Heart of Ice

8

The ferry was coming closer. There wasn’t much time now. Louis looked down at Lily standing at his side.

“Bet you’ll be glad to see your mom,” Louis said.

Lily didn’t respond, didn’t even look up at him.

The ferry was docking. Louis didn’t see Kyla but it was too cold to be out on the deck.

“Where’s Lucy?” Louis asked, although he already knew the answer. He had helped Lily pack up all her things just an hour ago back at the Grand Hotel.

“I put her in my suitcase,” Lily said.

“Good.”

Kyla was the only person who got off. She spotted them and started down the dock. She was wearing a burgundy raincoat and heels, a dark blue silk scarf flowing behind her in the stiff breeze. Her eyes bypassed Louis and lasered in on Lily’s splinted arm. She dropped her purse on the dock and swept Lily into her arms.

“Oh, my baby, I missed you,” she said.

Lily couldn’t say a thing, smothered up in Kyla’s bosom. When Kyla finally let her go, Lily pulled back and smiled. Louis felt his heart give a little at the warmth of it.

Kyla touched the splint. “Does it hurt much?”

Lily shook her head. “The doctor lady gave me painkillers.”

Kyla’s eyes shot up to Louis.

He pulled two vials from his pocket. “She didn’t need them. Here’s what they gave her.”

Kyla rose slowly and took the vials. She looked tired. “Thanks,” she said softly.

She touched Lily’s hair. “Baby, can I have a few minutes to talk to Louis?”

“I forgot to buy a souvenir for Daddy. Can I go get him some fudge?” Lily asked, pointing to the ferry gift shop.

Kyla started to say something, then bit it back. Louis dug in his pocket and handed Lily a ten-dollar bill. She ran off to the shop.

“She seems all right,” Kyla said, watching her go.

“She’s a strong little girl,” Louis said.

Kyla looked back at Louis. “You didn’t tell me how this happened,” she said.

Louis took a deep breath. “Okay, she. . we were exploring an old house. The floorboards were rotted, and she fell.”

Kyla’s face tensed, but Louis didn’t give her a chance to say anything. “She fell into the basement. I got down there and got her out as quick as I could.”

Kyla let out the breath she had been holding.

“There’s one more thing,” Louis said, glancing toward the gift shop. “There were some bones in the basement. Human bones. She fell on them.”

“What?”

He held up his hand. “We talked about it,” he said. “She’s okay, Kyla. Believe me, if I thought there was anything really wrong with her because of this, I would tell you.”

He had expected a burst of fury, anything but what he was seeing on Kyla’s face now. She looked confused, then she shook her head as she looked at the gift shop.

She turned back to Louis. “Human bones?”

“Not a body, Kyla. Just dried-up old bones.”

Kyla pushed the hair off her face, then slowly she nodded. “Okay,” she said softly. “Okay.”

“I’m sorry,” Louis said.

“For what?” Kyla asked.

Louis didn’t know how to answer.

“Louis,” she said. “You can’t protect them from everything. Believe me, I know. And like you said, she’s a strong little girl.”

Lily emerged from the gift shop, holding a bag. Louis watched her coming toward them and turned to Kyla.

“Thank you for letting me have her,” he said.

Kyla hesitated. “Maybe next time, it can be longer.”

Lily came up to them. “I got Daddy fudge with nuts,” she said to Kyla.

The ferry horn blew, signaling its departure back to Mackinaw City.

“Louis?”

He looked down at Lily. She was holding something out to him. He knelt in front of her.

“I got you something, too.”

It was a small silver-and-pink thing.

“It’s a knife,” she said.

He took the pocketknife, turning it over in his hand. It was about two inches long and had a Pink Pony emblem on the side.

“It’s for your keys, see?” she said, pointing at the attached ring.

Louis looked up at Kyla, who was smiling.

“Are you going to put your keys on it?” Lily asked.

Louis fished his keys from his pocket and hooked the cheap little knife onto the heavy stainless-steel ring.

“Thank you, Lily,” he said, jingling the keys. “I can really use this.”

The ferry horn blew again.

Lily looked at the ferry, then suddenly put her arms around Louis’s neck and squeezed him. He wrapped his arms around her back and buried his face in her hair.

He was the one who had to push away. “You have to go or you’ll miss your boat,” he said.

The cold air rushed in where she had been. He stood up and gave Kyla a nod. He didn’t trust himself to say anything.

“ ’Bye, Louis,” Lily said.

Kyla took her hand, and Louis watched them board. Lily looked back and waved before they went inside. The ferry pulled away, and he stood there on the dock until it was just a white dot in the distance.

His bag was packed and sitting on the floor. The door of his room was open, and he could hear the drone of a vacuum cleaner. The man at the front desk had told him he was the last guest in the Grand Hotel and that he could take as long as he wanted to check out today. Flowers had gotten him a room at the Potawatomi Hotel in town.

There was no reason to stick around. But he had one more thing to do before he left.

He picked up the phone and dialed the sheriff’s office in Echo Bay. The dispatcher recognized his name but told him that Sheriff Frye was on the other line and asked him to wait. Joe picked up moments later.

“Hey, it’s me.”

There was a pause. “Don’t tell me you’re not coming,” Joe said.

“No, no, I’ll still be there.”

“I hear a but in your voice, Louis.”

He took a breath. “I picked up a case up here. A homicide.”

“On Mackinac Island?”

He had to smile. “Yeah, I know. The chief here is in over his head. I offered to help for a couple of days.”

In the long pause that followed he could almost feel her disappointment. They hadn’t seen each other for eighteen months. That first summer apart, her new job as Leelanau County sheriff had prevented her from making the trips to Florida she had promised. By Christmas their phone calls had dwindled, and he drifted into depression and an affair. It took him more than six months to realize what he had lost-not just Joe but himself.

She had been the one to give voice to it: I want you to want something for yourself.

He knew what he wanted. He wanted his badge back. And he wanted Joe back. This trip had been for Lily, but it had also been for him and Joe. He knew that if they didn’t reconnect this time they never would. But now here he was again, putting her off for work and hoping she’d understand because she was a cop.

“I’ve never seen Mackinac Island. How about I come up there?” she said.

“Joe, look,” he said. “Everything on the island is closing down. It would be a long drive for you, and I’m only going to be here another day, I promise.”

Joe was silent again. Then, in a soft voice, “I want this to work, Louis.”

“So do I, Joe. More than you know.”

He heard her let out a long breath. “Okay. One more day.”

They said their good-byes and hung up. Louis looked around the room, his eyes lingering on the canopy bed. He picked up his suitcase and left the room. Down in the empty lobby, he waved to the man behind the desk, then stepped out onto the veranda. The rocking chairs were gone. The black carriages and red-coated livery men were gone. He hoisted up his bag and started down the long driveway.

On Cadotte Avenue, heading down toward town, he saw only one other person, a bicyclist pulling a cart filled with cords of firewood heading toward the Village.

He turned onto Main Street, walking down the middle of the empty road, passing men on ladders taking down the baskets of geraniums from the lampposts. Many of the stores had already closed, and the few that were open had signs in the windows-EVERYTHING MUST GO.

Almost overnight the island had changed. It looked like a deserted amusement park, and in that moment Louis realized his memories of this place had been distorted, refracted through his need to believe that the real world stopped at the ferry dock, that all ugliness could be forgotten and all hurts could be healed.

Everything did have to go, even illusions.

The wind coming off the lake had the feel of winter. He turned up the collar of his jacket and headed toward his hotel.