by Liz Turner
“That’s not true. I think breaking up with him was a relief to her. Margie was happy, I tell you. Although…” Byron paused.
“What?”
“It could be nothing… but… the last few weeks, she did bring up death a lot.”
“Death?” Alarm bells started to ring in Victoria’s head.
“Yeah. Like, she told me about her father. About how he’d died of an insulin overdose, and how she sometimes wondered if it was suicide. She said she wished she had a way of being inside his brain, of seeing how his mind worked. She once asked me if I thought suicide was ever acceptable.”
“What did you say?”
“I told her it was a sin.” Byron shrugged. “A terrible way to waste life.”
“Do you think there’s a chance she was thinking of committing suicide?” Victoria asked.
“She couldn’t be,” Byron said. “It was just talk, wasn’t it? Was it? Should I have reported it?” He looked horrified at the thought. “I never even imagined she could have…”
The door slammed shut, and Vanilla gave a bark. Annie was back, and for now, their talk would have to cease.
Chapter 9
Karen and Annie both walked in, with Karen whistling a merry tune.
“What’s this, what’s this? Cinnamon cookies!” Karen laughed. “You’ve been holding out on us! Come on Annie, let’s attack that plate.”
“Hold it, let it cool.” Victoria protested.
But Karen had already brought out glasses and poured the milk. The four were soon seated at the table chomping on the cookies. Victoria sneaked a few to Vanilla. Karen’s good cheer seemed to have swept Annie up so that she was looking much happier now, though she kept stealing glances at Byron.
“So, guess who’s getting an award from the Better Business Bureau in Edmonton next month,” Karen said with a big grin. “I’ll give you three guesses, and all three better be me.”
“Oh, Karen that’s beautiful!” Victoria smiled.
“It is kind of awesome,” Karen said with a big smile. “I should be a bit more humble, I know,b but this just makes me so proud. My program to give away excess inventory to organizations that needed it has been a hit. There’s even talk about me holding a lecture series.”
“I’m very proud,” Victoria said, rising up to give her a hug. “You’ve been working long hours, and it’s good to see that it’s paying off.”
“Come see the outfit I’m planning to wear? I just received news today, but I’m already planning it all out.”
Leaving the kids to do the dishes, the two wandered upstairs to Karen’s room.
The second floor was Karen’s workshop, where she made wild, fascinating jewelry out of colored glass. Some of it had been featured in local magazines, and a lot of the pieces were in the center of display stands at Larch’s boutiques. Karen’s room, however, was further upstairs, on the third floor, where their father had once lived.
Her room was decorated in sea-green and white, with large modern art canvases showing silhouetted men in anonymous cities covering each wall. The bed had a pile of clothes on it that she apparently hadn’t bothered to put away after doing her laundry.
Karen put these aside and brought out a few outfits, including a navy blue dress that Victoria thought would suit the occasion best.
“I saw Jay Cutler leaving the house when I was coming home,” Karen said as she wiggled into the dress. “Did he have any news about Margie?”
“No news about her yet.” Victoria sighed. “He’d come to talk to Byron.”
“Ah. Well, the bruises on his face matched the cuts on Byron’s knuckles. Anything serious between those two?”
“I hope not,” Victoria said. “Byron’s never been one to get into fights.”
“Not over Margie I hope,” Karen said. “I never liked her much.”
“She worked for you, right?”
“She did until I fired her,” Karen said. “She was terribly unreliable. We were lucky if she came in on time two days a week. I’d still be ok with it if she weren't also terribly clumsy. By the time she somehow managed to break yet another case of soda and get coke all over my floors, I’d had enough. I lost my temper a little bit. Anyway, I’m sad she chose to run away, but to be honest, I wasn’t surprised.”
“But Byron was,” Victoria said. “So was Jay. They both thought she had reason to stay.”
“Kids aren’t very good at figuring out the difference between people who are mysterious and profound, and those who are just flaky.” Karen laughed. “Especially when they’re interested in that person romantically.”
“Maybe so.”
“In any case, if Byron was becoming interested in her, it’s a good thing she’s gone,” Karen said.
“Karen!” Victoria turned to her sister, shocked. Typically so sensitive, every once in awhile, Karen could say something that actually made Victoria wonder how much she knew her sister. After all, once upon a time, she had thought she knew her father… before, that is, he had found out some of his secrets.
“I mean… I’m sorry for her, and she’s clearly going through some stuff if she’s chosen to run away.” Karen amended. “But I’m glad that she’s out of Byron’s life. Girls like that are a bad influence, and he’s at a stage where he ought to be focussing on his studies.”
“I still don’t...”
“It’s the mother, you know,” Karen said. “The mother’s fault. She knew Margie never liked Jonas, and he made no great secret about disliking her too. It was a recipe for disaster, really, with Michelle being away all the time.”
A little resentfully, Victoria said, “She’s a working mother. She can’t always be there for the kid, especially when that kid is now almost a grown up.”
“What are you getting defensive for? I’m not criticizing you. You’re wonderful with Byron and Annie.”
“It’s not that, Karen. I just feel that you're a little harsh on both Margie and her mom.”
“Well, like I said, I never liked either of them,” Karen said. “Now forget about them, how’s that hunk of a man of yours?”
“He’s not quite “my man,” Victoria said.
“And yet you knew exactly who I’m talking about.” Karen teased. “Weren’t you supposed to go on a date with him sometime this week?”
“Tomorrow,” Victoria smiled. “He said he’s making my dinner. We might go for a walk after.”
“Simple pleasures.” Karen sighed. “You’ve got to find out if he has a single friend. Maybe we could double date.”
“Last time I asked, you said you were too busy with work.” Victoria pointed out.
“I guess I’m burning out on work now,” Karen said. “Balance is a beautiful thing, and very hard to maintain. I seem to tip over into one bucket or another. I’m either completely immersed in work and ignoring the rest of you, or I’m constantly hanging out with you and deciding to chuck work.”
“I’ve noticed that,” Victoria said. “It’s that artistic temperament of yours.”
Karen shrugged. “At this point, I’ve stopped fighting it. How do you do it, Victoria? You’re a model of all that a woman should be. You even find time to clean the house.”
“Hardly!” Victoria snorted. “You should see how messy my room is half the time.”
“I snuck in to borrow your sweater the other day,” Karen said. “So I did see. Speaking of which- here’s the sweater.”
“Karen! That’s one of my favorites.”
“I know. You have excellent taste, by the way.”
As a teenager, Victoria would regularly have long arguments with Karen about her habit of stealing her clothes. As a grown-up, she just found it endearing. Grabbing the sweater she said, “If I find any spots on it, I’m going to steal your favorite shoes. Fair warning.”
“Noted.” Karen laughed.
The doorbell rang downstairs, and Karen gave Victoria a look. “Were we expecting someone?”
“Not that I remember,” Victoria said.
>
She headed down and saw that Byron had already opened the door and was in conversation with the Mayor.
“Calum,” Victoria said, putting a hand on Byron’s shoulder. “What a surprise to see you here.”
“Hello, Victoria,” Calum smiled. Today, he was dressed in a pinstripe suit with a light silver tie and a pale lavender shirt. He had this habit of looking as if he had just wandered off a magazine photo shoot.
She escorted him to the living room, and when it became apparent that he wanted a private talk, she shooed off the children.
“What did you want to talk about?” She asked once they were alone.
“I wanted to ask you, as a friend, if you’d like to investigate Margie’s disappearance,” Calum said.
“Finding missing people isn’t exactly my specialty,” Victoria said. “These days I’m all about baking and making good food.”
“Come on, Victoria, you have a background in tracking down leads, don’t you?” Calum asked. “I’ve read some of your true-crime books, you know. Why did you give up writing them?”
“I lost my partner,” Victoria said flatly. “He was always better at tracking things down anyway. My role was mostly to… think about things.”
“All I know is, I trust you. You’re someone who’s in the fabric of this town. I can’t hire an outsider, but I can rely on you to just talk to people. To get a feel for what went on. I can count on you to ask the right questions.”
“Why is the Mayor interested in the case of a runaway girl anyway?” Victoria said. “That’s one of the first questions I’ll ask.”
Calum’s cheeks went faintly red. He took a deep breath. “This is the first crime on my watch.” He said. “I don’t want anyone to say that I took a lackadaisical approach to it.”
“Crime?” Victoria raised an eyebrow. “Why are you so sure a crime’s been committed? As far as I know, Margie was eighteen, and she decided to move out or run away to a bigger city. That’s all.”
“Do you really feel that way?” Calum asked. “Are you sure there is absolutely nothing shady going on here? If so, I can’t persuade you. I won’t even try.”
Victoria couldn’t quite meet his eyes. Yes, by all accounts, the story seemed clear enough. Margie Thompson, not a fan of either parent, decided that enough was enough and ran away from home.
But the alarm bells had been ringing in Victoria’s mind for quite a while now. Her intuition told her that not everything was as it seemed. Why would Margie run away a month before she graduated? If she’d held on so long, surely it made more sense for her to hang on a month more. If nothing else, she’d find better jobs as a graduate than as a dropout.
Then, there was the breakup that Byron had witnessed. It might point to planning on Margie’s part, or it might speak to the fact that Margie had plans to date Byron. In any case, why break up the night before you were planning to run away? Why not just run away? That’d be the easier route, wouldn’t it?
Calum saw the look in her eyes and nodded. “So you think there’s something fishy too. I knew it! I had a big fight with Corporal Jager about the whole thing; he's so slow about it all. People are talking, and I can’t afford that.”
“Yes,” Victoria smiled.
“I mean…” Calum hastily said, “I don’t like the thought of her being out there, of something happening to her. I want to make sure. Doubly sure. I’ll help you any way I can, Victoria. I can even compensate you though I don’t have a huge budget…”
“No need.” Victoria waved it off. “All I’m doing is talking to people, right? I can do that.”
“Exactly,” Calum said with relief. “And if, while you’re talking, you happen to find out that something isn’t very normal… if your intuition becomes supported by facts… well, that’s to our advantage. Just do it as fast as possible. If someone did have bad intentions, then every second she’s missing is far too long.”
Victoria nodded. “Have you talked to either Michelle or Jonas about this?”
“Jonas doesn’t like me very much,” Calum said. “Especially after he created that scene the other night. Seems to think it’s my fault that he behaved like a prize donkey.”
“I saw the whole thing.” Victoria shook her head. “Calum… what do you know about Jonas? Anything at all?”
“I know he stays at home,” Calum said. “He works freelance as a graphic designer. Earns maybe a thousand or so dollars each month. It’s Michelle who actually supports them. She never mentioned this outright, but one of the reasons she moved to town was that the living expenses were lower than the city. With her uncle gone and the house being hers outright, there was no rent to pay.”
“I’ve been inside their house, I never got the sense that money was tight,” Victoria said.
“Yes, well, as you know, the tourists have been abandoning Larch Hot Springs since our streak of bad luck,” Calum said.
“Multiple murders in a few years, you mean?”
“That, and new fast food chains opening up in other towns near Banff,” Calum said. “I refuse to have those in our town. Anyway, Michelle’s Boutique is doing ok, but it isn't really enough to lead a lavish lifestyle.”
Something in his voice made Victoria wonder. “You’re good friends with Michelle?”
“Well, as Mayor, I make sure I’m good friends with all of my constituents.” He said.
Calum was nearing 50 now and had been married once before, to a woman who took off for a bigger city just one year after marrying him. Victoria wondered just how close his friends were, or maybe she was she being too cynical?
As if he read her thoughts, Calum said, “There’s nothing between Michelle and me, and I think she’s far too devoted to Jonas for her to even look at another man.”
Which, Victoria noted, wasn’t quite the same as saying that Calum didn’t like her.
“I just think men like Jonas are a waste of space,” Calum said. “A black spot on men everywhere. Yet girls can’t seem to resist them, while us nice guys are put in the corner.”
Eerily similar to Byron’s own opinion of Jay, Victoria thought to herself. “Don’t judge a relationship by its cover, Mayor. He must have some redeeming qualities. An artist like Jonas is probably good at giving her the emotional satisfaction she needs.”
Calum rolled his eyes as if he personally thought that he’d rather have a BMW than emotions.
“What about Michelle?” Victoria asked. “What can you tell me about her?”
“What’s to say? She’s a real woman. A good mother. She’s very broken up about Margie running away. Hasn’t left her house in a few days. Meanwhile, I saw Jonas at the store buying yet another crate of beer. If you are going to talk, I’d suggest you talk to people about him. I told Randolf he should investigate Jonas, but apparently they are buddies, so Randolf won’t.”
“That’s a very irresponsible way for the mayor to speak to the Mounties.” Victoria said. “I know Corporal Jager. He’s a reliable man who won’t hesitate to do what needs to be done. He had no compunctions investigating his own uncle at one point.”
“I remember that time,” Calum said. “As I recall, it was you who uncovered the details of that particular crime. Maybe Jager needs more competition.”
“I...
As if summoned by magic, the door creaked open, and Randolf stood there. His face was blank and smooth so that Victoria couldn’t tell how much he’d actually heard. In one hand, he had a small bunch of flowers. He sauntered in and handed these to Victoria.
“Ah, Mayor Larch,” Randolf smiled at Calum. “How nice to see you here. We seem to be bumping into each other everywhere today.”
“Randolf.” The Mayor nodded. “I was just here to convince Victoria that she needs to ask around town about Margie a little more.”
“Oh?” Randolf raised an eyebrow. “Not satisfied with my work, I take it?”
“I thought I made that clear to you earlier,” Calum said.
“You did,” Randolf said. “In any
case, I’m sure Victoria gave you a polite refusal. Though I have my doubts on the polite part.”
“Actually, you should have your doubts about the refusal part,” Calum said. “Victoria’s agreed to talk to people.”
Randolf’s mouth pressed together in a thin line. “Ah,” he said. “I see.” The look he gave Victoria made her want to squirm.
“Well,” Randolf said. “You’ll be glad to know that I’ve got reports back from the state police about the bulletin I sent them. There’s been no sighting of Margie at any of the borders. The police in Calgary and Edmonton have shown her photo around at bus stops and train stations, but no one’s seen her. I even got my friend in Calgary to do a review of traffic cameras, and there’s no match.” Randolf said.
“That’s horrible!” Victoria said.
Calum and Randolf looked at her.
“I mean… if she’s missing, but she hasn’t run away to any of the cities, that must mean…”
“That she’s backpacking for a week in Banff?” Randolf asked. “I’ve asked the rangers there to keep a lookout too, but there’s no sign of her so far.”
“Randolf. You must be thinking what I’m thinking.” Victoria said.
“I’m afraid not,” Randolf replied. “I think that she hitchhiked. She got into an unknown car and got dropped off at a city farther away. It’s a risky thing for a young girl to do, but there’s only so many resources we can spare to look for her.”
“Randolf. Come on.” Victoria said. “You have to at least entertain the possibility that she’s dead.”
“I’ve had sniffer dogs look for her,” Randolf said. “The Rangers have too. If her body’s buried anywhere in a fifty-mile radius, we would have found her. Believe me, we would.”
“Oh,” Calum said. “But then… where is she? She can’t have gone up in smoke, man.”
“As far as I’m concerned, she escaped from a family she didn’t like,” Randolf said. “A year or two in the big bad world might convince her to come back, or it might propel her into a new orbit of friends and a happier life. Either way, to me, the case is closed.”
But to Victoria, it felt as if the case had just been opened.
