Constable Molly Smith 01 - In the Shadow of the Glacier

want you around me. Never. Do you hear what I’m saying?” Most of the houses on this street were very old, some in very bad repair, broken up into flats, some gentrified to Victorian perfection. The street was moving up in the world. It was more likely that the run-down homes were being fixed up than allowed to fall further into decay. Large walnut trees cast cooling shadows onto cracked sidewalks. A fat marmalade cat streaked across the street to disappear under a crumbling front porch.
    An elderly man was watering a profusion of white and purple annuals in his front garden. He watched them, water streaming from the hose in his hand like a classical statue of a peeing cupid.
    “Don’t talk to me like that, Chrissie,” Charlie said.
    Christa resumed walking. “Get lost, loser.”
    Charlie stopped. She turned around. The smile on his face had died.
    Blotches of red began to pop up on his face. His eyes opened wide, showing too much white, and a vein pulsed at his temple. He reached out.
    Christa took a step back and looked around her. At the far end of the street a car started up and drove away. The gardener had dropped his hose and gone to the back of his house. There was no one else in sight. The sun was hot on the back of her neck.
    Charlie’s fist closed around her arm. He pulled her close, his breath sour in her face. “Molly put you up to this, didn’t she? That bitch.”
    “You’re hurting me. Let go. Please, Charlie.” All her bravado had fled, and she hated the sound of pleading in her voice.
    “What’s going on there?” The gardener had returned, carrying a pair of pruning shears. “Let go of her, you young punk.” He held up the shears.
    Charlie dropped his hand. “Mind your own business, Grandpa. We’re just having a friendly chat, right, Chrissie?”
    “I’m calling the police,” the man shouted.
    “All right, I’m leaving. I’ve got better things to do than stand here arguing. Tell Molly to butt out of what doesn’t concern her, or the Trafalgar cops will be short one officer.”
    Christa watched Charlie saunter up the street, moving in and out of the dappled sunlight. His hips swayed under his oversized jeans as if he owned the neighborhood. He pulled an iPod out of his pocket and fitted it into his ears.
    “Do you want me to call someone, Miss?” the gardener asked.
    She let out a deep breath, and blinked away tears gathering behind her eyes. “No, thank you. He’s gone.”
    “Punks today. Wouldn’t have bothered a girl on the street in my day.” He snapped a dead cane off a rosebush.

Chapter Ten
    Winters had barely replaced the receiver before Smith ran into the detectives’ room. She’d taken off her hat and strands of hair escaped her braid, flying around her head like the golden halo of a mischievous angel. The scowl she’d worn in the parking lot when he’d reprimanded her was gone, and in its place her face was bright with anticipation and enthusiasm. Winters scarcely remembered what it had been like to be that excited about the job.
    “You called, John?” He almost expected her to snap her heels and salute.
    “Take a seat and tell me everything you know about the Grizzly Resort and the Commemorative Peace Garden.”
    She sat in Lopez’s chair and wheeled it across the room, pushing her heels into the floor. “Some people think it’s a bad idea to build a big resort in that area. There’s a creek runs right through there, so it’s kinda like an animal highway. Others say we need the jobs and the resort’ll bring in lots of tourists. Most of those people aren’t from around here.”
    “Do you think the people of Trafalgar are mostly opposed to the resort?”
    “I’d say so. But nobody would kill Montgomery to stop the resort. No point, is there? He’s just the front man, right? These giant corporations have plenty more executives ready to step up to the plate.”
    “Remember that I’ve only been in Trafalgar for a couple of months, Molly. Tell me more. You’re opposed to the resort?”
    “We don’t need more wilderness destroyed, and we don’t need more outsiders coming just ’cause there are jobs here. Oops, sorry. I mean some outsiders are okay.” Her cheeks turned pink. If she was to be an effective officer, Winters thought, she’d have to control that blush.
    “What about the peace garden?”
    “I guess I can can see people coming to blows over that. The town’s divided pretty much in half about the park.”
    “Will