The K Handshape (21 page)

“I’ll get something to wrap up those cookies for you so you can take them with you,” said Grace, and she shuffled into the tiny kitchen which adjoined, emerging with a plastic baggie filled with cookies. “Here you are. I made chocolate chip and peanut butter ones. Tommy likes them.”

There was no way I could refuse.

“Miss Cameron, you mentioned you only moved here about four years ago…”

“Yes, that’s right. My house was getting too much for me and this is a reasonable rent. I’m on a pension and I don’t have money to throw around.”

“Do you know who was the tenant before you?”

She stared at me. “Why I suppose so. I sublet for two months, then took over. It was a young woman. She was quite harum-scarum and she left the place filthy. If she’d cleaned the stove once in five years you’d never know…”

“Do you know her name?”

“I forget.” She pulled open a drawer in the table. “But let me see, I keep everything in here.” She took out a pile of papers, dumped them on the table, and started to riffle through them. “Ah, this is it. The original lease.” She peered at the paper. “Grace Cameron agrees to sublease… etc., etc., there you go. Her name was Nora Cochrane. That was the young woman. Nora Cochrane.”

Was it indeed?

And why was Mr. Zachary Taylor calling on Nora, a woman who claimed never to have met him?

“Do you know a man named Zachary Taylor?” I asked Miss Cameron.

She thought for a moment, looking as if she were going through a Dewey decimal file index in her mind. “No, I don’t. I knew a Zachary Bennett in school. You don’t mean him, do you?”

“No, this man is young, early twenties.”

She gaped at me. “Is that the person who was trying to break into my apartment?”

“I think it might be.”

“Why would he do that if I’ve never even met him?”

“It’s possible he was looking for the previous tenant, Nora Cochrane.”

Grace made a sort of snuffling noise of disapproval. “I’m not surprised. She was quite a wild young woman in my opinion.” She tapped her own nose. “She must have had at least three rings in her nose. Very ugly, if you ask me. Young people today are worse than savages with their rings and tattoos and going about practically naked no matter what the weather.”

She pulled out the chair and sat down with a sigh of relief. “I am actually relieved to hear that this man had a purpose for coming here and he wasn’t just randomly breaking into seniors’ apartments. I’ve heard stories lately about some pervert peeping through the windows of seniors’ residences. And they’re old ladies
like me. What possible pleasure could it give anybody to see my wrinkles? I don’t even like them myself.”

I smiled at her, wondering to myself if I could adopt her. I was missing an old aunt or two in my extended family. In fact I didn’t have any in Canada and didn’t really know all of the ones I did have in the Hebrides.

I touched her shrivelled hand lightly. “Thank you, Miss Cameron, you have been a great help.”

She gave me a rather dazzling grin. Dazzling because she had a set of dentures that were ultra-white and shiny. “I’m the one who feels they’ve been helped. I was getting nervous about the idea this man would come back.”

She leaned in toward me so she was only a few inches from my face. “Promise me you won’t repeat what I’m going to tell you.”

I would have come across as stuffy if I had told her I couldn’t be held to a promise where an investigation was concerned so I gave her a nod, hoping she wasn’t in fact going to confide in me anything I would have to repeat.

“There was a moment there when I saw this husky fellow outside the door that I was afraid he would push right through the door … I was terrified he might be a rapist… You see, I’m a virgin, Miss Morris. In my day you waited until you were married before you, er, gave yourself to a man. Not like the young people today who get married and their children are the ring bearers.”

She grabbed my hand, squeezing it tightly. She was trembling. “You see, I didn’t want rape to be my only experience of intercourse.”

The enormity of what she was saying was like a blow to the stomach. I squeezed back. “I’m sure you will be quite safe but just to make sure, why don’t you go and stay with your sister until we can catch this man?”

“Is he a murderer?”

“I don’t know.”

She let go. “You’re right, I don’t think I would sleep tonight, chain or no chain. I don’t like staying with Ruth. She is too bossy for words but I think I will. For a little while anyway.”

I stood up. “Why don’t I go and get her and tell her that’s what you’ll do?”

I had the feeling that Ruth would be as reluctant as her sister to
take her in and a semi-command from the police might overcome her reluctance.

“I think while you’re doing that, I’ll have a rest on the couch. I’m exhausted. It must be all the excitement.” She walked slowly over to the couch and sat down. “It’s not fun getting old.”

She swung her legs up again and lay back. I picked up the quilt that had fallen to the floor and covered her over. Her eyes were already closed.

“Thank you, my dear. You are most kind. Don’t forget your cookies.”

I left and went in search of Ed Chaffey. Next stop, a visit to Miss Nora Cochrane.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

When we got to the house, a glowering Nora informed us that Joy was being put to bed by both Jessica and Hannah. We stood on the porch again. This time it was me and Ed, who was a lot bigger than Leo but took up less psychic space. Reluctantly, Nora let us into the living room. She was wearing a tight-fitting T-shirt with the logo F@#% OFF. She had a chain-link tattoo around the bicep of each muscular arm.

She fiddled with the ring piercing her eyebrow. “I told you I’ve never heard of the guy,” she said. “Never seen him, never heard of him.”

“Why was he trying to get into your old apartment then? The one on Colborne Street?”

“How the hell should I know?” Suddenly she pursed her mouth. “Wait a minute, I almost forgot. One of Deidre’s pals crashed at my place once about four years ago. I was… I had entered a rehab clinic. Total waste of time but that’s neither here nor there. I had a couple of pals who needed a pad for a few months. They covered my rent, which saved me from having to give up the apartment. Anyway, Marlene phoned me up one day at the rehab centre and said a girl she knew was in need of a place to stay for a couple of weeks and would it be okay with me if she crashed at my apartment. She could pay. Of course I said yes. A bit more money was always welcome. I met her later, and it turned out she was one of Dee’s friends.”

“Which one?”

“The stumpy one, Hannah.

“What was the name of the friend who knew Hannah?”

“Marlene Robinson, but you won’t be able to talk to her. She’s gone backpacking in Tibet. As far as I know she doesn’t intend to return for a couple of years.” Nora picked at the quick of her finger. “She wasn’t deaf, dumb maybe but that’s another story… So when I got out of rehab, I was struggling a bit. Couldn’t find a decent job. They ask for your previous work history and there was a difficult-to-explain gap in mine. One day, Dee comes over to see me. Says she’s a friend of Hannah’s and asks would I like to move in with her. Said she was knocked up, no dad to be found, and I could have free rent in return for some babysitting when the kid arrives. She must have been at least six months by then.” Nora made a gesture with her hands indicating a large belly.

“You were taking a risk, weren’t you, to agree to share a house with somebody you’ve never met before?” Ed asked.

Nora stared at him in astonishment. “This must be what is called the generation gap. People my age do it all the time. Hey, she was offering me a nice house with a garden, no rent, just pay your own food. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse. Like I said, my job was just to be the ears while Joy was small and then gradually I did some sitting while Dee was teaching or having a rare night out.”

We heard a wail from upstairs.

“Look, I’ve got to go. Joy’s used to me putting her down for her nap. I know the routine. It sounds like those girls need help. Okay?”

She didn’t really wait for permission but bolted off up the stairs. Joy’s cries stopped almost immediately. Ed and I had no choice but to leave.

“That wasn’t very productive, was it? Did you believe her?”

“I did, actually. It certainly makes sense that was the reason Taylor went to the Colborne apartment. He knew Hannah and probably thought she still lived there.”

“Let’s see if Leo has heard of the Robinson girl just in case she isn’t in Tibet. She just might be able to fill in some of the gaps.”

“My daughter wants to go to Australia when she graduates from university next year. What can we do? I suppose it’s safe enough but it’s so damn far and she’s planning to be in the outback for a month. All I can hope is that she’s got enough common sense
she will be safe.” Ed shook his head. “I tell you, Christine, having kids has given me grey hairs. You’re lucky.”

I’d heard this before from people who’d procreated but my childlessness wasn’t entirely from choice. I’d never been in a situation where it was a possibility, wrong man, no man, whatever, and when my biological clock rang an alarm, which it did every so often, I ignored it. Now I had the right man but it was late in the game. I didn’t want to be taking a child to school and have everybody thinking I was the grandma.

I made a noncommittal noise at Ed. I knew he had two daughters and I thought he was probably a good dad. Lucky girls.

We went out to the street where we’d parked our cars. I’d followed behind him from Grace Cameron’s apartment.

He checked his watch. “Shoot, it’s almost three already. I’ve got to get over to the Manticore and buy a book for my mother-in-law. It’s her birthday tomorrow and she’s coming for dinner. I promised Aileen I’d pick up a gift for her.”

“Go. I’ve got to get back to the Centre.”

He eased himself into the car, which was an unmarked grey Chevy, part of the cheap fleet that the officers could use when they didn’t want to take the squad car and draw attention to themselves. I was glad that Ed had the sensitivity not to have cruisers showing up in front of Deidre’s house every hour. The more anonymity the better for the child at the moment. He drove off and as I headed for my car, I glanced up at Deidre’s house. Joy was at the window. She saw me look up and waved excitedly. The next moment, Nora was behind her, drawing her away, although I could see she was putting up a fuss. Then Hannah stepped forward and closed the curtains.

When I got back to the office, I had a quick visit with Katherine. Leo had informed her of the latest development and Sigmund was coming in for an interview at five o’clock. I went into my own cave and started to take care of business that had begun to pile up. I took one quick look at my test case, got as far as the second page, realized I wasn’t concentrating, and closed the file. Deep breath, concentrate. I checked my email. There were two requests for my take on some hate mail. One was from the police department in a
Detroit suburb. The sender was a woman I’d met at a conference last year and we’d got along well. She believed in “thinking out of the box,” as she called it, and had no hesitation about consulting other police departments even if they were north of the border. They had a nasty case involving two rival unions at the Ford Motor Company. Both were finger pointing and it was crucial she get some grip on who might be lying or lying more than the other fellow. She would fax me the material if I had time?

Arrgh. Normally, I’d have been only too happy to oblige, but I had to put her on the back burner for now. And that reminded me, Gill had sent through some material that I hadn’t yet looked at. The second email was from a detective I knew who worked out of North Bay. Some vicious letters were being sent to a local radio DJ. It could be a racial issue, the DJ was a black man, the shock jock type. In my opinion were the letters serious enough to warrant some kind of protection? The third email was from somebody who identified themself only as Sandy and he/she said they had a project for school and would I answer some questions about what it was like being a police profile (sic) on television. What was David Caruso like to work with? I deleted that one, student or no student, and sent off emails to the other two telling them to fax the material.

I had grabbed a sandwich and a coffee from the Stake Out cafeteria downstairs and had just started to unwrap my turkey club when my phone rang.

“Hello to Christine. Gill here. Christine, my sweet, have you had a chance to look at that material I sent you?”

“Er… not yet…”

“There’s been, shall we say, a development. The lassie in question made a serious suicide attempt this morning. She’s going to be all right but it was touch and go for a wee while. I figure it’s connected with this case and the sooner I can get a grasp on what was going on the sooner we can know how to help her.”

I groaned to myself. “Gill, I’m sorry, I haven’t had a minute. But I’ll get on to it today, I promise.”

“Sure. We’re doing our own questioning but frankly it’s going nowhere. Any input from the big city would help.”

There was a rather awkward silence. Geez, I hate telephones sometimes. I wanted to be sitting with him in our favourite pub,
relaxed and comfortable. I felt guilty that I’d let him down.

“I won’t keep you, I know you’re busy,” he said.

“No, wait. I heard from Joan this morning. She said she and Duncan are planning to get married right after Christmas so they can go on a cruise. She wants me to come to the wedding.”

“And will you?”

Gill knew the complexity of my relationship with my mother. He didn’t really understand, it as he had old-fashioned attitudes to parents of the loyalty and duty kind no matter what.

“Probably. I could take four or five days max but it would be great to see you earlier rather than later.”

“Agreed.”

His voice was flat and there was another awkward silence that made me feel wretched. Was he getting fed up with this long distance thing? God, had he met somebody else? I felt an icy flutter of panic in my stomach. Then another beep announced an incoming call.