Bones Are Forever (23 page)

In 1991 Dia Met and BHP announced the discovery of diamonds
at Fipke’s Point Lake site. The news sparked the NWT diamond rush, the biggest staking frenzy since Klondike.

Lac de Gras in French. Ekati in the language of the local Dene people. Fat Lake in both.

In 1998 Ekati became Canada’s first diamond mine. The following year she produced one million carats. Today she does $400 million annually and coughs up 4 percent of the world’s rocks.

Fat Lake, indeed.

In 2003 the Diavik mine, owned by a joint-venture partnership between Harry Winston Diamond Corporation and Diavik Diamond Mines, Inc., a subsidiary of the Rio Tinto Group, began operation. The mine, Canada’s second largest, lies 186 miles north of Yellowknife. It consists of three kimberlite pipes on 7.7 square miles on a tiny chunk of real estate in Lac de Gras, locally called East Island. Diavik is a major supplier of the “Jeweler to the Stars.”

In 1997 kimberlite was discovered at Snap Lake, 137 miles northeast of Yellowknife. De Beers Canada bought the mining rights in the fall of 2000. In 2004 permits for construction and operation were granted.

Unlike most diamond-bearing kimberlite deposits that are pipes, the Snap Lake ore body is a two-and-a-half-meter-thick dyke that dips from the northwest shore down under the lake. Thus, Snap Lake is Canada’s first completely underground diamond mine.

Snap Lake mine officially opened in 2008. According to De Beers’s website, by the end of 2010, $1.5 billion had been spent on construction and operation. Of that total, $1.077 billion had gone to NWT-based contractors and suppliers, including $676 million with aboriginal businesses or joint ventures.

The article on Snap Lake concluded with a statement emphasizing De Beers’s commitment to sustainable development in local communities, and pointing out that the Snap Lake mine had signed impact-benefit agreements with the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, the Tlicho Government, the North Slave Métis Alliance, and the Lutsel K’e and Kache Dene First Nation.

Between the lines, I got a whiff of the aboriginal-versus-mining hostility to which Ollie had alluded.

I was trying Katy for the gazillionth time, now genuinely concerned about Birdie, when a loud knock rattled my door. I crossed to it and squinted through the peephole.

Ryan.

Something was wrong.

“C
ASTAIN’S DEAD.”

Ryan strode past me and began pacing my room.

“What?”

“Someone shot him.”

“When?”

“About an hour ago.”

“Where?”

“Three rounds to the chest. Christ. Does it matter?”

“No.” Having to track a moving target wasn’t helping my comprehension. “I meant where was Castain when it happened?”

“Banging his girlfriend.”

“Stop pacing.”

Ryan never slowed.

“Do they have the shooter?”

“No.”

“But he was under surveillance.”

Ryan snorted loudly. “Rainwater’s idea of a tail was to ping-pong a car between Snook, Unka, and Castain.”

“Jesus.”

“Claims he doesn’t have enough manpower to maintain surveillance in three locations.”

“That may be legit.”

“Why the fuck didn’t he say so? You and I could have taken Snook. Or Sergeant Shithead could have sat on her.”

I ignored that. “So no one’s watching the house on Ragged Ass?”

“You know the annual homicide count in Yellowknife?”

I didn’t.

“Every chump with a badge will want a piece of this one.”

“Is Unka a suspect?” I asked.

“One among many.”

“Where is he?”

“In the wind.”

“What about Scar?”

“Ditto.”

“Shit.”

“Exactly. I’m heading to the scene.”

I grabbed my jacket, and we raced to the Camry.

*  *  *

Ryan smoked. Didn’t ask if I minded. Just lit up.

I rode with my window down, shivering and breathing as shallowly as possible without getting dizzy.

Castain’s girlfriend was a stripper named Merilee Twiller. Mercifully, she lived not far from the Explorer.

Ollie’s directions took us to Sunnyvale Court, a horseshoe of tiny bungalows on tiny lots. While a few were reasonably well maintained, most were in disrepair, and several were boarded up and abandoned. I guessed it had been a while since the court had lived up to its name.

Twiller’s address was at the far end, on the north side of the curve. The place needed paint, new screens, and a bucket of weed killer. Maybe a bulldozer. Twiller’s next-door neighbor had two garbage pails on his stoop and a car on cinder blocks in the drive.

We arrived to the usual hubbub of activity. The front door of Twiller’s house was open, and every indoor and outdoor bulb was blazing. Blue and yellow Evi Lites dotted the lawn, marking the locations of trace evidence, perhaps bits of Castain.

A sheet-covered body lay on a walk leading to a porch enclosed by a rusty iron railing. Crime scene tape triangled between the railing and two stunted pines in the yard. Portable halogens were focused on it.

More tape paralleled the curb on the opposite side of the culde-sac, a restraint for gawkers out for a glimpse of someone else’s misery. Possibly members of the media.

Ryan was right. It seemed every conceivable member of law enforcement had turned out. I saw cruisers from the RCMP and MED, a hearse, a panel van, and at least a dozen unmarked cars and pickups. Most had flashing lights on their roofs or dashboards. Radios added staticky sputter to the tumult of voices calling back and forth.

Ollie was off to one side, talking to a woman whose dress was too short and too tight for her heavy thighs and the rolls of fat outlining her bra. I assumed this was Merilee Twiller.

Ryan pulled to the end of the line of parked vehicles. An RCMP corporal approached his door. Ryan badged us in. We got out and walked toward Ollie.

As we drew close, I could see that Twiller was in her forties, trying hard not to look it. Despite an overload of makeup, I noted puffy lower lids, networks of deep lines, and starbursts of capillaries on either side of her nose.

Ollie didn’t explain us to Twiller. “You take a look at him?”

Ryan answered for both of us. “Not yet. What have you got so far?”

“Around seven Castain dropped in for a little poontang with the love of his life here.” Ollie flicked a thumb at Twiller.

“You’re a real dick,” she said.

“Castain left around eight. Never made it to the property line.”

“Any witnesses?” Ryan asked.

“The grieving girlfriend says she heard shots, then squealing tires. Didn’t get a look at the shooter or the car.”

“That’s how it went down.” Defensive.

“Where was lover boy going from here?”

“We’ve been over this.” Twiller kept her angry rainbow eyes on Ollie.

“I’m slow. Explain it again.”

“Arty didn’t tell me shit.”

“And you didn’t ask.”

“No.”

“I’m guessing he was heading out to deliver more product. That’s why he came here, right? You’re on the spike, aren’t you, princess?”

“Screw you and the questions you galloped in on.”

“How about I give you a ride to the cage?”

“Because my boyfriend got shot?”

“What do you suppose we’ll find in the house?”

“A shitpot of cat hair.”

Anger bunched the muscles below Ollie’s temples. He knew Twiller was right. She’d have flushed any drugs before calling the cops.

Ollie’s brusqueness was getting us nowhere. I caught Ryan’s eye and tipped my head toward the house. He dipped his chin in understanding.

“How about you show me the vic?” Ryan suggested.

Ollie nodded. Told Twiller to stay put.

I watched them weave through the melee of cops and technicians swarming the cul-de-sac.

“My condolences for your loss,” I said to Twiller.

For the first time, she glanced my way. In the pulsing red light, her mouth looked taut, her cheeks stretched and hollow. “Right” was all she said.

“Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt Arty?” I asked.

Twiller drew her right arm across her belly, rested her left elbow on it, and began chewing a thumb cuticle that already looked raw.

Behind us, I saw Ollie and Ryan join a woman standing over Castain. Under the bright spots, the logo on her jacket was easily recognizable.

In the Northwest Territories, all sudden deaths are investigated by the Coroners Service, a division of the Department of Justice. The service has its main office in Yellowknife and roughly forty coroners throughout the territory. The NWT has no staffed facility for performing postmortems.

I knew that the deputy chief coroner was a woman named Maureen King. I guessed I was looking at her. And that she would order Castain’s body transported to the office of Alberta’s chief medical examiner in Edmonton for autopsy.

“Had Arty argued with anyone?” I asked Twiller. “Made anyone mad?”

Twiller shook her head.

“Received any strange phone calls or visitors?”

“I already told the other cop. We didn’t hang out that much.”

“Was Arty seeing other women?”

“We weren’t going steady, if that’s what you mean.” Twiller swiped both palms down her cheeks. “He didn’t deserve this.”

“I know.”

“Do you? What the hell do you know?”

“I’m sorry.”

Ten yards beyond us, King lifted a corner of the sheet. Ryan dropped to a crouch for a closer look at Castain.

“It’s that bastard Unka.” She said it so softly I almost didn’t hear.

“Excuse me?”

“Unka thought Arty was skimming.”

“Arty told you that?”

“I overheard a conversation. When he’s pissed, he gets ugly.”

“Unka.”

She nodded.

“Ugly enough to kill?”

“He’d gut-stab his mother, then order up pizza.”

*  *  *

It was past ten when the hearse finally rolled. Ollie stayed to help canvass the neighbors. The hit wasn’t his problem, but he hoped to pry something loose on Scar.

Ryan and I rode to the Explorer in silence. I looked out my window at the bare trees straining to bud, the patches of last night’s snow struggling to hang on. Felt the frustration they depicted.

Ryan spoke first. “Your friend has the interrogation skills of a slug.”

“He’s not my friend.”

“He was.”

“What’s your point?”

“He was incompetent.” Ryan patted his jacket pocket.

“Don’t smoke,” I said.

Ryan shot me a look but stopped searching for a cigarette.

“You’ve both been acting like jerks,” I said.

“I’d never be that callous.”

“He felt she was holding back.”

“Was she?”

“Yes.”

As we ascended the circle drive, I told him what Twiller had said about Unka.

“You just proved my point,” he said.

We got out of the car and crossed to the hotel.

“It gets to him,” I said, not sure why I was defending Ollie.

Ryan cocked a skeptical brow.

“He gets tired of the violence. Of constantly dealing with skanks who make you want to scrub your whole body with Lysol.”

“You speaking for shithead or yourself?”

Damn good point. I didn’t concede it.

“We both know Castain just bounced Ruben to the back burner, perhaps kicked her from the stage altogether.”

Normally, I’d have made fun of Ryan’s mixed metaphor. Not then.

“This whole thing is just too freaking frustrating.” I started for the elevator.

“We’ll find her.”

I turned.

“But now we’ll have to rely on ourselves,” he said.

“And shithead.”

“And shithead.”

A truce. Of sorts.

Back in my room, I tried my iPhone. To my surprise, it gave a listless flicker. Hopeful that the working bits just needed to dry out, I plugged it in to charge.

Using the landline, I phoned my elusive daughter. She remained elusive. I left another message.

Exhausted, I did a quick toilette, then dropped into bed. But my mind refused to disengage. I wondered about Arty Castain. Who had killed him? Why? Was it really Unka, or was it a major move by Scarborough? Had Castain’s death been the first in a bloodbath about to commence? What secrets had Castain taken to the grave?

Where was Tom Unka? Ronnie Scarborough?

What had Scarborough meant when he said Ollie was clueless
about Annaliese Ruben? Had Scar been more than her pimp? Did he know things we hadn’t even thought about?

Ryan was right. The locals would focus on the Castain homicide, on the erupting feud over control of the drug trade. But I couldn’t give up my obsession with Ruben. The woman had murdered four babies.

People had described Ruben as not very bright. Scarborough. Forex. Tyne. How had she eluded capture this long? Gotten from Saint-Hyacinthe to Edmonton to Yellowknife? Did she even know the law was in pursuit? Surely she did. But was she more worried about Scar?

Had Scar helped Ruben? Had Nellie Snook? Was Ruben hiding in the house on Ragged Ass? Or had she gone elsewhere? A half sibling of whom we knew nothing? A local officer who was perhaps a cousin or other relative?

Ruben’s father was Farley McLeod. Her mother was Micah Lee. Micah was Dene. Did Ruben’s familial network extend to places closed to outsiders?