Part 6 (1/2)
”Sure.”
What was that supposed to mean?
”Pleasant dreams.”
Or that, he wondered as Lee walked away.
Worrying about it probably kept him awake for all of three or four minutes. He tossed. He turned. He realized he was probably dreaming about the time Lee suddenly acquired an impressive and familiar set of antlers. Usually, that kind of awareness woke him up but not today. He heard Leah's voice say something about feeding on s.e.xual energies, and he settled back to enjoy the show.
”Tony!”
No.
”Come on, wake up.”
Not going to happen. Not now. Not when...
”I haven't got time for this s.h.i.+t.”
He didn't have a whole lot of choice about waking up when he hit the floor. Rolling over onto his back, he glared up at Jack Elson.
”What?”
”I've got a body I want you to look at.”
”What?”
”They found a construction worker just down from where you lot were shooting last couple of nights, torn to pieces.”
Tony took the RCMP constable's offered hand and allowed the larger man to drag him up onto his feet. ”Sucks to be him, but what's that got to do with me?”
”Something bit his arm off.”
Chapter Three.
”COUGAR. DIDN'T THEY HAVE one in Stanley Park a couple of years ago? Probably ran out of house pets to eat out in the Previous Contents Nextsuburbs and wandered into the city.”
”Coroner ruled it out.”
”Bear, then.”
”No.”
”Really big racc.o.o.n.” When Jack took his eyes off the road long enough to glare across the cab of his truck, Tony shrugged.
”Racc.o.o.ns can be pretty d.a.m.ned big. I saw one once about the size of small dog.”
”You sure?”
”About what?”
Jack downs.h.i.+fted and accelerated through a changing light. ”About what you saw. Maybe it wasn't a racc.o.o.n.”
”You think I saw a small dog?”
”Don't tell me what I think.”
”Fine.” Tony sighed. ”If you don't think I saw a racc.o.o.n, what do you think I saw?”
Another glance across the cab. ”You tell me.”
”Oh, for f.u.c.k's sake; sometimes a racc.o.o.n is just a racc.o.o.n!” He sank down as far as the seat belt strap would allow.
Tony hadn't wanted to go look at a dead body, particularly not a dismembered dead body, and he'd half hoped that CB would refuse to allow him the time off. Although CB hadn't been happy about losing his TAD for the afternoon, he was well aware of the benefit of remaining in the RCMP's good graces and he'd waved off Tony's protests that he was needed on the soundstage with one ma.s.sive hand. ”As difficult to believe as it may be, Mr. Foster, I believe production can continue for a few hours without you.”
”Boss, there's no PA out there yet. I'm it.”
”So if an errand needs running, someone on the soundstage will have to run it.”
Tony'd opened his mouth to point out how unlikely it was that grips or electricians or carpenters would do any such thing and then closed it again when CB added: ”They'll do it for me.”
Yes, they would. Because no one who worked for Chester Bane would be suicidal enough to refuse although they'd tell themselves they were doing it because it never hurt to do the boss a favor.
Which was also true.
As Jack pulled into the underground parking at Vancouver General Hospital, Tony's stomach growled. ”You made me miss lunch,”
he muttered.
”You may thank me for that,” Jack told him, turning off the truck. ”Come on.”
The city morgue was in the bas.e.m.e.nt near the end of a long hall made narrow by line of gurneys, wheelchairs, and a locked filing cabinet. Cramped conditions along the outside walls of the outer office made the reason for outsourcing the filing cabinet clear. A middle-aged Asian woman wearing the end-of-her-rope expression common to professionals who fought with bureaucracy on a daily basis sat at one of the cluttered desks forking noodles out of a Styrofoam bowl.
”Dr. Wong.” She waved the fork in Jack's general direction and continued chewing.
”This is the witness I mentioned earlier. Should we just go on in?”
Fork tines pointed toward the set of double doors in the back wall.
”Thanks. We won't be long.”
A large hand between Tony's shoulder blades got him moving again in spite of his brain locking things down by suddenly repeating dismembered dead body over and over as though it had just realized what that meant.
”Elson.”
Jack paused in the doorway, leaving Tony staring into a harshly lit room at a bank of stainless steel drawers familiar to anyone who'd ever turned on a television set.