Authors: Anthony Bidulka
hear me over their growing moans, I managed to
reach the back door and let myself out with little
noise.
414 — F l i g h t o f A q u av i t
I should go home, I said to myself. It’s
Christmas day, I was expecting a house full of
guests in a few measly hours, Loverboy was
behind bars, what else did I want? And just as I
rounded the corner of the building to head for my
car I saw it coming.
Danger.
The green Intrepid.
I pulled back and felt my chest begin to heave.
I had only seconds to react. I dove behind Daniel’s
black BMW just as Hugh pulled up near the back
door of the building. What the hell was he doing
here? Who had sent him? Whatever the answers,
this could not be a good thing for the two men
upstairs.
I heard the door of the car open and close as
Hugh stepped out of the vehicle. I laid flat against
the frozen ground, my right cheek smarting from
the chunks of gravel and ice against it, and
watched his black-booted feet move to the rear of
his car. With as much stealth as I could muster, I
pulled myself up and dared a peek over the hood
of the BMW. I was just in time to see Hugh pull a
rifle from his trunk.
I reacted, smartly or not, brawn over brain.
I had surprise on my side when I leapt, cougar-
like, from behind Daniel’s car onto Hugh’s back. I
may have even growled a little bit. Hugh went
down like sack of potatoes, but unlike a bag of
spuds, he was ready for bear. He hunkered up
with amazing speed, throwing me back far
enough to give him a chance to turn around and
face his aggressor. Unfortunately my original
Anthony Bidulka — 415
attack had not knocked the rifle out of his hands
and, now that the shock of the unanticipated
assault was dissipating, he was coming to realize
he had a weapon of destruction in his hands and
could use it against me. I couldn’t let that happen.
I rushed him again. Rifles are okay weapons I sup-
pose, but not as agile and responsive as smaller
handguns. Before he was able to manoeuvre the
gun into a pointing-at-me position, I was on him,
the gun between us flat against both our bellies. I
used it as leverage and took hold of it at each end,
allowing me to lean back and bring the full weight
of my knee up and into his crotch. His eyes, only
inches from mine, went wide and for a second he
just stared at me in disbelief. Unfair fighting?
Below the belt? You bet, asshole! I’ll pull your hair
too if I have to.
Hugh fell away from me and down to his
knees, dropping the rifle, grasping for gonads
before they totally receded up into him. I used the
tender moment to grab onto his shoulders and,
utilizing my knee one more time, made contact
with the left side of his chin. He let out a yowl of
pain so loud I wondered if Daniel and Herb
would hear it three floors above us. I scooped up
his gun and watched as he rolled onto his back. I
ran to the trunk of his car hoping to find some-
thing to tie him up with. If not I’d have to keep
with the knee bashing until he passed out and I
wasn’t a fan of that level of brutality.
I found what I needed all too easily. Not only
was there an abundance of rope in the Intrepid’s
trunk, but also a large roll of burlap and a mid-
416 — F l i g h t o f A q u av i t
size plastic tarp. I had the sinking feeling Hugh
was planning on spending Christmas day trans-
porting bodies.
I made quick work of the rope, expertly hog-
tying Hugh where he lay moaning. I retrieved the
rifle from where I’d left it leaning against the car
and and headed inside. I had to warn Daniel and
Herb, in case more Hughs were on the way. As I
reached the door I shot a last look over my shoul-
der at the captive, lying there, shivering in the
cold. Pitiful? Not quite. But I couldn’t just leave
him there like that. I ran back and threw some
burlap and the tarp over him. That done, I entered
the DGR&R building.
By the time I made it upstairs again I’d expect-
ed the two men to be
en flagrante delicto
on the car-
pet in Daniel’s office. But when I peeked into the
atrium from the hallway, instead of having moved
inside the office, they’d moved nearer the centre
of the atrium where…
And instantly I knew.
Daniel Guest was about to fall three floors to
his death. Hugh was here to help dispose of the
body. And, if Daniel’s body was ever recovered
from wherever they planned to stash it, he’d be in
a dishevelled state with alcohol in his system. Was
it an accident or suicide? A seemingly stray but
well-timed comment from his grieving best friend
and business partner would hint at some mental
anguish over the sorry state of his marriage. No
one would think too much more about it.
I pulled back my head and thrust forward the
barrel of the rifle. In a he-man kind of voice and
Anthony Bidulka — 417
with the best Australian accent I could muster, I
called out, “I’m here.”
At first there was silence except for some furtive
rustling of clothing. Then I heard Daniel whisper-
ing, “Who the hell is that?”
A hesitation.
Then, “You asshole! I told you to stay hidden
until I called you.” Herb.
Gotya, jerk off.
I stepped forward, revealing myself to the two
men. They were standing near the atrium railing,
too close to it for my comfort, staring in my direc-
tion, bewildered at my appearance, but for very
different reasons. “Sorry,” I said. “I’ve never been
very good at following orders.”
Daniel spoke first. “Russell. Have you gone
crazy? What are you doing here?”
I had to give him that. I probably looked a lit-
tle bit nuts, standing there brandishing a rifle, my
hair dishevelled and with fresh bruises and cuts
from my scuffle with Hugh.
He tried a nervous laugh as he said, “I know
you think Loverboy could be someone I work
with, but really, man, breaking in here like this, on
Christmas day…come on!”
I looked at Herb whose eyes were whirling in
his head as he tried to figure a smooth way out of
this one. “Care to explain, Herb?”
“Russell,” from Daniel again. “Herb is not
Loverboy. Okay, he and I had an affair earlier this
year; I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about that. But you
didn’t need to know. It had nothing to do with
why I hired you. As a city councillor, in order to
418 — F l i g h t o f A q u av i t
survive politically in this town, Herb can’t afford
to have something like that get out. You couldn’t
know. No one can know. You’ve got to understand
that. He is not Loverboy.”
“I know he’s not. Loverboy was arrested this
morning.”
“Thank God,” Herb uttered, giving Daniel an
empathetic nod. Yeah right.
“Wh…what? Who? Who was he?” Daniel
asked.
“Yes, tell us,” Herb said.
It was just what Herb wanted, a discussion
about Loverboy to divert attention away from
himself.
“Why don’t you first explain to us about
Hugh,” I said, ticking my head towards Hugh’s
rifle in case he’d forgotten.
“Who’s Hugh?” Daniel asked.
“I have no idea,” Herb said. His hands were
down by his thighs clenched into fists. Preparing
to fight? Ah, I got a firearm here!
“He’s not coming,” I said to Herb. “He’s tied up
downstairs waiting for the cops.” Actually I hadn’t
called the police yet, but he didn’t need to know
that.
Daniel turned on his partner and said, “What’s
going on, Herb? Who were you expecting?”
Herb obviously wasn’t quick on his feet when
it came to thinking his way out of an unexpected
confrontation. Not a good feature in a future
mayor. So I helped him out a bit. “Herb was the
first person you told about being blackmailed,
wasn’t he, Daniel?”
Anthony Bidulka — 419
“Yes,” he said. “The only person aside from
you and Beverly.”
“But you told him before you even hired me.
Was he for or against the idea?”
Daniel didn’t have to think long. “He hated the
idea. I couldn’t quite understand why, but he tried
to convince me not to do it. He wanted me to just
pay and be done with it.”
“I’m thinking…and by the way, Herb, just hop
in and stop me if I’m wrong about any of this,” I
said with a sideways glance at Dufour. “I’m
thinking he was worried that a PI snooping
around in your private matters would uncover
your affair. An affair that ended when Herb decid-
ed to take a run at the mayor’s chair.”
Daniel looked at me and then at Herb, back at
me, then Herb. “I promised you I’d keep your
name out of it. And I did that. I didn’t tell Russell
about us.”
But I bet he did tell Beverly. That’s what she
thought I needed to know.
“I know how much your political career means
to you, Herb,” Daniel said. “I’d never do anything
to jeopardize that, you know that.”
“I know, Danny, I know,” Herb said in a low
voice, as if he didn’t want me to hear. “But I could-
n’t take the risk. You couldn’t promise that, you
couldn’t control everything this joker did.”
Hey!
“So he came after me,” I said. “He couldn’t con-
vince you not to hire me, but maybe he could con-
vince me not to be hired. So he rounded up a local
thug, Hugh, and together they tried some scare
420 — F l i g h t o f A q u av i t
tactics on me. Remember the chase on the landfill
road I told you about?”
Daniel simply nodded. The two men were now
avoiding each other’s gazes, standing before me
emanating guilt, fear, anger, resentment, fury, so
heavy it filled the air like bad cologne.
“But I took the case any way. Which I’m sure
pissed him off. So all he could do was act the sup-
portive business partner and keep as much in the
loop about what was going on in the investigation
as he could. He’d failed to dissuade you or me, the
only way to make it all go away, was to stop the
blackmailer himself.”
“But we all wanted that!” Daniel said.
“Not exactly,” Herb shot back. “You started
crowing about not paying him or negotiating a
better deal! And your detective I’m sure would
have gotten the police involved somehow. I need-
ed the blackmailer gone! For good! Your way he
would just keep on coming back to haunt us. And
if the cops got called in there’d be no saying what
they’d dig up about you…about us. How could
you expect me to run this city, have any respect, if
they discovered my involvement? There’s no way.”
Daniel’s face began to crumble as the horrid
truth began to dawn on him. “I…I told you about
James Kraft. I told you he was, without any doubt,
the blackmailer. I told you about Russell going to
New York to find him. I…you…”
“It would have been perfect, Danny,” Herb said,
almost pleadingly. His fist making had stopped
and he was holding out a tentative hand to his ex-
lover, a hand that was being soundly rebuffed. “If it
Anthony Bidulka — 421
had turned out right, if James Kraft was
Loverboy—like you swore he was—you would
have thanked me for getting rid of him. It’s only
because it got all fucked up—because you were
wrong about the kid—that you’re pissed off!”
“Don’t blame me for any of this!” Daniel railed
at the other man. “I sent Russell to find out for
sure if James was Loverboy and find some way to
convince him to stop. I didn’t send him—or any-
one else—to kill him!” Daniel grabbed onto his
forehead as if struck with a migraine. “Oh shit, the
poor kid! Oh shit!” Tears were forming in Daniel’s
eyes. “Herb, you son of a bitch! You bastard! You
killed him!”
Herb did not deny the charge.
I kept on, “Then, you got back home, thinking
you’d put an end to both the blackmail and my
investigation, only to find out Loverboy was still
alive and well and actively pursuing Daniel.”
Herb sniffed loudly, glared at me and again
began with the fist-making.
“You couldn’t convince Daniel not to hire me,
you couldn’t stop me from taking the case, you’d
killed the wrong Loverboy, there was only one
thing left to do to stop the whole thing,” I said.