Nuts, I had hoped he wouldn’t bring that up. “I guess the discussion I had with Andrea about designer boots isn’t relevant. No? Didn’t think so. Okay, well. You may be interested to know the Weasel doesn’t have an alibi for Saturday night or early Sunday morning when Sophie Quantz was killed.”

“Say that again.”

I prepared to comply but didn’t get very far. Redfern went critical mass on me. I fell off his lap and onto the couch where I stayed until he ran out of steam. There was no point trying to establish a give-and-take partnership with him.

“You need to butt out of this investigation, Cornwall. Starting now!”

“All right!” I had a thought. “Where’s Tony? You didn’t say. Didn’t he want to come for dinner?”

Redfern’s complexion slowly returned to normal colour. “He said he needed an early night but wanted me to thank you for the invitation.”

We looked at each other. “That doesn’t sound like Tony, does it?” I picked up my cell.

Pan didn’t answer until the third ring. “Hi, Pan. So, what were you doing at the greenhouse today?” I moved back over to sit on the arm of Redfern’s chair. His arm curled around my waist. “Really? You’re kidding.”

I let Pan complain about the Bloody Baroness before giving Redfern the scoop. “Glory doesn’t think Pan has enough to do at the house, so she’s teaching him how to be productive at the greenhouse. Today he had a lesson in detecting mould.”

It was time to interrupt Pan’s whine-fest. “Yeah, that really sucks. I know how busy you are at home. Where is she now? … Really? When is she coming back?”

Redfern moved his head against mine and tried to hear Pan’s words. Did I have a speaker button on this phone? I should look into that.

Pan returned to the subject of his servitude to an ungrateful mistress. I cut him off and put the phone down. “Did you hear that?”

“No. Did he say something about Tony?”

“Not directly. Glory left a few hours ago with an overnight bag. Since they’re both MIA, what are chances they aren’t together?”

Redfern stood up and began to pace.

I thought back over the past couple of years, since Glory’s divorce from Dougal. That relationship seemed to have turned her off men for good, which made total sense, but I still figured Tony’s soul hung in the balance.

I asked, “So, does Tony have a history of sudden attraction to She Devils?”

“He does. But keep that to yourself. Speaking of attractions, why don’t you get your white thong and come back to the cabin with me?”

“How about you stay here tonight instead? I’m not going to your shack in the woods to freeze my ass off.”

“You won’t freeze anything. Guaranteed.”

“Nope. Here’s the deal. White thong here. Cabin, alone.”

“Where’s Rae?”

“I wondered when you’d remember Rae. Well, truthfully, she’s in her room. She took her dinner in there to study, and so we could be alone. She thinks you don’t like her.”

“I like her just fine.” He lowered his voice. “But she used to be a hooker.”

Dramatically, I lowered by voice even more. “So let it go. She isn’t one now. She was never charged, so you aren’t compromising your integrity by being friendly.”

“I can’t sleep over in the same house. What if she goes back to the life? My career could be screwed.”

“That’s crazy. I’m not spending another night at the cabin. That’s just the way it is.”

“I’ll put the pictures away. I know it upsets you.”

“After, what, almost four years, you keep a picture of your deceased wife beside your bed. You can’t honestly wonder why I don’t want to spend the night there.”

“Debbie will always be part of my life. That doesn’t reflect on my feelings for you.”

“It would have been better had you said Debbie will always be a part of your past. I’m giving you all the space you need, Redfern, but I can’t be your solace while you continue to mourn indefinitely.”

“Mourning is subjective. You can’t put a time limit on it.”

“Okay, got it. When you’re here, I feel you’re really with me, that’s all I’m trying to say. At your cabin, you have pictures everywhere. You brought her with you from Toronto. It’s your place and hers. I’m just a visitor. If you can’t see that, then….” I ran out of words. I couldn’t explain how I felt, and this wasn’t the first discussion we’d had about Debbie. If she was an ex, I could deal with it, but it was hard to compete with a ghost.

His face took on a stubborn expression. “If you lived alone, there wouldn’t be a problem.”

“Back at you.”

He grabbed his coat from the hook. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

The door closed very quietly, and a minute later I heard his vehicle start up and drive away. It broke my heart, thinking of him heading back to his cold cabin. But it was his choice. I ate my cheesecake. Then I ate his.

I went to bed with an icepack over my eyes, although it was too late. Dr. Doom’s prediction had come true. There wasn’t enough makeup in the world to cover the purple-black smudges around both my eyes.

CHAPTER

nineteen

Cornwall was right about one thing. The cabin was glacial. Neil kept his coat on while he performed his nightly rituals.

The cabin was heated by a propane gas fireplace and several strategically-placed electric heaters. The fireplace shut off automatically after a few hours, and he couldn’t leave the heaters running while he was out. He came home, and woke up, to a chilly house. But only in the spring, winter, and fall. Summer was pleasant except for the blackflies, mosquitoes, and skunks that raised their families under the back steps.

He plugged in the heaters and reset the fireplace, remembering he hadn’t ordered propane and the tank had to be nearing empty. He fell into an old armchair pulled close to the fireplace and rested his boots on the hearth.

He was frustrated at the length of time it was taking for the lab to confirm that the bones belonged to Faith Davidson. The Davidson family didn’t believe in routine x-rays. Since Faith, along with most of the clan, had been blessed with near-perfect teeth, there were no x-rays to help with ID. They would have to wait until DNA from the skeleton’s teeth matched samples taken from Mr. and Mrs. Davidson to confirm identity. The shape of the teeth, strands of long, dark hair, and the timing of Faith’s disappearance increased the odds that the remains were hers. Even the two tiny cones that once held celebration bouquets, and the decayed rose petals from the locker, pointed to Faith.

He had no choice but to proceed as though the girl was Faith Davidson. By his reaction at the scene, even Fang was certain he had found his twin sister when he opened the door of the locker.

So, if Faith never got on the bus to Toronto that night, who was the girl at the bus stop? Did she even exist? Earl Archman was the only witness to come forward at the time of Faith’s disappearance to state he saw a young girl in a white dress at the bus stop the night of the grad party. The bus driver could neither corroborate nor contradict the statement. He had to interview Earl Archman tomorrow.

He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled his notebook out. One of the two female chaperones had passed away. He made a note to interview the other one tomorrow. It was too much of a coincidence that Sophie Quantz was killed less than twenty-four hours after the skeletal remains were discovered. There had to be a connection between the graduation party and both deaths. He would assign Thea the task of tracking down every other member of that graduating class.

He forced himself to his feet, put his notebook away, and walked into his cramped bedroom, carrying one of the electric space heaters. He plugged in the heater, undressed quickly, and slid between the cold sheets. They felt damp as well as icy. He tried to picture Bliss wearing her white thong, but he was too chilled to sustain even that image. He reached out and pulled the heater closer to the bed. One of these nights, the cabin was going to burn to the ground, and him with it. He couldn’t blame Cornwall for avoiding this place.