With only five minutes to spare, Millar and Grant walked into the high school gymnasium. There were three sets of wresting mats set up, and around a hundred or so people, a mix of students and parents. Grant was immediately hit by the smell of teens and pre-teens who should be using deodorant on a regular basis, but obviously weren’t. Millar looked around the room. He recognized Tina’s coach standing next to the closest set of mats.
‘I want you to go ask around and see if there are any kids here from Sir Wilfrid Laurier,’ Millar said to Grant. ‘I’m going to watch my daughter’s match.’
‘Your daughter wrestles, sir?’ Grant asked as Millar was walking away. Millar ignored him. ‘Right, I’ll just go question some people.’
‘Next up on mat one is Lauren Brown from St. Matthew’s against Tina Millar from Cairine Wilson. Christa Leduc from Hopewell High against Vanessa Rhymes from St. Peter’s on mat two and Jenna Peake from Cairine Wilson against Taylor Bodwell from Rideau High on mat three.’
Millar stood at the edge of the mat as the announcement ended. He watched Tina walk out to the centre of the mat, wearing her school colours. ‘Man, she looks mean when she isn’t wearing her wig,’ Millar thought. Tina was born with alopecia, a medical condition where a person loses their hair. She was initially diagnosed when she was eight years old. At first she only lost small patches of hair, but the condition kept getting worse. By the time she was ten, she was almost completely bald and had lost her eye lashes and brows. At that point, she started wearing wigs, but she was still bullied at school. That’s when she started wrestling—her guidance counselor thought it would be good for her self esteem. Millar thought it was a good idea, and not just because it built character. It could also come in handy if the bullying turned into fights. Sometimes he still thought more like a cop than a dad. Tina really took to wrestling. She was only fifteen, but she was already almost six feet tall and around a hundred and eighty-five pounds, so she had a bit of an unfair advantage. At that age, the girls were competing in age groups, not weight classes. Some coaches refused to let their girls compete against her, and other girls were too scared to fight. Something about the no eyebrows and bald head made Tina look really mean.
On this day, the girl Tina was competing against was nearly seven inches shorter, and quite a bit smaller. There was definitely some trepidation in her eyes. As the girls got ready in the centre of the mat, the ref looked first at Tina, and then at her competitor, Lauren. The look in the ref’s eyes seemed to be asking Lauren if she was sure she wanted to wrestle. Lauren just stared at Tina.
The ref blew her whistle, and, almost as quickly as it started, the match was over. Tina had pinned Lauren in under a minute.
As Tina got up from the mat to accept her coach’s high-five, she saw Millar, smiling as only a proud father could smile. She couldn’t help but smile back as she bounded over to him and gave him a hug.
‘I’m surprised you made it! I didn’t think you’d be able to pull yourself away from work,’ Tina said, wiping a bit of sweat from her forehead. Without any hair or eyebrows to stop it, sweat had a tendency to drip into her eyes.
‘I told you I would be here. Great match! She didn’t have a chance,’ Millar said. ‘Many more matches today?’
‘At least two, and then it depends on if I win or not,’ Tina said. ‘The first one shouldn’t be too bad. I beat her two meets ago, but I don’t know the other girl. I think I’ll try to watch her next match and check her out.’
‘Anyone here from Sir Wilfrid Laurier?’ Millar asked.
‘Don’t know. Why?’ Tina asked, suddenly suspicious.
‘Just curious.’ Millar saw Grant walking towards them and turned his attention back to Tina. ‘Do you know a Mae Wong? She wrestles for them in your age group.’
‘Maybe, not sure.’ Tina’s guard went up as Grant arrived. ‘You bring back-up?’
‘T, this is Constable Grant,’ Millar said. ‘Constable Grant, this is my daughter, Tina.’
‘Nice to meet you,’ Grant said, holding out his hand, a little taken aback by her appearance. Tina ignored his attempt at a handshake. ‘Um, doesn’t seem like Sir Wilfrid entered anyone in the meet, sir. A few people do know Mae, though.’
Tina took a big step backwards and stared at Millar. ‘You can’t be serious. You came here to work. And here I was thinking you were actually being a caring father!’ Tina was furious. ‘I have to go get ready for my next match. You are unbelievable, you know that?’
‘T!’ Millar called out, but Tina was already walking away. ‘Well, that went well. Alright, we might as well go,’ he said to Grant. They walked towards the exit, Millar turning around occasionally, hoping Tina would at least look over at him. She never did.
‘What next, sir?’ Grant asked as they opened the gymnasium doors and stepped out into the fresh outdoor air.
‘Well, now we go back to headquarters. I’ll get you to do a check on Mr. Wong, see if he has a past at all. Also, look up his daughter and see what you can find out on her.’ As Millar spoke, Grant took notes. ‘I’m going to touch base with Detective Penner, see what our bus driver had to say. Oh, and see if the Coroner found anything else.’
‘Right,’ Grant said putting his notebook back in his pocket. As he was getting into the car, Millar’s phone rang.
‘Excuse me,’ Millar said to Grant. He looked at the number calling—it was his publicist. ‘Hi Jeff, how’s it going?’ Millar walked away from the car.
‘I’m well, and you?’
‘Busy, working a case. What’s up?’
‘I’ve got a speaking engagement for you if you want it, pays good. Sounds like it should be a good crowd, too. Could be a good opportunity to sell some more books.’
‘Sounds good. Where and when?’ Millar asked.
‘Well, it’s actually tomorrow night. In Toronto.’
‘What?! That’s kind of short notice, don’t you think?’ Millar wasn’t too surprised. Jeff seemed to drop things like this on him all the time. ‘I assume you’ve already looked into travel for me?’
‘Of course. You can fly out tomorrow at noon. The conference starts at five, ends at eight. After mingling and what-not, you can either fly back and be home by midnight, or there’s another flight at two the next afternoon, your call.’
Toronto was too good a market to turn down. It seemed to be the centre of the police community in Ontario. There were a lot of municipalities within driving distance, and all the major Canadian cities had flights that flew in and out on a daily basis. It wouldn’t make sense to turn down the gig, even if it was last minute.
‘Fine. Book me the flight out, I’ll decide tomorrow when I’m going to come home. I have to clear it with my Captain.’
‘Consider it done. I’ll email you all the details.’
‘Great, thanks. Next time, a bit more notice, okay? Thanks, Jeff.’ Millar hung up the phone and went back to the car.
‘Everything okay, sir?’ Grant asked.
‘Everything’s fine. Just have to figure out how to tell the Captain I need a day off,’ Millar said. ‘How are you at writing reports?’