A Nose for Death Read Online Free PDF Page B

last thing we agreed upon.”
    â€œI’m sorry,” she whispered.
    â€œBetty never wanted to get married. I insisted, with the baby coming. Sometimes I think I should have left well enough alone.”
    His career, on the other hand, had gone surprisingly well. His anarchist ways helped him rise rapidly to sergeant. It appeared as though the RCMP actually appreciated someone who questioned the way things were done and wasn’t afraid of taking risks. When he was offered a promotion to inspector, he refused. He didn’t want to get stuck behind a desk. Now he lived in Elgar, twenty minutes down the road, worked, took his son camping. He’d transferred some of his old passion to collecting rare books.
    Both their drinks were empty and the music drifting from inside was causing Joan to sway involuntarily. She felt a surge of warmth through her body. The most unexpected phenomenon had occurred. She felt as though she belonged somewhere for the first time in a long time. Here, with Gabe, in Madden. There was only one thing missing. “Let’s go in and see if we can find Hazel.”
    â€œShe said she’d try to make it,” Gabe said.
    â€œYou’ve kept in touch?”
    â€œShe and Lila come to town at least once a year, sometimes more. Whenever she can get away from the church.” He read her shock. “Hazel is a minister with the San Francisco Free Metropolitan Church.”
    Joan had heard of the FMC. Known for its liberal attitudes and work with the urban poor, it was huge. That position would make Hazel one of the most influential religious leaders in North America. It all made perfect sense. Hazel had always been intelligent, kind, and fearless. She was perfectly capable of taking on the American right wing. “What are we waiting for?” She and Gabe shared a grin.
    When they entered from the side door, they stepped directly onto the dance floor, that was vibrating with a mass of writhing bodies. Joan had a rush of claustrophobia. She was jostled by a grey-haired woman in a mauve boa and tripped against Gabe. He caught her and left his arm around her shoulder, holding her close. She scanned the crowd, worried that the small minds of Madden would interpret his gesture as something more than platonic protection. But everyone, thankfully, was focused on the stage and the loud rock and roll that blared through the speakers. The sound was familiar, an echo from the past, but she couldn’t quite place it. It wasn’t Queen or the Bee Gees. She turned and gaped at the sight of the Mick Jagger of Madden High, Roger Rimmer. Still in tight pants and with blond curly hair framing his face, craggy lines accenting his high cheekbones, he was as good-looking as ever. Loathing rose in the back of Joan’s throat.

C HAPTER F OUR
    T HE L ABOUR D AY WEEKEND OF 1978 had been imprinted on Joan’s mind forever. The WELCOME sign, large wooden letters set against the hills on the far side of the river, had long been the location for momentous events in the lives of local teens. Engagements, breakups, conceptions, and even a birth in the mid-eighties, all took place in the gravel parking lot and woods behind the sign. After Jerry Weiss leapt to his death from the letter ‘O’ in the mid-eighties, there’d been talk of tearing it down, but the community rallied and, instead, gave it a fresh coat of paint.
    The kegger up at the Welcome sign had been planned to celebrate the beginning of the final year in high school for Joan’s class. For many it would be the last year in Madden. The population of young people had been declining for two decades and anyone with a whiff of ambition or ability would be gone in a snap, as soon as they could, by whatever means. Like most bush parties in most small towns, the weekend bash had the potential to be the event of the season. Candy’s older brother agreed to pick up the keg and deliver it in his Ranchero to the party site.