She could visualize how Boyd gathered his thoughts while looking at his notes, his elbows resting on the desk, pushing his chin out and then relaxing it. She often had seen him like this before he formulated his conclusions. The conclusions of a defense lawyer who worked on a case and who considered all possible details.
Boyd spoke slowly with only minor corrections. His first sentence bored right through her. “Lionel’s violent attack looks a lot like manslaughter. Whether it is voluntary or involuntary manslaughter still needs to be determined. But the attack had been brewing in him for a long time. His father had always preferred Hank. Even to the point of wanting to finance an outfitter license and a tourist lodge. That must have really infuriated Lionel . . . and also hurt him because he was the son who always tried to see his father as a role model. Whereas Hank was, in Lionel’s eyes, the son who had always disappointed his father. For instance, with his marriage to Fran or the cattle ranch that failed. The logging job that ended in an accident. And the work in the Sitklat’l lodge. In Lionel’s eyes, the proud Miller family didn’t have to work for the First Nations people.”
Tessa thought about Tsaytis. Where could he be now?
Boyd continued when he didn’t hear any reaction from her: “And then Hank claimed that Cindy was sleeping with Harrison Miller. Maybe Lionel had had a dark suspicion, because it was really strange how Harrison took care of Cindy. He probably suppressed that thought with all his might. I think what really broke the camel’s back was when Lionel realized that years ago it was Hank who had told the Olympic Committee about him taking drugs. That must have hit him like a knockout punch. In Lionel’s eyes, that was the worst kind of betrayal, even worse than Cindy’s supposed unfaithfulness.”
“I wonder why Hank did that back then. He never said anything bad about Lionel.”
“Didn’t you mention that Hank always rejected his father’s dark machinations? That he didn’t want the lodge because Harrison Miller had financed it with dirty money?”
“Bribes from the mining companies, I’ve heard.”
“Maybe Hank wanted to shield his younger brother from worse things. To try to stop him from drifting into fraud like his father. He probably thought that Lionel would be banned from professional rowing for a few months and that would be it. That it would just be a warning. A sensible one. But something worse happened, and Lionel never recovered from that. It was bad timing that the rowing committee officials came down so hard on him; it was because there had just been a doping scandal with the Russians.”
“He could have talked with Lionel first.”
“Apparently Lionel was very much under the influence of his immoral father. Maybe Hank thought that it wouldn’t make any difference. But I’m just speculating here.”
Tessa sighed deeply. “His father also betrayed him. His mother, too, because for her it was only Hank and her grandchildren who were worth the time of day.”
“Don’t forget Cindy’s betrayal.”
Cindy. Tessa imagined herself in Fran’s house, in the bathroom, on the stairs, in Breena’s room, in the attic. She began to cry: “How . . . could somebody kill children? How could she possibly do that? I don’t understand it. I simply don’t understand it.”
Boyd waited until she had pulled herself together again. “Maybe we should talk about this another time?” he asked softly.
Tessa blew her nose. “No, no, I want to talk about it. It helps me.”
“Cindy panicked when Lionel came back to the pickup where she was waiting for him. She assumed that the children had seen him shoot Hank. She wanted to get rid of these witnesses. And once she shot Breena, she couldn’t stop.”
“So she wanted to protect Lionel and therefore killed the children?”
“In a certain sense, yes.”
“But she had betrayed Lionel with Harrison. Why did she suddenly want to protect him?”
“Not only Lionel, but protect herself, too, Tessa. Her life, her reputation, her social standing. We also shouldn’t forget that deep inside she had been angry for several years. Bitter. Her anger about her failed career in sports. One shouldn’t underestimate that, not by any means. Her disappointment must have gone very deep; she couldn’t shake it. So deep that the day before yesterday she even told you about it.”
“But Harrison couldn’t save Cindy’s career, only the boutique.”
“Harrison gave her validation because he was a mayor, a successful but unscrupulous businessman . . . somebody with charisma and a bad boy aura. Some women love bad boys. Cindy was one of six daughters in her family, right? That means that she had to compete with five sisters for her father’s affection and attention. For a long time she really was the star. First in the family. And then she had the chance to become an Olympic rowing star for the entire nation. When she was badly injured and could no longer compete at a high level, her father lost interest in her. She complained about that to you in the boutique, didn’t she? Her father must have seen her exit from her rowing career as a personal failure. No more national or international fame for his family. Harrison Miller, on the other hand, must have valued her. She came from a good stock, unlike Fran, who was a foster child. And probably she was also a good wife for Lionel. She could have left him when they didn’t have any children.”
“But she betrayed him, with his own father!”
“It’s not all that simple. There are a lot of nuances. People are more complex beings than we think. Cindy fit into Whatou Lake reasonably well; she became popular and was admired, and she was an anchor for Lionel . . . she had status. And as we now can assume, she had taken Lionel’s side when they were dealing with the conflict around the outfitter license.”
“Yeah, sure. Indirectly she would have profited from that. So in the end it was once again a matter of money, just like it is in most crimes?”
“Indirectly yes, but the way you have presented this situation, it was more a matter of . . .”
“Jealousy.”
“Jealousy, rivalry, humiliation, betrayal—in Cindy’s case also misguided ambition and snobbism . . . and don’t forget that Lionel has a father who apparently is doing illegal things. No great role model.”
“Hank was a good person.”
“Hank had Fran . . . and he had your family, where he experienced something other than profiteering. He saw idealism. He looked at the divvying up of resources as dubious. His parents apparently showed appreciation to Hank. But not to Lionel. They almost always made it easier for Hank. He didn’t have to fight for their affection. Lionel, on the other hand, felt continually overlooked.”
“At first they found Fran unacceptable.”
“That’s right. Until she presented them with the greatly desired grandchildren.”
Who were now dead. Killed in cold blood. She closed her eyes and put down the cell phone.
“Tessa, are you still there? Forgive me, I . . . have to tell you the way I see it.”
“I know, I know, it’s . . . I just simply can’t understand it, Boyd. But it’s good for me to talk to you. Oh, one second, Boyd.”
The nurse had come in again and placed a piece of paper on her bed: I’m outside. Should I wait? Savannah.
“Yes, wait,” Tessa decided spontaneously. “Not you, Boyd, a visitor.”
“Okay. So . . . to get back to Cindy. She probably expected more from the affair with Harrison. For example, that Lionel, and indirectly she herself, would be favored by the father.”
“Couldn’t she have blackmailed him with this affair?”
Boyd’s answer came right back: “How would that have benefitted her? Her marriage would have been kaput. Her reputation ruined. Harrison could have denied everything, and who would people have believed? No, she almost certainly had never thought of this. And her marriage, which for the outside world seemed successful, was obviously something she wanted to hold on to.”
“And Fran?” Tessa’s heart skipped a beat.
Boyd hesitated for a few seconds, before he answere
d with a sigh: “Before I know the cause of her death, I can’t say anything about that.”
Is he trying to go easy on me? Tessa put her head down on the pillow and closed her eyes again. This time Boyd stopped talking.
“And for days we were hopeful,” she finally said, “that we would find Fran alive. That she would show up again.” Cindy and Lionel had actually played along with this gruesome game. How cruel. She couldn’t tell Boyd that the investigators had found evidence in Cindy’s car. She had promised Halprin not to say anything about it.
Boyd’s voice trailed off, when he said: “Tessa, I’ve got to go now.”
“Just one more thing,” she said quickly. “I need a good but inexpensive lawyer for Cliff Bight.”
“For the man who gave Cindy and Lionel Miller a false alibi?”
“Like everybody else, Cliff had no idea that his boss was a murderer. It could be that Cliff saved my life.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Call me again when you need me. I’ll always make time for you, whenever I can.”
“Thanks, Boyd,” was all she could say before she put the phone down.
Instantly, there was silence in the room. From outside not even car engines or cawing ravens could be heard. She turned her head to the window. The mountain peaks were covered in clouds. The treetops swayed in the wind. Eventually, a logging truck passed by. Boy, how lucky she had been. She was alive. Lost in thought, she looked at the door. Savannah. God, she’s been waiting for almost an hour in the hall.
Tessa slipped out of the bed and opened the door. Savannah was sitting there with her phone and earphones, listening to music. In her hand, she had a cup of coffee from Tim Hortons. She had replaced her orange jacket with a sweatshirt decorated with faux fur attachments and cheap golden pearls. Her lilac stretch pants matched the color of her bandana. She pulled her earphones out, grabbed her bag, and followed Tessa into the room.
“Finally. That sure took a long time. I almost took root here. You look like a scarecrow. They make patients wear that rag? That’s inhuman. Degrading, if you ask me. It’s lucky that I brought some clothes along for you. Underwear, too. You must have paid out a fortune for this stuff. Everything silk and lace. Victoria’s Secret, right?”
With shaking legs, Tessa turned around and started to cry.
Savannah whispered: “Oh, you poor thing. Don’t cry, don’t cry.” She put her arms around Tessa, and tears rolled down her cheeks, too. They stood there for a while, in the middle of the room, like two lost children.
“Come on, lie down again,” Tessa heard Savannah murmur, and she let herself be covered up in blankets. Savannah took out something from her handbag that looked like lip gloss. “Here, here, you look terrible, with the mascara running.” She put some transparent gloss under Tessa’s eyes and wiped away the black smears. Tessa held still until she was finished and nodded in satisfaction. Afterward Savannah sat in the same chair that Ron Halprin had sat in. “What the hell happened? Harrison and Cindy have been arrested. Do you know what’s going on?” She didn’t wait for Tessa to reply. “Now there’s so much gossiping going round. The journalists and TV people are creeping all over the place like panicking ants. Do the Millers have something to do with the murders?”
Tessa shrugged.
Savannah didn’t give up. “I can absolutely believe that about Cindy, if you ask me.”
Tessa suddenly was interested. “Why?”
“She hated Fran. She looked down on her completely. For Cindy, Fran simply couldn’t be part of the oh-so-upper-class Miller family. I have an instinct for things like this. Many people think that I don’t fit in with the Griffins.”
Tessa shook her head. “You fit in just fine in our family, but all of us have . . . bruises and injuries.”
“You can say that again. The way you look. These logging trucks, they all fly around like bats out of hell. They weren’t even allowed to travel at that time of day. Why were you in Lionel’s pickup?”
“Actually, initially I was in Cliff Bight’s pickup when we left the farm. But then we met Lionel by chance on the logging road, and he wanted to talk to me.”
“How come you were with Cliff? What were you doing there? I thought you had to take care of legal matters in Whatou Lake.”
“I changed my plans because the police allowed access to the farm.”
Savannah had a knowing look. “Doesn’t surprise me. You wanted to go before the Millers got there. You could’ve taken me along.”
“If I had, you would also be lying in a hospital bed.”
“Now the house is just ashes, I’ve heard. Totally burned down.”
“And the woods?”
“Nothing happened. It’s all still there.”
“A grizzly was around the house. Did it get away in time?”
“For god’s sake, Tessa, of course it would run away whenever a big fire gets out of control. There was no grizzly near the house.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’m not going to tell you if you don’t tell me something of interest.”
“The police don’t want me to talk too much before they make the details public. Why didn’t Mom and Dad come along?”
“That’s my fault. I told them that you needed peace and quiet. You do, don’t you?”
Tessa couldn’t deny that.
Savannah rubbed her hand. “Mom and Dad will bombard you with questions once you’re back in the house. And so will Philip. He suddenly showed up to help. He’s going to stay a week, and then one of the former foster kids will show up to take care of Mom and Dad. They want to take turns. Even Patricia made contact; she called Phil up. But she won’t come; she’s living in Montreal now. That’s going to be a lot of fun. All of the Griffins’ former foster kids back in Whatou Lake. Others are gone with the wind.”
“Who’s gone with the wind?”
“Telford Reed.” Savannah spit out that name as if it were chewing gum. “He came by yesterday and asked how you were doing. I texted you, but I didn’t hear back from you because you were out there in the bush. He probably also sent you a text. He told us that he had to fly off to Alberta.”
Tessa sat up straight and supported herself.
“He owns a company in Alberta. He can’t stay in Whatou Lake forever.”
Savannah remained unimpressed. “Mind you, he did drop by to ask how you’re doing. God knows why.”
“Savannah,” Tessa said very softly, “you’re really getting on my nerves.”
She was rewarded with a loving look back.
“And the same to you. Do you need makeup to cover the bruises on your face?”
46
Later she asked herself how she managed to get through the funeral, give a speech about Fran and Hank and the children. When she looked at the two large and three small coffins, she would have liked to run from the church. But she couldn’t do that to her parents, or to the deceased. She succeeded in not breaking down in tears as she stood in front of the whole community of Whatou Lake, the mourners who had come in from all over the place, and the journalists and gossipers who had somehow gotten in. She saw Ron Halprin in the crowd, also Tsaytis and Noreen Chelin, her friend Dana, and the police officer Kate Jennings, who had been at her parents’ house twice.
She separated herself mentally from her person, as if she were a stranger standing in front of the microphone. This was her way of trying to place the murdered family in the hearts of the people gathered in the church so that they would remember them. Not only as murder victims, but also as people with hopes and dreams and short but remarkable lives. She heard herself talking with a collected voice. She had covered her hair under a soft black hat she had pulled down over her brow. The reddish tone seemed too flashy for a funeral.
With an almost superhuman strength, she held back her fury and pain for a short time in order to make the dead come back to life again. It was her present to her sister, her brother-in-law and their children, who could no longer speak for themselves. The
church was eerily silent; only once in a while someone quietly clearing his throat or coughing could be heard. This changed as the former foster child Philip projected photos of Breena, Kayley, and Clyde, Fran and Hank on a screen. Suddenly, there was sobbing and crying in the church. Her parents kept their eyes shut, as Philip had advised them to, so that they could get through the service intact. At the burial her mother broke down and was taken to the car.
Harrison Miller, who had made bail, and his wife, Glenda, weren’t present. The disgraced mayor’s lawyer announced that in his opinion neither Harrison nor Lionel nor Cindy could expect a fair trial in Whatou Lake and therefore the trial should take place in Vancouver.
At the doctor’s advice, Tessa moved in temporarily with Dana Eckert to recover. In the Griffins’ house, visiting relatives and former foster children were comforting to Martha and Kenneth. Tessa experienced those days in a white fog. Dana tried to shield her as much as possible from intrusions. But Tessa found it worse not to be informed than to be kept away from any shocking information.
While Lionel stuck to his confession, Cindy refused to say anything at all and then suddenly changed her strategy: She claimed that Lionel was the ringleader, that he had had the idea to murder Hank and the children, and that he was the one who carried it out. Her lawyer explained to the journalists that Cindy had not come out with this earlier because she feared that he would kill her. She had nothing to do with Fran’s death, the lawyer maintained.
It was a fine June day. Tessa sat in the sun in front of Dana’s house, always on the lookout for reporters. In the evening, she found out that Lionel, who was about to be let out of the hospital, had killed himself. He had cut his wrists when the nurse left him alone so that he could take a bath. Her thoughts wandered to Glenda. She had now lost everything: two sons and her grandchildren. And also her husband. Harrison didn’t care about her, but had started up a campaign against the RCMP because they were supposed to watch his son around the clock but had, in Harrison’s words, “failed scandalously.”
MURDEROUS MORNING: A heart-stopping crime novel with a stunning end. Page 31
