Deadly Fall (28 page)

“Her resting place would be the spot where I almost toppled you?”

“At the summit. We only made it to the first lookout.”

Felix snored a series of sputters. Isabelle groaned. Paula glanced at the pair shifting positions in their sleep. The cap rolled to Isabelle's lap.

“Callie broke up with Dimitri last spring,” Paula said. “How many times did they meet after that?”

“Once or twice.”

“Off the record. I won't tell the cops.”

Sam frowned. He steered onto the main Kananaskis road. “He admits to a half dozen times. It wasn't just him making the moves. She sometimes called him, suggesting they meet for coffee and a friendly chat. No doubt, the cops will dig up witnesses who saw them together. The heat's on him totally now. I would do anything to get rid of it.”

“Anything?”

“What?” Felix muttered in the back seat. “What? Get rid of what?”

Sam looked in the rear-view mirror. “I was telling Paula about the great view of the mountains behind us. The sun is lighting them up.”

Paula looked around. Against the backdrop of orange peaks, Felix and Isabelle squirmed, moved apart, and settled into sleep against the doors. The feather cap lay between them on the seat. Before they woke up, she wanted to ask Sam about some of Dimitri's comments from last night. It would be quicker to avoid mentioning her visit to Dimitri's, as Sam would want to know what brought her there.

“During the summer,” she said. “Callie told Kenneth she felt guilty about something. He sensed it was about more than her leaving him.”

“I wouldn't know anything about that. She didn't confide much in me.”

“Me neither, it seems.”

They passed Barrier Lake sparkling in the late daylight. A canoeist paddled over the smooth turquoise water.

She stared at his dashboard full of instruments and dials. “I can understand why Callie hid her romance from the public.”

“Dimitri was sure it would end his career.”

“What I don't understand is why she hid it from me. I wouldn't have told the media. I guess I might have told Anne, his mother, and you all seemed to want to keep it from her.”

“We figured the fewer people who knew the better.”

“Kenneth suggested Callie hid her romance with Dimitri from me because I would have told her she was nuts to leave a good marriage for someone half her age. I don't know if I would have. I might have been supportive, if not intrigued by her fling.”

“She didn't see it as a fling,” Sam said. “Would you have believed it would last?”

“Did you?”

“Not really, but I knew enough to keep my mouth shut.”

“And I wouldn't have?”

He took his eyes from the road, looking her up and down. “Probably not. Or your opinion would have slipped out in some way, like it just did. People in love don't want to hear the truth. It isn't your fault Callie found you . . .”

“What?”

They turned onto the Trans-Canada Highway.

“Let me guess,” she said. “God knows she told me a number of times. Callie found me judgmental.”

Sam grinned. “I like women with strong opinions.”

“What.” Felix snorted. His voice rose. “What? What?”

“Are we there yet?” Isabelle yawned noisily. “Don't forget to drop me off at Erin's.”

Paula turned around. “My daughter, Erin's? You're not moving in until next week.”

“She's having a party.” Isabelle yawned again. “Didn't I tell you?”

“No.”

“She also said you don't have to go there tomorrow to fix the trashed room. Her sister's boyfriend is taking care of it. His name is Jason or something.”

“Jarrett is doing physical labor? I doubt that.”

“Erin convinced him to do it, so you wouldn't crab.”

Sam was chuckling through this. Felix's head was leaned back on the seat, his nose pointed at the car roof. His snoring sounded like farts.

“I told Erin you'd drop me off on the way back from the hike,” Isabelle said. “You don't have to worry about my getting home. I can crash on her sofa.”

“Where does Erin live?” Sam asked.

“Brentwood,” Paula said.

“Screw Brentwood.” Felix, suddenly awake, gripped Paula's headrest. “I have to work on my column.”

“We can go to your place first,” Isabelle said. “The party won't get going until later. This way we can pick up my things.”

“I've got to get started.” Felix shook Paula's headrest. “I've already wasted this whole day.”

They entered the Calgary city limits. The skyline shimmered ahead. All the way to his house, Felix insisted there wasn't time to collect Isabelle's belongings. Sam said they would do the collecting, so he could start writing immediately.

“You'll be running around, thumping, distracting me,” Felix said. “I need complete silence to work.”

When they reached his Mission neighborhood, Paula's head was pulsing. She liked Felix, but didn't have Sam's patience with his erratic moods. Rather than argue, she said she and Isabelle would swing by tomorrow on their way from Erin's place. Sam pulled up in front of the townhouse. Felix bolted from the car. Halfway up the yard, he halted; he trotted back, and leaned down to the open window, with a friendly smile. “I forgot my walking stick,” he said. “Thank you all for the amazing day. You were right. All that nature has totally recharged me.” He sounded calmer.

Sam popped open the trunk to get the stick. They watched Felix walk up his steps and made sure he got into the house, then Sam drove on.

“Felix forgot his hat,” Isabelle said. “I put it on and forgot I was wearing it.”

“God forbid we return and distract him,” Sam said.

“We'll deliver the cap tomorrow,” Paula said. “I doubt he'll go hiking before then.”

Isabelle leaned between them to preen in the mirror. She fluffed the feather. “Cool. I'll wear it to the party.”

“That should finish the dumb thing off,” Sam said.

They took 17th Avenue to Crowchild Trail North and crossed the Bow River to Brentwood. Leah's Civic and a pickup truck were parked in the driveway. Jarrett must be at work on the room. This Paula had to see. Isabelle got her tote bag from the trunk and caught up to Paula on the sidewalk. They heard Pepper barking inside. Erin answered the doorbell, dressed in her usual baggy bib jeans that did nothing for her youthful figure. Pepper scurried in circles, her tail beating the porch. Paula stooped to pat her, laughing as the mutt licked her face.

“I think you miss Pepper more than you miss me,” Erin said. From her solemn face, it was hard to tell if she was joking. Her feelings were easily hurt.

Paula reached out to hug Erin as Leah appeared.

“I have to use the bathroom.” Isabelle scooted between the girls.

Leah peered over Paula's shoulder. “Is that Sam in his car? Didn't he want to meet us?” She wore her usual too-short skirt and clinging blouse. Clothes-wise, couldn't her daughters meet in the middle?

“Sam's phoning his son.”

“Mom, he's a criminal, for God's sake,” Leah said. “Why are you dating him?”

“This was a friendly hike, not a date, and he isn't a criminal.”

“He's obviously guilty,” Leah said. “Everyone at the bar wonders why the cops are taking so long to arrest him.”

“The cops might know something everyone at the bar doesn't.”

“Callie was your best friend. She's been dead, like, a week and already you're screwing her husband.”

Paula flinched at the word, which felt crude coming from her daughter. Leah stood six inches taller than her thanks to the height she had inherited from her father and the fact she was standing in the house, while Paula was out on the porch.

“Sam wasn't Callie's husband,” Paula said. “It's complicated. He's going straight home after he drops me off.” That sounded prudish and she didn't have to defend her love life to her daughters.

Erin wrapped her fingers around the straps of her jeans' bib. “That's not what Isabelle said when she asked to stay over tonight.”

“You mean, after the party?”

“What party?” Erin said.

Leah placed a hand on her hip. “Isabelle told Erin that you two wanted to be alone so you could get it on in private.”

“For God's sake. Where is Isabelle?”

Erin raked back her cropped, blond hair. “Mom, you aren't becoming one of these weirdoes who write to men in prison, are you?”

“Look, whatever Isabelle told you about Sam and me is exaggerated.” She glanced at Sam waiting in the car. “I'll explain tomorrow when I pick her up.”

Jarrett came up beside Leah and offered his usual greetings that always struck Paula as false. Tall, dark, handsome, bare-chested in skin-tight jeans. She could tell Leah that sex wasn't everything, but today that message coming from her might not ring true.

“You're here to work on the trashed bedroom?” she asked Jarrett.

“I'm more like supervising some friends who do that kind of work.”

Paula nodded. That made sense.

“Jarrett's concerned about you,” Leah said.

Paula looked at Jarrett.

He slouched to the side. “Menopause does strange things to women.”

“How would you know about that?”

“It hits certain women your age, a kind of craziness. You should talk to your doctor about it.”

“I should?”

“He can give you a simple prescription.”

“I don't need drugs for what ails me.”

“Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of. I was reading this article—”

“Oh, fuck off.”

Leah's and Erin's eyes popped open in shapes so identical it made Paula laugh. Her daughters gaped more. Mother/daughter conversations had certainly changed these days. Jarrett looked smug. He might be right that she was going nuts. She scratched her hair, which felt windblown and sticky from the hike. A shower would be wonderful.

“I'm sorry,” she said. “I'm tired and it's been a long day.” A long ten days since Callie's death. She relaxed as Jarrett disappeared down the hall to his supervisory tasks.

“Did you dump Hayden?” Leah said. “I know he's boring, but he's better than this.” She motioned toward Sam's car.

Leah never let up once she got her jaw on a bone. And talk about judgmental. Where did those traits come from? Paula smiled.

Isabelle, the scheming minx, appeared between her daughters. “Can I open the bag of chips in the cupboard? I haven't eaten since lunch.”

“I have to get to work,” Leah said.

What could Paula do but give her daughters a hug? Leah felt stiff, Erin softer and relaxed. “I'll be by tomorrow around ten thirty. Since there isn't a party, I don't have to nag about drinking and drugs and people trashing the house more than it already is.”

Erin smiled at the sort-of joke and retreated into the house; Leah remained grim. Another week of this and Paula would be desperate enough for pills. She returned to the car.

“That took awhile,” Sam said.

She buckled her seatbelt. “You always swear you will never become your parents. When it comes to being judgmental and stubborn, my mother's worse than me.”

“Is that possible?” he teased.

“Did you reach Dimitri?”

He turned the car ignition. “He's hung-over as hell. The cops were by; they woke him up this morning.”

“And?”

“Do you want to grab dinner? You must know some good places nearby.”

The dash clock said 5:58
PM.
All the references to food made Paula realize how hungry she was, and dinner would delay the inevitable walk up to her door, where he might try to kiss her again and she might give in this time. She suggested her favorite Greek restaurant. He steered the car down the street with purpose and control. Or, maybe everyone drove like that, if you watched them, but not everyone had his muscled arms and a T of dark hair under a shirt that perfectly hugged his pecs.

“You asked me earlier if I would do anything to get Dimitri off the hook,” Sam said without looking at her. “The answer is, no. I wouldn't let the cops arrest someone who was innocent.”

“Unless that innocent person was you.”

“Since I didn't do it, I figured I'd get off. If didn't get off, better me than him. I have less life ahead to waste in jail.”

At the hockey game, he had said something similar about his father. When the gun was traced to his father, he must have hoped that the killer was the father he disliked and not the son he loved.

“There's the restaurant,” she said. “You can park on the street.”

Two hours later he was driving her home. Over Greek salad and moussaka, retsina and ouzo, they had avoided talk of the murder and worries about their respective children. He told her about his relationship with a volatile, insecure woman that ended a year ago and led him to think clinical, unemotional sex with Bev was the answer. He hadn't been with anyone since breaking up with Bev. “She was meticulous about safe sex,” he added for no apparent reason except to assure her he was disease-free. Rather than respond directly, Paula said she'd been with Hayden for six months, but they had separated to work things through. Too much ouzo led her to mention the evening dress she had impulsively bought in Mount Royal Village. Sam suggested she model it for him when they got to her place.

He parked between her car and Walter's truck. Her living room timer lights were still on. Inside, she left Sam and went to the bedroom to change. It was foolish to put on a ball gown for him alone, but where else would she wear the thing? At least, she would use it once, but probably only once, as it would remind her of this night. On the off chance she got back with Hayden, she couldn't wear it with him now. If tonight flopped, which it probably would, she couldn't wear it ever again. What a waste of a $595.99 dress, but it would look stupid to tell Sam she had changed her mind. Might as well go through with it. Light had stopped shining through the bedroom door frame. Sam must have turned off the timer.