Dumb Luck

Corporal Tommy Gilchrist's phone rang.

"Gilchrist. Come to my office right now." It was Mulligan, the staff sergeant. Gilchrist went to Mulligan's office, which was down the hall in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police national headquarters office, in Ottawa.

"Two ladies with the Saint Vincent de Paul Society in Campbellton, New Brunswick, were assaulted on one of their visits this afternoon." Gilchrist said nothing.

"He raped the younger one. He wouldn't let the other one leave. She saw the whole thing. They are both severely traumatized and won't be good witnesses. The local detachment has a corporal – Randa Lewis – who has a Masters degree in sociology and has been trained in helping victims of such trauma. She's been with the women since they came in. I've been told she's a good officer. I was speaking with staff sergeant Rogers in Campbellton this afternoon." Gilchrist still said nothing, just felt his anger starting to kick in.

"The younger one's name is Stephanie Levesque. She's not that young. She's 60. Married, retired. Started volunteering with the Society this year. She's already been to the hospital and been processed. Corporal Lewis was with her." Gilchrist knew the evaluation would have included the gathering of forensic and DNA evidence. His heart started to pound as his anger kept building.

"Staff sergeant Rogers requested our assistance with this case. As he pointed out, this was a heinous act. The Society helps the disadvantaged. Volunteers are already hard to find. The local detachment doesn't have the resources or expertise to dedicate to this case, and the perpetrator already seems to have left the region. Rogers originally called the divisional headquarters in Fredericton for help. After a discussion, they passed it on to us. Local constables have already been to the crime scene. The perpetrator had rented the apartment under an alias – Richard Melanson. He'd only been in Campbellton about a week, as far as we know. He registered with the Saint Vincent de Paul almost a week ago, and rented the apartment then. Before receiving visits, Melanson was interviewed by Denis Cyr, who's with the Society. Cyr does their assessments of need and manages the volunteers who do the visits. I requested that I be allowed to put you on this case, send you to Campbellton, and have you follow this guy, if you can, until you run him down. This has been approved."

"When can I leave?"

"Denise is getting you a flight now, to Bathurst, via Montreal. You can rent a car there and go to Campbellton. It's about 90 minutes from Bathurst. I'll email you all the details, contact information, etc. You can familiarize yourself with the details by Blackberry on the flight." The RCMP liked Blackberries, even though they were more or less obsolete smartphones, because they were very secure. They were also popular with criminals.

"That's about all I have. And Tommy, for Christ's sake don't take any stupid risks."

Gilchrist sat on the flight from Montreal to Bathurst, seething. It was now 8 PM, New Brunswick time. He'd received a few encrypted PINs from Rogers in Campbellton with more details. Melanson appeared to be in his twenties. He'd kept a low profile in Campbellton. Nobody seemed to have associated with him. Nobody knew where he came from, how he'd got there, nothing. After he'd raped Stephanie Levesque at knifepoint, and held her colleague, 72 year old Ramona Blanchard in the room, he'd left, taking their cellphones with him. He'd told them he was going to watch the door from his car for an hour. He said if they came out before an hour passed, he'd knife them both. They believed him. They didn't look out to see if he had a car, or where he went. After fifteen minutes they looked out and ran to a convenience store across the street, and from there called the Campbellton RCMP. Gilchrist knew it had taken guts to do that – leave early.