CHAPTER 7

"She's heavily sedated, I'm not sure how much sense you're going to get out of her," Helen led Fraser and Maggie along the hospital corridor towards Carol-Ann Chester's room.

"Anything she can give us at this juncture might be helpful," Fraser pointed out.

Fraser acknowledged the security guard that Ray had posted outside the door and they slowly went in.

"Carol-Ann," Helen spoke softly at first and then a little louder. "Carol-Ann, are you awake? The Police would like to speak to you." She turned to Fraser and lowered her voice again. "I told her about Alison...and I told her about the pregnancy too, but I'm not sure she acknowledged that properly."

"Understood," replied Fraser. "Hello Mrs Chester," he spoke slowly and clearly. Carol-Ann was hooked up to various monitors and drips. She was being fed oxygen directly into her nose through a tube and she was barely conscious.

Carol-Ann turned her head slowly and tried to focus on Fraser, but it was clear that her foggy mind was having trouble. "Carol-Ann, it's Maggie," Maggie tried now, "Constable Mackenzie," she added, anything that might help.

Carol-Ann's face twitched into a smile. "Maggie," it came out in a croaky voice, "oh god..."

"It's alright," Maggie smiled, glancing at Helen. This wasn't going to be easy, they really needed her to be able to tell them what happened, but it was quite obvious that it wasn't going to be quite like that, not today anyway. "Can you remember what happened?" Maggie probed gently. "Take your time, anything you can remember."

Carol-Ann tried to swallow, but her mouth was dry. Fraser poured some water out of the jug that stood by her bedside into a plastic cup. He dropped a drinking straw into it and held it out so that Carol-Ann could sip slowly at the water. "Thanks," she whispered and Fraser placed the cup down again.

"We're so sorry that this has happened to you," Fraser said, "but our friend is...is dead and we need to know what happened. Why did Constable Malling come to see you yesterday, were you expecting her to visit?"

"I called her," Carol-Ann spoke slowly, "I needed to...I was going to...to tell her about the..." tears started to fall and she couldn't speak any more.

"Sshhh," Helen squeezed her hand and looked at Fraser. "Do you have to do this now?"

"Just a few more questions," replied Fraser. "Mrs Chester, did you get a good look at the gunman?"

The woman slowly shook her head, "I heard a crash and a shot and then...I don't really remember, my leg...Alison pushed me onto the floor, she fired her gun..." Carol-Ann tried to reach for the water again, but her she was too weak.

"Here," Fraser helped her to take a few more sips. "Did you hear voices? Shouting perhaps?"

Carol-Ann thought for a moment, "I don't know..." she closed her eyes. "Maybe...I'm not sure...I just remember seeing Alison...there was so much blood and...and...oh my god...my baby..." she became very upset now.

"OK, that's enough," Helen said determinedly, "sorry, you'll have to do this another time. I can't allow this."

Fraser nodded and Maggie hung her head in frustration. The two Mounties left Helen to see to her patient and left the room. Fraser closed the door behind them just as Ray walked round the corner. "Hey buddy," he half smiled. "Babe," he kissed Maggie, sad to see she was so down. "Jackie on the front desk said I'd find you guys here. Did ya get anythin' from the victim?"

Maggie shook her head despondently. "She's not really up to making a statement yet," she sighed.

"I'm not certain at this stage whether she could identify the shooter," added Fraser.

"OK, well this might be nothin'..." began Ray, then he looked at his subordinate who was still standing guard at the door. "Collins, I'll take over here, you go patrol the car park with Shaw. Keep your eyes open OK."

"Sure boss," Collins nodded respectfully and walked off. Fraser couldn't help but smile at the way Ray's staff responded so positively to him and respected his authority. Back in Chicago, the only person in authority Ray ever respected was Lieutenant Welsh. He'd been let down by authority figures more than once, particularly over the Botrelle case and he never really recovered from that. Fraser's unwavering trust and belief in authority couldn't have been more different, obviously he knew that there were always exceptions to every rule and trusting without question could be dangerous...suddenly a fleeting image of his former Inspector, Meg Thatcher, popped into his head and he shuddered. To this day, he still had no idea what had happened between the two of them.

"What have you got Ray?" Maggie asked.

"OK, I ran over the CCTV footage from the weekend," said Ray, excitedly shifting his weight from one foot to the other. "I always do if I haven't been here, yknow. So, early hours of this mornin', there's, er, some guy hangin' around by the main fire exit."

"Some guy? Could you be more specific?" Fraser queried.

"Yeah, sorry buddy, but I couldn't make out his exact height, weight, or Driver's Licence number from the grainy black and white pictures," Ray snapped, waving his hands in the air in exasperation.

"Sorry Ray, I didn't mean to suggest..." Fraser began to apologise, but Maggie interrupted him.

"This man was behaving suspiciously?" she asked.

"Yeah," Ray nodded, "now it coulda been some wino, or a, er, a junkie lookin' for a fix, but no one's ever gonna get in that way since I got all the locks changed after those kids kept gettin' in."

"May we see the footage?" asked Fraser.

"Sure buddy," Ray laughed and slapped him on the back affectionately. "Did ya think I was gonna keep it to myself?" He shook his head and mumbled, with a grin, "Freak."

xXx

"Come on Benny, surely you could tell if it was him from the shape of his nose or something?" Ray Vecchio had been listening to Fraser as he brought him up to date on the day's developments as they sat at the kitchen table.

"Does Derek Chester have particularly unusual facial features?" Fraser asked, somewhat horrified at the thought he may have missed something. He opened the file on the table in front of him and pulled out the photograph they'd been circulating of their only suspect.

Ray laughed. "I was kidding Benny," he said, snatching the photo from Fraser and replacing it in the file. Fraser frowned. "I know CCTV pictures can be pretty ropey sometimes. It's interesting what you were saying about his old business partner though."

"Indeed," agreed Fraser. He'd spoken to Chester's former business partner, a Steve Bagshaw and he wasn't a happy man at all. Their cheese export business had been slowly failing and Bagshaw had been keen to sell to a large multinational company while there was still something left of value, but Chester had steadfastly refused to give up and in the end he bought his partner out. They'd argued over the deal for months and Bagshaw certainly wasn't happy with the amount he'd got for his half of the business, but he'd suggested to Fraser that he couldn't be bothered to argue with the man any longer and took what he could just to be rid of him.

"And they'd been partners for how long?" Asked Maggie.

"Over twenty years," replied Fraser. "He sounded very bitter about the turn of events. Cheese was a lucrative business in the beginning, but over the years..."

"The market melted away!" Ray laughed at his own joke.

Fraser didn't get it. Neither did Maggie. "Canada produces some excellent cheese Ray, but global financial pressures make this sort of small business difficult to maintain," she explained.

"His main market is across the border of course," added Fraser, "and you Americans have somewhat dubious taste in cheese, so it must have been difficult for..."

"Woah, wait, go back," Ray sneered, "what was that about Americans and cheese?"

"During my time in Chicago Ray I sampled many local delicacies," Fraser explained, "the most shocking to me was a product labelled as cheese, but which one had to squeeze from a tube."

Ray couldn't really argue with that. "Yeah, well I'm Italian, we have great taste in cheese."

"His brother Thomas didn't have much time for him either," said Maggie, "they haven't spoken in years, he didn't even seem concerned when I told him that Derek was wanted in connection with a murder investigation."

"And he had no idea where his brother might be hiding out?" Ray asked. Maggie shook her head.

Helen walked over with plates of food. "I hope Carol-Ann will be well enough to talk to you tomorrow," she said, "I'm sorry I had to stop you earlier."

"I understand," replied Fraser, "she was becoming distressed...I must say this looks delicious." He inhaled deeply and let the smell of the grilled chicken fill his mind and steady his thoughts.

Stella appeared from the other room. "Sarah's refusing to come and eat again," she sighed. She'd been talking to Sarah ever since they got back from their shopping trip earlier, but she felt as though nothing she said was getting through to the girl. "She says she's fine, but she's not fine is she. Perhaps you should talk to her Helen, I really have no idea what to say, I'm probably making things worse."

"You're doing a great job," Ray said supportively, "she listens to you. Kids can be very picky about who they choose for friends."

Stella didn't seem very convinced, Sarah had latched onto her and she knew she right thing to do would be to provide some sort of emotional support, but that was so alien to her. As a lawyer she often represented vulnerable people, but the only support she ever offered was legal counsel. She felt that dealing with situations in a practical and efficient manner was the best thing to do and that method certainly proved successful when it came to prosecuting offenders. A lot of her clients responded well to it and seemed to appreciate her no nonsense approach. Besides, she couldn't allow herself to become emotionally involved with her clients and their personal circumstances, she had to keep those barriers in place. This situation was slightly different though and Stella had no idea how to deal with it.

"You're all talking about me again," Sarah sulked over to the table and sat down, folding her arms across her chest. "I'm going to eat, are you happy now?"

"Sarah, we want to help you that's all," Fraser spoke gently.

"Why?" she snapped, "you barely know me? Why would you want to help me? Anyway, I don't need help, unless you can get me into Harvard." She was being deliberately rude, she knew that and she did feel bad about it, but she didn't want to cry any more. She was done crying. Crying made you look weak and she wasn't weak, she wanted Stella to see that more than anyone. Stella would never mope around crying over things that you had no control over.

Helen placed a plate of chicken in front of Sarah and smiled. "That's a little way in the future isn't it, let's just worry about the next few days first."

"But if I want to get in I have to do something about it now! The good colleges don't want people from towns like this, they want people who are going places," exclaimed Sarah, frustrated that everyone was being like this with her. Why couldn't they see that she had to get on with her life, she couldn't look back, it hurt too much. She hated it here and she hated her mother for keeping her here all this time. Maybe if they'd moved away from this place years ago then her mum wouldn't be dead. "Tell them Stella," she pleaded.

Stella looked desperately at Fraser for some help. He always knew the right thing to say to people, she was way out of her depth, but Sarah didn't want Fraser to speak. She wanted Stella to back her up, but maybe Stella was just like the rest of them after all? She closed her eyes and silently began to eat her meal.

xXx

"I can't believe he's still out there?" Maggie sighed, brushing her hair roughly in frustration. "We have every available resource searching for him."

"I think you and Fraser should, er, go up to the Chester place tomorrow," Ray gently held her wrist to stop her brushing. "Maybe there's somethin' there that's been missed? You and Fraser can lick stuff or whatever." He peeled her fingers from the wooden handle and took the brush away from her. She didn't put up any resistance. "You're gonna pull out all your hair babe," he smiled and began gently brushing Maggie's hair, smoothing it with his hand. He carefully brushed all her hair to one side, exposing the side of her neck and kissed it tenderly. "Relax," he whispered.

Maggie let out a slow breath. "Not now Ray," she said.

"It's OK," Ray said softly, "I just want ya to relax, nothin' else."

Maggie smiled and turned to face him. "Isn't this usually the other way around?"

Ray laughed. "Yeah, I guess," he admitted, "you're always the calm one, you and your freaky brother."

"I'm sorry Ray, I'm just so..." she couldn't vocalise her feelings.

Ray understood and he took both her hands in his. "Sshhh," he soothed, "I know."

"I keep thinking about Sarah," Maggie began to cry and Ray wiped away her tears with his thumb. "She needs a home, somewhere to live," Maggie continued, "and we...I mean, what if we were to take her in?"

Ray released her and almost physically recoiled. "What?" he said. "You think we should adopt Sarah? We can't!" He leapt up and stood with his hands on his hips. He was shirtless and barefoot, wearing only some baggy sweatpants and Maggie watched his ribs rise and fall as he breathed heavily, his face a clear picture of his thoughts.

"I'm not talking about adopting her," Maggie felt crushed by his immediate rejection of her idea. "But we could give her stability, we've been talking about being parents for months Ray and..."

"I want to have a baby with ya," Ray ran a hand through his tousled hair as he tried to make sense of this idea. "Not take in someone else's kid?" He shook his head and let out a sigh. "OK, OK..." he said, calming down slightly from the shock, "I'm sorry, look, I'm not against adoption, if, er, that's what we have to do, if we can't make babies the old fashioned way I mean, but...oh, let's talk about this in the mornin' babe, not now. I didn't mean to, er, it's just that I never even thought about..."

"It's my fault Ray," Maggie walked over to him and put her arms around his waist, "maybe it's a silly idea, what can we really offer her apart from a roof over her head?"

"Hey, we have loads to offer her," smiled Ray, "but I'm just not sure that we should be makin' any big decisions, I mean, it's too soon. I wanna get that creep Chester first, the cop killer..." Ray clenched his fists as a wave of anger surged through him.

"We don't know if it was Derek Chester yet remember," Maggie sighed. She hoped they'd have located him by now. They both knew that the more time passed the less chance they had of finding him. "We shouldn't close our eyes to the possibility that the perpetrator was someone else."

"Yeah, I know," Ray agreed. "I just hope Carol-Ann can tell us...I mean, tell you something tomorrow."

Maggie smiled. "Benton and I really appreciate all your help, you know that, yours and Ray Vecchio's, but you two need to be careful."

Ray sighed at the mention of Vecchio. "I'm sure Fraser and Vecchio have solved the whole case by now anyway," he said, rather immaturely.

Maggie frowned and released him from her arms. "What is it with the two of you?" she asked, "why is there so much friction between you and Ray?"

"Friction?" Ray sneered. "Is that what ya call it?

"What would you call it?" she probed.

"The guy's a jerk, that's all." Ray walked away from her and climbed into bed.

"I haven't really had a chance to talk to him for very long yet, but he seems like a nice guy to me," replied Maggie, joining him in bed. "His behaviour changes when you're in the room though."

Ray narrowed his eyes. "Changes how?" he asked.

"He's very hostile towards you," Maggie tried to explain, "I thought you barely knew each other."

"Yeah, well it didn't take long to figure the guy out," huffed Ray.

"You know you behave very strangely around him too," Maggie continued, "like, um, you're..." she thought about it for a moment, then asked carefully, "Is it because he's with Stella now? Is that it?"

"No!" replied Ray, "Jeez, no babe. Stella's happy, I'm happy, we're cool, I promise ya."

Then Maggie's eyes widened as the realisation dawned. "You're jealous of his friendship with Benton."

Ray couldn't believe it. These freaky Frasers, they could both read his mind. He shook his head, thought about denying it because it sounded so stupid, but it was the truth. "Fraser is only my buddy because he had to be," said Ray, quietly, "to keep Vecchio's cover."

"That's how you met, but people meet in a variety of ways," Maggie began, "Benton cares about you now Ray, he loves you like a brother."

"Yeah, but Vecchio..." Ray sighed. "You know how he always says Vecchio saved his life, y'know, when he shot him, when that Victoria bitch twisted his mind, or, er, whatever the hell she did to him."

"Please don't use that word Ray," Maggie reprimanded.

"She was a bitch Mags," Ray retorted and Maggie couldn't really argue with that assessment. "So I figure if he had to choose, Fraser would choose Vecchio, no question."

"Ray this is ridiculous!" Maggie was getting annoyed now. "For one thing, why on earth would my brother have to choose between you? Choose who his best friend is you mean? Who's his favourite Ray? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. He loves you both. We've never had a proper family Ray, neither of us. I had my mother for a while at least, but Benton basically had no one for so long when our father was away. Would you deny him the chance to have two brothers now?"

Ray shrugged. When she put it like that it did sound kinda d-u-m dumb.

"Besides," Maggie went on, "you've saved his life on countless occasions, so Ray Vecchio doesn't have the monopoly on that either. If Benton could hear you talking like this I think he'd be very upset."

Ray wasn't sure what a stupid board game had to do with this, but Maggie was right about Fraser. The last thing he ever wanted to do was upset his buddy, his best buddy...his brother. Maybe I should try to be nice to Vecchio, he thought. He'd seen Fraser's pained expression the other day when he and the other Ray had argued right in front of him, but he just couldn't help the way he felt. Like he was inferior to the guy, second best, Ray Vecchio left so Ray Kowalski was better than no Ray at all...but Fraser didn't think like that did he? He looked at Maggie with sad eyes. "Sorry," he mumbled. "D'ya think Vecchio feels the same way?" he asked her, "D'ya think that's why he's such a jerk around me? Are we just a couple of jerks?"

Maggie laughed and kissed him. "I think," she said, pausing for breath, "that you're more alike than either of you will ever admit." Ray nodded. "But I think there's something else with him too, I can't quite put my finger on it." Maggie added.

Ray wasn't exactly sure what she was talking about, although he had to admit that Vecchio always seemed to be hiding something. Well maybe not hiding exactly, just not letting people see certain things about himself. Just like Fraser...and Stella, Ray thought, that would be right. OK, so he was an abused kid and god knows what it must have been like undercover with the mob...Ray's thoughts drifted away.

"Now, after all that, we both need to relax," said Maggie suddenly, snapping his mind back from the distance as she pushed him back onto his pillows.

"Hey, I thought you didn't want to..." Ray let out a moan as Maggie's hands began to wander all over his body.

"I know, but...I guess life goes on Ray," smiled Maggie, delighted at the instant reaction she got from him. "I don't think Alison would want us to put our plans for the future on hold." She leaned forward and they kissed passionately. Plans for the future, Ray loved that. OK Kowalski, he thought to himself, don't screw this up.

xXx

Later, as Maggie lay spooning with Ray, warm and satisfied, she thought about having a baby, about having Ray's baby...and then a thought slipped into her head, a thought about Carol-Ann Chester that hadn't occurred to her before. She made a mental note to mention it to Benton in the morning, closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.