Deadly Expectations (79 page)

“This doesn’t even make your top three and you’ve always worked it out,” he said.
 
“Forgiveness won’t be far away when you decide to get your head out of your ass and ask for it.
 
He has to be sure … he’ll hear you out.”

 
Denis squeezed me gently and stood up to leave.

“I have to get back upstairs but come say hi before you go out.”

“Okay Denis, thanks.”

In my heart I knew he was right.

Bee had a small list of things she needed.
 
She didn’t seem well.
 
Tired and more confused than usual.
 
Denis said she wouldn’t eat much and it was an argument to get her out of bed every day and then another one to get her back in it.
 
He said she knew her time was short.
 
Ray just prescribed companionship and comfort for her now.
 
She’d never been around this long before and being a frail old woman had lost the charm it once had.
 
Denis said she was ready to go.

It didn’t take long.
 
Denis came in early the day after I signed all the final paperwork with the lawyer.
 
Still dark.
 
He didn’t come in until after sunrise to bring me up for breakfast.
 
Today I was already sitting up on the edge of my bed by the time he made it down the hall.

“Anna?”
 
Denis whispered as he turned on the hall light and when he came to the room he saw that I was sitting up.
 
He hesitated in the door for a second before he came in and sat with me on the bed.

“Anna,” he said softly and put his arm around me, “she passed during the night.
 
I checked on her at three and she was resting well but she’s gone now.
 
I’m sorry.”

I took a deep breath and exhaled tears.
 
Knowing it would come didn’t make it any easier.
 
It just told me which thoughts to avoid until I had to think them.
 
I put my head on Denis’ shoulder and cried.
 
He didn’t.
 
For him it was an absence, not a good-bye.

“Am I being childish?” I asked him.
 
My voice still shook.

“Yes,” he laughed gently.
 
“You are.
 
I’d be worried if you weren’t.
 
Do you want to come upstairs?
 
I don’t know what to do here when someone dies.”

I nodded.
 
I didn’t know either.

“Okay … get dressed.
 
I’m going to swipe your coffee maker and take it upstairs.
 
I need it.
 
And I’m taking the coffee.”

Denis had my coffee maker under one arm and a cigarette in his mouth when I left my suite.
 
I didn’t bother with a coat even though it was well below freezing.
 
He ground it out in the gravel before we went in.

I waited in her living room for him while he went through to the kitchen and started a pot of coffee.

“You don’t have to see her if you don’t want to,” he said when he came back into the living room.
 

“I do,” I said but I wasn’t so sure.

“I haven’t called Ray yet … nothing he can do.”

Denis had left her door shut part way and her table lamp on.
 
He pushed it open the rest of the way and led me in.

Bee was on her back with her eyes closed.
 
I would have thought she was just sleeping.
 
I sat beside her on the bed and felt her cool hand, then her face.
 
Her glasses were open on her table so I folded them up and put them in the case.
 
Then I got her spare brush from her drawer and smoothed out what I could of her short grey hair.
 
Denis watched me.

“That’s better.
 
It wouldn’t do for anyone to see her looking scruffy.”

I felt a little better that I had been able to do something for her but it still didn’t feel like much.
 
“She has a folder in her desk … she would never let me see it but she says it’s there.
 
We’re supposed to open it now.”

“Okay,” Denis said but he didn’t move.

“I guess I should call someone first.
 
It’s probably her will and where she wants to go.
 
That sort of thing.”

I put her arm under the blanket then I straightened the bed.

We looked up the number for the hospital.
 
I thought of calling 911 but this wasn’t an emergency and even at seven in the morning on a Friday they probably had real emergencies to deal with.
 
They said they would send a policeman … a formality … and an ambulance.
 
I thought the policeman was to make sure that there wasn’t a trail of blood running from Bee to the axe out by the woodpile.

“Can you run down and get my Rachel ID for me?
 
And you’ll need your Daniel ID.
 
I don’t think they’ll care to see it but just in case.”

“Got it,” he was back in a minute.
 
We would have to be Rachel and Daniel since our names would go into any reports.

We sat at the table to wait.
 
Denis was on his second cup and I got myself one.

“You want me to explain to Ray why you’re off the wagon?”

“It’s this or a smoke.
 
Tell him I roughed you up.”

He laughed.
 
“Do you want the folder now?”

“I want to look after her first.
 
Will you go back today?”

“Maybe … do you need me to stick around?”

“No,” I rubbed my stomach, “one way or another I’ll be back at the compound within the week anyway I think.
 
If I get any bigger I won’t fit out the door.”

“Sure.
 
I can stay if you change your mind.”

Denis was on his third and putting on another pot when the police arrived.
 
Satisfied that there was no suspicious trail of blood leading from the bedroom and that there was indeed a deceased person in the house he took our names for the file and left as the ambulance arrived.
 
They were kind and respectful to her and gently took her away leaving me with instructions for whom to contact at the hospital to release her to whoever we were making arrangements with.
 
It was getting complicated and I was having trouble keeping up.
 
Denis seemed to have a handle on it.

Next we found her folder.
 
There was a will done by the same lawyer I had seen and information about a place in
New Brunswick
where her parents were.
 
Denis skipped through it and read her instructions to me.
 
She wanted to be cremated and sent back home.
 
First we called a funeral home that could look after her, then the one in
New Brunswick
.
 
They would talk to the one here and keep us up to date.

The house felt so empty.
 
Denis had arranged a flight for two days out but had to pay up front so I went downstairs to get him cash for the travel agent.
 
As I counted out a mix of small and large bills something familiar tickled under my nose.
 
I went cold.
 
It was men … Damian’s men.
 
Close.
 
Inside.
 
I spun to face my kitchen and counted
 
…
 
three
 
…
 
four
 
…
 
damn, I was in trouble.
 
Too many.

Then the door slammed and I heard shouting.
 
Denis.
 
I got to my dresser as fast as I could manage and took Damian’s knife up the hall.

I quickly assessed the men in the living room; Denis and three still to go down.
 
The one on the floor wasn’t a threat.
 
He was still.
 
I noticed Denis was dripping blood from his hand but didn’t have the luxury of looking very closely.
 
He was loud and had their attention so Andre quickly slipped in front of the nearest one and opened his throat before spinning me out of the way of another.

My stomach started to cramp with the movement and as I came to a stop to take stock of the remaining men Denis pulled his knife from the one I had just avoided.
 
There was far too much blood on Denis now to be explained by the wounds on the men on the floor.
 
The last one went after Denis.
 
I slashed deep into his back distracting him as Denis got him in the neck.
 
At least that’s what it looked like from where I was.
 
I stuck him in the neck from behind and pulled him over by the handle of my knife.

It was all so fast.
 
Just my breathing and the sound of Denis gasping.
 
He started to collapse after the last of Damian’s men hit the ground.
 
Maybe it was all the blood on him that made him look so pale.
 
I hoped desperately that it was but he was struggling to breath and even focus his eyes.
 
I dropped my knife and got my arms around him, hoping to ease his fall to the floor but he was so much bigger than me and with my stomach cramping up I knew he was helping me down.

He leaned back on my couch, his hands on me; his knife on the floor beside us.

“Denis …” I said.
 
I didn’t know what to do.
 
Andre never dealt with this.

“You’re cut Anna,” he said, “wrap those up tight … call Ray, he’ll know what to do.”

I had no idea I’d been hurt and he put his hand on my thigh and my upper arm to show me where.

“Damn,” I said.
 
“Denis, what do I do for you?”
 
But he was already struggling to keep his head up so I wrapped my arms around it and held him close.

“It’s okay Anna … I never liked this part but it’s not so bad.”

“No Denis …” I cradled his head in one arm and put my hand on his cheek.
 

“You’re a good little fighter,” he said.
 
“See you on the other side.”

Chapter 58

I sat a long time at Mrs. Desmond’s table upstairs.
 
The few things I packed before I ran out of the basement were in her bedroom.
 
I had no plans to sleep there … or upstairs for that matter.
 
I was waiting for Damian.
 
As the sun went down I didn’t fight it by flipping switches and let darkness fill the space around me.

The plate of cookies she’d covered in plastic wrap the night before sat in the exact center of the table where she left it.
 
There was enough light from outside to sparkle on the folds as I swayed back and forth in my chair.
 
My stomach kept cramping up since the fight.
 
I wasn’t sure how long it had been.
 
I realized that even with the heat now off downstairs the smell would eventually give away what I had left behind.
 
And I couldn’t leave Denis down there with them like that.
 
The others I didn’t care about but Denis deserved far better.

I decided it was time to swallow my pride and call for help.
 
Ray had been in touch with Denis every day so he was the only one I could find to reach out to now with Denis gone.
 
Movement in the living room caught my eye making my heart race but it was just the shadows of the trees in the street light that came in her big front window.
 
The rain had stopped but the strong wind was still breaking off small branches and scattering them on the ground.
 
Low clouds seemed to boil down from above, lit by the city lights below.