Finding Isadora

by Fox, Susan

  “Thanks.” Gabriel dug in.

  Between bites, he chatted easily with Grace about this and that.

  Toying with one of my dangly butterfly earrings, I watched him. He talked with animation and ate with gusto. He drank wine with gusto too, and I silently retrieved the wine box and refilled his glass. My feet and legs were tired from standing all day, so I sank into the chair between Gabriel and Grace.

  The two of them seemed engrossed in comparing acquaintances, yet I noticed his eyes light on me. More specifically, on my bare shoulder. Quickly I straightened in my chair and shoved my drooping sweater back up to where it belonged. God, the man was already worried I might cheat on Richard, and now I was giving out all the wrong signals.

  After he’d finished eating, he pushed his chair back from the table. “That was great.”

  For some stupid reason, I wanted to tell him I’d made the salad, but I managed to keep my mouth shut.

  “Let’s move into the living room,” Grace said. “It’s more comfortable.”

  I sprang up, grabbing my half-full glass of wine and moving ahead of Gabriel to reclaim my corner of the couch, and the one-eyed cat.

  Gabriel took the other end of the couch, maintaining a good four-foot distance between us. Grace settled in the easy chair that wasn’t occupied by Jack and Martin, and curled her legs under her. My mother was well-named; every movement had an intrinsic grace that was easy and ineffably female. Though she’d passed sixty a couple of years ago, she was still a beautiful, fit, sensual woman.

  Woodstock rose and sauntered down to Gabriel’s end of the couch, stretched, then sprawled across his lap. He stroked her and she began to purr. No wonder. Lucky cat.

  “Jimmy Lee says neither of you has ever been charged with arson before,” Gabriel said to Grace, and I forced my attention back to the conversation.

  Was it my imagination or did she study him for a moment too long before she answered? Was she, too, distracted by his downright sexiness? “Neither of us has ever been charged with arson,” she confirmed. “Mostly it’s contempt of court for violating injunctions. Obstruction, disturbing the peace, mischief, resisting arrest.” She waved a dismissive hand. “Minor league. No charges for anything as big as arson. Which Jimmy Lee didn’t commit, as I’m sure he told you.”

  Gabriel picked up his wine glass from a side table and drained it in one long swallow. Some instinct made me rise and top up my mother’s and my own glasses as well as his. I had a sense something bad was coming. He took another swallow and bit his bottom lip.

  I leaned toward him. “Gabriel, what’s going on?”

  “The Cosmystiques lab was badly burned. An accelerant was used and then chemicals in the lab exploded, making the situation worse.”

  “The animals…” I sighed, not sure whether a quick death by fire was worse or better than the fate they’d suffered at Cosmystiques’ hands.

  Gabriel nodded in acknowledgment, then went on. “Arson’s a serious offence. For arson causing damage to someone else’s property, the maximum sentence is fourteen years.”

  “Fourteen!” Grace paled, and I swallowed the bitter taste of fear.

  “Unfortunately,” he went on, “it’s worse than that. A woman was seriously injured in that fire. A lab tech, putting in some overtime. She’s in the hospital, in critical condition.”

  I sucked in a breath as my mother said, “Oh my goddess, the poor woman!”

  Gabriel glanced at me, then fixed his gaze on Grace. “Because the woman was there and was injured, Jimmy Lee’s been charged with arson with disregard to human life. The penalty is much more severe.”

  “What is it?” I demanded as cold prickles danced over my skin.

  “The maximum is life, but that’s very unlikely. Unless the woman dies. In that case the Crown would probably go for the max.”

  Grace gasped.

  I leapt up and rushed over to grasp her hands, for my own reassurance as much as hers. “It won’t happen. He’s innocent, Grace. Gabriel will get him off.”

  “I will,” he said firmly.

  I sank down on the floor at my mother’s feet. Woodstock, oblivious to the tension in the room, continued to purr, her contented rumble the only sound in the room for the next few minutes.

  Then Grace shook herself. “I’m so sorry for that woman, and her family. But Gabriel, Jimmy Lee really didn’t do it. He was nowhere near Cosmystiques last night. He was here with me, all night long.”

  Gabriel nodded. “So he said. But a common law spouse and fellow activist isn’t the most credible alibi. And the cops have evidence. They found his cigarette lighter in the parking lot.”

  I shook my head quickly. “Jimmy Lee doesn’t own a lighter. He doesn’t smoke.”

  “They found a lighter with his initials on it.”

  “It’s not his,” I protested. “Anyone who knows him can tell you he wouldn’t touch tobacco.”

  “There are other things than cigarettes, hon,” Grace reminded me.

  I groaned. Of course I knew my parents used marijuana, but did she have to share that information with my dad’s lawyer? I rose and went back to my corner of the couch.

  “Yeah, I know Jimmy Lee smokes pot,” Gabriel said. “Relax, Isadora, it’s not that big a deal in Vancouver. But Jimmy Lee says the same as the two of you, that he never uses a lighter. Could be someone else with the same initials dropped it, but my guess is it was planted. He’s being framed.”

  “Framed!” Grace and I exclaimed at the same time.

  “He’s an easy target. Loud-mouth picketer who has a bad track record with the cops. If picketing didn’t make Cosmystiques stop using animals, why wouldn’t he burn them down?”

  “He wouldn’t,” Grace said firmly. “And he didn’t.”

  “Yeah, I know. But you can see why the cops would be willing to believe it. They’d like to get him on something big, for once.” He leaned forward and gazed intently at her. “Who hates Jimmy Lee enough to frame him?”

  “No-one,” she said adamantly.

  He turned to me. “Isadora?”

  I shook my head, baffled.

  He sighed. “He didn’t have any ideas either. Think about it and let me know if you come up with any names.”

  “How strong is the Crown’s case?” I asked.

  “We won’t know until the scientific evidence is analyzed. Maybe there’s an argument to be made that it’s not arson at all. As for the lighter, I can say Jimmy Lee could have dropped it when he was out there picketing.”

  Grace was shaking her head, but he went on. “I know it’s not his. But how do we prove he never used one? Call witnesses—friends—to say he always used matches? To say they saw him toking up, and they’d been doing it too? Yeah, the law isn’t really enforced, but I’m not sure we want to ask witnesses to flaunt marijuana use in court. Cops might view it as a dare and arrest them. That’s a lot to ask of a friend.” He sighed and ran his fingers through his long hair, pulling it back from his face. “Anyhow, that’s a ways down the road.”

  I wanted to ask how long he envisioned this road stretching, but I was afraid to hear the answer.

  “The first thing is to get him out of jail,” Grace said firmly, determination giving her cheeks color again.

  “I’ll do my best. Onus is on the Crown to show cause why he shouldn’t be released. They may argue he’s a flight risk. I’ll point out he’s never skipped before. Not in Canada, anyhow.”

  As he spoke, I watched my mother, and saw her eyes widen in anxiety. Then, as Gabriel said, “The only time he ran was when he left the States dodging the draft, and I don’t think that’ll count against him,” she relaxed again.

  “The Crown may also say he’s a danger to the community,” Gabriel went on.

  “That’s absurd,” she said indignantly. “He’s protecting the community.”

  I groaned. “Yeah, but his idea of protection isn’t the same as the justice system’s.”

  “The system operates as effectively as
a water bucket full of holes,” Grace retorted.

  “Save the philosophical arguments,” Gabriel said dryly. “Tomorrow I’m confined to legal ones. But I’ll certainly mention that he’s never harmed another human being.” He frowned. “Well, not seriously harmed. It doesn’t help that he’s scuffled with more than one cop.”

  “They had it coming,” my mother protested.

  He grinned at her. “I believe you, woman. Now let’s hope the Provincial Court judge does.”

  She grinned back, and tossed her braid. “If anyone can persuade her or him, it’s you, Gabriel.”

  Again I felt the rapport between them. Suddenly suspicious, I narrowed my eyes and studied Grace’s now-flushed face. My mother and Jimmy Lee, hippies from the sixties, didn’t believe in fidelity any more than they believed in marriage. Grace thought Gabriel was a hottie, and, despite their age difference, my mom was no slouch in the looks department herself. If Jimmy Lee wasn’t in jail, if I wasn’t here to play chaperone, would Grace and Gabriel be getting it on?

  It always drove me crazy when one of my parents got involved with someone else. I couldn’t accept their opinion that fidelity was abnormal and unhealthy, and I always worried they’d break up and my family would fall apart.

  Now I squinted at Gabriel. He was probably into that free love stuff, too. He’d never married Richard’s mother, and no doubt he’d had scores of lovers since then. He probably had scores of lovers right now. Not that his lovers were any of my business. I only hoped they wouldn’t include my mother.

  With a start, I tuned back in to what Gabriel was saying. “I’ll try to get him released on an undertaking to appear.” He glanced between my mom and me. “The court may ask for a recognizance. That’s a specified sum of money Jimmy Lee would forfeit if he didn’t show up in court.”

  “We don’t have much in the bank,” Grace said.

  “So Jimmy Lee said.”

  “I have two thousand,” I said, knowing it wasn’t much.

  “With any luck,” Gabriel said, “it won’t come to that. But the judge will require him to hand over his passport, so bring that along tomorrow, Grace, okay?”

  She nodded. “Is there anything more we should know?”

  “That’s it for now,” he said. He drained the last swallow of wine, eased Woodstock off his lap, and rose. As he walked past me, the fly of his jeans was at eye level. Faded denim, dusted with smoke-colored cat hair.

  Well-worn denim hinting suggestively at what lay beneath. My fingers itched to pull those cat hairs off one by one. My theory about familiarity breeding sexual indifference was definitely not proving true. I leaped to my feet and took a couple of steps away. “Grace, do you want me to stay with you tonight?”

  She hugged me. “No, hon, I’m okay. I’m putting my trust in Gabriel.”

  “Then I’d better be on my way. I’ll try to swap shifts with one of the other vets so I can go to Jimmy Lee’s hearing.”

  “Family support is good,” Gabriel said. “Shows he has a serious connection to this community.” His gaze drifted down to my shoulder. “How you getting home?”

  I yanked my drooping sweater into place. “By bus. I don’t own a car.”

  “I’ll drop you.”

  “You don’t have to.”

  “I’ll drop you.” For the first time, he sounded tired.

  I realized it was almost midnight and he’d been working all day. “Thanks,” I murmured.

  At the door, my mother reached out and gripped Gabriel by both shoulders. “Thank you.”

  He nodded. “Try not to worry. It’s early days yet. See you in the morning, Grace.”

  He and I rode down in the elevator in silence. When we walked through the bland lobby and out into the cool evening, I said, “I’ll handle your fees. Grace and Jimmy Lee don’t have any money. If you need a retainer now, I can write you a check.” I bit my lip. “Though maybe I’ll need my two thousand for that recognizance you mentioned, in which case…”

  He stared at me in the pallid artificial light above the apartment entrance and I stopped babbling.

  “My car’s over there,” he said, and started to walk down the street.

  I followed, keeping a clear foot away from him on the sidewalk.

  He unlocked the passenger door of a beat-up old black Volvo, pulled it open, then started around to the driver’s side. Richard would have waited for me to get in, then closed the door behind me. When he’d first done it I’d been startled because it was one of those old-fashioned gestures my parents and their friends branded as chauvinistic. I’d quickly learned that Richard didn’t have a chauvinistic bone in his body, and I appreciated his gestures as courtesies. Ones he’d obviously learned from his mother and stepfather, not his dad.

  Chuckling to myself, I hopped in. The roof light, which hadn’t come on when the door opened, flickered to life.

  Gabriel opened the driver’s door and began to get in, then froze. I followed the direction of his gaze and hurriedly hauled up my sweater again. Then his gaze dropped and again I followed it, to see my nipples were beaded, poking at the loosely knit cotton.

  I crossed my arms across my chest and he unfroze, with a muttered, “Fuck.” He swung into the car and slammed the door so hard it made me—and the car—jump. The roof light flickered again and went out, and I was grateful for the relative darkness.

  Did Gabriel think I was coming on to him? “When I put on this sweater, I thought I’d be alone with Grace.” The words blurted out clumsily.

  He gripped the steering wheel with both hands and lowered his head to rest on them. In a measured, gravelly tone, he said, “I know. Sorry, I shouldn’t have looked.”

  “It’s, uh, okay.” Any man would look at a woman’s nipples. He was a man; I was a woman. For one treacherous moment, I wished it were that uncomplicated.

  Gabriel sighed, straightened, and turned on the ignition.

  “So, uh, about your fees?” I said.

  He pulled away from the curb. “That’s between me and Jimmy Lee. He’s my client.”

  “But I’ll foot the bill. Like I said, he doesn’t have any money.”

  “We’ll deal with it later.”

  “We’ll find a way of paying. You can’t do this pro bono.” I knew that lawyers sometimes worked free for clients who couldn’t afford the fee, and I didn’t want my father to be a charity case.

  Gabriel glanced toward me, cocking an eyebrow. “I can do what I want.” His lips twitched in a wry grin. “Usually.” The grin widened and he shook his head at some private joke. “Where are we going? Do you live with Richard?”

  “No.” The word burst out, making me feel foolish. After all, soon my fiancé and I would be living together. “I’m in the West End. If you go over the Burrard Bridge and turn left on Davie, I’ll tell you where to go from there.”

  We drove in silence and my thoughts turned away from my disconcerting reaction to Gabriel to more serious matters. “I can’t believe Jimmy Lee could face a murder charge.”

  “If the woman survives, he won’t.”

  I shivered. “It’s so awful, what happened to her. And here we are, hoping she survives so the Crown won’t charge Jimmy Lee with a more serious offence.”

  He shook his head. “None of us is that selfish. We all want her to survive for her own sake as well as your father’s.”

  It was true. I knew it as well as he did, and the thought was reassuring.

  “You going to be okay tonight?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Like you told Grace, there’s no point worrying yet.” I thought again of the way he and my mother had connected. “You two got along well.”

  “She’s a fine woman.”

  “Yes, she is. And she and Jimmy Lee are a wonderful couple. They’ve been together for more than thirty-five years, and they’re as much in love as ever.” Grace would be mad if she knew I was warning Gabriel away from her, but I couldn’t help myself.

  “On the subject of couples,” he said, “I’
m surprised about you and Richard.”

  Immediately defensive, I said, “Why?”

  “You’re not his usual type of woman.”

  “Oh? And what’s his usual type? Bright young lawyers with classy clothes?”

  He chuckled. “Well, yeah, maybe. But what I was really thinking was, someone whose parents are pretty much the opposite of Grace and Jimmy Lee.”

  The comment defused my annoyance. “I’m sure that’s true.”

  “With me as a father, he got enough of that anti-establishment stuff to last him a lifetime.” We had stopped at a red light and he turned to me. “So, I’m curious. He’s met your parents, right? How do they get along?”

  I bit my lip, then chewed on it. “You know what it’s like at a zoo? The people stare in at the animals, and the animals stare out at the humans?”

  “Two different species with mutual curiosity?” The light turned green and he pulled away.

  “Uh-huh. I’m sure my parents will come to see what a great guy Richard is, but he’s not the type of person they’re used to. You’re the kind of man they hang with. As for him, he thinks they’re eccentric. Holdovers from a different age.”

  “Dinosaurs. Your parents and me.”

  I glanced quickly at him. The panther thought he was a dinosaur? “Hardly that.”

  “From a different age, you said. Eccentric, curiosities, no longer relevant.” There was an edge to his voice.

  “You’re not. I mean, look at you. You do valuable work representing low income people and working for the Multicultural Center. As for Jimmy Lee and Grace, okay, some of their strategies are straight out of the sixties, but the causes they’re fighting are topical and important. I mean, the animal testing thing in cosmetics is reprehensible and—”

  He held up a hand. “Hey, you can stop with the argument. I’m on your side. I’m only glad you can see the relevance of what your parents and I are doing. I wish Richard did.”

  “He does,” I protested. “It’s just that—” Oops. Would I ever learn to shut my mouth around him?