Constable Molly Smith 01 - In the Shadow of the Glacier

finger of his left hand. Tocek, she hadn’t failed to notice, did not.
    John Winters and the Chief Constable came in. “Good job, all of you,” Keller said, radiating stale cigar smoke and looking pleased with the world.
    “Is it over?” Chen asked.
    “Everyone who isn’t spending the night courtesy of the citizens of Trafalgar’s gone home. Sleeping the sleep of the innocent, most of them, I’m sure.”
    “We’ll be on our way, then.” Tocek tossed his cup into the trash. Chen stood up.
    “Appreciate your help,” Keller said, shaking the Mounties by the hand.
    Solway, Evans, and Smith mumbled thanks.
    Tocek looked at Smith. “See you around.” His brown eyes shone, and he winked.
    “Go home,” Keller said. “We’ll debrief in the morning.”
    Evans and Solway left.
    “Molly?”
    “In a minute, sir. What about Harris?”
    “He’s resting in one of our finest cells. The doctor’s seen to him. Just a broken nose. He’s threatening to sue you for police brutality, but I wouldn’t lose any sleep over that if I were you. Good night, Molly.”
    “Night, sir.” She got to her feet.
    “Do you need a ride home?” Winters asked.
    “No thanks, I’ve got my mom’s car.”
    “I saw what happened, Molly. You did good.”
    She tucked a loose strand of hair back into its braid. “I don’t even remember. It’s all a blur.”
    “We’ll get Harris for inciting a riot and for an attempted assault on a police officer,” Winters said.
    “Doesn’t seem like much.”
    “As the lad seems to have a fondness for fire, we’ve taken his truck to the lab and tomorrow Ron Gavin’ll be going over it with a fine-toothed comb.”
    ***
    Lucky and Andy were in the kitchen when Smith got home, but only Sylvester greeted her with any enthusiasm. The bags under Andy’s eyes were heavier than ever, and Lucky’s hair fell around her shoulders in lifeless strands. “Tea?” she said.
    Smith ignored the offer. “What were you playing at tonight, Mom? Do you know that Jane Reynolds almost got hurt, badly?”
    “I helped her into the ambulance. She broke her arm, but she’ll be okay. She’s a tough old bird.”
    “Tough? Tough! Are you crazy?” Rage stoked by the fear that had been building up inside her ever since she arrived at the park boiled over, like a pot of rice left on high heat too long. “What the hell were you playing at? You’ve seen Ashcroft on TV. You’ve seen the sort of blowhards—on both sides—that are invading our town over this. And you and your so called committee, every one of you middle-aged, or older, put yourselves right in the middle of it.”
    “Don’t talk to your mother like that,” Andy said. “Apologize right now.” As if Molly were fourteen and fighting with Lucky over the clothes she wanted to wear to school.
    Smith smashed her fist on the table. The salt shaker fell over. No one bothered to pick it up.
    “Stay out of it, Dad. You weren’t there.” But childhood habits took over and she lowered her voice. “Come on, Mom. It was midnight. You didn’t just happen to gather your friends and go down to the park to enjoy the night air. You knew something was up.”
    “That Harris character told me to stay away because they were planning a demonstration.” Lucky blew her nose. “I won’t let his type intimidate me.”
    “Planning a demonstration.” Smith’s voice dropped even further. “Oh, yeah, he told you to stay away like I’d toss a steak to Sylvester and tell him to stay away. But never mind the fact that it was a trap so obvious that they’d be embarrassed to write it into a movie, you knew they were planning a demonstration but didn’t call the police. You didn’t even tell me. If those two Mounties hadn’t been passing when they got the call, things could have been worse, a lot worse. Dawn Solway was there all by herself.” Behind her eyes Smith saw Solway standing in the road, trying to be strong, and so relieved to see reinforcements arrive.
    “Lucky,” Andy said. “Why didn’t you tell Molly what you knew?”
    “Because I didn’t think. I made an error of judgment, okay?” Sylvester whined and put his paws up on her knees. She shoved him away.
    “You’d better not make any more errors of judgment. This thing isn’t over yet, not by a long shot, and I don’t need my own mother making my job any more difficult than it is.”
    “Your job,” Lucky said. “How do you think I felt, knowing that my own daughter was the ‘cop