage on the far side of the road.

  'You're Ms Tracy, right?'

  'Right.'

  'Did you hear anything last night, Ms Tracy?'

  She shook her head. 'No, but I was out until around twelve-thirty.'

  As we spoke I was weighing up the terrain. The rock we were on sloped towards the water. One man could have pushed it into the lake unassisted. The splash would have been loud, but splashes aren't uncommon. My radio squawked and I held up one finger, 'Excuse me a minute, please.' I went back to the car and picked up the mike. 'Police chief.'

  It was Gilles Perrault, the guy who runs the bait store on Main Street, reaching me through the phone line which kicks into my radio link. 'Reid. Gilles Perrault. Come quick. Kids been in, pushed the tank over, stole all kinds of stuff.'

  'Be right there.' I took a moment to tell the crowd I'd be back with a tow truck. Then I told Ms Tracy, 'I have an emergency to attend to, could I come and talk to you later, please?'

  'Of course. I'll be around until six.' She wanted to say more and I gave her a half-second before she blurted, 'I heard the radio. A swarming? Does that mean there are teen gangs in town?'

  'I'm about to find out.' I inclined my head to her and left. On the way I called Fred and had her patch me through to Kinski's Garage. When they answered I told Paul about the submerged car and asked him to bring his tow truck up and start hauling it out. He swore when he heard it was under water, then grunted, so I guessed he'd find some way to get a chain on it. Then I put my foot down and picked up speed to Main Street.

  The gang had really done a job on Perrault's store. His floor was awash with water and minnows wriggling every which way and muddy with a mixture of worms and moss. Gilles and an elderly customer were struggling to set the fish tank back on its base. It was a galvanized cattle trough but lined with bricks on the bottom and heavy.

  He was swearing rapidly in French as he worked and he didn't stop until we had the tank back in place and he had run a hose into it. Then he thanked us and set about scooping up his stock. I hooked a pail off the wall and helped him. Sightseers crowded around the doorway, but none came in to help, they stood there drinking up the sight. It's the same at every kind of calamity. Some help, most watch.

  It took us about five minutes to get most of the shiners back in the tank which was filling slowly. While Gilles hunted down the last of his minnows off the floor 1 asked him what had happened.

  'Was kids. Couple big, maybe seventeen, eighteen. The rest younger. They came in, one came up to the counter an' then the rest ran wild, grabbin' stuff, tippin' the tank. I try to stop dem an' one big one push me over. Two, t'ree others was throwin' worms out of the fridge.'

  'Did you see the bunch I had the heyrube with earlier?'

  'No. I was busy an' it was over quick. Some customer tol' me. Said they was gonna kill a dog. But I never seen these kids before.' He found a dustpan and started sweeping up the worms, swearing again in his guttural Quebecois French.

  It sounded like the return of the dog-bashers, looking to pay me back for chasing them off earlier, but I dug for details. 'Were they wearing any kind of uniform? The same baseball caps maybe or a handkerchief hanging out of their pockets, anything?'

  'I never seen nothin',' Gilles said miserably. 'They took lures, couple rods, anythin' they could grab.'

  I asked the customer, 'Were you in here, sir, when this happened?'

  'No. I got here as they were running out of the place. About knocked me over.'

  I washed my fishy hands, took the customer's name and address and told Gilles to make a list of what had been stolen while I tried to trace the kids, then I went outside, leaving the customer beating Gilles down on his bait purchase, claiming that the minnows were shocked and would go belly up in no time.

  A couple of people claimed to have seen the kids leaving but no two of their descriptions jibed so I had nothing to go on. I gave up, going into each of the stores and telling each of the clerks to phone the moment they recognized any of the kids or if a bunch of youths came in at once, not to wait until they swarmed the place. Then I saw Kinski's tow truck heading north up the other side of the lake and I got back in the car and followed it up.

  It turned off the roadway and backed down the rock through the crowd which had swelled since I left. When it stopped, just as I arrived. I saw it was Kinski himself, one of the hard-working Poles who got out of their country a year or two ago when Solidarity was making waves, and he had his son with him, a lean blond boy in jeans and a T-shirt which he shucked as soon as he got out of the car, revealing a swimsuit.

  Paul waited for me to walk over, then said, 'Peter swims good. He come with me to put on the chain.'

  'Good thinking. Don't try anything tricky, Peter, like getting yourself underneath the car, duck down and reach under, that's all.'

  'No worries.' He grinned cheerfully while his father unhitched the hook and loosened the tow cable.

  As we waited I asked him, 'Tell me, Pete,
have you heard anything about any gangs around here?'

  'Gangs?' I could tell he hadn't.

  'Yeah, any bunch of losers hanging around together, maybe wearing something the same, same belt, same cap, same coloured shoe-laces, anything like that?'

  He shrugged. 'I been workin' with Dad all summer, running the pumps an' that.'

  'OK, thanks. If you hear anything, see a bunch of kids in a car together, make a note of the number, would you, and call me.'

  'No worries,' he said again, then took the hook from his father and snapped on a scuba mask. He clambered down the rock and dropped neatly into the water, holding his mask on. His father let the hook loose and let it run down to water level where Peter took it. Then he took a couple of deep breaths and sank under the water. He came up once for more air, then the second time he gave us a thumbs-up.

  'Out the way,' Paul called, and put the crane in gear. The truck lurched once, then locked, and the car came backwards out of the water with Peter treading water, clear of it. I saw that the driver's window was open. That was good. It probably meant the driver hadn't drowned. But I went to the left side of the car and checked anyway as the car cleared the water's edge. I'd already noted that it was the Honda that had been stolen from Parry Sound, a town half an hour north of here up the highway.

  The crowd swarmed around it as it came out of the water and I had to tell them to back off, missing Sam; one hiss from me and he would have kept them back with no trouble.

  When Paul had it up on the rock I took a better look inside. It was empty and the radio was missing and the seats had been slashed with a knife. Another act of gang mischief. Three in one day. If there was any truth to the old superstition, that was our quota for a while.

  I opened the door to let the water out. The key was in the ignition, I noticed, a single key, not ring. Odd. Just about everybody keeps their keys together on a ring. Having it separated out like that looked deliberate.

  Paul got down from the cab of his truck and came to tie off the wheel. He saw the slashed unholstery and spat angrily. 'Punks. Big tough guys with a knife, yeah?'