Agent Shirley said, “How could he have known we would be here?”
Cork said, “He had a police scanner in his apartment. Last time I was in there, it was gone. Was there any radio chatter about taking Lewis to Allouette?”
“We communicated with the sheriff’s office several times,” Desjardins said.
“That probably explains it.”
“Why kill Lewis? What was it he was afraid Lewis might tell us?” Agent Shirley said.
They stood silent for a moment, then Cork offered an answer. “Maybe where all the others are buried.”
Twilight, and Annie sat on the porch swing as Daniel’s pickup pulled up to the curb. Her father got out, walked to the driver’s side, and said something through the window. He stepped away and watched Daniel head down Gooseberry Lane. Then he started up the sidewalk toward Annie.
He moved, Annie thought, like an old person, bent by the weight of too many years filled with too many worries. She loved him dearly, this man who’d hovered over her across the whole of her childhood, had protected her and Jenny and Stephen so many times in so many ways. She wondered now if she’d told him enough how much she appreciated his caring.
“Nice evening,” he said as he mounted the steps. He nodded toward the swing. “Mind if I join you?”
She patted the seat beside her, and he lowered himself with a heavy sigh.
“Long day,” she said.
“Any more like this’ll kill me.” He squeezed his face up in pain. “I’m sorry. That was…”
“It’s all right, Dad.”
He reached out and took her hand. “Where’s Maria?”
“Making dinner. Lots of it. Rainy and Stephen and Belle will be back sometime, and probably hungry. You too?”
“I could eat. What’s she making?”
“Chicken salad.”
“Sounds good.” He looked west, where the last light of day was a haze of purple along the horizon. “Adrian Lewis is dead.”
Annie squeezed his hand, an involuntary reaction. “How?”
“We were transporting him from Allouette to Aurora and somebody ambushed us.”
“Was anyone else hurt?”
“Only Lewis.”
“Thank God for that. Are you all right?”
“Just tired.” His eyes were still on the horizon. “Tired of the cruelty in how we treat one another.”
“Not everyone is cruel, Dad. You’re not.”
“Maybe I am without knowing it. Maybe everybody is.”
“That’s part of being human, isn’t it? And that’s why there’s forgiveness.”
He gave a little laugh. “This from my daughter who shunned the nunnery.”
“I wanted to kill Lewis today,” she confessed. “I didn’t feel an ounce of forgiveness in my heart.”
“And now?”
She shrugged. “Now I just feel guilty for hating him.”
“I learned some things today about Lewis. He grew up surrounded by cruelty. Enough that maybe I can understand how he became so warped.” He still held her hand, and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Maybe understanding is the beginning of forgiveness?”
“I’ll still have to work on that.” She shifted in the swing and the chains that held it gave a little squeal. “Do you know who killed him?”
“I think it was Mathias Paavola. And I believe Paavola was involved in killing Fawn Blacksmith and Olivia Hamilton. I think there may be others he’s killed.” He shook his head. “How Paavola’s soul could get that evil, I have no idea.”
Headlights tunneled through the gathering dark on Gooseberry Lane. Rainy pulled into the drive, and Stephen and Belle pulled in beside her. They all walked toward the front porch, looking every bit as tired and weighted as Annie’s father had looked.
“Hard day at Spirit Crossing?” Cork asked as they mounted the porch steps.
“You don’t know the half of it.” Rainy leaned to him and gave him a kiss, then studied his face in the gloom of the evening. “You look beat, too.”
“A lot to share.”
Maria opened the screen door and stepped out. “I thought I heard voices. I have prepared dinner. Are you hungry?”
“Bless you,” Stephen said. “I could eat a moose.”
