Once Upon a Time by Barbara Fradkin Read Free Book Online

Renfrew.”
    â€œNow? Are you crazy? The Crowns are waiting.”
    â€œAfter the Crowns. It’s the next logical step in the investigation.”
    Sullivan picked up his sandwich wrapper, crunched it into a ball and lobbed it over the desk, hitting the basket dead centre. “Forget it, Mike. I’ve got some statements to review, then I’m going home. Home. Where all good family men should be around supper time.”
    â€œHow about tomorrow?”
    Sullivan removed his feet from the desk and stood up to leave. “Tomorrow’s Saturday. My day off, remember? A day when all good family men…you know the drill.”
    Green followed him out, trying to quell his frustration. Sullivan was right; the meeting with the Crown attorneys would take all afternoon, and it was too late to set up a trip to Renfrew that day anyway. As for tomorrow, Sullivan was also right. Green couldn’t run his life as if he were the only one in it. Walker’s case would still be around Monday.
    But Fate would not let the case slip from his mind for that long. No sooner had he returned to his office later that afternoon when his phone buzzed. Mr. Donald Reid was downstairs in the foyer, requesting to see him, the desk sergeant said.
    Surprise, surprise.
    Green ushered Don Reid into an empty interview room and took out his notebook expectantly. Don had clearly not relaxed one iota since Green’s visit out to the house. He drummed his fingers on his thigh and shifted from one side of his chair to the other as he looked for a place to begin.
    â€œYou have some information for me?” Green prompted.
    â€œYeah. Look, I’m not trying to badmouth Eugene, but if you’re thinking he may have been murdered—well, there’s a lot Ruth will never tell you. She’s so protective, and she can never see the other side of him.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œWell, he’s a complex guy, and there are things that went on that Ruth didn’t know anything about. I think he could have known people and done things that he kept secret.”
    â€œLike what?” Green demanded, getting tired of the vagueness.
    â€œLike talking with someone in his car the day he died. Ruth thinks he doesn’t know anybody foreign, but the truth is— before they moved to the country, every Saturday he’d go drinking at this bar in Renfrew. He had a whole life there that he never told Ruth about, and he must have met guys there. Twenty years ago, just as an example, he got in a fight. The police were involved. You guys probably have it on your computer, if you want to check.”
    Green’s ears perked up, but he kept his expression deadpan. Contrary to common belief, the police didn’t have Joe Public’s every little transgression on their national database, and each jurisdiction guarded its own cases jealously. “Why don’t you tell me about it? Save me the trouble of tracking it down.”
    Don waved his hand as if to distance himself. “Eugene beat somebody up. Bar fight. I don’t know that much about it. Eugene never talked about it, and he never said why it happened.”
    â€œDid he get in a lot of bar fights?”
    â€œNo, that’s the thing. When he drank he usually got morose and surly. He’d say bitter, vicious things, but I never knew him to use his fists.” Don’s words began to flow faster, as if his pent-up thoughts had just been released. “It was a surprise to me when Ruth called and said he’d been arrested for beating up a man in a bar.”
    â€œSo tell me what you did learn.”
    â€œWell, in those days he was a weekend drunk. The hardware store would close at six o’clock on Saturday, and Eugene would head for Paddy’s Bar and Grill on Raglan Street for a couple to unwind. That couple would stretch to seven or eight, and he’d usually roll into the house at two in the morning when the bar closed.