Suspicion by Rachel Wyatt

Author:Rachel Wyatt
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: disability, literary, suspense, families, women, marriage, conflict, urban development, environment, survival
ISBN: 9781550507188
Publisher: Coteau Books

It was Marcus’s idea to get them all together after lunch but Simon had taken the meeting over.

“Green,” the boy said.

Jack looked at him. He liked the boy better than the little girl, who seemed whiny and detached, but made an effort to love both. It was required.

“What about you, Tannis?” Marcus asked.

“I’m not allowed to think.”

“Tannis!” her mother said sharply and then looked round at the others. “Why don’t we leave this till dinnertime. It’s 1:30 now. I have loads to do. You and Jack’ll be back here at 5:30, Dad.”

“I don’t think we should be wasting any time, that’s all.”

Simon said, “It’s about what we know. Maybe collectively we know more than we think. If we put our heads together there could be details, like a jigsaw puzzle. Pieces that fit together and add up to something.”

“That’s exactly why I asked Jack to come here to your place now, Simon,” Marcus said. “It maybe isn’t convenient but we’re all worrying. So Tannis?”

“Mrs. Cosgrave gave me a cookie and patted my hand. She thinks I’m still in kindergarten.”

“Where did you see her?”

“Yesterday. She was wheeling her chair up the ramp into the library. She said she was sorry for me, and that Aunt Candy must be in a dark place and that someone is to blame. I bit on the cookie. It nearly broke my tooth.”

“She’s a spiteful woman,” Erica said. “She’d no business to say that to you. I know she’s damaged but she could behave decently at a time like this. Behind all this sympathy, there’s a kind of nastiness, people making up stories and pointing fingers.”

“Honey,” Simon said. “Maybe she meant well.”

BJ put in, “Look. I think she meant Aunt Candy has fallen into a hole. Disappeared. Not been taken away or anything.”

Marcus brought out his list. “After likely places, we have to go for unlikely places such as Beatty Park, the ravine, the marina and then Vancouver. I know the police have asked in the city but it’s a huge place. I think we’d know if she’d crossed the border to the States.”

“She didn’t have her passport with her,” Jack said.

“I watched this tv program,” the girl said, “where this bad guy took this woman and kept her in a storage place. One of these big, huge spaces. She died.”

“I told you not to watch those shows, Tannis.”

“Well it might help.”

Silence.

“My parents,” Simon began to say. But Erica shook her head.

BJ began to talk about his new game as if he had to fill in the gap.

Jack wondered what Donny and Bertie Belchuk had to do with anything right now that couldn’t be spoken of in front of the kids.

Marcus said, “I’m not saying life mustn’t go on, but I think we have to remain, as it were, engaged.”

“Engaged, Dad?”

BJ and Tannis slipped away from the table, carrying their lunch dishes, and could be heard moving about the kitchen.

Simon whispered, “My parents have offered to take the kids away somewhere, Disneyland maybe, till this is over.

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