Andy manoeuvred the Yukon carefully down jammed, foggy Vancouver streets. It had taken her almost seven hours to get here from Clearwater, even though she’d been on the highway before sunrise. Fog had settled in the farther she got from the mountains, turning into the kind of day where there was no hope of it burning off. You just had to slog your way through it and hope it moved out again overnight. Andy was annoyed: at having to leave so early, at the medic for making her life difficult, at the constriction of being forced to check-in, at the sixteen urine samples she was now delivering to the lab, clear the other side of town from Headquarters. As Andy dropped off the Styrofoam container with the orange-lidded cups and filled out the requisite RCMP paperwork, she called Finns’ secretary and left a message saying she’d be closer to two than twelve for their meeting. Then she got back into the Yukon, glad to be rid of the samples, and fought her way through sluggish traffic to Headquarters.
The first night at camp had gone fine, the cadets burning their food on the too-hot camp stove, and the instructors happily digging in to Andy’s simple chicken burgers and cold potato salad. Andy and Les had shared a cabin, Andy appreciating the other woman was easy going and funny but didn’t feel the need to fill every moment with chatter. Early this morning, Andy had left a note for Kurtz and Tara along with one of the two-way radios on the porch, asking if she could stay with them in the main house tonight, knowing she’d probably get in late. Kurtz and Tara owed her nothing but they wouldn’t turn Andy away.
Andy cursed at the traffic and continued to ignore the blinking light on her cell phone as she’d been doing since getting back into range early this morning. She didn’t want to talk to anyone, and if Finns was calling to yell at her for being late, she couldn’t get there any faster. Looking around at the dismal surroundings, peaks of buildings lost in fog, windows reflecting back nothing but grey, Andy thought she truly hated this city sometimes. It was cold, wet, damp, depressing, and, in the right light, unrelentingly ugly.
She did a second run around the block of 37th and Heather, waiting for a spot to open up outside of Headquarters. One finally did, and Andy didn’t even bother to take a breath or compose herself. She just grabbed her file and her phone, jammed her hat on her head and shrugged her shoulders against the damp bite of the wind. As she was crossing the street, she heard her phone ring but silenced it irritably without looking at it. Ten seconds later, it beeped a message and another five seconds after that it signalled a text, then another. Andy cursed under her breath and called it up. Jack.
Don’t ignore me. Need to talk.
Headquarters came into view as she thumbed out a quick text to her partner. 618?
This was their personal distress signal, which had come in handy more than once. Right now, Andy was using it as her own code: if it’s not important, fuck off.
More like 617 and a half. Call me.
Andy crossed the street, pushing the speed dial for Jack’s cell phone. “What is it, Jack?”
“Where are you, Wylie?” Jack said nervously.
“Just heading into Headquarters, why?”
“Okay, I just found this out now, and I don’t know everything that’s going on but…but I think it’s going to be fine. In fact I think it’s going to be better than fine.”
Andy let him ramble, barely paying attention as she caught the heavy doors of the familiar glass building and went inside. The large, open lobby was full of civilians looking lost or annoyed mixing with officers in uniform looking busy or bored. It was much warmer in here, and Andy used her free hand to unzip her storm jacket as she made her way through the crowd. Then she froze, every muscle in her body locking down, her heart thudding to a stop before doubling its pace, her brain frantically trying to make sense of what she was seeing.
“Jack…” she said into the phone, her voice carrying no weight. He still babbled in the background. “Jack,” she said more forcefully, her eyes never leaving the two figures descending the stairs. “Does this have anything to do with Kate?”
“How did you know?”
“Because she’s walking down the stairs with Finns right now.”
“It’s going to be okay,” Jack said quickly. “Call me later.” And then he hung up.
Andy pushed disconnect on her phone and clenched it in her palm. She was unable to move. Andy scanned Kate, the way she moved, the expression on her face, her achingly familiar silhouette. She noted a new hollowness in Kate’s cheeks, framed by her red curls caught in a twist at the back of her neck. She was wearing an unfamiliar winter jacket, army green with a hood lined in orange fleece.
They were at the bottom of the stairs now, Kate smiling politely at something Finns had just said. Turning towards the front doors, Kate shifted a black backpack on her shoulders. They were now only twenty feet away. Andy felt her heart give a painful jerk in her chest as Kate faced her dead on. Everything about the way she moved made Andy hurt. As if she could sense it, Kate scanned the busy reception area until she saw Andy. Kate looked her up and down, her brown eyes locking on Andy’s. Andy read her expression: happiness, relief, but above all, caution.
What does that mean? Andy wanted to yell. She wasn’t sure, so as Finns and Kate approached her, Andy commanded her body to meet them half way and she did the only thing she could think of in that moment. She slammed her guard up, hard. She became still, quieted, tense. Andy forced everything she was feeling into a small ball and clenched it in her stomach. She’d unpack it later.
“Sgt. Wyles, I was beginning to think you’d gotten lost.”
Andy forced herself to pay attention to the gritty, annoyed tone Finns was using.
“I’m sorry I’m late. The fog has almost shut down the city.” Her voice had so little inflection, Andy knew both Finns and Kate could see right through it.
“Well, you picked a hell of a day to be late and a hell of time to decide to find some work-life balance and not answer your phone for three days, Wyles.” Andy thought she could hear a note of nerves in the annoyance. But Andy didn’t have time to think it through because she’d become distracted by the ghost of a smile on Kate’s lips. God, Kate’s lips…It took every ounce of willpower Andy had to drag her eyes away.
“What’s going on here?” Andy couldn’t stand another second of talking about the weather and her tardiness.
“Sgt. Wyles, I’d like you to meet the newest civilian member of E-division. Dr. Morrison has just finished signing the papers with Superintendent Heath.” Finns did not sound impressed.
This didn’t make sense. None of this made any sense.
“Part time, but permanent,” Kate added. The sound of her voice made the clenched muscles in Andy’s abdomen tremble slightly. It had been so long since she’d heard that voice, the slightly mocking tone, so often at the edge of laughter. Kate wasn’t looking at Andy, though. She’d turned her body, angling it away. Andy couldn’t help but be thankful. Talking to her was so much easier when she didn’t have to see her face straight on: her pale skin, the light flecks of colour in her brown eyes.
But as Finns kept talking about Heath overriding Finns’s objections, a sudden thought hit Andy hard in the chest. Kate had moved on purpose, either because she found it just as hard to be this close or because she was trying to make it easier on Andy. Both answers threatened to undo her entirely and only Finns’s harsh voice brought her back.
“Sgt. Wyles, are you listening?”
“No,” she said honestly and tried very hard not to see Kate suppress a smile.
Finns sighed, muttering under his breath. He made sure Andy was looking him dead in the eye before he spoke again. “Dr. Morrison will be joining your team, replacing the Depot medic who has requested a transfer out. My objections have been overruled by Superintendent Heath.” Finns seemed to scrutinize Andy for any reaction to this announcement. But by this time, Andy was numb, barely able to process. “Do you have any concerns about this?”
Yes. “No,” Andy said quickly, ignoring the voice in her head.
A very long pause. Andy studied Kate in her peripheral vision, aware of every time she took in a breath or shifted her weight.
“Fine. You will have to put up with your current medic for the next two days as Dr. Morrison won’t be arriving until Monday morning. Do you have any questions?”
Yes. Is Kate coming back to me?
“No,” Andy said again.
Kate checked her cheap, black plastic watch. “I should get going, I’m almost late,” Kate said, addressing Finns. Andy felt rather than saw Kate pull in a breath as she turned toward Andy. “I’ll see you in a couple of days,” she said quietly, holding Andy’s eyes for a moment, then two, before she shifted her backpack again and walked away. Andy looked after her as she moved through the crowd, pushed open the glass doors, and disappeared into the fog.
“Sgt. Wyles, tell me now if this is going to be an issue,” Finns said, his voice strained. “I’ll fight Superintendent Heath on this decision. He seems to think you two are some sort of dream team.”
We were.
“But you are my priority, not Dr. Morrison. So I’ll ask you again. Is this going to be an issue?”
Andy looked him in the eye. “No. Can I have two minutes?”
Staff Sgt. Finns sighed. “I’ll be in my office.”
Andy barely waited for him to finish the short sentence before she followed Kate through the glass doors. She controlled her pace and fought the urge to look down at her chest where it felt like her heart was beating on the outside, not in. There, just around the building, Kate was looking down, searching through her backpack, the back of her neck exposed.
“Kate!”
Kate turned toward the sound of her voice, and Andy could see that look of relief again. And something else, something else that had always been there but Andy could never quite name. Whatever it was, it made Andy feel warm. Andy was standing in front of her now, in front of Kate. Kate. And she was at a complete loss.
“Can I drive you to work?”
An utterly inadequate question, of course, after fifty-three days apart. But Kate’s expression said she was still being cautious and Andy took the signal as a warning, warmth or not.
Kate smiled and held up a bicycle helmet which Andy had seen but not registered.
“Thanks, but I’ve got my bike. My therapist told me I had to start exercising.”
Kate was seeing a therapist. She was exercising. She was working at the ER and with the RCMP. She smiled at Andy like it was the most natural thing in the world. Andy collected every piece of evidence, still unsure exactly what she was investigating.
“I tried to convince her that back-to-back traumas counted as cardio, but she was having none of that.”
Andy heard the laughter in Kate’s voice and more than anything she wanted to be able to laugh with her or at the very least to hear her laugh again. But instead, the smile was fading on Kate’s lips, replaced by that same cautious look. And something else. Resolve, Andy decided.
“This isn’t how I planned this, Andy. I really didn’t mean for this to be an ambush,” Kate said softly. “I’ve been trying to call you since last weekend.” Andy watched her fidget. “I didn’t even know you were capable of turning your phone off for three days,” she said, her smile tentative this time.
Andy stood perfectly still, searching for something to say or ask or tell. Nothing came to mind. All of her attention was focused on a curl that had escaped from the twist at Kate’s neck and was brushing Kate’s jaw. God, she wanted to reach out and tuck that curl behind Kate’s ear, like she had a hundred times in the past. Kate checked her watch again, and Andy knew she had to say something.
“You’ll be up in Clearwater on Monday?” Andy said, her voice carrying none of its usual weight. It didn’t even sound like her.
“Yes, in the morning. Staff Sgt. Finns says I need to be on-site, is that right?”
Andy nodded, not quite able to believe she was having this casual, work place conversation with Kate, standing in the parking lot at Headquarters. “Check in at the main house, and they can radio up to camp for me.”
“Okay,” Kate said softly, keeping her eyes on Andy. That look had always twisted inside Andy, made her heart pound loudly in her chest. “I should really get going. I took all three weekend shifts from Craig so I could head up next week.”
“Then I’ll see you Monday.” Andy’s body warmed at the thought of knowing she’d see Kate again in less than seventy-two hours.
Kate smiled and settled the pack on her back before climbing on her bike. One last look at Andy, and then she pushed off and pedalled away. Andy watched Kate disappear into the fog, hearing the unseen traffic on the road and the muted conversations between invisible officers. Andy gave herself one last minute to look longingly, pathetically after her. For someone who had spent her whole life pursuing strength, Andy could not explain how she had fallen for someone who made her feel so incredibly, wonderfully weak. Andy took a quick, sharp breath, shook her head, and went back inside to try to convince her supervisor this was not going to be the disaster he so obviously feared.
It took a lot of convincing. Andy was distracted for the first half of their meeting, pacing Finns’ small office. She was still dissecting Kate’s words, Kate’s expressions, her motivations. In her head, Andy followed Kate from Headquarters to Vancouver East Hospital, worrying about her biking in the fog. She was considering calling the ER, thinking she could check in with the desk clerk to make sure Kate had arrived safely when Finns’s voice intruded abruptly.
“Enough, Wyles! Pull yourself together.”
Andy stopped in her tracks and took a moment to try to consider what Finns was seeing right now. It wasn’t pretty, that was for sure. Andy sat heavily in one of the chairs, clasped her hands together, breathed in slowly once, let it out slowly once. Control, control, control. “Sorry, sir.”
“Don’t be sorry, just focus. Tell me what’s going on with your Camp Depot. I’ve got a report to write for the COs. Thank God they can’t see you right now. They’re nervous enough as it is.”
This brought Andy up sharply. No matter what was going on with Kate, no matter how important, she couldn’t do anything about it right now. And this was a promise she’d made to Lincoln, so she had no choice but to honour it by giving it her undivided attention. “Okay, what do you need to know?”
“Start with the location. Any safety issues or concerns?”
Andy focused and gave Finns all the information he and the COs needed to know. Andy talked and Finns took notes, occasionally stopping to ask a question or clarify a point. After half an hour on the basics, Finns wanted to know about the cadets themselves.
“First impressions,” Finns said, when Andy objected that she’d barely spent any time with them. “What do you see?”
“They have a leader, Cadet Prewitt-Hayes, but my gut tells me someone else or possibly more than one person is influencing the group. They’re very in tune with each other, and from what the instructors are telling me they’ve been like that from the beginning. The death of their troop mate somehow cemented that bond.”
“Similar backgrounds?”
“Not at all,” Andy said. She’d wondered the same thing. “Foster kid, college kid, high school drop-out, varsity athlete, second career, small engine mechanic, farmer…”
Finns held up his hand. “I get the picture, thank you, Sgt. Wyles.”
Andy grinned. “They click, that’s clear. They look out for each other, they have the exact troop mentality of brotherhood and sisterhood that Depot works so hard to build and maintain. They should be the shining example of everything Depot tries to create in a troop.”
“But they’re not,” Finns said pointedly.
“They’re not because they’re hiding something, and, at this point, they will go to any lengths to maintain that secret.”
“Including the threat of having their contracts revoked,” Finns said, and Andy nodded. “I don’t get it, Wyles.”
“Lincoln was right. You have to see this troop in action. They read each other’s minds, it’s uncanny.” Andy was thinking of the troop as they made supper in the mess hall the night before. They seemed hyper aware of each other, even when joking around about making a meal. Andy had expected the stress of trying to keep a secret with that many people would result in every member looking out for the others, watching to see who would crack. But it was so unconscious with this group, Andy wasn’t sure they were even aware of it.
Finns eventually capped his pen and gathered his notes, lining them up neatly with his desk ledger. Andy checked her watch. Almost four o’clock. If she left now, she’d get back to the B&B before midnight, assuming the fog had dissipated.
“Okay, that’s good for now. Superintendent Heath himself will be up sometime the middle of next week for inspection. I’ll warn you now, whether you’re in his good books or not, he’s going to need to have something to take back to the COs.”
“He can take back anything he wants, but I’m not going to push the troop just so he has something to put in a report. The TO himself gave me the go ahead to run this thing as I see fit, so that’s what I’m going to do,” Andy insisted stubbornly.
Finns held up a hand. “You’re wasting your breath, Wyles. I’m merely pointing out that Superintendent Heath will want more than the basics and a tour of the camp next week. Lincoln trusts you’re on the right course and so do I.” Finns stopped and cleared his throat. “I also trust you will know when to call it quits if things start to head south. Either with the camp, the cadets, the instructors, Dr. Morrison, or yourself. I’m trusting you know when to call it a day.”
Finns held her gaze and Andy sat still, withstanding the scrutiny.
“Yes, sir.” She considered herself warned.
“Good, then go. Get back to camp.”
Before she was even at the stairs, Andy had her phone out, calling into her voicemail. Eleven voicemails, seventeen texts. Most of those were Jack, most of them today. She was almost back at the Yukon by the time she heard Kate’s message. Her voice was nervous, hardly like Kate at all.
“Hi, Andy, it’s me. It’s, uh, Monday. I’ve been trying to get in touch with you for a couple of days. Maybe you’re screening…” Andy heard Kate stop and take a breath, then plough on. “Anyway, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about. Well, of course there is, there’s about a hundred and sixty five thousand things I want to talk to you about, but one of them is time sensitive. So…I’m hoping you’ll call me. I’m at home tonight.” A long pause, nothing, then a click to end the message.
Andy replayed the message three times, sitting in the cold Yukon. She barely noticed. She was trying to decode Kate’s words, her tone, the glaring uncertainty in her voice. How could she be uncertain? How could Kate not understand Andy had ached for her every second she’d been gone? It suddenly seemed like a very good idea to start the engine of the truck, drive over to Van East and sort this out right now. Tell Kate she loved her, pull Kate into her arms and hold her, to protect her from anything hard or uncertain or painful.
No.
Andy glared out the windshield, her jaw tight, her shoulders strained. No. She’d run interference for Kate too many times. Andy had tried to coax, encourage, give space. She’d tried so hard to find the right words, and failing that, to not say anything at all. None of it had helped. In the end, she’d watched Kate turn in on herself. She’d become diminished and far away. Andy clenched the steering wheel with one hand, a flash of hot anger rising up from her stomach into her chest. She couldn’t help it as all the things she’d said and done wrong lined themselves up in her head. That was the uncertainty in Kate’s voice. Andy couldn’t stop herself from thinking she’d help put it there.
Andy recognized the feeling of being stuck, the mental loops of self-loathing and doubt. Then she remembered Finns’s words, the warning and the command to pull herself together. Turning the key in the ignition and setting the heater to high, Andy jammed her phone in the hands free unit and dialled her partner. Maybe it was time for some of Jack’s unending optimism.
*
Andy listened to the pounding of seventeen pairs of feet behind her, surprised at how little noise this many people could make in the forest. She was leading Troop 18 on an early morning run and the air was damp and cold, the kind that worms its way under your clothes and sits on your chest. Didn’t matter. Andy knew she would be warm in ten minutes as her bright green running jacket trapped the heat against her body. She was angling them up into the mountain, aiming for a look-out she’d found her first morning alone up at camp. The fog had eased off in the night, settling into a more typical December damp, but at least now the view was clear.
A muted yell reminded her Constable Zeb was pulling up the rear of the troop. Andy’s hand reflexively went to the radio strapped to her waist, her thumb flicking at the power button to make sure it was on. No code came through, so she figured Zeb was encouraging Cadet Petit to hustle it up the hill. It was Saturday morning, the cadets’ own time even out here at Camp Depot. So the sixteen troop members, including the plodding powerhouse Bertrand Petit, were on this run of their own volition. When Andy had shown up in the quad this morning and announced she was leading a run if anyone was interested, she wasn’t surprised when the entire troop had joined her in their matching navy blue jogging suits twenty minutes later.
As she ran, Andy considered her drive back from Vancouver the night before. She had arrived back at the main house just before midnight, as expected. She’d spent two hours on the phone with Jack while she was driving, listening to all the information he’d managed to dig up from his various sources.
Apparently Kate had asked to meet in Superintendent Heath’s office ten days ago. Heath’s appreciation for Kate saving his granddaughter’s life had included the promise of a position with E-division if she wanted it. Apparently she did. Andy tried to sort through that with Jack: arguing, listening, rationalizing. And in the end, she had to admit, hoping. It wasn’t a very comfortable place to be. As she drove the last few hours in silence, Andy wasn’t sure how long she could navigate the pitfalls of hope. Two more days, she reminded herself. Just two more days.
The clearing came into view, and Andy slowed her pace, listening to the troop behind her do the same. Foster and Awad had run right behind her the whole time, and she could tell they itched to go faster, to lengthen their strides until they were flying. They were runners—not joggers, not fitness buffs, not even simply athletes. Andy recognized two people whose bodies and minds were built to run, not unlike herself. They hadn’t broken rank, though, staying in line behind Andy as she kept an even, slow pace.
The last fifteen feet to the look-out had to be climbed with fingers wedged into wet rocks and toes mashed up against the smallest ledges. Andy went up easily and stood at the top, offering a hand if anyone needed it. Foster was next, and he climbed it easily too, his dark eyes revealing very little as he stood on the other side of the path, offering his own hand up to his troop mates. Andy stepped back, receiving the message loud and clear. If anyone was going to help the troop, it was going to be from within. As Andy watched various cadets reach out for the last boost over the rocky ledge, it confirmed for her everything she’d been thinking about this troop of cadets.
Andy took a sip of water from the bottle at her waist, holding it in her mouth until it was warm enough to swallow, hoping to avoid a stomach cramp on the way back to camp. She stood back and watched the cadets exploring the outlook. Angela Hellman, the varsity athlete from Ottawa, and Michael Awad were egging each other on in friendly tones, daring each other to climb up to the next outcrop while Hawke Foster silently and easily scaled the ledge.
A few cadets sat with their legs dangling over the edge. Petit’s massive frame dwarfed the young Newfie girl, Shandly. Between them was Jacob Frances, the fourth generation RCMP recruit. Andy surveyed him carefully, intent on watching those cadets who had yet to make an impression. Cadet Frances was one of these, and Andy found this curious. He was the oldest recruit at thirty, just a few years younger than Andy.
After reading his file, she’d expected the man to be cocky and very sure of his place among the troop. Both his age and his pedigree seemed to point him toward a leadership role within this group, but that didn’t seem to be the case. Andy studied him. His head was shaved, adding to the impression that he was very thin, though his broad shoulders made Andy think of someone lean and tough. But other than his build, Andy found him to be flat. He melded seamlessly into the background of this small troop. In fact, she couldn’t remember actually having made eye contact with the cadet. He was also one of the slower members of the troop, always at the back of the pack with Petit. Andy had to wonder if this was another show of the pack mentality. No cadet left behind.
The rest of the troop milled about in small groups, sitting and chatting, ribbing each other as only people who have spent an intense four months together can. Cadet Prewitt-Hayes stood off to the side, chatting with two other cadets, both from Ontario. Every now and then, the right mark would look up and scan the troop, accounting for each member. Zeb and Andy were included in this scan as if they couldn’t be trusted to not separate one cadet from the pack. Andy wasn’t stupid. She knew that tactic wouldn’t get her anywhere. But she was interested in shaking things up a little.
“Who’s up for a race on the way back down?” Andy called out to the cadets. “Losers make breakfast for the winners.”
Andy watched as they tested this suggestion, as if looking for the trap. They surveyed each other with quick eye movements.
“Petit better be on the losing team,” said Greg Shipman, the farm boy from Alberta. “He’s the only one who can cook.” The rest of the troop seemed to relax a little at these easy words. Andy guessed she had just found one of the main influences on the group. Not a leader, but a human litmus test, a mood indicator for the recruits.
“I’ll try to slow down, just for you guys,” Petit answered drily in his rough Quebecois accent.
“Constable Zeb, you take half the troop back down the path we came up on. I’ll take the other half on the rest of the loop.” Andy pushed the empty water bottle into her belt and turned her back. She was halfway down the steep, rocky outcrop before she heard anyone behind her. She knew it was Foster without having to look. That kid seemed to want to be constantly on the move.
At the bottom of the ledge, Andy watched the troop descend and divide themselves into two groups. It should have been a simple rough divide of people with some friendly teasing, talking smack across enemy lines. But they were strangely silent as they grouped themselves between Andy and Zeb. Almost grim and uncomfortable at being separated.
“I like my coffee black and my bacon crispy,” Andy called over to the other team, pretending she wasn’t scrutinizing and drawing conclusions about the troop’s every move. “Let’s go!”
Andy didn’t run full out, too aware of the varying levels of fitness of the eight recruits at her back as well as the uneven terrain. But it did feel good to let loose a little, to run instead of plod along in formation. Still, she could feel Foster breathing down her neck like he wanted to fly. Nearing the halfway mark back to camp, Andy looked over her shoulder and caught his eye.
“Take them in, Cadet Foster,” she said and moved to the side, giving him room to take the lead.
Andy saw the look of surprise in his eyes, but then he caught sight of the open path and surged ahead, leaving Andy and the rest of the troop to pick up their pace.
They were, in fact, the first group in, already cooling down in the quad when Zeb led the other eight, winded cadets out of the forest. Sure enough, Petit and Frances were trailing behind. Andy made a mental note to check out their physical requirement exam results. It wasn’t a team effort, and she was curious how Frances had scored on that. Maybe his role in the troop was to keep Bertrand Petit from falling too far behind.
The other instructors joined them for breakfast, the kitchen cabin slightly smoky from the overcooked bacon. It actually felt like camp, the troop’s earlier hesitation gone as they pushed at each other, demanding breakfast of the losing group. Only the medic, Melanie Stinson continued to look annoyed, picking at her scrambled eggs with evident distaste. Andy couldn’t wait to stick her on the first bus out of Kamloops on Monday morning.
Andy wrapped her fingers around the china cup of strong coffee and watched the cadets. Right now they seemed perfectly typical, no red flags, no cause for alarm. The losing group rolled their eyes as they served the winning cadets, Petit flipping bacon and sausage onto plates, Prewitt-Hayes with two jugs of juice refilling glasses, her usual look of intensity present even for this small job.
Andy turned to Sergeant Trokof, the only man still impeccable in his uniform on this Saturday morning. “What’s on the agenda today?”
“The cadets have been given the option of going into Kamloops, bus leaving here at one o’clock and leaving town again at nine. Anyone not on the bus will have to walk back, a good hour and a half run, I believe. Cadets have been warned they will be searched leaving and coming back again.”
Andy looked down the table at the other instructors. “I was talking to Kurtz and Tara last night, and they’re saying we should take turns getting a night off from camp. One of us can stay down at the main house, get fed and have a good night’s sleep. Any takers for tonight?”
“If they have a bath, I will say yes to that,” Les said, happily biting down on a triangle of toast.
“A bath and a hot tub,” Andy said.
“And no kids?”
“Not one.”
“Cheers,” Les said, holding up her coffee mug before taking a sip.
The instructors watched as the medic pushed back her plate and left the camp kitchen without a word.
“Did you talk to the TO about finding a replacement?” Constable Meyers said in his quiet, assured voice. “Ms. Stinson says she’s more of a city person. She’s unhappy being in the middle of nowhere.”
Andy swallowed a hot sip of coffee before answering. “She won’t have long to wait. Dr. Kate Morrison will be joining us Monday morning.”
This name clearly meant nothing to the men in the group, though Andy caught an openly surprised look from Les Manitou. Andy let the awkwardness twist in her stomach so it wouldn’t have to show on her face. At least she liked Les.
“I take it she will be an improvement on our disgruntled medic, then?” Trokof said.
“Definitely. Any bets on who’s going into town today?” she said, quietly enough that the troop wouldn’t hear.
“All of them,” Zeb and Les said together.
Of course, Andy thought to herself, as the instructors gave each other knowing looks. Of course it would be all of them. Andy took another sip of coffee, letting the conversation angle off on another tangent. She wished Kate was here right now, so that they could pass each other significant looks. Kate could just read her mind as she’d done so many times before, knowing the trajectory of her thoughts without having to say anything out loud. Andy wondered if that could possibly have changed in the last few months, wondered if anything had changed. Or everything. That thought was impossible, and Andy swallowed it with the last dregs of hot coffee. Impossible.