Dead and Buried

THIRTY-TWO

It was nearly noon when I climbed out of bed. The first thing I noticed was the stale smell of dead cigarettes. I was growing sensitive to the state of my health. My infatuation with smoke was fading. I was going to have to face it, but I put it off until I could look at myself with clean teeth and a shaved face.

After a leisurely breakfast at the Di, I drove over Western Hill and parked outside Irma Dowden’s little house. Behind one of the houses of a neighbour, somebody was burning leaves, which was against the law but smelled nice in the wind.

Ralph, the dog, met me at the front door. He hadn’t grown any friendlier since our first meeting just two weeks ago. Irma’s small face appeared a few feet above the dog’s.

“Oh, it’s you, is it. I was wondering when I’d hear from you. Get down, Ralph! Let him be! You better come in, Mr. Cooperman, I mean-what was it-Benny?”

“That’ll do nicely,” I said, making my way once again into the simple living-room with the picture of Jack and his Freightliner on the mantlepiece. We both sat down, before Irma jumped up and headed to the kitchen. Again she offered either tea or coffee. She was still bluffing about the coffee, I think, but I’ll never know, since I opted for tea. After talking with our voices shouting from kitchen to living-room through the empty dining-room, I decided to join Irma at the back of the house. Soon we were sitting at the antique green table drinking tea. I told her what I’d found out and what had happened since I’d seen her last. When I finally finished giving her the short version, she looked into her cup sadly.

“You’ve done a lot of work in two weeks, Benny, and I know I should be thankful. I am in a way. But, in another, it still won’t bring him back, will it?”

“Would it have been better if there was somebody going to jail?” She shook her head.

“I don’t think so. I was never out for blood, you know. I was never out to get people. It was just that damn company, Kinross. I was thinking that Kinross was different than people, but it turns out that it’s this fellow Caine and all those others.”

“I guess it doesn’t help when the murderer is a stroke victim in her upper seventies.”

“I might go see her in the hospital. She must feel terrible not being able to communicate and all. I’m not doing anything this afternoon. I could just drop in for a few minutes around three o’clock.” She caught me smiling. “What’s the matter with that?” she asked.

“I was just thinking that three o’clock was the time of your appointment to see me back at the beginning of the month. You were ready to take on the world that afternoon. You’d already been to other investigators. Now, it looks like a provincial inquiry, which was already underway when you came to see me, will put an end to the way Kinross and the other companies have been ignoring the law. Maybe we’ll get better laws after this. We need them.”

“I hope so, I hope so, but it still won’t do me any good. I’m not getting the lift, Benny, that I hoped you’d provide. All I can think of is those poor people and that terrible, mad old man.”

“That’s why Biddy killed him.”

“She put a stop to him, that’s what she did. Funny the law can’t touch her for it, isn’t it?”

“It wouldn’t enhance the image of the law. It would bring it into disrespect, detract from its majesty and authority. And we can’t have that, now can we?”

“Well, I guess it’s all too late now anyway. It’s all dead and buried. Would you like to have another cup of tea?”

“Why not?”