“Wrong?” Evelyn asks, considering. “Not wrong, no.” Illegal, maybe.
“Under what pretense were Dr. Taylor and her associates taken from the apartment off Spadina this afternoon, Officer?”
“Sergeant,” he spits at her. “And we had received intelligence that Dr. Taylor and her associates were running an abortion operation at that address, which is against the law.”
“Yes, Sergeant, as a criminal defense lawyer, I am intimately familiar with the Criminal Code and what is against the law.”
His eyes narrow under his thick brow line.
“How was this alleged intelligence gathered?” Selena presses.
“Via a woman officer whose close friend reported that an acquaintance of hers had received an abortion from someone at that address. She provided a phone number to call, and our undercover officer made an appointment. Our officer proceeded to the address this afternoon at the appointed time, wearing an audio recording device. A tactical unit, including me, was waiting across the street, ready to move in once our officer had retrieved the desired evidence and given us the go-ahead.”
“And what evidence is this?” Selena asks.
“Audio of one of these women describing an abortion.”
“Could we hear that audio recording, please?”
“Yeah, we’ve got it. Officer Heinz is waiting outside. Don’t move, I’ll be back.”
“Yes, please do go retrieve your woman officer, Sergeant. We’ll wait.”
His shoes whisper on the tile floor. The door shuts behind him and they hear him calling imperiously for Officer Heinz. Selena presses the stop button on the recording device and her head snaps up. Evelyn suddenly has the sense she’s in a giant spotlight under the intensity of this woman’s eyes.
“My cousin Doris called me,” Selena says.
“I figured, by your name. Thank you for coming.”
“I’m happy to help. Listen: What’s this about an audio recording? What am I walking into here?”
“My nurse and I were out in the kitchen, and our volunteer was in the procedure room with a woman we thought was called Patricia. She was our two o’clock. Protocol is one of our volunteers debriefs the patient on the procedure beforehand.”
“Shit. What did the volunteer say?”
“That’s the thing; she swears she never said the word ‘abortion.’ That everything she said could potentially be open to interpretation, inconclusive.”
Selena nods curtly. “Okay. I guess we’ll see when he comes back with it. Is there any other evidence anywhere that might be a problem?”
Evelyn smiles. “Not anywhere they’ll be able to find, that’s for sure.”
“You’re sure about that?”
“Quite sure.”
“Okay, then. Let’s see what happens.”
Evelyn swallows, and they wait another minute or so before Sergeant Moustache bursts back into the room, followed closely by Evelyn’s would-be patient, Officer Heinz.
The officer is still in her civilian wear. She’s young and pretty, just doing her job, but in this moment Evelyn wants to rip her limb from limb. She settles for biting sarcasm. She’s learned it’s a powerful tool; you can’t prove sarcasm.
“Nice to see you again, Patricia,” she says.
This earns her a kick under the table from Selena, who hits the record button on the machine again.
Officer Heinz sets another black device down on the table beside Selena’s voice recorder. This one is clearly a set of speakers for the tape she had strapped to her waist during her pre-op with Nancy. Evelyn can feel her shoulders rising to meet her ears like high tide.
The machine crackles with a sound like static, then Evelyn hears the officer’s soft voice mumble, “Testing. Testing. Testing.” She clears her throat. Some rustling, likely the microphone being adjusted on the inside of her blouse. A few minutes pass with no sound at all, then there’s the distant screech of the streetcar and quiet children’s laughter, barely audible. The waiting room.
Evelyn, Selena, Sergeant Moustache, and Officer Heinz all breathe quietly together, staring at the box. Four actors waiting for their cue to start the scripted argument at centre stage.
The click and creak of a door being opened.
“Patricia?” Nancy’s voice pops into being. A rustling of papers, and a long pause. A high-pitched screech fills the room, shrill and piercing.
“Jesus,” Sergeant Moustache mumbles. Evelyn’s ears are ringing from it.
“Feedback,” Heinz replies, shrugging.
“Shh.” Selena hushes them as the recording plays out. Evelyn tries not to smile at her lawyer. What a badass. Definitely a Jane.
Nancy’s voice comes through again. “Have you ever had this procedure?”
A small cough. “Um, no. No, I haven’t.”
They all lean forward as they listen in on the conversation. Evelyn holds her breath.
“… I’d like to hear it step-by-step. If that’s okay,” Officer Heinz says.
What a scam, Evelyn thinks. She can feel the heat starting to rise up her neck, but this time it’s rage, not fear.
Suddenly the sound begins to waver, a low hum blocking out most of the conversation. “… medic… stretch… into your… then…” The piercing screech causes all four of them to wince.
“What…？” Nancy’s voice on the tape is crackly but recognizable, confused.
“Shit…”
Click.
Evelyn looks up from the black box. Selena is grinning in the most accurate impression of the Cheshire Cat she’s ever seen.
“Well, then!” Selena says brightly, pushing her chair away from the table and standing up. “If that’s all you’ve got, Sergeant, my clients and I will be on our way.”
“What the fuck was that, Heinz?” the sergeant shouts at his officer.
“Barry, I don’t know, it happened in that room, there was so much feedback, I—”
“We can go, Evelyn,” Selena says under her breath, cocking her head toward the exit.
“Where do you think you’re going, Counsellor?”
Selena pulls her shoulders back and leans over the sergeant. He shrinks back an inch. “Are you quite serious? You have no evidence whatsoever to hold these women, place them under arrest, or charge them with anything. Have a nice night, Sergeant, Officer.”
She sweeps open the door for Evelyn, who wanders out in a daze, and Selena closes the door against the stunned faces of Evelyn’s interrogators.
“That’s it?”
“Just keep walking; waaaaaalk walk walk walk walk walk.” Selena presses her hand into Evelyn’s bad shoulder, moving her forward.
“Evelyn!” Alice and Nancy jump up from the chairs they’ve been slumped in across the hall from the interrogation room. They’ve been uncuffed. No doubt someone finally had the sense to acknowledge that they didn’t pose a threat.
“Come, come!” Selena calls to them, eyeing Alice in particular. “Quickly, now. Quickly quickly.”
They scurry along in her wake, trying to keep up with her long strides. Once out on the street, they all blink, their eyes watering in the bright summer sunlight.