Buffalo Jump (39 page)

My dreams have for the most part been disturbing, grotty little dramas that wake me in the early hours, my stomach as twisted as my sheets. But the other night I had one where Roni Galil and I were trapped in the usual alley as a torrential wave rushed through. I kept my feet but Roni was knocked over onto his back. I offered him my hand to pull him back up onto his feet, but he waved me off and stayed under water. He lit a joint and took a deep, long hit, but when he finally blew it out, no air bubbles rose past the surface: just a thin wisp of smoke. He didn’t even offer to share it with me, the bugger, but I laughed it off. He took another toke, an even longer one this time, and gave me a big wink and a smile while he held his breath.

He looked very much at peace.

Valuable information and insight were provided by Manny Acacio and Trina Parcey, King Reed & Associates Investigation Services; Inspector Brian Raybold, Toronto Police Service, Homicide Squad; Superintendent Randall Monroe, TPS 51 Division; Greg Ujiye, Ontario College of Pharmacists; and Donna Monaco, Buffalo Field Office, U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Norm Bacal and Todd Robinson helped with fight techniques. Mark Pomerantz provided insight into pharmaceutical sales and production. Victor Malarek’s reporting on the tobacco industry was inspiring, as was Adrian Humphreys’s writing on organized crime in Ontario. Any errors or inventions regarding these matters are mine.

Special thanks to my agent, Helen Heller, who constantly challenged me to aim higher; to Anne Collins of Random House Canada, whose thoughtful edit helped bring the story home; to Marion Garner at Random House and freelance editors Barbara Czarnecki and Liba Berry; and to Jeffrey Harper for his incisive read of the first draft and more than a few thereafter.

Thanks to the Buffalo Pivers (Dr. M. Steven Piver, Susan Piver, Dr. Bobbie Piver Dukarm and Dr. Rob Dukarm) and Dr. Allan and Linda Gold of Toronto, for advice on geography, surgery and much more.

To Linwood Barclay, Peter Bernstein, Shawn Brant, Yael Brotman, Bev Caswell, Betty Clarke, Robin Cleland, Jeff Cohen, Chris Cook, Stephen Cooper, Jim Cuddy, Jack David, Fred Finkelberg, Didier Fiszel, Murray Kane, Harvey Kaplovitch, Mel Korn, Lee Kraemer, Colin MacAdam, Dennis Murphy, Jeff Oberman, Rena Polley, Peter Robinson, Allan Romano, Neil Seidman, Antanas Sileikas, Beth Sulman, David Talbot and Karl Thomson, all of whom provided support in one way or another. Special thanks to René Balcer for kind words then and now.

And finally, thanks to my mother and father, who remained eerily calm when I quit a government job to finish this book. And to Aaron and Jesse for understanding that Daddy had to write at weird hours and was sometimes too tired to play Twister. And most of all to Harriet.

Without her love, encouragement and support, this novel would still be in a drawer somewhere. Her instincts about the story and Jonah’s character—and hearing her laugh in all the right places—helped keep the first draft flowing.