“I can't,” I said. “I'm sorry.”
She nodded. “That's okay. I'll just be a minute.”
We watched her. She stood silently beside Hank's body as if she might be praying before shaking the blanket out of its folds. It settled gently over him. She bent to tuck one corner over one outflung hand.
Wilson blew his breath out in a long sigh. “It's going to be tough on old Joe,” he said. “He's never fired his gun before. Not that I know of. Not at someone. It's hard to believe he actually hit him.”
“Bad luck then,” Will said.
“Yeah.” Wilson scuffed his shoe. “Bad luck all round.”
“About Marilyn ⦔ Will began.
“Let's save it for the OPP,” Wilson said. He straightened up. “What are these artifacts you've been talking about, anyway?”
“Indian relics,” I said. “They must be in the truck.”
“More likely Bonnie's car,” Will put in. “After all this, I doubt she'd let them out of her hands.”
He was right. The canvas backpack was in the Ford's trunk.
Two cruisers squealed to a stop behind the other one. Four cops tumbled out, all men, all but one in uniform. Lachance made her report. While one constable paused to talk to Gianelli, the others followed her up the road.
Wilson came back to join us. “It's going to take awhile before we can leave: the OPP will have to go through the car and the cottage collecting evidence before they move the bodies. And the SIU is on its way: you'll have to make a statement about Joe.”
“Things got out of hand,” Will said. “He couldn't help it.”
“A shame, though,” Wilson shook his head. “It's not good for his record.”
What about Hank? I wanted to say, but I held my tongue. What was the point in adding more recriminations to what Gianelli was obviously feeling. It was too late to help Hank now anyway.
A station wagon joined the line of cars in the driveway. The woman who got out was short and plump, her hair a halo of gray curls. She wore a hand knit sweater over slacks and carried two toy teddy bears. The OPP constable pointed to the cruiser. The door opened and Bonnie got out, her arms tight around each child. She spoke to the woman quietly, then knelt to kiss her children. They let the social worker take them back to the wagon. There was a few minutes of confusion while the constable helped direct the car to turn around in the limited space of the lane.
Bonnie stood watching until it disappeared up the road. The constable touched her arm and pointed to one of the
newly arrived cruisers. She walked stiffly to it, ignoring Robin who tapped frantically on the window as she passed Gianelli's car. The constable unlocked the back door. I thought for a moment she would resist getting into the cage, but she didn't. Now that Ryan and Megan were gone for good, she had nothing left to fight for.
“What about us?” I asked. “Are we free to go?”
“Well, sure,” Wilson said. “After all, you're innocent, right? Mere bystanders.”
Much, much later, peace returned to the marshes. The birds had come in to nest as usual, disregarding the commotion as police milled around the driveway, the bridge and the cottage. Bird song and chatter nearly drowned the revving of car engines as trucks appeared to tow the Ford and pick-up away from the bridge. We talked to a series of officers, uniformed and plainclothes. They were all very polite, very formal.
I walked beside Hank's body when they carried him up the hill to the hearse. At least, I comforted myself, he would be with the only two people whom he had loved, his grandfather and our cousin. The three would lie in the local hospital and then I would arrange for them to be buried together.
Finally, they all left â the police, the morgue attendants, even the local reporters who'd heard the news and came rushing, looking to scoop the big city papers. Will persuaded the cops to send them away. I stood in the screened porch, listening as the last car's noise faded in the distance and staring over the marsh at the pattern of moonlight on water. The loon cried out.
Will put his arms around me and I leaned back into his embrace.
“It's beautiful here, isn't it?” I said. “In spite of everything. I can understand why Aunt Beatrice didn't want to let it go.”
“What are you going to do with it?”
“I don't know just yet. I'll look into turning it over to the province. It's what my grandfather wanted all along.”
“It would be a shame to see it ruined by development,” Will agreed.
“And I can't bear to profit from all these deaths,” I said. “I never expected to gain from going to see Aunt Beatrice. I only wanted to find my family.”
“The Cooks, the Bakers, the McDonnels,” Will murmured into my hair.
“The line stops here,” I tried to joke. It wasn't very funny.
We listened to the lap of little waves against the dock down below and the whisper of the ceaseless breeze through the reeds.
“Those poor kids,” I sighed. “Ryan and Megan. Caught between their father and mother, both of them using the kids to hurt the other.”
“They'll survive.”
“You think so?”
“In one way or another. We all grow up.”
“I wish there was something I could do for them.”
“They have what's-her-name, Lynne. The new wife. Megan said she made her father laugh. She might be just what that family needs to hold it together.”
“I still can't get over Bonnie. My friend.”
“She only wanted to do what she thought was best for the kids.”
“Best for herself, you mean. She wanted everything: Robin, the kids, money⦠You heard her, she was lying right up to the end, she even tried to use Hank's death to get away. She must have thought the rest of us were pretty stupid. I was stupid enough in the first place, listening to her, letting her in. I wonder how many of those stories she told about her marriage were true.”
“It's impossible to figure out relationships from the outside, what really goes on inside families.” Will hugged me a little tighter.
“I have no family any more. For real, this time. I'm the only one left.”
“You've got me,” Will said.
I turned into his embrace and we kissed.
“We'd better go,” he said at last. “It's a long drive.”
“Not to the city,” I said. “I want to go home with you. To sleep in our own bed. In our own house.”
Even when our car crested the last rise before turning towards the highway, even when Will stopped the car to point out the lake shimmering below in the moonlight, I never looked back.