A Change of Heart (MacKay - Canadian Detectives, #3)

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE

The smell of stale coffee hung in the air, tickling his nostrils, and Mark c****d his nose with disgust. Someone should have emptied the coffee pot and make a new one.

Mark looked around the office with a critical eye, and his heart sank to his boots at the sorry sight. Yep, he needed to do something about that room, and soon. Leah MacKay, the lieutenant, was supposed to be back at work in about a week, and she would chew him a new hide for letting her office grow so sickening.

The truth was that Mark proved contemptible housekeeping skills. He never saw what lay around if he didn’t feel someone’s breath behind his neck. Only then, the man’s eyes started noticing what was amiss.

Leah had left Mark in charge of her office and the detectives’ squad while she went on her honeymoon for a couple of weeks. She didn’t leave too many instructions with him. Still, it was implied that Mark shouldn’t ruin her office while she was away. Unfortunately, that was what the man had done.

‘Anyway, I still have a few days before I need to worry,’ Mark pursed his lips for a couple of seconds. Then, dissatisfied with the prospect of putting the office to rights, the man threw his pen on the desk and turned his eyes toward the window.

A scowl on his face, the detective watched the patch of horizon visible through the glass, and the corners of his mouth turned down. The gray of the sky bummed his spirits some more, although he didn’t think that would have been possible.

Mark contemplated the spot of gray a couple of minutes and then shrugged. Blue or gray, it was the same thing for him. At least, it didn’t snow or rain.

The man was sick and tired of braving the elements day in and day out. That winter had seemed longer than usual that year. Consequently, Mark had already reached the end of his rope, and that was interesting. The man had spent most of his life in the Province of Quebec, after all.

Snowing out his car every morning for an entire week had left him despondent. Even at night, Mark dreamed that damn shovel, and he couldn’t get a good night of sleep.

The shadows under his eyes had been getting darker and darker lately. The detective had the feeling that he had turned into a raccoon every time he watched at his reflection in the mirror.

However, there was some hope. Distant hope, but spring was in the air. Or, at least, that was what the man had felt that morning on his way to work.

A few months back, his heart would have sung with joy at the briefest glimpse of the sun. Mark would have thought of finally getting out somewhere, to the park or to a pub to have a beer on a terrace, filling his lungs with the crisp air of the season. Now, the beer sounded well enough, but he couldn’t gather enough enthusiasm to pass muster.

Since Jen left him, Mark had sunk into a dark depression. The man had thought that their almost-three-year relationship meant something for the woman, only to discover that he had lied to himself and got a hyperactive imagination.

The woman strung Mark enough until she had found something better. Mark didn’t have a chance to compete with a seven-figure portfolio. His pay check trotted far behind.

Sick of his introspections, Mark glanced at his watch and grimaced. It was barely eleven. Lunch wouldn’t have been a satisfactory excuse to leave the office, and the man had already taken a coffee break only thirty minutes before. Still, he felt that he couldn’t breathe, caged there in the room, and needed to go out.

Mark knew that he should have read a few reports but couldn’t bring himself to open the files. Besides, Anna and Josh had proved their efficiency in the past, so Mark didn’t think that they needed his supervision right then. Nothing seemed urgent enough to shake him from his passivity, so the man continued to wallow in his own melancholy.

The detective leaned back in his chair and propped his feet on the desk, happy that Leah wasn’t there to s***h him with her sharp tongue. The man closed his eyes, thinking that at least he could nod off for an hour or so. Anyway, no one entered that office without knocking first, so he had the time to put his feet back on the floor if anyone had come.

His hands folded on his stomach, Mark dozed off, happy that the noise from the detectives’ hall didn’t penetrate through the walls to disturb him. Unknowingly, the man whistled through one of his nostrils every time he breathed out, the sound keeping company to the low buzzing coming from the computer.

Vivid dreams prompted a scowl on his face. Now and then, a grimace tugged at the curve of his mouth, and his fingers twitched. The corners of his eyes and his forehead crinkled. His eyebrows knitted above his eyes.

Someone knocked on the door enthusiastically, and his mobile phone rang at the same time, jarring him. Mark woke up with a jolt, almost falling off the chair. In the process, the man bumped his elbow onto the edge of the desk. A second later, his right foot got caught in the upper corner under the table for a few moments.

Mark pulled hard and twisted his ankle. He groaned, and his feet landed with a thump on the floor. His body took a dive, and his forehead narrowly missed the top of the table. The man fumbled to keep his balance, crushing a few choice words under his tongue.

Both the knocking and ringing continued, and Mark growled. He pushed his fingers through his hair to bring some order to his dishevelled appearance and smoothed his clothes with hurried gestures.

“Come in,” he yelled over the ringing and then snatched the mobile phone off the desk to see who was calling.

The door half-opened, and wide-eyed, Anna pushed her head through the opening, a sign that she didn’t know what to expect.

Mark had taken quite a time to answer her knock. Besides, the muffled noises coming from the room didn’t seem too encouraging to the young policewoman.

Mark waved her to come inside with a negligent gesture while checking the screen for the caller's name. The detective mutely invited Anna to take a seat across from him and answered the phone.

“What’s up, Victor?” the detective barked with annoyance, only to scowl afterward. He had hoped not to reveal that the entire ruckus had put him out.

Not to disturb Mark, Anna closed the door quietly and then sat down in one of the chairs across from him. The woman folded her hands in her lap, patiently waiting for the detective to finish his phone discussion.

Everyone in the precinct knew Victor or knew of him. The man had made the news a few years back after surviving three savage attempts to his life, and many of the police officers had declared him a hero.

Anna had had the opportunity to spend some time in the man’s company in the past. Victor had impressed her with his indifferent attitude towards what people thought. A non-conformist, the man's intelligence proved above average, and his moral compass attracted the woman more. The man lived with a strict set of rules.

“Yes, Leah will be back next week,” Mark nodded, replying to a question coming from Victor, and then continued to listen attentively.

When the detective’s eyes rounded and his lips parted in surprise, Anna understood that the subject was something serious.

“Yes, of course, I will look into it. We can’t wait until Leah’s back,” Mark shook his head, pressing his lips with determination.

A deep furrow formed between the man’s eyebrows, and he titled his head to the right, listening intently.

“All right then,” Mark said, throwing a glance at his watch. “I suppose I can get there in half an hour if you want,” he continued afterward.

Mark listened some more and nodded. “Good, see you then. Yes, I will bring Anna and Josh with me,” he assured his friend. “See you, buddy,” Mark said and disconnected the call.

“Are we going somewhere?” Anna asked, her eyebrows hiking up her forehead.

Excitement ran through her veins. She knew that a case with Victor would be anything else but boring.

“Yes, I think we have just got a case,” Mark explained pensively. “Tell Josh that he must come too. Anyway, Victor made some allusions about lunch for all of us, and you know that Liliana can cook,” the detective winked at his colleague.

The woman burst into laughter and shook her head. “That, I do know,” she agreed with him and stood up, heading to the door.

“Oh, what did you need?” Mark stopped her, remembering that the woman had come to talk to him.

“Oh, nothing special,” Anna fluttered her fingers with negligence. “Josh and I were thinking of going out for lunch and wanted to invite you too,” she shrugged.

“Ah, okay then,” Mark nodded and watched the woman go out of the room.

‘And for that, I almost maimed myself,’ he growled after Anna left and thumped his fist onto the top of the table.

Still, the thought of a hearty lunch made Mark forget about his near-miss.