Victoria, but even that wasn’t enough to ruin his mood.
Out of sheer exuberance he gave a muted yell and performed a quick spin and kick, but he misjudged slightly and his boot heel clipped the edge of a workstation partition. The partition shuddered and something crashed to the floor on the other side. He went into the cubicle. It was just books and binders. He picked them up and dumped them haphazardly onto the desk. The cleaning staff would be blamed.
He resumed his tour, humming again.
As he approached the door to his office, Sandra St. Johns, Patrick O’Neill’s former assistant, came out of her office.
“Oh,” she said, a look of surprise on her face. “I didn’t know there was anyone else here. What was that noise?”
“Nothing to concern yourself about,” he said. She was wearing a white blouse that looked like a man’s shirt, half the buttons open, and no bra, just some kind of undershirt thing. She was so flat, though, it made no difference. “Some binders fell off a shelf.”
She shook her head. “It sounded more like a shout.”
Tilley could feel his ears grow warm. “I didn’t hear anything like that,” he said. He turned his back to her and thumbed a five-digit code, which he changed weekly, into the security lock on his office door. “Good evening,” he said over his shoulder, opening the door and slipping into his office.
Through the gap in the door, he watched her turn and go back into her own office. The rear view was definitely more interesting than the front, he thought. Her legs were her best feature, long and strong, runner’s legs. He grinned tightly, remembering the sight of her with those legs clamped around Patrick O’Neill’s hips as they did it on the sofa in O’Neill’s office, hair in her eyes, making a weird sound in her throat.
He closed the door.
As attractive as Sandra St. Johns was, Tilley thought, how O’Neill could have cheated on Victoria with the likes of her was completely beyond his comprehension. Of course, none of that mattered now. Patrick O’Neill was dead. Yes, Tilley thought. Things were working out just fine.
Barbara was cashing out at the end of her shift when the assistant manager told her they wouldn’t need her any more after tonight. “Business has been slow,” he said by way of explanation, but she knew the real reason was that she’d refused to work another shift in the strip club next door to the lounge. One would have been enough, but she’d endured three, half-naked in a skirt that barely reached her crotch and the see-through top they’d insisted she wear. Her figure wasn’t bad, despite her age, but thank god they’d let her wear a sports bra under the top. The other girls wore nothing but skin. She was also pretty sure they were supposed to give her two weeks’ notice, but she was too tired to argue.
It was after one in the morning when she got home. She trudged up the four narrow flights to her apartment, undressed and took a bath to save time in the morning, then collapsed into bed with a cup of camomile tea. Despite her exhaustion and the soothing warmth of the tea, she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep. Tiny rat’s teeth of anxiety gnawed at her insides. Not about losing her job; she’d been through that before, too many times. But she was sure that the big, beat-up looking man—she couldn’t remember his name—who’d spoken to her outside the dry cleaning store was a policeman. He’d said he wasn’t, but of course he would, wouldn’t he, if he were undercover?
There was only one reason she could think of that the police would be interested in her. Three weeks ago one of her regular customers at the dry cleaning store had asked her to do him a favour, to hold a package till a friend came to pick it up. “Don’t worry,” he’d said. “It’s not drugs, and it’ll just be for a couple of hours. And my friend will give you something for your trouble.” He’d seemed nice, well dressed and polite, and he’d always had time to chat, so she’d agreed.
God, how could she have been so stupid? Of course it had been drugs. Or maybe child pornography. The man who’d come to pick it up later in the day, who had given her fifty dollars, had been sneaky-looking and very nervous. She hadn’t seen her customer since.
On the other hand, she thought hopefully, maybe the big man was exactly what he’d claimed to be, an old friend of her late husband’s. There had been something familiar about him, like she’d seen him somewhere before, but she wasn’t sure where or when. He wasn’t bad looking, either, and while he’d been dressed casually, his clothing had been good quality. Maybe too good for a policeman.
Tea finished, she closed her eyes and fantasized briefly about being whisked away on some fabulous adventure by a tall, dark stranger. She knew in her heart, though, that if he wasn’t a cop, he was probably just like most of the other men she’d known, after only one thing. And, sadly, she knew that if he asked nicely enough she’d give it to him.
chapter three
Tuesday, December 14
Shoe was awakened by the creak of floorboards in the hall outside his bedroom. The clock radio on the dresser read five-thirty. He started to get up to investigate, then remembered his houseguest. Rolling over, he went back to sleep. When he awakened again at seven-thirty, he got up, showered, and went downstairs. Jack had spread plastic drop cloths in the living room and was scouring loose paint from the window frames with a steel brush Shoe hadn’t known he’d owned.
“I was going to start in the kitchen,” Shoe said.
“That paint you bought,” Jack said, gesturing with the brush toward the pails of paint by the entrance to the living room. “It’s no good for kitchens. Ain’t very washable.”
“Where’d you get the brush?” Shoe asked.
“Borrowed it from your neighbour,” Jack replied. Shoe hadn’t really got to know any of his neighbours, with the exception of a curmudgeonly old fellow who lived across the street and who hadn’t given Shoe the time of day since he’d asked him to please scoop after his dog pooped in Shoe’s yard. “Old guy lives across the road,” Jack said.
“You seem to know what you’re doing.”
He shrugged. “Painted a few houses.”
“What if I paid you?”
“Got nothin’ to do till my houseboat dries out,” Jack said. “I’ll do it for a coupla weeks’ room and board. How’s that?”
Deal struck, Jack returned to scraping and Shoe went into the kitchen. After his breakfast, he called the number on the card the police had left, quoted the case number handwritten on the back, and was put through to a Sergeant Matthias of the Vancouver Homicide Squad.
“I’ll be at home all morning,” he told Matthias.
“The investigators will be there within the hour,” Matthias said.
Come to us, they beckoned to her from the grave.
No, she silently cried. I can’t.
We love you.
Then why did you leave me? What did I do?
You didn’t love us enough.
