little doubt in his voice.
“He called me Officer Goldstein, Elliot. The first thing he said to me was, ‘I’m glad we finally get to meet face to face. It’s been much too long.’
“Finally, get to meet? Much too long? We’ve only been working this case for four days now. Why would he say that if we’ve only been working the case for four days? Why would he know me as Officer Goldstein?”
Elliot watched the veins on Rivka’s neck distend as she was making her case and was worried.
“I don’t know, Riv. I don’t know.”
Chapter 36
“I never told you what happened. I never told you about the Stungun case and why I left the force.”
“You’ve had a tough day. You have your reasons for doing what you did, and I don’t need to know them. “
Rivka ignored him, sat back on the couch and stared up at the ceiling.
“I walked the downtown beat for twelve years. I loved that job. I knew every business owner and vagrant from St Laurent to Atwater, and they knew me. I felt I’d found my calling,” Rivka said distantly.
“After eight or nine years, I’d paid my dues and started being noticed within the department as someone with a future. I guess I caught the eye of the Brass, and they got it into their heads that it would be good for the force if I were more visible, so they sent Captain Andrea Brebouef to recruit me. I was good in front of a camera; I was a woman and a Jew: a Triple Crown winner in their eyes. They wanted to make me the face of the force, the new police. That was all flattering, but I had no intention of being a poster child for the law enforcement. I wanted to serve and protect, not rub elbows with dignitaries and smile for photo ops. After I declined Captain Brebouef for a couple of years, they changed their tactics and offered me a spot in the high profile, major crimes division as a detective. Even though this was more appealing than being just a face, I was quite happy where I was. I told Brebouef politely that I wasn’t interested at this time. And that was the end of it; until the Stungun Killer.
“In February of 2012, a woman was found raped and murdered in the east end. She had been tased, raped, her neck was then broken and her body dumped in an alley about a kilometer east of Olympic stadium. The press reported it, but it was just another murder and didn’t attract much attention.”
“I remember,” Elliot said quietly.
“Three days later, another body was discovered, this time, south of downtown, in the Pointe. Like the first, tased, raped, neck broken and dumped. When the press got hold of this one, they made the connection immediately and put it on the front page of every newspaper in the country. Nothing makes headlines like a serial killer. Different papers used different names for the killer, but the name that stuck was the Stungun Killer. It rolled off the tongue well and sold lots of papers. I took an interest in the story, as did every cop in the area, but my involvement was limited to being on the lookout for anything or anyone who caught my eye. The third victim was six days later. She was a seventeen-year-old student on her way home from a late class. The same MO. Tased, raped, killed and found in a dumpster at a construction site in Hampstead. The only difference was, she was my niece. I got the call at 10:30 p.m. From my captain. He knew we were related and gave me a heads-up before it hit the media. First thing I did was call my sister and then, on the way over to her house, I called Brebouef from the car. I was still shaking from the news and told Brebouef that I’d take the detective job on the condition that I was put on the Stungun Killer case. Usually, they’ll cite conflict of interest to have a cop investigate a relative’s death, but they were horny to get me, so they rationalized the situation by stating that I’d be an assisting detective and wouldn’t be responsible for any decisions. I’d do whatever got me closer
“He called me Officer Goldstein, Elliot. The first thing he said to me was, ‘I’m glad we finally get to meet face to face. It’s been much too long.’
“Finally, get to meet? Much too long? We’ve only been working this case for four days now. Why would he say that if we’ve only been working the case for four days? Why would he know me as Officer Goldstein?”
Elliot watched the veins on Rivka’s neck distend as she was making her case and was worried.
“I don’t know, Riv. I don’t know.”
Chapter 36
“I never told you what happened. I never told you about the Stungun case and why I left the force.”
“You’ve had a tough day. You have your reasons for doing what you did, and I don’t need to know them. “
Rivka ignored him, sat back on the couch and stared up at the ceiling.
“I walked the downtown beat for twelve years. I loved that job. I knew every business owner and vagrant from St Laurent to Atwater, and they knew me. I felt I’d found my calling,” Rivka said distantly.
“After eight or nine years, I’d paid my dues and started being noticed within the department as someone with a future. I guess I caught the eye of the Brass, and they got it into their heads that it would be good for the force if I were more visible, so they sent Captain Andrea Brebouef to recruit me. I was good in front of a camera; I was a woman and a Jew: a Triple Crown winner in their eyes. They wanted to make me the face of the force, the new police. That was all flattering, but I had no intention of being a poster child for the law enforcement. I wanted to serve and protect, not rub elbows with dignitaries and smile for photo ops. After I declined Captain Brebouef for a couple of years, they changed their tactics and offered me a spot in the high profile, major crimes division as a detective. Even though this was more appealing than being just a face, I was quite happy where I was. I told Brebouef politely that I wasn’t interested at this time. And that was the end of it; until the Stungun Killer.
“In February of 2012, a woman was found raped and murdered in the east end. She had been tased, raped, her neck was then broken and her body dumped in an alley about a kilometer east of Olympic stadium. The press reported it, but it was just another murder and didn’t attract much attention.”
“I remember,” Elliot said quietly.
“Three days later, another body was discovered, this time, south of downtown, in the Pointe. Like the first, tased, raped, neck broken and dumped. When the press got hold of this one, they made the connection immediately and put it on the front page of every newspaper in the country. Nothing makes headlines like a serial killer. Different papers used different names for the killer, but the name that stuck was the Stungun Killer. It rolled off the tongue well and sold lots of papers. I took an interest in the story, as did every cop in the area, but my involvement was limited to being on the lookout for anything or anyone who caught my eye. The third victim was six days later. She was a seventeen-year-old student on her way home from a late class. The same MO. Tased, raped, killed and found in a dumpster at a construction site in Hampstead. The only difference was, she was my niece. I got the call at 10:30 p.m. From my captain. He knew we were related and gave me a heads-up before it hit the media. First thing I did was call my sister and then, on the way over to her house, I called Brebouef from the car. I was still shaking from the news and told Brebouef that I’d take the detective job on the condition that I was put on the Stungun Killer case. Usually, they’ll cite conflict of interest to have a cop investigate a relative’s death, but they were horny to get me, so they rationalized the situation by stating that I’d be an assisting detective and wouldn’t be responsible for any decisions. I’d do whatever got me closer