by Janine McCaw
“Mind your own business,” he said to himself, but he was smiling. It was the only smile he had cracked since the news of the concentrator going down.
Maggie came up the road and approached him.
“Is Frank around?” she asked.
“He’s trying to get the concentrator up and running again. Is it an emergency Margaret? The damn thing has been down half the shift. I’ll never get the ore I need processed on time if I’m not at full capacity.”
“No,” she said. “Would you just see that he gets this letter as soon as he’s done, Mr. McMichael?”
She handed it to him.
“So now I’m in on it too?” he asked her.
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about sir,” Maggie said. “Just give him the letter, hmm?”
“Why must I hand him the letter, Margaret?”
“Well, you are his boss.”
“I think I’ve been chosen.”
“Well, if one’s wife has suddenly had a change of plans, wouldn’t you want the husband to know? And if he weren’t around wouldn’t you give the letter to someone who would see him and could be trusted to give it to him? And if that person happened to be his boss, so be it.”
“And if the husband is angry and the boss knows what is happening between the two of them, then the wife now has someone to help keep her safe, no?”
“I could give the letter to Sergeant Wolanski if you’d rather,” said Maggie.
“Not my man Les? I’m sure Les would love to deliver the news to Frank that his wife has run off. Loves to get under Frank’s skin making remarks about Olivia, Les does. Delights in it actually.”
Maggie pulled the letter back.
“Ah, so I’m right then. No, I’ll give Frank the letter Margaret, no worries.”
“This is a small town, Mr. McMichael. Everyone knows everyone. Everyone knows everything. You’re right. I’ve heard that Les likes to continually wind Frank up about Olivia. But really, everyone knows your man Les delights in stalking your daughter, although he’s not quite so obvious about it now. I suppose it was noble for Frank to give Les what he had coming to him that night in the beer parlour, but two wrongs don’t make a right as they say. The boys all loved Frank that night, it was Frankie this and Frankie that, but they’re not so crazy about Frank now, are they? Everyone knows you’re planning to send Christina off to that fancy private school in Vancouver. You really don’t have to you know. What’s that going to solve? We’re all watching out for her, not just Frank. But you didn’t have to put the rest of us on your payroll. We watch out for her because we care about her. She’s a pretty lass, just like her mother was, God rest her soul. Let her stay here with her family and friends. Don’t send her away with strangers. Think about it, Mr. McMichael.”
“It’s too late Margaret. My mind is made up. I’m going to Vancouver to take a look at some of the schools very soon. The girls will stay with Mrs. Schwindt while I’m away. I’m surprised you know all this. The grapevine appears to be well informed but I can assure you it doesn’t know everything.”
“Well, it also knows you fancy Olivia more than you ever fancied Lucy,” Maggie added with a big grin on her face, getting back to the task at hand. “We see the way you smile when you look at her. So you see Mr. McMichael, we know that if anyone wants to help keep our Olivia safe, you’d be the one. That is, if we were at all concerned.”
“Everyone knows this, do they, Margaret? Everyone knows everything?”
“Everyone.”
“Ah, I see,” he said mockingly. “Then there’s no need to remind everyone that she’s a married lady.”
But he’s not denying it, Maggie thought to herself, once again placing the letter in McMichael’s hand.
It was almost sunset before Frank came down to give McMichael the bad news that the concentrator was on its last legs.
“You’d better keep that concentrator running Fitzpatrick, or you can kiss that promotion good-bye. If that concentrator goes down for any length of time, I’ll be laying off people, starting with you.”
McMichael handed him the letter.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” McMichael said. “Margaret Wolfe asked me to give it to you.”
“It’s probably an invitation of some sort for the wife,” Frank said.
“It’s got your name on it,” replied McMichael.
Frank, not knowing any better, opened the letter with McMichael standing by.
Frank’s face turned three shades of red, and McMichael could see beads of sweat forming above his brow.
“Something wrong?” Michael asked, knowing that Frank was about to lie to him. He watched Frank’s face carefully, so he would know how to read him the next time he did so.
“No sir,” Frank said, saying nothing more, his shifting eyes betraying him.
The letter was from Olivia’s father.
Chapter Twenty
Frank was awoken by the sound of a steel tray being slipped across the floor. His head was foggy and throbbing and he could barely see out of one eye. He looked up at the ceiling and realized he was not at home. He was still wearing the clothes he had worn the day before. At least he was still fully dressed, he thought.
“Your breakfast,” a voice said, “if you can stomach anything.”
“Where am I?” Frank asked.
He sat up on the cot and it suddenly became painfully aware of his whereabouts. Rudy Wolanski was staring at him from behind the opposite side of the bars.
“Jail?”
“You don’t remember too much about last night, do you?” Wolanski asked.
“I remember going down to the bar,” he admitted.
That had been strange enough. Having read and re-read William Bower’s letter over and over, getting madder with each turn, he had decided to go have a beer with the boys. When he got there, the tables were all full and he remembered no one making an effort to move over to let him sit with them. He wound up sitting at the bar in the space normally reserved for Les Ferguson.
“Well let me fill you in on a few more details,” Wolanski said. “You were at the bar all right, although by the time I got there you had been thrown out. What was that all about?”
Frank held his head in his hands and tried to think about it some more. Les had come into the bar demanding his seat. Frank was feeling no pain by that time, he recalled. The seat next to him had come available and since it was the only vacant one Frank actually motioned for Les to sit there, but Les was insistent on getting his usual spot. So Frank had moved.
“I remember talking to Les,” Frank said. “I must have got into another fight with him. So where is he? Shouldn’t he be in here too?”
“No,” the sergeant said sternly. “Think some more.”
Wolanski walked out of the jail leaving Frank alone.
“Rudy, what are you doing? Let me out,” Frank said.
It was nightfall before the officer returned, bringing Frank some more food.
“Are you letting me out now?”
“That would depend on whether or not you remember what got you here in the first place.”
“I don’t remember much,” Frank admitted. The night was an alcohol-induced blur.
“Well let me try to help you along,” Wolanski said. “You were in the middle of the street just before midnight, yelling out death threats. Does any of that ring a bell?”
“No. I remember sitting with Les. He must have said something to get me going.”
“See, now that’s the strange part,” Wolanski said. “I was asking around and it seems that you and Les were getting along just fine in the bar.”
“Rudy, why were you asking around? You know I’m not a bad guy. It’s Les who is dangerous.”
“Because right now, I’m not Rudy to you. You’re in my cell. I’m Sergeant Wolanski. Which means you might be a bad guy, I don’t know at the moment. What’s going on with you at home?”
Frank felt hi
s blood rushing to the top of his head.
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“What’s this about your wife being smuggled off to Seattle and you receiving a letter?”
“How do you know about that?”
“Okay Frank,” Wolanski said, losing patience. “You can play dumb all you like, and you can sit here in this cell forever if you want. I heard you threaten the lives of your wife and your father-in-law. So did half the town. So I’ve been asking around. I know a lot about your home life. We had this conversation once before unofficially. Do you remember? When you and Les had the fight and I asked if it was about the young girl, your wife or both? We had a discussion about letting things you can’t control eat away at you. When you’re ready to tell me the whole story, I’ll tell you the rest of mine. You might want to get that blanket down off the top shelf. It’ll be a colder night for you tonight, seeing that you’re conscious and all.”
“If I’m not at work tomorrow McMichael will make you let me out,” Frank said.
“Give your head a shake, Frank. You’re not that important to him.”
“I’d never really do anything to Olivia. I love her. I was just mad at her since she ran off.”
“Well that’s a start,” the officer said. “Just be thankful it appears she has just run off for the wedding. Keep acting the way you’re acting and she’ll be going away for good. I speak from experience. I was terribly jealous of my wife, with no reason. I kept pushing her. It was just one more thing she didn’t want to deal with. She had more on her plate than I knew. She eventually had enough of it and left for good. It wasn’t pretty. It was a hard lesson to learn. I’m trying to give you some advice. Whether you take it or not is up to you. The time you have with your wife is precious. In the brief time I have known you, I have seen a change in you, a change in who your friends are. You might want to turn yourself around and go back on that path you first came here on. I believe you when you say you won’t harm her. I think it was the drink talking. I don’t know if I believe you when you say you love her. I don’t even know if you respect her right now. You’re certainly not acting like it. I’ll be watching you, all the same. Now about the other one...”
“I don’t know if I can make the same promise about her father. I hate him.”
“Well, I don’t know if I can let you out then. You think about that. Remember, I know about that too.”
Frank spent three nights in jail before the sergeant relented and let him out. He had a lot of time to think. He thought about what Rudy had said, but while the officer’s intentions were virtuous, Frank did not take his advice.
McMichael had said no foreman of his should be spending time in jail and that while Frank was going to be lucky enough to be able to keep his job this time, there would be no next time and any thoughts of a promotion were out of the question.
Frank began to simmer on the boil once again.
Chapter Twenty-one
“So tell me again about this store you want to open,” William Bower said, “and why you can’t do it? Is there a need for one? Have you done your homework?”
The wedding reception for Emily was in full swing. It had been a beautiful wedding, and Emily had been absolutely thrilled to see Olivia. There had been over two hundred guests invited. Olivia looked almost as radiant as the bride in a new blue taffeta bridesmaid dress, stylishly cut, that her parents had surprised her with. Feeling a draft, she adjusted the matching shawl across her shoulders. When she first saw the dress, she was concerned that it might be too small, but the stress of the past couple of months had actually brought her back down to her normal weight. Lucy had commented that she wasn’t eating enough, and now Olivia saw that her friend had been right. If she had dropped that much weight unconsciously, she thought, she had better pay better attention to her diet when she returned. She patted the back of her newly coiffed hair. She still couldn’t believe she had actually been to the beauty parlour earlier that morning. What a treat! Of course there was a salon back at the Beach, but she never had the money to go on a whim.
“The problem is Mr. McMichael. He owns everything. He controls everything. There are a lot of things we can’t get at the store, that the people could really use, but he won’t bring them in.”
“Like what?”
“Like the Eaton's catalogue. It’s a catalogue that’s available across Canada. He had it for a while, but he couldn’t fix the prices, so he stopped carrying it. There were a lot of items available in it that the women wanted but couldn’t get in town. Household furnishings, all the modern appliances and lots of clothes for the whole family. If I had a store I’d definitely offer it to the customers. The best part about it is you have this wonderful inventory and don’t have to carry the stock. The customers order it through the store, and when it arrives, they pay for it. Eaton's has a full return policy. It’s true the margins are small, but there’s really not much risk involved. It takes a while to get here, but at least it’s a possibility for everyone.
“What else?” William asked.
“Well, we’re pretty much held hostage as far as food supplies go because there’s only one place to shop, so to speak. Take for instance the Oriental community. They would like to see more spices brought in. By the time McMichael brings them up from Vancouver, the prices are so inflated they can’t afford them. But there’s no where else to go unless they want the expense of visiting the city. They wish he’d stock more dried goods, particularly dried fish.”
“Bit of a monopoly is it? I thought that was illegal,” William replied. “Do you think you could run it, and staff it, and keep the customers happy? Seriously?”
“Yes, Lucy will help me, she needs a job.”
Olivia explained to her father the events that had transpired in Lucy’s life.
“Everyone loves her; she’ll make a wonderful clerk. I could start her part-time if I had to, until things got going.”
“And McMichael, he won’t give her a job?”
“He thinks she’s too fragile.”
“And is she?” he asked.
“What do you think?”
William looked across the room and saw Lucy deep in conversation with his brother Aaron. Since Aaron had little time for silly people, no matter how beautiful they may be, and he seemed to be deeply engrossed, William assumed she wasn’t at all fragile. The fact that she was drinking scotch one for one with Aaron and seemed no worse for her efforts, also didn’t go without notice.
“And what about the bookkeeping?”
“I thought I’d do that.”
William laughed heartily.
“I don’t recall math being your strong suit Olivia. You’re more the creative type. Oh don’t pout, it’s much more lucrative being the entrepreneur. What about that Sarah girl? Isn’t she a bookkeeper?”
“Yes, but she’s McMichael’s bookkeeper.”
“Ah, I see. Well you never know, maybe she’s ready for a change. He doesn’t actually own the town Olivia. He just likes to control it. I think your idea has merit. Let me have a quiet conversation with your Uncle Aaron and see what we can do. He mentioned he was looking for a new venture up north. Maybe this would be the thing for him to get his feet wet, you never know.”
“But McMichael wouldn’t rent me the property so I could go into competition with him, and he controls everything, just like you said. And then there’s Frank’s job to consider. Perhaps I’m not being realistic here.”
“I gather Frank doesn’t have the desire to enter into this business with you?” her father asked.
“No, he’d probably divorce me. He’s afraid McMichael would fire him.”
William forced himself to remain expressionless. The worst of that outcome, he thought to himself, would be that Olivia would have to return to Seattle.
“But it’s something you’d really like to do?”
“Yes father,” Olivia admitted. “It is. I know I can do it.”
“He’s not going to be happy ab
out it.”
“Frank?” Olivia said. “I know. But I need to do something for myself.”
“I meant McMichael. How to you plan to handle that?”
“With my head held high, like a Bower always does. I learned a lot from you, from the conversations at the dinner table over the years. I know I need to be determined. I know I need to be tough. I just don’t have the money to do it. Frank’s got me on an allowance that barely buys groceries.”
“You don’t have a joint bank account?” her father asked. “Your mother and I have one, that way she can get what she needs when she needs it. He doesn’t trust you enough for that?”
“No,” Olivia said. “I don’t have a bank account at all.”
William Bower held the rage he was feeling deep inside. His daughter was being treated in a manner unbecoming a Bower by that husband of hers, and he wasn’t going to stand for it. He hadn’t liked Frank much before the wedding, and now he liked him even less.
“Well then maybe we should send your brother Jason back with you to take a look around. Since he came back from the war he’s been dabbling in real estate for your Uncle Aaron. He’s good at it too. He wants to get into developments with your brother Billy, on the land acquisitions side. I think they’ll make quite the go of it. He’s a changed man since he returned, Jason is. He has a totally different outlook, a different value of life.”
Olivia looked over at her brother Jason who was attempting to dance with Sarah. He had lost a lot of the extra weight he had been carrying around since his teenaged years, and for the first time in her life, she noticed that her oldest brother was really quite handsome. Since his leg had been injured during the war (he really had run away and joined the army), his mobility was somewhat challenged. He needed to use a cane to steady his walk. But there he was, making a brave attempt at dancing with Sarah, who of course was quite smitten with him. The unusual thing was, this time the object of her desire seemed to be equally enamoured with Sarah.
