CHAPTER 23:
When Thomas finally showed up at the Toronto hospital, he was feeling nervous. Chief Derek Tresco directed him to Doctor Ogden's office and quietly walked there with him. He knocked lightly on the door but got no response.
"It's strange. Normally she should be there."
Derek silently opened the door and sighed in sadness. Julia had her head resting on her desk and was asleep. This simple image confirmed Thomas in his plan. She was not well either. If she and William could not help but sleep at work when they had always been very diligent, that meant they stayed up at night to begin with.
"Julia…" Derek sighed, distressed to see her like this. "She hasn't been herself lately."
Derek gently shook the young woman who came to herself with a start. When she opened her eyes and saw who was present in the room, she straightened up immediately.
"I'm sorry, I…I…"
"It's nothing doctor." Tresco smiled at her. "Inspector Brackenreid is here to see you."
Julia stood as Derek walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
"You want to ask me about what happened at the Weston's, I suppose?"
"No… You know, like the three men are dead… We're just trying to follow up to see if they had any family or anything, but we can't find anything…"
Julia looked down, frustrated.
"The families of the victims will never know how to avenge then... There will be nothing..."
"No, Doctor…" Brackenreid approached the young woman, who now had a face of pure distress that seemed to mirror the one he saw on William every day. "There was revenge. The three of them died because they took too long to find you. We arrived when they hadn't finished what they wanted to do. It was you who offered this revenge to all these people…"
"How do you know that they didn't decide to kill themselves anyway?" Julia whispered, unconvinced.
"Because they knew everything. They had managed to get invited to the party under false identities. They were already there from the start of the reception. They closed every door and every window while you all partied in the main hall. And by chance they had forgotten to close one of them. They knew the number of guests and we found a bag full of stolen purses and jewelry on the bodies of the victims. They had planned to kill everyone and leave. They wanted to be feared and wanted Toronto to bend over backwards to find them. But with you two alive, it was impossible, they couldn't leave. Not only because you risked identifying them, but also because they had not finished the work, they had set themselves. They killed themselves because they didn't want to get caught. But initially, it was not at all what they had planned. You have avenged all the families of the victims as survivors. I assure you…"
Julia looked down again, small tears now streaming down her cheeks. She wanted to believe Inspector Brackenreid. And she knew that sooner or later, she would accept this reality. But right now, it just felt like she should not have been alive. What had made her not die with all the others? Thanks to William, she smiled inwardly. He had saved her life.
"Thank you." she finally smiled at him through tears.
Thomas smiled at her tenderly, feeling the pain of this woman deep inside him and now understanding how William felt.
"You know… Normally, my wife and I were supposed to be at this party. I had been waiting for this for months, but we finally couldn't go. I was the one who gave the tickets to Murdoch…" The Chief Inspector felt his voice trailing off as he lowered his head.
In fact, he felt extremely guilty for what had happened to his best detective. For him, he had thrown it into the mouth of the wolf. He had been lucky that his officer George Crabtree had had a last-minute impediment, when he too had given him one of the tickets.
He felt a hand land on his crossed arms, and he looked up to see that Dr. Ogden had approached him, tears still glistening in his eyes.
"William doesn't blame you at all, you know. On the contrary, it is fortunate that you did not participate in this. He couldn't bear for something so bad to happen to you."
Thomas took a deep breath, feeling soothed by the young woman's words.
He watched her step back to her desk and put a paper in a filing cabinet. And that's when the chief inspector understood what William found in this woman. She was very popular in Toronto. He had heard of her before this story. He thought she was very pretty, and she was smart, but he did not know if there was anything special about her. But ultimately, yes. She was special. Just like William was and he understood and was sure of the attraction between the two. It was not temporary. They were meant to be together, that's for sure.
Until then, he had still hesitated about the invitation he was about to give her, but finally, he had no more doubts. He had to see if being together really allowed them to heal and smile again. Thus, he would continue his momentum and ask her if she would like to take over the position of coroner for Station 4.
Note: Little moment between Julia and Brackenreid! Thank you to those who continue to read my fiction!
