Dan Sharp Mysteries 4-Book Bundle (76 page)

The first engine arrived on the scene at 1:19 a.m., along with a quickly swelling crowd of young people, thanks to a series of cellular and text messages sent by the teenagers to their friends in anticipation of a little excitement prior to making the emergency call. The fire department arrived to discover a blaze spreading much faster than normal. It was the first indication an arsonist was at work.

There was no question of gaining entry into the building. The north wall began to collapse within minutes of the fire department’s arrival. Additional fire fighting units were quickly dispatched and neighbouring stations roused to help in the battle. The delay in designating the fire as being serious was one of the complications that contributed to the extent of the damage. It was nearly 6:00 a.m. before the blaze was sufficiently under control and a suggestion to evacuate the vicinity no longer considered necessary. By then the warehouse and three neighbouring buildings had been destroyed.

By afternoon the following day, forensics investigators were able to conclude that at least one life had been lost. The body was so thoroughly incinerated that they were unable to make even a cursory guess as to the age or sex of the victim. A number of beer bottles and cans were subsequently found in the area where the fire was believed to have started, so the initial suspicion of a rave that got out of hand was still being considered. According to the property owners, the building had been unoccupied pending renovation. In the rush to get the premises ready, a low-cost decorating company was hired to strip and paint all the interior walls. Large quantities of paint strippers, thinners, and turpentine had been imported for the job, which was to have begun Monday, leaving the place filled with a considerable amount of incendiary material.

The question of insurance fraud was considered unlikely since the owners had been doing well with long-term rentals. The investigators leaned toward a decision of accidental combustion, partly as a result of numerous reports of teenage intruders partying on the grounds. Unknown to the public, and unreported in the press till many weeks later, a disagreement erupted between the members of the investigating committee on whether to classify the blaze as arson or accident. The death made it tricky, as this put the onus on the building’s owners to prove that every precaution had been taken to prevent trespassers from entering the premises.

The possibility of an arsonist-at-large quickly spread fear in the surrounding neighbourhood, where several of the city’s notorious garage fires had occurred earlier in the summer. The worry was that the arsonist had been using the garages for practice till he got his technique down, and was now en route to bigger and brighter things.

None of this would particularly have interested Dan, except for a midnight phone call from Germ suggesting the fire might be of importance to the Bélanger case. Once again Dan high-tailed it over to Germ’s bunker.

“It was an alternate site,” Germ explained. “We almost didn’t set this one up. It was a last-minute thing. Velvet Blue decided it was worthwhile, so there you are. No one showed up on camera before, but two days ago Little Boy Blue entered the premises.”

“Wait a minute! Are you telling me that Little Boy Blue was at that warehouse?”

“Dude, that’s what I’m saying.”

Dan thought back. Two days ago was when he had discovered Gaetan Bélanger at the abandoned retirement home. If Bélanger had wanted to find an alternate site to hide, he would have chosen his alter-ego to make an appearance. That way, if anyone saw him, it would be easy to back out with no one the wiser as to his true identity.

Germ showed Dan the tape. He watched as the boy in a cap and blazer approached with a knapsack on his back. It was Gaetan Bélanger. He was talking on a cellphone and looking over his shoulder. Then he simply turned the corner and went inside, disappearing from the screen.

“Do me a favour,” Dan told him. “I want you to check all your cameras in the vicinity and see if you can find him on the same site the day of the fire. Then I want you to look for a police officer or anyone who even looks like a cop checking out the warehouse any time before that.”

Germ gave him a look. “As long as you’re not in a rush. That could be hours of recordings.”

“Take your time. This needs to be done right.”

Dan was in his car, traffic whizzing by. He got on the phone to Ed Burch.

“Another late-night call,” Ed said. “Should I be worried?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, I’ve been meaning to call you anyway.”

“I beat you to it. Not with the best news, I’m afraid.”

“Hit me.”

Dan drew a breath. “Do you know about the fire at the empty warehouse south of St. Clair?”

“Possible arson, yeah, I’ve been hearing about it. Someone died, I heard.”

“Yeah. Someone did.”

Dan let the pause sink in.

Ed caught his tone. “Do you think you know who it was?”

“Maybe,” Dan said. “I don’t think we’re going to like what we find out about the victim.”

Ed’s voice was cautious. “Are you thinking it might have something to do with Gaetan Bélanger?”

“It’s my guess it does.”

“Why?”

“Ask a leading question …”

He proceeded to tell Ed about his confrontation at the retirement home and the break-in at Germ’s studio.

Ed took a deep breath. “You should have told me sooner, Daniel.”

Dan heard the worry in his voice.

“Ed, it wasn’t my break-in to report.”

“I’m not talking about the break-in.” There was an edge to his voice. “I don’t like this. Argue what you will, this is a murder investigation. You had a duty to disclose what you know.”

“I still don’t know anything for sure.”

“I’ll let that go for now, but if you’re right then this is another murder. You’re getting in way too deep here. How can you even be sure that Pfeiffer was behind the break-in at your source’s studio?”

“Again, there’s no proof, Ed, but he was following me around and getting antsy about not having contact with my sources.”

“But that still doesn’t mean it was him.”

“Not in itself. But consider that what Pfeiffer wanted was access to tapes showing the possible hideout of Gaetan Bélanger. Then consider that he destroyed the tapes. Two days later, a fatal fire breaks out in one of the locations targeted by the cameras set up courtesy of my source. To my mind, there’s only one way that adds up. Pfeiffer has to be behind it.”

Ed was thinking this one over. “You’re right. There are too many coincidences there for me to swallow,” he said at last.

“That’s what I thought. Question is, what do we do about it now?”

Ed’s voice was gloomy. “I’ll have to call the chief about this. Sit tight. Chances are you’re going to receive a call in the next couple of hours, if I can wake anybody up. I’ll try to keep you out of this as much as I can, but I know they’re not going to like it.”

“Do what you can, Ed. I trust you.”

“I hope you don’t regret saying that, Danny.”

When Dan arrived home he reluctantly woke Trevor. His boyfriend sat up and blinked at the light, elf-like, a boy awakened on Christmas morning.

Trevor’s face fell as Dan explained what had been happening. “What can we expect?”

“At the very least I’m going to get a rap on the knuckles for withholding information.”

“And at worst?”

Dan sighed. “Things could get difficult.”

Trevor nodded. “Is this the point where you tell me to start worrying?”

“I doubt it will help,” Dan said. “But this is the point where I would normally decide to have a very strong drink.”

“I could probably use one, too. Do you think Ked would mind?”

“Not this time. Get dressed and meet me in the kitchen.”

Twenty-Six

Three Blind Mice

Dan’s phone rang a little past 4:00 a.m. It was Ed calling to tell him to be at police headquarters in an hour. When he finished the call, Dan saw Trevor watching him with worried eyes.

“Don’t worry. Everything’s all right.”

“Should I come with you?”

“No point. I could be there a long time and I doubt they’d allow you in with me.”

A thin drizzle began to pelt his car windows when he drove off. August’s heat had given way to September’s cool wet. This time, when he arrived Dan was ushered directly to the chief’s office. The room was stark, austere — red trim, plain cabinetry — unlike the cushy showroom of the previous month. Inside were the chief, Detective Danes, and Ed Burch. Constable Pfeiffer, Dan noted, was absent. That was good news then. He assumed they wanted to hear Dan’s accusations before confronting Pfeiffer.

A sober-looking chief of police glanced up mid-sentence. Danes indicated a seat for Dan on the far side of the table.

The chief turned to the recorder. “Please note that Mr. Daniel Sharp has joined us. The time is 5:21 a.m.”

Dan watched the chief sift listlessly through a couple of files on the table before continuing.

“The body is that of a Caucasian male. Probable age range from sixteen to twenty-four. That’s all we know for now, apart from certain physical evidence found at the scene indicating a possible identity …”

He paused and looked over at Detective Danes, a grim set to his face. “Anything?”

“We’re trying to track down the dental records.”

“Nothing on file with the Quebec police?” the chief asked. He wiped his eyes with his hand. He looked tired.

“No, sir. They wouldn’t have his dental records,” Danes offered reluctantly, as though unwilling to contradict his boss.

“Oh, of course. Excuse me, Karl. I’m not thinking straight.”

The chief continued to look through his report. Time ticked by. Dan glanced across the table at Ed, whose eyes shifted to Dan and then away. Something wasn’t adding up here. It took a lot for his ex-boss to be made uncomfortable by what went on around him.

The chief looked at Dan. His eyes took him in, assessed him quickly then retreated to his files. The Grim Reaper double-checking a certain date in his appointment book, rendered in a clear, hard script.

“Thank you for coming in, Dan. Ed called a few hours ago to update me on some of your activities in the past week. I understand you had some contact with the murder suspect Gaetan Bélanger.”

“I can’t say for sure that it was …”

The chief put up a hand and looked directly at him. “I want clear answers here. If you don’t cooperate, I’m ready to charge you with obstructing justice at the very least, and maybe with aiding and abetting a homicide.”

He paused to let this sink in.

Ed coughed. “Please just answer the chief’s questions, Daniel.”

Dan felt ambushed. Too late, he understood Ed’s discomfort. “I was in touch with someone I believe may have been Gaetan Bélanger.”

The chief looked up wearily. “When?”

“Wednesday evening, between five and six.”

“From our point of view, it would have been helpful if you had come to us with this information earlier, but that isn’t important now. What I’d like to know is what you were doing there.”

“First off,” Dan said, “I want to make clear that I came across Gaetan — if it was Gaetan — by accident.”

The chief’s eyes narrowed.

“I was searching for someone else, but I won’t go into that now.”

He described his confrontation with the teenage killer.

“Was this at the site of last night’s fire?”

“No,” Dan said. He gave the address of the retirement home.

The chief made a note and gave an order to send men over to the site.

“Clearly, I spooked him,” Dan continued. “He’d be very unlikely to return there once his identity was blown.”

“You couldn’t know that for sure. You’re guessing …”

“It was a likely conclusion, but yes, I guessed.”

“And you think he ended up at” — the chief looked down to check his records — “at this other address, whatever it was.”

“Thirty-two Symes Road, sir,” Danes put in.

“Thirty-two Symes Road. Thank you, Karl.” He looked at Dan again. “How did you know to look for him at this location?”

Dan shook his head. “I didn’t know. As I said,
I was looking for someone else.”

“All right, all right.” The chief shook his head impatiently. The colour in his cheeks said he was about to blow a fuse. “Whoever it was you were looking for …”

“My source had a CCTV set up there.”

The chief’s eyebrows crawled up his forehead like caterpillars. Just then a knock came at the door. A junior officer entered and handed the chief another file.
He looked at it briefly and set it aside.

“Thank you, Constable.”

“Sir.”

The junior officer left.

Dan’s impatience was getting the better of him. “What have you learned about the fire? It was arson, wasn’t it?”

The chief shot an angry glance at him. “I realize we asked your assistance on this case, but I’m sure you understand there are things we can’t reveal to you. Certain people we have under investigation, for instance.”

“And others you’re protecting for their co-
operation.”

The chief’s face was a stone. Whatever target Dan’s comment may have hit, he was too practised to give anything away.

“That’s not at issue here.”

Dan returned his stare. “It might be. One of my sources had an unwelcome visitor the night before last. That visitor wore a mask. He forced my source to divulge information about his camera set-ups.”

A desk lamp reflected in the chief’s glasses. An acetylene glare. Blankness had taken over his features.

“An unidentifiable intruder made your source divulge information relating to the case? Is that what you’re saying? Information we asked for your assistance in obtaining, but which you refused to offer?”

Dan clenched his teeth. “He forced my source to show him footage of several derelict buildings, including the warehouse, in the days prior to the fire. My belief is that the intruder was a police officer. I think it was Pfeiffer. Whether or not he was acting under official orders during any of this is impossible to guess.”

Ed looked stricken. “Daniel, do you realize what you’re saying?”

“Of course I do, Ed. Someone got to my sources and now a fire kills a suspect in a murder investigation in a location pinpointed by my sources. But it’s not me who should be telling you this. Why don’t you ask Pfeiffer?”