“Facial architecture.”
“You estimate she died at thirteen or fourteen.”
“Yes.”
“Of some kind of disease.”
“She was sick, but I don’t know that the illness killed her.”
“What did?”
“I don’t know.”
“What kind of illness?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well,
“I don’t know that either.”
“A long time?”
“Yes.”
Harry made a clicking sound.
I drew a deep breath.
“Do you remember Evangeline and Obeline Landry?”
“Think I’m ready for the Texas State Hospital? ’Course I remember. I was nine, you were twelve. They disappeared from Pawleys Island and clean off the face of planet Earth. We spent three years trying to get a bead on them. Burned a busload of coins calling Canada.”
“This sounds a little far-fetched, but there’s a remote possibility Hippo’s girl could actually be Evangeline.”
“Hippo’s girl?”
“The Jouns-O’Driscoll-Whalen-Tiquet-Gaston-Hippo skeleton.”
“How remote?”
“Very.”
I told Harry about Laurette and Obeline. And David Bastarache.
“Miserable sonovabitch. Give me a clear shot at his pecker, and that asshole won’t be setting any more fires.”
Harry could mix metaphors like no one I knew. I didn’t point out that this one redefined human anatomy.
Silence hummed across the continent. Then Harry said what I knew Harry would say.
“I’m coming up there.”
“What about selling your house?”
“You think I’m going to stay here diddlin’ with real estate? You’re a smart woman, Tempe, but sometimes I wonder how you pull your undies up in the morning.”
“What are you saying?”
“You’ve got Obeline’s address and telephone number?”
“Yes.”
“Do you need a giant finger pointing down at burning shrubbery?”
I let her go on.
“I’ll get my heinie on a plane to
“You’re suggesting we visit Obeline?”
“Why not?”
“For one thing, Hippo will be pissed.”
“Don’t tell him.”
“That would be unprofessional, and potentially dangerous. I’m not a cop, you know. I rely on them.”
“We’ll text him from the forest primeval.”
16
H ARRY’S PLANE WAS DUE IN AT TEN. I’D BOOKED A NOON FLIGHT to Moncton. Our plan was to meet at the departure gate.
Montreal’s main airport is situated in the west island suburb of Dorval. For years it was simply called Dorval. Made sense to me. Nope. Effective January 1, 2004, YUL was rechristened Pierre Elliott Trudeau International. Locals still call it Dorval.
