Penner and Grant walked into the small law office and were greeted by a smiling receptionist.
‘Good morning,’ the young woman said brightly, looking up from her computer. ‘Welcome to Smithers Law. How can I help you?’
‘Good morning, I’m Detective Penner, this is Constable Grant,’ Penner said, showing her badge. ‘We’d like to talk to your boss if we could. Amanda, I believe?’
‘Oh, okay, no problem. One second.’ The receptionist picked up the phone and dialed 8. ‘Amanda, there are two police officers here to see you. Okay, will do.’ She hung up the phone. ‘Come on back, I’ll bring you to her office.’
‘Thanks. And you are?’ Grant asked.
‘Jenny. Jenny Foisy,’ the receptionist said, getting up from her desk. Penner and Grant followed her into the back of the office. Two desks faced each other in an open area where two women were working. The older of the two was on the phone, the younger on her computer. There were also three closed offices around the perimeter of the room. Jenny led them to one of the doors and knocked twice before opening it. ‘Amanda, this is Detective Penner and Constable Grant.’ She turned to walk back to her desk.
‘Thanks, Jenny,’ Amanda said. ‘Can we get you something, coffee, tea, water?’ she asked Penner and Grant as Jenny paused at the door.
‘Coffee would be great. Just black thanks,’ Penner said.
‘Nothing for me, thanks,’ Grant said. Jenny walked away.
‘Please, have a seat.’ Amanda motioned towards two uncomfortable looking chairs. ‘What can I do for you, Detective?’
‘We want to ask you a few questions about Karen Wong. I believe you all went out last night for a bit of a party?’ Penner said taking a seat. Grant decided to stand. Based on the face Penner made when she sat down, it was probably a good decision.
‘We did. I’m actually kind of surprised that she didn’t come in this morning, but I figured she was just sleeping in. It was a bit of a late night,’ Amanda said. ‘Is everything okay?’
‘What time did you see her last?’ Penner asked, ignoring her question.
‘I think it was sometime before midnight. My husband came to pick me up. I had to be in the office early this morning for a meeting with some new clients. I think Karen, Dave and Jane were going to grab a coffee before heading home,’ Amanda said as Jenny came in with a tray of coffee cups. ‘Thanks, Jenny.’
‘Jenny, what time did you leave last night?’ Penner asked, taking a cup of coffee.
‘Around 10:30. I had to get home to walk my dog so I left early. New puppy who likes to chew up my couch if I’m out too long without walking him. Why?’ Jenny asked, offering a coffee to Grant. He decided to have one after all.
‘I’m afraid we have some bad news. Karen was found dead last night,’ Penner said. Grant paid close attention to their reactions. Jenny dropped the tray.
‘Oh my God! What happened? She was fine when I last saw her,’ Amanda said, visibly upset.
‘We’re still investigating, so I can’t give you too many details, I’m afraid,’ Penner said. ‘So, you said Jane and Dave were going to have a coffee with her after you left. Are they here today?’
‘They are. I can’t believe this!’ Amanda said, passing Jenny a tissue. Jenny was now sitting in the second chair, holding her face as tears streamed down her cheeks.
‘Do you mind if we use your office for ten minutes to talk to them? Maybe fifteen? I’d like to talk to them separately,’ Penner said, finishing her coffee. Grant had barely taken a sip of his.
‘Of course. Jenny, can you go and get Dave and Jane please?’ Amanda asked. Jenny didn’t react. ‘Jenny,’ she said again, giving Jenny a little shake.
‘What? Oh, right. Sorry,’ Jenny said, sniffing. ‘No problem.’ Jenny got up and left the room.
‘She was really close to Karen. Actually, they were more like sisters than co-workers,’ Amanda said, picking up the tray and putting it on her desk. ‘This is going to be really hard on her. On all of us really. We’re a tight knit team.’
Jenny came back in to the office, still sniffing, followed by a tall, rather chubby, balding man and a slender young woman. Jenny grabbed the tray off the desk. ‘Any more coffee?’ she asked between tears. Penner thought about asking for another, but decided against it. Jenny left the room.
‘If you need anything, I’ll be out here with her. I still can’t believe this.’ Amanda followed Jenny out of the office, closing the door behind her.
‘Please, have a seat,’ Penner said to Dave and Jane.
‘What’s going on?’ Jane asked. ‘Why is Jenny crying?’
‘So, last night, the two of you went for a coffee with Karen around midnight? Is that right?’ Penner asked.
Jane looked over at Dave with a concerned look on her face. ‘Um, yeah. We had a dinner that went a bit late and then we stopped at the coffee shop around the corner.’ Jane looked down at the table when she spoke.
‘Are you sure?’ Penner asked. Jane didn’t look up.
‘Well,’ Jane paused. She shifted in her seat. Penner looked at Dave. He wouldn’t make eye-contact, either.
‘Did you not go for a coffee?’ Penner asked. Grant pulled out his notebook, ready to take notes.
‘We were going to,’ Jane started. ‘But…’ Dave shot her a look. Jane looked down again.
‘What happened? Why didn’t you end up going for a coffee?’ Penner asked. Both Jane and Dave stayed quiet. ‘Alright. Constable Grant, take Dave to one of the other offices. I want to talk to Jane alone.’ Grant went to open the door.
‘Look, if we tell you what happened, you can’t mention it to anyone, alright?’ Dave said, obviously nervous.
‘Go on,’ Penner said.
‘Well, just before midnight, quarter to or so, it was just Karen, Jane and me. Everyone else had called it a night. We were going to go over to the coffee shop, but then Karen changed her mind and decided to just go home,’ Dave said. Jane was still looking down.
‘Why?’ Penner asked.
‘I think she felt uncomfortable,’ Dave said.
‘Uncomfortable? Why would she feel uncomfortable?’ Grant asked.
‘Well, Jane and I,’ Dave started slowly. ‘Jane and I started. Kissing’
‘Ah, right.’ Penner said. Grant was writing in his notebook.
‘We were probably being a bit more affectionate than was necessary in public, so Karen said she was just going to head home,’ Dave said. ‘You can’t let Amanda know. Office romances aren’t allowed. We could end up losing our jobs.’
‘Don’t worry. If we don’t need to mention it, we won’t. So, what time did Karen end up leaving? How was she going to get home?’ Penner asked.
‘I think it was just after midnight, maybe? Around there anyways. I think she was going to try and catch a cab so she was going to walk up to Slater Street. There’s a taxi stand there. What’s going on?’ Dave asked, looking back and forth between Penner and Grant.
‘Karen was found dead last night. Seems like you two may have been the last ones to see her,’ Penner said matter-of-factly. The news seemed to really upset Jane. Dave seemed more nervous than concerned.
‘That’s awful!’ Jane cried. ‘What happened?’
‘We aren’t too sure right now,’ Penner hedged. ‘So, when Karen left, what did you two do?’
‘We went for a walk down by the river. Probably stayed there until one in the morning, I think. Then Dave walked me home,’ Jane said. ‘Did she have a heart attack or something? She was so young and she seemed so healthy. That’s crazy!’
‘No, unfortunately it wasn’t a natural death,’ Penner said. ‘Did anyone see the two of you after Karen left?’
‘Not natural? You mean she was killed? Who would want to hurt Karen?’ Dave asked. Grant wasn’t sure his reaction was genuine.
‘That’s what we’re trying to figure out,’ Penner said, looking at Dave. ‘Do you mind taking off your blazer and rolling up your shirt sleeves?’
‘What? Why?’ Dave asked.
‘I’d like to see if you have any marks on your arms. If you don’t mind, it would really help,’ Penner said.
‘Wait, you don’t think I had anything to do with this do you?’ Dave protested. ‘I was with Jane! Karen left to get a taxi!’
‘Well, if you had nothing to do with it, you won’t mind showing us your arms, right?’ Penner said. ‘We just need to clear you as a suspect. As I said, you were one of the last people to see her, so, if you don’t mind…’ She gestured at his forearms.
‘I can’t believe this!’ Dave said, standing up. He slipped off his jacket, putting it on the back of his chair.
‘Can you roll up your sleeves, please?’ Penner asked. Grant moved a bit closer to get a better look, as Dave did as he was asked. Penner leaned in to examine his forearms. ‘Turn your arms over, please.’ Dave did so reluctantly. There didn’t seem to be any marks. ‘Thank you. Right, I think that’s it for now,’ Penner said, standing up. ‘Please don’t leave town. We may have some more questions for you. Constable?’
Grant followed Penner out of the office. Amanda was still trying to console Jenny.
‘Thank you for your time. We’ll be in touch,’ Penner said. She passed Amanda a card. ‘This is a good grief counsellor. It could be good to have her come in to talk to you all.’
‘Thanks, I’ll give her a call,’ said Amanda, putting the card in her pocket. She still seemed dazed. Grant and Penner let themselves out of the building.
‘So, that was interesting,’ Grant said as they were getting into the car. ‘Do you believe them?’
‘I think so,’ said Penner. ‘But they both looked like they were trying to hide something more than an office romance. Can you check them out when we get back to the office?’
‘Not a problem,’ Grant said, writing himself a reminder in his notebook. ‘So, any other leads we need to run down?’
‘Well, I think we should find out if anyone at the taxi stand remembers seeing Mrs. Wong. No point in going now—the midnight cabbies wouldn’t be there yet. Feel like coming along tonight to do some more interviews? Say around eleven, or so?’ Penner asked, pulling out of the parking lot.
‘That would be fantastic! Thank you!’ Grant said excitedly.
‘Perfect,’ Penner said. Her eyes lit up as she saw a familiar neon sign. ‘I don’t know about you, but I need a coffee.’
Penner dropped Grant off at the precinct before heading home to get some rest. She didn’t have anything she needed to do—all of her paperwork was filed. Left on his own, Grant decided he would spend a little time doing a background search on Mrs. Wong’s co-workers before heading home. It was still early, and he was too excited to sleep. He couldn’t believe he was helping out with an actual murder case. Since he didn’t have a designated office of his own where he could work, he went to the open lab that the patrol officers used. Luckily there was a computer free. He didn’t feel like going all the way up to the third floor to use one of the ones there.
‘Right,’ he said to himself, pulling out his notebook. ‘Start with Mary Johnson, the one who left.’ He entered her name into the system. It came back with two possible hits for the name. He looked at the dates of birth and decided the right one was the second entry—the first was too young, based on the info they had been given. ‘Hmm, a couple of speeding tickets and a bunch of unpaid parking tickets.’ He made a note in his book. Other than that, nothing of interest. He checked Amanda, the boss, then Jenny and Jane. Nothing too interesting. Jane apparently had a noise complaint filed against her two years ago, but nothing had come from it. ‘Now for Dave.’ Grant typed in his name as another officer came in.
‘Almost done, give me five minutes?’ Grant couldn’t place the officer, but there had been a lot of new hires lately.
‘No problem. Care for a coffee? I got some brewing in the kitchen.’
‘Please. Just black,’ Grant said, turning back to the computer. ‘Well, well, well, this is interesting,’ he said, making some notes in his notebook. He clicked on a link and did another search. ‘Well, Dave, I think we may need to have another talk at some point.’ He logged off the computer and went to grab his coffee.
When he got to the kitchen, the officer he had seen in the lab had already left. There was a cup of coffee sitting on the counter, which Grant figured was poured for him. He picked it up and took a sip as his Sergeant walked in, looking around.
‘You drinking my coffee, Grant?’
‘This was yours?’ Grant said, surprised. ‘Sorry, sir, I thought it was poured out for me. Let me get you another cup.’ He scrambled to get a clean mug out of the cupboard. He filled the mug with coffee and gave it to his Sergeant. ‘Here you go, sir. Sorry, sir.’ He couldn’t believe he had drank his boss’s coffee. ‘Not a good move when I need to ask permission to keep working with Detective Penner tonight,’ he thought.
‘Thanks, Grant. No harm done. So, how’d the day go with the detective?’
‘It was great, sir. It was interesting to see her style in questioning people. She has a different style than I do. She knows when to be soft and compassionate, and when to be tough.’
‘Glad to hear it. Hopefully you can take some of what you saw and use it to your advantage.’
‘I think I can, sir,’ Grant said, taking a sip of his coffee. ‘Actually, sir, I need to ask you something. Detective Penner asked if I would be interested in going out with her again tonight to question some more people for the case. Looks like the victim, Mrs. Wong, may have tried to take a taxi home, so she wants to see if anyone saw her at the taxi stand.’
‘Something you want to do?’
‘Yes, sir, if I could. I think it would be good to get more experience with her, if I can. I mean, if it’s okay with you, of course. I know I have my normal patrol to do, but…’
‘Yeah, I don’t see a problem with it. If one of the Brass are interested in having you tag along, take advantage of it. It won’t happen every day.’
‘Thank you, sir. I really appreciate it.’ Grant finished his coffee.
‘No problem. Let me know tomorrow during roll-call how it went.’
Tina was late getting home that night. She’d had wrestling practice after school and then she had gone to her friend Katie’s for dinner. She and Katie were working on a project for their Social Studies class and had decided to try and tie in criminal profiling, but it wasn’t as easy as they had thought it would be. Tina had a pretty good idea how it worked. She had read all of her dad’s books over the years, and had even gone to some of his conferences with him when she was younger. She understood all the theories. The problem was trying to relate the concepts back to the main subject of the project. They only had a couple of days left to hand in their paper, so Tina had told Katie she’d ask her dad for his opinion. Hopefully he would have some ideas they could use.
Dropping her coat and bag at the door, Tina walked into the kitchen, turned on the light and called out for her dad. The rest of the house was dark, but taped to the fridge was a note:
‘Hey T, hope you had a great day at school. I had to go to Toronto for work. There’s food in the fridge and here is $20 for pizza, if you want. Great job at the tournament! I am very proud of you! Sorry I missed you today. Love you! Dad.’
‘Working again! Typical,’ Tina slammed her hand against the fridge. She grabbed the twenty-dollar bill from under the magnet, letting the note from her Dad float to the floor. ‘Work always comes before me. He’s such a bastard!’ She turned off the kitchen lights and stormed out of the house.