Kaleidoscope

by Gail Bowen

  Riel Delorme stepped out of the crowd. “I was,” he said. He seemed both resigned and defiant. Two officers moved into position beside him.

  Margot opened her bag and took out a pocket pack of tissues. She ripped it open and carefully removed all the tissues so they formed a pad. She placed it against Leland’s wound. It was soaked immediately, but even when fresh blood ran down her arm, Margot maintained the pressure on the wound.

  Declan was staring at Margot’s arm; he seemed frozen. “Dad, this is bad,” he said.

  “Head wounds always bleed,” Leland said. “Get me to emergency, and they’ll stitch me up.”

  One of the police officers flanking Riel Delorme took in the situation. “There’s an ambulance on its way. Did anybody see what happened?”

  No one said anything. Finally, I spoke. “People were jostling one another. The man holding the sign was pushed towards Leland Hunter and the handle hit him. It was an accident.”

  The EMT team arrived, imposing order on our chaos. They began checking out Leland. The bleeding had slowed, but he was pale, and despite his impatience to get to the hospital where he could be stitched up and sent on his way, the EMT people were thorough: maintaining the pressure on his wound and monitoring his heart and blood pressure. Margot, blood-spattered but composed, sat on the concrete beside Leland, holding his hand and whispering things that made him smile.

  Louise Hunter had broken down, weeping and straining to get close to Leland. Declan and a woman with fiery red hair who appeared to be a friend of Louise’s were keeping Louise firmly in hand, well away from her ex-husband.

  My statement that Leland Hunter’s injury had been inflicted accidentally brought me attention from a young uniformed officer with a badge identifying him as Kevin Toews. I didn’t have much more to offer him: the account of what I’d seen, the nature of my connection with Riel Delorme, and my contact information. Riel’s eyes never left my face. When Constable Toews walked away, I gave Riel what I hoped was an encouraging smile; he nodded acknowledgement and walked over to the ambulance. It was a gutsy move. The EMT people had just picked up the gurney on which Leland was lying. Riel leaned towards Leland. “I’m very sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to hit you.”

  Leland met Riel’s eyes. “Never ruin an apology with an excuse,” he said and then he turned away.

  The EMT people loaded the gurney into the ambulance. Margot and I watched together until Leland was inside and the doors were shut.

  “I’ll take a cab and meet you at the hospital,” I said.

  Margot shook her head. “There’s no need. Declan’s meeting us there. And Leland is right. Head wounds always bleed a lot. I have five brothers. I know Leland will be fine.” She held out her hands. They were trembling. Margot tried a smile. “Apparently my body didn’t get the memo that I’m taking this in stride.”

  “That’s always a problem when you’re in love,” I said.

  “A lesson I’m just now learning,” Margot said ruefully. When she turned to open the door to the passenger’s side of the driver’s compartment, Louise Hunter appeared. The red-haired woman was with her. The woman seemed to have a firm grasp on Louise’s arm, but Louise managed to shake her off. When Louise attempted to shove Margot out of the way, Margot put her hands on Louise’s thin shoulders and gazed down at her as if she were disciplining a child. “I’m the one who’s going with Leland,” she said.

  Louise’s intake of breath was sharp. “I’m his wife,” she said.

  “Not any more,” the red-haired woman said, and her voice was firm. “Louise, don’t do this to Declan and don’t do this to yourself. Let me take you home.”

  Margot shot the woman a grateful look. “Thanks, Sage,” she said. “I’ll make sure you get an update on Leland’s condition.” Then she climbed into the passenger’s seat and shut the door.

  A knot of protestors had been watching the scene unfold. They appeared to be delighting in Leland and Margot’s pain. As the ambulance sped off, a boy who didn’t appear to be much more than sixteen raised his arm in a power salute and yelled, “I hope you die, you rich fucker.”

  The ambulance had disappeared, but the young boy kept cursing Leland and uttering obscenities about what he’d like to do to Margot if he ever got her alone.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Ed’s hand was on my arm. He looked at anxiously. “You seem shaken,” he said. “Do you want me to call a cab?”

  “No, the wind’s died down. I could use some fresh air.”

  Ed and I had never felt the need to chat when we were together, so we walked home in companionable, if thoughtful, silence. When we reached his house, I kissed his cheek. “See you on Sunday,” I said and started towards my car.

  “Jo, can we talk for a minute. I’d like your opinion on something.”

  “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?”

  “Not a one. This is a gift Barry and I never dreamed would come our way. What I wanted to talk to you about are the orchids I’ve been growing for the wedding.”

  “Cascading white phalaenopsis and dendrobium – exactly what you gave me to carry when Zack and I were married. They were so spectacular no one noticed my dress.”

  “Zack did,” Ed said. “When you joined him at the altar he couldn’t stop beaming.”

  I smiled at the memory. “It was a nice moment.”

  “I want that moment, too,” Ed said quietly. “Joanne, I know I’m not Adonis. I see myself in the mirror every day. I’m middle-aged, I’m fat, and my hair is thinning, but I want Barry to look at me the way Zack looked at you.” Ed’s voice was husky with emotion. He cleared his throat. “So what do you think? Would I look foolish if I carried the orchids when I walked up the aisle to join Barry?”

  “Raise high the roof beam, carpenter,” I said. “Like Ares comes the bridegroom, taller far than a tall man.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning, it’s your wedding day, Ed. Carry the orchids. You and Barry have earned that moment.”

  CHAPTER

  3

  I was staring at my academic robes, pondering their fate now that I’d retired, when Margot called, sounding tired but relieved. “Good news,” she said. “The doctor in emergency stitched Leland up, said that he should take it easy for the rest of the day but that he’s fine.”

  “That is good news,” I said. “So you’re home safe.”

  “We are, and we may never leave again. That was a real adventure in crazy town this afternoon. Thank God Sage Mackenzie was there to hustle Louise away.”

  “Is she Louise’s companion?”

  “No. She’s the lawyer Leland pays to keep Louise out of legal trouble. Sage doesn’t come cheap, but as you saw today, she earns every penny. I promised I’d give her a call, so I should move along, but I knew you’d be worried.”

  “I was worried. Tell Leland to let you pamper him for a while. Actually, after the afternoon you had, you could probably use a little pampering yourself.”

  Margot chortled. “Leland and I will take turns playing nurse. Have a good weekend, Jo.”

  “You, too.”

  After I hung up, I decided that the fate of my robes could be determined another day. I zipped them back in their garment bag and took them down to the closet in the mudroom where we kept everything we didn’t know what to do with. The weekend could not begin too soon for me.

  Taylor, too, was ready to rock and roll. She loped through the door, threw her backpack on the kitchen table, and did a full body stretch. “It’s only Thursday, but it’s the weekend,” she said.

  “That’s right – you have study days on Fridays till exams start.”

  Taylor’s lips curved in a smile. “Just because it’s a study day doesn’t mean I have to study every single second. And Declan’s coming to the lake Saturday night and Ed and Barry are getting married on Sunday, so it’s going to be great.”

  It was just a little after five when Zack came in. He had his trial bag on his lap, and he looked be
at. “Bad day?” I said.

  “I got shellacked,” he said.

  “You didn’t win your case.”

  “Nope. You overestimated my charms, Ms. Shreve.”

  I bent down and kissed him. “No, I didn’t.”

  The creases that bracketed Zack’s mouth like parentheses were deep. He rubbed his hand over his eyes – a sure sign that he was tired. “Well, win or lose, the lawyer always gets to come home. But the good news is that I haven’t got anything urgent on for tomorrow, and now that Taylor’s prepping for finals, and you, Ms. Shreve, are a retired lady of leisure, we can head for the lake tonight.”

  “That sounds so good,” I said, “but are you sure you’re not too tired?” I stood behind his wheelchair and massaged his shoulders. “We could stay here tonight and drive to the lake in the morning.”

  Zack covered my hands with his. “No. You like waking up at the lake, and I like waking up with you. We can pick up steaks and whatever else we need for dinner at that store on the point.”

  “Sold,” I said. “Want me to make you a drink before we go? I’ll drive.”

  “This weekend is looking better and better,” Zack said.

  He followed me into the kitchen and watched as I took the gin and vermouth from the refrigerator. “Big one or little one?” I said.

  “Do you really have to ask?”

  I made him a generous martini, and I poured a short vermouth for me. Zack took a sip, sighed contentedly, and closed his eyes. “Better already,” he said. “So how did convocation go?”

  “You didn’t hear?”

  “I’ve been busy: went to court, had lunch with my client, went back to court, got squashed like a cockroach, and crawled back home to you. So what happened?”

  “Well, convocation itself was fine. About a dozen students turned their chairs when Leland began to speak, but he handled it well – addressed them directly and when they didn’t respond, he carried on. The problem came afterwards. There were demonstrators outside the Conexus Centre, and when a TV cameraman showed up, the protestors broke through the police line. One of them got jostled, and the handle of his sign hit Leland. There was a piece of metal in the wood. Leland’s all right, but he got a scalp wound that needed stitches.”

  “I take it the signholder is under arrest,” Zack said.

  “It was an accident,” I said. “I was beside Leland when it happened. Riel Delorme was the person holding the sign.”

  Zack’s eyes were questioning. “You were the only witness?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I guess you’d have to ask the police.”

  “I should call Leland.”

  “I talked to Margot, and she said all was well, but I’m sure Leland would like to hear from you. Let me know when you’re ready, and we’ll hit the road.”

  Before we were out of the city, Zack closed his eyes and began to snore. The dogs were bagged out in the back of the station wagon, Taylor was listening to her iPod, her cats had settled into their cages on the floor. The drive to Lawyers’ Bay was less than an hour. Till then, I was alone with my thoughts.

  When I turned off the main highway onto the road that led to the lake and smelled the sharp scent of evergreens and the faint tang of skunk, I felt the weight lift from my shoulders. On the day we bought our house in the city, Zack had given me a charm bracelet with two charms: one was of the Bessborough Hotel in Saskatoon, the place where we’d been staying the night we decided to get married. The other was a key that Zack said was to everything – the house, the car, his heart, the place at the lake, the boat, the whole shebang.

  The whole shebang turned out to be substantial. Before we married, I had considered many factors. The one dynamic that never entered the equation was the fact that Zack was a very rich man.

  As a single parent with four children, I had always been careful about money. My first husband’s death had been unexpected, and at thirty-seven, he hadn’t had much time to build an investment portfolio. I was not without resources. There was insurance, and I had a tenure track position at the university. I owned our home, but my kids had always had to have paper routes and babysitting jobs to pay for non-essentials. It hadn’t done them any harm.

  Old habits die hard. I was still careful with money, but the station wagon I was driving was a new Volvo and our summer house was in a gated community. The only other people who lived on our bay were Zack’s law partners and their families. For my birthday the year after we married, Zack had given me a second home on the property for my grown children to use when they visited. Our lives were privileged and I knew it.

  When I drove through the gates, Zack reached over and squeezed my knee. “Better?”

  “Yes. That business with Leland after the ceremony shook me. And not just because he was hurt. The men demonstrating against Leland’s honorary degree were frightening. They were obviously trying to look tough, wife-beater shirts and arms covered in tattoos, but I’ve had students who went for that look. What scared me today was the hatred. Those people hated Leland because he was rich, and they hated Margot because she was beautiful and she was with Leland.”

  “And Leland’s honorary degree gave them a convenient excuse to vent their rage.”

  “It did. Zack, I always liked Riel Delorme, and I hate to see him making rotten choices. In his address today, Leland talked about the importance of facing those who oppose you. He made a lot of sense. I just wish that Riel had been inside listening.”

  “Instead of outside protesting.”

  “No flies on you,” I said.

  We had been at the lake the weekend before, but Willie and Pantera raced around sniffing with the fervour of creatures discovering a new world. Taylor’s exit was more leisurely. She picked up the cat cages from the seat beside her and sauntered towards the house. “I’m going to text Gracie and Isobel, let them know we’re here,” she said. “Then I’ll come back and help you unload. Okay?”

  I smiled at her. “Great,” I said.

  Restored by his nap, Zack reached for his wheelchair. “Okay,” he said. “I’m ready to boogie. I’ll fire up the barbecue and pour us a glass of wine.”

  We ate outside, cleaned up, and Taylor headed for her room. I looked at Zack. “Want to stay out here and watch the sunset?”

  “We’ve seen sunsets. Let’s go to our room. I have a surprise for you. You’d probably better take off your clothes,” he said. “I lack experience in this area.”

  “So all those women who claim to have enjoyed your favours are just indulging in wishful thinking?”

  “No. I spread my favours around, but you’re the first woman I’ve ever done this for. Follow me.” When we got to our room, Zack handed me a small bag. Inside was a bottle of nail polish. “Ms. Shreve, I’m about to paint your toenails.”

  I examined the bottle. “Mochaccino Mama,” I said. “Nice shade.”

  Zack ran his fingers along my arch. “Nice feet.”

  Zack and I and my Mochaccino Mama toenails were in bed before the sun set.

  I was sleeping soundly when Zack’s cell rang. I opened my eyes to the first light of early dawn. I wasn’t alarmed. The clients of trial lawyers keep irregular hours. But I was awake, and although Zack kept his voice low, I could hear what he said.

  “Was anybody hurt? Well, that’s the main thing.”

  My heart began to pound. I sat up and moved closer to Zack so I could hear everything.

  “Do you need us to come back to the city this morning?” he said. “Good. Any ideas about who did it? Yeah, I know. We’ll meet you at the house at nine. And, Deb, thanks for the call. I know how busy you must be.”

  We only knew one “Deb” – Inspector Debbie Haczkewicz – and she was an inspector with the Major Crimes Unit of the Regina Police Force. My stomach clenched. Zack hung up and turned to face me. “You did hear me say that no one was hurt?”

  “What happened?

  He held out his arms. “Come here.”

  Suddenly, I was very cold, but Z
ack’s arms were warm. “There’s no way to break this to you gently, Jo. About an hour ago, some kind of explosive was detonated in our garage. My car was in there, and I’d filled the tank on my way to court yesterday, so the fire department’s still trying to deal with the fire.”

  “Oh my God. How bad is it?”

  He shook his head. “I guess we’ll see how bad when we get back to the city.”

  “I’d better call Mieka and the boys – let them know we’re here and safe.”

  When I hung up after delivering the message to each of our three grown children, I turned to Zack. “How did I sound?”

  “Cool. Reassuring. Matter-of-fact.” He held out his arms again. “Now, feel free to go crazy.”

  I’d started to shake. “We could have been in that house,” I said. “If you hadn’t suggested coming to the lake a day early, the three of us would have been asleep, and we would have died.”

  “But we weren’t in that house,” Zack said. He drew me close. “We’re at the lake, and we’re alive. So let’s take it from there.”

  I burrowed in. “I just can’t understand why …” I said.

  Zack roughened his voice into that of a tough guy. “Why … of all the gin joints in the world someone decided to blow up ours?”

  In spite of everything I laughed. “I didn’t know you did a Bogart imitation,” I said.

  “Neither did I,” Zack said. “Today just seemed as good a time as any to give it a whirl.”

  CHAPTER

  4

  It was clear that neither of us were going to get any more sleep that morning, so I went to the bathroom, splashed my face, brushed my teeth, and put on my running clothes. Routine had saved me many times, and I was hoping the familiar pattern of a run before breakfast would calm my nerves and clear my mind. When I went into the kitchen, Zack already had the coffee on; bacon was in a pan ready to be put in the oven; and the eggs, bowl, and whisk were on the counter. Zack’s ability to compartmentalize always dazzled me. Clearly he’d decided that if we were going to have a lousy morning we should at least have a great breakfast. I kissed him and made an effort to match his sangfroid. “We have some chives growing in that sunny patch by the front door. Want me to snip some for the eggs when I come back from my run?”