It was just before dinner when Millar and Grant got back to the precinct. The smell of fast food and microwaved dinners filled the lobby as they walked in, hitting Grant hard. His stomach gurgled loudly—Millar looked at him and raised an eyebrow. ‘Sir, if it’s okay with you, I’m going to grab a bite to eat before checking up on Mr. Wong’s background. I haven’t eaten since breakfast. I’m starving.’ He held his stomach as it continued to make noise.
‘Yeah, sounds like a plan. If your day is supposed to be done, just do it tomorrow,’ Millar said, checking his watch. ‘I’m going to be off for a couple of days, so whatever you find, just let Detective Penner know—she’ll keep me in the loop. Thanks for your help today.’
‘Perfect. Thanks, sir,’ Grant said. ‘Sir, if you don’t mind, I would like to work with you again at some point, try to learn more about profiling,’ he added hopefully.
‘I’ll keep that in mind. Have a good night, Constable.’ Millar walked towards his office. As he rounded the corner down the hall, he passed by the Captain’s office. ‘Guess I gotta bite the bullet,’ he thought, knocking on the door.
‘Yes,’ the Captain called from the other side of the door. Millar let himself in. ‘Ah, Terry, finally dropping off your reports, are ya?’
‘Um, not exactly, sir. Not yet. They’re almost done, just need to finish up a couple of things,’ Millar said. He hated doing paperwork. It was probably the worst part of the job, next to doing death notices. He hadn’t become a cop to sit in an office filling in forms. He’d joined to help people and get the worst of the worst off the streets. ‘Sir, I need to take the next couple of days off. I have an engagement out of town.’
‘How’s the latest case going? Getting anywhere?’ the Captain asked.
‘Nothing so far, sir. I interviewed the husband this morning but I don’t think he had anything to do with it. He seemed pretty shocked. Penner talked to the bus driver who was working that street, but I haven’t spoken with her yet about the interview. We’ll get there. It’s just going to take time.” Millar tried to think of anything else he could tell the Captain. “Oh, and Faye narrowed down the weapon to a couple of options, so we have a few things to look into.’
‘That’s good, at least it’s a start. When do you need off?’ the Captain asked, taking a sip of coffee.
‘The next two days, sir. Maybe three, so I can spend some time with my daughter. She’s pretty pissed at me right now,’ Millar said, thinking that was kind of an understatement.
‘Someone pissed at you? Hard to believe,’ the Captain said sarcastically. ‘Fine, no problem. Just get me those reports before you leave, okay?’
‘I’ll do what I can, sir. Thanks,’ Millar said, hastily leaving the office before the Captain changed his mind. Sitting down at his own desk, he eyed the stack of unfinished files sitting on the desk corner. ‘Crap,’ he thought, overwhelmed by the amount of work he had just promised to do. He grabbed the first file and opened it up, trying to find the motivation to actually work. He started reading the file, but his eyes just glossed over the words, not really making any sense of them. There was a knock at the door.
‘Penner! Perfect timing,’ Millar said, relieved to have a distraction.
‘Wow, actually doing paperwork? I’ll come back, don’t want to get in the way,’ Penner said.
‘Don’t even think about it.” Millar put down his pen and closed the file folder. “So, how’d things go for you today?’
‘Not bad. You hungry? I was thinking of getting a pizza or something,’ Penner said. ‘We can discuss the case and call it a work dinner.
‘Sounds much better than doing this. Let’s go.’ Millar put the file back on the pile. ‘I’m sure the Captain doesn’t really want these anytime too soon.’
‘Anything to drink?’ the waitress asked.
‘House white and a glass of water, please,’ said Penner.
‘Draft beer for me. A large one. Thanks,’ Millar said. The waitress smiled and walked away. ‘So, get anything from the bus driver?’
‘Not too much. He only noticed Ms. Wong around 12:50, not on his run before. Didn’t notice anything else out of the norm,’ Penner said, moving her purse to make room for the drinks that had just appeared.
‘Shouldn’t be too long for your pizza,’ the waitress said, walking away again.
‘You?’ Penner asked, taking a long sip of her wine. ‘Anyone at Ms. Wong’s place?’
‘Yeah, we talked with her husband. So, I guess we should start calling her Mrs. Wong. Seemed distraught, as you would expect. Constable Grant is going to do a background check on him tomorrow but I don’t think he’s involved. He looked genuinely surprised by the news. Had all the right reactions. His wife had been out with some co-workers for a going away party. Husband last heard from her around midnight, so that closes down our window to less than an hour. We’re going to want to talk to her friends tomorrow,’ Millar said. He took a mouthful of his beer. It was nice and cold, just what he needed. ‘Speaking of tomorrow, I have to leave town for two days. Then I’m taking a third day off to hang with Tina, if she’ll let me. Things didn’t go so great today.’
‘Did you miss her match?’ Penner asked as the waitress dropped off their pizza.
‘No, I made it, but I had Constable Grant with me, and we were kind of asking questions for the case, so she got mad thinking I was only there to work.’ Millar grabbed a slice of pizza. He sprinkled hot pepper flakes on it and took a bite.
‘Why would you have been working the case at a kids’ wrestling match?’ Penner asked.
‘Mrs. Wong’s daughter wrestles, so we were asking around to see what we could find out. Didn’t get much, just got Tina mad at me,’ Millar said, taking another bite. This one had a few too many chili flakes on it and he broke into a coughing fit. He grabbed his beer and took a quick sip.
‘When will you learn?’ Penner took a bite of pizza, just as her phone rang. Putting the slice down on her plate, she reached into her pocket for her phone and checked the number. ‘It’s Faye,’ she said to Millar. ‘Hey Faye, how’s it going?’
‘Tired, but not too bad. Not interrupting am I?’
‘No, just having a bite to eat with some boring company,’ Penner said. Millar stuck out his tongue. ‘So, how’d the rest of the autopsy go? Find anything interesting?’
‘Well, other than the head wound, there weren’t any major issues. There was the bruising on her elbows that Detective Millar noticed. I think that was caused by falling backwards, but I can’t tell if it happened before she was hit in the head or after.’
‘Any foreign hairs or fibers or anything?’ Penner took another sip of wine.
‘Nothing. I’m afraid there isn’t much to help you out. If you can find the weapon we can probably tie it to the attack, but that’s about it unfortunately.’
‘Great. I was hoping for more. Okay. Thanks, Faye,’ Penner said hanging up. ‘Well, not much to go on.’
‘Hopefully her friends can fill in some blanks.’ Millar drained his glass. ‘That tasted like another one. More wine?’ Millar signalled the waitress to bring another round.
It was after nine o’clock when Millar got home. He and Penner had decided to have a coffee and ice cream after dinner. Then, Penner decided to go back to the office to do some more paperwork before calling it a night. Millar thought about it for all of a second and decided that his files could wait until he was back in the office in a couple days. Three days off was a rarity for him these days and he was looking forward to it, even if two of those days were travelling and speaking. Conferences were a different type of work, much less stressful.
Millar noticed that the house was dark when he unlocked the door. He turned on the light in the foyer and took off his shoes. There was an empty place where Tina’s shoes should have been. And the house felt empty. ‘Probably still mad at me,’ Millar thought to himself. He wasn’t worried—quite often Tina would go out for dinner with her teammates after a day of matches. ‘Wonder how she ended up doing?’ He walked into the living room and checked the answering machine. One new message. He pressed play.
‘Hi Dad, I decided to go out for dinner with Christa and I’m just going to spend the night at her place. We have a project to work on for tomorrow. Um, sorry for getting pissy today. I was happy to see you, but I thought you were just there to work. Glad you made it. I ended up winning my age group and got another trophy for the shelf. Well, I’ll see you tomorrow after school, if you aren’t working too late. Bye.’
‘I don’t think I’ll ever get used to teenage girl emotions. At least she’s talking to me.’ Millar went upstairs to pack for his trip.