I hate being dusty and sweaty. I calculated I had time to have a speedy shower and hop into clean clothes before McCracken called me back. I was still damp but dressed when the phone rang.
“Better let them in,” he said. “They’ll talk. You listen.”
I was surprised to find them still in the hallway when I opened the door. Zaccotto shifted from foot to foot. Yee gave him a look.
“Sorry it took a while,” I said. They didn’t waste time. I closed the door behind them and heard the lock click into place. “It’s been a bit crazy here.”
Zaccotto looked around the living room. “I can see that,” he said.
Yee shot him another look.
“You officers on some kind of housekeeping inspection?”
If they had been, I would have been ticketed for sure. It’s a beige, basic and functional apartment at the best of times. The best of times was before Gussie. Today he had scattered a couple of blankets, pushed his food and water around and tossed grubby, saliva-covered squeaky toys far and wide. He’d also eaten through most of the Yellow Pages. He’d knocked over my prickly cactus but didn’t appear to have eaten that. Not bad for a day’s work. Mrs. Parnell’s calico cat could be charged with leaving excessive hair in three colours on my old Ikea sofa.
I could be cited for leaving two weeks worth of unread newspapers in piles around the living room. I might get away with the stacks of case files. They stood in neat towers at one end of the dining table. On the other hand, the documents from several other dossiers were sprawled at the far end. Through the open door of my bedroom you could see the overflowing hamper and the unmade bed. My three sisters would have had synchronized cardiac arrests.
Except for coffee cups in the sink, the kitchen would pass inspection, since I hadn’t had much time to eat that week.
Of course, they were there on police business. I didn’t think uniforms would be involved in the SIU investigation into Mombourquette, and although it was possible I was being called back for another interview, this seemed a peculiar way to make the request. I had a sudden thought. “It’s nothing to do with theft of library books, is it? I’m not taking the heat for that. You can talk to Mr. Alvin Ferguson.”
God help them, they blinked.
“Please sit down, ma’am. This is important,” Yee said. Zaccotto smiled sadly.
I plunked myself in the middle of the sofa to discourage company. They each reoriented a dining room chair and sat.
Gussie and Mrs. Parnell’s cat took up defensive positions.
Yee had a piece of paper in his hand and a bead of sweat on his downy upper lip. Zaccotto looked more relaxed, but then he wasn’t in charge of talking. I broke first. “So what can I do for you?”
Yee said, “I am afraid we have some bad news.” Even from where I sat, I could see the beads of sweat had spread to his forehead.
Yee tried again. “I’m afraid there’s been an accident.”
The little calico cat went flying as I jumped to my feet. “I told them to stay out of those goddam balloons.”
Yee said, “What?”
“Is Mrs. Parnell okay?”
Yee said, “Who?”
“Violet Parnell, my neighbour.”
He frowned. “I don’t know anything about a Mrs. Parnell.”
“Alvin! I knew that LTD was a deathtrap.”
“Alvin?” Zaccotto said.
“Alvin Ferguson. My office assistant. Has something happened to him?” I found myself standing, despite the tremor in my knees. Things always happen to Mrs. Parnell and Alvin.
“Please let us finish,” Yee said. “Ma’am.”
Gussie barked. The new neighbour thumped on the wall.
Yee took a deep breath. “I am sorry to inform you that Laura Brown died today.”
It was my turn to say, “Who?”
Yee blinked. Zaccotto blinked too. I imagine I blinked along with them.
“Laura Lynette Brown.”
“Laura Lynette Brown?”
Zaccotto raised his chin. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Dead?”
“Yes. Sorry, ma’am.”
I thought hard. Laura Lynette Brown. Not a friend. Not a relative. Not a client. I knew a Laura Brown from my Carleton University years. A pleasant and attractive woman with a luminous smile. I ran into her several times a year. She’d flash the smile. We’d make vague remarks about getting together for lunch. Lunch never happened. Maybe that’s who they meant. But why tell me?
“That’s terrible, but I hardly know Laura Brown. I didn’t even know her middle name was Lynette. If it’s even the same Laura Brown.”
Again with the looks. Yee glanced down at his sheet of paper, looked up again and said, “We have you as next-of-kin.”
“Next-of-kin? Oh, I get it. Must be some other Camilla MacPhee.”
“No mistake, ma’am. Yours is the address given. Is this your telephone number?” He held out the sheet of paper.
I stared at my telephone number. Because of the nature of my work, I do not give out my address, even to clients. My telephone’s unlisted. Clients get my cell number but not my home number.
“Well, it doesn’t matter what your papers say. It’s still a mistake.”
“Doesn’t look like a mistake, ma’am.”
“If Laura’s dead, her family needs to know.”
“We have no information about them, ma’am. Do you have an address?”
“No. I don’t know them.”
“But we have you listed as . . .”
“I am not the right person. I run into Laura every couple of months, tops. We’re not even friends, just old acquaintances from university. So you see, you’ve got me mixed up with someone else.”
Yee’s lips were just the tiniest bit pursed. He wouldn’t have been long out of university himself. “Do you know where her family might be?”
“No clue. Wait. She used to make a joke about being from a small town in the middle of nowhere.”
“So you don’t recall the name of the town?”
“Somewhere in Ontario, I’m pretty sure. We took classes together in 1986, so I can’t recall details. I’m surprised I remember about the small town. Started with C, I believe.”
Yee wrote down something. C perhaps.
Zaccotto was unable to contain himself. “Carleton Place?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Caledon?”
“No.”
“Collingwood?”
“Maybe it started with G. I’ll let you know if it comes back to me.”
“G?” said Zaccotto. “Georgian Bay?”
Yee said, “If she put your name as next-of-kin, it could mean her relatives are all dead.”
“Still must be someone closer than me.”
“Apparently not, ma’am.”
“Okay, I guess we’ll get to the bottom of it. How did Laura die?”
“We don’t have the full results. But our information is that she slipped down the escarpment behind the Supreme Court Building.”
“Behind the Supreme Court? She fell? What a terrible thing to happen.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Was that this afternoon? There was a lot of disruption on the bike path about an hour ago.”
“Yes. It takes a while for them to get the scene processed.”
“I didn’t know you could go right to the edge of the escarpment there. I always thought it was fenced.”
“According to witnesses, Ms. Brown climbed over the fence.”
“What a strange thing to do. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Laura Brown was sensible.” I tried to block out the image of how she would look after bouncing off rocks for a hundred feet.
“Our information is that she may have lost consciousness once she got behind the fence.”
“Do you know why?”
Zaccotto said, “I don’t want to say anything until the autopsy. They’ll let you know the results. As next-of-kin.”
“You’re sitting here telling me she’s dead, that she climbed over a restrictive fence and then passed out.”
Yee said. “She was diabetic. Possibly that would account for it.”
“Really?” I sank back onto the sofa.
Yee watched me carefully. “You must have known she was diabetic.”
“No. I didn’t.”
Zaccotto’s brow furrowed. “But you were her next-of-kin.”
I may have raised my voice at this point. “I was not her next-of-kin. I don’t care what it says. I am not related to her. I don’t even know where she lives. I only ran into her in this one restaurant every couple of months. Really, that’s it.”
Zaccotto cleared his throat.
“Hold on,” I said. “How do you know she was diabetic?”
Zaccotto said, “She had a MedicAlert bracelet.”
Yee said. “We called them. They had your name too.”
“What?”
“Yes, ma’am. You were listed as Personal Emergency Contact,” Zaccotto said, giving Yee a break. “This address and telephone number plus one for your office. Justice for Victims, right?”
“Wait a minute, you said my name too. You mean there’s someone else?”
“No. I meant you were also listed on the information card in her wallet. It said next-of-kin there. We can show you,” Yee said.
I said, “This will turn out to be a clerical error.”
“One more item,” Zaccotto said.
I was ahead of them. “Oh, no.”
Yee said, “We will need you to identify the body.”