Forty Words for Sorrow

Miss Steen looked at the floor again- at the little puddle of melted snow at her feet. Cardinal thought for a moment she was going to cry, but when she looked up her eyes were clear. "Keith's parents are away on a dig in Turkey- they're archaeologists- and it's going to be impossible to reach them. I didn't want to wait for them to tell me what to do. I've read about the murders you've had up here. They weren't just murders- the people were missing for some time before they were killed, I think."

"That doesn't mean everyone who disappears has been abducted by this lunatic. Besides, your boyfriend's hitchhiking across Canada- it's a big piece of real estate to be missing in. You say he was expected in the Soo on Tuesday."

"Yes. And it isn't like him to just not show up somewhere. One of the things I love about Keith is he's very considerate of other people. Very reliable. He hates to cause trouble."

"It's out of character, you're saying."

"Way out of character. I'm not hysterical, Mr. Cardinal. I didn't come here lightly. I have reasons."

"Go on, Miss Steen. I didn't mean to imply anything, except- Well, go on."

The young woman drew a deep breath and held it a minute, staring into the distance. Cardinal suspected this was a habitual gesture of hers, and it was an attractive one. There was a pleasing gravity to Miss Steen. He had no trouble imagining a young man in love with her.

"Keith and I are opposites in many ways, but we're very close," she said finally. "We were going to get married after high school, but then we decided to put it off for a year. I wanted to go straight on to university, and Keith wanted to see the world, so to speak, before settling down to study again. Anyway, we thought it wouldn't hurt us to wait another year. I'm only telling you this so you'll understand that when Keith said he would write to me, and e-mail me when he got the chance, he meant it- it wasn't casual. We even arranged the timing of our letters to make sure they wouldn't cross."

"And has he written? The way he said he would?"

"His letters haven't exactly come like clockwork, but yes- one letter a week, and one phone call and sometimes, if he was near a computer, I'd get an e-mail. Every week. Until now."

Cardinal nodded. Miss Steen was not just a serious young woman, she was also- and this was not a judgment Cardinal made very often- a good person. She had been well brought up, probably strictly, to respect other people and the truth. She looked Dutch, with her wheat-blond hair cut short as a boy's, and her eyes the deep blue of new denim.

"Keith's last phone call was Sunday the fifteenth- a week and a half ago. He sounded fine. He was in Gravenhurst, staying at a hideous little hotel and not having a particularly good time, but he's basically a cheerful person, Keith- the kind who makes friends easily. He's a pretty good musician- lugs his guitar everywhere. People tend to take him in. That's partly what worries me."

Lucky Keith, Cardinal thought, to have someone like Miss Steen worrying about him. She pulled a photograph out of her purse and handed it to Cardinal. It showed a boy with long curly brown hair, sitting on a park bench. He was playing an acoustic guitar, frowning with concentration.

"He just hasn't got a suspicious bone in his body," she continued. "He's always getting cornered by pamphleteers and people like that because he always believes their opening pitch, you know what I'm saying?" Her denim-blue eyes- dark, and slightly turned up at the corners- implored him to understand. "Which is not to say he's stupid. Far from it. But the others who disappeared, they weren't stupid, either, were they?"

"Well, two of them were very young, but no- none of them were stupid."

"Keith was planning to head for the Soo on Monday, but he wasn't really looking forward to it. He's not really big on seeing relatives, but…" She looked away, took a deep breath again, and held it.

Keith, my man, Cardinal thought, if you let this young woman get away, you are truly an idiot. "What is it?" he asked gently. "You're hedging, now."

The breath was let go in a long sigh. The serious blue eyes held him once more. "Detective, it's only honest to tell you that Keith and I had a- a bit of a quarrel, as well. A couple of weeks ago when he called. I guess I was feeling kind of lonely and vulnerable. Anyway, we went over a lot of old ground about how we're spending our respective years. He's lugging his guitar cross-country- I mean, really, if I have a rival for his affections it's that Ovation of his- but I'm not as spontaneous as he is. I just want to get on with my education. It wasn't a serious fight- please believe that. We didn't hang up angry or anything. But it was a quarrel, and I wouldn't feel right not telling you."

"But you don't think this quarrel is the reason for Keith's… sudden silence."

"I'm sure it isn't."

"I appreciate your telling me. How were things left, exactly?"