Headhunter

2:36 a.m.

The phone beside the bed rang and wrenched him out of sleep. He reached for it quickly, fumbling in the dark, hoping that he would catch it before it woke his lover up. He yanked the receiver from its cradle before the second ring. There was a mumble from across the bed as he spoke in a whispered tone.

'Hello,' Jack MacDougall said, glancing at the clock.

'Sergeant, this is Constable Ron Mitchell. University Detachment. I don't think you know me.'

'I don't,' MacDougall said frowning. Then he waited.

'I'm sorry to bother you, sir. I hope it's the right decision.'

MacDougall felt like telling him that for his sake he hoped so too. 'Well,' he said.

'We've got another body. One without a head.'

The Sergeant threw back the covers and sat up on the bed. 'Where?' he demanded, abandoning the whisper.

'The Museum of Anthropology. Nailed to a totem pole.'

'Where are you, Mitchell?'

'I'm right at the scene.'

'Well, you stay right where you are. I'm on the way. You guard that area with your bloody life. Nobody goes near it. Nobody, you hear. You report directly to me.'

'Yes, sir.' Then Jack MacDougall hung up.

The Sergeant was already off the bed and halfway into his clothes — same blue blazer and crest, same gray slacks — when there was the squeak of bedsprings and a sleepy voice from the sheets. 'Is something the matter, Jack?'

'We've got another body. This one's worse.' 'Oh God no. Want some coffee?' 'I haven't got time, love. One quick phone call and then I'm out the door.'

'Will I see you later? Spend another night?' 'I hope so,' MacDougall said, glancing at the bed, taking in the gymnast's body outlined beneath the covers. Chances were good that body would perform in the next Olympics. 'I hope so, too,' Peter Brent said.

Ottawa, Ontario

6:11 a.m.

When Commissioner Francois Chartrand put down the phone, he carried his cup of coffee through to his study overlooking the Ottawa River. There he lit a Gauloise and stood smoking in contemplation in front of the double-glazed window. Off to the east the first faint light of predawn was advancing slowly to engage in battle with the silver beams of the moon. A wind down from the Northern Tundra was whipping up the metallic waters that flowed before him, while waves of Canada geese flying in V formation slipped across the pale orange lunar surface above. Finished with the cigarette, Chartrand lit another.

The Commissioner was a stout man who had struggled for most of his adult life with a recurring weight problem. At one time he had also tried to control his habit of chain-smoking, but quickly found that fighting a double front was beyond all human effort. Besides, he enjoyed cigarettes.

Chartrand was the sort of man born to be Commissioner, for he was a natural leader. His face was nondescript — short hair cut high above the ears in military fashion and balding at the crown, sparse restrained eyebrows, an easy mouth, soft perceptive eyes — and not in the least threatening. Chartrand gave orders by advising you of his opinion and asking if you could help. He took you into his confidence — or at least seemed to — from the very first moment you met him. No one likes to be told what to do and Chartrand would no more think of doing that than asking you to help where your help wasn't needed. And yet no matter what happened, if he was involved he always assumed complete responsibility for the outcome. No sloughing off of blame, no sacrificing of those who gave him aid. He was the sort of man who commanded voluntary respect.

As Chartrand stood now in front of the window contemplating the implications of what the Attorney General for British Columbia had told him, the telephone rang. He put down his coffee cup and caught it on the third ring.

'Chartrand,' he said quietly.

'Francois, this is Walt Jessup. I'm calling from the coast. We've got a serious problem.'

'I've already heard, Walt. By a different chain of command.'

The Deputy Commissioner of 'E' Division snorted. 'I'm going to need muscle and machines, Framjois. This'll be worse than Olson. Even there we had vigilante squads and private police forces and phony ransom demands and God knows what else. I don't expect the feminists to be as restrained as parents.'

'You'll have them.'

'What else are we going to do? What shall I tell the

press?'

'Leave that with me, Walt. I'm thinking about it now. I'll call you back shortly once I've made a decision. I promise I'll give you something. You just give me time for a second cup of coffee.'

The Deputy Commissioner managed a shallow laugh. 'All right. But no longer,' he said. 'Or I'm going to sneak out of town.'

After replacing the receiver, Chartrand walked through to his kitchen and poured himself another cup. He lit a third cigarette and went back to his study. And it was then, with the advancing light of dawn, that the idea struck him.

He knew what had to be done.

For when you are the head of an organization with both a sacred duty and a mythical legend in trust —

You use the very best you've got.

Even if you no longer have him.

Vancouver, British Columbia

8:15 a.m.

Genevieve was dying.

He held the rose bush gently in his left hand and carefully examined it for signs of blight or disease. But all he could find were two minuscule white dots where the flower joined the stalk. Whatever they were, he had never seen this symptom before.That's the problem with exotic plants,he thought. They contract exotic diseases.Outside the greenhouse lay a world of dazzling snow. The maple trees, and the city far beyond were blanketed with white and the sun now blazed down, bouncing off the snow crystals and the prisms in the greenhouse's glass walls. Rainbows were everywhere.

Except for the weather, it was a bad day all the way around.

As usual, he had begun his work this morning at five-thirty. But the moment he sat down in the white wicker chair and placed the clipboard on his knee was the moment that he knew the block had settled in for good. He merely sighed with resignation. To be honest with himself, there had been a lethargy about the project from its very beginning. Did the world really need another history of the First World War? Hadn't Fay and Albertini, Tuchman and Falls and Liddell Hart said what had to be said?

He put the plant down gently and in the doing knew that the book had died.

Now Genevieve was dying too.

While lost in thought he had not heard his wife open the door of the greenhouse that led to their home. She touched his arm as she always did and spoke to him in French.

'Robert, on tu demande au telephone.'

He looked at her for a moment — the auburn hair now piled on top of her head, here and there a wayward strand tumbling down to her shoulders, then he nodded and went quietly out of the greenhouse and into the living room, across the pegged wood floor with its Persian carpet, and into the entrance hall where he picked up the telephone.

He felt a little depressed. The day was shot. What else could go wrong?

'Hello,' he said in English. 'This is Robert DeClercq.'

4:55 p.m.

He was smiling as he stopped just inside the door to the pub, his eyes skipping from table to table, checking