“What did you tell her?”
“Take a guess.”
I laughed. “My hero.”
Zack’s car was already at the house, but the contractor and I arrived at the same time. He was a balding, affable man with a very shiny green truck. He walked over to me with his hand out. “Ms. Shreve?” he said.
“Joanne Kilbourn,” I said. “But Zack and I are getting married.”
“Congratulations,” he said. “Incidentally, my name’s McCudden.”
“I’m pleased to meet you.”
Zack was in the living room, staring at his BlackBerry. He and Mr. McCudden introduced themselves and then we got down to business. There was a window seat in the living room, so Mr. McCudden and I sat there and Zack wheeled his chair over. I had come armed with a file folder full of clippings from magazines and printouts from the Internet. Zack had his own folder of notes. Mr. McCudden dropped both folders into his briefcase without opening them. “I’ll go through these tonight,” he said. “I’ve renovated about a dozen houses to make them accessible,” he said. “But you may have an idea I haven’t run into. Now, accessibility aside, tell me in one sentence what you want.”
“We want a good solid family home,” I said.
Mr. McCudden smiled. “Because you’re a good solid family.”
“That’s exactly what we are,” Zack said.
“In that case,” Mr. McCudden said. “I have some ideas you might like.”
Mr. McCudden zipped his jacket. “I’ll meet you here tomorrow with some preliminary drawings. Same time?”
When he left, I turned to Zack. “He doesn’t waste time, does he?”
“No, and considering that we’ll be paying his crew a bundle to get the job done fast and well, that’s a virtue.”
“How much is this going to cost us?”
“We’ll find out tomorrow, but it doesn’t matter.”
“If you want something, go for it,” I said.
Zack raised an eyebrow. “Are you mocking me?”
“No. Just quoting. But let me know if I’m going to have to take in laundry to pay for this.”
“I’ll let you know,” he said. “In the meantime, I have a favour to ask.”
“Your wish is my command.”
“You know, that doesn’t sound cheesy when you say it.”
“It’s because I mean it.”
“Good, because this is a biggie. It’s about Glenda Parker.”
“How did your meeting with her go last night?”
“Not great. Sam’s funeral is on Friday at Beverly’s place of worship in Calgary. It’s one of those big, evangelical, Family Values churches, and Beverly wants to put on a real show. She’s too savvy to hire goons to keep Glenda away, but she says if Glenda shows up, she’ll be shunned.”
“Ostracized? Wow. Beverly plays hardball, doesn’t she?”
“Glenda plays hardball too,” Zack said. “She’s determined to be at the funeral, and she is going to attend as a woman.”
“To spite Beverly?”
“No, to honour Sam. Glenda and I had a long talk last night. You know how she was during the trial – always there, but never drawing attention to herself. I figured that was just her style, but as it turns out she was afraid if she was overtly female she might jeopardize her father’s case. Do you know that every morning before she went to court she bound her breasts?”
“Oh, Zack, that’s terrible. I didn’t realize …”
“That Glenda has breasts. Well, she does. Her endocrinologist has her on female hormones. Apparently, Glenda has to live as a female for two full years before the specialists will do the surgery. Sam knew how important the surgery was to Glenda. He didn’t want her to lose any time, so he urged her to dress as a woman during the trial.”
“But she wanted to protect him.”
“Right. Anyway, now she wants to honour him by appearing in public as the person she really is.”
“Good for her,” I said.
Zack squeezed my hand. “I figured you’d say that. Jo, Sam’s funeral is going to be a tough day for Glenda. I told her you and I would go with her.”
“I’m glad you did,” I said. “Is that the favour?”
“No, Glenda wants to make sure she gets ‘the right look’ for the funeral. She wondered if you could help her pick something out.”
