Part 23 (2/2)

Not for the first time, Lucky wondered at the human capacity for self-deception.

”I wasnt sorry to hear Ewan died, Mrs. Smith.” The tears had stopped and Lorraine shredded the tissue in her fingers. ”Only that hed taken Jason with him.” She gave Lucky a knowing look. ”Ewan wasnt a nice man. He had a real problem with women, you know. Id say he hated them and used them for s.e.x in the same way you use a tissue to blow your nose. Something you throw away after.” She tossed her own tissue toward the garbage can in the corner. She missed and the dog picked it up.

Young as she was, Lorraine had learned a thing or two in the back alleys.

”Ewan wasnt like Jason. Jason was a one-woman man. Isnt that a great saying, Mrs. Smith? Once Jason found me, he didnt want anyone else. He and Ewan had been best friends since grade school. Jason didnt like the man Ewan had grown up to be, but what could he do? They were best friends forever, right?”

Lucky swallowed a gag.

”Ewan didnt care about women or their feelings. Why he even went after his friends girlfriends. Alan and Ewan almost got into a fight over Sophie before they even got to Trafalgar. Some friends, eh?”

Lorraine stopped talking. She rubbed at her face, as if trying to scrub away the memories. She looked at Lucky. ”Despite it all, no matter how much Jason disliked the things Ewan did, they were best friends forever. And they stayed best friends as they marched into the face of death. Id like to find a friend like that. Wouldnt you, Mrs. Smith?”

The romanticism of the very young. Still alive in Lorraine, despite all that the girl had been through. Or perhaps stronger because of it.

Lucky got to her feet. ”If you need to talk, Lorraine, any time, please call me.” Lucky dug into her bag for her card with her name and contact information at the store. She found a pen and wrote her home number on the back. She pressed the card into Lorraines hand.

John Winters needed to speak to Gary LeBlanc. According to Mrs. James, Jason had been at the LeBlanc house the night before Christmas Eve, where he and Gary had argued. Presumably Gary had found Jason with his sister and thrown the young man out. According to Lorraine, Jason had been at her home around dinnertime the following day, Christmas Eve. Gary said he hadnt been there. Jason left around nine, telling Lorraine he was going back to the B&B to join his friends, and saying hed call her when it was time for her to come over.

Had Gary arrived home as Jason was leaving and been angry at him for being in the house after having been thrown out the day before? If so, that might go a long way toward explaining the situation if it had been Jason whod been killed that night. But it hadnt. Jason had been alive several hours later when his car went into the river. It had been his friend Ewan whod already been dead.

What had Jason Wyatt-Yarmouth done between leaving the house on Aspen Street and failing to make the turn on Elm Street?

Was it possible Gary had followed the yellow SUV and later mistaken Ewan for Jason and killed him without looking into the boys face? Ewan had suffered a blow to the back of the skull. No, the timing of that was off-Ewan had, according to Doctor Lee, died before Christmas Eve night.

But that scenario could have happened the previous night.

He needed to have another chat with Gary LeBlanc.

Hed tried the LeBlanc house after leaving Mrs. James, but no one came to the door and there hadnt been a car in the driveway. When hed visited yesterday with Molly, Gary had been in the house, but thered been no sign of a vehicle. If Gary was just out of jail he might not have a license or a car. Winters punched a search into the vans computer as he drove toward town. He then called Jim Denton on the dispatch desk and requested that officers keep an eye on 484 Aspen Street and let him know if they saw Gary.

Back in his office, he checked the computer. He needed to find someone, anyone, whod seen Ewan Williams after he left his friends around 5:30 on Sunday-Christmas Eve Eve, Mrs. James grandchildren called it. Nothing. Zip. Nada. Ewan had met a girl on the ski hill that day, no one his friends recognized, and ate lunch with her. Hed driven back to town in the yellow SUV with everyone and had gone out, almost immediately. His friends a.s.sumed hed gone to meet the girl. Winters had absolutely no idea of who the ski-girl was. The newspaper story hed planted with Meredith wouldnt be out at least until tomorrow, and with Monday being New Years Eve, anyone who could tell him anything might not even read the paper.

An idea came to him. He turned to his computer, looked up a number and picked up the phone.

Chapter Twenty.

Molly Smith hadnt liked the gleam in her mothers eyes when Lucky dropped her off. But as she couldnt decipher the gleam, and probably didnt want to, she let it go.

She climbed the stairs to her apartment and let herself in. Shed only been gone for a few hours, but the place seemed cold and empty. When ski season was over and she got some time perhaps shed start looking for a way to personalize this place.

She sliced a bagel and popped it into the toaster. While it browned, she went to the front window. The street was quiet, the ski tourists all out for the day. She curled up in the single armchair in her living room.

A very angry bee was trying very hard to get out of a gla.s.s bottle.

Smith blinked. Not a bee, but her phone.

She fumbled in her pocket and dragged it out.

”Sleeping, Molly?” Sergeant Winters.

Oh, no. Shed fallen asleep and missed showing up for her s.h.i.+ft. In a panic she pulled at her sleeve and checked her watch. One oclock: she wasnt due in until three.

”Just resting. Whats up?”

”I know youre on afternoons, but I need you to do something for me earlier. Ive run it past the acting Sergeant and he agrees with the overtime. Before you come in for your s.h.i.+ft, go up to Blue Sky. Wear your uniform, this is official.”

Heads turned as Molly Smith walked into the main lounge of the Blue Sky Ski Resort. Too bad, she thought, it was not because of her style or her beauty but because she was dressed in full uniform. As out of place in this room packed with skiers as if shed been wearing a sarong and had a hibiscus tucked behind one ear.

She tried not to grin with embarra.s.sment and made her way to the security office.

”Hey, Constable Molly. Whats up? You look quite formal.”

”Im here on business, Fred.”

The Chief of Securitys face darkened. ”Trouble?”

”Long over. I need to ask your people about something that happened a week ago. Im not a detective, but I guess they sent me 'cause Im known around here. Can I talk to the staff? Its the lodge staff Im most interested in, not the people outside.”

”Sure, Molly. Whatever you need. Want to start with me?”

She pulled Ewan Williams picture out of her pocket and handed it across the desk. ”This guy was here several times before Christmas. Im particularly interested in December twenty-third. That was a Sunday. Im looking for a woman he had lunch with. Shes dark haired, early twenties, attractive, quite short. She was wearing a white ski suit. Thats all I know.”

Fred Stockdale leaned back in his chair. He caressed his beer-belly with one hand, reminding Smith of a pregnant woman in deep contemplation, while the other held the photograph. ”Means nothing to me,” he said at last. ”We get so many of these types in here every day, theyre all a blur to me.” He stood up and gave back the picture. ”Lets go talk to the staff. If youre lucky someone will remember serving him. A girl might; hes a good looking guy.”

She was lucky. The lunch rush was over and the kitchen staff had time to give the picture a good look. ”Oh, yes,” the young woman who tossed salads said with a happy sigh. ”I remember him, all right. Such a doll. With a smile that would melt my grandmothers frozen heart. And shes been dead for ten years.” The two women angling to get a look at the picture laughed.

”Not local,” one of the boys said, in a tone that explained it all. ”Tourist.” He wiped his hands on his once-white ap.r.o.n. ”Whats he done?”

Reports of Ewan and Jasons deaths had been in the local paper, but no pictures of the dead men.

Smith told the serving line staff she needed to find the woman he might have had lunch with one day. They looked at each other. ”I remember him,” the salad girl said, ”cause he wasnt the only cute one. His friend was quite the dish as well. But I didnt see him with a girl.”

”I did,” another woman said. She was a good bit older than the others, almost as round as she was tall with hair more gray than blond. Her ap.r.o.n was streaked with grease. ”There was this girl from Quebec. She gave me lip because she didnt think the fries had been cooked long enough. Take it or leave it, I said. The lineup was almost to the door and here she was telling me to prepare her fries just so. He,” she gestured to the photograph of Ewan, ”told her to go back to Quebec if she wasnt happy with B.C. cuisine. She left her tray right there on the counter and stormed off in a huff. She acted like a b.i.t.c.h, but he wasnt any better, I thought. Hed really goaded her.”

The salad woman said, ”One day, I cant remember exactly when, he bought a ton of food. Wed just started setting up for lunch and were busy with prep, so I didnt have time to watch what he did with it. Looked like he was feeding an army.”

All of which was of no help. There was no doubt Ewan and his friends had spent time at the Blue Sky resort. The group made an impression everywhere they went. Not always for the good.

Unfortunately the serving staff couldnt remember Ewan eating lunch with anyone in particular.

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