Inspector Green Mysteries 9-Book Bundle (316 page)

Chris held out her juice glass and she took a sip. Smiled at him, that lovely pixie smile.

“What did he tell you?” he asked.

“At first nothing. At least not to Daniel and me. We thought it was just an adventure trip. But Pete was in on it. Pete and Scott were friends — well, so he thought. Scott showed him the letters and the rock samples.”

“What rock samples?”

“The ones he found in his dad’s basement. I didn’t know anything about it. Like I said, he confided in Pete, not me. I’m not a geologist but I’m not dumb! When he found that map in the Mason jar, I started to wonder. He said he wanted to follow it. Just a fun adventure. When we found the cabin, he admitted it was his grandfather’s. He said his father had talked about it just before his death, about how his own father had died up there, trying to make a life for his family but betrayed by the person he trusted most.”

She paused. Her chin trembled. “I never met Scott’s father, but Scott seemed to think that explained a lot about him. He’d missed his own father his whole life, so the only thing that mattered to him was Scott, like he was going to be the father he never had. Scott thought it was very sad. At the end, his father said his big regret was that he never went up north to find out what really happened to him. ‘Maybe someday you’ll get the chance,’ he said.”

Chris was frowning. “So for him the trip was about finding out what happened. Not finding the mine.”

“Yes. No. It was all jumbled together. Scott didn’t want the mine. He wanted to stop their professor from developing it.” Hannah’s breath quickened. She started to quiver. “One day Scott and I were exploring near the cabin and we came across this open bag on the ground. It was full of wooden poles. Mining stakes.” She opened her eyes wide. “Scott freaked out! Stormed back to the cabin and had a screaming match with Pete. He called Pete a traitor. Next thing I know Pete pulls this gun out of his pack. He said it didn’t have to be this way, we could work together. ‘Never,’ Scott says. We ran inside the cabin but he fucking shot through the door!”

She broke off, shaking. Caught back in the memories. The whites of her eyes wild. Green was about to rush to her when Chris leaned forward. “Take your time, Hannah.”

She waited. Breathed. This time Green let her fight. The clock ticked by. Finally she folded her hands, wet her lips, and resumed. “I didn’t see what Pete did to Daniel, but I did see him shoot Scott and I’ll stand up in court to describe every step of it. Scott only told me half this stuff afterward, while we were running for our lives. Back in the winter, Pete persuaded Scott to take the sample to their professor. He said if it was rubies it would be amazing, because rubies are very rare and this would contradict everything they knew. Turned out it wasn’t rubies, but there was some really important rare metal that the whole world wants now. Behind Scott’s back, the professor formed a company so he could stake it and explore it. When Scott found out he went ballistic. He’s seriously against ripping up the north just to feed our hunger for oil and gadgets and pretty jewels. He thought Pete agreed with him. They’d both quit the program to try to figure out how to stop the professor from staking the claim.”

“How?”

“A bunch of dumb ideas. First Scott was hoping he still owned the claim, but that was wrong. Then he figured he’d guard it somehow, maybe get the conservationists involved, try to get it included in the park.”

“But Pete was really working for the professor?”

She nodded, and promptly clutched her head in pain. “Scott was so freaked out. Thought it was all his fault because he led Pete straight to it. I never liked Pete. Even the first time I met him. He didn’t have any real friends. If he thought you could be useful to him, he was all over you. But everybody else, he just ignored. Scott didn’t see that about him. Scott was all about his research and science. He didn’t read people well. He thought Pete was interested in the same things as him. That was all that mattered.”

Very perceptive of my little girl, Green thought. Pete was a user. He pretended to be Scott’s friend as long as he needed him to find the mine. And he was on Victor Whitehead’s side too, until Victor became more useful as a human shield.

A true snake in the grass.

Even now, in jail in Yellowknife awaiting charges, Pete was blaming everyone but himself for the carnage in the Nahanni. Daniel had come at him with an axe, they’d struggled, and he got too close to the edge. Scott had wanted that claim just as much as he did and had grown greedy. He would have killed both Pete and Hannah if Pete hadn’t stopped him.

Hannah was tiring now. She leaned her head back amid the pillows and shut her eyes. Her features twisted with pain. “What a curse, that mining claim. Scott’s father was convinced his father was betrayed by his brother over the mine. And now, seventy years later, Scott’s betrayed by his friend.”

She fell silent, her eyes still shut. Green eased himself out of his chair. “I think that’s it for now.”

Chris glanced up at him. Green could see his excitement on his face, his frustration at the interruption. “Oh, but I just need to know —”

“I think she’s had enough for today.”

“Dad, I can speak for myself.” She opened one eye and fixed it on Chris. “What?”

“What did Scott tell you about his meeting with Victor Whitehead in Whitehorse in February?”

She shook her head, moving cautiously this time. “Not much. More betrayal, I think. I know he went up there hoping to track down his cousin. After his father died, Scott didn’t have any family, and he was really excited when he learned about this guy.” She paused. A frown flickered across her brow. “When he came back, he wouldn’t talk about it, but that’s when he got really determined to make a trip back to his roots.”

“Do you know how he found out Whitehead was his cousin?”

“From the letters. They mention …” Hannah drifted off. Her eyes were closed again, and this time Green sensed she’d really fallen asleep.

“You can get the Vancouver cops to check those letters,” he said to Chris before remembering that he wasn’t in charge of the investigation. “They’re all stored in a box in my ex-wife’s basement.”

Dimly through the closed door of Hannah’s room, Green heard a growing commotion in the hall. A woman’s voice raised in shrill demand. Just as he recognized it, the door banged open and Ashley stood on the threshold with two large suitcases in tow.

“There you are!” she hissed at him. “You could have checked your messages. I had to get a cab from the air —” Her eyes lit on Hannah and her outrage evaporated. With a shriek she rushed over to the bed, where Hannah was now wide awake again. Ashley swept her up in a suffocating hug. For a moment she did nothing but weep, but then the questions began. Was she all right? What did the doctors say? Do they know what they’re doing up here?

When Hannah didn’t reply, she swung her sights on Green. Same questions, but with an accusatory tone. Hannah looked at him imploringly. He laid a soothing hand on Ashley’s arm and drew her out into the hall, easing the door shut.

“Ashley, she’s going to be fine, but what she needs right now is rest.” Ignoring the daggers in Ashley’s eyes, he forced himself to speak gently. “Have a short visit with her now. Constable Tymko and I will wait for you down in the cafeteria and I’ll update you on everything.”

“Fine. But take these things with you. I’m not lugging them another inch.” She yanked the smaller suitcase toward her and unzipped it. A faint odour of mildew wafted up. Inside was a shoebox and piles of papers separated into batches and tied with red ribbons. They were curled and yellow at the edges.

“These are all papers from Scott’s grandparents that were in our basement,” she said. “You asked me to check if there was anything useful to the investigation.” She waved a dismissive hand. “Be my guest.”

Five minutes later, waiting in the cafeteria for Chris Tymko to finish his report, Green picked up a packet of pale blue letters from the suitcase. He flipped through them, noting the faded, almost illegible handwriting. The personal letters that Scott had found, to be read another time. Another packet appeared to be official papers related to the mine and to geological results. The shoebox was tied shut with twine that had grown old and brittle with time. O
ld bills
was scrawled on the top. Green wrestled the twine off and opened the box. Inside was a pile of letters addressed to or rerouted to Mr. Guy Lasalle c/o Nahanni Butte. Most of them appeared to be bills and invoices from companies and the federal government, dating from the spring and summer of 1945 and unopened, Green assumed, because by then Guy Lasalle had disappeared. And his grieving wife had not had the heart.

At the bottom, however, was a sealed letter from the Government of Canada Radiotelegraph Service in Dawson City. Green slid his finger under the flap.

OTTAWA, ONT 1945 FEB 20 AM 10 42

MR. GUILLAUME LESSARD,

14 FOURTH AVENUE,

WHITEHORSE, Y.T.

DEEPLY REGRET TO INFORM YOU THAT YOUR BROTHER INFANTRY PRIVATE GAETAN LESSARD L NINE SIX ZERO THREE FIVE WAS KILLED IN ACTIVE SERVICE OVERSEAS FEBRUARY 18 STOP PLEASE ACCEPT MY PROFOUND SYMPATHY STOP LETTER FOLLOWS

CANADIAN ARMY CASUALTY OFFICER

Hannah ran her hand across the satin duvet, smiling as her fingers sank into its feather down. Amid the rich reds and creams of the hotel decor, she already looked less ghostly and frail than she had in the hospital.

Upon arrival in Yellowknife three days earlier, Green had booked himself and Sullivan into the most modern, luxurious hotel in the city. When Hannah’s doctors had categorically refused to let her travel for forty-eight hours after discharge, Green had transferred to their biggest two-room executive suite, which had a king-sized bed and pullout sofa. The marble bathroom alone was twice the size of his tent. Seeing Hannah’s delight, he was glad he’d persuaded her doctors that she would recuperate faster there than in a hospital room.

The most ordinary things seemed to enchant her: the crystal water glass, the tiny wrapped toiletries, the chocolates on the pillow. She flounced down on the bed, turned on the massive wall TV, and lost herself in a kid’s cartoon.

Green picked up the room-service menu. Hannah had eaten almost nothing since her rescue and was in danger of blowing away. “Let’s order up. Your wish is my command. Chocolate pâté? Crème brulée?”

She flicked her gaze at him before returning to the cartoon. “I’m not hungry yet.”

He laid the menu on the bed beside her. “Okay. I’m going to give Sharon a call in the living room. When the mood strikes, have a peek at that.”

“How long do we have before Mom descends?”

He grinned. “Probably only fifteen minutes. She’s just down the hall freshening up.”

She pulled a face and returned to the TV. Green slipped out. To his surprise, his mother-in-law answered the phone. Sharon’s parents lived in Mississauga, west of Toronto, and even Sharon was glad of the five hundred kilometres between them. They loved her and Tony to pieces and over the years had grudgingly come to tolerate their cop son-in-law. He wasn’t the doctor they’d hoped for and he didn’t bend to their will in the least, but he did good work. And most of the time, he was good to their daughter.

“What’s wrong?” he asked immediately.

“What should be wrong?” Pearl countered.

“Is Sharon all right?”

“As all right as any forty-one year-old woman in her seventh month of pregnancy with an active young son to chase around, a dog to walk, blood pressure up and down like a yoyo, and no husband within two thousand miles.”

Against his better judgment, Green laughed. After a bristly moment of silence, she laughed too. “How’s Hannah?”

“Better every day. We’re at the hotel till this weekend. Once I see her and her mother off, I’ll be on the next plane.”

Silence.

“Promise.”

The silence stretched on. Finally “You want to speak to Sharon?”

Sharon’s voice sounded strong and cheerful, as if she had been laughing. Relief flooded through him. “Okay, now the truth, honey,” he said. “How bad is it?”

“I’m fine. Really. Tony’s been a trooper, takes his big brother responsibility very seriously. But I couldn’t fend her off any longer. At least this way the house will be vacuumed and the sheets clean when you get home. Which is tomorrow, I hope?”

He filled her on the doctors’ orders, Hannah’s progress, and Ashley’s arrival. He chuckled. “Ashley thought she was coming to the North Pole, so it was a shock to discover eiderdown duvets, wireless high speed, and a stunning waterfront view that stretches for an eternity. She’s already booked a spa morning.”

Sharon laughed. “Glad to hear the old Ashley is back in full form.” She paused. “Is Hannah flying back to Vancouver with her?”

“I assume so. Ashley certainly assumes so. Hannah’s enrolled at UBC for the fall.”

“I wish I could see her,” Sharon said. “If it weren’t for her baby sister here, I’d be out there in a flash, making sure she’s okay. As it is …”

Hannah appeared in the doorway. She looked sombre, a girl with a heavy weight on her mind. Green cut short his phone call, sent kisses over the phone line, and hung up. Hannah came to sit on the sofa beside him. She held the room service menu in her lap. Fingered it.

“Dad, I don’t want to go back to Vancouver.”

She didn’t meet his gaze. He waited.

“Would it be okay …?” Her voice quavered. She shook her head as if angry at herself. “Can I stay with you?”

He wanted to crush her in his arms. Cover her in kisses. Instead he took her hand gravely. “I would love that. We would all love that.”

Her fingers twined in his. Her eyes filled. “I just can’t face …Vancouver, Scott, the memories.”

He folded her against him. “After what you’ve been through, honey …”

“I want to be with you, and
Zaydie
, and the Energizer bunny, and Sharon. I want to see my little sister being born. After all this, I just want to go home.”