Read Online What Burns Within by Sandra Ruttan - Free Book Online Page A

about this interview than he felt. “You do remember bringing a boy to this police station yesterday, don’t you?”
His cheeks turned so red Tain was sure he’d get sunburned from prolonged exposure. Alex coughed. “Yeah.”
“Can you tell me what you were doing when you found him?”
Tain hadn’t thought Alex’s cheeks could get any darker, but somehow he managed to pull it off. “I, uh, I was on the walking path, at the park. The one with the hedges.”
“Okay.”
“He was wandering by himself. Crying.”
Tain swallowed. “Sobbing, calling out or just with tears running down his face?”
Alex opened his mouth to answer, and then his eyebrows merged into one thick line across his forehead, underscoring the wrinkles on his brow. “I th-think just tears running down his face.”
You think? Tain couldn’t believe this guy. “What happened next?”
“Well, I asked him if I should take him to the police.”
“You asked him if you should bring him to the police?”
Alex shrugged, pushing his glasses up with his middle finger.
“So, let me get this straight. You were on the walking path at the park, the one with the hedges. You saw a young boy walking alone, with tears rolling down his cheeks and you went up to him and asked if you should take him to the police? Not, ‘Did you lose your dog?’ or ‘Are you lost?’ but ‘Should I take you to the police?’”
Alex swallowed and then nodded.
“Why did you think he needed to go to the police, Mr. Wilson?”
“I…I don’t know. I was just trying to be helpful.”
Tain unscrewed the cap on his water bottle slowly and took a sip. This guy was textbook weird. It was too bad Ashlyn wasn’t there. Tain thought it could be interesting to see how Alex Wilson responded to a woman.
Especially a woman like Ashlyn, who knew how to handle herself.
“All right, Mr. Wilson. What happened then?”
“I took his hand and we walked back to the fairgrounds, to my car, while I dialed 911.”
“You dialed 911?”
“Well, I dialed the operator and asked them to put me through to the police….” Alex Wilson shrugged.
“What did the person on the phone tell you to do?”
“I…I don’t know. I just said who I was and I’d found a boy alone in the park and that I was coming to the police station.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Wha…whaddya mean, why?” Alex ran the back of his hand across his forehead.
“You’ve been at the fairgrounds before, right?”
Alex nodded.
“And you live to the south.” It wasn’t a question. Tain knew the answer.
“New Westminster, yeah.”
“And yet you drove Nicholas Brennen all the way here, even though you found him not far from the border of Coquitlam, Burnaby and New Westminster, and you yourself live in New Westminster. See, to me, I’d think you’d know where your local police stations are. And even if you didn’t, why not ask where the closest police station was when you were on the phone? Instead you drove him to the other side of the city.”
There was absolute silence as Tain waited to see what Alex Wilson would say, if he said anything at all. Finally, the man shrugged.
“For the tape, Mr. Wilson.”
“I don’t know what you’re asking. I…I phoned the police. I drove him to a police station. That’s all.”
“Well, Mr. Wilson, you have to consider it from my point of view. You don’t live in this area. You didn’t find the boy in this area. But for some reason you came to this police station with him. You came a long way out of your way.”
Alex’s mouth hung open for a minute, and he pushed the glasses up again, shrugging. “I…I didn’t think. I just drove here.”
“Did Nicholas Brennen say anything?”
Alex shook his head.
“The tape,” Tain said.
“No.”
“Nothing at all?”
“I asked if I should take him to the police. He nodded. I took his hand, brought him to my car and…and…and I drove him here. He didn’t say nothin’.”
“And, sorry, I’ve forgotten. Why did you think he needed to