Lester and Pierre screamed in outrage when I arrived at Mrs. Parnell's on the morning of November 12. I chose not to comment that Alvin looked exhausted. He'd have to point out that I looked even worse. There was a good reason for that. I hadn't been able to sleep and had spent the time between three and five a.m. driving up and down the streets of Ottawa, hoping to catch sight of Mrs. P.'s Volvo.
“Not a word from her.” Alvin said.
“Any luck with the computer?” I said.
“I've been through everything. Every file, every directory.”
“Did you try her e-mail inbox?”
He rolled his bleary eyes and headed back to the computer. “Well, of course I did. It's the first place I looked, and I've kept checking every half hour, in case she gets a message. It's empty, except for today's spam. But come over here. I want to show you her sent mail folder.”
“Good thinking.”
I peered over his shoulder as he clicked on the keys.
“Take a look at that,” he said, pointing.
“It's empty. That's weird,” I said. “Didn't she send you stuff all the time?”
“She did. Maybe she liked to keep her system nice and clean. See? The deleted mail is empty too. She probably set it to empty automatically. Don't breathe down my neck, please.”
“No need to be peevish, Alvin. What now?” I pulled over a chair and sat far enough away to keep Alvin happy.
He said, still peevishly, “Why don't we read the letters?”
“You know I don't feel comfortable about reading them. They're a last resort. Maybe you should feed the birds.”
Alvin sniffed. “How about you do it?”
“Because they're the spawn of the devil. Have you forgotten what happened the last time? You do it.”
“In a minute. I forgot to check and see what websites Violet may have visited lately.”
I resisted the urge to jump up and lean over his shoulder.
“Hey, here's something. It's a website on war graves. She was in there yesterday.”
“What else did she visit recently?”
“Some veteran's stuff, sites on Canadian army regiments.”
“Not too surprising around Remembrance Day.”
Alvin jumped to his feet, rattling the computer table and shouting, “Jackpot.”
“What? What?”
“Expedia.ca and Travelocity.”
“You're kidding. Travel sites? When was she checking those?”
“Yesterday.”
“Must have been after she left the hospital. That probably indicates her mind was clear. Oh, unless she was researching before the ceremonies.”
Alvin nodded absently. “And take a look at this site—it has to do with the Italian campaign. Whoa, Violet's been busy.”
“Back to the travel one. Does she have a folder for travel?”
“I thought of that earlier. She doesn't seem to use folders. There's nothing about a booking anywhere. It's like she didn't want anyone to know what she was doing. She deliberately wiped out her sent e-mail messages and forgot about the history feature of her web searches.”
“Let's concentrate. We'll figure out what else there could be. What about the printer?” I said.
“Good thinking.”
I got up and leaned over the printer. “Nothing in the tray. If she printed something, she must have taken it with her.”
“The red light's on. Maybe there's a printer jam.”
I flipped open the printer lid. “I hate printer jams, although I'm prepared to love this one, because something's stuck there.”
“Just wait. This is a delicate operation. You know what you're like with equipment, Camilla. You don't want to break the printer.”
“Sheesh. You sound like my sisters.”
“Just don't rip the paper.”
There was a slight tearing sound. “Fine, you do it,” I said.
Alvin has weird, long, artistic fingers, perfect for disengaging paper. He flattened the scrunched sheet, getting plenty of ink on those artistic hands and on Mrs. Parnell's sleek computer desk.
“What? What does it say? Hurry up.”
He said. “It's part of a travel itinerary. That means she really did plan a trip.”
“A trip? Where to?” I asked.
“It doesn't say. It's just the top of the last page. Part of the itinerary number is there. Not enough to read.”
“When you book online, they send you all kinds of confirmation e-mails.”
Alvin said, “That must be why she deleted everything. She didn't want anyone to know where she was going.”
“Exactly. Including us. She knows we'd check.”
“That's bad.” Alvin said. “The only reason we know anything is because of this paper jam.”
“Hey, wait a minute. It couldn't be an old one, could it? Just stuck in there?”
“No way. Violet used that printer all the time. She would have cleared the jam the minute it happened. She's really good with equipment. She believes in keeping her stuff in top condition. She probably wouldn't have gotten ink all over her hands either.”
“Wait a minute. Forget the computer. Let's check her paper recycling and the garbage.”
Alvin loped into the kitchen while I took the bedroom and bath. “Empty,” he called out.
“These are too. She did that on purpose, Alvin.”
He said, “She's pretty crafty. She knows us.”
“She's being strategic.” I didn't suggest that someone else might have emptied them. I wanted Alvin to be calm, since I wasn't.
“Well, we can play that strategic game, too,” Alvin sniffed.
“Exactly. She may be determined to give us the slip, but we can't let her get away with that.”
“We're on the case,” Alvin said.
I found myself pacing. “Okay. Where is she going to go? And when?”
Alvin paced alongside me, his ponytail flicking from side to side. “Or has she already gone?”
“No point in contacting the online booking service. They won't give out that kind of information. Too bad we don't have the entire itinerary number.”
“The cops could find out. They must be able to get a warrant for something like that.”
“We haven't had much luck with the police so far. I suppose it's worth a call anyway. We'll cross that bridge later. We have to go.”
“Go where?” Alvin stopped in his tracks.
“To the airport. She might just be sitting there now.”
I dropped Alvin off near the passenger exit and watched as he loped past the glass door of the garage and across the street to the airport entrance. I inched through the parking lot until I spotted the Volvo tucked almost out of sight behind a pillar near the exit. I whipped my Acura into a parking spot and got out. I put my hand on the hood of the Volvo. Cold. Our bird had flown.
Half an hour later, Alvin and I were sure of one thing. Mrs. Parnell was not in the ladies’ rooms. Not in the waiting rooms. Not in the coffee shops, unless she'd gone through security. Even though we'd already called the police to report finding Mrs. P.'s Volvo, we were less than a hit with security. Even with all our talk of heart attacks, the ticket agents looked at us with suspicion when we described Mrs. Parnell. The officer made a note of our names and our alleged problem and made a phone call. No way were we getting through those gates to the other side.
“You know, Alvin,” I said, as we headed home, “We're going to need a good picture of her.”
“I don't think it's quite so necessary for people to be so incredibly rude,” Alvin said, as we splashed through the latest downpour and back into my house, which I still couldn't think of as home. “We're not trying to violate anyone's privacy. We're trying to make sure Violet is all right. I thought they were supposed to be public servants.”
“Nothing like an official with a rulebook to make you realize your place in society,” I said. “There was no way to get past security without a boarding pass. Oh, shit. How dumb was I?”
“Sometimes you're pretty…I mean, why?” Alvin said.
“Why didn't I just buy a ticket?”
“To where?”
“To anywhere.”
“You didn't want to go anywhere…oh, right, I get it. With a ticket, you can get through security. Why didn't you?”
“Because I just thought of it now.”
Gussie turned circles with excitement as he greeted us. No wonder. I figured he'd missed a walk or two in all the confusion. I grabbed his leash and my hooded rain jacket and we headed out, leaving Alvin to come up with a next step.
When we returned a short time later, a pot of hot orange pekoe was waiting, Mrs. Parnell's little cat had been fed, and a selection of dog treats was laid out for Gussie. By the time I got rid of my wet rain gear and dried Gussie's giant paws and sodden undercarriage, Alvin was fussing over the rumpled itinerary, trying to extract some information.
“I have to do something,” he said. “It's not like the so-called police have offered any help. Nor has anybody else.”
“We need more bodies working on this. I've been trying to think who could help us: everyone's out of town.”
“What about that awful Mountie?”
“Merv. He's on an international assignment, guarding some politico. Hush-hush.”
“P. J. then. He's a reporter. Maybe he can get us something in the paper.”
“He probably could, but P.J.'s in the States doing a follow-up feature on the U.S. election. I can't even reach him. I left a message with the news desk. They should get back to us.”
Alvin said, “Elaine Ekstein? She's always willing to help us. She's a mover and a shaker. And she's fearless.”
“Elaine's in Australia. And Robin's away at a wedding in Edmonton. That wipes out my friends.”
“Maybe the other cop, Leonard Mombourquette.”
“He took some additional leave without pay and went to Australia too.”
Alvin said, “Australia? I knew there was something between those two.”
I shuddered. “Don't hallucinate, Alvin. It's just a coincidence. That would be too bizarre to contemplate.”
“So we're SOL?”
“We have to rely on each other. Nobody wants to be in Ottawa in November. Of course, there's always my family.”
“Let's not go there. They haven't been much help so far, even Conn. That reminds me, you got voicemail,” he said. “I didn't know your code.”
“Just as well,” I snapped. “Voicemail is personal.”
“What are you talking about? We just checked out Violet's voicemail, and her computer, and that's personal.”
“I'm not an eighty-three year old missing woman, so you don't get to listen to my messages.” I should have said “any more”. For most of the time Alvin has been “working” for me, my messages have been neither private nor interesting, and Alvin has heard them, and frequently failed to pass them along. That was then. Now, Ray Deveau's current vacation fantasy was emphatically none of Alvin's business. I picked up the receiver, tapped in the code and listened. Alexa and Edwina had left snappish remarks requiring urgent callbacks. I pressed delete.
Ray had left a very warm message, definitely not for Alvin's ears. I pressed 9 to save. I could listen to it again, a couple of times, at a better time.
“Any luck?” Alvin interrupted.
“Just my sisters,” I said, lying nicely. “You know what they're like.”
The next message took me by surprise. I fumbled my tea cup, and the orange pekoe splattered my clothes.
“Holy shit. Who is it?” Alvin said.
“Ms. MacPhee? Violet Parnell here. By the time you get this, I will be off and away. Please do not come looking for me. I am sorry to have shaken you off in the hospital. However, there is a matter I urgently need to take care of. I realize it's all terribly melodramatic, and I beg your indulgence. In the meantime, I would appreciate it if you and Young Ferguson would look in on Lester and Pierre and see that they are taken care of. You know where the bird food is. They do enjoy watching a bit of television from time to time. Nature programs. Nothing with cats. Thank you for assisting me with this. I will make everything clear upon my return.”
I flopped into the chair and pressed “1” to repeat the message. I pressed the receiver to Alvin's ear.
“Listen to this, Alvin.”
Alvin listened and paced.
“What do you think?” I said, afterwards.
“She sounds great. Like her regular self.” Behind the glasses, Alvin's eyes shone.
“Yes,” I said. “She's perfectly lucid and logical. Except for one hitch: she's an eighty-three year old woman at risk for cardiac arrest. She knows she's taking a risk. She's intelligent and capable, and yet she lit out of here and won't tell us where to. Or why. There's definitely something wrong with that.”
“It's great news, Camilla. She's alive! She's okay. Maybe it is none of our business,” Alvin said.
“It's our business, all right. There's something wrong, or why wouldn't she tell us what it is, so that we wouldn't worry?”
“She said she had to clear up a matter.”
“And you tell me what happens with the three of us when we have to clear up a so-called matter?”
“We help each other. We work together. Okay, I get your drift.”
“We drop everything, and we do what we have to to help the other person.”
Alvin scratched his head. “She thinks we want to stop her. Why would we do that?”
“I don't know. She must have some compelling reason to keep us out of it.”
“She's all about comradeship. She might be wanting to protect us. Keep us from being upset.”
“I've thought of that. If she wants to protect us, then logically, there must be something we need to be protected from.”
Alvin paled. “If we need to be protected, then it must be dangerous, and if it's dangerous, if we're not involved, then who's going to protect Violet?”
“Exactly. There is another possibility.”
“What?”
“Maybe there's someone she wants to protect.”
“You just said that. Oh, you mean, aside from us.”
“Yes.”
“Who could that be? Aside from us and your family, especially your father, and maybe the super, who does she see?”
“No one. We're it. Except, what's new lately?”
“Lord thundering Jesus. This dead guy!”
“You got it, Alvin.”
“So how do we go about finding him?”
“I have no goddam idea.”
“Ray?”
“Hmmm?”
I have to admit, I got a little tingle at the way he said “hmmm”. This was hardly the right time for tingling.
“Thanks for your call. Sorry to bug you at work. I need to know if you can find out what plane someone took to go somewhere.”
“As queries go, Camilla, that's not the clearest I've ever heard. Try again.”
“Mrs. P. has taken off.”
“You mean she hasn't turned up yet?”
“She called.”
“Well, that's good.”
“I don't think so. We believe she's involved in something dangerous. We have no idea where she went. We located her Volvo at the airport. If we could find out what plane she was on, we'd have a clue about her destination and it might save time.”
“Dangerous?” A bit of his cop persona sneaked into his voice.
“We think maybe.”
“If it's dangerous, you shouldn't get involved. Does the word concussion ring a bell?”
No point in getting him ticked off. “We'd make sure the police were informed, of course.”
“Promise me you won't do anything foolhardy?”
“Don't be silly, of course, I won't. So can you find out about the plane?”
“I'll see what I can do. I'm surprised the Ottawa guys wouldn't help you out there. Oh, never mind.”
“We're doomed,” Alvin said, looking up as I put the phone down and walked back into my box-lined living room.
“Wrong attitude, Alvin. Keep positive. What do you think Mrs. P. would do?”
“I think she'd read those letters and see if there's anything there.”
“I'm not so sure.”
“Are you the same Camilla MacPhee who will break into people's apartments when it suits you?”
“Never mind, I always have my reasons. This seems so much more personal and, really, I can't see how it's going to do any good. They're sixty years old. These letters must be important to Mrs. P., or she wouldn't have kept them. I feel uncomfortable reading private letters. Maybe that's my own hang-up as a result of having the world's most intrusive family.”
I did not mention that I had many letters from my late husband, Paul. I didn't ever want some snoop eyeballing those. Ever.
“I seem to remember you creeping through people's bedrooms while they were sleeping when you needed something,” Alvin said. “That's pretty private.”
“Listen to me, Alvin. Let's try not to squabble all the time. We need to work together to find out what's she's up to. We waste energy on bickering. We have to work as a team.”
Alvin's nose seemed more pointed than usual. His Adam's apple bobbed. “We've always been like this. Anyway, it's not really squabbling. It's just standing our ground. All right, if we have to, we can stop. I suppose. I'll agree to watch my tongue if we can read the letters.”
Well, that didn't go the way I'd wanted. I sat scowling on the box with my arms folded trying to find another route.
Alvin, on the other hand, was quite perky. “This has to do with the war. Remember those websites. Even though Violet always talks about the war, she never mentions her part in it, does she? I don't even know where she went.”
“We know she was in the Canadian Women's Army Corps.”
“Sure we know that. And we know she went overseas in 1941.”
“She served in England. Working on trucks and things. She really enjoyed it, although she said it wasn't all that glamorous and exciting. Not like the guys who fought in Europe. She was proud to serve her country in her own small way, and it was a great adventure for a girl from small-town Ontario.”
“Right, well, I didn't even get that much out of her. When she talked about the war, it was always Churchill or Montgomery or Patton. We don't know about the people in her life, not then, not now. And when we met her, there was no one. Not a relative, not a single friend. Right?”
I had to agree.
“See? We have no idea. These letters might tell us.”
“Fine. We'll read the letters from her friends.”
Alvin seemed satisfied with that. He was already riffling through the letters at high speed.
“You sort,” I said, picking up the phone and dialling. “I'll call Conn and try to get some action going.”
Alvin said, “Don't consider this squabbling—maybe you shouldn't tell him that you got the message from her saying that she's all right.”
“Good point. I might forget to mention it.”
“Hey look, this letter's from her husband. Captain Walter Parnell.” Alvin whipped the letter out of the envelope.
“Not that one,” I said, stopping mid-dial.
Conn, of course, was not at his desk. I left a message, not too snippy, and rejoined Alvin for damage control.
Somewhere in Italy,
October 5, 1943Darling Vi,
Not a day goes by that I don't think about you. I would be much easier in my mind if you would confine yourself to tamer activities. I have enough on my mind without imagining you in an upturned truck, pinned down by enemy fire. Of course, I have known you all my life, so I realize you are not the kind of girl to stay home and knit socks. That reminds me, Hazel sent me a pair of socks that gave me blisters and a box of fudge that was just like cement. Heaven help her husband, if she ever finds one.
Things are going as well as they can be here, given the circumstances. Can't complain. A lot of fine fellows haven't made it this far. I saw Perce when we were on leave. Sure wish it could have been you, instead. That fella sure has a way with the ladies. The English girls think he is the limit. Everyone loves a flyboy. They are all crazy about dancing, and he is something to watch on the dance floor. I can't imagine how we'll get him back home when this damn war's over. I imagine he'll set the world on fire. He's always been a lucky dog. You can keep the adventures, I think I might have seen more than enough of the world. I am looking forward to dancing with my own gal when we're together. I know you love to jitterbug, but I keep remembering those waltzes.
If I get back in one piece, I plan to stay on the ground. I got a letter from my Uncle Fred. He's promised me a place in his firm when I return. I am thinking I would like to try my hand at university, anyway. The government is promising to help out with education afterwards. I'd like your opinion on this, as it would mean a longer wait before we could be married. I sure don't want to wait much longer! Of course, we can keep dancing, even if it's just in our memories now.
With all my heart,
Your Harry