Millar and Penner found themselves walking to the hospital’s cafeteria to get a cup coffee. Millar knew there was no way that he could go home, and Penner knew she couldn’t leave him alone. Millar grabbed a table as Penner went to the counter to pay.
‘Thought I’d find you here,’ Penner turned around to see Grant standing behind here with his own cup of coffee. ‘How’s he doing? Is it really his daughter?’ Grant asked, paying for all the coffees.
‘Afraid so,’ Penner said. ‘He’s doing about as well as can be expected, which isn’t very well at all. They just took Tina to surgery. It’s going to be several hours before she’s out.’
‘I saw Spicy—I mean, Constable Curry. Think his nose is broken,’ Grant said with a smile.
‘Lucky he’s still alive, really,’ Penner said as they walked together over to the table. Penner handed Millar his coffee.
‘Thanks,’ Millar said. ‘Grant,’ he added with a nod.
‘Sir,’ Grant said.
‘We’ve been through a lot, call me Millar,’ he offered a weak smile to Grant. ‘I guess everyone’s talking?’
‘They’re all just hoping for the best,’ Grant said. He took a sip of his coffee. He’s wasn’t sure what to say or how to act.
They sat around the cafeteria table in silence, barely aware of the hospital activity around them.
Three hours and five coffees later, Penner saw the Captain walk in. She nudged Millar’s arm. ‘Great, just what I need,’ Millar said under his breath.
The Captain pulled up a chair and sat down. He looked at the three of them. ‘How’s Tina doing?’
‘We haven’t heard yet, sir. She’s still in surgery,’ Penner answered.
‘Constable Grant, go to the admin desk and see if you can get an update,’ the Captain ordered.
‘Yes, sir.’ Grant pushed back his chair and stood up, taking his cue to leave.
The Captain turned to Penner first. ‘So, I had a talk with that reporter, Arden Wall.’ Penner sank in her seat a bit. ‘Seems like he tripped over a cable and fell, getting a black eye. Shame. He won’t look his best on the evening news for a while.’
‘Really?’ Penner said with relief. ‘Thank you, sir.’
‘We’ll discuss it further at a later date,’ the Captain said, turning to Millar. ‘And, I spoke with Constable Curry.’ Millar looked up. ‘He won’t tell me what happened to his nose, but I have a pretty good idea based on the gossip I’ve already been hearing. To be fair, I’m impressed you didn’t do anything worse.’
‘I wasn’t thinking clearly, sir. If I was, I would have done much worse and blamed it on stress,’ Millar replied.
‘Well, good that you weren’t thinking clearly then. That would’ve been the last thing you needed right now.’ The Captain paused before asking, ‘Have you had a chance to contact a lawyer for Tina?’
‘Yeah, he’ll be here once Tina’s out of surgery and ready to talk. No point in having him sit around here on the clock. It’s going to cost me enough as it is,’ Millar said.
‘We’re going to take this slow. I’ve already spoken with the Crown Attorney and explained the situation. I’m trying to convince him to charge her as a minor, but its going to be tough. Hopefully they go for it, that way she’d only be incarcerated until her eighteenth birthday. She’ll likely be committed to psychiatric care afterward to make sure she gets the mental help she needs, but then she should be back out by the time she’s thirty,’ the Captain said. ‘Otherwise, charged as an adult, it would be twenty-five years minimum before she was eligible for parole. I don’t think that’s best for her at all, but it’s not my call. The Crown is going to have to discuss it with the families. Getting four families on board is going to be really tough. Even if they agree, who knows if the judge will accept it.’ The Captain took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. ‘Whatever happens, it’s going to take time. You know how this works. I doubt the trial will even be for another year or so.’
Millar’s head was spinning. Even though Tina didn’t have a record, he couldn’t see how she would be charged as a minor. She had killed four people. Intentionally. With premeditation. A big part of him wanted to go. Just run as far as he could and forget this was even happening. At least give himself a week to clear his head, but he knew he couldn’t. He had to be there for Tina, no matter what happened. She was still his daughter and he had to protect her the best he could.
‘Thank you, sir. I hope this all works out for the best, but I have my doubts. I don’t even know what the best thing is anymore,’ Millar said. The Captain just lowered his eyes.
The silence was broken when Penner’s phone suddenly rang. ‘Sorry,’ she said as she looked at the number. ‘Penner. It’s done? And?’ There was a long pause as Penner looked over at Millar. ‘Really. Okay, thanks for letting me know.’ She hung up her phone and bit her lip, thinking about what she had just heard.
‘What’s going on?’ asked the Captain.
‘That was forensics. The DNA test of Millar’s hair came back as a match to the hair we found at the second murder scene,’ Penner said.
‘I wasn’t there—we’ve been through this—I was out of town,’ Millar said as the Captain stared at him. ‘Look, you know how much hair I lose on a regular basis. It must have fallen out during the autopsy. Ask Faye—it’s happened before.’
‘The hair was found at the scene, not at the autopsy. Besides, Constable Grant and I attended the autopsy—you were still out of town,’ Penner said, looking at the Captain, trying to read his thoughts.
‘It must have been on Tina’s clothes or something. Look!’ Millar pointed to the table. ‘There’s two of my hairs right there. It could have been stuck to Tina’s sweater and dropped off while she was carrying the body.’
The Captain seemed to be looking at a spot on the wall over Millar’s head. ‘How do we know you weren’t working together?’ he finally asked. ‘We haven’t been able to verify your whereabouts. You could have easily been there together…’
‘You have got to be kidding me!’ Millar stood up suddenly, his voice raised.
‘Sit down before I have Penner cuff you,’ the Captain said. Penner stood up, but she didn’t know what to do. Her hand went to the cuffs on her belt, but she hesitated.
‘Sir, this is absurd,’ Millar said more evenly, sitting back down. Penner moved around to stand behind him. ‘Tina and I barely talk. You think we would go out killing people for some daddy-daughter time? That makes no sense!’
‘Either way, until we talk to Tina and figure this all out, I am going to need your gun and your badge. I’m also going to want you to turn in your passport and stay in town,’ the Captain added. ‘Do it the easy way or I will get an arrest warrant. Unfortunately, there’s still enough evidence against you to build a case. Maybe you did the first three killings and Tina did the last one. I really don’t know. I have my doubts, but, well, I need to be sure.’
‘You have your doubts. Unbelievable,’ Millar said with a shake of his head. ‘Fine, whatever. Everything’s at home. I’ll turn them in first thing in the morning, once I figure out how Tina is.’
‘Good,’ the Captain seemed to have aged ten years in the last ten minutes. ‘We’ll get this figured out soon, Terry.’ Millar just stared at the table.
‘Sir,’ All three looked up at the sound of Grant’s voice. ‘Tina just came out of surgery, and she’s heading to recovery now.’ Grant approached the table, sensing the tension. ‘She should be awake enough to talk in an hour or so.’
Tina blinked several times, finally opening her eyes to see Millar sitting at the end of her bed. Behind him, a uniformed officer leaned against the door. Millar had asked the Captain if he could be alone in the room when Tina came around—he didn’t want her to panic at the sight of officers guarding her—this was going to be hard enough as it was. But, the Captain wouldn’t allow it. Millar was still under suspicion and if he let him be in the room alone with Tina when she came around, he might coach her on what to say. As a compromise, the Captain pulled all but one of the officers from her room.
‘Hi, Dad,’ Tina said, groggily. ‘I guess you know, huh?’
Millar didn’t know how he should act. As a father, he wanted to comfort her as much as he could, but he couldn’t get over what she had done. She had taken four lives. Left four families without mothers, wives, daughters, aunts. And for what? That’s what he still didn’t understand.
‘Why, T? I don’t get it,’ Millar finally said, trying not to cry.
‘You were always more interested in your cases than anything else,’ Tina said quietly, just above a whisper. She struggled to keep her eyes open. ‘I thought this way, you would finally be interested in something I was doing.’
Millar was taken aback by Tina’s revelation. He knew, thanks to the nature of his job, that he wasn’t always around. He knew it bothered Tina, but he had thought she understood how important his work was. And for that to be the reason she would kill? He couldn’t comprehend it.
‘I thought,’ Tina continued ‘I thought that you would have found it fun. Like when we used to play when I was a kid. I was leaving clues for you. They were pretty good, eh, Dad?’ Her eyes closed again and she fell back to sleep.
Millar stared at her. He was torn with emotions. On the one hand, she was still a child. His child. As he watched her chest gently rise and fall, he thought she looked so much smaller and frailer than he knew she was. Her bald head looked so delicate on the hospital pillow. On the other hand, she was a mass murderer. What was her life going to be like from now on? He knew she was going to have a really hard time in prison—a teenaged bald girl was definitely going to get picked on. And with her temper, she would get into fights, prolonging her sentence. No chance of getting out early for good behaviour. And what about his life? Could he actually return to being a cop? Would the other cops accept someone whose kid was a murderer? And what about his writing career? That was probably all but over now. As soon as word got out, no one would pay to listen to him talk. He watched Tina sleep, she looked so innocent, like the child he remembered, like he loved. For a split second, he thought of taking a pillow and smothering her.