but Debbie’s going to send an officer to take the little guy to Regina General, and she’s going to put out an all- points bulletin on the mother.”
“Good,” I said. “So we should just wait here for the girls and the police.”
“Yep. Nothing to do but sit tight.”
“I noticed that when you described the baby’s mother to Debbie, you didn’t mention the connection with Delia.”
“Time enough for that,” Zack said. “It’ll be easier for Delia to hear the story from me.”
“It’ll be a shock,” I said.
Zack’s tone was pensive. “I wonder if it will be,” he said. “Only one way to find out.”
This time when he called Delia, Zack hit pay dirt. He gave her a brief account of the events of the evening, and apparently she didn’t ask questions. When he was finished, he listened for a moment. “Okay, I’ll call when we’re getting close,” he said.
I shifted the baby’s weight in my arms. “That was short and sweet.”
“Short, sweet, and only the beginning,” Zack said. “Delia’s going to meet us outside their house. Noah’s been driving home the sobriety-challenged, so he hasn’t ploughed their driveway, and Dee thinks we’d get stuck. Also she wants to make sure that before she and I talk, Isobel is out of earshot.”
The girls joined us, and not long afterwards a police officer found us, shone a flashlight on her badge, and took the baby. Her actions were swift and professional, but the darkness made the action surreal and, for me, deeply unsettling.
All of my children had been students at Luther: the three oldest for four years each, and Taylor for one semester so far. The campus was as familiar to me as my own backyard, but that night I lost my bearings. The school and the residences seemed part of an alien landscape, and the students bent over their shovels in the snow-choked parking lot had the cool menace of figures in a Magritte painting. Zack offered to drive, and I was relieved. I was normally a confident driver, but that night I felt unmoored.
Gracie Falconer’s house was the nearest, so we dropped her off first. It had been a silent drive, but Gracie was a girl who believed in happy endings, and as she opened the car door, her voice was plaintive. “This is going to be okay, isn’t it?”
Zack and I exchanged glances, but neither of us offered any reassurance. After Gracie was safely in the house, Zack called Delia and told her we were on our way. When we pulled up in front of the Wainbergs’, Delia was huddled in the doorway. As soon as she spotted our car, Delia turned on the flashlight in her hand and began plodding towards us. I handed Isobel our flashlight, and she started towards her house. Halfway up the path, she and her mother passed one another without either a greeting or an embrace.
There was a puff of cold air when Delia climbed into the back seat. Delia’s husky mezzo cracked as she asked Taylor to keep what she was about to hear private until Delia had had a chance to talk to Isobel. Then she leaned forward to get as close as she could to Zack. “What’s the situation?”
“The police took the child to the General for the night and they’re out looking for his mother.”
“I didn’t know there was a baby,” Delia said.
“But you do know the woman,” Zack said.
“We exchanged a few e-mails, and I spoke to her on the phone that day you were in the car with me, Joanne. I never met her face to face.”
Zack took out his camera, pulled up the photo of the woman, and handed the camera to Delia. “There’s her picture.”
Delia’s intake of breath was sharp. “I always wondered… ” she said.
Zack’s voice was low. “Dee, what’s going on?”
She ignored Zack’s question. “When can I get the child?”
“The child
“The child’s mother is my daughter,” Delia said tightly. “And that’s as much as I can say tonight.”
Zack didn’t push it. “All right,” he said. “Tomorrow, we’ll see what can be done about getting the little boy.”
“The child is a boy.” Delia’s voice was a whisper.
“Yes,” Zack said. “And he looks just like Izzy did when she was a baby.”
“Beautiful,” Delia said.
“Very handsome,” Zack agreed. “Dee, you do realize that you’re going to have to tell the police everything. Inspector Debbie Haczkewicz is the officer I spoke to tonight. She’s reasonable, but I have a feeling this is going to be a long haul. You’ll want Debbie on your side, and if she finds out you’ve held back anything pertinent, she won’t be.”
“I’ll be cooperative, but before I sit down with the Inspector, I have to talk to Noah and Isobel. And I’m going to need a lawyer. I know you hate family law, but if I’m going to be spending months dealing with this, I don’t want to be stuck with a lawyer I don’t know.”
Zack shook his head. “Come on, Dee. You know the argument. A lawyer is supposed to give objective and dispassionate advice. That’s impossible when people are as close as we are. You need someone from another firm.”
“I don’t want someone from another firm. The legal community here is tight, and not all lawyers are as discreet as you are. The last thing I need is every lawyer in town obsessing over my private life. If you won’t take my case, I’ll handle it myself, and you know what they say about lawyers who represent themselves.”
Delia’s tone made it clear that she was not to be dissuaded. Zack didn’t even try. “Okay,” he said. “I’m in. Give me a call when you’re ready to talk.”
Delia reached forward and squeezed Zack’s shoulder. “Thanks.” She climbed out of the car, slammed the door shut, and started trudging up the path. The snow swirled around the bears Noah had carved, softening the lines of their heavy bodies. As Delia passed them, Zack said, “She looks so small.”
“Delia will be all right,” I said. “She’s one of the most capable people I know, and she has Noah. If the situation gets ugly, Papa Bear will step in.”
As we turned the corner onto our street, the power came back on. The old safe world had returned. Even better, our neighbour Frank van Valzer had cleared our driveway with his snow blower.
Zack cheered. “Saved by the head lamp on the Toro Power Max 828.”
“So you and Frank have been talking snow blowers,” I said.
“It’s a guy thing. Frank talks; I listen.”
“That’s pretty much the arrangement I have with Frank’s wife. She tells me all I need are geraniums, and I keep planting perennials.”
Zack drove into our garage and pulled the key out of the ignition. “Good to be home, eh?”
“Is it ever,” Taylor said. “Does anybody have a clue about what’s going on?”
“Why don’t we make some tea and tell you what we know,” Zack said.
Five minutes later, we were sitting at our kitchen table, waiting as the tea steeped. My old bouvier, Willie, was sprawled beside me; Pantera was in his customary place beside Zack’s wheelchair, and Taylor’s cats, Bruce and Benny, were curled up in their bed near the stove.
Zack poured the first cup and handed it to Taylor. “Okay, time for questions. Fire away.”
Taylor met his gaze. “Is that woman who gave Isobel the baby her sister?”
“My guess is she is Isobel’s half-sister,” Zack said.
Taylor picked up Benny and began stroking him. Benny shot a triumphant look at Bruce and began to purr. “The woman and Isobel have different fathers,” Taylor said. Her dark eyes darted from Zack to me. “Isobel always says her mother never makes mistakes. I guess she was wrong.”
I slept fitfully. The baby’s scent had clung to the material of the dress I’d been wearing, and when I hung it up, I remembered the weight of him in my arms, and the sharp and unexpected pain I’d felt when he’d been taken from me in the dark. Twice in the night I awoke, stabbed by a sense of loss, and lay in the dark, remembering, and listening to Zack’s breathing. The next morning I awoke to the phantasmagoric landscape of a city after a blizzard. The storm was over, but powerful winds were lifting the snow that had accumulated overnight and whirling it into the air. The effect was vertiginous, like being suspended upside down in a snow globe. I pressed my forehead against the glass doors that looked out on the bank of Wascana Creek. The levee where the dogs and I usually began our morning run was barely visible. Seeing that I was in motion, Willie and Pantera sprang into action and ran
