James Carol: The Quiet Man

‘Remember what I said about hitting this thing from as many different angles as possible? Well, this is one of the different angles that I was talking about.’

Global BC’s studio was in Burnaby, a city that was grafted on to the east side of Vancouver. The two cities had kept growing to the point where it was now difficult to see the join. The only indication that you’d moved from one to the other was the sign at the city limits. From Sobek’s house it was a forty-minute drive, west to east. The fact that Anderton spent most of the journey trying to persuade Winter that he was selling his soul to the devil made for a long forty minutes.

The next right took them onto Enterprise Street, which was nothing more than an elongated, stretched-out business park. Large cubist buildings sat nestled amongst carefully designed areas of green and large parking lots. Global’s building was a third of the way along. The black colour scheme, satellite dishes and aerials made it appear sinister, like this was a base for a shady government agency. Anderton pulled into the lot and found a space. She killed the engine.

‘Last chance to back out,’ she said.

‘I know what I’m doing.’

She gave him a cynical look.

‘I’ve used this tactic before,’ he said. ‘And got results. On that basis the end more than justifies the means.’

‘So how does this work?’

‘Serial killers follow the news religiously, so we use that fact to draw the killer out. Now, we’ve got two options. Either we attack him or we try to identify with him. The police and the media have been attacking him for the past three years, and all that’s done is push him deeper into the shadows. So, instead of attacking him, we give him a sympathetic character to identify with. Me. Best-case scenario, he actually starts talking to us.’

‘You really think that’s going to happen?’

‘At this stage all I can tell you is that it could happen. I once worked a case where I did a press interview saying that everyone had got the killer wrong. He was misunderstood, he’d had a crappy childhood, nobody loved him. Blah, blah, blah. Et cetera, et cetera. Two days later the police received a handwritten note. It was addressed to me. On the back was one sentence. I am not EVIL . There was a capital letter at the start, a period at the end, everything was spelled correctly and the sentence was grammatically correct, so straight away we knew that we were dealing with someone educated. We released the note to the media and three people came forward saying they recognised the handwriting. Turns out the killer was a radiologist with a college education.’

Anderton said nothing.

‘At the moment this guy’s had things his own way for too long,’ Winter continued. ‘Right now everyone’s just hanging around waiting for him to make his move. That’s what he’s expecting to happen, because that’s what happened last year. This is the ideal time to mount a pre-emptive strike.’

‘I get all that. And if it was anyone else except Delaney, I’d say go for it. But you can’t trust her, Winter. The woman’s a rattlesnake.’

‘It’s got to be Delaney. Global’s news programme is watched by more people in Vancouver than any other, and Delaney is their go-to person for crime stories. This is about engaging with as large an audience as possible. There’s no point going to one of those neighbourhood cable channels that’s way up in the hundreds, because the only person who’s going to be watching is the interviewer’s mom. Maximum exposure, that’s what we need here.’

‘But this is Charlotte Delaney we’re talking about.’

‘I can handle Delaney.’

‘Okay, my turn for a story. Delaney didn’t like the way I handled the investigation into Isabella Sobek’s murder. After Alicia Kirchner was murdered there were calls for me to step down, then, after Lian Hammond was murdered, the gloves really came off. Back at the start of my career, I worked under a guy who was taking kickbacks. I inadvertently couriered some of the money on a couple of occasions. In my defence, I was young and naive. I made a mistake, that’s all. There was no intent to carry out a crime, and no financial gain on my part. Internal Affairs agreed that I was a victim of circumstance and no charges were ever brought against me.’

‘I already know all this, Anderton. You don’t need to justify yourself. You’re one of the good guys. I get it.’

She showed him the hand. ‘You need to know what Delaney is like, so shut up and listen. Anyway, she drags up the story, but puts a new spin on it. Basically, she made it look as though I was a co-conspirator. She also insinuated that I’d been having an affair with my boss, that I wasn’t as innocent as I’d made out. Unfortunately, my old boss was long dead, so he wasn’t around to deny the allegations. I, of course, denied everything, but it didn’t make any difference. Trial by media is brutal. You’re guilty until proven innocent, and there’s no way you’re going to find an impartial jury. When that shit sticks to you, it sticks forever.’

She stopped talking and stared out of the windshield. Winter knew where she’d disappeared to. She’d gone back in time to those dark days. Like so many businesses, police work was a results-orientated profession. From her superiors’ point of view, she’d struck out three for three. Delaney’s article was the final straw. They knew she was innocent, but her public image had been forever tainted. They couldn’t have her heading up a major investigation. They offered early retirement and she accepted. What else could she do? By that point the writing was all over the wall.

‘Here’s another story for you,’ he said. ‘I once interviewed this kid in prison. He was nineteen but looked about twelve. He’d murdered his entire family. With a hammer and an electric drill. His dad, his mom, his little brother. The crime scene looked like a set from a horror movie. His first day in prison he murdered one of the other inmates. This guy had thought he was an easy mark. He was wrong. The kid managed to smash his head against the floor no less than a dozen times before the guards pulled him off. The other inmate was dead before he reached the infirmary, his skull cracked wide open. Witnesses said the kid was like a wild animal.’

‘Okay, I get it. If you can handle that kid, you can handle Delaney.’ She paused and took a breath. ‘Do not underestimate her, Winter. Not for a second. Do you hear me?’

‘Loud and clear. Do you want to wait here?’

Anderton looked at him as though he was crazy. ‘No way. I’m coming with you.’

‘Are you sure? I thought you wouldn’t want to get within a hundred miles of Delaney.’

‘You thought wrong. And anyway, until this thing’s over we’re partners. That means I’ve got your back. Always.’

‘That’s good to hear.’

‘No, Winter, this is the point where you tell me that you’ve got my back.’

‘Always,’ he said.

‘Are you planning on wearing that T-shirt?’

He glanced down and saw what she was getting at. TV was a visual medium. Appearances were everything. His Doors T-shirt just wasn’t going to cut it. He’d have no problems connecting with rock fans, but there were whole sections of the population that this look just wouldn’t work for.

‘You’ve probably got a point.’

‘No probably about it.’

Winter got out of the car and opened the trunk. The white cotton shirt buried right down at the bottom of his suitcase was for emergencies. Like now. He took his Doors T-shirt off, then pulled on the shirt and buttoned it up. The leather jacket helped to make him look a little less like a second-rate office worker.

‘Last chance to back out,’ Anderton said.