Verdict in Blood - By Gail Bowen Page 0,75

Justine in the last year?”

“I’m not blind,” he snapped. “When Justine visited me at my daughter’s house, she looked the way she always looked, like she’d just stepped off a bandbox. In the last year, she looked like a goddamn tree-hugger.”

I leaned forward in my chair. “But she was still Justine.”

“Of course. She was trying to find answers to some big questions. That’s what you do when you’re old. I thought the answers she’d come up with were arrant nonsense, but they made sense for her.”

“So you didn’t think she’d lost her mind.”

Garnet Dishaw sat back in his chair. “Why would I think that?”

“I’m not trying to meddle in Justine’s personal affairs. These questions have to do with her estate.”

“Are those girls of hers fighting over the lolly? Her death was a stroke of luck for them, no doubt about it.” He drained his drink. “Poor Dick. Seeing his daughters like that would have been painful for him.” Garnet Dishaw’s voice took on a faraway quality. “Still, it wouldn’t have been the first pain they caused him, nor would it have been the worst. He died of a broken heart, you know.”

“Of a broken heart,” I repeated.

Garnet Dishaw heard the doubt in my voice, and he turned on me angrily. “You heard me. If the great Howie Morenz could die of a broken heart because his leg shattered and ended his career, Richard Blackwell could certainly die of a broken heart after his whole life was shattered. I don’t want to talk about this any more.” Garnet pushed himself up from his chair and extended his hand to Keith. “It was good to see you again, my friend.”

Keith took his hand and shook it. “Garnet, what the hell are you doing in a place like this?”

Garnet Dishaw made a moue of disgust. “I had a couple of falls,” he said. “The first one was in the courthouse in Saskatoon. My feet got tangled up in my robe – a boffo Marx Brothers moment for my colleagues, but I ended up in hospital. My daughter brought me down here to recuperate and I slipped on the goddamn bathroom floor at her state-of-the-art house. We weren’t getting along, and the fall gave her the chance she needed to get rid of me.” His voice became a stage falsetto. “ ‘With my job and the children and all, I can’t give you the care you need, Dad. You’ll be better off where there’s someone there to look after you twenty-four hours a day.’ ” When he spoke again, his voice had regained its normal tone. “It’s not an easy thing to face the fact that you’re extraneous.”

Our eyes locked, and for a beat there was a powerful and wordless communication between us. “No,” I said. “It’s not easy at all.”

“Will you come to see me again?”

I nodded. “I’ll come again.”

“Good.” He looked puckish. “And bring something for the laundry hamper.”

The drive home was a short one, and Keith and I were silent, absorbed in our own thoughts. When we pulled up in front of my house, I turned to him. “What did you make of Garnet’s comment about Justine’s death being a stroke of luck for her daughters?”

“That thought’s never occurred to you?”

“I guess it has, but it just seemed too terrible to consider.”

“That’s where you and Garnet part company then, because I don’t imagine there’s much about human behaviour that he classifies as being ‘too terrible to consider.’ ”

“I liked him,” I said.

“I like him too.” Keith touched my cheek. “It’s not easy, is it?”

“You mean what’s waiting for us in the years ahead?”

“That’s exactly what I mean,” he said. “It would be nice not to be alone.”

“Yeah,” I said. “It would be nice not to be alone.”

He kissed me. “I’ll phone you from Toronto.”

It was a little after 9:00 when I walked through the front door. When I called hello, only Rose responded, but she led me to the others. Angus and Leah were on the back deck, curled up together in one of the lazy lounges.

“You two look cosy,” I said.

“We are,” Angus agreed. “But we’re ready to move along, and a little coin for coffee at Roca Jack’s would be appreciated.”

“Is everything okay with Taylor?”

Leah stood up and stretched. “She’s out in her studio painting. Mrs. Kilbourn, that new picture of hers is sensational.”

“You’re just saying that because you’re in it,” Angus said. My son gave my shoulder an avuncular squeeze. “Now, Mum, about that cash infusion.”

I opened my