Читать книгу Dan Sharp Mysteries 2-Book Bundle - Jeffrey Round - Страница 16

The drizzle that had begun the eve of the wedding returned by afternoon and seemed to follow them home. The two-plus hours it took to return to Toronto was endured mostly in silence. Dan dropped Bill off at his townhouse and cabbed it back to Leslieville. He was at his desk Monday morning. Donny had called three times before Dan got there to say he’d heard about the drowning on the news. The event had been made to sound even more lurid and colourful when magnified by the immigration angle and the novelty of a gay wedding. Dan spoke with him briefly then pleaded work commitments.

It wasn’t till the following day that he heard anything further. Just before noon he looked up to see his office assistant standing in his doorway.

“Hello, Sally.”

“They’re calling it suspicious,” she said, waving a file in front of her. “I thought you’d want to see it immediately.”

Sally normally had no compunction about barging in unannounced; today, she hovered in the doorway decked out in an orange blouse and burgundy skirt. She seemed dressed for some occasion Dan wouldn’t be privy to: a U2 concert or the arrival of the Dalai Lama. Or possibly a protest at the American Embassy, though that would have required different colours, say, just the right shade of black on black — somewhere between polished charcoal and Death — with militant-looking armbands.

Dan knew little about her personal life. She was one of the restless MTV tribe that crowded shopping malls and dance clubs, sporting their quirky fashions, celebrity obsessions, and shortened attention spans, and who took time to record their innermost thoughts at Speakers’ Corners and graduated from mid-size universities with vague degrees, hoping for careers in anything arts-related before settling for something less spectacular but more lucrative.

“Come in, Sally.”

She took a tentative step forward and stopped, looking around as though she’d never been there before. “Thank god somebody’s got a design sense,” she said, noting the reproductions of abstract art on the walls. “Everybody else’s office is just ...”

Dan waved her forward abruptly. Startled, she nearly dropped the file.

“Everybody else’s office is just what?” he said, smiling to show he wasn’t being unfriendly.

Her eyes went around the room again, comparing what Dan’s office was with what the others weren’t. “It’s like they’re colourless or something. Nothing but beige and grey.” She shook her head over the incomprehensibility of it all.

“Thank you. You’re the only other one who’s noticed.”

Sally nodded. “That’s because you and I come from the same planet,” she said conspiratorially.

Dan leaned forward. “And to what do you attribute all this colourlessness? Our alien nature?”

Sally cocked her head. “I think it comes from being Canadian,” she said. “We’re raised to be bland and agreeable. Even the immigrants who come here eventually fade into some sort of creeping beigeness. There’s something wrong with that.”

Dan nodded at the file in her hand. “You said they were calling it suspicious?”

Sally nodded vigorously as she handed it over. “Big bump on her head. They think someone bashed her and dumped her overboard. You saw the body. What do you think?”

Dan looked down at the report, thumbed open the cover. “I noticed the bump,” he said. She waited. Dan looked up. “I’ll need some time to look this over,” he said, smiling patiently again.

“Oh right — of course! It’s all yours.” She turned to leave then stopped and turned back. “One other thing. You probably already knew this too. She was pregnant.”

Dan looked up in surprise.

Sally smiled. “Well, you do now.”