Printed in Canada

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      Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

      Maffini, Mary Jane

       Law and disorder / Mary Jane Maffini.

      (A Camilla MacPhee mystery)

      ISBN 978-1-894917-86-5

      I. Title. II. Series: Maffini, Mary Jane. Camilla MacPhee mystery.

      PS8576.A3385L39 2009 C813’.54 C2009-904775-6

      In memory of Lyn Hamilton, world traveller,

      inspired mystery writer and wonderful friend

      Contents

ONE

TWO

THREE

FOUR

FIVE

       SIX

       SEVEN

       EIGHT

       NINE

       TEN

       TEN

       ELEVEN

       TWELVE

       THIRTEEN

       FOURTEEN

       FIFTEEN

       SIXTEEN

       SEVENTEEN

       ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

ONE

      How do you keep a lawyer from drowning? -Shoot him before he hits the water.

      Less than two short weeks after I’d shoved my thermal socks to the back of the drawer, the temperature hit 32° Celsius with a humidex reading of 40°. Welcome to June in Canada’s capital.

      I blotted my forehead with one hand as I chugged up the wide stone stairs to the Elgin Street courthouse. The excellent air conditioning system in the building was only a secondary factor in my decision to spend the morning in court. It seemed like the right day to look into a murderer’s eyes as his seemingly endless trial drew to a close. I was looking forward to the final arguments. Lloyd Brugel was about to get what was coming to him: a guilty verdict. In time, that would be reflected in an appropriate sentence: twenty-five years without parole if not actual dangerous offender status. But one step at a time. Conviction first.

      Don’t take my word about Brugel. Ask any of the kids who found themselves hooked on crack cocaine at bargain introductory prices or the fifteen-year-olds who were forced into prostitution. Or pick one of the hundreds of broken people who got in his way. I knew many of his victims personally. I wished more of them were alive to see Brugel go down. I tried to resist rubbing my hands in glee, but only because that would have meant spilling my iced cappuccino.

      In the course of the trial and the interminable months leading up to it, I’d repeatedly reminded myself of the principles of law that keep me going:

      Innocent until proven guilty? That’s the biggie.

      Reasonable doubt? Also high on the list.

      The right to representation? No argument.

      In spite of all that, I believed Brugel was guilty from the second he was frog-marched out of Red Roxxxy’s, the sleazy strip joint where he based his underground kingdom. I had done a little dance when I’d first heard the news. Hey, appropriate is not my middle name. I planned on doing a joyful jig when the sentence was read. I just hoped I wouldn’t throw my back out.

      In the foyer near courtroom 23, I narrowly avoided Sergeant Leonard Mombourquette slithering out of the elevator.

      “Hey, Leonard, watch out for your—”

      “Don’t start with me, MacPhee,” he said, narrowing his beady eyes. “I’m one month from retirement, and I’m facing a lot of paperwork.”

      Fair enough. Mombourquette had been my brother-in-law Conn McCracken’s partner in Major Crimes for more years than I could count. Even though Conn now wasted his days on the golf course, I saw no harm in being civil to his former partner, this once. With his soft, greyish skin, twitchy nose and missing chin, Mombourquette might be the spitting image of a rodent, but, after all, he was our rodent. Practically a family pet. He not only continued to hang out with that same brother-in-law and my sister, but he seemed to have a thing going with my old buddy Elaine Ekstein, the well-known rogue social worker. All to say, opposites attract and there’s no accounting for tastes and any more aphorisms anyone else would care to contribute.

      I just hoped the decidedly NDP Elaine and the definitely Conservative Mombourquette never chose to talk politics. Kaboom.

      Before we could enter, we idled by the metal detector outside the courtroom, and I made nice while the female police officer checked the contents of my handbag and we went through the detector one at a time. “So, Leonard, you here to see Brugel go down? Payoff time?”

      “You betcha. Wouldn’t miss it. Seeing that scumbag convicted will be the highlight of my year. Maybe even two years. Worth not retiring last winter just to savour it.”

      “For me too. I wish Laurie Roulay was still alive to see it.”

      Mombourquette shook his head. “That was a real shame about that girl. Thorsten sure took her apart on the stand.”

      I paused, thinking before I spoke. Laurie Roulay’s suicide two weeks after her testimony had shaken me badly. After a moment, I managed to say, “It was brutal. There’s no trick too low for our Rollie. I’m glad Laurie held together long enough to testify. Her testimony will help sink Brugel. I wish I’d realized how fragile she was.”

      He