WHEN SHE’D COME BACK from the police station there’d been two calls on her answering machine, both from Hugh Templeton about the fact that Chicago wanted a telephone conference at nine in the morning the next day.
“Where the hell were you?” he said when she called him back. “I need you to be available all the time or this isn’t going to work. All the time means all the bloody time.” “Okay, okay. I’m sorry, Hugh. Usually I’m right here, except for this morning. I’ll call Jenny and make sure she has all the numbers. She can set it up for nine Chicago time tomorrow. That’s ten o’clock Toronto time and eleven mine. I’ll be ready for it and it’s not a problem.”
“And we don’t want it to become one. This is a big deal, Margaret, and I need you to wrap it up good and tight.”
Later in the afternoon she walked over to Aileen’s to see if Danny had come home. He had, and she found him at the back of the house, chopping firewood while another man who looked familiar to her was stacking the split logs. When Danny saw her, he set the axe on the block and waited for her to come closer. Looking at him she could see Andrew; much the same size and build, perhaps not quite as solid, but with good shoulders and strong arms nevertheless, the same short dark hair and an open face.
The other man said something to Danny and walked away. Moments later a truck engine started.
“Was that by any chance John Patrick Croft?” she said. “I haven’t seen him in a long time. Is he still working as a skipper in the harbour?”
“Not right now. Mr. Moynihan fired him for some insurance thing, even though it wasn’t really his fault.”
“Oh? That’s too bad. But tell me what happened at the morgue.”
“Well, those kids weren’t from around here. I know that for a fact.”
“What happened, Danny? Start from the beginning.”
“The police stopped me near the Chandler place. I was in the truck, and they flagged me down and ordered me to follow them to the station. Then they took me to the morgue in a cruiser, in the back with the bloody doors locked.”
“And then what?”
“Well, those kids didn’t drown. They were shot dead, that’s why the police were all so serious.”
“Shot!”
Danny nodded. “They had them in cold drawers and they pulled them out. Both were shot twice right here.” He put his hand to his chest. “He right in the middle, she a bit to the side. Two washed-out little holes each. I’ve never seen anyone so pale. They’d be around twenty, and they’re not from here. I didn’t know them and I told them that.”
“And what did the police say or do then?”
“Not much. They talked among themselves, Sully and his boss and another cop. All very hush-hush. Then they said that an inspector will be coming down and I should take him over to Crieff and show him around. They’ll pay for the gas and my time. Tomorrow early afternoon.”
“I think I should come along, Danny.”
“Really? Why?”
“To look out for you. This is suddenly all very serious. In fact, it doesn’t get any more serious. Have you told your mother?”
He said he had, and she was worried.
“I’m sure she is. I’ll go and talk to her. Is she in?” “I think so.”
Up in the house they stood in the little hall, and from the back they could hear Danny chopping wood.
“Only if it’s really all right with him,” said Aileen. “I mean, are you sure it’s a good idea? What if they think you came along because he has something to hide? Maybe the police chief this morning thought that too.”
“Aileen, you’re all upset. Let’s sit down a minute.” They sat down at the kitchen table and Margaret said, “That policeman didn’t think Danny has anything to hide, Aileen. It’s just that we lawyers make them a little nervous. If you don’t want me to go over to the island with them, I won’t, but I think it would be to Danny’s advantage. I’d make it clear to them that I’m there mostly for moral support, but that as a family friend and a lawyer I’ll be looking out legally for him as well. Aileen, the police have a lot of power, and this being a murder case they won’t hesitate one second to use it all. Just scare tactics alone, hard questions, you’d be amazed. Me being there will make them a little more careful.”
They talked a while longer and in the end Aileen agreed. “If you think so,” she said. “Just be real careful they don’t get the wrong idea, Margaret. Promise me that.”
That night in her robe and boots she walked down to the boathouse, through the little forest with the flashlight in one hand and with the other raised to fend off branches before they could strike her in the face. Inside the boathouse she clicked on the overhead light and looked around. Two iron bunk beds with the thin mattresses rolled up military-style to the head end. The old oaken desk and swivel chair from her time, when she’d studied out here for law exams. Bare stud walls, a few electrical outlets.
At the back there was a small room that her father had used for a workshop, and in it stood a shelf with books and papers on it and a workbench and a wooden box of tools. Work clothes hung on nails. A slicker, a woollen jacket, a canvas coverall. Her father’s old Truro Feed baseball cap.
She lifted off some of the clothes for the boat ride tomorrow, then turned out the light and pulled the door shut and walked back up to the house.
In the morning she sat at the kitchen table with the papers spread out before her. When the conference call came through, she listened to the client’s questions and concerns, then began going over them in detail. Once again she took them step by step through the transaction and all the alternatives and consequences. At one point she heard the Chicago lawyer or perhaps the accountant say something and the client said, “No. We don’t need that.”
She carried on, and in the end she asked the client if there were any more questions and he said, “No, thank you. Not now. We’ll get back to you.”
The session lasted fifty-two minutes and she wrote that down in her time sheet.
She called Hugh and reported the main points of the conversation. It had gone well, she said. Then she told him she’d be away from the phone for a short while on an urgent matter, and to leave a message if anything happened. The machine was always on.