Stormy Cove (36 page)

Now it was Aurelia’s turn to be silent. She wrung her hands painfully, making Lori more and more agitated. She crunched c
aribou moss between her fingers.

“That’s why I’m worried about the gun. What did Archie need it for? He didn’t say anything about ducks. Am I being paranoid or what?”

“Gideon got all worked up when I told him that you were coming here to look for Marguerite’s cave. He said Archie never should have brought you out.”

“Why? Did he . . . did Gideon suspect something? Was he worried about my safety?”

But Aurelia didn’t seem to be listening. She was staring hard at the ocean.

“Una was after Gideon. Even though she was married. She was after our money. I told her if she didn’t stop bugging Gideon I’d tell Cletus. But she didn’t listen.”

Lori studied Aurelia closely, attempting to understand what she was saying.

“Gideon and Una . . . Are you trying to say that they had an affair?”

“For Gideon it was all in the past. He only had eyes now for Bella, his present wife. But Una just wouldn’t let it go. I confronted her about it. She said I shouldn’t get involved or else . . .”

“Or else what?” Lori asked, increasingly distraught.

“She saw me.”

“Aurelia, I’m following you less and less.”

“She saw me before the lodge burned down. She said she had a witness too.”

“A witness? To what?”

Lori still didn’t quite get it, but she felt a sinister hunch taking shape.

“That I was there, in the lodge.” Aurelia’s voice sounded impatient, as if Lori were a dim-witted child.

“Before the fire?”

“Yes.”

“Did you have anything to do with the fire? You couldn’t have—”

“We needed the insurance money. Gideon wanted to start a new business. We didn’t have the money for anything like that. The lodge wasn’t making enough.”

An invisible hand wrapped itself around Lori’s throat.

“And Gideon knew that Una threatened to expose you?”

“Yes, I told him.”

Lori waited a second before saying, “And after that, Una disappeared.”

Aurelia said nothing.

“Una would never have given you away, Aurelia, because she’d already committed a crime by not telling the police what she knew. And because she went into the lodge to steal something.”

“But I didn’t know . . . I’d never have dreamed . . .” Her voice broke off.

“That Gideon would kill her?” Lori said.

Aurelia covered her face with her hands. “I don’t know how to save you, I don’t know how to save you . . .”

Lori’s brain was working overtime.

“We’ve got to hide, Aurelia, we’ve got to get away from here before he gets back.”

She jumped up, but Aurelia didn’t budge.

“Now you know everything about me. And about Gideon. What are you going to do?”

Look for Archie. He’s got a gun. He went back for it when he heard the helicopter. Because he’d figured out who the killer was. He knows who brought Una here by helicopter, dead or alive. He heard the helicopter and knew he had to defend himself. Both of us.

But Lori had abandoned the protective cover where Archie had left her.

Spurred on by the courage of despair, she started talking a blue streak.

“Aurelia, I won’t tell anyone. You’ve done nothing wrong. Nobody got hurt. You can’t turn me over to Gideon!”

The librarian looked up at her, squinting in the sun. “But what about Gideon?”

It dawned on Lori that Aurelia would defend her brother no matter what. She’d never let him down. Family ties were stronger than murder here.

Lori fled, leaving her backpack and tripod behind.

She staggered through thick undergrowth that slowed her down but provided visual cover. Gideon couldn’t possibly search the entire island, and if she and Archie didn’t get back to Stormy Cove before dark, then Noah would start moving heaven and earth.

She frantically scanned her surroundings and decided to risk crossing a rocky plateau with sparse vegetation and little pools of water. She heard a shot, a second shortly after it, then a third.

They seemed to come from the direction of the boat. Then silence. Her heart raced.

Archie’s gun.

She tore ahead. Twigs left bloody scratches all over her bare arms. Several times she had to pull her shoes out of the muck. Jacinta crossed her mind, but she kept pushing farther, farther, farther.

Suddenly, she saw the shacks—she hadn’t realized she was heading back that way. But she couldn’t hide there—that would be the first place he’d look.

She caught sight of two huge boulders several hundred feet away. She could reach them in a straight line, but that was over open terrain and she might be seen. So she decided to go through the bushes and approach the rocks from the back. But the bushes crackled and rustled, making far more noise than she liked.

She was on the point of changing direction when she heard a voice, loud and clear. An unholy fear swept through her.

“Stop!”

Then, “Turn around!”

She turned in the direction of the voice.

Gideon Moore was pointing a gun at her.

It must be Archie’s gun.
He’s killed Archie!

Gideon lowered his weapon.

“Why didn’t you stay with Aurelia?”

A kernel of hope sprung up in Lori. She wasn’t dead yet. Maybe there was room to maneuver.

“She sent me to find you. She was afraid of Archie. We didn’t hear any shots. Archie wasn’t duck hunting.”

“No, Archie’s not duck hunting. Where’s Aurelia?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then we’ll find her together. Walk ahead of me, but don’t run or I’ll shoot.”

She did as she was ordered.

Why doesn’t he shoot me?

She looked for paths to escape, but the sparse vegetation eliminated any hope. It held her prisoner.

She didn’t know how long he drove her ahead like a beast. It seemed like half an eternity.

Finally, a hill came into sight that looked familiar.

But she didn’t see Aurelia.

“Where is she? What did you two talk about?” Gideon barked.

He’s jumpy. Why? Doesn’t he trust her?

And where was Aurelia? Lori got an answer a split second later.

A figure emerged from beneath some fir trees. No, two figures.

A woman. Aurelia.

And a man with a gun. Archie.

He had a tight grip on Aurelia, using her as a shield.

“Drop the gun, Gideon, for your sister’s sake.”

In answer, Gideon grabbed Lori and tightened an arm around her throat.

“This girl isn’t going to live!” he shouted.

Archie’s voice was cold. “Whatever. She’s not my family. It’s over, Gideon.”

“You shouldn’t have been snooping on me, Archie. Then we wouldn’t have this problem!”

“Only an idiot would throw a body in a root cellar. And hide a gun on the island to boot.”

“I had to get rid of Una, man. She saw Aurelia at the lodge and was going to tell the cops. She’d have squealed on you too about the boat. I did you a favor. Come on, Archie! We’ll get rid of this foreigner and forget everything. Nobody has to know a goddamn thing. It’s best for all of us.”

Lori’s heart skipped a beat.

Then Archie spoke up. “Drop the gun, Gideon. Then we can talk.”

The pressure on her neck lessened a bit. Gideon seemed to be weighing the situation. Her eyes fastened on something. Her backpack on the ground. The tripod beside it.

“Let Aurelia go first.”

“Not if you’re still holding Lori.”

“What do you want? Nobody can pin anything on me, nobody!”

“Don’t kid yourself. You flew out here when Una disappeared. Nobody else was on the island, just you. And that flight’s recorded in the Coast Guard logbook. And here we all thought you were helping search for Una.”

“So what? I was here. Doesn’t prove anything.”

“You’re not going to get away with this, Gideon. Una wasn’t the only one who saw Aurelia that night at the lodge. And that person is not dead.”

Patience’s face flashed through Lori’s mind.
He must mean Patience.

“Don’t be an ass—” Gideon’s words were drowned out by a terrifying sound.

A long, dreadful keening, penetrating and shrill.

The demons.

Followed by a scream, unbearably loud and very near.

Aurelia shrieked, overcome with fear, teeth bared.

She screamed and screamed and screamed.

Gideon’s chokehold slackened, and in a flash, Lori ducked sideways. She grabbed the tripod with both hands and swung it with all her might at the body beside her.

Gideon stumbled. Lori slammed him with the tripod wherever she could, again and again until he fell over, and she would have kept on beating him if Archie hadn’t pulled her back.

“Stop! Stop!” he shouted. “I’ve got him under control!”

She took everything in as if through a haze: Archie picking up Gideon’s gun, Gideon covered in blood on the ground, Aurelia fleeing, Archie shouting, “Give me your bootlaces.”

He stooped down to bind Gideon’s hands and feet with them.

Just as he finished, the ghastly howling stopped.

Later, she heard the men in uniform talking as they accompanied her to the boat. One of them said, “They found the body. She jumped off the cliff.”

Lori knew they meant Aurelia.

Later, Archie brought his boat in a long way from the harbor to avoid the nosy crowds.

Noah was waiting there beside his pickup; she could see him from a distance. When the boat docked, he came running, his face creased and worried, and his mouth twitched when he saw blood on her T-shirt.

She laid her head on his chest and held him tight.

“She fought for her life,” Archie reported. “Gutsy as a bull moose.”

Noah put an arm around her shoulders.

“Come on, we’re going home.”

CHAPTER 39

Their bags were packed, the gas tank was full, and Noah double-checked the oil and washer fluid.

Lori leaned under the open hood and rubbed his bare back under his shirt.

“I’m going to say good-bye to Rusty.”

She walked down the hill for the last time, without so much as a glance at the faces behind the windowpanes, then turned right and ignored the passing cars.

She’d made sure that Tom Quinton would be at work and that she could see his wife alone. Vera registered surprise when her visitor came into the kitchen as she was loading the dishwasher.

“You can’t be here to walk Rusty.”

Lori shook her head.

“No, we’re leaving right now. But there’s something I wanted to talk to you about. About a little get-together at a B and B in Deer Lake.”

“Deer Lake? What sort of get-together?” Vera smiled nervously.

“I don’t want to go into details, but it took place last April. In Bobbie Wall’s B and B.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The smile vanished.

“Oh, yes you do. A secret get-together of three—let’s say . . . acquaintances. I happened to be in the next room that night.”

Vera’s face collapsed like a chilled soufflé. Lori saw to her satisfaction that she’d hit the
bull’s-eye
.

“As I said, it was secret, wasn’t it? Of course you don’t want your husband to find out about it. Or the whole village. And it can still be kept secret provided that . . . provided we can come to an agreement.”

Vera didn’t utter a word, but her dilated pupils spoke volumes.

“Rusty loves his walks, as you know, and he needs one every day without fail. Wouldn’t that be a nice thing for you to do? As long as Rusty’s happy, I won’t breathe a word about this. Does that sound like a good deal?”

Vera slammed the dishwasher door shut and straightened up, red in the face.

She arranged the dishtowels on their hooks and put the detergent tabs in the cupboard. She picked up the broom and paused.

“Fanny and Rosy started walking their dogs. They’re in pretty good shape now, you know. Fresh air and exercise would probably do me good.”

“You bet!” Lori replied. “Best to start right away—today.”

She was on her way to the door when Vera asked, “Noah’s going to Vancouver with you?”

Lori nodded.

“For how long?”

“I don’t know.”

“I wish I could get away from here too.”

Lori met Vera’s gaze of resignation.

“I really believe you.”

Then she closed the door.

CHAPTER 40

The gate to Mona Blackwood’s fortresslike estate slid open as if by a phantom hand. The mansion came into view after the taxi drove around a park, where a fountain composed a perpetually changing symphony of water plumes. It took Lori’s breath away. Mona’s home on the outskirts of Calgary was a monument of futurist architecture, with massive horizontals and imposing glass walls. A multifaceted element rose at an angle out of the structure, so loosely integrated with it that it was as if a fantastic spaceship had come down from the sky and landed on the building. Lori would have expected to find this sort of cutting-edge experimental design in Vancouver, not in nouveau riche, oil-moneyed Calgary—“Cowboy Town,” as Lori secretly called it. She scolded herself for her prejudice, which her boss shared.

Lori interpreted it as a good sign that Mona had invited her over.

A young man—the same one from Mona’s office in Calgary?—guided her through a vestibule decorated with artwork and into a room with a ceiling so high that every visitor was compelled to emit a one-syllable word of amazement.

“Wow!” Lori exclaimed.

The two-story living room framed a breathtaking view of the deep valley and meandering river below, with an endless chain of hills in the background. The young man reacted to her rapture with a smile, as if taking credit for it all. He left her in front of the wall of glass.

Lori was still standing there, immobile, entranced, when a voice came from behind her.

“Wouldn’t that be a lovely shot? I think I have the most beautiful view in Calgary.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Lori replied.

She’d remembered Mona as being more severe and serious, less pretty too. This time, she wore a close-fitting white blouse over patterned beige capris and a bright, cheerful hair band.

It didn’t take long, though, for the businesswoman in her to come straight to the point, once they were sitting on a sofa that Lori recognized as a Charles Eames.

“We’re delighted with your pictures, and we think there’s already enough for a beautiful book.” Mona smiled with satisfaction. “I don’t want to delay publication any further. Now is the ideal time for it, don’t you think?”

Lori agreed, knowing her client had already made up her mind.

“There are no changes regarding the financial arrangements and . . .” Mona turned her head because an elegant woman around Lori’s age had come into the room, bearing a tray of drinks.

“You will, of course, have a say in the design. By the way, I’d like you to meet my partner, Robine.”

A silvery voice exclaimed, “Let me set this down first, Mona, or there’ll be an accident!”

Lori stared in disbelief at the woman who slid the tray across a coffee table hewn from a massive tree trunk. That dark hair, those deep-set, expressive eyes, that strong mouth, and most of all, the way her smile changed her face . . .

“Robine Whalen?”

The elegant woman brushed back her thick hair.

“That’s right. I look like Noah, don’t I? That’s what everybody always said. But he’s got bigger hands.”

She laughed. “Coffee?”

Mona stood up.

“Not for me. I’ve got to make a quick phone call. Excuse me,” she said, turning to Lori. “Robine’s dying to hear everything about Stormy Cove.”

“It’s been so long since I left,” Robine sighed, her eyes following Mona as she strode out of the room. “Fifteen years, sixteen . . . I couldn’t stand it anymore, as you can probably understand.”

“I’m not the right person to judge the place,” Lori said cautiously. “I didn’t grow up there.”

Her eyes were riveted on Noah’s sister.

“Oh, you are very much the right person, after everything that’s happened.”

Robine rolled her skillfully made-up eyes.

“But the folks in Stormy Cove will love you for this book. You’ve presented them with a memorial. And after all you’ve been through.”

“Was that basically your intention, I mean . . . to memorialize them?”

Robine stirred her coffee with a little silver spoon. Then she burst into laughter.

“I’d love to see their faces in Stormy Cove when they discover I’m the publisher!”

Lori raised her eyebrows.

“Is that the reason you sent me to Stormy Cove?”

“There were . . . many different reasons. Beth Ontara was one. Maybe the most important one.”

Lori waited. She hadn’t forgotten the rumors about Robine and Beth.

Robine leaned back on the sofa and crossed her slim legs, her deep blue dress shimmering. She could have passed for a lady from Calgary’s wealthy elite. Maybe she’d become one already.

“Beth was my first great love. And you never forget your first love, do you? Beth encouraged me when I still had . . . inhibitions about admitting who I was. I was in seventh heaven. And a new world opened up to me. I suddenly knew where I belonged. As a woman to women.”

Robine gestured with her manicured hands—and their dazzling rings—to emphasize her words.

“But then Beth dropped me like a hot potato.”

Lori followed her, spellbound. She could not picture this stunning, confident woman in Stormy Cove. Not as Winnie Whalen’s daughter. Not on the wharf and not in Mavis’s store.

“You were fifteen, right?” Lori interjected. “Beth wouldn’t have wanted to cause a scandal.”

Robine twisted her red lips a little.

“It wasn’t that. She had her eye on Jacinta. I always thought Beth was behind Jacinta’s disappearance. Jacinta would definitely have blabbed about it at home if Beth had kissed her. That wouldn’t have helped Beth any.”

Robine looked straight at Lori.

“And the grave. Beth was strong enough to construct one like that. Beth’s as strong as a man.”

Lori said nothing.
First love, first heartbreak—the anger never goes away.

Robine’s smile reappeared.

“But they caught her. So much for her dreams of fame and honor. And now I hear they’ve found another prehistoric grave on the Barrens. Even older than the first—an
archaeological
sensation. And it’s Lloyd Weston who’s getting all the applause. That must stab Beth right in the heart.”

Lori didn’t know why, but somehow she felt the need to defend the archaeologist.

“I think Beth must have smuggled and sold those artifacts because she wanted to finance the dig. I can’t think of any other explanation. She was so anxious about the findings from the first grave.”

Robine’s voice remained gracious, but her words shot across the room like arrows.

“Shows how wrong you can be about people. Beth was always out for herself. She couldn’t care less about anything else. Lori, you believe in the goodness in people—I can see it in your photographs.”

Lori screwed up her courage.

“Why did you and Mona really send me to Stormy Cove? Did you hope I could find Jacinta’s killer? And now you’re disappointed?”

“Oh, no. No, no. Don’t think that!”

Robine picked up her coffee cup.

“But tell me about Noah. How’s he liking it in Vancouver?”

Lori knew why Robine had changed the subject. But she went along with it. She was
not
going to get answers to all her questions so fast. Maybe never.

“He’s doing fine, under the circumstances. I think he’s enjoying the fact that nobody knows him there. He feels . . . freer. Nobody’s watching him. But he misses fishing.”

“Can’t he fish in Vancouver?”

“Sort of. He found a part-time job. He’s been hired on a ship that goes out for six weeks for black cod near the Queen Charlotte Islands. It’s new to him, but it pays well, and he wants to earn enough for a new boat.”

“Does he ever talk about me?”

Lori hesitated. Before she could answer, Robine went on.

“I know him well enough to know the answer’s ‘no.’ He can’t figure me out—it’s all foreign to him, maybe even threatening. I’m amazed that he went away with you. He must love you very much.”

Lori concentrated on not spilling her coffee.

“His greatest love is most certainly fishing,” she said at last, “and his village.”

“See! I call that stupidity!” Robine exclaimed. “They treated him like dirt there, and he still clings to them. Did you know that Glowena was pregnant by Cletus when she left Stormy Cove?”

Lori nearly dropped her cup.

Robine leaned toward her and laid a delicate hand on Lori’s arm for a second. Her expensive perfume hung in the air.

“I can’t reveal how I know that, but it’s true. Glowena ought to tell everybody the truth, at long last.”

In the taxi, Lori could still feel Robine’s hand on her arm. Robine’s emotional voice couldn’t disguise one fact: she knew the seed she’d planted.

Lori called Danielle from the taxi.

“I’m in Calgary and on the way to the airport. I don’t have much time, but remember how you tracked down Glowena Parsons in Edmonton? Can you give me her address and phone number, please?”

Glowena Parsons Colmane, 37, social worker

I’m sure you’re glad I’ve reconsidered. I’m the last piece in your puzzle, eh? Well, now that I’ve told the police everything, I can tell you too. Then your report will at least get it right. I really like reading your magazine, actually.

So Reanna Sholler was your niece? She must have admired you. I mean, Reanna became a reporter just like you.

I’m very sorry for you—and for Reanna. Whatever you think about me, I think it’s terrible when a woman dies so young. And in such a horrible way. I never got over Jacinta’s death, even if . . . Look at me; I look much older than I am. I hate myself, I . . .

You mean why didn’t I go to the police all those years? The truth would have killed my mother. She was devastated when Jacinta disappeared. I couldn’t drive yet another dagger into her heart. But it killed her just the same, only more slowly . . . Excuse me, I don’t usually cry so easily, but Mother died six months ago . . .

What was your question? It’s like you said, there were deep dark secrets in our family, things you never talk about. Yes, the death of Noah’s father was one of them. I know my father let Abram Whalen drown on purpose.

Why did I go out with Noah back then? Revenge on my father. I always rebelled against him. I was wild, I admit. It’s not by chance that I chose this profession. I know how easily young people can get sidetracked.

I got along well with Mother. But Jacinta was Daddy’s little darling girl. He sicced her on me. She was always spying on me. I really couldn’t do anything about it; father was to blame. Of course, I didn’t realize it at the time. She was just a pain. And then she found out about me and Cletus. I’ve come to think that Cletus must’ve tipped her off. Why? Probably to get at Noah. He never liked Noah. But it was my fault too. I should never have gotten mixed up with Cletus. But, like I told you already, I was a mess. I drank a lot. You do things and then later you wish you hadn’t. I got knocked up. I knew right away it was Cletus’s. I just knew. And Fred, my oldest, is the spitting image of Cletus. But Cletus didn’t want to let Greta go. I went looking for the two of them in the woods. Jacinta followed me as usual. I tried to shake her. I ran as fast as I could. She yelled that if I didn’t wait for her, she’d tell father about Cletus and me.

I took a shortcut through the bog because I thought she wouldn’t dare follow. I knew a safe path. But she didn’t. I couldn’t shake her off. I mean, not right away.

I heard her shout but just ignored it. I was so furious at her. I ran through the woods on the other side of the bog. But then I heard Cletus shouting. I went back to the edge of the woods and saw Cletus crawling on his stomach across the bog. Then I saw Jacinta’s head. It all happened so fast.

No, I didn’t move a muscle. I just watched Cletus. I knew Dad would kill me if he found out.

Greta? Never saw her at all. When Cletus crawled back, I hid so he wouldn’t see me. I ran back to the dig and worked for a couple of hours like nothing had happened. What was I supposed to do? It was too late for Jacinta.

Then I sneaked away. I found Cletus in the shed behind his mother’s house. Selina was working in the fish plant at the time and wasn’t home.