Bab 7: Chapter 7
The Sergeant arrived with another officer in her truck,
"John here is the closest we have to a Scene of Crime officer."
"I started the training in the south before I transferred." Jim stepped forward and nodded to John.
"Good, you can help John. Start with those footprints. With this snow coming down we'll lose them in no time."
Jim waved the camera and Staff grinned briefly.
John had Jim point out the path he took to where the body lay. They marked it and took more photos. John set out floodlights turning the black and white scene into garish colour. An astonishing amount of blood spattered the walls, door and snow around the body.
Jim focused on getting pictures from as many angles as he could without contaminating the crime scene. Even if they sent a specialist up for this, there would be no coming back and getting these photos.
More cars arrived and two members headed off to follow the tracks that led away from the scene. They held their flashlights in one hand with the other on their holster.
The ambulance arrived. It had been on the return trip from taking a patient to Thompson. Staff waved it to a corner of the parking lot. It would be a while yet before they were ready to take the body away.
The ax was lightweight, not a heaving splitting maul. It wouldn't take a lot of strength to swing it hard. If the victim wasn't expecting the attack, he'd have been dead before he saw the danger.
Jim was assuming it was a he; hard to tell given the way the head was beaten in. There were cuts and wounds in other parts of the body, but not much blood. They must have been after the first killing blow, as if the attacker didn't know how to stop.
"Jim," Staff came up to him, "Put the camera down and come with me. We got a call from the Plan. Someone stole an ax from a display on a lawn there." She'd led him back onto the parking lot.
"Someone left an ax outside?" Even as a newbie in town, Jim had a hard time believing it.
"Must be a newcomer," Staff said, "But they recognized the person who took the ax."
"That's a break anyway." Jim ran through the questions he should ask the witness.
"Yes." There was something odd in Staff's voice. "It was Leigh. She took it and chased a bunch of kids into the woods."
"Leigh?" Jim's heart thumped painfully.
"That's what he said. His kid is in her class." Staff frowned as she looked Jim in the eye.
"Why would Leigh be chasing kids with an ax?" Jim wanted to deny it, defend his wife. He snapped his mouth shut on the end of his question.
"That's what I'd like to know." Staff didn't look angry, more worried.
"I'll go get her and we'll find out." He planted his feet to keep from running to the truck and tearing out to find Leigh.
"No," Staff put her hand on Jim's shoulder. "You have to stay out of this until we figure out what is going on. That means you can't talk to her until after we have."
Jim shook his head. "I don't like it, but I know you're right. Let me know the second I can talk to her."
"I will," Staff squeezed his shoulder then dropped her hand. "I'll talk to her myself. In the meantime, you head out to the reserve and patrol. We have everyone else here. So, it will be good if you're present out there."
"OK," Jim got into the truck and started it, but didn't put it into gear. What was going on? Leigh was doing so well. Even when she was at her worst she wasn't violent. It didn't make sense. He took a deep breath and pushed his questions to the back of his mind. He wouldn't be able to help her distracted by his own worries.
The rest of the night passed in a blur. He returned to the station and tried to do his paperwork. He knew that they had picked Leigh up because it had gone over the radio. At least she was safe.
The Staff came and stood beside Jim.
"I've finished with my questions for now, so you can take her home, but don't talk about the case with her. I know it is hard, but it's that or she spends the night in the cells. I don't think that would be good for her."
Jim opened the door to the interview room and looked at Leigh. His heart broke. As if he travelled back in time and was looking at his wife wandering confused through the hospital and asking the doctors to cut a hole in her head. Her eyes were dark and confused and her hands rubbed at her temples. He could see the beginning of bruises there.
"Staff," he called back down the hall, "we need to talk in a minute." He went the rest of the way into the room and put his hand on Leigh's shoulder. She broke down in tears and he knelt beside her and held her for a long time. She babbled about drugs and shadows in the woods. "Wait a moment, Leigh. I need to talk to the Staff Sergeant."
She nodded and went back to rubbing her head.
Jim went out of the room to where the Staff Sergeant was waiting.
"I think she's had another psychotic break." Jim's stomach burned. He felt like he betrayed Leigh's confidence, but she needed help, and only the truth would get it for her.
"Another?" Staff said, "She doesn't look dangerous."
"She isn't, except to herself," Rubbed his eyes. "I'd like to take her to the hospital in Thompson. She'll be secure there, and they can monitor her health."
"You'll have to take Marie with you," Staff said.
"Understood," Jim said, "When can we go?"
"As soon as Marie is ready. I'll let her know."
Jim bundled Leigh into the car. Marie got in beside her.
"Where's your coat?" Marie asked.
"Don't know," Leigh said, "I think the shadows stole it. They got out of my head." She started banging her head and Marie caught her hands. "Easy, easy. We won't worry about the coat."
It was a long painful drive to Thompson. The snow made the road slippery, but it hadn't frozen enough to smooth out the potholes. Leigh talked about shadows and the voices in her head escaping. She kept warning them they were in danger.
In Thompson, orderlies met them at emergency and escorted Leigh into the hospital.
"Does she take any medications?" the nurse at the counter asked.
"Yes, but I don't know what they all are," Jim said. Leigh started listing off medications and dosages. The nurse looked at him and he shrugged. "She's very careful with her medications."
"We'll take some blood tests and find out what her levels are."
"She's been seeing Dr. Heath in Winnipeg. He'll have the most recent list. He wrote a prescription for her just a week or so ago."
The nurse nodded and made a note.
Leigh waved at him as the orderlies led her away.
"Sorry Jim," she said, "the voices got out."
"We'd better get back," Marie dragged Jim out to the car and pushed him in the passenger side. "I don't want you driving right now."
They left Thompson and headed north again. The snow stopped and the sky in the east began to lighten.
"Staff will have told you that you can't be involved in the investigation," Marie said, "But that doesn't mean that you can't help your wife. Think about what would have caused this. What she might do or not do in her state. Just because you can't go around asking questions, doesn't mean that you can't suggest questions for us to ask."
"She was doing so well." Jim fought the shake in his voice. "I was sure she was back and everything was under control. The medications were working. I don't understand why they stopped working."
"Would she have stopped taking them?" Marie asked, "Sometimes people don't like the side effects."
"Leigh was lucky, she didn't have much trouble with the side effects."
"I took a report on a young man who was brought to the clinic. He'd overdosed on some anti-psychotic. It sounded like one of the drugs Leigh listed off." She tapped the steering wheel with her fingers.
"You'd want to check with the pharmacist. Find out if he filled Leigh's prescription. She just got back from a trip to Winnipeg to get her prescription because the doctor here wouldn't give them to her."
"Interesting." Marie slowed down for a dip in the road. "Why not?"
"What I understand from Leigh, he was afraid to write a script for such a powerful cocktail of drugs."
"So she goes back to her old doctor and gets the prescription and either they don't work or she doesn't take them."
"They were working up to the time when she went to Winnipeg. If there had been a change, then she would have talked to Dr. Heath about it and her meds would have changed."
"That leaves not taking them."
"That doesn't sound like her either. She was terrified of ... well of what happened tonight."
"Someone was selling prescription drugs in Spruce Bay. They were either Leigh's or someone else's. The pharmacist could say if other people are taking the same mix of drugs."
"Leigh wouldn't sell her medications. Those are her lifeline."
"That means someone else was selling them."
"But who, and how would they get them?'
"There are at least three gangs in town, and at least one uses children."
"You think she may have been attacked by children?"
"It's too soon to say, and it doesn't explain why she didn't report anything. We'd both know if she filed a report."
"So now the question is, what could keep her from reporting a crime?"
"You know her best, Jim. What do you think?"
"A threat to her wouldn't stop her, so it has to be against the children."
"Or you," Marie said, "You're new in town someone might have convinced her that you were vulnerable."
"Maybe, I could see Leigh trying to protect me. She hid her symptoms the first time because she didn't want me to worry."
"So, our working theory is that someone was blackmailing her into silence."
"Unfortunately it just means that she had a motive to kill." Jim stared into the white and black of the passing scenery.
"You don't believe that," Marie said.
"No." Jim closed his eyes and pushed back tears. Now wasn't the time. "I don't, but she's locked in a psych ward under guard. It may be hard to convince others."
The sun broke free of the trees and the snow twinkled white and glistening around them. Jim put his sunglasses on. The dark suited his mood better.
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