PREVIOUSLY IN KILLER ON THE KAME
(Stop! If you are new to the story, the best way to catch up is to read previous episodes here. Spoilers below!)
Out walking her beagle Milo, Emma Brennan comes across a crime scene—a dead body at a construction site in East Lofthill. At home, she tells her husband Matt that it’s the same man who came to their house the day before, selling insulation. Matt remembers the man acting oddly in their basement with a metal detector. On a hunch, Matt takes a sledgehammer to the basement floor and discovers a buried toolbox filled with slender gold bars worth about a million dollars. Detective Sergeant Janice Cleary and Detective Constable Trent Frayne, of the Niagara Constabulary Service, are assigned to investigate the homicide. They determine the victim’s identity: Leonard Bouchard, an ex-con with a history of thefts from construction sites. Cleary and Frayne soon determine that Bouchard had targeted only certain new homes in East Lofthill. They head out to interview Emma and Matt’s next door neighbour, Kim Stephenson, a realtor, who seems to know more than she’s saying. Likewise, when the detectives speak to Emma and Matt, they too appear to be hiding something. Cleary and Frayne discover that another construction equipment thief, Carmine Rizzolo, went missing four years earlier in Niagara and hasn’t been seen since, but they also discover that before he vanished Rizzolo bragged about coming into a lot of cash. Across the border, Emma and Matt take a chance on selling some of their gold at a Buffalo pawn shop—but Matt angrily balks at being lowballed just $200 when the bars are worth closer to $2000 each. The detectives increasingly believe that Carmine Rizzolo’s body may have been dumped in the foundation of an East Fonthill home as it was being built, where he worked. Then another former associate of Rizzolo’s comes to their attention—Steven Rossi, also a construction worker. Rossi has a lot of attitude but not much to say. Matt and Emma, meanwhile, are still looking to sell the gold they found, and decide to take a chance on a local buyer they find on the dark web. They meet Bao “Five” Nguyen in a Niagara Falls parking lot, where he agrees to buy one gold bar and says he’ll buy as many as they want to sell him. After Matt and Emma drive off, Five calls an associate to tell him that their old gang pal Carmine Rizzolo maybe really did find gold bars before he disappeared. Five tells his associate that Matt and Emma won’t be hard to rob, and asks for their home address based on their license plate number. In a flashback to four years earlier, Leonard Bouchard has been sent to East Lofthill to kill Carmine Rizzolo, who is suspected to be a police informant. One night, Bouchard chases Rizzolo back to where Rizzolo is working in the new East Fonthill development. Rizzolo begs to be spared, claiming he stole hundreds of gold bars from a house in Lofthill. Not believing him, Bouchard kills Rizzolo and hides the body. But a police sting operation sees the whole construction theft gang arrested in the GTA, and Bouchard goes to prison for four years. While doing his time, he comes to realize that Rizzolo may have been telling the truth after all, and the gold bars he was talking about may still be hidden somewhere under an East Lofthill basement foundation. When Bouchard is released from prison in September, he buys a metal detector, steals a car, and drives straight down to Niagara to hunt for the gold. Increasingly frustrated by their failure to solve the case, Detectives Cleary and Frayne reluctantly decide to hand the case over to the OPP—until Cleary remembers that the coroner unofficially concluded that Leonard Bouchard died from a broken neck, and that one East Lofthill resident they interviewed talked about taking jujitsu lessons. Then, at closing time, Bao “Five” Nguyen is picked up outside a Lofthill Vietnamese restaurant by none other than Steven Rossi. They head to Matt and Emma’s house, planning to take the gold by force.
EPISODE 10 KUTA BEACH
When she got back from her walk with Milo, Emma found the front door slightly ajar.
And there was a Fiat parked behind their Mini in the driveway.
“Matt?”
She pushed the door open and held the leash as Milo pulled, straining to get into the house.
“Matt?”
One step into the living room and she stopped.
Matt was sitting in the armchair. A young Asian guy was standing beside him. With a gun in his hand.
Emma said, “What the hell’s going on?” Then she recognized the Asian guy. “Matt, did you tell him where we live?”
Five laughed. “You people are so stupid.”
Matt grimaced. “Shut up, Emma.” Blood dripped from his mouth.
Milo barked and Five waved the gun at Emma. “Put the dog somewhere or that will be the last time he makes noise.”
Emma pulled the leash and started for the hall saying, “You’re evil.”
She put Milo in the master bedroom and told him to be quiet.
Walking back into the living room she said, “What do you want?”
“So stupid. What do you think?”
Matt looked steadily at Emma. “I told him it isn’t here.”
She snorted. “We aren’t that stupid. It’s in deposit boxes. At the bank.”
A sound down the hall, steps on the basement stairs.
Steven Rossi walked past Emma into the living room. “He dug it up all right. Even fixed the hole.”
“I told you,” Matt said, “a plumber did that two months ago.”
Five swung hard, hitting the side of Matt’s head with the Glock. Emma saw the previous bruise in the same spot.
“We’re going to leave here with a couple of hundred gold bars, point nine nine nine ounces, from the Royal Canadian Mint to go with the one you already gave me. The only question is whether you’re still alive when we walk out the door.”
Emma gave a bitter laugh. “You’re going to kill us either way, why should we give you the satisfaction.”
Five smiled. She hated his smile now, it had seemed so genuine, like one of the guys in her current K-Pop boy band obsession.
“Yeah, but yo, we don’t have to kill you. You can tell us where it is and we’ll leave. Or we can break every bone in your body until you tell us anyway. Thing is, you are going to tell us.”
Rossi slid behind Emma and grabbed both arms just below the elbow. She was still wearing her winter coat but it was unzipped. He whispered into her ear. “Starting with your wrists.”
“You’re going to kill us anyway.”
Five laughed. “Stupid white girl. You people are the only kind cops care about. We leave two white bodies here they’ll actually investigate. Can’t be havin’ that.”
“They came here,” Emma said, “looking for the guy with the metal detector. The one you killed.”
She saw the flicker of confusion. Five looked past her, at Rossi. “Did you kill your old friend? Do I gotta worry, doing business with Italians?”
Rossi shook his head. “Not me. I don’t know who offed him.”
Five shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. So the cops came and went. Nothin’ to me. So just tell us.”
Emma shrieked as Rossi twisted both her arms behind her back. “Come on, baby. We don’t want to start tearing this place apart—it’ll probably collapse.”
“Okay, okay,” she sobbed. “It’s in the basement.”
Matt yelled, “No!”
Five hit him again hard. Then he jabbed him with the gun. “Get up.”
Matt stood slowly, blood dripping on the carpet. He looked angrily at Emma as Five pushed him past her toward the door to the basement.
She could feel Matt trying to get the message to her to shut up, but she was picking up on something else, too. Something she didn’t want to think about.
Rossi let go of Emma and followed Matt down the stairs.
Five stayed by the door motioning at Emma with the Glock.
“You have big plans for the basement? Putting in a wine cellar and a home theatre?”
Emma pushed past him to the stairs. “Screw you.”
Five laughed and started down after her.
At the bottom of the stairs, as Rossi turned to follow Matt into the unfinished room, Matt lunged, spinning Rossi around and twisting his arm almost out of its socket.
Rossi screamed, trying to twist away, but Matt held on, making a ferocious sound that Emma had never heard.
Then Rossi had a gun in his hand, a small revolver. Still screaming in pain he yelled at Matt to let him go, struggling to point the gun backwards at Matt.
As Five pushed past Emma on the stairs she grabbed two full handfuls of his jacket and shoved, jamming her foot out at the same time, tripping him into a headlong slam onto the concrete floor, face-first. The Glock went spinning.
Rossi twisted harder against Matt’s hold, the two of them crashing into the washing machine. Again Rossi tried to raise the gun, screaming in agony. Just as he brought it level with Matt’s head, Matt flipped him around like they were on a dance floor, reached up with both hands, and snapped his neck.
At the bottom of the stairs Emma jumped on top of Five as he crawled across the concrete, trying to reach the Glock. He was too strong. As Rossi crumpled to the floor, dead eyes open, Five got to the gun. Emma clawed at his head, trying to reach his eyes, but he elbowed her off and stood, pointing the gun at Matt, who had almost reached Rossi’s pistol a few feet away.
“Don’t,” Five said. “That was some pretty cool Bruce Lee shit, my man. Whoa.” He felt at the abrasions on his face, his palm coming away bloody. He looked at Emma. “Did you know he could do that?”
She got to her feet. “Yes. And he’s not done.”
“Oh, he’s done,” Five said. “He’s totally done.” He raised the gun to Matt’s face. “Rossi didn’t do it. Was it you, you killed the poor gentleman came here looking for the gold?”
Matt was silent.
Five cocked his head. “You did, you bad, bad boy.”
Emma expected Matt to deny it, and then she thought he was going along with it to put Five on edge. She watched Matt’s face, she watched his expression change. She could see it in his eyes.
She shook her head. “Why didn’t you tell me.”
“Bet there’s a lot he doesn’t tell you, baby.” Five looked at Emma and smiled. “Like a whole lot.”
Matt looked at her. “I just didn’t want you to worry, I didn’t want you to know, in case you had to lie or something.”
Five nodded and pulled an exaggerated expression. “He was protecting you, see. He just didn’t want you to have to lie to the cops.”
“He came back that night,” Matt said. “You were already asleep. He was outside, I saw him under the streetlight looking at the house. When he walked away I went out to follow him, and...”
Emma and Five waited.
“And I just...snapped. He had a gun. He wasn’t a good person.”
Five shook his head and laughed.
“I’m the only one talking sense here.” He turned to Emma. “Give me the gold and I’ll leave you two to fight about it all night.”
Matt said, “Emma don’t.”
Emma looked at Matt like he was a stranger. “Are you going to kill this guy, too?”
“I’d like to.”
Five laughed again. “You on fire, bro. But I got the gun. You fast, but you ain’t faster than a bullet.”
He turned back to Emma. “Can’t blame him, protecting his castle. No matter how shitty it is. But you’re the smart one, you know the play here. Where is it?”
“Over there.” She pointed at the furnace.
“You trying to melt it down? Gotta be over a thousand degrees for that, bro.” Five motioned with the gun for Emma to go get it. “But my cousin, he’s the man, has the crucible and everything. Blowtorch, a little borax. A few minutes and you have gold soup.”
He tapped the Glock against his face. “But eye protection, always wear those safety glasses yo.”
Matt slumped. “Don’t, Emma. Please.”
She reached behind the furnace, struggling to lift the old toolbox.
“That’s a good girl,” Five purred. “Bring it here.”
“Emma,” said Matt.
She turned, struggling with the weight of it, then losing her balance, dropping it to the floor where it burst open, a wave of slender gold bars fanning across the concrete.
Instinctively Five moved for the gold then caught himself and turned around just in time for Matt’s foot to reach the top of its arc and slam into his face.
The sound of the Glock going off deafened them all. Emma winced at the ringing in her ears.
The round hit Matt in the stomach. He and Five both fell to the floor.
Matt pressed his hands to his abdomen, blood flowing between his fingers, then twisted across the concrete.
Dazed, Five groggily got to his feet and turned to aim at Matt, who was scrambling again for Rossi’s gun, over by the washer.
Five screamed.
Emma’s blast of bear spray hit him full-on in the eyes.
Matt groped for Rossi’s gun, blood-covered fingers slipping on the cement.
“You bitch!” Five blindly turned toward Emma, raising the Glock.
Matt fumbled with the revolver, twisting around and aiming it at Five. “Stop!”
Five struggled to see, turning back to the sound of Matt’s voice. He pointed and fired wildly, pulling the trigger until the magazine was empty. Two rounds hit Matt, slapping him backwards.
But Matt hadn’t dropped Rossi’s revolver. And his vision was clear. He fired all six shots, hitting Five all six times. An acrid stench filled the basement. Five went down and didn’t move. Matt collapsed backwards, dropping the gun.
Emma hurried over to him.
Matt’s breathing had become shallower. Twin rivers of blood flowed from him and from Five, slowly creeping toward the sewer drain between them.
Emma leaned closer. “Matt?”
For a long moment he was silent, looking at her in a daze, then a faint, “Emma.”
“Were you going to dig it up yourself and keep it from me?”
“N-no, no way. I didn’t believe him. About the gold. I thought he—I thought he was some psycho.” His voice was barely audible now.
Emma sat on the floor, back to the wall by the furnace, and picked up one of the bars.
She turned it, watching the reflections.
“It is hypnotic, isn’t it?” She picked up another bar. “You never really know until you hold it, hold a lot of it.”
“Emma.”
“It really is like nothing else.” She laughed, a short, sharp laugh. “It’s the gold standard of gold.”
She broke down in giggles. Then sobs.
“I’m losing my mind. How about you, Matt? Did you lose your mind?”
There was no answer.
A steady dripping was the only sound left in the basement. The blood had reached the drain.
Constable Evans was first on scene, screeching up to the curb and jumping out of her cruiser.
Gun drawn, she started up the driveway but knew she had to wait for at least one more car, one more officer.
Inside the house a dog barked.
The next cruiser seemed to arrive in slow motion.
“Come on,” she said, “come on.”
The cruiser stopped and two male constables got out.
Evans called over. “Shots fired in the basement.”
The older guy nodded. “We heard. Let’s wait for SWAT.”
“A woman called it in, she’s still in there.”
“We should wait.”
“You wait.”
Evans drew her sidearm and moved swiftly toward the front door. It was unlocked.
“Police!”
A voice came from the basement, Evans could barely hear it.
She moved to the stairs and went down cautiously.
The scene was shocking. She assessed it fast. Three bodies on the concrete, two of them bleeding badly. No, not bleeding. There was blood, but it wasn’t flowing any longer.
“Are you injured, ma’am?”
Emma shook her head. “No, I’m fine.”
She was sitting on the floor, her back against the cement wall, her heavy jacket bundled tight.
“Can you stand?”
“I think so.”
“Can you come with me?”
Emma got unsteadily to her feet, straining.
“I think so.”
“Come on, there’ll be an ambulance upstairs, we’ll get you to the hospital.”
Emma stepped towards Evans who had her gun back in her holster and used both hands to steady her.
“It’ll be okay now, you’re okay.”
“I am,” Emma said. “I will be.”
Half an hour later Emma was still in the ambulance when a car pulled up behind it and Cleary and Frayne got out.
Two more ambulances were parked on the street but the paramedics were just chatting, their breath white under the streetlights.
Cleary nodded at the house then looked at Frayne. “You think there’s any evidence they haven’t stepped on?”
Evans walked up. “Detective Sergeant, the woman who called it in is in this ambulance.”
“Thanks Evans. Good work.” Cleary looked at Frayne. “Why don’t you have a look inside.”
Frayne nodded and headed to the house.
Cleary looked at Evans. “Is she still in shock?”
Evans shook her head. “She’s on the phone.”
That surprised Cleary.
She took a few steps and knocked on the back door of the ambulance before opening it and stepping in.
Emma was sitting on the stretcher and said into the phone, “I’ll call you back,” ending the call. “Hi Detective.”
“I was going to ask if you remembered me.”
“I sure do. Where’s your assistant?”
“Detective Constable Frayne has gone to look at your basement.”
Emma frowned. “I’m sorry about that.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“I can tell you what I know.”
“That would be great.”
Emma took a deep breath and let it out with a shrug. She pulled her coat a little tighter.
“It was so weird. I was walking Milo—that’s our dog— and when I got back there were two men here.” Her eyes got big. “They had guns.”
“Did they?”
“Yes.”
“What happened then?”
“They threatened us. They were looking for something.”
“What was it?”
Emma shook her head. “I don’t know.”
“They didn’t say?”
“Not while I was there, maybe before, while I was walking Milo.”
“Right.”
“They made us go in the basement and then Matt, he—”
She started to choke up.
“That’s my husband. He grabbed one guy and he just, he just… It was so fast.”
Cleary nodded. “He broke his neck.”
Emma looked shocked. “Yes, right. And then he went for the guy’s gun and the other guy shot him and then Matt shot him.”
“After he was shot himself?”
“It happened so fast,” Emma said.
“You must be in shock.”
“I don’t know. I’ve never felt anything like this before.”
Cleary paused. “Okay, well, you’re going to the hospital now, get checked out.”
“All right, whatever you say.”
Cleary stepped out of the ambulance and closed the door.
The street was filling up with neighbours.
Constable Evans ducked under the caution tape that had been strung between two police cars in front of the house and led a woman towards Cleary.
“Detective, this is Ms. Karlsson.”
“We’ve met,” Cleary said. “I have no statement for your newspaper at this time.”
“I have something for you, Detective.”
Cleary nodded at Evans who went back to work on the other side of the tape.
“What is it?”
Karlsson had her phone in her hand, which didn’t surprise Cleary at all, but instead of talking to someone she held it out.
“It is video from a doorbell camera.” Her Swedish accent seemed a little more pronounced this time. “The occupants were away for a few months, a lengthy cruise, I understand, and just returned home.”
She turned ninety degrees and pointed directly across the street.
“From that house, right there.”
“Why didn’t they come to us directly?”
Karlsson paused, deciding what to say. “I know these people, socially. We were talking earlier today and they didn’t yet know about the,” she paused, and then said, “the incident.”
“They must be the only ones.”
“It’s old news now,” Karlsson said. “A lot has happened since October. Many new and different rumours since then.”
She tapped on the phone. “Here.”
Cleary watched for a moment. “If that time stamp is right, that’s the night before the body was found.”
“Yes.”
Cleary looked from the image on the phone to Emma’s house—the same view two months apart.
“Is there anything from earlier in the day? Anything showing a man arriving with a metal detector?”
Karlsson grimaced. “My first thought as well. May I?”
She took the phone and swiped at the video a few times, then held it out again.
“This minivan was parked in front of their house for most of the day, blocking the view across the street.”
Cleary shrugged. “Well, half a loaf. Could I borrow this for moment?”
“Please.”
Cleary took the phone and stepped back into the ambulance.
Emma was on her phone again and looked up.
Cleary smiled. “Just one more question.”
Emma whispered into the phone and ended the call. “What is it?”
“This is some video taken the night before the dead man’s body was found at the construction site.”
She held up Karlsson’s phone so Emma could see the image of their Mini pulling into the driveway. “This is two thirty-five in the morning.”
Emma watched the video and then, surprising Cleary, looked hurt rather than surprised.
Clearly stopped the video. “Why didn’t you tell us Matt was out that night.”
Emma looked like she was going to cry but was willing herself not to. “Because it has nothing to do with that guy getting killed.”
“It doesn’t?”
“No.” She paused, started to say something, stopped, then tried again. “Matt was having an affair.” She looked up at Cleary. “I knew about it but I didn’t know what to do.”
Not what Cleary was expecting. “You didn’t confront him?”
“I was going to but I thought he’d stopped seeing her. Or him, I don’t really know.”
“So this wasn’t the only time he’d snuck out after you’d gone to sleep?”
“Oh no,” Emma said. “Not at all. It hadn’t been as often lately, I thought maybe it was over. But every time I thought it was over, it started up again.”
“Has it happened since that night?”
Emma looked like she was thinking about it. “I don’t know. I didn’t want to know.”
Cleary nodded. “Okay, well, we’ll be checking, for sure.”
“What difference does it make now?” Emma said. “Matt’s dead.”
“There’s no statute of limitations on murder,” Cleary said. “Case stays open until we find out who the killer was.”
“One of those men who killed Matt did it.”
“Did they tell you that?”
“Yes.”
It looked to Cleary like Emma was improvising on the fly.
“They said the man, what was his name, Bouchard? They said they killed him and they were going to kill us, too.”
“They said that?”
“Yes,” Emma said. She was sure.
She looked sure.
“And they were looking for something in your house?”
“But there wasn’t anything there,” Emma said.
“Did you search the house?”
“We’ve been living in it for three years, Detective. It was brand new when we moved in, it was empty.”
“Well, we’re going to have to search every inch of it.”
Emma nodded slowly. Cleary couldn’t tell if she was worried or if shock was setting in.
“Of course.”
“You better get to the hospital,” Cleary said.
Emma smiled a little. “Yes, I feel dizzy.”
Cleary stood on the street for a moment. The crowd behind the tape was calm. A few people had dogs on leashes, a few had travel mugs that Cleary doubted were filled with coffee at this time of night.
Frayne came out of the house and walked over. “Forensics just started, they’re going to be in there all night. But get this.”
He scratched his chin.
“There’s an Asian victim. I’m pretty sure he was in the pho place with us tonight, the guy on the other side, by the wall.”
Cleary looked at him. “Huh. Well, everyone needs to eat.”
Frayne nodded. “Right. Guess who the other victim is, aside from the husband. Steven Rossi.”
Cleary raised her eyebrows. “Now isn’t that curious.”
She nodded toward the ambulance. “She says her husband broke one guy’s neck and then he and the other guy shot each other.”
“Her husband’s the jujitsu guy, it’s possible.”
“Make sure they check the guns twice. Three times, make sure they know for sure who handled them.”
Frayne nodded. “What did she say they were looking for?”
“She says she doesn’t know, said they must have talked about it while she was out walking the dog.”
Frayne held up a hand. He was wearing blue nitrile gloves and holding an evidence bag. “She didn’t say anything about gold bars?”
“She did not,” Cleary said. “How many are there?”
“Just this one, so far, on the Asian guy, but we’re still looking.”
“Look thoroughly.”
The ambulance pulled away and they watched it move down the street, lights flashing in competition with the Christmas lights on so many of the houses.
At the hospital Emma had to wait a long time to see a doctor and then it only took a few minutes to get the okay to go home. She was fine. Physically, anyway.
She walked through the jammed emergency room waiting area, and got out her phone to call an Uber when through the windows she saw a pair of women smiling at her and waving. She waved back and walked outside.
It was Kim Stephenson and Caroline the Labradoodle’s owner. Again Emma blanked on her name.
Kim gave Emma a hug, then turned to the older woman.
“Emma, this is my Aunt Catherine. I understand you’ve already met.”
“Please, call me Cathy,” the woman said.
Emma nodded. “Yes, we’ve seen each other at the dog park.”
Cathy nodded firmly. “That’s correct, and I would be pleased if you would be my guest tonight. Surely you won’t be allowed back into your home after—after what has happened.”
“I’d offer,” said Kim, “but I turned my second bedroom into storage. The police said you were brought here in an ambulance. I figured you’d need a ride.”
“Thanks. I don’t even know if I can go home, there were so many cops at my house when I left.”
“You’re in shock,” Kim said. “You wouldn’t want to go back to that house tonight even if you could.”
“I guess not.” Emma was unsteady on her feet.
Cathy moved in to hug her, then gently turned Emma toward the parking lot. “Let’s go, dear. We have Milo in the car.”
Snow was falling, looking pretty under the lights. Emma figured Kim was after the listing for her house. Of course Kim knew that Emma couldn’t keep living there after her husband had been killed in the basement. And she’d be right.
Emma buckled into her seat in Kim’s Range Rover, letting Milo excitedly lick her face.
With the sale of the house and the money she’d get for the gold—maybe from that Buffalo pawnshop guy— she’d be set for a while, probably a very long while. She’d have to look into which countries didn’t have extradition treaties with Canada and were cheap to live in. Somehow Indonesia came to mind. Yes, an early retirement in Bali sounded lovely. They liked dogs, didn't they, the Balinese? Milo would love running with her on Kuta Beach.
She adjusted her coat. With sudden clarity that both frightened and excited her, as Matt and Five’s hearts stopped pumping and their blood slowly ceased dripping into the drain, Emma knew exactly what she had to do. Crouching on the concrete she carefully gathered the spilled gold bars and put them back in the toolbox—all but eighty-three of them. These she wrapped in paper towels from the holder above the laundry tub, then strategically placed them inside the many and voluminous pockets of her jacket. It was “Canada’s finest cold weather expedition coat,” after all, the best that North Face sold in that store in Banff, the winter before the pandemic. They hung heavy on her slender frame, but she managed.
The rest, well, she tucked them away where the cops weren’t likely to look anytime soon—and besides, she wore her dishwashing gloves, so if they did find them her fingerprints wouldn’t be there. Solid plausible deniability. Then she called 911.
As Kim merged onto the 406 she was saying something about how this was going to be a tough Christmas, but that she and Aunt Cathy were there for her, to help Emma get through the trauma.
Emma smiled weakly at her in the rear view mirror.
Thank you, she said. Thank you very much.
