“Nope,” the boys said. “If you let us go, we’ll tell Mum you’re here.”
Margot released the boys, and they ran for the house. “How do you feel about Kraft Dinner?” she said.
“It’s been a while,” I said. “But it’s a taste worth revisiting.”
Margot raised a perfectly arched brow. “Or experiencing for the first time,” she said. “I believe KD now comes in yet another distinctive flavour.”
There were six boxes on the counter. Sam identified them as Creamy Cheddar, Three Cheese, Spirals, White Cheddar, Tomato, and Normal. Congenitally risk-averse, I chose Normal. When the boys started the water boiling, their mother and the two other children came in from the backyard. Margot performed the introductions. “This is my sister, Laurie and” – she held out her arms – “our big guy, Jack, and the baby in the family, Cass.” Margot’s sister wasn’t as blonde or as buff as Margot, but she had the same cornflower blue eyes and the same husky alto voice. She was holding a squirming towhead wearing a Dora the Explorer shirt and a diaper. Jack, without prompting, sauntered over to his aunt and hugged her. I remembered my boys at fourteen and thought Auntie Margot must be more than an occasional visitor.
The big kids served up the KD while Laurie spooned lunch into Cass, who turned out to be a determined and enthusiastic eater. The boys talked across us. Kraft might have developed new permutations of cheese and noodles, but the conversation that ping-ponged across the lunch table was the same talk I remembered from lunch hours at our house when my kids were young: a pungent mix of bad jokes, sibling torment, and classroom gossip. After the boys left for school, Margot and I cleaned up and made tea while Laurie put Cass down for a nap.
We took our tea into the living room where we could see the high-school kids straggling out of the parking lot into school.
“Is that the school you and Margot went to?” I asked.
Laurie leaned towards the window. “That’s the one. But you didn’t drive all the way to Wadena to hear about the time Steve kissed me under the blue whale in the gym.”
Margot frowned “I don’t remember any blue whale in the gym.”
Laurie shot her sister a pitying look. “That’s because your class didn’t choose The Great Sea of Life as the theme for its grad dance. But the topic is Cristal. Of course, she’s been Topic A ever since she died. Everybody remembers her, but nobody really knew her.”
“She was a pretty girl,” I said. “She must have had boyfriends.”
“Not really. I was just trying to remember who she went with to the grad dance. I think it was another leftover, you know, somebody who’s still alone after all the popular kids have paired off. But I don’t remember Cristal having a serious boyfriend till she left here.”
Margot leaned forward. “You never told me you knew about a serious boyfriend.”
“It’s because I didn’t remember till I was in Crawford’s shopping for underwear for Jack this morning.” Laurie rubbed absent-mindedly at a spot of dried egg yolk on her jeans “They had these really cute Spiderman boxers, and I’d put two pair in my cart when I remembered that Jack is fourteen now, so I put them back and got the same kind of tighty whiteys I buy Steve.”
Margot glanced at me. “My sister’s narratives are not linear,” she said dryly.
“I’m approaching the point,” Laurie said. She turned to me. “When I got pregnant with Jack, Steve and I had one of those hurry-up weddings, and this being Wadena, Cut ‘n’ Curl was abuzz. Oh, I had a bridal shower and a baby shower, even if they were a little too close together, but there were some disapproving glances. The only person who seemed really happy for me was Cristal.”
Margot punched her sister on the arm. “I was happy for you.”
“Okay,” Laurie said, “I should have said the only person outside the family. Now who’s derailing the narrative? My point was that the December I was pregnant with Jack, I ran into Cristal on Main Street when she came home from university.”
“Cristal went to university?” I said.
Laurie bit her lip. “I told you she was smart. Anyway, she hugged me, and it wasn’t one of those fake girly hugs. It was sincere. She said, ‘I hear you’re getting married. Me too – same reason.’ Then she asked me when I was due – it was a couple of weeks before she was due, so we shared a hormonal moment. I remember us standing in front of the office of the Wadena News blubbering, then wiping our eyes. And Cristal leaned close to me and asked me if I loved Steve.
“Of course, I said yes. Then she said she loved the man she was marrying too. She said – and I remember this – ‘If I couldn’t have him, I wouldn’t want to live.’ She asked me if I felt that way about Steve. Of course, I said I did, but that wasn’t the truth. Don’t get me wrong. I love Steve. He’s a good husband and he’s a big part of my life, but I’ve never felt I wouldn’t have a life without him.”
Cass started to cry in the other room, and Laurie stood up to go to her.
“Wait,” I said. “What happened to Cristal’s baby?”
“I have no idea,” Laurie said. “The next time I saw Cristal, I had Jack with me. She didn’t even look at him and she didn’t say a word about the time we talked at Christmas. I remember trying to check her left hand without seeming to. There was no wedding ring. I assumed the man she couldn’t live without decided that he preferred to live without a wife and a baby.”
We didn’t stay long after Laurie came back with Cass. We still had to talk to Mandy, and Margot had a late appointment with a client in Regina.
Mandy Avilia’s house was on the street next to the golf course. It was a nicely kept bungalow with a picture window, a double carport, and two concrete-resin deer grazing on the lawn. When we pulled up outside, Margot took her BlackBerry from her purse.
“What did lawyers do before there were BlackBerrys?” I said.
Margot cocked her head. “I can’t speak for the profession, but I, personally, was on my cellphone all the time, checking my voice mail and hectoring my assistant to see if I had any messages.” She scrolled down the items in her in-box and whistled. “Now this is why we have our little office in a pocket.”
“Something useful?”
“Very. Mandy didn’t know where her sister’s will was. So I went on-line to the Law Society and asked if anyone had a will for Cristal Avilia. No news till today. Guess which firm did Cristal’s legal work?”
“Falconer Shreve?”
“Bingo. I’m going to call my new partner and see if he can get me the file.” After Margot talked to Zack, she handed the BlackBerry to me.
“How’s it going?” he said.
“Fine,” I said. “I’ll tell you when we get back. Anything happening there?”
“I have a new client – a doctor who’s suing another doctor for malpractice. We don’t get many of those. And Cristal’s client list has ended up on the Internet, so the shit is hitting the fan.”
“Busy morning,” I said.
“I’m not through. Pantera ate the remote.”
“That’s the third remote he’s eaten. What did you do?”
“Ordered another one.”
I laughed. “Never a harsh word for that dog.”
“Nope. Love my dogs, love my kids, love my woman.”
“I’ll call you when we’re close to the city.”
“Why don’t you bring Margot in for a drink? I’ll have Norine courier the Avilia file here – save Margot a trip downtown.”
“And if you’re lucky, she’ll open the file in front of you, and you’ll know what’s going on.”
“You know my methods, Ms. Shreve.”
“I do indeed.”
Mandy led us into the living room. Like the rest of the house it was spotless except for the dining-room table that was covered with everything a dedicated scrapbooker would need. “Come, see,” she said. “You’ll be interested in this, Margot, and Mrs. Shreve – ”
“Joanne,” I corrected.
She dimpled. “Joanne, you might think it’s fun too. Do either of you scrapbook?”
Margot and I both shook our heads.
“Well, I do, and I love it.” Her face looked hollowed. Her sister’s death had hit her hard, but she was still full of
