CHAPTER 4
"Is there anything else we can get him on?" Alison Malling was pouring over the Chester file and eating breakfast at her desk. She was really struggling to understand how Carol-Ann Chester was prepared to let her life continue this way. Her husband regularly beat her, sometimes causing serious injuries such as the deep gash that Helen had treated recently. Sometimes he tied her up and yelled at her, telling her that she was worthless and stupid. Then the next minute he would beg for her to forgive him and promise he was going to change. He'd buy her flowers and chocolates and blame all his troubles on money worries, or whatever other excuse he could think of. "Doesn't this just seem all wrong to you? We have a duty to protect someone here."
"Of course we do," agreed Fraser, "but Mr Chester is very good at playing the system unfortunately. I'm still waiting for a telephone call from his accountant though, perhaps something will come out of that."
"But I don't want to arrest him for fraud," Alison slammed her coffee mug down on her desk causing coffee to splash out.
"If we can hold him on fraud charges, at least overnight, then I'm confident that Carol-Ann will find the strength to come forward about everything else," said Fraser seriously. "You're getting through to her Constable, just keep doing what you're doing, you're saying all the right things."
"It doesn't feel like it," sighed Alison, "it feels like I should be saving her from all this and yet every time I have to walk away and leave her there with him. I told her she doesn't even have to press charges, she could just leave him and get as far away from here as possible, but it's like he's in her head and she's so terrified of him that it's easier for her to stay and get hurt again than cope with what might happen if she did left."
"You should speak with Stella Kowalski," Fraser suggested, "she has vast experience of successfully prosecuting perpetrators of domestic violence. She may be able to offer some advice, or perhaps she could speak with Mrs Chester in an unofficial capacity."
Alison nodded. "Thanks, I might do," she smiled, "she seems very focussed, hopefully she can tell me where I'm going wrong. I'm so grateful to her for taking Sarah riding this morning by the way, although your friend Ray didn't look quite as excited at the prospect as they did."
Fraser laughed. "Ray isn't really an animal person," he explained.
"Sarah hasn't stopped talking about Stella, she really likes her," continued Alison.
"I must say I'm pleased if somewhat surprised at their burgeoning friendship," admitted Fraser, "Ray is excellent around young people, he has a large family and I assumed he would be the one to entertain young Sarah the most."
"I think Sarah respects and admires her," explained Alison, "Stella is someone to look up to, she has a successful career, a loving fiancé and a good life. Everything that Sarah wants..." then her face fell before she added, "Everything I can't give her here."
Fraser looked at her with sympathy. "You know that's not true," he said.
Alison sighed. "Maybe, but it sure feels that way sometimes. You know, I think this is why the Chester case is getting to me so much. Carol-Ann has wasted nearly twenty five years of her life with that bastard. They never had children, he wouldn't let her earn her own money so she's done nothing with her life. Sarah has all this ambition and I'm holding her back by living here. There's some kind of weird guilt association thing going on in my head, I'm sure. Maybe if I can free Carol-Ann then she can still make something of herself, she's still young. Oh Fraser, I don't even know what I'm saying, I'm sorry...
Fraser frowned. He wasn't exactly sure what Alison was talking about, it wasn't making much sense to him. "The Chester case has nothing to do with your family circumstances." He narrowed his eyes as he spoke, something about the way Alison was talking was concerning him. He hadn't realised it before, but she was troubled.
Alison caught the look. They'd only been working together for a few months, but she knew Fraser's warning look by now. "I know, I know," she tried to smile, "don't get too personally involved. It's not easy Fraser."
Fraser shook his head. "No it isn't," he agreed. "If there's anything you wish to talk about..." he began, but then thought better of it. "Just...be careful, please." He urged.
xXx
"Jesus! It's doing it again!" exclaimed Ray Vecchio. "Stella! Sarah! Wait for me! I can't get this dumb horse to stop eating." Ray tugged at the reigns in his hands, but the horse steadfastly refused to give up his breakfast.
Stella and Sarah competently brought their own horses to a standstill and turned back to look at Ray, laughing at the sight of Ray's mount munching happily at some vegetation. "You're still not sitting right," Sarah called out to him, "and you're holding the reigns too tightly. He won't want to do anything for you like that."
Ray muttered something under his breath and tried to sit properly in the saddle like they'd shown him. Riding horses was stupid, he decided, he should have let the girls go for a ride on their own and hung around the station with Fraser, he thought to himself. Suddenly his ride decided that he'd had enough to eat and starting trotting to join the others. "Woah! Digby slow down!" Ray yelled as he held on for dear life as Sarah and Stella laughed. Fortunately Digby decided to stop as soon as he had caught up with his stablemates.
Sarah reached out and took hold of Digby's reigns, holding them together with her own horse's, just in case. "I made sure you had the gentlest horse," she said, still laughing at Ray's terrified face, "Digby's a darling," she stroked his mane, "he just doesn't understand what you want him to do. Would you like me to show you again?"
Ray grumbled his way through Sarah's quick lesson and he eventually got the idea, at least enough to make Digby stop and go when Ray wanted and not the other way around.
"How often do you get to do this?" asked Stella, shivering. The sun was out, but there was a light covering of snow on the ground and even though she was wearing several layers, the chill was still penetrating all of them.
"Not that much," replied Sarah with a sigh. "When Mum's working I usually go to a neighbour's house. I've been going there for years, I call her Granny, but she's not really my Granny. My grandparents are all dead. Anyway, she's too old now to take me riding, but Mum and I come up here sometimes." She looked at Stella with concern now. "Are you cold?" She asked and Stella shrugged. "You should wear a layer of fur, that's what Mum tells me anyway. I find that kinda creepy though. Wearing something that died I mean."
Stella smiled. "I agree with you. I understand that things are done differently up here and it's not cruel or inhumane in the same way as the commercial fur trade, but even so..."
"Perhaps we should be getting back?" suggested Sarah a little despondently.
"No I'm fine really," lied Stella. The last thing she wanted was to sit around the station any longer. She was really quite annoyed with her ex-husband for insisting Fraser go into work this weekend. She could see that whatever it was between him and Maggie was quite important though, but he could have dealt with it some other way so as not to screw up their visit, she thought to herself.
They spent all morning in the saddle. Sarah took them to some of her favourite places and even Stella began to appreciate the beauty of some of the more remote locations, even though she was getting colder by the minute.
Ray started to feel as though he'd never walk again, but he didn't want to admit it and he was pleased to see that his fiancé was enjoying herself. He wished he was spending time with his old friend though. As nice as Sarah was, this wasn't why he'd travelled all the way from Florida. He and Stella had made a good life for themselves and they'd built up their business to be very successful, but he couldn't deny that he really missed Police work and more importantly, he really missed working with Benny. The more time went on, the more he was able to put behind him all of things he'd dealt with while undercover as Armando Langoustini and the opportunity to run the bowling alley couldn't have come at a better time for him and had been the perfect distraction while he readjusted to life as himself, but now that the business was going so well he was starting to get restless. Stella had decided to return to practicing law, a decision he fully supported and while he couldn't really return to being a cop after being forced to retire on health grounds, he'd had this idea to maybe set himself up as a private investigator. He wanted to talk it through with Benny though and he hadn't had the opportunity to even mention it yet. He hoped they'd get more time together when Kowalski and Maggie were back.
xXx
"Mmmmm..." Maggie reacted to Ray's touch. He could reduce her to a quivering wreck with just a single touch.
"So ya are awake then?" smiled Ray as he caressed her bare skin.
"I am now," Maggie's eyes flickered open. "I haven't slept that well in a long time."
"Nor me," grinned Ray and he kissed her neck, just beneath her right ear where he knew she loved it. Maggie shuddered with delight again.
"Are you trying to seduce me again?" Maggie giggled.
"Hey, we're, er, already in bed, I think we're way past seducin'?" Ray placed a delicate row of kisses along her shoulder.
"I love you," Maggie breathed, "we should definitely do this more often."
"Sex ya mean?" Ray looked a little puzzled. "Well I'm all for that."
Maggie laughed. "I meant have romantic weekends away," she explained, "we both work too hard and I guess it affects us more than we realise." She sighed and shrugged Ray away as she sat up in the bed. Ray looked hurt and she smiled at him reassuringly. "You know, when we have a baby," she began, running her fingers through his hair, "we're going to have to make some changes. We can't work all the time like we do now."
Ray sat up too now and pulled her into a hug. "It's OK, I already thought about that," he said, nuzzling into her neck with some more kisses, "I'm gonna quit workin' and be a full time dad."
Maggie couldn't help smiling. "Ray you wouldn't last five minutes," she said, but then she caught Ray's crestfallen look as he released her from his arms and she felt guilty. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that," she said kissing the top of his head, "I have every faith in you, I know you'd give it everything and you'll be a great father, but what I mean is that you wouldn't be able to give up your career and I wouldn't want you to."
"Well ya can't quite bein' a Mountie?" said Ray, "ya just can't?"
"I don't want to," replied Maggie, "we'll work something out, I know we will."
"Yeah," agreed Ray, "so, um, I guess now we should get breakfast?"
"Are you hungry?" Maggie frowned. They'd cooked up a huge meal in the middle of the night when they'd finally managed to drag themselves out of the bed where they'd been all evening and she still felt quite full.
"Er, no," smiled Ray, "actually I was kinda hopin' we could..." his voice trailed off and he slithered down under the covers. Maggie squealed with pleasure.
xXx
Ray Vecchio knew something was wrong as soon as he walked back into the RCMP station. Benny's face gave it away. "Benny?" said Ray urgently as he peeled off layers of clothing. Benny just silently shook his head. Oh god this is bad, really bad, thought Ray, oh no, it's not his sister is it? Or Kowalski? Why are you just standing there like a statue Benny?
Fraser stood almost at attention and watched as Stella and Sarah took off their riding boots. His breathing was shallow and he deliberately avoided making eye contact with Ray. Sarah and Stella were chattering excitedly about horses and laughing as Sarah recounted how much trouble Ray's horse had given him...but Fraser wasn't listening.
Ray grabbed him by the arm. "Benny, what is it? What happened?" he whispered. Fraser still couldn't speak. He turned and looked Ray in the eye and that's when Ray knew and his blood ran cold...he recognised that look, it was the face you put on when...oh no...
"Sarah," Fraser finally broke his silence.
"Can I get some hot chocolate?" asked Sarah.
"No Sarah, I need to speak to you first," Fraser stopped and swallowed hard, adding softly, "it's important."
Sarah was about to complain, but Ray spoke now. "Come on, sit down," he urged, taking the young girl's hand and leading her to a chair. Now Stella was worried, the tone of Ray's voice was so serious. She glanced at her fiancé, but the look she got in return was agonising.
Sarah was bewildered. She could tell something was going on, but she had no idea what it was and she looked from Ray to Fraser for some kind of explanation, but got nothing. Ray silently crouched beside her chair and took hold of her hand and now Sarah began to get scared.
"Sarah," Fraser stood in front of her and began his well rehearsed speech. The speech that he used far too often and each time he used it he hoped he'd never have to use it again, but his hope had been crushed once more and this time it was in the worst possible way. "I'm so sorry to have to tell you this, but there's been an incident...a shooting...and I'm afraid your mother is dead."