LITMIR.BIZ

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and we get the rest of our money.”

      “Is that why you killed Marie and tried to shoot Tommy?”

      “Kill her? What ya talkin’ about? She done herself in after killin’ Louis.”

      “Maybe you didn’t, but what about your partner?” I asked, not wanting to believe that the man I’d once loved would actually kill someone to get what he wanted.

      A twitch suddenly appeared in the corner of Charlie’s right eye. He grunted, then spat on the floor, which made Sergei press harder against my side, causing something sharp to jab into my thigh.

      “Where’s my money,” Charlie hissed.

      “Hardly yours. You stole it.” I reached into my pocket to remove the sharp object and discovered the piece of quartz I’d noticed last night.

      “I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, lady. It’s mine. Now give it to me or else.” He walked towards me, rifle pointed.

      Sergei growled.

      “Shut up, you damn dog.”

      Sergei lunged forward. Charlie grabbed his collar and dragged the snarling dog across the floor to the door. I tried to stop him but was shoved back against the wall. In the scuffle, I dropped the rock. With a final yelp, the dog was outside. The door was slammed against him. The latch was shoved into place.

      Charlie swung the pointed barrel back at me. “Now where’s the money?”

      “I’ve got it,” spoke a voice from outside. Sergei growled. “Get away,” yelled the voice, followed by a loud yelp. “Let me in.”

      “Run away, dog,” I muttered under my breath, as I stared at the piece of purple fabric lying under the quartz on the floor and knew suddenly that Gareth wasn’t a killer.

      Charlie opened the door to a figure, almost his height, who kicked the sodden sack into the room. Water coursed over the yellow slicker onto the floor. One large, angular hand clutched the wooden stalk of a rifle, while the other shoved the jacket hood aside. With the inevitable cigarette jammed in the corner of her mouth, Hélène’s acne-ruined face glowered back at me. “Jeez, Charlie, she still here?”

      I wasn’t surprised. Hélène herself had told me about her lover Charlie. The piece of fuchsia fabric told me rest.

      She dumped the money onto the floor and began counting it. “It’s all here. I’ll get the rest, and then we’re outta here. Police might be back any time now.”

      She walked over to the mattress on the opposite side of the room and shoved it aside. She nodded in my direction and said, “Do something with her.”

      Afraid what that something could mean, I glanced nervously at Charlie, who continued to guard the only exit. However, he was more intent on watching his lover remove floorboards. His look of puzzlement suggested he wasn’t sure what she was up to.

      I glanced over my shoulder at a broken window several feet behind me. Prepared to stop the moment Hélène looked up, I stepped quietly backwards until I felt the wall. The window, its pane shattered by yesterday’s bullet, was an arm’s length away.

      Charlie spoke up, “What’s that?” I froze. But he ignored me and walked past to where Hélène was removing a canvas sack, similar to the one I’d taken.

      I continued inching towards the window. Hélène and Charlie were too focused on the sack to notice me. As I reached the window, I turned around and braced myself to crash through the window.

      “What’re you doing?” Hélène yelled. I stopped. The rifle bolt hammered home. “Move back,” she said.

      Temporarily beaten, but not yet ready to declare defeat, I returned to the middle of the room. I listened for sounds that would tell me the police were coming, but I heard only the rain drumming on the roof.

      Charlie dumped the contents of the sack onto the floor. Bundles of money spilled out. A look of amazement washed over his face. “Christ, where’d all this come from?”

      Ignoring him, she stepped back and stopped when she had us both within her sights. Her cigarette glowed. Her yellow slicker hung open revealing a fuchsia jacket underneath, the jacket I’d seen from the lake. The jacket gaped where a hole had been torn in the fabric.

      “That’s Louis’s share,” I said. “Hélène stole it.”

      She thrust her chiselled face in my direction, her black eyes coldly appraising, and sneered, “It was my money. I was the only one with the brains to go after CanacGold. But jeez, finding Tommy alive gave me a scare. I figured he was dead for sure when I left him.”

      I sensed Charlie stiffening behind me. I pointed to the piece of fuchsia fabric lying on the floor. “But you did kill Marie.”

      Her unblinking eyes stared back at me. She didn’t even attempt to hide the damning tear made when she’d crawled out of the cave after killing Marie.

      I heard Charlie grunt.

      “And you killed Louis too.” I said.

      Charlie’s feet scraped on the floor. “Hon, tell her it’s not true,” he pleaded, all his bluster gone.

      For a moment, Hélène looked nonplussed, then she screeched, “Oh, shut up! You’re so damn dumb, Charlie. I don’t know why I put up with you. You thought Louis would lead us to riches. Hah! He was all set to sell us out. He woulda left us with nothin’.”

      Like a robot, Charlie stared at her with unseeing eyes, while a curtain of dread crept over his face. He reached up and touched the eagle feather hanging from his braid.

      “I did it for us, Charlie. I had to. You didn’t have the guts to do it.” She flung back her shoulders and glared back at her lover. Her fingers tightened around the rifle.

      “You shot Marie before she could tell me about the island,” I whispered softly.

      “Yeah,” she replied smugly, almost as if she was proud of what she’d done. “Lucky I overheard her on the store phone. Charlie already told me about Marie’s link to the island, so I got suspicious. I offered her a cuppa coffee on the house. Soon she was telling me all about this piece of bark her mama gave her. How this means Whispers Island belonged to her, but she wasn’t suppose to tell nobody, ’cause it would only bring trouble.”

      Hélène stopped to take a deep drag on her cigarette, then continued, “Stupid bitch. Imagine owning an island and doing nothin’ about it. She got scared when she heard about the gold on the island and told Louis. Jeez, all he wanted to do was sell the land to CanacGold, eh? She was gonna tell you, Meg, so you could stop the mine.”

      All this time, she had been glaring at Charlie, as if daring him to challenge her words. Now she turned her gaze back to me. But behind her defiance, I caught a hint of entreaty.

      “Well, I couldn’t let her do that, could I?” she said. “I needed CanacGold to get that gold. It was my ticket outta here. Once they sized the deposit, I’d get the rest of my money. I tried to talk her out of it, eh? But the stupid bitch wouldn’t listen. She gave me no choice. I had to kill her.”

      Charlie groaned. “How could you?”

      But as if she hadn’t heard, Hélène took another deep drag. “I knew she went to the island to talk to her ancestors. So I told her we should go there and ask them what to do, eh? I locked up the store and we drove to the Fishin’ Camp. She waited in the boat, while I went to get the rifle I keep in the Camp’s gear shed. But I seen Louis’s p’tit gars propped against a wall, where he musta forgot it. So I says to myself, why not. They’d think it was Louis done it, not me. Serve the bastard right, eh!”

      Héléne laughed, more like cackled. “When we got to the island, she took me into the cave. Said it was the best place to talk to the spirits. I tried one last time to convince her the mine was okay, but she wouldn’t budge, so I shot her.”

      I

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