Constable Molly Smith 01 - In the Shadow of the Glacier

people. Dad only wants to keep the store going, and to get along with everyone. Mom might be living in the past sometimes, but the things she believes in are so important to her.”
    “I thought as much. It’s tough, doing our job in a town this small. Where everyone knows everyone else. Where we have family, childhood friends, neighbors. But we’re still the police and we have a responsibility.”
    The word “we” sounded nice in her ear. But it wouldn’t be long before she was no longer part of Winters’
we
. She started crying again. A young couple passed, holding hands, smiling at each other with that stupid smile that told everyone in the world that they were newly in love. They paused in front of the bench and then scurried on. In other circumstances, Smith might have laughed to imagine what they must be thinking to see a police officer crying her heart out in the summer sun.
    “He filmed it,” she said.
    “I noticed. It’s going to be bad, Molly. Probably very bad. I’d tell you that you shouldn’t have said a word and just walked away, but you know that. If someone like Ashcroft insulted Eliza, and I knew he was planning on slandering her all over national TV, I’d probably deck the guy. So I won’t criticize you.”
    “Thanks,” she mumbled. She twisted her sodden scrap of a tissue between her fingers.
    “It’s ten to three. Mop your face and gird your loins, as I believe they say in the classics. You have to tell the chief what happened.”
    “I can’t.”
    Winters stood up. “Whether you can or not is irrelevant. You will tell him the moment you walk into the station. You want him to see you on TV tonight without being prepared?”
    “No.” She got to her feet. Her boots felt like lead weights holding her down. Perhaps she should just go home now. Crawl into bed, grab Jenny, the Cabbage Patch doll she’d been given for Christmas when she was ten, pull the covers over her head and never come out.
Why, why did I ever think I could be a cop
?
    “Let’s go,” Winters said.
    She wiped her nose on her sleeve. “I would have punched that asshole into the ground if you hadn’t shown up. They’re going to show it tonight, so what does it matter what I say to the Chief. You can prepare him.”
    “If that’s what you want,” Winters said. “I’m going back to my car. I have work to do. I’ll drop you at home, or I’ll take you to the station. Or I’ll leave you here. Your choice, Molly, your choice.”
    He walked up the hill to the parking lot. A colorful beach ball tumbled across the lawn toward him. He scooped it up and tossed it to a little girl with her finger in her mouth. She grabbed the ball and ran.
    Smith took a deep breath and followed him. Might as well face the chief today. He’d be firing her once he’d seen
Fifth Column
.

Chapter Twenty-six
    A list of bike thefts in the area was waiting on his computer. Smith had stopped crying on the drive back and had scuttled off to the washroom to wash her face and compose herself before going to see the Chief Constable. Jim Denton had given her a quizzical look and been about to say something, but Winters shook his head behind Smith’s back, and the question changed to a greeting.
    Winters didn’t wait to see if she knocked on the CC’s door. She would either confess, or not. If she ran from this, her career would be finished. And that was up to her. Stupid thing to do, let the press get to her, but she was young and very green.
    He settled down to read incident reports. He’d also asked for reports from the Mounties and other towns in the Kootenays. It didn’t take long to see that in the last four months the number of bike thefts in Trafalgar was sky high compared to a year before, and compared to other towns nearby. He sifted through the reports, looking for something, anything, to focus on. There was nothing obvious—bikes were snatched pretty much any day of the week, any time of day. Almost always from the downtown streets, though, very few from the newer residential areas higher up the mountain. He picked up the phone. “Jim, is Molly still in the station?”
    “No. She was in with the boss for about twenty minutes, then left for her shift. You gonna tell me what that was about?”
    “You’ll find out soon enough. Ask her to drop in next time she passes this way, will you.”
    “Sure.”
    Winters turned back to the reports. Detective Lopez had worked hard on this file, but bike theft was notoriously hard