Maid of the Mist (32 page)

Corrigan grinned stupidly and reached for the camera. He took the snap and wished the tourist a happy vacation.

A child's voice turned him back towards the town. Little Aimie was running towards him through the snow. She was screaming and laughing. He smiled widely, bent and opened his arms to her. She put a snowball in his mouth, with some considerable force. He started to cough, he slumped to his knees, and then rolled over. Aimie thumped him in the stomach and he coughed and jumped to his feet and picked her up and nearly threw her into the Falls.

'Easy now,' the woman said.

Corrigan put his daughter down and ruffled her hair. Annie Spitz stood smiling before him. Here there
was
a spark. Quite a big one. They'd got to know one another quite well since he'd been visiting the women's refuge to see Aimie. The court still hadn't granted him custody. Annie didn't mind how much he visited.

She took his arm and they began to walk beside the wall back towards town.

'She still gets to you, doesn't she? Lelewala.'

Corrigan shrugged. 'Her heart was in the right place. But her brain wasn't.'

'Could I be tempted to say the same about you, Frank?'

Corrigan smiled. He guided Aimie across the road. He had tried to dress up her mother's death as best he could, all that stuff about going on vacation to meet God and having such a swell time that it would be mean to make her come home, but she'd just muttered something about
not what I heard on the radio
and then asked if she could go and see the grave. So they went, and they cried.

As they reached the foot of Clifton Hill, Aimie ran ahead of them into one of the souvenir stores and began picking through the racks of Lelewala t-shirts. Annie went in after her. Corrigan remained outside, finishing his cigarette. Across the road a police car came to a sudden halt and two cops he didn't recognize jumped out and pounced on a young guy. In a moment they had him face down in the snow. They had him cuffed and were reading him his rights before Corrigan could negotiate the traffic. When he did make it across he said: 'What's up, son?'

The cop looked up, ready to bark, then recognized the face.

'You're

Corrigan nodded. 'What'd the kid do?'

'Aw, the usual, sir. Drugs, man, just gets worse all the time.'

Corrigan nodded and turned back to the souvenir shop.