Bones to Ashes Part 20

Even Harry couldn't cajole the woman into further conversation.

By nine we were back in the Escalade.

Tracadie isn't big. By nine-fifteen we were turning onto a residential street that might have fit into any suburb on the continent. Well-tended flower beds. Neatly edged lawns. Fresh-enough paint. Most of the houses looked like they'd been built in the eighties.

Hippo's address took us to a high stone wall at the far end of the block. A plaque gave notice of a residence beyond. An unclasped padlock hung from the rusted iron gate. Harry got out and swung it wide.

A mossy brick drive bisected lawn losing out to weeds. At the end loomed a brick, stone, and timber house with a weathered s.h.i.+ngle roof. Not a mansion, but not a shack, either.

Harry and I sat a moment, staring at the dark windows. They stared back, offering nothing.

"Looks like Ye Olde Rod and Gun Club," Harry said.

She was right. The place had the air of a hunting lodge.

"Ready?"

Harry nodded. She'd been unnaturally quiet since rising. Other than a brief tete-a-tete concerning her aversion to underpants, I'd left her in peace. I figured she was sorting remembrances of Obeline. Bracing herself for the scarred woman we were about to encounter. I was.

Wordlessly, we got out and walked to the house.

Overnight, clouds had rolled in, thick and heavy with moisture. The morning promised rain.

Finding no bell, I knocked on the door. It was dark oak, with a leaded gla.s.s panel that yielded no hint of a presence beyond.

No answer.

I rapped again, this time on the gla.s.s. My knuckles fired off a sharp rat-a-tat-tat. rat-a-tat-tat.

Still nothing.

A gull looped overhead, cawing news of the upcoming storm. Tide reports. Gossip known only to the Larus Larus mind. mind.

Harry put her face to the gla.s.s.

"No movement inside," she said.

"Maybe she's a late sleeper."

Harry straightened and turned. "With our luck, she's in Wichita Falls."

"Why would Obeline go to Wichita Falls?"

"Why would anyone go to Wichita Falls?"

I looked around. Not a neighboring structure nearby.

"I'll check in back."

"I'll cover the front, sir." Saluting, Harry slipped her saddlebag purse from her shoulder. It dropped by her feet with a thup. thup.

Stepping from the porch, I circled to my right.

A stone deck ran almost the full length of the back of the house. A wing paralleled the deck's far side, tangential to and invisible from out front. It looked newer, its trim brighter than that on the rest of the structure. I wondered if I was looking at the site of the fire.

The deck held a patio set, a barbecue grill, and several lawn chairs, all empty. Climbing to it, I crossed and peered through a set of double gla.s.s doors.

Standard kitchen appliances. Pine table and captains chairs. Cat-cuckoo clock with a pendulum tail.

Center island. A paring knife, a paper towel, and a peeled apple skin.

I felt my nerves tingle.

She's here!

I turned.

Past an expanse of lawn stood a small gazebo-like structure. Past the gazebo, water, rough and gunmetal gray. An inlet of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, I presumed.

Strange columns flanked the gazebo's entrance, tall, with projections forward and to the sides. Atop each was an unidentifiable shape.

Through the gazebo's screening I could dimly make out a silhouette. My mind logged detail.

Small, probably female. Hunched. Still.

The maybe-Obeline woman had her back to me. I couldn't tell if she was reading, dozing, or merely gazing seaward.

I moved forward, senses still logging information. A wind chime tinkling notes. Wet gra.s.s. Explosions of froth against a seawall.

Drawing closer, I realized the columns had been carved into stacks of zoomorphic creatures. The projections were beaks and wings. The shapes on top were renderings of stylized birds.

Then, recognition, prompted by anthropology studies of years ago. The gazebo had once been a sweat house, later modified by replacing walls with screening.

The a.s.semblage looked thousands of miles out of place. Totem poles and sweat houses were built by peoples of the Pacific Northwest, the Tlingit, Haida, or Kwakiutl, not by the Micmac or other tribes of the Maritimes.

Ten feet back, I stopped.

"Obeline?"

The woman's head snapped up.

"Quisse que la?" Who's there? Acadian French. Who's there? Acadian French.

"Temperance Brennan."

The woman didn't reply.

"Tempe. From Pawleys Island."

Nothing.

"Harry is here, too."

A hand rose, hovered, as though uncertain of its purpose.

"We were friends. You and Harry. Evangeline and I."

"Pour l'amour du bon Dieu." Whispered. Whispered.

"I knew Tante Euphemie and Oncle Fidele."

The hand shot to the woman's forehead, dropped to her chest, then crossed from shoulder to shoulder.

"I've been looking for you for a very long time."

Pus.h.i.+ng to her feet, the woman draped a shawl on her head, hesitated, then shuffled to the door.

A hand reached out.

Hinges squeaked.

The woman stepped into daylight.

17.

M EMORY IS CAPRICIOUS, SOMETIMES PLAYING STRAIGHT, SOMETIMES EMORY IS CAPRICIOUS, SOMETIMES PLAYING STRAIGHT, SOMETIMES deceiving. It can s.h.i.+eld, deny, tantalize, or just plain err. deceiving. It can s.h.i.+eld, deny, tantalize, or just plain err.

There was no mistake or dissembling here.

Though I saw only half the woman's face, I felt I'd taken a body blow. Dark gypsy eye, petulant upper lip swooping down to a diminutive lower. Brown blemish on her cheek in the shape of a leaping frog.

Obeline giggling. Evangeline tickling, teasing. Frog-freckle face! Frog-freckle face!

The jawline was sagging, the skin deeply etched. No matter. The woman was an aged and weathered mutation of the child I'd known on Pawleys Island.

My eyes welled up.

I saw Obeline, little legs churning, crying to be included in our games. Evangeline and I had read her stories, costumed her in sequins and tutus, built her sand castles on the beach. But, mostly, we'd sent her away.

I forced a smile. "Harry and I missed you both terribly."

"What do you want?"

"To talk with you."

"Why?"

"We'd like to understand why you left so suddenly. Why Evangeline never answered my letters."

"How did you get this address?" Her voice was wire-thin, her breathing and swallowing measured, perhaps a product of speech therapy following the fire. "Do you work for the police?"

I told her I worked for the coroner in Montreal.

"This coroner sent you to find me?"

"It's a long story. I'd like to share it."

Obeline twisted the fabric bunched at her chin. The skin on her fingers was lumpy and waxy-white, like oatmeal congealed on the bottom of a pot.

"The horror comes real."

"I'm sorry?" Obeline's chiac chiac accent was so strong I wasn't catching all her words. accent was so strong I wasn't catching all her words.

"The nightmare made truth."

"Pardon?"

She ignored my question. "Harry is here?"

"At your front door."

Her gaze drifted past me, lingered, I suspected, on a moment long past.

Then, "Join her. I will let you in."

After sliding what sounded like a hundred deadbolts, Obeline admitted us to a foyer giving onto a wide central hall. Light diffusing through leaded gla.s.s windows gave an ephemeral cast to the large, empty s.p.a.ce.

Ahead, I noted an ornately carved staircase; suspended from the ceiling, a faux Louis-the-something chandelier. The hall was furnished with carved and painted high-backed benches, more artifacts from the Pacific Northwest.

In spots, the floral wallpaper was marked by brighter rose and green rectangles, evidence that paintings or portraits had been removed. The floor was covered by a ma.s.sive antique Persian Sarouk Farahan carpet that must have cost more than my condo.

Obeline's shawl was now wrapped below her chin and tied at the back of her neck. Up close, the reason was obvious. Her right eyelid drooped and her right cheek looked like blistered marble.

Involuntarily, my eyes broke contact with hers. I wondered, How would I feel were I the scarred one and she the visitor from so long ago?

Harry said howdy. Obeline said bonjour bonjour. Both were restrained. Neither touched the other. I knew Harry was feeling the same pity and sadness as I.

Obeline indicated that we should accompany her. Harry fell into step, head swiveling from side to side. I followed.