Bleeding Darkness

by Brenda Chapman

  When she closed her eyes, she was fourteen years younger, walking up the sidewalk to the Delgado front door after school. Zoe was leading the way and swivelled her head to laugh at something Lauren said, her long black hair swishing across her back as she started up the steps. “Matt is helping Dad in the shop so we have the house to ourselves.”

  Their last afternoon together. Even though Zoe was dating Tristan, she kept her Fridays open for Lauren. Tristan didn’t like it, but he had no choice. Zoe was Lauren’s best friend long before she started up with him. That last Friday, they’d taken bottles of Coke and a bag of chips up to Zoe’s bedroom and watched a taped episode of Gilmore Girls on Zoe’s little TV before Zoe stretched out on her bed and Lauren leaned against the footboard hugging her knees to her chest.

  “I don’t know what you see in my brother,” Lauren said. The words had become a joke between them. A phrase she used to start a conversation and one that Zoe thought she didn’t mean. Zoe laughed as she always did. She couldn’t have known that she and Tristan would break up by Sunday and that she and Lauren would miss the next Friday afternoon get-together for a reason Lauren couldn’t recall now.

  That’s how Lauren remembered Zoe, always smiling and laughing. The one to light up a room. The one everyone circled around, wanting to get close to her warmth. She’d been drawn to her and so had Tristan. “We just need to get you a boyfriend,” Zoe had said that Friday afternoon, her dark eyes glittering onyx. “Then we can double date.”

  If only.

  Lauren had wanted to tell her about the past few months and her unexpected, exhilarating, breathless relationship with Zoe’s brother Matt, but she didn’t want to jinx it. Not yet. She’d known Matt forever as her best friend’s big brother and he’d teased her like a little sister until that day they’d met by chance at the mall and he’d walked Lauren home. That was when he looked at her differently and she’d thought that her crush on him might turn into something more. She couldn’t believe it when he’d found ways to see her alone. Later, she wished she’d told Zoe her secret even though her murder ended any chance she had with Matt. He acted as if he’d never kissed her or held her hand or told her he couldn’t wait to see her the week before his sister’s body was found in the woods less than a mile from Lauren’s house. Not that she could blame him. At the funeral, he’d avoided her and looked away when he caught her staring, and she’d felt ashamed.

  As she sat in her Civic in front of Zoe’s house, she watched the front door opening and she ducked lower in the seat. A taller, more muscular Matt than she remembered stepped outside and stood for a moment in the porch light. He held the door for an older, greyer version of his father, Franco Delgado. They both wore red plaid jackets and carried mugs of coffee. They were talking easily to each other and she saw Franco smile as he looked across the top of the black Ford Escape at Matt before they both climbed in. Matt backed the car out of the laneway, glancing at her car to make sure he didn’t hit it, but he didn’t see her scrunched down in the front seat. She watched their red taillights disappear down the street and around the corner with a longing in her heart that made her want to chase after them. Not that she ever would.

  Ten minutes later, she started the engine in her cold car and slowly followed their tire tracks down Hillendale on her way home. With any luck, everyone would be in bed and she could put off the big family reunion until the morning.

  Lauren awoke earlier than she wanted to, but it was hard to sleep with doors banging and feet thumping up and down the stairs. Should she chance a smoke before getting up to face everyone? She seriously considered it for all of a minute but knew what would happen if her mother smelled smoke in the house. Fuck, she was turning back into a timid teenager, scared to cross her mother and risk the fallout. Fuck, fuck, and double fuck. She sighed heavily and swung her feet onto the floor.

  Vivian and Mona were sitting with their heads together, looking at pictures on a cellphone and laughing over a photo when Lauren entered the dining room with a cup of coffee she’d poured in the kitchen. They both raised their heads and the moment of gaiety evaporated with the guilty look that passed between them. Yeah, Lauren thought. Remember why we’re all gathered. This is not the time for levity.

  “Hey Mona,” she said and waved a hand at her. “Adam told us you were flying here earlier than you’d planned. Good of you to come.”

  “Of course I’ve come.” Mona got up and came around the table to hug her. She smelled of vanilla and coconut and west coast sunshine. Mona, the glass-half-full gal who never forgot to call on Lauren’s birthday and kept her updated on Facebook about Adam and Simon, putting a happy spin on the troubled world of their son.

  Do you ever get pissed off, feel like hitting somebody? Lauren had once asked Mona’s smiling picture, her blond hair freshly cut into its signature bob, her hand outstretched with a glass of white wine to toast the photographer. She’d had to squint to see Simon’s moon-shaped scowling face in the background over Mona’s right shoulder.

  If I had a son like Simon, I’d struggle getting out of bed each day.

  “You’re looking so good,” Mona said as she sat back down in her chair. “I love your hair. The cut suits you. Everything going well in Toronto?”

  “Can’t complain. How’s life in Vancouver? Simon?”

  “Oh, you know.” Mona laughed. “Life is never dull. Adam’s been away a lot but he has longer layovers now that he’s started the Asian route. We have a new teacher’s aide who works exclusively with Simon and he’s doing wonderfully.”

  Vivian covered a yawn with her manicured red nails. Then she laughed. “This baby is making me tired.”

  Lauren doubted the yawn was from fatigue. Vivian always became bored if the talk wasn’t about her.

  Mona was kinder. “You’ll need more naps for the first trimester especially, but soon you’ll have your energy back.”

  “Oh, I hope so.” Vivian reached for a bran muffin.” I’m hoping my ravenous hunger drops off too or I’m going to be huge. Simply huge.”

  And … ba da boom. The conversation has returned to you. Lauren let her gaze rest first on Vivian and then on Mona. Two polar opposites in looks and personality. Vivian, dark-haired and sloe-eyed with a petite, curvy body even in pregnancy, and Mona, blond and solid with farm girl fresh looks right down to the freckles on her face and arms. And yet, they got along fine. Lauren was the odd one out. “So what are your plans for today?” she asked.

  “I’m going to take a long nap after I go for a walk this afternoon,” Vivian said. “I’m not kidding when I say that I’m exhausted. I hardly slept at all. I’m at the spa this morning for a massage and facial. Tristan is on his own today.”

  “And Adam and I are going to see your father at the hospital this morning. Your mom’s already there. After that, I don’t know,” said Mona. “Adam wants to meet up with someone from high school later. I plan to go shopping. What about you, Lauren?”

  “I’ll visit Dad this afternoon. I have some work to do before then.”

  “Oh yes, you’re a businesswoman,” said Vivian. “How I envy you.” Her lips formed a rosebud pout, likely to remind them of her condition. Lauren knew that Vivian was not lacking attention from Tristan, who’d wanted a child for ages. Her lot in life was to be envied if anyone’s was. Lauren was one hundred percent certain that Vivian was not envious of her at all.

  “Once you have the kid, you’ll have it made. Tristan will give you everything your heart desires.” Lauren immediately regretted how churlish the words made her sound.

  Vivian looked across the table at her. Her eyes were amused and her voice came across light but her message felt like a glimpse behind her carefully controlled facade. “I’m quite sure I have that now.” She smiled. “You see, Lauren, unlike some people, I’ve always been lucky with men that way.”

  chapter five

  The first thing Kala did when she got into the police station Tuesday morning was put in a call to Millhaven. She was still on h
old when Paul Gundersund plunked himself down at his desk across from her. She covered the phone receiver and mouthed a good morning. He nodded back before standing up again. “Coffee?” he asked.

  She nodded and watched him walk toward the machine near the window, stopping along the way to talk to Andrew Bennett. Gundersund had stopped coming by after work and on weekends to visit her and Dawn as he once had. She’d missed him at first but gradually she and Dawn had begun the long road toward getting closer. They took Taiku for meandering walks after supper and while they didn’t speak much about the past, Dawn seemed to have forgiven her for the stint in foster care. At least, she never talked about it.

  Gundersund set a full cup on her desk and Kala signalled a thank you. She had drunk half of it by the time a real person clicked online. “How can I help you?”

  “This is Officer Kala Stonechild. I’m currently fostering Fisher Dumont’s daughter and understand he got early parole. I’d like to speak to someone about his release.”

  “One moment.”

  She heard keys tapping. “Fisher Dumont made early parole.”

  “I realize that. Can you tell me why and where he’s living now?”

  “Is this part of an official inquiry?”

  She could lie but wasn’t prepared to risk getting into trouble. “No, not exactly.”

  “Dumont went before the Parole Board and they granted early parole with strict conditions. I’m not at liberty to tell you where he’s living now without a written request and permission from above. As you know, privacy laws are strict.”

  “But what about his ex-wife and daughter? Don’t they have a right to know where he’s living? I have custody of his daughter, who is under eighteen.”

  “They’ll have to fill in the form. It’s online.”

  “You’re kidding me.”

  “If you have a complaint —”

  “I know. Fill in another form. This is the definition of insanity, you know that, right?”

  “Have a good day, ma’am.”

  Kala was left listening to the dial tone. She was going to have to find another way to track down Fisher Dumont.

  Dawn kept her head down and walked past the girls standing on the sidewalk. They were in her class, always sitting in a row at the front. Dawn preferred the back row near the exit. Emily, Chelsea, and Vanessa. She was surprised when one of them spoke to her.

  “Hey Dawn. What did you get on the math test?”

  She lifted her eyes. Which one had asked the question? She couldn’t be sure, but thought it might be Emily, the leader of the pack. The blondest of the blondes. Before she could respond, Emily was walking beside her. The other two followed a few steps behind. “I passed,” Dawn said at last. “Why?”

  “I failed.”

  The two girls giggled from behind. One of them said, “Like Mr. Biggs said, Em has to find a tutor or she’s going to fail her year too.”

  Emily’s head bobbed up and down, strands of hair catching sunlight as she moved. “Mr. Biggs suggested you might be able to tutor me.” She flipped her hair back over her shoulder and gently rolled her neck from side to side as she walked. “I can pay.”

  “No thanks.” Dawn pulled her hood over her head and sped up her steps. She tried to put distance between herself and Emily without actually breaking into a run.

  “Why not?” Emily’s voice sounded incredulous as if she’d never considered the possibility of Dawn turning her down flat.

  Dawn picked up her pace, Emily’s red leather jacket stubbornly bobbing up and down in her peripheral vision. She felt anger well up from her gut. “I don’t need your money.”

  “But I need your help.” Emily’s voice was pleading now, not the entitled tone she’d first used. She dropped it a few notches to something close to a whisper. “Please.”

  Dawn turned her face sideways and glared. Emily stared back at her without blinking or breaking stride. She flipped her lip glossed pout into a smile, which Dawn was all too aware was meant to win her over. “I’d be in your debt.”

  Dawn remembered all the times Emily had turned away and giggled with her girlfriends when she’d walked by. She remembered how small they’d made her feel. The snubs. It would feel good to make Emily feel an iota of that smallness. Dawn chewed her bottom lip before she stopped walking to face Emily. “I don’t have much time to help you. It would have to be last spare of the day today.”

  Emily’s voice bubbled out of her like it was filled with carbonated water. “That works for me. Thanks, you’re the best.”

  I’m sure you really think that. Dawn started walking. “I’ll be in the library. Bring your test.”

  They’d reached the front steps to the school and Emily fell back with her friends. Dawn climbed the stairs and entered the school without looking over her shoulder. She knew the three of them would be watching her and waiting until she was out of earshot to say something flip at her expense. She had no illusions about her own role in their drama. She and Emily would never become friends, and that was just fine with her.

  She sat alone in the cafeteria after English and gym class, reading a book from the library and eating the ham sandwich and apple that Kala left for her in the fridge before hustling out the door to the office earlier than usual. She’d spent the day before on police business in Montreal and gotten home late.

  Dawn had been living with Kala since November. She’d been placed with Kala a short time after her mother went to prison and had only been with her a few months before her court worker pulled her out and put her in a foster home. That hadn’t worked out and now Kala was saddled with her again — that was how Dawn saw it. She felt like she was on probation, not sure who would decide she wasn’t fitting in this time around. Dr. Lyman said she should start trusting her aunt, for that was how she thought of Kala, and it wasn’t that she didn’t want to … but something inside her wouldn’t relax. She was always watching and waiting for signs that her life was going to fall apart again. Her mother had told her that she had a gift. A sixth sense about the universe. Dawn knew it more as a bleak darkness that stole away her happiness.

  French and biology classes filled her afternoon and Dawn forgot about meeting Emily until she slid into the seat next to Dawn in the library. “I almost didn’t see you sitting here,” Emily said. She dropped her bag onto the table and pulled out her math textbook followed by the recent test. A circled red 43 percent was written across the top. “I wasn’t kidding about needing your help. Sorry I’m late.”

  Dawn glanced at her watch. Ten minutes left before the period was over and she had to catch her bus home. “I have time to go over the first problem.”

  An hour later, they were still going through the test. Dawn hadn’t expected Emily to really try to understand anything and was surprised to find she was making an effort. Dawn could have left, but she liked the feeling of helping Emily make progress. Besides, she didn’t have anything else going on at home. Emily finished jotting down the formula and worked through the answer before looking up at Dawn. “I think I get this part.”

  “Good, because I really have to go.” Dawn started collecting her books and pens and putting them into her bag. She paused when Emily said, “I made you miss your bus. I’m sorry.”

  “I’ll catch the next one.”

  Dawn didn’t expect Emily to follow her out of the library and certainly not down the hallway to their row of lockers. Emily stood next to Dawn while she spun the numbers on her lock. “Do you want to go to Starbucks for a coffee before you go home? I’m meeting a few friends.”

  “I don’t think so. I have to get home.”

  “Well, maybe next time.”

  Dawn kept her face forward and dug around in her locker. She heard Emily’s footsteps going down the hallway and waited until she was busy at her own locker before heading toward the exit. The idea that Emily wanted her to join up with her friends was a nice dream, but Dawn knew better than to get her hopes up. Emily might not be as awful as she’d first thought
, but the two of them would never be friends. Not once Emily found out that both her parents were in prison.

  Dawn pushed open the front door to the school and stepped outside. The sun was nearly down and a cold stillness had settled over the empty street. She pulled up her hood and walked down the stairs, careful not to slip on patches of black ice hidden by the fresh coating of snow that had fallen while she was inside working with Emily. The snow crunched underfoot like corn flakes as she trudged to the bus stop, hoping she made it home before Kala.

  Fred Taylor buzzed through late afternoon as Paul Gundersund was putting on his jacket to attend a meeting with the police board. “You got time to take a call?” Taylor asked. “A woman wants to speak to somebody in charge.”

  Gundersund was acting staff sergeant while Rouleau replaced Captain Heath. Heath was now happily on a vacation in Europe with his mistress Laney Masterson and officially separated from his wife. “He chose my cousin and true love over marriage to a fortune,” Vera, Heath’s executive assistant, had said with a wry smile. “At least he’s finally made a decision.”

  Gundersund looked out the window at the deepening twilight, violet shadows snaking their way across the winter day’s satin-blue sky. He would have liked to have spent some of this glorious winter day outside, but his life was now endless paperwork and back-to-back meetings. How the hell could Rouleau stand this bureaucratic yoke around his neck day in and day out? He reined in his thoughts and said, “Sure, put them through.”

  A moment later, he heard a woman’s voice. “Hello?”

  “Officer Gundersund here. How can I help you?” He pulled over a notepad and picked up his pen, flicking the end against the desk while he waited.