Chapter 1
"Honey, I'm home." Andy McNally stepped across the threshold of her small efficiency apartment. Her cat Banjo, the apartment's only other occupant, stepped out from around the corner to greet her. She bent down and picked up her jerky cat, kicking the door closed with her foot before walking in to the kitchen.
It had been a long day and Andy was exceedingly glad to be home. She gave Banjo a kiss on the head and then put him down on the kitchen floor. After filling his bowl with food she opened up the refrigerator and grabbed an ice-cold beer.
Sam had once told her to be careful about "putting on the uniform to get away from life - that it makes it harder and harder to take it off". He was right.
It had been three months since Sam had left for God-knows-where on his UC operation. His absence left a gaping hole in her heart and she filled it the only way she knew how…work, work and more work.
Today had been especially rough; Andy and Chris' first call of the morning was out at Grange Park. A concerned citizen reported a man dumping trash in the wooded area bordering Beverley Street. That "trash" ended up being the man's seven year old son.
Andy opened her beer and took a big chug, trying to block the image of the child's beaten and broken body from her mind. She walked over to the couch and sat down, placing her half-empty beer bottle on the coffee table in front of her.
How could a father do such a things to his own son? Heck, how the hell could any human being do that to another human being, regardless of relation? Andy kept juggling these questions around in her mind, unable to come up with any answer that gave her peace. She knew that she needed to let it go, but that was easier said than done, especially with a child involved.
Suddenly, there was a loud knock at the door which caused Andy to jump. "What the heck!" she yelled reflexively; she was definitely in no mood for visitors. She reluctantly got up and walked over to the door.
"Who is it?" She spit out, unable to temper the annoyance in her voice.
"McNally" the voice on the other side of the door responded in a clipped tone, "it's Detective Boyd. Please let me in."
"Detective Boyd?" Andy said incredulously. She'd sooner expect a visit from Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny than Detective Donovan Boyd!
"Yes McNally, it's Boyd. Open the damn door." He paused a moment before adding an obligatory "please" to the end of his request.
She opened the door to find Detective Boyd leaning against the doorway with his eyes fixed towards the street as though he were looking for – or rather looking out – for someone or something. He stepped inside hastily without waiting for invitation.
"Oh, do please come in Detective" Andy said sarcastically, shutting the door behind them. Boyd made no response but turned back towards the door and locked it before proceeding to the couch and taking a seat. He picked up Andy's beer and downed the rest is a single swig before finally looking over in Andy's direction.
Andy was preparing to lay into Boyd for being such a rude ass, but stopped short when she caught sight of the expression on his face. Something was wrong…seriously wrong.
Andy walked over to the small arm-chair positioned adjacent to the couch and took a seat. "What the hell is going on Boyd? Why are you here?"
"McNally, I need your help."
She heard the words, but couldn't make sense of them. Was this some sort of joke? Maybe she had fallen asleep and this was a dream?
"Excuse me?" she asked. "You need my help? Does this have anything to do with Sam? Is Sam okay?" her voice becoming more and more panicked with each question.
"Settle down McNally. Sam is okay. But the situation has become…more complicated…we need to send in backup before things go south." Boyd said. "I wouldn't be coming to you if I didn't think that it was absolutely necessary."
Andy was at a loss for words. More complicated? What's that suppose to mean?
"Does Best know you're here?"
"No, not yet." Boyd stood up and started pacing nervously. "But my boss should be calling him any time now to fill him in on the situation."
"Will you please fill me in on the situation? You're driving me crazy! What's this all about?" Andy was quickly losing patience with Boyd erratic behavior.
He stopped pacing and stood directly in front of Andy, pulling an iPhone out of his front jacket pocket. He tapped the screen and after a moment passed the phone to her; on the screen was a photo of Sam with another man dark-haired man, standing beside a black 4-door sedan.
Boyd pointed to the photo on the phone and said, "That was taken three days ago outside the Sky Dragon Chinese Restaurant on the corner of Spadina and Dundas." He used his index finger to swipe the screen, moving on to a second photo taken the same day. "The man in the photo with Sam is Jacob Westcott. Do you know the name?"
Andy nodded her head in the affirmative. Jacob Westcott was a big-time money launder with ties to just about every organized gang in North America.
"I thought he went legit?" She asked.
"Yeah, well…he did, for awhile." Boyd held out his hand to take the phone back from Andy, then after a couple seconds he handed it back with a new photo displayed.
The image in front of her was truly disturbing. It showed a woman and three children lying dead on the floor. There was a tremendous amount of blood everywhere. From what she could tell, the children were likely killed execution-style with a single bullet to the forehead. The woman…her death was not so quick. Judging by the extensive bruising to her face, wrists and ankles, she was likely tied up and tortured. Her clothes where badly ripped and she had deep lacerations on her arms, hands and torso.
Andy looked away from the picture and up at Boyd, not yet able to make sense of the situation.
"That was Jacob Westcott's family. They were killed eight months ago."
"Oh" was the only response Andy could make.
"After that, Westcott fell off the grid. There was a lot of chatter on the street that he was back in the game, so a joint task force with US authorities was created to start monitoring Westcott's activities. We suspected that Westcott was up to something big but he's always been real good at covering his tracks. Eventually a decision was make to send in a UC officer to get close to Westcott and gather the necessary intel to take him down. That's were Sam came in."
"Any idea who killed his family?"
"We think that it was Russell Bride." Boyd snatched back his phone and pulled up another photo; this one was a mug shot of Bride.
"Russell Bride was the CEO of TempCorp, one of the many companies used by Westcott back in the day to launder money. Westcott was actually well known in the community as both an excellent business man and generous philanthropist. All of his businesses did well in their own right. He'd have a small group of senior executives within each company who were in on his dirty dealing, but otherwise the operations were completely legitimate. Bride on the other hand was careless and greedy. He decided that he wanted a bigger piece of the pie - started making side-deals and such. Then one day, an anonymous tip was called in to a police precinct out in Mississauga. The caller provided the street address of a residential home out in Rattray Park Estates; coppers head out to find the home completely empty except for a briefcase sitting in one of bedroom closets. The briefcase contained copies of financial documents, emails, letter and photos that were eventually used to convict Bride of money laundering and racketeering. He was sentenced to twenty years but was released after serving only seven when his conviction was overturned. That was nine months ago."
"Overturned?"
"Yes. Judiciary misconduct. The judge had owned stock in TempCorp and lost a significant amount of money when the scandal went public - he should have recused himself from the case."
"So you're saying that Westcott was the one who ratted Bride out, and then Bride retaliated by killing Westcott's entire family?"
"Yes, that's what we think."
"So what's Westcott's end-game now? Revenge?"
"That's certainly part of it." Boyd suddenly looked very exhausted. He walked back over to the couch and sat down. After about two full minutes of silence, Boyd continued. "Westcott doesn't appear content to simply take his revenge on Bride. We think that he's targeting the crime syndicates that he had dealings with in the past….looking to turn them on each other to start some sort of damn gang apocalypse. We definitely didn't see that coming."
"What makes you say that?"
"Sam. He's gotten in pretty tight with Westcott. Westcott has started to confide in Sam…started getting him involved."
The thought of Sam mixed up in this convoluted mess make Andy feel physically ill.
"The more Westcott brings Sam out into the open, the more likely he is to be made. We've already had a couple close calls. Besides that, if Westcott's plan actually works, it's going to be impossible to keep Sam out of harm's way."
"Why is Westcott doing this? I mean, I understand why he'd go after Bride, but why start a gang war."
"Best guess…he's creating a diversion." Boyd could tell by the look on Andy's face that she didn't understand. "Westcott is well-connected and well-trusted amongst the various crime families and gangs he's affiliated with. Let's say a full-scale gang war breaks out…who's really going to be worried about Westcott? No one, because they'd never suspect that he'd cross them. And once the dust settles…what if he turns up missing, along with millions of their dollars? The murder of Westcott's family was well publicized; they're likely to assume that Bride got to him and finished what he started. By the time they realized what really happened…if they ever realize what really happened…one or more of the gangs would have hunted Bride down to try to get back their money. Bride would be dead and Westcott would be long gone. Westcott gets his revenge and the money. He gets himself a new life somewhere never to be heard from again."
"You don't have enough to take him down now?"
"Unfortunately not. Sam has uncovered plenty of evidence that Westcott has resumed his money laundering operation, but nothing that ties back directly to Westcott."
Andy was trying very hard to process all of this information. She knew for sure that Boyd was hiding something important. It was clear based on his demeanor that he was personally involved with this case in some way. There were many more questions that she wanted to ask but at that moment, there was only one question that she needed answered. "Boyd…why me?"
Boyd gave her a weak smile and said, "Because Sam trusts you more than anyone else in the world…and I trust Sam. Besides, this isn't going to be easy and I know that you'd stop at nothing to bring Sammy home safe."
He was right.