Gail Bowen - The Glass Coffin

“Linn Brokenshire?”

“My only knowledge of Linn Brokenshire came from Evan’s movie,” Felix said. “But I understood why Evan was drawn to her. She was a shining presence. After all these years Caroline still loathes her.”

A psychiatrist would have had no difficulty identifying the source of Caroline’s antipathy for the one woman her son ever loved, but I was anxious to know the extent of Felix’s illusions. “Why do you think Caroline hates Linn?” I asked.

He answered without hesitation. “Because Caroline is sufficient unto herself. Walt Whitman says that some people have a need for ‘something unproved, something in a trance, something escaped from the anchorage and driving free.’ Caroline never understood that longing, but Linn did and so did I.”

“Evan did too,” I said. “Felix, why do you think he always came home to his mother?”

“He wanted her love,” Felix said. “He wanted to be the most important person in her life.”

“Is that why you introduced Evan to Jill – so he’d be working on a project that would get him out of the way?”

“That was my hope. ‘The Unblinking Eye’ was going to be an American production that focused on American experiences. Eventually, Evan would have found it impossible to keep his base in Toronto.”

“And with Evan out of the way, you’d have your chance,” I said.

“What I wanted didn’t matter,” Felix said. “Caroline was my concern. The time had come for her to be liberated.”

“From whom?”

“All of them. That’s why when Jill and Evan announced their marriage, I thought my prayers had been answered. Bryn was the lynchpin that kept everyone in place. When she moved out, there’d be no reason for Claudia and Tracy to stay in the house on Walmer Road.”

“And the path would be clear for you and Caroline,” I said. “What went wrong? I know Claudia didn’t object to the marriage. Did Tracy make some kind of threat?”

“She didn’t have to,” Felix said tightly. “Caroline felt the circumstances weren’t right for Bryn to leave.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Neither did I, but Caroline always knows what’s best. When it was clear the wedding was inevitable, she sent me out here to convince Evan and Jill to stay in Toronto.”

“And that’s why you and Jill were quarrelling the night of the rehearsal.”

Felix nodded miserably. “I’d assured Caroline that everything would be all right – that Jill and I had become so close, I could make her understand, but Jill had completely bought into Bryn’s dream. She refused to listen to reason. So I went to Evan. I was labouring under the misapprehension that, like me, he would sacrifice anything for Caroline.”

“But he wouldn’t give up his plan to move to New York.”

“Even worse, the night before the wedding, I discovered that it was highly likely Evan’s ticket to New York was the film he’d made about Caroline.”

“How did you find out?”

“A fluke. Remember the luggage mix-up we had at the airport the night we arrived in Regina?”

“Of course, that’s why you were late for dinner.”

Felix nodded. “I thought I’d straightened everything out. But when I was in my hotel room after the rehearsal dinner, I opened what I thought was my suitcase and discovered Evan’s binder. He’d been so secretive about the project he was working on for ‘The Unblinking Eye’ that I couldn’t resist checking his notes about works-in-progress. What I found astounded me. Almost all his notations referred to The Glass Coffin. There was only one explanation why he would have been working so intensely on a project that was supposed to be shown only after Caroline’s death.”

“He’d already sold the film to the network,” I said.

“Right. So I went to his room to confront him.” Felix’s laugh was short and bitter. “I had to get in line, Joanne. It seemed another of Evan’s chickens had come home to roost that night. He and Gabe Leventhal were fighting. When Evan opened the door, he was rubbing his jaw, and Gabe was hunched over on the bed. He seemed to be having trouble catching his breath.”

“So Gabe did die from a heart attack,” I said.

Felix looked away. “I wish that were so,” he said. “Gabe was a good man, and he deserved a good death.”

“But he didn’t get one,” I said.

“No,” Felix said. “He didn’t. After I came in, Evan suggested we all have a drink and calm down. Gabe agreed, but he said an odd thing. ‘I’ll drink your liquor, but it’s still Sam Waterston time – time finally to stand at moral attention.’ The reference didn’t mean anything to me, but clearly it did to Evan. The room became even more tense. Evan appeared distracted. He said he’d forgotten he didn’t have any Scotch, and he went down to Claudia’s room for a bottle. When he came back, we had a few drinks, then Gabe slumped in his chair. I was a little drunk myself. I suggested we order some coffee and sober up.

“Evan was very cool. He told me Gabe had been determined to tell Jill something she didn’t need to hear until after the wedding and he’d put something in Gabe’s drink to calm him down till he could listen to reason.”

I could feel the hysteria rising, but my voice was firm. “Felix, it’s important for me to know how Gabe died?”

Felix’s gaze was soft. “You cared for him, Joanne?”

“Yes,” I said. “We didn’t have much time together, but I liked him very much.”

“What I’m about to tell you isn’t pretty.”

“I still want to hear it.”

“I respect your decision,” Felix said. “The moment we picked Gabe up to carry him to his room, I knew something was wrong. He wasn’t moving at all. His jaw had fallen open, and his eyes were glassy.” Felix closed his own eyes as if to shut out the image. “I felt for his pulse. There was none. I told Evan we had to call the police.”

“And he stopped you.”

“He didn’t have to. Evan held up his binder and asked if I’d read it. When I admitted I had, he made me an offer. He said he knew I was in love with his mother and that if I helped him cover up Gabe’s death, he’d refuse to allow the network to use the film of Caroline. I was in a state of shock. There was a dead man in the room. Everything seemed unreal. I didn’t say anything. Evan seemed to interpret my silence as a rejection of his offer. He picked up the phone, handed it to me, and said, ‘Call my mother and ask if she’ll be able to live with your decision to expose her life.’ ”

“And Caroline convinced you to change your mind,” I said.

Felix nodded. “Evan and I took Gabe’s body down in the freight elevator and carried him out into the back alley. It was deserted. It was late, and there was a blizzard – the conditions couldn’t have been more perfect. I’ve had nightmares about what I did every night since I walked away from that alley.”

“Felix, I won’t lie to you. We both know that what you did was terrible, but you were faced with an impossible choice.”

“Since I introduced Jill and Evan, there’ve been nothing but impossible choices,” Felix said. “That’s why I’ve had to rely on Caroline’s guidance.”

“Were you relying on Caroline’s guidance when you killed Evan?”

“She showed me we had no alternative. At the reception, Evan told me the deal was off. He said the network had called earlier that day and they were so high on The Glass Coffin they were bumping another program to show it during sweeps week in February.”

“But that was your chance to back out and go to the police,” I said. “If Evan wasn’t going to honour his part of the agreement…”

“Honour,” Felix repeated the word as if were a vestige of ancient language. “Joanne, Evan and I had left a man’s body beside a dumpster behind the hotel. As Evan pointed out when I begged him to reconsider, that made us equally culpable. I was beside myself. Caroline was about to be publicly humiliated, and my stupidity had made it impossible for me to be her champion. I went downstairs and called her. Evan was her son. I thought she might have some insight into how I could appeal to him.”