After dropping Ms. Espinoza off just out of downtown Ray and Fraser cruised back to the police precinct. Neither of them had anything to say to the other, which was unusual, because Ray was a chatterbox. The majority of their cases hadn't been so personal, so close to home. Fraser felt as if the his one weakness had come back to bite him in the butt, just like she'd done almost fifteen years ago. No matter how long ago their time in Fortitude Pass had been she would always be his weakness. Victoria had seeped into his soul in those few, intense days spent hanging on to life by a thread. Her voice, her beautiful, angelic voice had found a vulnerability in the mountie that he had never known he had until then. Something about her melodious, soothing tone had enraptured him; mesmerized him. Benton could visualize a whole new world through her words. When nights stretched on almost endlessly he would lay awake and try to recollect the words to the poem she'd recited countless times. Those were the nights he'd wake up dreaming he'd held her again in his arms and that everything was going to be alright. He could still taste her on his lips those golden, glorious dawnings. Benton always felt a little sad during the day following those wistful dreams.
"Here's the information you wanted, Lt. Kowalski, and there's a blonde woman waiting for you in your office, she's been here for over an hour, she's a real looker, that one." Detective Midkiff handed Ray a sheaf of papers and pointed toward the office Ray had grown to dread. The wary lieutenant looked at the petite Canadian pacing his small office.
"You'd better not be lookin' buster." Ray growled at him then turned his back on the charming detective. He pulled out his glasses and began skimming the freshly printed pages while Fraser walked on in.
"Hello, Maggie." She turned on her heel and looked up at her half brother, fear and relief evident in her face. Aurora and Diefenbaker greeted each other then settled down on the floor of the office.
"I heard a knock at the door after you'd left and went to answer it, there was an envelope under the door." Maggie pointed to a white, plastic grocery bag laying on Ray's desk. She'd followed evidence procedure as best as she could under the circumstances.
"Hey there, Maggie, did you come to eat lunch with us?" Ray grinned eagerly, the thought of getting to sit down and eat with the cute Canadian made his day.
"A ransom note was delivered to my apartment this morning, Ray, Maggie brought it to us to open and process." Fraser summed up quickly. All of the delight in the lieutenant's face drained away.
"Did you get a look at the guy, Maggie?" He went back into investigator mode.
"Yes, but it was a young man with a delivery company, I took his name and other information if you'd like to question him, unfortunately he wasn't the one who took the delivery request." She pulled a piece of paper from the hip pockets of her Wranglers and handed it to Ray. "I'm afraid I gained the information while he was under duress." Both Ray and Fraser looked from the paper to the mighty, lady mountie. "I used a flying tackle to subdue the young man, he was quite fast on his bicycle." Ray's eyebrows shot up at the mental image of the petite but powerful Canadian in action. A mysterious and kinda naughty gleam came into the American lieutenant's blue eyes before he went back to the task at hand.
"Good work there, Maggie, I'll have Midkiff question this guy." The lieutenant opened the office door and barked for the detective to come toward him. Midkiff took the assignment and grabbed his coat. Fraser pulled a pair of latex exam gloves from box in the top drawer of his friend's desk and proceeded to open the white, business envelope using his hunting knife. Paper wasn't really the best thing for the sharp edge of the eight inch, stainless steel blade but it was trivial compared to the reason for using it. Ray and Maggie watched carefully as the mountie let the paper slide into the grocery bag.
"'Bring the money to 801 Alderson Street, noon on Wednesday. Don't bring the authorities or we'll kill the kid.'" Fraser read the words aloud typed in Times New Roman, size forty-eight font on common, white printer paper. "They've used a self-adhesive envelope to avoid fingerprints and DNA, Ray and there isn't a postage stamp to get either of those things off of either." Fraser laid the bag back down and pulled the latex gloves off slowly before re-sheathing his knife.
"This one is a smart SOB." Anger flared in the Chicago lieutenant's face as he picked up the phone and dialed the lab's extension. His stubby fingers stabbed the phone forcefully.
"What are we going to do, there never was any money hidden in Fortitude Pass, even if there was, it would be rotted away by now." Maggie spoke, pacing the office again as her mind took her hundreds of miles away, to the frozen Yukon Territories.
"Catch these bastards, that's what." Ray pronounced with determination.
Scene Break
Author's Note: Sorry to have waxed superfluous on this chapter.