“Off,” I said. “And thanks for the flower.”
From the outset, we were surprisingly easy with one another. “This is going to involve a few adjustments,” he said. “Tell me how you feel about what I’m doing.” He slid his hand between my legs.
“I like that,” I said. “So what do I do?”
He took my hand and guided it to his nipple. “Start here.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
And so we discovered one another’s bodies. I had never been with anyone who understood a woman’s sexuality the way Zack did. What we did was different from what I was used to, but it was sublime. We fell asleep in one another’s arms, and I didn’t wake until the first light of morning. I slipped out of bed and went into the bathroom, washed my face and cursed the fact that I’d forgotten my toothbrush.
Zack was awake when I came back. “Were you just going to disappear without saying goodbye?”
“I was going to let you sleep,” I said.
“I don’t want to sleep,” he said. “Come here.”
I sat on the bed beside him, and he drew me to him. When he started to kiss me, I turned my head. “I didn’t bring my toothbrush.”
“Use mine.”
“I couldn’t do that.”
Zack looked amused. “We just spent several hours exchanging bodily fluids,” he said.
“That was different.”
“You’re a woman of contradictions, Ms. Kilbourn, but I’ll learn to live with them.” He stroked my head. “So what are you going to do today?”
“I’ll probably try to figure out what happened here tonight.”
“Regrets?”
“None. At this moment, I’m very happy.”
“Me too.”
“And what are you going to do today?”
“I have to be in court by nine o’clock.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No. I’m a lawyer. Appearing in court is part of the gig.”
“Are you prepared?”
“Always.” Zack pushed himself up so he was sitting. “Anything you want me to bring you from town?”
I kissed his forehead. “A toothbrush,” I said.
CHAPTER
11
When I awoke for the second time that morning, my son was peering anxiously at me.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I’m fine,” I said. “What time is it?”
“Seven o’clock,” Angus said. “You slept in.”
“But I woke up, so you can stop worrying.”
Angus was not reassured. “You always get up at five-thirty. Taylor said you were throwing the disc around last night. I thought you might have pulled something.”
I sat up and stretched. “Everything’s functioning,” I said.
But my son’s attention had wandered. Face down on the bed beside me was Harriet Hynd’s copy of To the Lighthouse. The light bulb over Angus’s head flashed on. “You were reading,” he announced triumphantly. “You stayed up late reading. That’s why you slept in.” Once again the universe was unfolding as it should. He gave my leg a patronizing pat. “Gotta get you a real life, Mum,” he said.
“I’ll work on it,” I said.
After Angus left, I showered, dressed, and realizing I couldn’t live on the afterglow of passion alone, headed for the kitchen. Taylor was at the breakfast table, drizzling honey on her toast. Her hair was smoothed into a smart French braid.
I touched her hair. “When did you learn to do this by yourself?”
“Rose taught me last week. She says the fewer things you have to rely on other people to do for you, the better off you are.”
“She’s right about that.” I peeled an orange and sat down opposite my daughter. “So what’s on the agenda today?”
“This morning we’re hauling rocks,” she said. “We’re going to build the Inukshuk out by the gazebo.”
“That’s quite a distance,” I said. “Want me to put the rocks in the trunk of the Volvo and drive them out there for you?”
“No, that’s okay. We’ll use the wheelbarrow. We kind of want to do this ourselves.” As she always did, Taylor cut her toast into the smallest of triangles. “I’m supposed to ask you if it’s okay if I go to Standing Buffalo later on. Rose wants to take her sister some lunch.”
“Fine with me,” I said. “How’s Betty doing?”
“She’s bored. I’d be bored if I had to sit around for six weeks with my leg in a cast.”
“Maybe I’ll come with you and visit.”
“That’d be good,” Taylor said. “But if Gracie’s mum comes back, we have to stay here so she won’t think we’re mad.”
“Why would she think you were mad?”
Taylor wolfed a dainty triangle. “I don’t know,” she said. “Gracie knows, but she won’t talk about it.”
I poured cereal into my bowl and went to the fridge to get the milk. The carton was suspiciously light. I opened it and held it over my bowl. Three drops of milk dribbled out.
Taylor and I exchanged glances. “Angus!” we said in unison.
I selected a banana. “A fruitarian’s breakfast for me,” I said. “But I might as well walk down to the Point Store and get a litre of milk. Want to come?”
Taylor shook her head. “I’m already late. We want to get the Inukshuk finished today.”
“Okay,” I said. “Don’t forget to check in.”
I picked up my purse and started for the door, but the mention of Lily Falconer had taken the bounce out of my step. I had no proof that Lily and Alex had been together during the days when they had both been AWOL, but logic suggested it was a strong possibility. If Lily was coming back, it was possible that Alex was coming back too. Our relationship was over, but the prospect of Alex losing the career he’d spent half his life building sickened me. When I picked up the phone and dialled Robert Hallam’s number I was searching for reassurance that somehow the confusion and questions Alex had left behind had been cleared away.
Robert Hallam offered no comfort. He was pleasant but guarded when he heard my voice. We inquired after one another’s families and then I asked if he’d had news of Alex.
I could feel the ice. “I can’t talk about Inspector Kequahtooway, Joanne. It’s an internal matter now.”
“So Alex is being investigated.”
Robert was edgy. “Joanne…”
“I know,” I said. “It’s an internal matter.”
He sighed. “Rosalie and I still consider you a friend. I just can’t discuss this.”
“I understand,” I said. “But Robert, is Alex all right?”
There was a silence. “I can’t discuss it. Goodbye, Joanne.” He cleared his throat. “Our door is always open to you.”
As I walked to the Point Store, the realization hit me that, in the vernacular of another era, there was more than one way to skin a cat. Robert Hallam wasn’t the only source of information available to me. I passed the store
