“You know what else? I did a bit of snooping. Okay, a lot of snooping. And I found a recording. From that night.”
“What are you talking about?”
I hold his gaze for a long time. I see the moment it begins to dawn on him. His face goes slack and totally bloodless. He tries to swallow. His eyes water. “You mean...that night at the ski team lodge?”
“You know exactly what I mean.” My voice is soft, quiet. “Someone recorded the drugging and assault on a phone. They recorded who was there that night. Sound and everything. All those kids who said it never happened—they’re all there. On that recording. Daisy Rittenberg was also at the party. She saved it. She has kept it locked in a safe all these years, and now I have a copy on my phone.”
His mouth opens. No words come.
“I don’t know what I am to you, Boon—”
“You’re my friend, Kit. I’m your friend. Best friend.”
“I don’t know what truly drove you to seek me out in the coffee shop that day, or why you have tried so desperately to be my friend. Or why you work so hard to be so nice. So kind. Maybe I can guess. Shame. Guilt. Maybe you were afraid that if you were the only one who spoke up and told the police what you witnessed, you would be bullied to death and not survive the year you still had left at school. Maybe you were afraid those guys would tell the world and your parents you were gay. So you hid. You kept quiet. You kept your head down. You helped perpetuate evil. But all this time, you knew. You could have saved me. Maybe even saved my baby.”
“Kit, please. I can explain. I can—”
“All I know, Boon, is you owe me. You owe me big. Not just for staying silent, but for deceiving me all this time.”
I reach into my bag for my phone, and I make him watch the recording.
MAL
November 2, 2019. Saturday.
Mal reaches for her coffee and takes another sip. It’s 5:55 a.m., and she and her team are assembled in the incident room. She didn’t sleep last night and is running on pure adrenaline boosted by caffeine.
“Now that we’ve located the Norths and identified the Rittenbergs, we’re working on the assumption Kit Darling is our assault victim,” Mal says as she sets her coffee down. “We’ve sent personal items from Darling’s apartment to a private lab along with blood samples from the crime scene so a DNA comparison can be expedited. We should have preliminary results before nightfall today.”
Benoit says, “Vanessa and Haruto North so far appear to have no direct involvement, since they are out of the country, but it is their house, and Darling is their maid. What we do have is a direct link between the Rittenbergs, the crime scene at the Glass House, and Kit Darling. What we need is motive. Opportunity. Means. We need that rug. We need that Subaru Crosstrek. We need DNA from both Rittenbergs to definitively place them inside the house. And we need to search Rose Cottage and impound and search that Audi. Our goal is to find additional evidence that will secure us those warrants.”
“What about the mystery pregnant woman that Beulah Brown thought was Vanessa North? And the woman who visits the Pi Bistrowith Daisy Rittenberg who Binty believes is Vanessa North?” asks Jack. “And the woman Daisy Rittenberg says invited them for dinner at the Glass House?”
“We’ll show Ty Binty Vanessa North’s photo today,” Mal says. “And see what he says. We’ll also take her photo to the yoga studio, and we’ll bring both Daisy and Jon Rittenberg in for further questioning.”
“His Audi is full of mud,” says Arnav. “The mud could come from a dump site. It was raining heavily that night.”
“Right,” Mal says. “We’ll keep scouring cam footage to see if we can pick it up along Marine. And we’ll also need to secure warrants to access Darling’s phone and financial records. Her recent financial transactions, who she called or texted, who contacted her—it will all give a clearer picture of her movements leading up to the violent event. We also need to keep eyes on socials.”
Mal checks tasks and questions off on her fingers. “Do the Rittenbergs have social media profiles? We know Darling runs an Instagram account using the handle @foxandcrow. What has she posted there? Does she have any other accounts in her own name? We need history going back to her ski resort days. Her friend, Boon-mee Saelim, spoke of a traumatic event in her past that caused Darling to drop out of school and leave town. What was that event? We need to locate her diary. We also need to delve into the Rittenbergs’ backgrounds. Jon Rittenberg was on the national ski team. The ski team has a lodge and trained in the town where Darling grew up. There’s potential for crossover there.”
As Mal assigns tasks, there is a sharp knock on the door. They all look up as a uniformed officer enters. His eyes are bright.
“We’ve got ’em!” he says. “We found the two vehicles on CCTV footage. The Subaru and the Audi.”
Tension ripples through the room.
“Can you bring it up on this monitor?” asks Benoit.
Within minutes they are gathered around the table, leaning forward in silence as they study the grainy CCTV footage.
“See here.” The officer points. “A Subaru Crosstrek and an Audi S6 sedan are captured exiting Marine Drive. And on this cam, where they’re heading into the North Vancouver industrial area. And over here we pick them up again outside the ADMAC construction site on the water. The area is fenced off for the redevelopment of the abandoned grain silos and old dockyard. We approached ADMAC, and they have security cameras on site. They gave us access.” He hits a key.
They watch the Audi S6 sedan and Subaru Crosstrek traversing the area in front of the grain silos.
“Another ADMAC cam picks them up again there.” He points. “Crossing the railway tracks heading toward the water.” They watch as the two vehicles, one behind the other, cross the tracks and move away from the camera. The vehicles bump along what appears to be a potholed and muddy track parallel to the shore. They disappear from camera range. The weather is foggy. Wet. It’s dark.
“Unfortunately the cam trained on the dock is out of order. But seventeen minutes later, here the Audi is, returning. It crosses in front of the silos here”—the officer points—“then exits the ADMAC site there, and heads back up to Marine. We pick it up again crossing the Lions Gate Bridge.”
