Shu-li put both her hands on his. “Don’t do that, listen to me. You’re not talking to Austin. This is just me. Will Graham be ready to play his part?”
He pulled his hands from hers and stared at the ground. “I don’t know.”
“Look at me.” Steve did. “I want to destroy Harold. But we’re not getting there. Shane was our real chance. I don’t see it happening.”
“Austin thinks he still can—”
“What, hypnotize Shane into mending? It’s a multiple fracture. Austin’s good, but he’s fooling himself.”
“But if Certane can get past that—”
“Carl’s good too, but I heard it in his voice—we’re on the wrong track. The rules are too tight, there’s no wiggle room.”
Steve’s right hand grabbed his left fingers, started to massage them. He dropped them as he saw Shu-li eyeing his move. “What’re you saying? We should call it off?”
“We have to talk to Austin. Make him see. Maybe try again later.”
“With a new trio of students? I’m not sure I’m up to it.”
“Austin has to listen to us. Stop telling himself everything’s going to be okay.”
Steve shook his head. “Normally I enjoy being here on Quadra with the two of you. The three days together gives me new energy.”
“Yes,” she said, “me too.”
“But it’s strange. By the fourth day I’m ready to leave.”
Shu-li felt a sharp chill take her.
“Must be a throwback to my skating days. By the fourth day I wanted to get away from people like myself.”
She forced herself to smile. “Even when you were in the final round?”
“Especially. That intensity.” He nodded wistfully. “This time I’m ready to leave now.”
The fourth day. Her heart pounded. She glanced down to the surf. All these years, was this why she’d felt such discomfort? “Come on, let’s go back.” She led the way.
• • •
Noel drove through the hospital lot twice. No space. He parked half a block away. Walking back, Alana said, “Please may I come with you?”
“It’s an interrogation, Alana,” Noel said. “Three on one doesn’t work.”
“I noticed the strange fall.” She pulled back from a pout.
“Yes, you did. Thank you.”
“We’ve got to take it from here,” Kyra finished. “We’ll meet up at the cafeteria.”
Alana looked at them, their tones as businesslike as their demeanors. She dragged out her iPhone, plugged in the ear pieces, turned something on and walked away.
Shane was dressed, sitting on the edge of his bed. Tim sat in the visitors’ chair. “Hi,” Kyra said, “How’re things?”
“They’re letting me go home,” Shane said with a smile. “Dad’s getting me a loaner wheelchair and crutches.”
Noel said, “We’d like to talk, Shane. Tim, Alana’s in the cafeteria. Will you join her?”
“Oh.” He looked at Shane, at Noel and Kyra. He took off his cap. “Well.”
“We’ll be down soon,” Kyra said. Noel sat in Tim’s chair. Kyra remained standing. Shane watched Tim leave, then stared at his cast.
Kyra closed the door. “Shane, we’ve watched the tapes of your competitions. You’re very good. We also saw you fall. We watched that one about ten times. Frame by frame. We have some questions about it.”
Shane swiveled his head from her to Noel, made as if to stand on his cast, flinched and squirmed back onto the bed. “Yeah?”
Noel said, “We watched the tapes with Shorty and Alana. They think there was something suspicious about that fall. They pointed out that you dug your pick in on the toe loop, which you started on the back outside edge and ended on the inside right. Shane, did you throw that competition?”
His face had turned pale. “What do you think I am, man?”
“A liar,” said Kyra. “You’re too good a skater to have fallen right there. Why didn’t the judges pick it up?”
Sweat had formed on his brow “I don’t know.” His pupils contracted.
Silence, as all realized what Shane had admitted.
“Why, Shane?” Noel asked.
Shane shrugged, let out a sob, twisted so he could fall onto his pillow.
“Why, Shane?” Kyra watched his shoulders tremble. Some instinct drew her to rub his back, but she resisted. “You’re too beautiful a skater to throw away a career.”
Noel: “We know Derek was dealing pot to support your career. He’s in a coma. We know someone sideswiped Tim, on purpose. We do not think someone hit the car you were in to damage you, but to get rid of Kyra and me, the investigators. You seem to be the crux of this. You and that fall. Why’d you do it, Shane?”
Shoulders heaving slowly. Mumbling.
“What did you say?” Kyra moved closer.
Now his chest heaved. Now she did rub his back. He was just a kid. When he moved on skates, a beautiful kid. After a few seconds the heaving subsided and Kyra drew back.
Shane sat up. Noel handed him the box of tissue. Shane blew and wiped. “The judges didn’t catch it. They didn’t disqualify me. I just didn’t get a medal.”
“Why?” Noel asked.
Shane took a deep breath. He stared out between Noel and Kyra. “Austin—” Shane’s mouth stayed open. They waited. A whisper. “Austin told me I had to.”
Kyra shivered. “But—why?”
“Because if I didn’t fall he’d stop—” he sniffed a sob, “—supporting me.”
They stared at him. Noel whispered, “Why did he want you to fall?”
“I don’t know!” He shuddered. “I don’t know.”
Kyra now: “But what good did it do him if you fell in that competition?”
“I wish I knew. He said I had to fall, make it look accidental. That’s all I know.”
“I think you know something more than that,” Noel said.
“What? What more?”
“You tell us.”
Shane stayed silent. They waited. Ten seconds passed, twenty. Shane stared at the floor. He spoke but so quietly they heard no words.
Noel asked, “What did you say?
“I know something else.”
“What?”
“He—wants me to fall again.”
“When?”
“In September. First qualifying round.” He breathed in hard, small gulps of air.
His tone acerbic, Noel said, “You won’t be falling soon, not with that leg.”
Shane squeezed his eyes shut. Tears seeped out. “I couldn’t, I couldn’t. I’ve been an asshole but I know what I can’t do! I can’t stand it!”
“He simply told you to fall, just like that?”
Shane shook his head. “When he took me on. When I was fourteen. He said one day I’d have to do something for him. He made me promise. He’d let me know when.”
“And he waited, what, four years?”
Shane stared at Kyra. “Do you know how hard this is?”
“It’ll get easier.” Kyra could feel a great resistance in Shane, words he couldn’t bring himself to say. “Just tell us all of it.”
“He started pushing. A year or so ago. Then in the winter he insisted.”
“But how could he insist?”
“He has the money. He bought me everything I needed. And—”
They waited. Noel prompted: “And finally you gave in.”
A long sigh. “Yeah. I gave in.”
“That’s it? That’s all.”
“Isn’t that enough?!”
“Is there something more you’re not telling us?”
“I can’t do it again!”
Noel said, “He can’t make you. He can try to undercut your skating career, but he can’t make you be untrue to yourself.”
Shane mumbled, “Yes he can.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Because I know him! I know he can.”
“How?”
He closed his eyes again. “He say
s he can take pain away, and he’s done it for me. He says he can cause pain just as easily.”
“‘Cause pain’? What’s that mean?”
“I don’t know. He’s never made it clearer. ‘Don’t make me cause pain, Shane.’”
Noel glanced at Kyra. “Cause pain.” To Shane: “Has he ever caused you pain?”
Hesitantly: “No. Not really.”
“How do you mean, not really?”
“I mean no, he hasn’t caused me any pain!”
Time to move on. Noel said, “Now what do you want to do?”
“What do you mean?”
“Are you going to tell your family?”
“About Austin?”
“All that you just told us.”
“Do I have to?”
“It’d be best if you did. Otherwise we’ll have to. At least your father, since he hired us.”
Shane thought about this for a full half minute. Then he glanced from Noel to Kyra and back again. “If I do—when I do—can you both be there?”
Kyra glanced at Noel, who nodded. “It’d be best if you did this when they were all together. Say, this afternoon. In your home. We’ll meet you there.”
Slowly Shane nodded. “Thank you. Should I tell my parents when they drive me home?”
“That’s up to you,” said Kyra. “It might be easier if you only had to do this once.”
Shane nodded again. “Yeah.”
As if on cue, the door opened. Jason, pulling a wheelchair, crutches balanced on the seat.
“Hang in there, Shane,” Kyra said. “We’re getting there.” To Jason she added, “Alana and Tim are in the cafeteria. Do you mind driving them over to Quadra? We’ve got a job to do. And then we should all meet at your house. About two?”
TEN
Austin rocketed his Porsche smoothly down the driveway and came to a sharp stop, the sort he used to do on blades, slivers of ice arcing away, a bow and a little jump: his trademark. He closed the door, no thin tinny sound here, a solid comforting thonk. Everything would work out.
He found Shu-li and Steve on the deck. “Hi,” Shu-li said, giving him a brilliant smile. “We’re shucking oysters for Rockefeller—”
“He’s coming for brunch?”
“Nit, oysters Rockefeller. My Asian twist.”
Steve beamed. “Got them down below the cliff. What richesse you have, Austin.”
“Two dozen for three people, that’s enough.” Shu-li stood.
Steve regarded the half shells they’d discarded. “Where do you put these?”
Austin made a dismissive gesture. “Randy chucks them back into the drink.”
Shu-li picked up the bowl. “We’ll eat in half an hour. You attend to libations.”
“A dry white?” Austin said to Steve. They walked to the closet that Austin called his wine cellar though it was at ground level. “Vancouver Island Sauvignon.” Austin presented a bottle to Steve. “Not this one, though. I have two cold.” In the kitchen he took a bottle from the refrigerator, prepared an ice bucket and set the bottle in it.
Steve asked, “How is Shane?”
“The same. It’ll take time. He’s going to be fine.”
Austin, fooling himself? “A true shame.”
“Yes. But we’ll work through it.” Austin located a corkscrew and opened the bottle. He poured three glasses, put one by Shu-li, gave one to Steve. He toasted: “To a beautiful summer day.”
They sipped, then Shu-li said, “Out. You distract me.”
Steve and Austin moved to the table on the lawn.
Austin said, “How’s your student doing? Graham?”
“So-so.”
“He’ll improve?”
“Of course. But he may not get there.”
“You’ll get him there. Won’t you.”
A threat? “I hope so. Yet—”
“Shu-li’s girl’s promising. She’ll help.”
“Shu-li thinks so. But the girl won’t qualify for a year. We were counting on Shane.” He sipped again. He knew Austin didn’t want to hear this. “Shu-li phoned Carl.”
“And?”
“Shu-li was brilliant. He’s never heard of anyone getting to the Olympics without qualifying but he’ll ask some pointed questions in the right places.”
Austin scanned the panorama. He loved it: treetops, beach below, cliffs to the left and right. Waves breaking, seagulls squalling, flying after and above an eagle; stolen one of their babes for breakfast? “Carl’s going to find a way to avoid the qualifiers. I can speed up work with Shane.”
Steve put his drink down and rubbed his fingertips. “We need to have a re-think.”
From the kitchen Shu-li called, “Nobody going to refresh my wine?”
• • •
At the rental car Kyra felt the seat. Nearly dry. She quartered the blanket and sat on it.
Noel got behind the wheel. “What do we know?”
“More than we did a few hours ago.” Kyra blew her lips out.
“Shane may start to feel better with that off his chest.”
“Confession good for the soul?”
“Sharing.”
“I think there’s more.”
“More he hasn’t told?”
“Yeah. He’s been living with a lot of pressure. I think he’s not out from under it.”
“What makes you say that?”
“A feeling.”
“Figure it out.” Noel checked his watch and the ferry schedule. “Next stop Austin? Let him tell us what it’s about?”
“Yeah. Maybe he’s not committed a legal crime, but he’s corrupted a minor.”
“I think it’s a crime.”
“It should be. Makes me furious.” Kyra’s jaw clenched. “Let’s get to the ferry.”
Noel drove out of the lot. “We could make the noon. Unless you’re hungry?”
“Not overly. If a donut passed by I’d be tempted. You?”
“I can wait.”
“Onward, then.”
They reached the ferry in time. Ten minutes later they drove off. Kyra said, “Do we know where Austin lives?”
“Jason pointed it out when we were looking for Tim.” They headed up the hill, turned left at the shopping center where a flea market was in progress, and onto Heriot Bay Road. Something itched in Noel’s mind, related to Kyra’s thought that Shane was holding back. He couldn’t grasp it.
Kyra asked, “You know where we are?”
On the island or in this case? “Pretty sure.” After a few minutes he turned onto Hyacinthe Bay Road. “Look for a driveway with a sign OSBORNE. It’s hard to miss.”
“How do you want to handle this?”
“Businesslike. Tell him what we know and what Shane told us.”
“Didn’t someone, Linda, say he has visitors?”
“We’ll find out. There it is.” Above the entry a large cedar sign, OSBORNE, hung from a crossbar between two posts, each brandishing a single skate shape. Noel turned into a shaded gravel driveway. It wound a quarter mile through woods. Then the aspect opened into a broad meadow sloping toward the ocean. Another quarter mile until the house. Noel parked behind a dark blue Porsche. He wished he could remember what Shane had said that bothered him so.
Up three steps to an extensive roofed cedar deck. Around the corner of the house they found the front door and, on a small patch of lawn overlooking a stunning view of the sea between two cliffs, three people eating at a table.
Austin patted his lips with a napkin and stood. “Yes?”
“We met at the rink and the hospital.” Noel repeated their names. “We have to talk.”
“I’m eating with friends. I can see you later.”
“Afraid not,” Kyra said. “Time’s running out. On all of us.”
“It won’t take long,” Noel added. “Where can we go?”
Austin frowned, but turned to his companions. “Excuse me.” He opened the door. “There’s my office. Turn right.”
A comfortable room with
an elegant antique roll-top desk. At it a captain’s chair, a loveseat to one side, a sofa to the other. Kyra sat on the sofa, Noel on the loveseat. Austin sat at the desk and turned the chair to face them. “What’s this about?”
“We watched the tapes of Shane’s competitions. We especially watched his fall last winter. It looked deliberate. We asked Shane. He said he’d fallen on purpose, throwing the competition. He said he did it because you pressured him into it.”
“Corrupting a young man,” Kyra threw in.
“He said if he didn’t fall, you wouldn’t continue to support him financially.”
“We’re asking you, Why?” Kyra finished.
“All outrageous.” Austin’s face remained impassive, his voice low and steely. “You know I help him focus through hypnosis? We’ve had sessions to prevent—prevent—him falling. You must have confused what he told you. Shane wouldn’t suggest something so inane. But I’ll speak to him. Thank you for letting me know.” He stood.
Kyra wanted to choke the smug bastard, but didn’t move. Noel remained seated. He said, “Shane told us that, when he was thirteen or fourteen, you said one day you’d ask him to do something he might not want to do. You waited till he was seventeen, then asked him to throw a competition. He wouldn’t. You began to insist. In the end, he did it for you. It began to destroy him. And now you’re insisting he do it again. That’s no hypnosis misunderstanding.”
Austin walked to the door and held it open. “Get out or I’ll call the police.”
“That would be very foolish,” said Kyra.
“Very well. Make yourselves comfortable. But you’re about to be thrown out.”
“From now on it’s simple. We know what you did. Learning why comes next.”
Austin lifted the phone off its cradle and pressed a couple of buttons. “Randy, I need your help. I’ve got two crude detectives in my office who won’t leave . . . Thanks.”
Noel glanced at Kyra, who nodded. “Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll be back.” They walked past him and out the door.
• • •
“What was that about?” Shu-li asked when Austin returned to the table. Good thing he’d finished his oysters, she thought, before he was called away. He looked a little grey.
“Shane told them I engineered the fall.”
“Shit,” said Steve.
Never Hug a Mugger on Quadra Island Page 23
