Neil thought for a moment. “I don’t suppose you remember who was dating whom their final semester?”

Archman laughed, and this turned into a coughing fit. His face turned an alarming purple colour. Neil was ready to pound the man’s back or call for an ambulance.

When the coughing subsided, Archman continued. “You must be joking. I had that class for forty minutes per day. I couldn’t begin to keep their liaisons straight. I heard rumours that Sophie dated a lot of the boys briefly. Charles was as good as married already to his grade-eleven charmer. Mike …”

He paused. “…Mike was more discreet about his dating. Too bad Bliss didn’t realize he was a selfish, spoiled little prick.”

Neil started. “Bliss? I thought she and Bains didn’t date until university.”

“That’s true, but she mooned over him in high school like all the other girls. A shame, too. Guess he realized she was his best bet for a meal ticket, somebody to help him pay for law school. Pretty, loyal, smart, but not twisted enough to figure him out. She never did see him for what he is, not until he abandoned her when someone with political influence came along. And, to think, Andrea Whitmore was Bliss’s lawyer during the divorce proceedings. Bent the law and got away with it. But Bliss is well out of it. Andrea and Michael deserve each other.”

He fixed Neil with his eyes. “I hope you’re being good to Bliss, Chief. She’s a smartass, and her attitude used to give me migraines, but she has a good heart. I’d like to see her find someone who appreciates her.”

The skin on Neil’s face heated up. “Does anything come to mind about the grad night that might hint at what happened to Faith, now that we suspect she never left on that bus?”

“Between you and me, I had a wee bit of Johnny Walker in my pocket flask. I was drafted for the chaperone duty and it was as heinous an experience as I expected. The kids were all shit-faced but I couldn’t catch them at it. They were running all over the school, shrieking and spilling food on the floor. And the fucking music blasted my eardrums out, so I mostly stayed out of the line of fire and waited for the worst night, or my life, to end. And I didn’t care which, not at that point. At midnight I unlocked the doors and they left. That’s it.”

“Did you check the school for loiterers before you and the other chaperones left?”

“There were no loiterers. They were all pounding on the gym doors by eleven forty-five, but since the program said midnight, I made the little shitheads wait until midnight. That being said, I didn’t count them as they escaped. Once they were gone, I helped Kelly pack up his equipment. He left, I checked the boys’ locker room, called into the girls’, ushered the lady chaperones out, turned off the lights, and we left. Thus ended one spectacularly loathsome night.”

“But you locked the doors?”

“No, I did not. The decorating committee was supposed to come back the next morning and clean up. The school was abandoned already. Why lock the doors? Although the front doors had been locked all evening, to keep the kids in.”

Neil waited while the man caught his breath. “We found a dead girl in one of the lockers. Chances are good it’s Faith Davidson.”

“I know that!” Archman looked like he wanted to spring out of his chair, if only he wasn’t weighted down by a hundred excess pounds. “Ever since I heard her body was found, I haven’t thought of anything else. What if she wasn’t dead? What if I could have saved her if I’d gone right into the locker room or asked one of the ladies to do it?”

“I don’t think she was still alive, sir.” Not with that hole in her skull. “But then you reported you saw her later at the bus stop.”

“That’s what I thought. When she was reported missing and the police investigated, I told them I saw a young girl in a white dress with long dark hair waiting at the bus stop. At the time, we thought Faith disappeared at the other end. In Toronto. Now we know it wasn’t her at all.”

Archman pressed his left hand against his temple. “Plenty of remorse and guilt for this boy, whichever way you look at it.”

Neil wanted to believe him. But some people were just born liars.

Neil stood up. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Archman. I may have to talk to you again. Here’s my card. Please call me if anything occurs to you, no matter how minor you think it is. How long will you be off work?”

“I’m taking the next semester off. That doctor in ER made me realize I’m a dead man walking. It took ten years after my wife and I split up for me to get into this condition. But I don’t have ten years to get back in shape. I have to do it quickly or I won’t make it, and I realize I don’t want to die. I just hope it’s not too late.”

“I don’t think it’s ever too late,” Neil told him. “Dr. Reiner mentioned you broke your arm earlier than Monday morning.”

“Okay. Let’s clear this up once and for all. I fell outside my front steps on Sunday morning. Several of my neighbours saw me and ran over. They had to help me up, which was embarrassing to say the least. My arm hurt, but then so did a lot of other things. I was barely able to drive and decided to see my doctor before going to work on Monday. I stopped at Canadian Tire first to pick up some furnace filters and fell because that idiot Leeds boy didn’t de-ice his parking lot. Again, my right arm took my weight, which as you can see is considerable. I knew there was something seriously wrong.”

Neil nodded. “Is there anyone I can call for you? A relative or friend. Maybe someone at work?” He was thinking of the concerned admin assistant.

Archman waved him away. “Thank you. I’m okay on my own. I’ll call if I think of anything helpful.”

“Just a couple more questions, Mr. Archman. Are you right- or left-handed?”

“Left.”

“Do you own any firearms?”

“I have a Ruger Mark II for target shooting. Although I haven’t been to the range for several years. I do have a Possession and Acquisition Licence for it.”

“The Ruger uses .22 calibre ammunition, I believe.” Neil didn’t take his eyes off Archman’s face. “Is that all you have?”

“That’s it.” Beads of sweat popped out along his forehead, but he didn’t move to wipe them away.

“And can you account for your time Sunday morning from midnight to 6:00 a.m.?”

The man looked around at the barren room and laughed.

CHAPTER

twenty-five

After three hours at the greenhouse tuning up negligent customers and updating my business timesheets, I returned home to a foot-deep flood on the street in front of my house. It took me twenty minutes to shovel the mush away from the storm grates to drain the water.

I wore a yellow slicker over my coat, and a matching sou’wester hat to prevent my hair from kinking any tighter. I was overdressed, and opened the raincoat to let some steam escape.

Fang’s truck shuddered to a stop in my driveway as I was putting the shovel back in the garage. “I’m not repairing your eavestrough for free.” He jammed his hands into the pockets of his quilted jacket and mumbled around the cigarette in his mouth.

“I don’t expect you to do it for free. When did I say that?”

We stood under the overhang of my open garage door, meagre shelter from the pelting rain. The temperature had risen overnight and through the morning, turning the snow into piles of dirty slush. Mr. Davidson had been right.

Fang turned his head and said something I pretended not to hear.

“Just give me a price and get at it.”

“I wouldn’t even be here except Lester made me come. I’m not working on your roof in the rain.”

“Lester who?”

“Lester, my dad. For some reason, he likes you. Beats me why. Anyway, you better get that wet snow off your roof pronto. It’s sliding into the troughs, and you’ll end up with a worse problem than you have now.”