Bleeding Darkness. Brenda Chapman

going to stay and man the fort,” said Adam. “Trist, I’ll call your cell if there’s any news.”

      They bundled into parkas and winter boots and set out with Clemmie tugging on his lead. Lauren liked the bracing cold and felt the sluggishness from one too many Scotches the night before begin to lift. At least it wasn’t snowing but only because it was too damn cold to snow. She took a flask from her jacket pocket and handed it to Tristan. “Have a drink. It’ll take the chill off.”

      “Thanks.” He took a long pull and handed the flask back to her. She did the same and closed her eyes as the golden bite hit the back of her mouth and the burn travelled down her throat. Tristan pulled a joint out of his pocket and shielded it from the wind with his gloved hand as the flame from his lighter bobbed in the wind. He took a drag before offering it to her but she waved him off. “One addiction at a time.”

      They started walking east on Philips Street without conscious thought. Philips crossed Portsmouth and they kept going until they reached the intersection at Hillendale. It would be natural to veer left toward the Delgados’ as they had so many times before Zoe died. Lauren glanced at Tristan but he didn’t appear to notice how far they’d walked. She took another swig from the flask.

      “Were you and Vivian getting along?”

      “Yeah, more or less. We’d had a bit of trouble last year when I thought she was going to leave me but she’s happy about the baby. We both are.”

      “She’s not an easy woman to live with.”

      “No. She can be a right bitch sometimes, but I can’t imagine my life without her. She keeps me going and pulls me out of my depressions. I know she can seem self-centred, but she has a great sense of humour and honestly doesn’t take herself as ser­iously as it appears. I will admit though that she has this pathological need to be front and centre.” He turned his face toward her and grinned. “I half think she’s disappeared for attention. We’ve all been preoccupied with Dad and she isn’t a woman who can stand being out of the spotlight for long.”

      “I hope that’s what’s going on.” Lauren bit her bottom lip while she pondered how to broach the subject of Zoe. Had enough time gone by for him to open up about what had happened to her? Did she even want to know?”

      Lauren turned south, away from the Delgado house, and for the first time Tristan appeared to realize where they were. He looked back toward the Delgado side of the street. Lauren looked too, disappointed not to see any sign of Matt, not that she’d expected to. He and his dad would be at work.

      “The Delgados still hate me.” Tristan hunched into his jacket and sucked on the spliff.

      “Maybe not. They have no reason to … right?” This was as close as she could come to asking him if he’d killed Zoe. She’d never asked, not when Zoe’s body had been found, nor in the fourteen years since.

      He stopped walking and squinted down at her, exhaling the weed in a slow stream of smoke. “Et tu, Brute?” he said softly.

      Lauren stared back until she couldn’t take it any longer. She raised her middle finger and started walking. “Fuck off, Tristan. You know I’m on your side.”

      He kept a few steps behind her. “Forget it, Laur. I know we’re tight. It’s just … what if something bad happened to Viv? How am I going to explain it?”

      “Are you asking me to cover for you?”

      “We could cover for each other. Say we were together that afternoon.”

      Lauren knew he was just scared of reliving the Zoe witch hunt when he was in the police’s sights. She was too. She tried to make her voice sound confident. “You’re jumping the gun. Vivian is prob­ably sitting pretty somewhere, laughing at the lot of us and biding her time before she makes a grand entrance and asks what all the fuss is about.”

      “Yeah, maybe.”

      “For sure maybe.”

      They turned right on Elmwood, heading in the direction of home.

      “Fuck, it’s cold,” he said.

      At Portsmouth, a police car sped by and they stopped walking to watch it turn left onto Phillips. Tristan threw away the second roach he’d pulled from his pocket and tucked away his lighter. Lauren had a flash of the future and knew that they’d look back at this moment as the crossroads between waiting and knowing.

      “Christ, I don’t know if I’m ready for this,” Tristan said.

      “It could be good news.” Lauren put an arm around his shoulder and hugged him hard.

      Afterwards, she’d remember the defeated look on his face and the certainty in his eyes that the police were bringing the worst possible news. She’d wonder later, when sleep eluded her, why she couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d known Vivian would turn up dead.

      chapter ten

      An unmarked police car was in the driveway. The aboriginal cop and a new, older one were standing with Adam in the front hall when Lauren and Tristan entered the house ten minutes later. Lauren recognized Officer Stonechild from her previous visit. The older, bald cop introduced himself as Staff Sergeant Rouleau. His eyes were the unusual colour of green sea glass and she looked away quickly so that he wouldn’t read anything into her stare. She kicked off her boots and crossed the hallway to stand in front of Adam, whose face was looking as white as freshly fallen snow. She felt her own heart start to speed up in fear. “What is it?” she asked, but she already knew what these two police officers on their doorstep meant.

      Tristan was rooted in place near the door and her question propelled him to move past the cops to join her and Adam. All three turned to face the two police officers who were standing close together wearing grim, watchful expressions.

      The cop named Rouleau spoke. “We’ve found a woman’s body on the Rideau Trail not far from here. I regret to say that we believe it is the family member whom you reported missing, Vivian McKenna. We’ll need someone to come with us to make a conclusive identification. I’m very sorry to bring you this news.”