In Winter's Grip (29 page)

We reached the truck, and Wayne opened the door for me to get in. His eyes were black and fathomless, like Billy's. He said softly, “We had every reason to believe he would hurt you, Maja. We're certain he killed Becky Wilders to keep her from talking. We believe she must have known he and your father were smuggling drugs across the border, and she made the mistake of confronting him, whether about your father's death or the drugs, we'll never know unless David decides to tell us. Anyhow, I got a call from Tobias about the time David was taking you from the house.”

I began to protest, but I remembered David's grim resolve. I turned my face away. Through the side window, I watched an officer leading David toward the back of the cruiser. David seemed to hesitate and turned just enough to look in my direction. Then he was being ushered into the backseat, his hands cuffed behind him. Even knowing what David had done, it was painful to watch a police officer and childhood friend brought to this and to know what lay ahead for him.

Oh, David, why ever did you get involved in something that
could only end so badly?

I spent the next few hours at the police station giving my testimony. Tobias met us there after a difficult drive to Duved Cove from Duluth, where he'd been questioning Katherine Lingstrom in the hospital. It was during that questioning that he'd learned that she hadn't killed Becky. We'd all leapt to the wrong conclusion because we couldn't get our heads around the fact that there were two murderers at work in our town. When Tobias knew for certain that Becky was only responsible for my father's death, David had again become his main suspect.

Tobias had been working for some months with Wayne Okwari, an undercover narcotics agent, to pin the drug trafficking on my father and David Keating. They'd set up surveillance on my father's house after he'd died, but not before David had torn the place apart looking for the bags of cocaine. Tobias knew David hadn't recovered the drugs, so they'd kept a watch on the house. They'd almost given up on the surveillance until David showed up today...followed soon after by me. It was about the same time that Tobias phoned in to Wayne Okwari and Chief Anders that Katherine had not killed Becky. News that David had likely killed Becky made everyone edgier when they realized I was being taken against my will. I liked to think that David wouldn't have killed me once we crossed the border, but the more I dwelled on that, the more naïve that seemed. He couldn't let me go before he was safely out of the country, and I wasn't sure how he'd intended to keep me quiet.

Tobias walked with me from the room where I'd been interviewed to the main desk. He was exhausted and obviously not pleased about arresting a colleague and friend he'd known forever.

“Can I take you to Duluth? The storm's let up, and it's the least I can do now that we've confiscated your rental.”

I thought about taking him up on his offer. I'd grown to like Tobias and felt like I owed him for ever having believed him to be involved in the murders. His green eyes watched me with an interest I might have returned if things had been different. I pulled my eyes away from his and looked past him, through the main door to the street. The snow had stopped falling, and I had a clear view to the truck idling out front.

“Thanks, Tobias, but I have a ride.” I reached out my hand and shook his. “Thanks for your help, and I know we'll meet again.”

“You'll be back this way?”

“I promised Jonas I'd be back in August for a fishing trip.”

“Well, I'll see you then. Looks like I'm going to have to postpone Florida for a while.”

“I'll see you then.”

“You can count on it, Maja Larson.”

I retrieved my bags from the floor and pushed the door open. It was cold but I hardly noticed. I walked toward the truck and Billy, who was leaning on the side, watching me come toward him. He pushed himself off the fender and stepped towards me to take my bags.

“Hey, Maja,” he said, his hand touching mine in passing.

“Hey, Billy. You taking me to Duluth?”

“If that's where you're headed.”

“I can't think of anywhere else I need to be tonight.” Billy smiled at me, and his eyes were blacker than I'd ever seen them.

“Sounds good,” I said. I climbed into the passenger seat, and Billy got in his side. I watched his profile as he eased the stick shift into drive, and we started down the street, the tires crunching on the icy snow. I tried to imprint every part of him into my memory, from his straight black hair that lay below his collar to his high cheekbones and the slightly crooked line of his mouth.

“You all right?” he asked without taking his eyes off the road.

“You never told me your nephew was undercover.”

“I knew he was involved in something, but I wasn't sure. He told me to trust him when I asked.”

Billy reached over to turn down the radio, and he glanced at me before looking back at the road. “I never thought it involved you or your father, or I would have tried to do something. I don't know what, but I wouldn't have left you to face all this alone.”

“How did your fishing trip go?”

“The clients were from Texas, with more money than brains. The three day trip ended up being four days. They paid well. I hated being away thinking you were still in Duved Cove.”

Then I knew how our story should end. In that second, I made up my mind. Maybe I'd made it up when David had pulled the gun on me, and I wasn't sure how it was all going to turn out. “Can you stay with me tonight?” I asked softly. “I know we have people counting on us, but maybe, we owe each other something for all these years.” I was suddenly shy and couldn't look at him.

“I'll stay with you,” Billy said. “We still have a connection, Maja. I was going to suggest you shouldn't be alone tonight.”

I looked over at him then and felt a fluttering begin under my rib cage. This was the man I should have spent my life with.

“It will just be tonight,” I said. “You don't need to promise me anything more.”

Billy nodded. “I loved you all those years ago when we were kids, Maja, and that will never change. You are the other part of my soul, no matter where you go or who you are with. That is just the way of it. I can't promise you my life, but you have the rest.”

I reached over and took his hand in mine. “Knowing will be enough,” I said, and I looked out the window to stop him from seeing the tears sliding down my face.

EPILOGUE

I
was late, and the restaurant was busy. I scanned the window seats and spotted Fiona sitting in the far corner. She wore a white suit with an indigo scarf at her neck. She looked stunning, not like someone who'd just spent her day with troubled adolescents. When she saw me crossing the floor, she stood and wrapped her arms around me in a hug.

“My god, you're looking good,” she said as we sat down.

“I could say the same of you.” I smiled and handed her a photo of the two of us that I'd placed in a frame. It had been taken after I'd returned from Minnesota, when I looked like I'd been to hell and back. “So you don't forget me and all that you mean to me.” I dropped the manila envelope I'd also been holding onto the bench next to me.

Fiona studied the picture, then looked at me. “How could I forget you, Maja? I'll miss you, that's for certain.”

“And I'll miss you.”

A waiter appeared at Fiona's elbow with a bottle of champagne. He popped the cork and poured us each a glass in crystal flutes. A plate of prosciutto and melon appeared between us.

“This is lovely, Fiona.”

“To new beginnings.” Fiona raised her glass to mine.

“To new beginnings,” I echoed. I took a sip and set my glass down.

“What time does your flight leave tomorrow?”

“Early. Five a.m., and I have the international check-in, so I should be at the airport two hours ahead at least.”

“I'm so proud of you, Maja.”

“It's a big step, but I know this is what I want to do.”

“Do you plan to go back every summer?”

“If they'll let me go. I start my new job in Thunder Bay in late September, but I've asked for next summer off.”

We both reached for the same piece of melon and laughed.

“Maybe, I'll join you in Africa next year. Doctors Without Borders might be able to make use of a child psychologist.”

“I'm sure there's lots of work for you. That would be wonderful if you came.”

“And Sam...?”

“He wasn't happy about my leaving, as you know, but when I told him I didn't want half his business, he came around.” I smiled. “He really had no choice.”

“So you'll be doing plastic surgery on some pretty ravaged people in Africa.”

“Yes, there's a great need, and I can't wait to get started. Oh my, the faces of those children in Darfur. The world must not forget...”

I could feel Fiona watching me, and I grinned self-consciously. I turned my palms upwards on the table. “I still want to make a difference, and I guess that sounds trite.”

“Oh no, my friend. It's just so good to see you passionate about your life, your work. I'll bet you know what you want to order from the menu tonight.”

I laughed. “I'm may not always know what I'm going to order, but I'm getting there. No more waffling.”

Fiona raised her glass again. I clinked my glass against hers and drank.

“So, what have you decided about Billy?”

I took my time answering. I'd confided everything to Fiona when I'd returned from Minnesota, when I'd bottomed out, but already, I didn't want to share this part of my life. It wasn't that I regretted telling Fiona; it was just that I'd stopped needing to talk about it.

“Billy has a wife and child. It would be too complicated. I'm letting him go.” I said the words and took strength from them. “Not that I ever had him to let go. Just knowing he cares for me is enough to help me carry through with this life. I feel like I've resolved that part of my life—that he's forgiven me for having the abortion and running away from Duved Cove.”

“Will he let you go so easily?”

“He has a wife.” I shrugged. “When I move to Thunder Bay, near the border, I'll be able to spend time with Jonas, and that's why I accepted the position. I want to be close to what is left of my family.”

“Not to be closer to Billy?”

I studied Fiona across the table. She'd asked the words lightly, but we both knew my answer would determine the direction my life would take.

“I'm moving forward, Fiona. I am not moving to Northern Ontario to be closer to Billy.”
And if I said the words often enough,
someday I would believe them.

The waiter chose that moment to appear for our orders. Fiona smiled at me above the top of her menu before looking up at the young man standing between us.

“All set to order, ladies?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said, and this time, I knew what I wanted.

Fiona ordered her meal after me and then went to find the washroom. I studied the people walking past the window on Richmond Road. The buds on the trees had begun opening, and the sky was creamy blue. It was going to be a good summer. I picked up the brown envelope I'd dropped next to me just as Fiona returned.

“What's that?” she asked as she slid into her seat and replaced the napkin in her lap.

“Another fresh start.” I smiled. “It's for my sister-in-law Claire. This is a report I was able to get on my father's medical history.”

“Oh? And why is that important?”

I smiled again. “My father lied about many things in his life, Fiona, and I knew he would lie about anything that kept people in his power. I had to find out about Gunnar.”

“Your nephew?”

I nodded. “My father had a vasectomy after Jonas was born.”

“So your father could
not
have been Gunnar's father.”

“Exactly,” I said. “The control he holds over Jonas and Claire is about to end.”

Fiona leaned across the table. “You're going to make it, you know, Maja,” she said, her eyes bright with tears.

“I know,” I smiled. “There are no happily ever afters in life, but there are happy beginnings if you can just trust yourself enough to let go and give life another shot.”

“Hear, hear!” said Fiona.

We raised our glasses and drank again, long and deep, to all the possibilities that were spread out before us like so much sunshine on a field of Minnesota snow.

photo by Christine Tripp

Brenda Chapman grew up in Terrace Bay, Ontario, near the border with Minnesota. She began her fiction career with children's novels.
Running
Scared
(Napoleon Publishing, 2004) was her first YA novel featuring Jennifer Bannon. She went on to pen three more in the series.
Hiding in Hawk's
Creek
was shortlisted for the 2007 Canadian Library Association Book of the Year for Children.
Where Trouble Leads
and
Trail of Secrets
concluded the series.