The Killer Trail (29 page)

The caller identified himself as a guard at the Pre-Trial Correctional Centre. “Are you Chris Ryder?”

“Yeah. Why?” Chris' heart hammered in his chest.
What
the hell has Ray done now?

“We have a Ray Owens here who wants to talk with his brother. We've been instructed to supervise his calls, and you're on his no-contact list unless you want to hear from him. Are you his brother?”

This has to be some kind of sick joke.
Reluctantly he forced out the words. “Yeah, I'm his brother.”

“Will you accept a call from him?”

Chris hesitated. He didn't want to accept
anything
from Ray and he wasn't in the mood for any more of Ray's twisted games. At the same time, he was curious as to why he was calling.

“Mr. Ryder, are you still there?”

“I'm still here.”

“Will you accept a call from Ray Owens?”

“Yeah, put him through.”

There was a clicking sound, followed by a brief silence and then, “Ryder? How's my famous brother?”

“What do you want, Ray?”

Ray snickered. “I heard about the excitement at your apartment building and naturally I had to make sure you were okay.”

“Get to your point or I'm hanging up.”

More laughter. “I had some excitement too. Seems the late great Charles Longville was not very happy with the likes of me. But as the saying goes, you can't keep a good man down. And I hear Longville got what was coming to him.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Oh, I guess you haven't heard, what with being in hospital and all. Our man, Charles in Charge, took one for the team. Which means, dear brother, that you have moved up a notch in my to-do list, and I will admit you're becoming a worthy adversary.”

Chris felt a raging headache coming on and walked to his bathroom in search of an ibuprofen. Grabbing the television remote, he flipped through channels until he found a local station highlighting breaking news about the murder of Charles Longville. Stunned, he thought back to the conversation he'd had with Sergeant Ryan earlier that day. It looked like Longville's criminal activities had finally caught up with him, and his RCMP snitch had him killed because his ties to organized crime made him too much of a risk to his associates. Chris hoped fervently that Longville's death signaled an end to any interest they might have with him.

“Hey, Ryder, you still there? Or am I calling you at a bad time?” Ray's sarcastic voice interrupted Chris' thoughts. Chris looked with surprise at the phone still in his hand; he had forgotten about it. Time to hang up—but not before igniting some fireworks of his own.

“Listen, Ray. I know you're pretty bored, but you'd better get used to your new home because you're going to be spending a whole lot of time there. I have to go, so I'll let you get back to your cell.”

There was silence on the other end. For an instant, Chris wondered if he'd hung up. Then Ray responded coldly, “I'll make you a promise, Ryder. I won't be spending much time here. I'm looking forward to my day in court, and I'm absolutely sure I won't be doing any hard time. And when I'm finished in court, you and the fucking IFP will be the laughing stock of the goddamn country.”

“And how do you figure that, Ray?”

“Just you wait and see,
asshole!
”

Chris could sense that Ray was on the verge of a meltdown. “Sounds to me like you're getting upset. Anything bothering you? Maybe you need to take an anger management course. I hear they have those in prison.”

“
Fuck you,
Ryder. You're the reason I'm in this hole, and I promise you'll pay! Big time!”

“Me? Last time I checked, it was you who pulled the trigger on James Carrier. Don't try to pull me into your twisted little life. You're the only one responsible.”

“You got all the breaks! Everything was given to you on a silver fucking platter while I've had to fight to take what is mine. I—”

“Come on, Ray, we all deal with the hand we're given. My—”

“They chose
you
, Ryder, over
me.
You don't know what that's like...
but you soon will
!
”
Ray screamed so loudly that Chris thought the guard would terminate the call. “You had a family, while I was shunted around foster homes like a leper, a nobody,
a piece of shit
. And I got the shit kicked out of me everywhere I went—at home, at school. And it
pissed me off!”

Ray took a deep breath, then added more calmly, “But you know what I did with all that anger? As you mindfuckers like to say, I found an
outlet
for it—I learned to fight and started hitting back. The bullied became the bully, and I've never looked back. Nothing gives me more
fucking
satisfaction than unleashing my rage on others, and seeing their pain. And I'll tell you something else. I learned to rely on no one but myself. I got used to being alone. I embraced it. In fact, you want to know something? I prefer being alone.”

He lowered his voice almost to a whisper. “I'll let you in on a little secret, Ryder. I'm going to show you what it's like to be alone. You'll learn to embrace it too. You're going to die a pathetic old man—just like
our
old man. I heard you saw him recently. Hah, I've got plans for him too.”

“Why, Ray? What will that prove?” Chris found himself wondering why he wanted to understand Ray and why, in particular, he wanted to help Ray understand the consequences of his actions.

“It'll complete the cycle, Ryder. We're born alone, and we die alone. In the end, nothing matters worth
shit
.”

“What matters, Ray, is what we do with the time in between. That is our choice. Your choice. My choice. And we live with the consequences of those choices.”

“You don't get it, do you? My choice is to take
away
your choice, brother. I'm going to take away everything you've got. Your family—”

“You leave my family out of this!
You hear me
?”

“Who needs the anger management courses now?” Ray howled with laughter. “But yeah, you brought up a good point. Maybe I should look into taking some courses while I'm here. I wonder whether your fuck-buddy, Stephanie, will be running any courses. I hear she's coming out this way.”

The blood rushed from Chris' head. His legs would no longer support him and he collapsed onto his couch.
Oh my
God, the bastard's going after Stephanie.
He desperately tried to reassure himself that every precaution would be taken to ensure Stephanie and Ray would never cross paths at Corrections Canada. He'd suspected all along that this was how Ray operated in terrorizing his victims, but it was small comfort now to have pegged him so accurately
. Get control
of yourself! Don't let Ray win!
He took a deep breath. “It's good that you're thinking about your future, but it's going to be behind bars. And since you've been so full of promises, I'll make you one. I promise that I'll do everything under the sun to keep you locked up and away from my family.” Chris heard the guard in the background giving Ray the two-minute warning to wrap up his conversation.

Then Ray was back on the line. “We'll soon see. I'll be out, and before you know it, we'll be catching up on old times. Who knows? Maybe you can introduce me to your daughter. It's Ann Marie, isn't it?”

Chris placed the phone an arm's length away and took several deep breaths to keep from losing control. He knew he had to change his tactics with Ray, to not react to his threats. “That's right. Keep on talking. The difference is, I have a life and you're gonna
get
life.” Ray's cursing cheered him immensely. Chris felt as if he'd been sparring with a master and had finally uncovered his strategy and gained the upper hand. “You can play all the games you want. But we both know I'm right. You're going to jail for a long time. You'd better get used to it.”

“This isn't over, Ryder.
It isn't fucking over!
” Ray screamed.

Chris said calmly, “Actually, Ray, it is today.”

And then he hung up.

Long after he'd hung up the phone, Chris continued thinking about Ray. He wasn't surprised that Ray refused to accept any responsibility for his actions, but it concerned him that Ray personally blamed him—Chris—for all his problems. And Chris knew two things for sure: Ray's way of seeking revenge involved going after his family; and Ray would never give up or go down without a fight.

It was fate that brought Ray crashing into his world. And for the foreseeable future, their fates would be intertwined. But so what? He'd survived everything that had been thrown his way over the last two weeks and had emerged with a newfound inner strength and an emerging sense of hope that when he next crossed paths with Ray, he'd be ready.

Chris still had the phone in his hand when it rang again. Suspecting it was Ray calling back, he resisted the impulse to fling the phone across the room. Instead, he calmly pressed the talk button and waited for his caller to identify himself.

“Chris? Is everything okay?” came Stephanie's voice.

Chris was relieved it was not Ray, and surprised to hear from Stephanie. It took him a few seconds to refocus his thoughts. “Sorry about that, Stephanie. How are you?” He exhaled deeply and his heart rate slowly returned to normal.

“Never mind me. How are
you
doing? I called the hospital, but they said you'd already been discharged.”

“Oh, you know, a little shaken up, but I'll be all right. It's going to be okay. It really is.”

“You sound... different.”

Chris knew Stephanie could read him better than anyone. “I
feel
different, Stephanie. But in a good way.” Chris didn't know how to elaborate any further at that moment, so he didn't.

Stephanie broke the silence. “Chris, I'd like to see you.”

He detected a peculiar tone in her voice. “I'd like to see you, too. Do you want to get together for coffee tomorrow?” Her silence startled him. “Stephanie, are—”

“I need to see you today, Chris.”

“Okay. Today would be great. Where are you? I can—”

“I'm outside your building. Can you buzz me in?”

The wait for Stephanie's elevator to reach his floor was the longest two minutes of Chris' life. As he stood in the open doorway of his apartment, his mind raced through a million possible reasons for her visit. Finally Stephanie emerged from the elevator and walked down the hallway toward him. His heart sank at the look of uncertainty clouding her face.

Before he had a chance to say anything, Stephanie said, “Chris, I came here against my better judgment. I really don't know if this is the right thing for me to do.” She stood with one foot planted inside Chris' apartment door, the other in the hallway. “I
love
you. And right now, I feel that I want to be with you always.” Tears glistened in her eyes. “But I'm afraid of how I'm going to feel about this tomorrow.”

Chris whispered softly into her ear, “I love you, too, Stephanie. We can deal with tomorrow, tomorrow.” He wrapped his arms around her and led her into his apartment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This book would not have been written without the enduring support of so many amazing people.

Thanks to Barbara Carew, Alan Carew, Tanya Carew, Lauren Carew, Matthew Carew, Andrew Pike, Nicole Reid, T.Rae Mitchell, Tony Mitchell (Original Mix Design), Dion Tilley (Standard Rich and Famous), Cheryl Freedman, Elaine Freedman, Robin Spano, Garry Ryan, Debra Purdy Kong, Raquel Larsen, John Thistle, Donna Proctor, Rob Proctor, Leanne Wilson, Don Kerr, Paul Matwychuk, Matt Bowes, Greg Vickers, Gary Wilson, and the staff at NeWest Press, LeeAnne Meldrum, Eugene Wang, Bryna Dominguez, Roger Sasaki, Lynda Jordan, Shirley Skidmore, Crime Writers of Canada, Crime Writers Association, and the Federation of BC Writers. I sincerely apologize to anyone I may have missed this go around. A huge “Thank You” goes out to booksellers and readers!