Noah turned when he heard us. “Bad news,” he said. “You were robbed.”
My pulse quickened. “Is everybody okay?”
“Yeah. Nobody was home, but you should probably take a look around. Your son’s girlfriend – Leah, isn’t it?”
I nodded.
“Well, Leah gave the place the once-over. She didn’t think anything was missing except your laptop computer.”
“No great loss,” I said. “It’s vintage, and I haven’t really used it in ages. The main thing is that no one was hurt.”
“I agree. Material things are replaceable.”
Taylor’s eyes were wide. “Cats aren’t. They better not have taken my cats.”
“You’re probably safe on that score,” I said, but Taylor didn’t hear me. She had already raced into the house to check on Bruce and Benny.
“So when did the break-in happen?” I asked Noah.
“Last night. Leah and your son had taken your dog for a run down the beach. When they got back, the front door was open. This is the only cottage here without a security system. Kevin’s parents were pretty trusting, and he takes after them. Anyway, the lock I’ve installed is just temporary. A security company is coming out from the city tomorrow to hook you up.”
“That’s sort of sad, isn’t it?” I said.
Noah wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand. “Sad but inevitable,” he said. “Oh, and I was supposed to tell you that Lily’s ordered a new laptop for you.”
“Everything taken care of,” I said.
He smiled lazily. “I can take the lock off the door if you want.”
“I didn’t mean to sound ungrateful,” I said. “I guess I’m just a little shaken. How can there be a robbery in a gated community?”
Noah shrugged. “The water isn’t gated. Somebody wants to come up onto the beach in a canoe, I guess they can do what they want.”
“It’s kind of hard to imagine someone paddling up to steal a laptop,” I said. “The images don’t quite mesh.”
“We live in troubling times,” he said.
“That we do,” I said. “Look, can I get you a glass of iced tea or something? You’re getting the full blast of the sun there.”
“Some water would be good. Actually, so would some shade.”
I gestured towards the cottage’s shadowy recesses. “Let’s go inside,” I said.
Taylor was curled up on the couch with her cats and Willie. When he spotted me, Willie leaped off the couch and scrambled over to me.
“I’m glad to see you too,” I said, rubbing his head. When Noah and I went out to the porch, Willie stuck to me like glue.
“Bouviers are great dogs,” Noah said.
“Best dog I ever had,” I said. “If you’re ever in the market for a loyal if challenged companion, I highly recommend them.”
Noah scratched Willie’s head. “Delia’s frightened of dogs.”
“Did she have a bad experience?”
“No. She’s scared of a lot of things – dogs, spiders, thunderstorms. But she can present a brief to the Supreme Court without breaking a sweat, and I know of more than one macho lawyer who’s looked up at that big bench and fainted dead away.”
“Did you ever present a brief to the Supreme Court?”
“I never practised law,” Noah said quickly.
“But you graduated from law school,” I said. “When I was in Saskatoon I visited an old friend of mine who teaches at the College of Law. We were looking at photos of graduating classes. I hadn’t realized you were in the same class as Delia and… the others.”
“The ‘others’ being the members of the Winners’ Circle,” Noah said. “I was never a member of the Circle, but it’s been years since I was crushed by the omission. They’ve discovered I have my uses.” He tapped his tool box. “I’m the only one around here who can unplug a toilet.”
“My husband was a lawyer,” I said. “He always said that lawyers and plumbers did pretty much the same thing: remove the blocks that stop the system from working.”
“That’s about it. Give me a call if anything makes you nervous.” Noah drained his glass. “Hey, I almost forgot. That was a nice picture of you in the paper.”
“I didn’t see it,” I said.
“Sorry. How could you?” Noah walked over to the front door and picked up a rolled copy of the Leader Post. “Here – page one.”
One look at the picture and it was easy to see why it had made page one. The photograph was of me and Patsy Choi.
“I didn’t see her at the funeral,” Noah said. “Do you know her?”
“Just from the media,” I said. “She came in late and sat beside me.”
“She looks good,” Noah said.
“She does in person, too,” I agreed.
“I wonder what she’s like on the inside,” Noah said.
“Pretty fragile, I would imagine.”
“Aren’t we all?” Noah said. “Now let’s take a tour of your house and see if anything besides the laptop is missing.”
“You don’t have to stay,” I said.
Noah nodded. “I know, but there are times when a person shouldn’t be alone, and this is one of them.”
The place was shipshape. Having assured me that he could be there in two minutes if I needed him, Noah left with Taylor in tow. She’d had a good time in Saskatoon, but being away from the other two members of her triumvirate had been a wrench. After two days of Blue’s Clues and the Wiggles, Taylor was hankering for the company of girls who knew how to apply eyeshadow.
Alone, I realized that the break-in had made me anxious for reassurance that all was well with those I loved. A rumbling in my stomach tipped me to the fact that I was also hungry. Clearly, a visit to the Point Store would be just the ticket. Willie was mournful as I started out the door, so I picked up his leash. “You’ll have to wait outside, you know,” I said. He didn’t care.
Leah was busy behind the till when we arrived. She blew me a kiss, and I went back to the meat counter, where Angus was jawing with a customer. I waited while he finished up, then gave him a hug, asked him to make me a salami sandwich, and filled him in on his sister’s news. I was hankering after company, so I took my sandwich outside to pass the time at Coffee Row. The regulars had taken their places at the picnic table, but a card table was empty, so I poured myself a cup of weak coffee, chose a cookie from one of the yellow bags of generic biscuits, and settled in with Willie to eat my salami sandwich and see where the morning took us.
I wasn’t the only one who’d brought a dog to Coffee Row that morning. Morris, the dedicated smoker of Player’s Plains, had brought along his pet, a big yellow animal with a Buster Keaton face and what looked like a golden lab-mastiff pedigree. She was lying at her master’s feet, snoring. It was a tranquil scene: the old men in their John Deere caps sitting in the shade of the cottonwood trees smoking and nodding, and the dog with her head resting on her front paws, jowls spilling to the ground, body vibrating with every rumbling inhalation and exhalation. When Stan Gardiner came down from his flat and took his place at the head of the table, it was clear that the catalyst for some conversation had arrived.
“About time you came down to join your friends,” Morris said.
“Instead of sitting in your room watching your Lawrence Welk videos.” The speaker, a gnome with big ears and a high, aggrieved voice, picked up the theme. “What kind of thing is that for a man to do?”
“In my opinion, Aubrey, it’s about as valuable as sitting down here waiting for the hair in your ears to grow,” Stan Gardiner said. “So what’s the news across the nation?”
