“In my nightmare, I look down and see the blood soaking through my pants. Then I look around and
there are hummingbirds circling the yard. I still can't figure out why I didn't feel pain until I saw the wound.” Lane put his coffee down when the tremors started in his wrists and moved to his fingers.
“That's why we need to go back. We need to get the monkey off our backs and we need to talk to Eva.” Harper thought,
Since you won't see the shrink, I'm gonna pass on what I learned the first time around, after I was wounded
.
“What about?” Lane asked.
“I did some checking this morning. You know, an electronic search using Eva's name. She filed a land claim about six months before Alex was killed.” Harper opened up his laptop.
“Just tell me.” Lane tried another sip of coffee to check if his hands were getting steadier.
“The basis of her claim is that the land she owns was originally reserve land. Later, it was given to an Anglican minister who had worked in the area for over twenty-five years. It was a kind of retirement gift for him. The problem was, no one from the First Nations was in on the land deal and the minister's land was originally part of the area covered by the treaty.”
“And?”
Harper closed his laptop. “Eva bought her piece of land. It borders the T'suu T'ina Reserve, a proposed new development and other acreages. Some of her neighbours to the north and west could subdivide their land tomorrow and make huge profits. The problem is that Eva's land, and the land in question, is in the middle of the next stage of development. Makes investors reluctant to jump in when they might not see
a return for a decade or more. It's even possible they might end up losing the land.”
“So we may be talking about a motive for Alex's murder?” Lane asked.
“That, or at the very least, a reason for resentment between Eva and some of the other landowners. When you take a look at Blake Rogers' land, it gets even more interesting. He inherited the place from his grandmother. I checked into it, and the sale of similar properties. If Blake sold it today, he'd make millions.”
“Why doesn't he sell, then?” Lane looked at Roz, who sat patiently outside on the other side of the coffee shop's glass wall. She raised her eyebrows hopefully. Roz and Lane had taken a slow walk to Kuldeep's to meet with Harper.
“Hey guys, want more coffee?” Kuldeep stood behind the counter with a smile and tired eyes from working fourteen-hour days, seven days a week.
“Maybe in a minute, thanks.” Lane smiled back.
“No problem,” Kuldeep said.
“I checked with a real estate friend. He said the cheaper properties are being bought up, but the land in Blake's price range isn't selling as well because investors who are willing to wait out the land claim â Who would want to sit on that kind of money? â are a little hard to come by. And, Blake's land is part of the land Eva is claiming rightfully belongs to the T'suu T'ina Nation.” Harper leaned back and waited for Lane to get the picture.
“So we need to go and see Blake too?” Lane drained his coffee. He looked outside. Roz was on her belly with
her head between her paws, staring at him with pleading brown eyes.
“There's more. After Alex died, Eva changed her will. The land will be passed on to an Aidan Walker and Eva's estranged daughter. Aidan was with Alex when he was killed.”
“So, with an eyewitness, why hasn't this case been solved?” Lane stood up, grimaced, and took his cup over to Kuldeep. “One for me and another for him, please.” He pulled out a twenty dollar bill.
“No problem.” Kuldeep smiled.
“How are you doing?” Lane asked.
“This franchise has made a slave of me. Besides that, everything is good.” She filled their cups.
“What do you mean slave?” Lane asked.
“The way it works is that the company from Toronto takes its money out of my bank account every month. There's not much left after the rent is paid and the company is finished with me. They made a lot of big promises about how much money I would make and their promises turned out to be wrong.” Kuldeep smiled as she passed over the coffees.
“I don't understand. You should be able to make a living and it's always busy here.”
Kuldeep shrugged. “As long as we're open and paying taxes, the company in Toronto is making money and the company does whatever it wants. No one, including the government, wants to hear about how I've become a slave to the franchise because there's not enough money left at the end of the month to pay a living wage.”
Lane returned to the table and took his time sitting down.
Harper pulled his fresh cup closer. “When Alex was killed, the crime happened outside of the city limits. Now the land is inside the city. The rCmP had a few suspects, but Aidan didn't see the rear license plate. She only saw the front plate and couldn't say exactly who was in the truck.” Harper got up to add cream and sugar to his coffee.
Lane waited until Harper got back. “Republic of Alberta?”
“Yep. The rCmP tracked down several pickups matching the vehicle description. Blake Rogers was a person of interest. His vehicle was suspicious, because he lives nearby. It looked like the truck had two new doors, but the rCmP couldn't get anyone to talk. And they couldn't find any damage to the vehicle, or blood, hair, or tissue evidence to connect the vehicle to Alex Starchild.”
“So, who exactly is this Aidan Walker?” Lane talked louder as Kuldeep steamed coffee.
“I met her while you were in the sweat lodge.” Harper looked out the window at Roz. “She's some kind of artist or puppeteer.”
“That's all we know?” Lane asked.
“So far.” Harper stared at his reflection in the window.
Lane saw the far off look in his partner's eyes. “Another flashback?”
Harper turned back to Lane. “How did you know?”
Aidan wore a short gold skirt made full with layers of underlying crinoline. Under the skirt, she wore black
spandex pants and black running shoes. Her blue, tight-fitting jacket was pinstriped and accented with a white silk tie. Her blonde hair was combed back. As always, her marionette persona was dressed the same way.
“It sucks.” Alex sat in a chair under the catwalk with his legs stretched out front.
“You're not going to complain about your costume again, are you?” Aidan, the marionette, stood over him.
“Now that you mention itâ¦.” Alex stood up and smiled. “Actually, I was going to say it sucks that you don't have a life.”
“What do you mean?” Aidan crossed her arms.
“I'm your only friend. A dead friend at that. And Eva is your family. The fact is, Eva's getting old. Once she's gone, there will only be me. Now, as much as I love being around you, a warm body would be a lot better for you. Just because your parents left you behind and moved to Australia for a stupid job doesn't mean you can't trust anyone but me and Eva.” Alex put a hand on Aidan's shoulder.
Aidan pushed the hand away. “I'm not ready for that. You never understood that. When your parents do that to you, it shows you what they really value.”
“So, you moved in with me and Eva.” He leaned forward in his chair.
“You're family. More than my parents are. And, since you're asking, I'm doing okay,” Aidan said.
“Well you'd better start meeting other people. The way people have been disappearing around the old homestead, it looks like warm bodies will be at a premium. Now that a cop's been shot, things could
get even more dangerous.” Alex walked away from Aidan.
“Things will cool down. They always do. What they did to you has to be settled. I made a promise to you and myself that the guys who killed you would end up facing what they did.” Aidan followed Alex off stage.
Alex said, “But what happens to you and your life? You like to start fires, get people going. What's that say about you?”
“That I've waited long enough for the police to do their jobs, and now I'm doing what I can to settle this thing.”
“What if it gets worse? You know as well as I that people are talking about barricading the highway. Some hotheads want to stop the city from getting any closer,” Alex said.
“What are they fighting about?” Arthur leaned on an elbow to look at the bedside clock.
Lane opened his eyes. “What time is it?”
“One
AM
.” Arthur heaved himself out of bed.
Lane rolled over, saw light along the bottom of the door and thought,
The hallway light is on
. He recalled a three dimensional dream, compliments of the pain-killer he'd taken before bed. It had something to do with falling off a bridge into fast-moving water the colour of eye shadow.
“She's sleeping with
me
!” Christine said.
“Stay out of here you bitch! Roz is sleeping in
my
room!” Matt said.
“That's no way to talk to me!” Christine pounded
on Matt's door, then ran upstairs with Matt close behind.
Lane thought,
I wonder when she'll learn how to swear? If she doesn't, it's going to start costing a fortune in doors
.
Arthur opened the door. “What's going on, you two?”
Lane saw the forest of hair on Arthur's back and backside. He was framed in the door and illuminated by the hallway light.
Christine screamed and ran into her bedroom. Matt looked at Roz and then back at Arthur.
Matt's eyes lit up. “It's Uncle Wrinkly!”
Arthur stepped back inside and closed the door.
In the darkness, Lane heard an exasperated Arthur say, “I handled that very well, don't you think?”
“At least you stopped the fight,” Lane said.
SUNDAY, JULY 7
Local grocery stores and fresh water suppliers are scrambling to meet the demand for drinking water. Three major grocery chains have sold out of all brands of bottled water.
A spokesperson for Safeway explained, “We have been unable to keep up with the demand for our bottled waters. At present, we are nearly sold out of soft drinks.”
One shopper explained, “When I found out about the body in the reservoir and those two missing fellows, I didn't want to risk drinking from the tap.”
The Chev's tires rumbled over the country road. Gravel ricocheted against the underside of the car. Lane's stomach lurched as they crested a hill and experienced momentary weightlessness.
“So what did you think of the medical examiner's report on Lombardi's cause of death?” Harper drove.
And he can't stop talking
, Lane thought,
He must be as scared as I am
. “What did
you
think?” Lane thought,
If he needs to talk, then let him talk
. Lane tried shifting his weight to find a more comfortable position.
The pain will happen. It's the expectation of pain, that's the killer
.
“I think he's right about the two blows that killed Lombardi. It makes sense. One to the back between the shoulder blades. The next to the back of the head. That's the one that finished him. Just like you said it would. Dead long before he hit the river. No evidence of drowning. Oh, and Erinn told me to say thanks for dinner. She likes Christine. Erinn figures things will eventually settle down between Christine and Matt. Says she thinks the girl's all mixed up because of the cult thing. It's a cult, isn't it?”
“That's a good question.”
What religion isn't?
Lane thought. He looked right, to the mountains. The morning light appeared to bring the peaks closer. He longed to drive a long mountain valley highway with nothing to think about except whether he'd see a bear or a wolf.
“How come you're back to work today? I mean, you should have taken a couple of weeks off.”
Lane thought for a minute while he leaned his right cheek off the seat. The car hit a valley in the road. He wanted to say, “If I don't do this now, I might never go back.” Out loud, he said, “Just doing what you suggested!” He thought,
Why are you taking it out on Harper?
“You ready for this?”
“Nope. And Erinn wanted to apologize for putting in her two cents about the dog's name. She felt like she might have upset Matt.”
“It's okay.” Now Lane understood why Matt was so angry the other night. Christine liked the name Roz but none of the ones Matt suggested.
Every single decision becomes so damned complicated
, he thought.
“We're here.” Harper allowed the Chev to coast and decelerate. “We're still going to the rodeo, aren't we?”
“It'll be fun.” As they turned into Eva's driveway, Lane studied the surrounding terrain for anything that looked out of place.
Harper watched ahead and to the left.
Lane's eyes scanned the right. His hand moved closer to his Glock.
They parked beyond the blackened patch of driveway where their other car had burned. Lane stepped out of the Chev before the engine quit. As his eyes scanned the perimeter, he couldn't escape the feeling that his back was unprotected.
Eva stepped out from behind a hedge.
The engine stopped. Harper climbed out of the car.
Lane felt the cool, morning mountain air. He saw that Harper was sweating, his eyes never stopping on
one thing for more than a fraction of a second. Harper's hand was close to his pistol.
Eva wore a white hand-knit sweater over a dress with a pattern of spring flowers on a blue background. She moved toward Harper. “Come inside. Coffee's on. Muffins in the oven.” They followed her along the sidewalk leading to the back door. Inside, as they took their shoes off, Eva said, “Don't wanna hear no jokes about smoke signals.”
“What?” Lane waited for Eva to go up the stairs.