“She’s been visiting Jake for years,” said Jan. “Once in the garage, via the automatic opener that’s always in his vehicles, all she had to do was grab a staff polo shirt and hat off the shelf. It’s only a few steps around the corner to the pool.”
Lacey filled in more gaps. “Giselle must have been inside the garage when Travis and I came across the lawn. She could’ve heard me tell him we couldn’t fix the pool camera while Kitrin was there. God, I never realized. I’m the one who told her where to find Kitrin and confirmed that she wouldn’t be caught on camera doing it.”
“Don’t blame yourself,” said Ray. “The part you don’t know is that Giselle Harder was paying Mylo’s nanny to spy on his wife. When Georgie was confronted with the evidence of her own texts to Mrs. Harder, she told us how she’d met the woman their first day at the estate and then was approached by her the next morning while out on a walk. Mrs. Harder told her Kitrin Devine was angling to be the next Mrs. Wyman, and that she only wanted to find out if there was already something between them.”
Jan’s lip curled. “And since Georgie wanted Mylo to herself, she was only too eager to spy on Kitrin.”
Ray nodded. “Saturday morning, she informed Mrs. Harder that Kitrin was in the pool and that the staff had orders not to disturb her. Then she left the grounds. Nothing suggests she had foreknowledge, though, and why would they trust her with that? The actual killing looks premeditated to me, but whether a jury will agree …” He shrugged.
Lacey swirled her wine. “In the dossier it said Giselle Harder did theatre studies at university. Probably just enough to know how a slight change of appearance and a confident walk will get you almost anywhere.”
Dee stared from one to the other. “But Earl was in it from the start?”
Ray nodded. “He was on the phone to his mother before he ever left the Wyman place that first evening, probably telling her about Orrin’s odd reaction to Kitrin, and Michael’s resemblance to Tyrone.”
“Giselle must have known Orrin cheated while they were married,” Lacey added. “Maybe she suspected other children existed, too. But that wasn’t her motive. She’d already rigged the Rover and primed Orrin to take Ty out to the wilderness. I wonder if she told Earl about the sabotage afterward, or if it was his idea and she just carried it out.”
“She’s drunk deep of the patriarchal Kool-Aid,” said Jan. “Orrin was a philanderer and a major asshole, and he threw her over after nearly twenty years —”
“With as little alimony as he could get away with,” Lacey added, “to the point where she had to get a job to survive.”
“Huh,” said Jan. “Orrin likely put all the assets in the company name and took only a minuscule salary. A lot of guys in the oil patch do that. Anyway, it sounds like her second husband chose her mainly to look after his elderly mother, and then after him. He left most of his assets to his kids from his first marriage and very little to her. But instead of waking up and smelling the rotten bill of goods she’d been sold, Giselle doubled down on making sure Earl was rich enough to support her in her old age. It didn’t matter to her how many people died. She even tried setting up Andy and Bart to take the fall for the doped chocolates, cutting out one more of the heirs. Patriarchy or not, I don’t feel sorry for her at all.”
“Me, either.” Ray swallowed some wine. “So, to answer your initial question, Dee, there’s enough to charge Earl with conspiracy, but since he didn’t actually kill anyone — didn’t even succeed at killing his father — he’ll probably get a shorter sentence. His mother, who did most of the dirty work whether with his collusion or not, is looking at multiple sentences, possibly consecutive.”
“Rich white male arrogance wins again,” said Jan. The dogs at her feet sat up. “Oh, someone’s coming.”
A moment later, Andy, Bart, and Ben trekked around the corner of the house, carrying bags from the wine store down in Bragg Creek.
“Are we late?” Andy cried.
“Not at all.” Lacey took the bags.
As Rob and Terry came out of the house, Andy walked up to Rob and held out her hand. “I owe you an apology. I yelled and swore and was altogether very rude when you were in my house. I hope you will visit often and not fear a repeat performance.”
Rob’s lips compressed. After a moment, he took her hand in both of his. “Thank you for that. I hope we can get to know each other and that the worst is behind you as a family.”
Bart, beaming, threw his arms around both their shoulders and kissed each of their cheeks. “My two favourite people in the world.”
Ben said, “What am I, chopped avocado?”
Bart punched his shoulder. “You’re one of Andy’s favourite people. Don’t be greedy.”
As Rob sorted out drinks and everyone settled around the table, Dee murmured to Lacey, “Gotta say I like that woman’s style. Relationship repair is her jam.”
Terry fired up the barbecue. “We’ve got Black Angus steaks, bison sausages, venison burgers, and plenty of each, so think about which you’ll want to start. Meatless burgers for Ben, but the sauce and smoke from the rest will give them some flavour. How’s your father doing this week?”
Ben shrugged. “Technically, he’s recovering, but it’s like he’s aged twenty years. Mind as well as body.”
Bart nodded. “We make a show of consulting him, but honestly, most decisions are beyond him now. The company must move on without his direction.” He glanced at his brother. “Ben’s coming back, or, I should say, coming into the fold at last. We’re officially going to set up an alternative energy division of Caine International. His first job is to sound out all the existing staff and management to see which ones would like to make a lateral jump. It’s probably a lot more of them than Orrin would expect, given how many closet greenies work in the oil patch.”
Lacey raised one eyebrow. “Ben’s going corporate? For real?”
He grinned at her. “I refuse to wear a suit and tie, but I might stretch to clean pants and a polo shirt.”
Andy laughed. “Get a haircut, hippie.”
“And be mistaken for my much more dapper and presidential brother?”
Dee said, “Ben, thanks for teaching Lacey to climb. She really loves it.” She ignored Lacey’s side-eye and carried on, “I hope you won’t mind taking her out again sometime, now that nobody’s going to throw rocks at you on the cliff.”
As the dusk deepened and the air cooled, and the level in the wine bottles dropped, Lacey noticed two things: one, Andy was sticking to sparkling water, and two, her own bare feet under the table were still warm. She mentioned the feet first.
Terry grinned. “Somebody noticed! I put in a solar heat collector. It’s a panel hanging off the deck below the railing, and it pumps heat into a black block under the table all day, which radiates it out again at night. Totally green.”
Ben’s eyes lit up. “Mind if I look?”
While all the men and Dee were peering under the tablecloth, shining their phone flashlights over the setup, Lacey leaned over to Andy. “No wine in your glass? Does that mean …?”
Andy shook her head. “Just that I’m the designated driver. Now that Orrin isn’t around to harass us, we’re all taking a step back. The year is going to be interesting enough without adding a child to the mix. Beyond Ty and Michael, that is.” She sighed. “We wanted to go to Kitrin’s funeral, since she was in fact Bart and Ben’s half-sister, but Barbara asked us not to. She doesn’t want to have to explain us just yet, needs space to sort out her grieving and her marriage. Meanwhile, Michael will be with us during the movie’s filming, and afterward he can spend holidays with us, too.”
“So the boys won’t be completely separated?” said Jan, who had seen all the solar-collector fittings often enough.
“Not if we can help it,” said Andy. “We’ll invite Barbara to visit whenever Michael’s there, as a friend of the family. Mylo doesn’t seem to care about them being together now.”
“Or,” Jan suggested, “s
ince you’re honouring Orrin’s agreement about filming, he won’t jeopardize a good movie set merely to prevent Mrs. D taking off with Michael. All business is Mylo.”
“Cynical much?” Lacey asked.
“Rich white men rule the world,” said Jan. She pushed back her chair and gathered up plates.
Andy nodded. “They do. For the first week, it looked like Earl might wiggle out of the most serious charges. I wouldn’t sleep a wink if he and his mother were free to go after the boys again.” After Jan left with a load of dishes, she looked at Lacey. “So … it’s been two weeks, but you already guessed every secret I ever had. Will you tell me now why you really came to the ranch?”
Lacey had almost forgotten their pact, or her worry even then that Andy would be furious with her for investigating. “I’d hate for you to hate me over this.”
Andy bit her lip. “So you really were hired by Orrin to spy on me and Bart?”
“Never! Is that what you thought?” Lacey squeezed Andy’s hand where it lay on the tablecloth. “Orrin told my boss, Wayne, to investigate Kitrin’s parentage. When he vanished, Wayne feared someone in the family had gotten rid of him before he could claim her publicly. I was sent to find evidence for or against that theory. I had no idea you and Bart had any secrets at all.” She let go Andy’s hand. “And if you thought I was Orrin’s spy, why didn’t you make me sleep in the bunkhouse and share a bathroom with all those guys?”
“Friends close, enemies closer.” Andy leaned over and hugged her. “I’m so glad you weren’t there to spy on us. I mean, you were, but not the way we were most afraid of.” As the rest of the group crawled back into their chairs, she said, “Everybody pick up your glasses. I want to make a toast. To Kitrin Devine, taken too soon from the family she didn’t even know she had. All she wanted was to be seen, and loved, just as she was. In respect for her, I vow in front of all of you that I will do my best to make sure her son is seen and loved just as he is. Whoever he turns out to be. And I want you all to help me.”
Rob’s voice was the first and loudest. “Hear, hear!”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Although there exists an enduring impression that novels are produced alone in secluded rooms filled with books and possibly cats, my author reality includes many individuals who contribute time, feedback, and expertise about people and professions in the Alberta foothills. Despite best efforts, I sometimes get things wrong in their subject areas, either accidentally or because my fictional reality demands to diverge fractionally from objective reality. All errors are on me.
For this book, thanks are due to:
Matt Lunny, former owner of Stronghold, the Calgary Climbing Centre, whose patient explanations of climbing gear, terminology, technique, and the differences between wall-climbing and rock climbing were invaluable in teaching Lacey enough to get up that cliff when she had to; Fiona Pinnell and Liz Jepson, who illuminated how it feels to follow a vastly more experienced climber up an untried route; Lynn (Radar) Goddard, whose decades of experience as a rural firefighter and Calgary paramedic helped get my lost boy into and out of his life-threatening peril; ICU nurse Kathy Zimmerman, who guided his theoretical recovery at Alberta Children’s Hospital; Andrea Rayburn, who talked me through Search and Rescue (SAR) camp organization and shared experiences of being a SAR medic.
My respects to Andy Genereux, whose lifetime of pioneering climbs in the Ghost Wilderness and his resulting book, Ghost Rock, informed the experiences of the Caine brothers; to author Lisa Christiansen, whose inspiring book, Hiker’s Guide to Art of the Rocky Mountains, informs Jan’s local art knowledge and brings the beauty of those peaks, valleys, and hidden lakes to whole new audiences; to Kevin Van Tighem and Stephen Legault, fellow writers whose lifelong commitment to environmental defence has vastly extended my understanding of the fight to preserve wild habitat atop the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies while there’s so much drillable oil and gas beneath.
My thanks to all the women in the Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) online community who share their experiences of illness and wellness to help me plot Jan’s necessarily erratic progress from housebound and helpless back toward the career she loves. Her life-destroying illness, ME/CFS, is shared by nearly 600,000 Canadians, up to 3 million Americans, and an estimated 20–60 million people (mostly women) around the world. It drives 75 percent of sufferers out of the workforce — half of them forever — and permanently traps 25 percent inside their homes or darkened bedrooms. Thankfully, new research is taking place all the time. If you’re suffering or know someone who is, you’re not alone. You’ll find help and support in patient groups on Facebook and other internet forums, as well as current research and self-management options on the following Resources page.
As ever, thanks to Kevin for feeding, housing, comforting, encouraging me … and for listening (or pretending to) while I obsess about characters and their relationships for a year or more, but never in enough detail that he can actually follow the plot until he reads the finished book.
ME/CFS RESOURCES
For information about management, treatment, and supporting a loved one with ME/CFS, check out any or all of the following sites.
A mid-2019 summary of current knowledge about ME/ CFS from Dr. A. Komaroff: Advances in Understanding the Pathophysiology of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2737854
The Open Medicine Foundation resource page pulls together current ME/CFS research from Stanford & Harvard in the USA and Uppsala in Sweden: omf.ngo/resource-center/
The International Association for CFS-ME has a resource page: iacfsme.org/educational-services-and-clinical-management
#MEACTION’s MEpedia pages contain a continually updated overview organized by symptom area: me-pedia.org/wiki/Welcome_to_MEpedia
ME-FM Action: mefmaction.com
The Bateman Horne Center, a leader in biochemical research and life-management skills for patients: batemanhornecenter.org/medical-provider-library/
Action For ME covers severe patients’ experience: actionforme.org.uk
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.E. Barnard is the Calgary-based author of the award-winning women’s wilderness series The Falls Mysteries. Her YA Steampunk novel, Maddie Hatter and the Gilded Gauge, was a 2018 Alberta Book of the Year. She has claimed the CWC Award for Best Unpublished First Crime Novel, the Bony Pete, and the Saskatchewan Writers Guild Award, and has been shortlisted for the Prix Aurora, the UK Debut Dagger, and the Book Publishing in Alberta Award. In addition to her involvement with Crime Writers of Canada, Calgary Crime Writers, and the Women Fiction Writers Association, she’s a determined advocate for better research and treatment for the 580,000 Canadians living with ME/CFS.
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