The Glass Lake by Susan Jane Wright

Author:Susan Jane Wright
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery; thriller; suspense; legal; legal thriller; woman sleuths; sister sleuths; Canadian thriller; Canadian mystery; financial thriller; corporate greed; net zero
Publisher: Roan Consulting
Published: 2022-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 35

Amy awoke just before we pulled up in front of Kirsten’s place. “Slow down!” her mother yelled when Amy bolted out of the backseat. “That girl, she’s getting as bad as the twins.” We crunched down the gravel driveway, the thin skim of ice snapping under foot like splintering glass. Amy jumped up and down on a desiccated snow ledge; it snapped in two just as her mother told her to go inside. The child didn’t have a key, but she didn’t need one, the door was unlocked.

Kirsten’s home was not what I’d expected. Instead of a rustic log cabin buried deep in the woods she welcomed me into a modern A-frame set in the middle of a small glade. Amy clattered into the mud room, kicking off her boots and flinging her coat onto a small red hook positioned low on the wall. Kirsten led the way through to a sleek open space, pretty enough to be featured in a Swedish design magazine. Light flooded through large windows, bouncing off the whitewashed floors and built-in cabinetry. The kitchen flowed into the living space which was dominated by a pale blue sofa strewn with navy and white striped pillows. Two small bedrooms and a bathroom were tucked under a sleeping loft. The space would have been austere but for the kids’ toys scattered all over the floor.

“Sorry about the mess,” Kirsten said. I said my bull terrier could do more damage in fifteen minutes than what I was witnessing here. That piqued Amy’s interest and I showed her pictures of Quincy and Louisa on my phone while Kirsten set a large pot of vegetable soup on the stove top and popped cheddar biscuits into the oven. Soon the room was filled with the comforting aroma of a home-cooked meal.

After lunch, Amy announced she was going to draw a picture for the Heart Lady. Within minutes she was busily arranging coloured pencils, longest to shortest, at the far end of the kitchen table, chattering to herself like a chickadee. Kirsten poured me a second cup of coffee and nodded indulgently at her daughter. “She lives in her own little world.” Then Kirsten’s face stiffened. She pulled her chair closer to mine and said, “We have to talk about Phoenix.”

She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders, and began. “Twelve years ago I worked for Phoenix in its engineering group. That’s where I met Kevin, my husband, he was a financial analyst. We hit it off right away and were married within five months.” Her eyes softened with the memory. “We were doing very well in our careers, then I got pregnant with the twins and decided to take some time off.”

It was a familiar story, jumping off the career track to the mommy track and never quite making it back again.

“Phoenix offered Kev a transfer to California, as director of operations at its San Remo facility—”

“I thought Kevin was in finance, not operations.”

“That’s right, Kev was a CPA, not an engineer.

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