Amanda spent the afternoon driving around town, checking with water taxi drivers down at the docks and asking Nancy whether she’d seen Tag. To no avail. However, Nancy didn’t look shocked when Amanda said Tag might be Luke’s son. They were sitting on Nancy’s patio, sipping tea and enjoying a rare lull in customer traffic. Nancy’s shoulders relaxed, as if a burden had been lifted.
Amanda cocked her head thoughtfully. “You knew that already, didn’t you? You recognized the resemblance that first day at the café. Were you ever going to tell me?”
“It wasn’t my story to tell.” Nancy studied her teacup as if weighing her words. “It wasn’t easy for Luke. Bertie was the man who took him in and helped him through some very rough times. Whatever Luke’s problems, he always had a strong sense of right and wrong.”
“But maybe in a weak moment? Lots of things can happen under the influence of drugs. Weed and alcohol both lower inhibitions, not to mention what LSD and magic mushrooms might do. Would they even know what they were doing?”
Nancy looked skeptical. “Luke was a shy kid, straitlaced in a naive way. Not what you’d call worldly.”
It was Amanda’s turn to be dubious. “I think Vietnam opened his eyes pretty quickly. The drugs flowed freely there too, and sex was standard currency with the locals.” As it still is in many parts of the world, she thought wryly.
Nancy shrugged. “It was almost certainly Patsy’s doing, not his, because unlike Luke, she was worldly way beyond her years. She liked to … sample widely.”
Amanda remembered what Keener had said about Bertie’s self-doubts. “And Bertie didn’t mind?”
“Well, it was the way it was.” She chuckled. “Still is, in some circles. Free love was part of the religion. Besides, Bertie didn’t know the half of it. He was off in Tofino or Ucluelet much of the time, peddling his paintings to make a buck or two.” She cocked her head as if rifling through her memories. “They were an odd pair, really. I think Bertie believed he’d hit the jackpot when Patsy agreed to marry him. Out of all the guys she could have had, she chose him. It gave his ego a huge boost.”
“Why did she choose him?”
Nancy looked at her with a grim smile. “Oldest reason in the world. It might have been the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, but bottom line, she was pregnant, and she needed a decent breadwinner. Bertie was one of the few guys in the commune who was seriously trying to earn money. He was a hell of a better bargain than Luke, that’s for sure, with his voices and his panic attacks.”
Amanda gazed into the distance, barely seeing the other patrons or the birds flitting in the nearby bushes. A picture was emerging of the complex web surrounding Tag’s birth. Had Luke suspected the baby might be his, and if so, how had he felt when Patsy instead chose a reliable money source over a sensitive but damaged artist?
She skirted that uncomfortable question. “But I understand it was Luke who rescued the baby from the fire.”
“Is that so?”
“Yet three days later he’s found wandering the street alone in a psychotic state. Did he bring the baby back to Bertie? Or just leave him on someone’s doorstep?”
Nancy began collecting up their plates and teacups. “I’m not comfortable discussing this further behind his back. Luke is a private man who’s been through a lot, and he should be the one to tell you these things. But I will say, even at his most strung out, Luke was always an honourable man.”
Nancy moved briskly and methodically, but the slight tremor in her hands betrayed her. There was a bond between her and Luke, one that had been forged at least fifty years ago in the commune. It was no accident that she was the only one he trusted with his paintings. Had she also been the one he’d entrusted the baby to during his headlong, panicked flight from the fire?
Amanda thought back to the paintings in Luke’s studio. The ones of children were tucked into remote corners or stacked against the walls. “He painted a lot of children. Children running through the field, children crying —”
“Yes, and those rarely sold.” Nancy turned toward the restaurant, dishes in hand. “He did paint happier children, and when those became popular, he stopped doing them. Perverse bugger. Almost like he didn’t want to be a success. But the children were all dark-haired and brown-eyed. Not blue-eyed and blond like Patsy or ginger like him.”
Dark-eyed and brown-haired like the children in Vietnam, Amanda thought. Poor man, so tormented by his guilt and failure that he wouldn’t even profit from their memory. She sighed. The sun was sinking behind the trees toward the ocean, lighting the sky with a soft luminescence. Perhaps Tag had returned from his mystery trip by now. She thanked Nancy, asked her to tell Tag she was looking for him, and headed back toward the Silver Surf B&B.
On her way back up Campbell Street, she passed the handsome new glass-and-timber building that housed the RCMP. On a whim, she turned in. The police needed to know all the information she had uncovered. The place felt virtually empty, but Mr. Sensitive was manning the front desk, and he grinned at her cheerfully. Her enthusiasm faded.
“Another body, Ms. Doucette?”
“Working on it,” she shot back. Probably not a wise retort when talking to a cop, not all of whom had Chris’s sense of humour. “Is the sergeant around?”
“Nope. Out catching our man.” His grin widened. “Can I help you?”
She hoped that was a generic reference rather than one about Luke. “I’d like to talk to him about some information I’ve learned that might be relevant.”
He raised one lazy eyebrow. “What information?”
Reluctantly she plunged ahead. “About the connection between Luke Lafferty and Richard and DeeDee Vali, and about —” She broke off. Mr. Sensitive’s second eyebrow had joined his first, and she could almost see the glee emanating from him. A juicy piece of intel, and he’d be the one to deliver it. Not only would he probably skip the nuances, but he’d also make Luke look even guiltier than before.
“Actually,” she said, “it’s complicated. I’ll write it down and try to catch Sergeant Saint-Laurent in the morning.”
“He’ll be back out at dawn,” Mr. Sensitive said, leaning forward as if to reach through the Plexiglas and grab her. “Assisting —”
She was already breezing out the door. “That’s okay, I’m an early riser.”
Before she headed back to the Silver Surf, she detoured to pick up fish and chips from the Wildside Grill and returned to her room just as the sun was dipping into the ocean, casting a trail of orange sparks across the rolling surf. She knocked on Tag’s door, but there was no answer. After feeding Kaylee and letting her out to romp in the bush, she settled at the table on her terrace to enjoy her dinner.
Somewhere in the bushes, Kaylee barked. Amanda looked up but saw no sign of her. The bushes were in deep shadow, but she heard the rustling of leaves and a cascade of stones. Fear shot through her. There were frequent signs warning of cougars and bears in the area. Rationally, she knew the dangers were minimal, because both species were shy and avoided humans, but there were exceptions. And an innocent dog might be a tempting dinner.
She had to call Kaylee several times before the dog came trotting back, looking alert and wary.
“We can’t have you encountering critters, princess,” Amanda said, snapping on her leash and tying her to the chair while she continued her dinner. Kaylee kept staring into the bushes, and the occasional growl bubbled in her throat, but when Amanda strained her eyes, she could see nothing. Finally, too unnerved to sit out in the deepening dusk, she picked up her plate and retreated inside to settle on her bed with her laptop. Almost immediately, a video call came in.
All her fears evaporated as Chris’s smiling face filled her screen. “Hey you,” she said.
They exchanged affectionate greetings before his expression sobered. “I’m worried about you, honey. I don’t want you to keep trying to see Luke.”
“Chris, I’m safely here in Tofino! Not going anywhere. But why the sudden hard line?”
“I’m … just worried, darling.”
“Why?”
“The police have uncovered some things.”
“What things?”
“I can’t tell you. I’m sorry. It’s part of the investigation. But will you trust me if I say he’s a person of interest, and the police have evidence that puts him in the frame?”
Anxiety mixed with her annoyance. “Is it about his relationship to Richard and DeeDee Vali?”
His eyes widened. “What do you know?”
“What do you know?”
“Amanda, stop playing games. This guy may be a killer. What do you know about his relationship to the Valis?”
She gave herself a shake. Chris was right. She knew she was in over her head, and she’d been on the brink of turning all her information and suspicions over to Sergeant Saint-Laurent anyway. Who better to tell than Chris, whose judgment and sensitivity she trusted as much as her own?
So she told him. He listened without interruption while she told him about the commune, Patsy, Bertie, the baby and its unknown father, the fire that killed Patsy, and the subsequent death of Bertie. She described Bertie’s connection to Keener, and Helen’s admission that Bertie, not Luke, set the fire that killed Patsy. She told him about the mystery man who had called Patsy’s family inquiring about the identity of the father and the fate of the baby.
And finally, hesitantly and reluctantly, she told him about Tag.
Only then did Chris erupt. “Jesus fucking Christ! Don’t tell me he’s right smack in the middle of this?”
“Yes, and I can’t check any of it out, because he has disappeared.”
“You have to report this, Amanda.”
“I’m going to, but till now it’s been all conjecture. The birthdates, people’s recollections and suspicions …”
“Tag’s disappearance is real.”
“I don’t even know he’s disappeared. I haven’t seen him since yesterday, but he isn’t tethered to me. He’s free to go off and make his own plans.”
Chris’s forehead crinkled. She could see him trying to tease apart the solid evidence from the background details that, although crucial to the whole picture, were mostly third-hand speculation.
“I still think the detectives have to know. Speculation or not, those are leads they can follow up on.”
“I know.” As Amanda wrestled with her reluctance, she glanced out her patio door at the last streaks of coral and mauve glowing through the trees. Against that backdrop, a shadow moved. She sat up with a gasp. Blinked. The shadow was gone, flitting by so quickly that she wasn’t even sure it was real.
“Amanda, what is it?” Chris’s voice was urgent with alarm.
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing.” She glanced at Kaylee, who was staring fixedly out the window. “I thought I saw something outside.”
“Something? Like what?”
Fear made her short. “I don’t know, Chris! A shape, maybe watching me. Earlier too. Probably a bear curious about my fish and chips. I’m just spooked from finding that body and then Pim getting shot.”
“Darling, listen to me. Please take this seriously. Tomorrow morning, I want you to get in your car and drive straight back to Victoria and stay there.”
“My tour starts —”
“Until your tour starts. And find yourself another counsellor, for God’s sake. I’m getting on a plane tomorrow. This is serious. Please, please, darling.”
To her shock, his voice quavered, and his eyes glistened. She reached out her fingertips to touch him. “Honey, I’ll be fine. And I promise I’ll go back to Victoria as soon as I can.”