Without realising what I’mdoing, I find myself working out the details. Annie works every dayright now. When she leaves in the morning, Denny could come downfrom the attic and spend the day with Stinky. Then, when Annie andI get home from work, he can go back up. We barely do much besideseat a fast dinner before bed anyway. For a couple of days, it mightjust work. I can’t believe I’m actually considering this.
When we pull up in the yard,Denny opens the door and Stinky leaps out on to the yard. We watchhim bound around, smelling with enthusiasm. “Two days,” I say toDenny. “Two days, and then you’ll leave, no matter what. Deal?”
He nods. “Deal.”
We go inside and I make us a potof tea. Denny sits at the table, his shoulders slouched and hisface worn. He looks ten years older than he did before this wholemess started.
“Denny, can I ask you aquestion?”
“What?”
“Do you have any idea whatactually happened to Robbie? Do you really think he was murdered,or do you think that the cops are wrong? I mean, this is GabriolaIsland, not New York City.”
He pauses. “Do you want me toexplain what I remember?”
I tense up. I don’t want to hearit. But I do. So, I nod. “Skip over some of it,” I say, knowinghe’ll understand what I mean. I sit across from him and cradle mycup in my hands.
“Robbie and Annie were in theother room.” I can already feel my stomach muscles tighten. Dennynotices my expression. “Well, anyway, I wanted to leave and Robbiedidn’t. I called him out, we started arguing and he followed meonto the lawn. I was walking to the dock to go to my boat. Robbiewanted me to wait for him, but I wanted to leave.”
This is sounding closer to whatAnnie told the cops. She wasn’t lying. The only difference is hisperception of what was happening in the bedroom. “How stoned anddrunk were you that night?”
“Very, why?”
“I’m just trying to imagine howyou could get a proper grasp on the events when your brain wascompromised.”
“I know what I know, Jade.” Hetakes a sip of tea before continuing. “We were arguing on the lawnand Robbie was trying to get me to wait. I remember calling him alot of names and telling him to come now or I was leaving. He toldme that he didn’t care if I left, he’d get a ride home later. Hewasn’t thinking. All of the ferries had already gone by then. I washis last option for a ride. We yelled back and forth for a while,he went back in the house, and I left in my boat.”
“Leaving him with Annie.”
“Jade—"
“I don’t want to hear it.”
Denny sighs. “That’s the lasttime I saw him.”
“How do you know himanyway?”
“He was a newcomer to myneighborhood in West Van. I didn’t hang out with him much, Healways wanted to head downtown and party. I’d rather get drunk athome or go to friends’ places. Robbie acted sweet and innocent, buthe could be a real bastard, too.” He pauses. “Not enough to get himmurdered, though.”
“If you don’t think he wasmurdered, what do you think happened to him?”
“I think he was so whacked outthat he stumbled down to the dock, thinking that I’d come back forhim. He probably lost his balance and fell into the salt chuck. Ithappens every day.”
“But how did he get my floatercushion?”
“Your boat’s open. He probablyjust took it out of your boat to sit on. Beats sitting on the hardwood of the dock. Then, when he fell in the water, he tried to stayafloat by tying the pad around his waist. It’s what I’d do. Heprobably tried to swim against the current and then got too tiredand drowned.”
I stare at Denny. This was thefirst time Robbie’s death made sense.
“If it wasn’t for the stupidanonymous call about the fight, the police would have no reason tosuspect me. They’d think for two fucking seconds and figure outthat it was an accident.
“Who do you think called in onyou?”
“The same person who planted thewallet. Someone who hates me, that’s for sure.” He flicks theteacup hard—it tings. “And I never even saw him with a wallet. Himand me came straight over from West Van with no stopping. He had noreason to take his wallet out, and it couldn’t have just fallenout—he was wearing cargo shorts. The Velcro on those pockets isstrong enough to be fucking watertight. I remember how loud it waswhenever he ripped it open—it annoyed the hell out of me.”
I stare into my tea. “Thecoroner has to be looking at the body. Maybe he’ll figure out thatit was accidental.”
“I sure hope so.”
We finish our tea then Dennycrawls up to the attic and tries to make space for himself upthere. When he comes down, he has the same dirty dust on him as thecops had all over them yesterday. He tells me that there’s a ton ofboxes and totes full family pictures and keepsakes. I’m surprised.I’d assumed it was just yard stuff.
While he was digging around, hefound a Coleman sleeping bag and some of Dad’s girly mags. “See,I’ve got everything I need,” he says, slapping me with the pornmag.
“You’re an idiot.”
We spend the rest of the daywatching TV and making sure Denny has everything he needs in theattic like water, snacks, a pee bottle. I make a big pot ofvegetarian chili and set the table. “Ah, chili,” Denny says,watching me stir the chili. “Exactly what I should be eating in atiny enclosed space with no ventilation.”
I laugh. He has been so coollately. He’s not the same asshole that he was for over a decade,the brother that would ridicule me and be embarrassed when I wasn’tfitting in with the rest of the preppy, West Van girls. He probablytook a lot of ribbing from his friends about his lesbian littlesister, and, likely from the example of my father, he’d assumed I’dchosen to
