CHAPTER 3
On the whole the boy's where somewhat under whelmed with Benton Fraser. It was an unusual assurance to run into people who weren't immediately fascinated by the fact that he was a Mountie. Fraser had gotten used to children asking about dog sleds and Canada and bad guys, these children, however, saw Mountie's every day. They knew all about Canada and they knew what a consulate was and how it worked. Fraser hadn't been this common for a long time, he was unsure how to handle it, fortunately he remembered being a young boy himself to know that the brother's were much more interested in each other than they were in the baby sitter. He lost no, well very little, time trying to impress them, or become their friend, that would happen naturally.
Elly had gone with her aunt and grandparents. She wanted to spend every second in Chicago with her aunt and so far was doing a good job of it. Meg had nearly had to pry the child from her legs so she could walk through the station. Still Elly wouldn't let go of the inspector's hand. Naturally, Fraser had never seen so much affection showered on his superior officer, he was very gratified to see how graciously she accepted it. All the boy's were equally affectionate in a boy way. They all kissed her on the cheek with only the slightest suggestion from their Grandmother, and none of them protested.
"Is that the car?" Xerxes asked, pointing to the Consulate's car.
"Why yes it is, how did you know?"
"It's got Flag's on it." Leo supplied matter-of-factly.
"So it does." Fraser mused.
"It that a dog locked in there?" Cimon asked.
"A wolf actually,"
"No way," Cimon said, smiling, and picking up his pace. Leo and Xerxes followed.
"His name is Diefenbaker."
"You named you're dog after the Prime Minister?" Will asked, entirely too cool to be caught impressed by a wolf.
"I named all my dogs after prime ministers. It made them easy to remember."
"You have more dogs?" Leo asked, very excited.
"No, I had to sell them when I was transferred to Chicago." Fraser said sadly. "Apparently to have eight dogs in a two room apartment is against numerous health codes."
"So you had a dog sled then?" Cimon asked.
"Yes." Bu this time Fraser had reached the car and opened the door.
"Shotgun!" Will called from his position still several paces behind the group.
"What?" Cimon argued. "I got here first!"
"I called it."
While the two elder brother's bickered about who got to sit in the front Leo and Xerxes crawled in the back and leaned over the seat, trying, and failing, to get Dief's attention.
"Here dog, here dog." Leo said, as Xerxes whistled.
"He's not a dog," Fraser said, leaning into the car to talk to the younger boys. "He's a wolf."
"Here wolf, here wolf." Leo amended.
"It won't work." Fraser explained. "He's deaf."
"You're wolf is deaf?" Leo asked.
"Wouldn't that make it, like, impossible for him to be a sled dog?" Xerxes added.
"You'd think so wouldn't you." Fraser said smiling mysteriously.
"Let's go." Will said, sliding into the passenger seat as his slightly younger brother got in the back. Fraser was somewhat surprised by the suddenness of the order, as well as the natural authority the boy possessed. But he saw no reason not to follow the order, so silently he complied.
"You know," Will said once they were in the thick of Chicago Traffic, trying to go from the airport downtown. "Meg's the only aunt we have."
"I wasn't aware of that."
"There's Aunt Susan, and Katrina." Cimon pointed out from the back seat.
"When was the last time you heard form them?" Will demanded, turning to Fraser he explained. "Mom had a kinda falling out with her family, so we don't really see them. So its really like Meg's our only aunt."
"Ah," Fraser said, abet lost to where this was going.
"And of course she's my dad's only sister, so he's got these hang ups about her."
"Hang ups?"
"Yha, like she's in a dangerous job, and she doesn't have a husband and all this stuff. Which I can understand because we all have hang ups about Elly."
"I don't" Xerxes interjected.
"Neither do I." Leo chimed in.
"Shut up." Will said in a casual, authoritative way that only an eldest child could posses. "Anyways, I just wanted to warn you."
"Warn me?"
"Yha, because I like you. I just thought you should know."
"I should know that you love and respect you're aunt?" Fraser had assumed that from the start and his assumptions had been confirmed when he saw them great her.
"No, that if you're anything less than a perfect gentleman, you're in trouble." Will said it in total earnest. So seriously, in fact, that it was almost comic. Will was an average sized fourteen year old boy, no more than a hundred and twenty pounds, and he didn't look like he was much of a trained Athlete. Fraser knew that he would be able to deflect any attack this boy could mount. Further more, he must have missed the fact that 'Aunt Meg' was Fraser's superior officer, the fact was she could do a lot more damage, that would last a lot longer. That was merely professional damage, she could do worse, he knew.
Fraser tried not to smile, but the edge of his lips betrayed him. "I'll remember that." He said seriously.
"Good. We understand each other."
"That we do."
***
There was no trouble checking into the Hotel, which was right on the Magnificent Mile. Nor were there any problems for Meg's family to get settled. So by eight, the four boys were in their suite, playing video games and eating pizza, and Meg's parents were in their room, reading newspapers while CNN played in the background. And Fraser was carrying Elly's bag to where the Console's car was parked while the six-year-old told her aunt all about the other girls who took lessons at her stables.
The conversation didn't change much on the trip form the hotel to the Inspector's apartment building. Fraser learned more about the life of a six year old girl than he had ever imagined knowing, and oddly he found her perspective somewhat enlightening. She had such a defined sense of right and wrong. There was no muddled philosophy or rationalizations to cloud her conscience. Everything was black and while and he envied that.
He escorted Meg and her niece up to the Inspectors apartment, under the guise of carrying up Elly's bag. Naturally Meg, or even Elly could have done that. But Inspector Thatcher knew him well enough to know that asking him to put off his chivalrous stance was useless. She led him to her doorway, but no further.
On the way up he observed the security in the building and it seemed sufficient. There was a guard at the door, and video cameras in the elevator and stairwells. No one could leave or enter without being seen. The halls were well lit and The Inspector had several locks on her door. On top of which, Garret had seemed to believe that the assaulter was outside. Fraser still didn't feel comfortable leaving her.
"Are you sure you're not going to go out again tonight."
"Yes." Meg said tersely.
"We're going to bake Chocolate Chip cookies!" Elly said excitedly. "I'll bake one for you, and one for you're wolf."
Fraser smiled down at her, "Thank you, that's very kind, but I'm afraid that I can't give Diefenbaker chocolate. It only encourages him."
Elly didn't understand that at all. "But ours are special, just for him."
"Do you have all the ingredients for cookies?" Fraser asked, choosing not to explain Dief's particular bad habits to Elly.
"Yes." Thatcher said, she was becoming less and less amused.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"I could run to the grocery store for you."
"That is entirely unnecessary."
"It would be no trouble at all."
"Goodnight, Constable." She said, with no room in her voice for argument.
"Good, ah, night." He managed to stutter.
The door was almost closed when Meg remembered, "Fraser," she said as the door swung open again. "We'll be waiting for you downstairs at eight AM sharp."
Fraser nodded, trying not to sound disappointed. "Understood."
***
"Ray?"
"Fraser?"
"Where are you?"
"Driving home, why? Where are you?"
"At the coffee shop. Do you think you could stop by?"
"What, you in trouble? You run out of American bills again or something?"
"No Ray." Fraser said into the pay phone, totally unaware of the joke. "It's just that . . . well, I'm scheduled to meet someone and I'm a bit apprehensive."
"You want some fire power on you're side, hunh?"
"That's a bit extreme. But essentially, yes."
"Sure, I'm on my way. Oh! What's the deal with Thatcher?"
"Nothing yet I hope. I saw her to her apartment, and I'm picking her up in the morning."
"So what? You're going to watch her like a hawk trying to prevent something form happening."
"Yes."
"For how long?"
"Until the danger has passed."
Ray laughed, dryly. "How will you know when that is?" Fraser didn't respond so Ray decided to expound on that idea. "What of our kidnapper sees you hovering over the Dragon Lady like some Guardian angel in Red and decides not to do anything so nothing happens. Now you're not going to know nothing happened because nothing happened so you're just going to keep hovering around her until something does happen?"
"That makes no sense, Ray."
The Detective sighed. "I'll be there in a few minutes, see you then."
"Thanks Ray."
***
_ Say what you will about Rinefieald Turnbull; say that he is an idiot, a moron, stupid, incompetent, and unfit for his job. All those things would be true. However, even those that knew him best couldn't accuse him of misjudging people. The man knew by instinct who was a friend and who wasn't and he could read moods like most people read the funnies. The only problem was that he wasn't smart enough to realize that, or to use his gift in any way.
Had the career counselor at his high school been on top of things, he would have steered Tunrbull towards a career that would utilize this one strength, such as social work or being a high school career counselor. However, he had some how become a Mountie and through some act of God actually obtained the rank of Constable.
Fraser should have caught on to Turnbull's ability, his only ability. But the other Mountie was so incompetent in so many other areas that Fraser dismissed the mysterious warnings as another incompetence and was more than willing to trust Bear. However, that might have had something to do with an overriding sense of obligation. Ray, on the other hand, didn't trust anyone named after a carnivorous animal on principal.
"So what's the story behind this guy?" Ray asked as they sat at a small table, waiting for the waitress to bring them coffee and donuts. Ray didn't particularly like donuts, and Fraser found them entirely too sweet. But Ray considered the shear irony of him sitting in a coffee shop eating donuts was worth perusing, and Fraser didn't want to appear rude, so when Ray offered a Crawler, he didn't say no.
"Last I heard he was a tanner in one of the towns along the Alaskan Canadian border. Apparently he was in Chicago for some business . . ."
"'Cause tanning elk hide is such a big thing down here,"
". . . and he decided to visit."
"So you're nervous about meeting a tanner?"
"I wouldn't say I'm nervous."
"Yha," Ray scoffed. "You just thought I should meet this tanner on account of all those hides I have stashed in the basement."
The coffee came and Fraser took a drink before mounting into a story about his childhood in the frozen north that Ray knew would be long. "When I was fifteen my grandparents moved their library to Yucktiuck Flats. It was a gold mining town up in the Yukon, but the mines had dried up. Still, being the only settlement within hundreds of kilometers, the town somehow managed to survive. There were very few children my age there, four to be exact, so we all hung around each other, despite the fact that we really weren't friends."
"And Bear was one of these kids?"
"Yes, he was thirteen, still, he was twice as large as I was. There was also Darren Hunter, he was sixteen. And then there was his sister Lisa. She had the most beautiful long black hair." He shook his head and took another drink of his coffee, then continued. "During that short period I discovered a book in my grandmother's library about Australia, of all places, and for some reason the four of us decided that we were going to visit Australia over Christmas brake. Although, we were all home taught, so there were no real brakes. It was just the idea, of a place on the other side of the world, a place that was very much like Canada in a lot of ways, and then on the other hand, as different as possible. I think the irony captured our imagination. In any event we began to do things which we considered Australian. Lisa had developed an accent that was simply outrageous, and Darren spent hours researching marsupials. And I," he laughed softly, "I made a boomerang."
Fraser seemed so bothered by this story, Ray couldn't figure out why. They were kids, doing what kids did. Messing around, slowly discovering a world that was big, nothing unusual or upsetting as far as he could see. "So what, boomerangs illegal in Canada?" He said with his mouth full of a gazed donut.
"No Ray," Fraser said, his voice made it clear he thought that the very idea was ridicules. "However, if you've ever owned a boomerang, you know how difficult it is to actually make them come back to you."
"Amen."
"We were playing in a clearing with our backs too a mine that had been abandoned for years. Well that is Lisa and Bear were playing. Darren and I were trying to fix an old gas powered generator that whoever had abandoned the mine had left behind. It's cover was rusty, and there were spiders in the workings, but other than that it looked fine, as far as we could see. As a safety precaution I had siphoned almost a thankful of gas out of the generator and left it in a rusty bucket sitting near the entrance to the mine. Now, every time they threw the boomerang it just went straight, it never came back to them. Bear was complaining about how I had built the boomerang wrong, and I, in my pride, wanted to prove him wrong. I took the boomerang away and threw it away from the cave, just as I had read to in one of my grandmothers books." He looked up, smelling sadly. "It came back. We were all so surprised, even I was surprised, none of us thought to try and catch it. It sailed into the old opening of the mine and got lost in the darkness. We were all silent, to amazed to speak. Well everyone except Darren, who kept demanding we tell him just why we were so amazed. Eventually Lisa volunteered to get the boomerang. She pulled a mach book from somewhere, and ventured into the darkness. A few seconds later we heard a scream, she came running out, her hair was on fire."
Ray could see where the story was going, he felt sick in the pit of his stomach. Fraser continued. "Before I could react, do anything, Bear had grabbed the bucket of gasoline, supposing it was water I assume, and . . ."
"Oh God." Ray said, softly.
"We got the fire out, I don't know how. I think all three of us just through ourselves a top her and somehow smothered it. She was so badly burned, she couldn't . . . couldn't do anything. Bear carried her the nearly two miles home. We were all guilt ridden, all except for Darren, who was so worried for his sister that he couldn't even think. When the doctor said he didn't think their was anything he could do for her I . . . I panicked Ray. She was the sweetest girl I had ever met. I had known her only a few months and I felt as if she were my sister as well as Darren's. I ran. I didn't know where at first, but when I found myself ten miles outside of town at sundown, it accrued to me that I couldn't go back. How could I face Darren, or his parents knowing my negligence killed their daughter."
"It wasn't you that set her on fire; It wasn't you that threw the gas."
"I threw the boomerang, I put the gas in an accessible place, I didn't stop Bear." Fraser believed the whole thing was his fault, and Ray couldn't blame him. When something stupid and tragic happens, people need someone or something to blame. And for Fraser it was easier to blame himself instead of an ignorant kid two years younger than him, or the beautiful victim.
"My father found me after three days, and it was a good thing too. I could survive fine in the summer but winter falls fast and hard in the Yukon, I wouldn't have made it."
"You're kidding me right?" Ray said, trying to lighten the mood.
"I was only fifteen Ray."
"I guess I can cut you a little slack in that case."
"She didn't die." Fraser started his narrative again, as if it had never stopped. "She was horribly burned, but somehow they had bandaged the wounds and air lifted her to the hospital in Inuvit. She was scared, and all of her beautiful hair was gone, but she lived. When I got back, Darren forgave me." Fraser was actually smiling. "He, he told me that he was so frightened and he didn't have anyone to talk to because I had gone. He was actually more angry at me for running than he was at me for my part in his sister's tragedy. He told me that it wasn't my fault. In another month Lisa came home. Her face was hardly recognizable. She suddenly spent more time in my Grandmother's library than she did out playing with us. She was week, and sickly, but she was still Lisa. She forgave me too. The only one who didn't forgive me was Bear. He insisted it was my fault, he said he was going to kill me. We moved not long after she came back, he never got the chance."
To be continued . . .