Chapter Three #4
“If you think he’s been abducted, then it’s important we tell Dalstrom straight away.
” While she was beginning to dislike Dalstrom, she wasn’t about to stretch protocol that far by withholding vital information.
She stood, looking over at her superior.
He was speaking into a mobile phone, half turned away from her, but the look on his face was thunderous.
What would he do if she took this new information to him?
Would he follow it up or ignore her? But he was the lead on this case, and she had to follow the chain of command.
Jiro reached for her arm, tugging on her sleeve to stop her.
“No, please don’t,” he pleaded. She turned to face him and was arrested by the intensity of his dark gaze.
He was leaning in so close, she could almost see the individual pinpricks of stubble on his upper lip.
She was caught between duty and wanting to help him.
Between the pull of the appeal in his eyes and the tug of responsibility.
Before she could make a decision, Moreau clomped noisily back into the room, followed by five other police officers, all rugged up in jackets and beanies and covered in snow, stamping their feet trying to get warm.
They crowded around the detective inspector, muttering between themselves.
He finished his phone call, jutting out his chin and standing up taller.
“Come over here.” He beckoned imperiously to Aurora and Jiro, waiting until they stood at the back of the crowd before he spoke again. It looked like she’d missed her opportunity to speak to him. For now. But at least they were hopefully going to find out what the next move was.
“That was the chief on the phone. The search has been called off until first light. There’s more snow forecast tonight, which will hamper any efforts, and we can’t take the risk of anyone else getting lost out there.
” Dalstrom spoke with authority, as if this had been his idea all along, as if he hadn’t just been about to send them all back out into the freezing snow.
Moreau, who was standing beside her, gave a quiet sigh of relief.
She’d believed that his partnership with Dalstrom had been a good one; an equal one.
But now she had another insight into their dynamics and decided that Moreau must be very good at handling his superior’s mercurial moods and downplaying any repercussions.
She felt a little sorry for him. Everyone had to handle difficult people at one stage or another in their career, but it must be hard for Moreau to keep a smile on his face with a partner like this.
Perhaps this was an aberration. Dalstrom was clearly used to getting his own way, and on any normal day it was probably easy to keep him happy.
Perhaps Moreau was used to this and took it in his stride.
He was definitely more easygoing than Aurora, and maybe that was the way he handled things most of the time.
Except this time he couldn’t let things pass.
“So, you’re just going to leave my father out there to die in the cold?” Jiro pushed his way between two officers, and Aurora’s focus snapped back to her charge. Jiro might not have understood much of the Swedish conversation, but he clearly hadn’t missed the underlying message.
“We don’t want to call this search off any more than you do.
” Surprisingly, Dalstrom answered in English, with cool equanimity, for once staying in complete control, and even sounding slightly sympathetic.
“But the facts can’t be ignored. It’s snowing hard out there now.
” He gestured to the other officers still shaking snow off their jackets.
“It’s dark, and the temperature will drop to at least -20C tonight.
You could walk right past him if he were lying in the snow and not even know he was there. ”
Jiro put his head in his hands and let out a moan. “And what if he is lying in the snow in these freezing temperatures all night? Do you think he could survive that?”
Dalstrom didn’t answer.
Aurora made a quick decision. It was now or never.
She owed Jiro this much at least. If no one else was going to help him, then she would.
It was out of character for her to act so impulsively.
Yes, she was always eager to take on any job, to learn as much as she could about policing.
But she always did it in a considered manner.
Some called her a perfectionist, but she liked to think of it as being meticulous; she needed to have every detail straight in her head to make sure she was making the best decision.
There was no time to think this through, however.
She stepped forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Jiro.
“Sir, can I have permission to take Mr. Nashimori back to town in one of the cruisers? He will need a hotel to stay at. I’d like to make sure he’s safe and comfortable,” she spoke in English and kept her voice level, making sure her request sounded completely reasonable, not letting on she had an ulterior motive.
She wished M?rten were here. She missed his evenhanded guidance.
Right at this exact moment she realized how lucky she’d been to be partnered with M?rten as a rookie cop.
He was everything an honorable cop should be, and he showed her daily how to do the job with integrity.
He wasn’t afraid of using force when it was required, but she was learning the valuable lesson from him that subtlety usually got you farther than violence.
M?rten was good at considering every angle before he made a decision, so that he was sure he knew what he was doing.
He never stormed the front door of a house to arrest a drug dealer unless he knew the back door was also guarded.
If they attended a domestic abuse call out, he would always sit down to hear the victim’s story first, but he never jumped to any conclusions until he’d also spoken to the perpetrator.
And he was teaching her to do the same. But right now, in this situation, and without M?rten’s advice, all she could do was follow her gut.
She really hoped she wasn’t fucking this up.
Dalstrom’s sharp gaze landed on her. His features softened slightly as he studied her, finding no guile in her blank gaze. “Yes, why not? I will allow that,” he replied in English for Jiro’s sake.
“Thank you, sir.” Aurora let out a quiet breath. She took Jiro by the elbow to lead him out the door.
“Oh, and Constable.” Uh oh, was he going to change his mind?
The detective inspector waited until she was facing him once more.
“I’m sure Inspector Viskten will have work for you to do tomorrow.
I can’t see that we will need you again.
Thank you for your help.” Dalstrom dismissed her with a magnanimous flick of his hand.
If Aurora hadn’t had another plan in mind, she might well have spat back a retort.
She was known for her caustic comments while on the job; she’d never suffered fools gladly.
But this time she held her tongue. There was no way she was going to be shuffled off this case without a fight.
But she would leave that fight until tomorrow.
“Yes, sir,” she replied, head held high, and steely eyes fixed on the door. “Let’s get out of here,” she muttered to Jiro.