The Kissing Fence

by B. A. Thomas-Peter

  Owl’s face appeared close to his. “What do you want?”

  William said quietly, “I want nothing.”

  “Good!” said Owl. “You may have nothing, and the peace it brings. Now, you can have anything you want, providing it is nothing, and everything. What must you have, Dmitri?”

  “It’s too much to ask.”

  “What must you have?” said Owl. “Say it!”

  William said slowly, “I ask …”

  * * *

  “Forgiveness.” William woke, lifting his head off the bed, and, without knowing why, began crying a fearful cry with all the terror of an abandoned child. A nurse with large round glasses and a face mask peered down at him.

  “Mr. Koren, don’t be frightened. Just lie back and try to stay calm.” She waited for him to relax into the bed. “You’re safe now. You’ve been in a fire, but you’re safe now. This is Vancouver General Hospital and you’re in the burn unit. We’re looking after you. I’m Ellen and I’ll be your primary nurse.” She reached for a plastic cup of water and held it to his lips.

  She had the gentlest of voices. It helped him control the emotion. He cleared his throat and asked, “How bad is it?”

  “You’ve been burned in a few places, but you’ll make a good recovery. You’ll have to help us by staying calm and keeping everything clean. That’s the important thing.”

  William saw his arms and legs suspended in the air.

  Nurse Ellen said, “You have some bandages to protect you. Your hands and one side of your face and ear have been bandaged. There are a few more bandages on the backs of your legs. That’s why your arms and legs are elevated, so there’s no pressure on them.”

  “That sounds bad to me,” said William.

  “You’ll make a good recovery. We’re very good at looking after injuries like yours.” He could hear her confidence through the face mask.

  “I thought it was over.”

  “You survived a close call. Fortunately you fell downstairs and out of the smoke, so your lungs are fine, and that’s why you lived through it. You must have had some good karma stocked up.” Her voice embraced him without knowing the irony of what she said.

  The pain of his wounds intruded and she was quick to see it. “Your injuries can be quite painful if we don’t stay on top of it. You’ll learn to help us with that too.” She fiddled with the bag and tubes hanging beside his bed. “I’ll tell the doctor you’re awake and be right back.” Her face smiled through the mask. “Oh yes, the police. Are you up to seeing them?”

  William thought there were things he needed to work out beforehand; most of all, he wanted to speak to Julie, before the police did. “I don’t feel up to it. Can we put it off?”

  “Sure we can. I’ll tell them you’re being seen by the doctor just now. We’ll keep them off for a day or two. What about your family?”

  “Would you call my wife and ask her to come in, maybe tomorrow?”

  “I can do that too. She has already called to see how you are.” Nurse Ellen smiled and left with quick steps.

  William felt overcome but it was not the pain. All that had happened and all he had done, and yet this Nurse Ellen was kindly to him. It was nothing he deserved and hard to understand. She would, he thought, recognize the tears that came to him as trauma and pain, but she would be wrong. It was the second chance that made him cry. He did not want the relief of death. He had things to do with the life he had been wasting and nearly lost.

  January 13, 2018

  This was always going to happen. William was helpless to prevent it, but the moment could not have been more difficult. Nurse Ellen had protected him for a few days, which had given him time to prepare himself, but he had not figured on dealing with this scenario.

  Julie stood by his bed, and he desperately wanted to speak with her and guide her in not incriminating herself in interviews, except Constable McKinnon stood behind her, waiting his turn and listening.

  “Can we have a few minutes alone?” asked Julie.

  “No,” McKinnon said. “A crime has been committed; you’re both witnesses, possibly suspects. We can’t have you speaking privately.”

  She said, “What does it matter? I thought man and wife can’t be witnesses against each other anyway.”

  “You’re mistaken. In Canada married people don’t have to tell us about what’s been said between them, but they’re compelled to tell us what they saw and what they know.”

  William saw Julie sag under the weight. Neither was sure if McKinnon was right, but neither had the knowledge to challenge him. Julie looked at William as if there was something she wanted to say stuck in her throat. His mind raced with all that she might know about the house being paid off, what she might have seen on her occasional visits to the office, what she might have known about Cathy, something he had taken home. That’s it. The sprocket. It was long gone, but still a danger. She had seen it, inspected it and wondered about it. Perhaps she had understood what it was. A single mention of it would have the police crawling over his business records, searching everything and maybe even discovering the electronic copy on the manifest, still on the now blackened photocopier.

  William said, “Never mind him. Thanks for coming. How’s Kelly?”

  “Very worried about her father. They told me not to bring her because all the bandages can be really upsetting for children.”

  “They don’t know Kelly.” Both parents smiled.

  “You better tell me how you are. She’ll want a full report.”

  “I feel lucky. It could have been much worse. They say I’ll have a little scarring, but in a year I should be fine.”

  Julie was nodding and then the thin smile faded. “I want to say—”

  “Don’t say anything. You don’t have to. It’s me who should be sorry.”

  It was true that he was sorry, but the interruption had achieved a purpose.

  “Sorry that you’ll have to spend time getting Kelly through this, dealing with the insurance and talking to the police.” William watched Julie’s face crunch in surprise at his mention of the police. “There’s nothing to worry about. Just answer their questions and tell them everything you know.” She did not understand why he was saying this and looked at him as if it could not be true. “You’re not connected to the business, so don’t worry. You should take my keys, in case you have to go to the warehouse for any reason.” William braced himself for the mistake Julie might make by revealing she had her own keys. “The only other keys are in the building somewhere.” There was a change in her face, as if she understood.

  “Where are your keys?” she asked.

  “Ellen will know—the nurse you spoke to.” Julie nodded.

  “So, get the keys from Ellen and tell Kelly she can come any time she likes.”

  “Okay.”

  “And don’t let these people,” he said, thrusting his chin toward McKinnon, “tie you in knots. Just answer their questions and tell them everything.” The smile he was forcing cracked the scab by his ear, but realization appeared on her face.

  “I will,” she said. “I promise to tell them everything.”

  “Would you get Ellen to come in, please? The drugs are wearing off.”

  * * *

  McKinnon stood beside the bed. His colleague was at the door. The greetings were over and inquiries as to how he was feeling followed their usual path. Further politeness had no purpose, and so the questioning began.

  “Why did you go to the warehouse so late in the evening?” Constable McKinnon made no effort to hide his skepticism.

  William said, “My wife had left me and I didn’t want to be in the house. I was trying to keep busy and there are always things to do at the office.”

  “So you arrived at the office and immediately saw evidence of a break-in.”

  “The front door was open, glass was broken and there was flickering light upstairs.”

  “What about the alarm?”

  “The security alarm was on,” sa
id William.

  “Then what happened?”

  “I went upstairs and saw the fire in the front office, my office, and went to investigate.”

  “And?”

  “I went for the fire extinguisher on the staircase and tried to put it out. I couldn’t stop it. The fire alarm started.”

  “It sounds like you had plenty of time to get out, but you didn’t. Why not?”

  “Well, I thought I would be able to rescue the CCTV tapes, which might tell us who it was.”

  “Did you get them?”

  “Yes, but I left them behind.” McKinnon’s expression invited more. “I didn’t see the fire get to the staircase behind me. I got the tapes out of the recording machines but then I was trapped. So I dropped the tapes and jumped through the doorway into the stairwell.”

  Constable McKinnon studied William. “You’ve had quite the few weeks, haven’t you? An arson at one of your employees’ homes, and he dies. You were there just an hour or so before the fire, but your secretary, or maybe I should say your lover, confesses to it. Then your wife leaves you and your business burns down, also arson, just as you turn up. Remarkable timing. Just leaving or just arriving, but never there at the moment it happens.”

  William remained quiet.

  McKinnon continued. “Is your business in debt? We can find that out, but it’s easier just to ask.”

  “No, the business is going well … was going well.”

  “Are you or your family in debt?”

  “No. I’m square at the bank, mortgage is almost paid off, and there won’t be much on the credit cards.”

  “Was the business insured for fire?”

  “Of course.”

  “How much will you get?”

  “I couldn’t tell you. Really, I don’t know. I don’t even know if they pay out for arson.”

  “Perhaps you should have found that out before you set fire to it.”

  “Why would I try to put out the fire and risk my life if I’d wanted to burn the business and collect the insurance?”

  “You wouldn’t be the first person to fake an injury to make it look like you’re innocent.”

  “There’s nothing fake about the injuries I have.”

  “No. Maybe you overdid it. Who else has a key and the code to the alarm?”

  “The code would be known by the people who work there. Me, Cathy, Dennis, a few others, some who’ve left. Not sure about the keys.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, Cathy and I have one each and she kept the spares. They’re given to people from time to time for weekend deliveries or when maintenance people come in the evening. Lots of people would know they are kept in Cathy’s desk.” William felt his burns sting as he recalled the set Julie kept at home. He hoped she would see the danger and send them flying from Lions Gate Bridge as soon as she got home.

  “Do you have records of who had them?”

  “I think we kept a little book of who had the keys out.”

  “You kept records?”

  “I left it to Cathy. She had the book on her desk.”

  “And now that’s gone in the fire. It doesn’t sound like a very secure system.”

  “No, I guess it wasn’t.”

  Nurse Ellen arrived. “Officer, not too much longer.” She moved to the edge of the bed and adjusted the drip hanging beside William.

  McKinnon ignored her. “Does your wife have keys?”

  “No.” William kept his tone even, as if it were nothing. “She hasn’t been to the place for years, except to drive me there sometimes. She worked there at the beginning but then she stopped.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “She looked after the home and I looked after the business. That’s all.” It was not enough. “Our daughter was born, and we could afford for her not to work in the company. She’s a full-time mum.”

  McKinnon was unconvinced. “Okay. There’ll be a full investigation and I’m sure we’ll want to speak with your wife and you again.”

  “Of course. I won’t be going anywhere.”

  “One more thing. One of the glass panels on the outside door was broken.”

  “I saw that. I thought that’s how they got in.”

  “Maybe,” said McKinnon. “But the broken glass was on the sidewalk outside. You would think that glass broken from the outside would be found on the inside of the door, in the hallway.”

  William felt his skin respond with sweat, and a new pain began at the edges of his wounds. “I have no idea. Maybe the firemen dragged some of it outside when they pulled me out.”

  “Very good, Mr. Koren. Maybe that’s what happened. We’ll have to wait for the report to be sure. You’ve certainly got an explanation for everything.”

  That was true, thought William. He was very good at saying what was untrue as if he believed it were true.

  16

  West Vancouver, August 2, 2018

  The cellphone rang with the old-fashioned jingle of a desktop cradle phone. Julie recognized it and answered it without looking.

  “Hi, William. Okay, she’ll be right out.” She hung up, irritated that her manner was too familiar. It was difficult to maintain the balance of the emotional distance between them while remaining close enough for Kelly to know that her relationship with her father had her approval. She shouted, “Kelly, your dad’s here.”

  Kelly bounded into the kitchen, asking, “Did he say what the surprise was?”

  “Nope. I’m completely out of that loop. All I know is that you were going for a picnic. Here’s your backpack. Let’s see, hat, water, lunch, sunscreen, jacket.”

  “I won’t need the jacket. It’s too hot.”

  “It’s lightweight and in the backpack. Just take it.”

  “Oh, Mum!”

  “Use it to sit on and don’t argue. Just go.”

  They went to the front door together and kissed briefly as it opened.

  “Have a good time.”

  “I will. Bye, Mum. Thanks.”

  Julie watched her daughter skip down the steps and along the short path to the sidewalk as if she could see. It had been a hard few months for Kelly, who disliked the absence of her father.

  William’s car was not outside as expected. A curious man was looking at her. He was clothed head to foot in light jungle gear, a sun flap draped from his hat, and then she realized it was William leaning on his surprise.

  Julie had not anticipated what he had brought, and it caused her heart to lift into her throat with a joy that could not be explained. For now, it was enough to anticipate her daughter’s reaction and to know what it would mean to her.

  William said, “Over here.”

  Kelly altered her direction and followed the sound to him. “Hi, Dad,” she said as they found each other. “Can I hug you yet?”

  “Sure you can. Just be gentle with me.”

  “So?” Kelly waited briefly for a response. “Where are we going? What’s the surprise?”

  “I’m sitting on it.”

  “What?” Kelly’s arm reached behind him and found a seat and then the crossbar of a bicycle. Her eyebrows came together and confusion emerged in her voice. “A bike! Dad, I can’t ride a bike anymore.”

  “You can ride this one.”

  “How?”

  “You work it out.” William stepped away, leaving her holding the seat and handlebars.

  “It’s heavy.”

  “True.”

  She felt the front wheel and breaks. “But it’s high-tech, titanium bits maybe. Road race wheels?”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Different metal, different temperatures.”

  “Very clever. Keep going.”

  Kelly giggled. “I’m joking!” and then rocked it back and forth. “Really long frame.” She moved behind the seat and felt the second set of handlebars. “A tandem. It’s a tandem!” Without knowing exactly whe
re he was she reached out to her father with one hand, pulling him close.

  “Careful, careful,” said William, holding his damaged face and ear away from the embrace.

  “Is it really ours?”

  “If you like it, it’s really ours.” He would have to sell one or two of the sophisticated machines that now collected dust in Julie’s garage, but that did not matter. This was more important than all of those.

  “I don’t know if I’ll be able to do it.”

  “It’s just like riding a bike. You’ll be fine.”

  “Thanks, Dad.” She kissed his cheek.

  William handed Kelly a helmet and held the tandem firm while she got on.

  Julie shouted, “You be careful now.”

  “We will.”

  “Bye, Mum.”

  Julie felt her daughter’s pleasure and wanted to join the squawking celebration in the street and pedal off with them for a picnic on the grass next to the ocean, but it was too soon. It would be a long time before that was possible, if ever. William had changed for the better. He was lighter, easier with himself and connected to others. Perhaps it was the close call in the fire, the business being lost or his move back to Grand Forks, near his mother, that had changed him. Still, the barrier separating them would remain.

  There were things unknown and unsaid that lingered in the space between them. Julie still worried that something more and very bad would come from the sprocket William had brought home that night. Whatever that single piece of gold implied, it remained unknown and unsaid to the police. Nor had her part in the warehouse fire been discussed. William’s contrary instructions to get rid of the office keys she kept at home and say nothing to the police suggested he knew she had been there. It also looked as though he had been injured covering her trail. There could be no other explanation for the details that had emerged, but it had not been discussed.

  Of all the discussions they might have, the one she wanted most was about the loss of his business. It had not been the response she would have anticipated, and it could be understood only by speculating that the fire had unburdened him in some way—enough to see and appreciate other things. It made her think there was something to learn about William, and it was enough to hope that the changes she could see in him would endure.