Even with the canoe above his head, Domenic had been able to detect the gradual greying of the skies. The temperature had dropped noticeably in the last hour, and the wind was beginning to pick up. Mercury-coloured clouds had begun a slow, ominous roll towards them, dappling the flat landscape beneath with dark swatches of shadow.
“Break,” announced Damian as they approached the edge of a watery slough. “A short one though. We have to press on before that storm hits.”
Domenic slumped down beside the canoe and looked around him at the low, empty terrain in which they found themselves. What were they doing here? he wondered. They were aliens in this place, humans like himself and Damian and Annie Prior. What part did they play in the ecosystems of this park? This wasn’t their home. It belonged to the animals, the plants, the elements. And perhaps, too, to people like Gaetan Robideau and the rest of the Dene, who understood this land, who were a part of it. His brother seemed to read his thoughts.
“Why did you come here, Domenic?”
“To the park, you mean, or to Canada?”
“Okay, let’s start with that one.”
Domenic shifted uneasily. “A man called Ray Hayes has been targeting Lindy. He was a former arrest of mine, and he was convicted on the basis of evidence I uncovered. He got out on a technicality and now he’s looking for payback. I thought if I could remove myself from the scene for a while, he might back off, and we’d have a chance to re-arrest him.”
“And?”
“It hasn’t happened.”
“This is what Roy’s helping you with?”
“I asked him to have some forensic tests run on a bookmark. It was left in Lindy’s car the last time Hayes made an attempt on her life.”
“You think it belongs to this guy Hayes?”
Domenic shook his head. “It belongs to me. Hayes stole it off my desk when I brought him in for questioning once.”
“Did the tests turn up anything useful?”
“One print. Hayes.” Domenic shrugged. “But it wouldn’t be enough for a conviction, even if we could find him.”
Damian nodded slowly. “It must have been a hard decision for you and Lindy, to agree to being separated like this,” he said sincerely. “Even if you were prepared to put up with it, neither one of you could have known how long this thing might stretch on. That kind of uncertainty can test a relationship. Still, I suppose there was no other way you could have handled this.”
“There wasn’t.”
“I’m sure she gets it, though, Domino. I’m sure Lindy understands that it had to be this way. So what’s the next step, now that you can’t find Hayes? What happens when you go back? It doesn’t sound like you two can just pick up where you left off, in the hope that this maniac eventually loses interest?”
Domenic shook his head. “Hayes won’t lose interest. He’ll want to see it through.”
“But you have another plan, right?” said Damian uncertainly. “One that will see you and Lindy safely into the happily ever after? I mean, my brother Domenic Jejeune always has a plan.”
“There is no other plan,” said Domenic. The emptiness in his voice caused Damian to stare at him for a long moment, as Domenic’s thoughts took him off to a place where his brother could not trespass.
Damian regretted having reminded his brother about the girlfriend he had not seen for so long. He should not have brought the topic up. It was time to introduce a different one.
“I’ve been thinking about what you said about Annie.”
The sudden announcement seemed to snap Domenic back to the present.
“If what you’re saying is true, it explains why she was in such a hurry to get to those birds. If she wasn’t working under a wildlife permit, she’d need to get that tracking equipment off them before the park staff began their early-season breeding surveys.” He paused and gave a small, rueful smile to himself. “I knew something was wrong. It’s so hard to trap adult cranes. It would have been the perfect opportunity to gather all that other data; blood samples, measurements, fat stores. That she wasn’t interested in any of it just didn’t sit right. It didn’t make any sense.” He looked up at Domenic. “I sent Traz an inReach message, Domino; the coordinates of the cranes’ stopover points. I asked him to check them out. I guess I just wanted to know what was so special about these particular birds.”
He stood up abruptly. “Come on. Those clouds will be on top of us before long. We don’t want to be out in the middle of nowhere when they eventually decide to let loose.”
The storm struck like a judgement from the gods. It swept across the low land unchecked, driven by north winds that carried all the Arctic fury of the high latitudes in their wake. Blasts of chilling air brought ice pellets that raked across the flat terrain like machine-gun fire, stinging the men with their force. Sleet swept through in ragged, swirling sheets, turning the air grey and blocking out the light. All around them, the icy rain pelted the surface of the water, hammering down as they paddled frantically in search of cover. As the waters had begun to rise, the two men had tried to outrun the storm, driving the canoe across the fast-flowing waters. Now exposed, out in the centre of a lake of floodwater, the fierce winds brought the storm lashing in on them from all sides, pummelling them, rocking their craft until water slopped over the gunwales with each tilt. At the front of the canoe, Damian swivelled towards his brother. The rain was streaming unchecked down his face, plastering his hair to his forehead. His tiger-stripe jacket was open, billowing in the wind, saturated inside and out. “We have to get off this water,” he bellowed over the sounds of the storm. “That lightning is headed this way.”
As if to emphasize his point, a jagged fork lit up the horizon and a deep-throated growl of thunder echoed across the basin. “This wind is going to push us around like crazy if we don’t find shelter,” he shouted, his words all but snatched away by the winds and the rain. He pointed to a low fringe of vegetation far out into the water, barely visible through the curtain of rain. “Head for that,” he yelled. He took a deep breath before turning back into the teeth of the wind. But even as they dug in with their oars, hauling the heaviness of the water back with frantic strokes, the wind swirled once more, crashing waves against the bow, driving them back.
The sudden juddering stop almost pitched Damian into the water. Domenic saw his mouth move and knew he had shouted out a curse, but over the winds he couldn’t hear his brother’s voice anymore. Not until Damian turned to him directly. “Sweeper. It’s torn right through the hull. Keep paddling. I’ll try to bail.” But Damian’s hand scooping seemed to have no effect, and the water level in the bottom of the canoe continued to rise steadily as the grey fluid poured in through the ragged hole in the bow. Damian shook his head. “It’s hopeless,” he shouted. “She’s going down. We have to get out.”
Their twin leaps over the side breached the canoe’s last resistance against the inflowing water, and the craft pitched along its axis and rolled over. It had sunk from view before the two men had even surfaced from their plunges.
The coldness of the water seized their chests, penetrating even the chill of the freezing rain pounding down around them. Domenic looked around, but saw nothing but frothing grey waters. He felt Damian’s hand grab his shoulder, spinning him around. “There! Those reeds!” Damian pointed, his head sinking under the water with the exertion. He was gasping when he surfaced again. “Go!”
They swam towards the bed of flattened vegetation and dragged themselves up onto it. The mound was waterlogged, barely strong enough to hold their weight. But it was wide enough for each of them to find a place to drag themselves onto and lie, exhausted while the rain continued to pound against their faces and bodies. When they had caught their breath, they rolled into sitting positions, drew up their knees and pulled the hoods of their jackets over their heads. Hunkered down, they sat in silence as the storm raged around them. And they waited.