Road Trip (2018 Wattys Long List)

Chapter 26

Dan waited, but not very patiently, until the departure time for the only other bus of the day that would be traveling to Vancouver. He had a strong feeling in his gut, that the old folks were heading to the coast and that city in particular. He was hanging all of his hopes on that idea. He had kept in constant contact by walkie-talkie, throughout the day, with the two officers who were watching the train station, but that had produced nothing so far. Now, this bus was on its way as well and there was still no sign of the fugitives. He watched it go, the coach turning a street corner before it disappeared from Dan's sight. Where the hell were they? He had covered both the bus terminal and the train station yet that had turned up nothing. What else was there? Flying? Not very likely. These were elderly people and flying would not be a likely choice for them. Did they know someone out here? Were they holed up somewhere? He couldn't be sure of course, but his investigation had turned up no indication of a connection to anyone in Calgary. Had he been wrong about this place after all, had they gone to another town on the bus from Winnipeg? He hoped not because that would be a friggin' disaster for him. Chief Peters would have his head and his badge too. In that order. He had covered the bus terminal as well as the train station. That had not worked. Had they met up with somebody who then might have whisked them away? That seemed pretty unlikely. They had sold their car already so it was logical they would be traveling by bus or train now. Still, he couldn't seem to nab them.

He stormed out of the terminal to his waiting car. He would have to see this through, drive to Vancouver, place his bets on that being the correct destination. This was probably going to be his last chance. He Knew this might cost him his job if he were wrong. He called the local police station and requested that an officer be assigned to watch the bus terminal and ask that the surveillance be maintained on the train station for a while longer. As for himself, he started the car and headed the same way that the bus had gone to Vancouver.

He had to stop by his hotel first and retrieve his things before leaving Calgary for good, and he looked longingly at the bed in his room, which he had not even had the pleasure of sleeping in. It wasn't going to happen now because he could not afford the time. He was getting very tired at this point, suffering from sleep deprivation after so many days on the road and so little sleep along the way. It would have been so nice to slip between the covers for a few hours of shut-eye.

Dan drove out of Calgary heading west, hoping that his gut was right and he would catch these people in Vancouver. He could put them on a commercial flight back to Toronto and make the necessary arrangements for an officer to be waiting for them on their arrival with orders to transport them back to Glenwood. At that point, he could relax, and get some sleep before making the long drive home himself. It would be in victory rather than in shame and that would be OK with him.

He tried not to think of the chief's reaction if his idea didn't pan out. But he had made the right decisions so far so there was a good chance that he had it right this time, too. He just wished that he could get ahead of them instead of one step behind them all the time. Who would suspect that these feeble nursing home inmates would give him such a hard time?

Dan hardly even noticed the beauty of the mountains all around him as he drove. His sole ambition was to get to Vancouver just as quickly as possible. He passed through the foothills of Alberta first, then he climbed the more majestic, snowcapped Rockies. The mountain vistas were spectacular, but Dan paid little heed as he concentrated on staying awake long enough to reach his destination. He made better time in the British Columbia interior, crossing the flat, dry landscape between the first range of mountains and the coastal range as he got closer to Vancouver.

He thought about his life up to now. All he had left was his job, but now it looked a lot less important to him than it always had in the past. It had cost him his marriage years ago and any hope that he might have had once for any other personal relationships. He had pinned everything on being a cop but now he realized how tenuous that really was. He was still too young to retire but too old to start over. This case had become the most important one of his entire career.

It would take the rest of the day and all of the next night for Dan to make the trip to Vancouver. He did not make it quite that quickly, however. Around midnight he could go no further and he stopped for a few hours sleep at a mom and pop type motel along the way. He actually had to wake the owners before he could get a room to spend the rest of the night. The old man was grumpy about being wakened so late at night and he would have turned Dan away if not for his wife. She knew that customers could be rare here in the mountains and she insisted on giving him a room. Dan collapsed into bed for some much-needed rest.

It was not yet dawn when Dan rubbed the sleep from his eyes and struggled to his feet. He would much prefer to stay in this strange bed and forget about life for just a little longer, but reality bites at times like this and he had a job to do. No one was going to do this for him. It was time to get back on track and find these people. He left his room key on the motel room table, got into his car and drove away. The motel owners never stirred at that early hour.

As he sped down the empty highway toward Vancouver dawn was breaking behind him from the east. It would be another long day of driving but Dan hoped it would be the last before he could return to his boring but peaceful existence in the town of Glenwood, back in Ontario. He wouldn't complain after this about his current lot in life, that's for sure. Not if he still had a job when he got back, at least.

It was later in the day when he reached Vancouver. He had never been here before and he marveled at the beauty of the place perched on the western shore of British Columbia against a backdrop of the majestic, snow-covered peaks of the Rocky Mountains. It wasn't hard to see why so many people came here to live so far from the rest of the country. The mountains, the sea, the city itself, and yet so much wilderness close at hand. It was beautiful. This could be his Shangri-La when he retired, he mused.

He didn't really have any idea where the old folks were right now but his gut told him that this city was where he should be looking. He drove to the Vancouver City Police Department and gave the chief there a full briefing of the case to date. He gave descriptions of all of the people he was seeking as well as a picture of Harvey Feldman and another of Stewart Finley. These would be passed on to the RCMP who had provincial jurisdiction in British Columbia. Now he had covered his bases, both in the city as well as province-wide as well. All he could do was to hope that someone came up with something that would lead him to these old people. In the meantime Dan got back in his car and resumed his own search, concentrating on the downtown streets of Vancouver.