Never Hug a Mugger on Quadra Island (30 page)

Shane mumbled, “Yes he can.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because I know him! I know he can.”

“How?”

He closed his eyes again. “He says he can take pain away, and he's done it for me. He says he can cause pain just as easily.”

“‘Cause pain'? What's that mean?”

“I don't know. He's never made it clearer. ‘Don't make me cause pain, Shane.'”

Noel glanced at Kyra. “Cause pain.” To Shane: “Has he ever caused you pain?”

Hesitantly: “No. Not really.”

“How do you mean, not really?”

“I mean no, he hasn't caused me any pain!”

Time to move on. Noel said, “Now what do you want to do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you going to tell your family?”

“About Austin?”

“All that you just told us.”

“Do I have to?”

“It'd be best if you did. Otherwise we'll have to. At least your father, since he hired us.”

Shane thought about this for a full half minute. Then he glanced from Noel to Kyra and back again. “If I do—when I do—can you both be there?”

Kyra glanced at Noel, who nodded. “It'd be best if you did this when they were all together. Say, this afternoon. In your home. We'll meet you there.”

Slowly Shane nodded. “Thank you. Should I tell my parents when they drive me home?”

“That's up to you,” said Kyra. “It might be easier if you only had to do this once.”

Shane nodded again. “Yeah.”

As if on cue, the door opened. Jason, pulling a wheelchair, crutches balanced on the seat.

“Hang in there, Shane,” Kyra said. “We're getting there.” To Jason she added, “Alana and Tim are in the cafeteria. Do you mind driving them over to Quadra? We've got a job to do. And then we should all meet at your house. About two?”

Austin rocketed his Porsche smoothly down the driveway and came to a sharp stop, the sort he used to do on blades, slivers of ice arcing away, a bow and a little jump: his trademark. He closed the door, no thin tinny sound here, a solid comforting thonk. Everything would work out.

He found Shu-li and Steve on the deck. “Hi,” Shu-li said, giving him a brilliant smile. “We're shucking oysters for Rockefeller—”

“He's coming for brunch?”

“Nit, oysters Rockefeller. My Asian twist.”

Steve beamed. “Got them down below the cliff. What
richesse
you have, Austin.”

“Two dozen for three people, that's enough.” Shu-li stood.

Steve regarded the half shells they'd discarded. “Where do you put these?”

Austin made a dismissive gesture. “Randy chucks them back into the drink.”

Shu-li picked up the bowl. “We'll eat in half an hour. You attend to libations.”

“A dry white?” Austin said to Steve. They walked to the closet that Austin called his wine cellar though it was at ground level. “Vancouver Island Sauvignon.” Austin presented a bottle to Steve. “Not this one, though. I have two cold.” In the kitchen he took a bottle from the refrigerator, prepared an ice bucket and set the bottle in it.

Steve asked, “How is Shane?”

“The same. It'll take time. He's going to be fine.”

Austin, fooling himself? “A true shame.”

“Yes. But we'll work through it.” Austin located a corkscrew and opened the bottle. He poured three glasses, put one by Shu-li, gave one to Steve. He toasted: “To a beautiful summer day.”

They sipped, then Shu-li said, “Out. You distract me.”

Steve and Austin moved to the table on the lawn.

Austin said, “How's your student doing? Graham?”

“So-so.”

“He'll improve?”

“Of course. But he may not get there.”

“You'll get him there. Won't you.”

A threat? “I hope so. Yet—”

“Shu-li's girl's promising. She'll help.”

“Shu-li thinks so. But the girl won't qualify for a year. We were counting on Shane.” He sipped again. He knew Austin didn't want to hear this. “Shu-li phoned Carl.”

“And?”

“Shu-li was brilliant. He's never heard of anyone getting to the Olympics without qualifying but he'll ask some pointed questions in the right places.”

Austin scanned the panorama. He loved it: treetops, beach below, cliffs to the left and right. Waves breaking, seagulls squalling, flying after and above an eagle; stolen one of their babes for breakfast? “Carl's going to find a way to avoid the qualifiers. I can speed up work with Shane.”

Steve put his drink down and rubbed his fingertips. “We need to have a re-think.”

From the kitchen Shu-li called, “Nobody going to refresh my wine?”

•  •  •

At the rental car Kyra felt the seat. Nearly dry. She quartered the blanket and sat on it.

Noel got behind the wheel. “What do we know?”

“More than we did a few hours ago.” Kyra blew her lips out.

“Shane may start to feel better with that off his chest.”

“Confession good for the soul?”

“Sharing.”

“I think there's more.”

“More he hasn't told?”

“Yeah. He's been living with a lot of pressure. I think he's not out from under it.”

“What makes you say that?”

“A feeling.”

“Figure it out.” Noel checked his watch and the ferry schedule. “Next stop Austin? Let him tell us what it's about?”

“Yeah. Maybe he's not committed a legal crime, but he's corrupted a minor.”

“I think it's a crime.”

“It should be. Makes me furious.” Kyra's jaw clenched. “Let's get to the ferry.”

Noel drove out of the lot. “We could make the noon. Unless you're hungry?”

“Not overly. If a donut passed by I'd be tempted. You?”

“I can wait.”

“Onward, then.”

They reached the ferry in time. Ten minutes later they drove off. Kyra said, “Do we know where Austin lives?”

“Jason pointed it out when we were looking for Tim.” They headed up the hill, turned left at the shopping center where a flea market was in progress, and onto Heriot Bay Road. Something itched in Noel's mind, related to Kyra's thought that Shane was holding back. He couldn't grasp it.

Kyra asked, “You know where we are?”

On the island or in this case? “Pretty sure.” After a few minutes he turned onto Hyacinthe Bay Road. “Look for a driveway with a sign
OSBORNE
. It's hard to miss.”

“How do you want to handle this?”

“Businesslike. Tell him what we know and what Shane told us.”

“Didn't someone, Linda, say he has visitors?”

“We'll find out. There it is.” Above the entry a large cedar sign,
OSBORNE
, hung from a crossbar between two posts, each brandishing a single skate shape. Noel turned into a shaded gravel driveway. It wound a quarter mile through woods. Then the aspect opened into a broad meadow sloping toward the ocean. Another quarter mile until the house. Noel parked behind a dark blue Porsche. He wished he could remember what Shane had said that bothered him so.

Up three steps to an extensive roofed cedar deck. Around the corner of the house they found the front door and, on a small patch of lawn overlooking a stunning view of the sea between two cliffs, three people eating at a table.

Austin patted his lips with a napkin and stood. “Yes?”

“We met at the rink and the hospital.” Noel repeated their names. “We have to talk.”

“I'm eating with friends. I can see you later.”

“Afraid not,” Kyra said. “Time's running out. On all of us.”

“It won't take long,” Noel added. “Where can we go?”

Austin frowned, but turned to his companions. “Excuse me.” He opened the door. “There's my office. Turn right.”

A comfortable room with an elegant antique roll-top desk. At it a captain's chair, a loveseat to one side, a sofa to the other. Kyra sat on the sofa, Noel on the loveseat. Austin sat at the desk and turned the chair to face them. “What's this about?”

“We watched the tapes of Shane's competitions. We especially watched his fall last winter. It looked deliberate. We asked Shane. He said he'd fallen on purpose, throwing the competition. He said he did it because you pressured him into it.”

“Corrupting a young man,” Kyra threw in.

“He said if he didn't fall, you wouldn't continue to support him financially.”

“We're asking you, Why?” Kyra finished.

“All outrageous.” Austin's face remained impassive, his voice low and steely. “You know I help him focus through hypnosis? We've had sessions to prevent—
prevent
—him falling. You must have confused what he told you. Shane wouldn't suggest something so inane. But I'll speak to him. Thank you for letting me know.” He stood.

Kyra wanted to choke the smug bastard, but didn't move. Noel remained seated. He said, “Shane told us that, when he was thirteen or fourteen, you said one day you'd ask him to do something he might not want to do. You waited till he was seventeen, then asked him to throw a competition. He wouldn't. You began to insist. In the end, he did it for you. It began to destroy him. And now you're insisting he do it again. That's no hypnosis misunderstanding.”

Austin walked to the door and held it open. “Get out or I'll call the police.”

“That would be very foolish,” said Kyra.

“Very well. Make yourselves comfortable. But you're about to be thrown out.”

“From now on it's simple. We know what you did. Learning why comes next.”

Austin lifted the phone off its cradle and pressed a couple of buttons. “Randy, I need your help. I've got two crude detectives in my office who won't leave . . . Thanks.”

Noel glanced at Kyra, who nodded. “Don't worry,” he said. “We'll be back.” They walked past him and out the door.

•  •  •

“What was that about?” Shu-li asked when Austin returned to the table. Good thing he'd finished his oysters, she thought, before he was called away. He looked a little grey.

“Shane told them I engineered the fall.”

“Shit,” said Steve.

“Yes.” He glanced from one to the other. “They watched a tape of Shane falling. They either know a lot about skating or they had some kind of analyst with them. They accused Shane. He admitted it.”

Steve plunked his fork down and stood up. His chair tottered. He steadied it.

“And—” a moment's pause, “they know we want him to fall again.”

Shu-li finished her last mouthful of salad. She put her fork down. “Now what?”

•  •  •

Back in the car, out the driveway. Noel said, “And now?”

“Now we wait. Let him stew. He's one smooth dude.”

“And a real possible danger to Shane. Someone should be with Shane at every moment for the next few days. I'll talk to Jason.”

Kyra nodded. “I'd like to be a fly on the umbrella over their lunch, listening in. Think he'll tell his friends?”

“You mean, are they in on it? That's a stretch, but who knows.” Noel was still searching for what Shane said that bothered him so. “Shouldn't we be getting over to the Cooper house?”

“Maybe eat first, not show up hungry. It's after one.”

“There's that place in the shopping center.”

“Let's go.” She settled back as Noel drove. The case, at last surging ahead nicely over the past few hours, suddenly felt like a wall of mud. Waiting wasn't her favorite tactic. “What do you think he'll do? Austin, I mean.”

“I don't know. But we've loosened a couple of his supports.”

As, Kyra felt, something had pulled out from under her, too. The fetus was gone. Was that good? She honestly didn't know. She crossed her ankles. How really did she feel? She'd called it just a few cells, but it would have become a child. Did she want a child in her life? Now at least she wouldn't have to tell a child she didn't know who its father was. A worry gone. Save the worry for the case. “How do you read Osborne?”

“Smooth on the outside. Inside, pretty twisted.”

“I bet skaters learn to create smooth. Like actors. Shane, turning on the charm at center ice. Remember Linda's comment? ‘We know he knows how to smile, he does it for the world.'”

Noel wheeled into the village center and parked in front of the Lovin' Oven. They ordered sandwiches, and a salad to share. “I know it has to happen,” he said, “but I'm not looking forward to Shane's confession this afternoon.”

“One painful afternoon coming up. For the whole family.”

“Yeah.” Pain brought on by Austin. That was it! Shane had described Austin saying he could take pain away, and he could cause pain. How would Austin cause pain? Time to talk to Shane again. After he'd finished with his family.

At 1:45 they pulled into the Coopers' drive, the Corolla parked there and Derek's truck, hurtingly undriven for a while. They went into the kitchen. “Hello?” Noel called

Jason appeared. “Hello. What terrible news do you have for us now?”

“Let's talk in the living room. Linda and Alana and the boys are here?”

“Tim and Alana are on the computer. I'm making up the sofa bed for Shane so he doesn't have to climb stairs. He's practicing with his crutches. And acting odd.”

Kyra, trying to lighten Jason up: “Is that something new?”

“A different kind of odd.”

“Let's all go talk.”

From the living room Jason called to his family. One by one they wandered in. Linda and Jason sat on the couch, Noel, Kyra and Alana on chairs, Shane in his wheelchair, Tim on the floor playing with his baseball cap. Linda offered tea. Everyone refused. They waited for Kyra and Noel to begin. Noel turned to Shane. “Go ahead.”