“Absolutely not,” Kate said, clammy sweat pricking her underarms. “At present, my client is gravely injured and unable to give her statement, due to the gun fired point-blank into her chest by our Member of Parliament. A gun, by the way, which is on the prohibited weapons list. A list, I might add, that was approved by the very committee that the Honorable Harry Owen sits on.”

Her ammunition spent, Kate ended the interview. The battle lines between the Crown and the defense had been publicly proclaimed.

The adrenalin rushed out of her, leaving her drained.

“How about brunch on Sunday?” Nat asked, packing the microphone into her shoulder bag.

“Sounds good. But take it easy on me. After that interview, I’m feeling a bit bruised.” Kate gave a wry smile.

Nat gave Kate the thumbs up sign. “You handled it well. See you on Sunday at noon.”

Kate slung her briefcase over her shoulder and walked through the small park toward her car.

She noticed that the man pushing the woman in the wheelchair—must be his wife, the way he stopped to tuck in a stray corner of her blanket—had brought her over to a park bench. He sat at one end, his wife parked next to him in a sunny patch between the trees.

As Kate walked by, she saw him pointing toward a man walking a group of dogs on the sidewalk beyond the hospital property. The woman smiled. So did Kate, when she saw the man who deftly managed his posse.

It was Finn, with several of his doggy charges. Foo Dog rounded up the pack, the small pug an unlikely shepherd of several happy-go-lucky Labrador retrievers, and a watchful husky. The pug’s jaunty, bossy command of the Labradors was comical. Finn crossed the intersection, heading down Robie Street.

Kate would tell him tonight about how he made the lady in the wheelchair smile. She stepped out of the path of a taxi that had pulled up to the front of the hospital, and walked toward the parkade. As she opened the door leading to the dank interior, she threw one final look at the GH2.

It gave nothing away about the battles being fought in there.

But then the taxi divulged a passenger that she had only just seen on the front page of the newspaper.

It was Mel Owen. And he looked primed for battle.

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

3:08 p.m.

Aiden had awoken from his nap by the railway bridge feeling dizzy, thirsty and hungry. He glanced at the clock on his laptop screen. God. He still had hours to go before his meeting with Tr0lz.

It didn’t seem fair that he sat out here baking in the freakin’ sun when Tr0lz was kicking back somewhere, counting his money. Once Harry Owen came through with the money, it would be Aiden in the power seat.

He checked his phone again for a message.

Nothing.