Chapter 1
Mid-August in Vancouver
Two weeks agoKate Morgan had had a couple days off, and those two days she’d spent with Simon St. Laurant now seemed like a hell of a long time ago. She groaned.
Rodney looked up at her. “What’s the matter now?”
“This stupid case. I’m still tracking down more of the suicides.”
“I know.” He nodded. “All we really can do is give the families closure at this point in time.”
“At least that asshole pedophile in our other case is dead and gone.”
“Exactly. And nobody will mourn Ken’s death.”
She sighed. “Somebody like that, I just assume we toss his file and carry on.” She looked around. “Where is everybody?”
“Lilliana’s running late, as she’s been at the dentist all morning. Andy’s off for the day. Owen’s here somewhere.”
Just then, Dispatch called her. “We’ve got a DB at the entrance to UBC. Female.”
“On the walkway?”
“Sounds like it’s just outside university grounds—at the intersection on one of the bike paths,” the dispatcher said. “I’m sending you the exact location.”
“Crap.” Kate hopped to her feet. “Hey, Rodney, we’ve got a woman down on the bike path at the university.”
“Out by UBC? Shouldn’t RCMP have that?”
“This one is a homicide at the intersection leading to University Boulevard, so it’s ours either way.” At his look of surprise, she added, “Vehicular homicide. She’s been run over. Time to rock and roll.”
Rodney stood and grabbed his jacket. “Another woman was struck by a vehicle up in that area about a year ago.”
She stopped and stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“Well”—he shrugged—“it’s not like it’s unusual, since that’s a high-traffic spot.”
“Isn’t that also where they do bike-racing training?”
“They do some of it there. I mean, the UBC campus is full of trails and tracks, so it’s perfect for a lot of this stuff. Plus, with all the jogging runs up there, it’s great for fitness training.”
“Hmm,” she said. “So you’re thinking it was a full year ago since the last one?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“I just want to make sure that we don’t have like three in a row.” She frowned. “Nothing like a serial killer coming back to mark time.”
He looked at her with added respect. “I’ll look it up.”
“Do that. The last thing we need is another ugly story to mar the beauty of this place.”
“You know that there will always be another ugly story.” Rodney and Kate walked to her car, heading to the location in minutes, as he dug into his coffee and his cell, while she drove.
“I know,” she said. “One of these days I keep thinking we’ll have paradise here.”
“Paradise is what you make it.” He laughed.
By the time they drove up to the outskirts of the university campus, it was much later than she would have liked. The place was awash with law enforcement, traffic, and the always-present curious crowd. She parked near all the cruisers. The coroner was already on-site. “Looks like we’re last to arrive. How did that happen?”