one and only fire.”
“Shit,” he said.
“Whatever,” I said. “Tell Margot. She’s paid to listen, and she can’t be asked to testify against you in court. I can. And Howard, talk to Charlie. You’re getting in deep and I’m not certain you have to.”
“Do you know something?”
“No,” I said. “But tread carefully. Martyrs have to wait hundreds of years before they’re recognized as saints.”
“You think I’m trying to be a martyr.”
“I know you are. And lately, there’ve been times when I would have paid good money to see you flayed, but this isn’t one of them. You’re setting yourself up, my friend.
Talk to Charlie.”
“I’ll try.”
I hadn’t even made it back to the kitchen when the phone rang again. It was Howard. “My son answered and when he heard my voice, he slammed the phone down in my ear. What do I do now?”
“Short of keeping your lawyer informed and your mouth shut, I don’t know. I’ll let you know if I come up with anything.”
After Howard hung up, I stared at the phone. Charlie might not be talking to his father, but my kids were still talking to me. I dialed Peter’s number. He was voluble about the emergency that had taken him back to the clinic Halloween night. There’d been a call on his answering machine around nine from a boy whose dog had been hit by a car. The dog was hanging on, and Peter had gone to the clinic to do what he could. It hadn’t been enough, the dog died. He was home shortly after eleven.
“And your sister was with Charlie then.”
“Mum, please …”
“Peter, this is important.”
“They were together when I got back.”
“Where were they – in the living room, the kitchen, where?”
“Mum, don’t do this.”
“Were they in Charlie’s room when you got home?”
“Yes.”
“Were they just talking or what?”
Peter’s voice was exasperated. “They were in the same room,” he said. “I didn’t go in there to see what was going on. You’ve never once asked us to rat on each other. Don’t start now.”
“I won’t. I’m sorry, Pete. I’m getting a little desperate.”
“I know, Mum, but it’ll be all right. Really, it will.”
My daughter and I had never had any trouble keeping open the lines of communication. Most often our conversations were as inconsequential as they were deeply satisfying, but the Mieka who answered the phone that night at her home in Saskatoon was a stranger – guarded and suspicious.
As soon as she heard my voice, she established the boundaries. “I’m not going to talk about Charlie, Mum.”
“You have to, Mieka. The police are finding evidence that connects Howard to the murder.”
“What kind of evidence?”
I told her about the police’s interest in the garbage cans that belonged to Howard and Kathryn Morrissey, and about the fact that the forensic people had taken Howard’s vacuum for testing.
For the first time she sounded frightened. “Do the police think that Howard found something incriminating and burned it?”
“I don’t know what the police think, Mieka, but that’s what I think.”
I had knocked her off base. The sureness was gone from her voice. “I’ll talk to Charlie.”
“You do that,” I said. “And, Mieka, I know your feelings for Charlie have always been intense, but you can’t let Howard take the responsibility for a crime he didn’t commit.”
“The police will find something that will prove Howard’s innocent. Then he can just walk away.”
“Mieka, this isn’t a TV show. There are real consequences here.”
“I have to go, Mum,” she said. “The girls need me.”
“That’s right,” I said. “They do. Don’t lose sight of that, Mieka. If you know something, tell the authorities or at least talk to me. Please.”
We were taking the eleven o’clock flight to Calgary for the funeral, so I had time to stop by Howard’s Friday morning before we left. Nothing had changed. The silence from my daughter had been resounding, and Charlie hadn’t returned Howard’s calls. The police, however, had been attentive. The mills of the gods were grinding, but Howard seemed oddly tranquil. He was sober. He liked Margot. He seemed reconciled to his fate. When I left, he asked me to tell Glenda Parker that she had been fortunate to have Sam Parker as a father.
We shared our cab to the airport with Glenda. It was the first time Zack had seen her as a woman, and when he told her she was lovely, her pleasure was poignant. On the flight west, Glenda was quiet but controlled. As a
