Part 57 (1/2)
”That was Dom Owens. Elle ordered him to stop your meddling. He claims he was not into physically harming people, so he directed some student followers in Charlotte to do something to frighten you off. They devised the cat trick. Got the poor thing from the animal shelter.”
”How did they find me?”
”One of them took a bill or something from your office. It had your home address.”
Ryan sipped his tea.
”By the way, your St. Paddy's Day adventure in Montreal was also student-inspired.”
”How did you know about that?”
He smiled and waggled the teacup. ”It seems the protective att.i.tude went both ways between Jeannotte and her students. One of them saw that she was upset, and concluded your visits were the cause. He decided to freelance and deliver a personal message.”
I changed the subject. ”Do you believe Owens was involved in killing Jennifer and Amalie?”
”He denies it. Claims that after he confronted Jennifer about the phone calls he reported to Elle. Says Elle told him she and Daniel were taking Jennifer and Amalie back to Canada.”
”Why was Owens not at Ange Gardien?”
”Owens had decided to bail. He either became afraid over what Elle might do because he had lost track of Joey, Kathryn, and Carlie, or he didn't have confidence in the cosmic crossover. Either way, he had over two hundred thousand dollars of Guillion's money left, so he gathered it up and went west as everyone else headed north. The American feds caught up with him at a naturalist commune in Arizona. Elle would not have had her fifty-four souls even with Harry.”
”Hungry?”
”Let's eat.”
We made salad, then skewered chicken and vegetables for s.h.i.+sh kebabs. Outside the sun had dropped below the horizon, and the deepening dusk filled the trees and grounds with dark shadows. We ate on the patio, talking and watching night settle in. Inevitably, the conversation drifted back to Elle and the murders.
”I guess Daisy Jeannotte felt she could confront her brother and force him to stop the madness.”
”Yeah, but Elle spotted Daisy first and had Daniel eliminate her and throw her into the crawl s.p.a.ce where they later stashed you. You had been perceived as a lesser threat and had simply been rapped over the head and stuck in the hole. When you responded by getting free and causing more trouble, Elle was outraged and committed you to the same murder-exorcism that she had lavished on Jennifer and Amalie.”
”Daniel helped Elle kill Jennifer and Amalie, and he's the main suspect in the Carole Comptois murder. Who were the a.s.sa.s.sins in St-Jovite?”
”We may never know. No one has told that story yet.”
Ryan finished his tea and leaned back. Crickets had taken over for birds. Far off a siren moaned in the night. For a long time we didn't speak.
”Do you remember the exhumation I did in Lac Memphremagog?”