By the Time You Read This (4) by Giles Blunt

Author:Giles Blunt
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mystery, wread done, Fiction, Thriller, Canadian
ISBN: 9780770430030
Publisher: Seal Books
Published: 2006-01-02T05:00:00+00:00

Island Road was four miles out of town, north on Highway 63. Delorme had to drive past Madonna Road on the way. Following Trout Lake’s western edge, Madonna Road curved back along the highway after a few hundred yards. Cardinal’s house was a dark rectangle below brilliant clouds of coloured leaves. She wondered if his daughter was still there, or if she had gone back to New York.

Work wasn’t the same without Cardinal around. Delorme liked to do all the footwork, cover all the bases and keep her supplementary reports up to the minute. Cardinal was all for narrowing the focus as soon as possible, and he was right almost every time. Then he would go back and cover all the bases, just like Delorme. “Working together,” Chouinard had said to them one time, “you two might add up to a decent investigator.”

The two ident guys lived in their own world. Szelagy was such a chatterbox, it was practically like having a radio going all the time. McLeod was always making the world a present of his opinions—and his opinions were insufferable. At least once a day Delorme prayed he was only kidding with some sexist or racist or anti-civilian remark. She hadn’t realized how much Cardinal kept a lid on such things at the office until he was gone.

She made the turn onto Island Road, wondering how Cardinal was coping. Never having had a husband, Delorme had never lost one, but she remembered how she had grieved when her mother died. A dozen years ago now. Delorme had been a student at Carleton University in Ottawa. But she still remembered how it hurt, day in and day out, for weeks and months. She hoped that Cardinal would soon begin to feel some respite.

A daydream visited her. She saw herself having dinner with Cardinal at an expensive restaurant. In Montreal, for some reason. And then they were walking on Mount Royal, the city spread out below them. She was giving him a hug, just to comfort him, and then he was hugging her back, and her heart stirred with something more than friendship.

“Jesus, Delorme,” she said aloud, and slammed on the brakes. She had missed the turn onto Royal Road. She backed up, provoking honks of protest from an oncoming Jeep, and wheeled onto the dirt road.

Four Mile Marina: Sales, Service, Storage. The sign came up sooner than she expected, at the foot of a driveway wide enough to accommodate boats and trailers.

A young man in cargo pants and elaborate running shoes showed her to the boathouse. The structure resembled an enormous shoe rack with rolling metal shutters for doors. It was two levels high, and Delorme was glad to learn that the Ferriers’ boat was stored on the lower level.

“I better get back to the office,” the kid said. “Gimme a holler if you need anything.”

“I will. Thank you.”

The place was deserted. A light rain began to fall, rattling on corrugated tin, and intensifying the surrounding smells of pine and wet leaves.

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