Read Forty Words for Sorrow for Free Online

headache for the Treasury. And you know what? I couldn’t care less.” Those arctic eyes sizing her up.
    Delorme shrugged. “It’s not costing the taxpayer enough?”
    “Good,” Musgrave said, as if she were his pupil. “Bogus Canadian currency costs businesses and individuals some five million dollars a year. Chicken feed. And like I say, it’s mostly weekend counterfeiters.”
    “So why the fuss about Corbett? If you don’t care about phony money—”
    “Kyle Corbett is not counterfeiting money. Kyle Corbett is counterfeiting credit cards. Suddenly we’re not talking five million dollars. Suddenly we’re talking a hundred million. And that’s not Bob’s All-Nite Esso getting hit. Or Ethel’s Kountry Kitchen. We’re talking major banks, and believe me, when Bank of Montreal and Toronto Dominion get upset, we hear about it loud and clear. Which is why our guys and your guys—not to mention the OPP’s guys—have been working a JFO for the past three years, trying to take Corbett down.”
    Dyson leaned forward, apparently worried at being left out of the conversation. “Joint Forces Operation. November 1997.”
    “November 1997. JFO includes our guys, Jerry Commanda with OPP, and your guys McLeod and Cardinal. We have solid information that Corbett’s happy band of brothers has a stamping machine, five thousand blanks and a very expensive supply of holograms at his club out behind Airport Road. But when the forces of righteousness swoop down, Corbett and Co. are doing nothing more exciting than playing pool and drinking Molson’s.”
    The chief was now thrashing at the fire with a poker, sending sparks flying. “Tell her Episode Two.”
    “August 1998. Solid intelligence puts Corbett and his merry men in West Ferris with Perfect Circle. You’ve never heard of Perfect Circle, so don’t pretend you have. Perfect Circle runs the biggest counterfeiting operation in Hong Kong. They have reciprocity with Corbett. In other words, they exchange stolen account numbers for use overseas. You buy a new Honda in Toronto with an American Express card out of Kowloon and, before anyone’s the wiser, you’ve driven it to hell and gone. And vice versa. Perfect Circle, as their name suggests, also manufacture dead-perfect holograms. They’re Asian, right? High tech is in their blood.
    “Meanwhile, our two Horsemen have gone their separate ways: one’s quit to go into the private sector, the other’s doing fifteen-to-life for killing his wife.”
    “Right. The high-rise guy.”
    “If you’d met his wife, you’d know why. Your Detective McLeod gets wired to the Corriveau murders, and the OPP has Jerry Commanda sequestered in Ottawa on some no-doubt crucially important training course.”
    “There’s no need to malign ongoing officer education,” the chief put in. “Your point is, Detective Cardinal turns out to be the single unit of law-enforcement continuity on Kyle Corbett.”
    “Exactly. Drum roll, please.”
    Kendall turned to Dyson. “Didn’t you tell me there were rumours about Cardinal when he worked in Toronto?”
    “We did our homework, Chief. There was nothing substantial.”
    Musgrave didn’t even slow down. “Age of globalization. Perfect Circle are doing the grand tour from Hong Kong to B.C. to strengthen their linkage in Vancouver. Solid information says they’re headed for Toronto, stopping off for a courtesy call in Algonquin Bay. According to this information, Corbett and the Yellow Peril have a meet set for the Pine Crest Hotel—The Pine Crest! It’s like they’re the Ladies Auxiliary or something. Perfect Circle guys arrive on time. Appointed hour rolls around, JFO stakes out the hotel. No, we did not do the musical ride. And no, we were not in full-dress uniform. This was a strictly old-clothes operation. Guess what happens?”
    Delorme didn’t say anything. Corporal Musgrave was enjoying his pedagogical act; it wouldn’t do to interrupt the flow.
    “Nothing happens. No