CHAPTER 2
The next morning, Fraser was standing to attention outside the Consulate building with Diefenbaker at his heels. As usual, he'd maintained his position despite the efforts of a small child who'd spent several minutes poking and prodding him as his mother talked to her friend. He'd also managed to remain stoic as two teenage girls stood right in front of him and engaged in some rather risqué conversation detailing certain thoughts that his presence was causing them. He still had eleven minutes and thirty five seconds left until the end of his shift when he heard the voice of his superior officer, Inspector Meg Thatcher as she emerged from the Consulate. "Fraser, Detective Vecchio is on the telephone for you," she called out to him. Fraser didn't move or respond in any way. "Fraser!" Meg raised her voice slightly. "Telephone call for you." Still nothing from Fraser. Meg tutted and walked round to stand directly in front of him. He continued to stare directly ahead. "Fraser!" Meg was getting really annoyed now. She glanced at her watch and sighed. "OK, I realise you still have ten minutes left, but Vecchio said it was urgent, so under the circumstances, I'll allow you to finish early."
Fraser blinked deeply and looked her in the eye at last. "Thank you kindly Sir," he said and immediately turned and ran back into the Consulate with Dief running ahead. He found Constable Turnbull sat at the front desk, holding the telephone receiver in his outstretched hand. "Thank you Turnbull" he said, taking the telephone from his colleague and glancing over his shoulder as Inspector Thatcher walked back into her office. "Good morning Ray," he began, but before Fraser could say anything else, Ray spoke.
"Ya remember the, er, the baby from yesterday," Ray said, urgently.
"Well of course Ray," replied Fraser, rather puzzled, "I'm not likely to forget."
"Yeah, yeah I know," Ray interrupted him, "the dad was Jacob Dantzig?"
"Yes Ray," Fraser confirmed, suddenly concerned, "known to his family as Jake. Why do you ask?"
"Coz, er, there's an arrest warrant out on him," sighed Ray, "thought ya might wanna know."
"What?" Fraser exclaimed. He couldn't quite believe his ears. "On what charge?"
"Homicide," replied Ray and he heard his partner take a sharp breath. "There was someone floatin' in one of the pools at that water park where he works this mornin'. Welsh sent Huey and Dewy to pick him up from his apartment, until the, er, the cops from the suburban PD can come and take him off our hands."
"Thank you kindly Ray, I'll be right there," he added and handed the telephone back to Turnbull. "Um, I'm afraid I have to go out," Fraser said to his perplexed colleague, "Please inform the Inspector that I'll be at the Twenty Seventh Precinct if she needs to contact me." With that, he and Diefenbaker ran all the way from the Consulate to the station.
xXx
Ray led his partner into the room adjacent to Interview Room 2 so that they could watch through the two way mirror. Ray shook his head at the sight of Huey and Dewey clearly attempting the tried and tested 'good cop, bad cop' routine on their extremely nervous prisoner. "Welsh said to bring him in and wait for the suburban guys to get here. Not our investigation. I dunno who those two clowns think they are?"
"Ray, Detectives Huey and Dewy are both competent officers of the law, as they've proved on numerous occasions," Fraser pointed out. He stared through the glass, still not quite able to believe that the proud new father he met last night was capable of murder.
"Well buddy, I never even met the guy, but he sure as hell don't look like a murderer to me," Ray shook his head.
"Ray, appearances can be deceiving," Fraser pointed out.
"C'mon buddy," replied Ray, heading towards the door, "let's get in there. This don't feel right at all." Fraser couldn't help but agree with his partner's instincts yet again and followed him out of the room. Ray knocked on the door of the interview room and walked straight in. "Welsh is on the warpath," he announced, "you guy's had better disappear until he's cooled off."
Dewey and Huey looked at each other. They knew they weren't meant to be interviewing the suspect and they really didn't want to deal with Lieutenant Welsh if he was mad with them. "C'mon Jack," said Dewey, "let's get outta here."
Jack Huey nodded. "Thanks man," he said to Ray, as he walked past him and followed his partner out of the room. As soon as they'd left, Fraser walked in and closed the door behind him, choosing to ignore his partner's blatant lying at this juncture.
"Constable Fraser!" exclaimed a surprised Jake Dantzig. "You have to help me. I don't understand what's going on? They said I killed Linda Maguire."
"Who was Linda Maguire?" asked Fraser, sitting down on the chair vacated by Jack Huey.
"She was the company accountant at Super Splash," explained Jake. "I fired her over two weeks ago. She was either defrauding us, or she was incredibly incompetent. I couldn't quite work out which."
"Is this what you were trying to tell me about last night?" Fraser asked.
Jake nodded. "It's been going on for months. Money was disappearing, but every time I confronted her about it she always had an excuse. A bill she'd forgotten to tell me about, or something like that. I knew she was lying to me. I even called the owner of the water park, Colin Dawson, but I couldn't get past his secretary. She made it quite clear he wasn't interested in the petty day to day runnings of his businesses, as she put it. I called the police in the end, but they weren't interested either. Can't really blame them, I had no proof at all. They really had no reason to investigate her."
"So in the end ya let her go," Ray clarified.
"Yes," replied Jake, "but then odd things started happening. Expensive equipment started going missing, there was a small fire in one of the changing rooms, other weird stuff too. So I called the police again and this time someone went round to her place and spoke to her, but she had an alibi for the whole time since I fired her, she went to Vegas with two of her friends. The next thing I know she's filed harassment charges against me? Police threw them out straight away of course, it was ridiculous."
"Then this morning she's found dead at the water park," Fraser scratched at his eyebrow with his left thumb as he spoke, "and as you have a previous grievance against this woman, you are the prime suspect."
"I guess so," shrugged Jake, "but I didn't kill her. Why would I even do that? I went straight home from the hospital last night. You have to tell them Constable, I've got a new baby, I'm not a violent man."
Fraser glanced at Ray. "I'll do what I can," he promised. "If you are innocent then the investigation will prove that." Ray sighed at Fraser's overwhelming belief in the justice system and wished he could be so sure. Just then the door to the interview room burst open.
"Vecchio!" thundered the voice of Lieutenant Welsh as he stormed in followed by a uniformed police officer. "My office now." He stopped and looked at Fraser. "You too Constable."
In Lieutenant Welsh's office Fraser and Ray listened to Detectives Chen and Turner from the other police station complaining to Welsh. "All we asked was that someone arrest him and hold him here until we arrived," Detective Chen had long dark hair tied back in a ponytail and she stood with her arms folded as she spoke.
"Ah, well now," began Welsh, "if Constable Fraser has reason to believe the man is innocent, then I'm afraid I've learnt over the years that it's best to listen to him."
"He is our suspect, this is out of your jurisdiction," Detective Turner said, waving his hands in the air in disgust.
"Almost everything falls outside of Fraser's jurisdiction," Welsh explained, "never normally stops him though."
Chen looked Fraser up and down admiringly, causing him some embarrassment. He was standing with his arms behind his back, but the attentions of the pretty female detective caused him to run one finger around his collar. "What exactly has a Mountie got to do with any of this?" asked the detective.
"Well, I first came to Chicago on the trail of the killers of my father..." began Fraser, but Ray was really bored of hearing his partner recite this explanation, so he jumped in and finished it for him.
"..and then he stayed." Ray rushed out. "Also he delivered the guy's baby yesterday."
"Baby?" exclaimed Welsh, Chen and Turner in unison.
"Yeah," continued Ray, "in a taxi."
"A taxi?" the three of them exclaimed again.
"Yes," confirmed Fraser, "Mrs Dantzig was unfortunately caught in the traffic situation yesterday morning, however I don't believe that has anything to with this homicide investigation."
"Look, Dantzig spent the evening with his wife and, er, new baby at the hospital and then went home," said Ray, who was perched on the corner of Welsh's desk.
"He has a past history with the victim," Detective Turner pointed out.
"He never made any violent threats towards her," said Ray, starting to get angry, "what kinda detective work do you guys do over there?"
"That's enough Vecchio," Welsh warned in a low, but firm voice, but before Ray could snap back a retort, the door opened and Francesca Vecchio walked in.
Welsh shook his head. "Miss Vecchio, please remember to knock..."
"I thought you might want to see this Harding," Francesca interrupted him, handing him a fax that had just arrived. Welsh scanned down the printout, ignoring her usual over familiarity. Francesca turned to go, smiled at Fraser and then noticed Detective Chen who was still ogling the Mountie. Francesca decided to make it perfectly clear to the female detective that she had seen him first, so she grabbed Fraser's arm and leaned in so that she was inches from his face. Fraser froze to the spot, he had absolutely no idea what she was going to do and he couldn't even bring himself to look her in the eye. "Hi Frase," she half whispered, with a quick glance over her shoulder. "Will I see you later?" she added.
"Um, yes," replied Fraser, turning his head slightly with a puzzled frown, as of course he didn't fully understand her inference. "I would imagine so, anyway." Francesca released her grip on him and walked out of the room with a sneering smile at Chen on her way past.
"Who was that?" asked the female detective with a disapproving sneer.
"Hey, she's my sister," snapped Ray, deciding that he really didn't like this woman, "what's, er, what's in the fax?" he asked Welsh.
"Our victim, Ms Maguire, is on her way here to spend a few hours with Mort," explained Welsh, trying to suppress a grin.
"Who's Mort?" asked a confused Detective Turner.
"Our, er, he's our, y'know..." began Ray.
"Mortician," prompted Fraser.
"Yeah, mortician," agreed Ray, adding under his breath, "thanks buddy."
"You're welcome," Fraser quickly replied, equally as quietly.
"We have our own mortician," Turner said, looking at Chen, who was just as perplexed.
"It seems that your Mr Grave has had an unfortunate accident with a cinnamon roll at breakfast this morning," explained Welsh, "he is an old friend of Mort's so he insisted that the body be transported here to the Twenty Seventh for the autopsy."
"May I suggest in that case that Mr Dantzig remain in custody here until the results of said autopsy are known?" suggested Fraser.
"Agreed," said Welsh.
"No!" exclaimed Chen.
"Wait a minute," said Ray, getting to his feet and addressing Turner, "hold on, go back a second. Your mortician is called Grave?"
"Well yours is called Mort," replied Turner, flatly.
Ray thought for a moment. "Oh yeah," he shrugged.
"You're not keeping our suspect," Chen insisted.
"Your Lieutenant, Frank Patrizi," Welsh began with a glint in his eye, "he owes me a favour. Ever since that incident at the Thanksgiving Day Parade in eighty-seven."
Detectives Chen and Turner knew they were beaten for now. Lieutenant Patrizi was a formidable man, but if Welsh had some hold over him then there was nothing they could do about it. "This isn't over," Chen snarled as she and her partner walked out of the office.
Fraser looked at Welsh and nodded in appreciation. Welsh got to his feet. "You'd better be right about this Constable," he said.
Fraser nodded again. "Understood."
"Now, get down to the morgue," Welsh instructed. Ray had been really hoping he wouldn't say that.
xXx
A short while later, in the morgue, Ray had taken up his usual position facing the door. He could hear Mort and Fraser humming a tune as they examined the body of Linda Maguire, probably from some opera or other that Ray had never heard of. Every now and then Fraser would stop humming and say "Ah," as he spotted something interesting.
"Are you sure you won't have a glass of champagne Detective?" Mort asked.
"Er, no," replied Ray shortly. The thought of drinking anything in this place with the stench of death and formaldehyde made Ray feel even more nauseous than he already was.
Fraser stopped for a moment and raised his eyebrows questioningly at Mort. "It's non alcoholic Fraser," smiled Mort.
Fraser laughed. "I thought so," he replied. "So, your initial thoughts?"
"Well," began Mort, "cause of death was most definitely cerebral hypoxia brought about by respiratory impairment following submersion." Fraser nodded in agreement.
"Huh?" asked Ray, screwing his face up.
"She drowned Ray," explained Fraser.
"No way," Ray exclaimed sarcastically as he threw his hands in the air in frustration. "She was found floatin' in a swimmin' pool Fraser. Big question is who pushed her in?"
"Hmmm," replied Fraser, "that certainly is a big question Ray, however, I'm inclined to rephrase the question, wouldn't you agree Mort?"
"Most definitely," agreed Mort. Ray almost forgot where he was for a moment and spun round to face his partner, but as he caught site of the body on the examination table he let out a loud groan and turned back half way so that he could still see Fraser, but couldn't quite see anything else. "Are you alright Detective?" enquired Mort.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm good, I'm greatness," replied Ray unconvincingly, "can one of ya please tell me what the hell you're talkin' about? What, er, what exactly is wrong with the way I asked the question?"
"The real question Ray, is was she pushed, or did she fall?" Fraser explained. "There is a large contusion on the victim's forehead," he continued, "and further evidence would suggest that she was unconscious before she hit the water."
"So she coulda hit her head, knocked herself out and fallen in by accident?" said a surprised Ray.
"Not necessarily Ray," replied Fraser, walking around to the other side of the table, "however...oh, wait a moment. Mort have you seen this?"
Mort quickly put his champagne glass down on the side and diverted his attention to where Fraser was examining the victim's left ankle. "Broken?" he enquired.
"In two places I would suggest," replied Fraser and Ray winced, "but the lack of swelling or bruising would indicate that this injury occurred only a few minutes before death."
Mort twisted the ankle carefully in several directions, an action that resulted in a slightly unpleasant crunching noise that made Ray feel faint. He turned back so that he was completely facing the door again. "I agree Fraser," agreed Mort.
"Time of death?" asked Ray hoping that focussing his mind on facts and figures would help clear his head.
"My best guess would be between midnight at two a.m." replied Mort.
"So, our victim was, for reasons as yet unknown, at the water park several hours after closing time," began Fraser, removing his examination gloves, "where she, for reasons as yet unknown, broke her ankle and fell, hitting her head and falling into the pool in an unconscious state where she succumbed to drowning."
"She coulda slipped if she was, y'know, walkin' around the place in the dark?" suggested Ray.
"Agreed," nodded Fraser. "Of course this is all theoretical at this juncture," he added, "but in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I would suggest that there is very little reason to keep Jake Dantzig here any longer."
"Greatness," grinned Ray and ran out of the door.
xXx
"As much as it pains me to say this, I agree with Constable Fraser," Assistant States Attourney Stella Kowalski stood with her arms folded across her chest in Lieutenant Welsh's office. "There is nothing here to build a case against this man. The CCTV from his apartment building shows him arriving home at around nine twenty last night and there is no sign of him leaving again."
Welsh scanned down Mort's report and nodded. "Cut him loose," he said to Ray. "I'll give our friends Chen and Turner the good news." He chuckled to himself, he could just imagine the look on Frank Patrizi's face and it filled him with a slightly misplaced sense of satisfaction.
"I need to go, I'm due in court in an hour," said Stella and headed towards the door.
"See ya Stell," Ray called after her.
"Not too soon though, I hope," replied Stella, sharply. Ray shrugged off her comment but Fraser could see that it hurt more than Ray was letting on. He couldn't understand why Ray continued to put himself through all that. He should have learnt by now that Stella's snide remarks were just her way of dealing with the pain that she felt every time she was forced to see her ex-husband during the course of her working day and the best course of action all round would be to stick to discussing cases, but Ray seemed to hold onto the hope that one day she would change. Fraser had a feeling that day was not going to come any time soon.
"Sir, if I may make a suggestion," Fraser began and Ray's mind snapped back to the case, "it would appear that criminal activity of some kind is taking place at Super Splash," Fraser continued, "a death has occurred, albeit we assume at this juncture that said demise was as a result of an accident, but that doesn't explain what the victim was doing at the location, or indeed how she was able to obtain access."
"True," agreed Welsh, "go on, what're you thinking Constable?"
"Well, Sir," said Fraser, rubbing his eyebrow with his thumb, "when we spoke earlier to Mr Dantzig, he advised that certain minor incidents had occurred during the last two weeks when Miss Maguire was in Las Vegas, thus disproving his initial assumption that she was the culprit."
"So there's still a perp there somewhere," agreed Ray, "who, er, I guess could have somethin' to do with why Mort has a new house guest."
"Indeed Ray," Fraser nodded, "it is rather too much of a coincidence. As much as I am convinced that her death was an accident, the circumstances leading up to the incident remain unclear."
"It has to be an inside job," stated Ray, catching on to his partner's train of thought. "So what've ya got in mind Fraser?"
"I was going to suggest Sir," Fraser began, addressing Lieutenant Welsh, "that Detective Vecchio and myself undertake a covert operation at Super Splash."
"You want to go undercover?" replied a slightly stunned Welsh.
"Yes Sir," Fraser nodded.
"But ya hate undercover," said Ray, equally as surprised.
"I don't hate it Ray," Fraser tried to explain, "but I admit I do find it challenging. However, I relish the challenge, particularly if it presents us with the opportunity to apprehend a criminal."
Welsh thought about Fraser's proposition for a moment. He recalled the Mountie's previous attempts at undercover work and realised that his most successful mission had been the time he'd disguised himself as a woman. Welsh wasn't exactly sure what that meant and he decided it was best not to think too deeply about it. "Alright," he said finally, "I'll clear it with Lieutenant Patrizi. You go and release Dantzig and set it up with him."
"Thank you kindly," nodded Fraser, appreciatively.
"You'll both be representing this precinct gentlemen," Welsh warned them, "do not screw this up, is that clear?"
