Still Life (A Three Pines Mystery)

'I don't think so,' Clara forged ahead. 'The very things that argue for Matthew having done it also argue against it. An experienced bow hunter wouldn't kill a person by accident. It's the sort of accident he isn't likely to have. A bow hunter standing by the deer trail would be too close. He'd know if it was a deer coming along, or--or not.'

'Or Jane, you mean.' Ruth's normally flinty voice was now as hard as the Canadian Shield. Clara nodded. 'Bastard,' said Ruth. Gabri took her hand and for once in her life Ruth didn't pull away.

Across the table, Peter laid down his knife and fork and stared at Clara. She couldn't quite make out the look on his face, but it wasn't admiration.

'One thing is true, whoever killed Jane was a very good bow hunter,' she said. 'A poor one wouldn't have got off that shot.'

'There are a lot of very good bow hunters around here, unfortunately,' said Ben. 'Thanks to the Archery Club.'

'Murder,' said Gabri.

'Murder,' confirmed Clara.

'But who would want Jane dead?' Myrna asked.

'Isn't it normally gain of some kind?' Gabri asked.

'Money, power.'

'Gain, or trying to protect something you're afraid of losing,' said Myrna. She'd been listening to this conversation, thinking it was just a desperate attempt by grieving friends to take their minds off the loss by turning it into an intellectual game. Now she began to wonder. 'If something you value is threatened, like your family, your inheritance, your job, your home--'

'We get the idea,' Ruth interrupted.

'You might convince yourself killing is justified.'

'So if Matthew Croft did it,' said Ben, 'it was on purpose.'

Suzanne Croft looked down at her dinner plate. Congealing Chef Boyardee mini-ravioli formed pasty lumps in a puddle of thick, cold sauce. On the side of her plate a single piece of pre-sliced brown Wonder Bread balanced, put there more in hope than conviction. Hope that maybe this sickness in her stomach would lift long enough for her to take a bite.

But it sat there, whole.

Across from her Matthew lined up his four squares of mini-ravioli in a precise little road, marching across his plate. The sauce made ponds on either side. The children got the most food, then Matthew, and Suzanne took what was left. Her conscious brain told her it was a noble maternal instinct. Deep down inside she knew it was a more personal instinct for martyrdom that guided the portions. An unsaid but implied contract with her family. They owed her.

Philippe sat beside Matthew in his usual place. His dinner plate was clean, all the ravioli gobbled down and the sauce soaked up by the bread. Suzanne considered exchanging her untouched plate for his, but something stopped her hand. She looked at Philippe, plugged in to his Discman, eyes closed, lips pursed in that insolent attitude he'd adopted in the last six months, and she decided the deal was off. She also felt a stirring that suggested she didn't actually like her son. Love, yes. Well, probably. But like?

Normally, in fact habitually for the past few months, Matthew and Suzanne had had to fight with Philippe to get him to remove the Discman, Matthew arguing with him in English and Suzanne speaking with him in her mother tongue, French. Philippe was bilingual and bicultural and equally deaf to both languages.

'We're a family,' Matthew had argued, 'and NSYNC isn't invited to dinner.'

'Who?' Philippe had huffed. 'It's Eminem.' As though that was somehow significant. And Philippe had given Matthew that look, not of anger or petulance, but of dismissal. Matthew might as well have been what? Not the refrigerator. He seemed to have a good relationship with the fridge, his bed, the TV, and his computer. No, he looked at his dad as though he was NSYNC. Passe. Discarded. Nothing.

Philippe would eventually take the Discman off, in exchange for food. But tonight was different. Tonight both his mom and dad were happy to have him plugged in and removed. He'd eaten greedily, as though this slop was the best food he'd ever been given. Suzanne had even felt resentment about that. Every night she worked hard to give them good, home-made dinners. Tonight all she could manage was to open two cans, from their emergency supply, and warm them up. And tonight Philippe wolfed it down as though it was gourmet food. She looked at her son and wondered if he did it on purpose, to insult her.

Matthew leaned closer to his plate and fine tuned the ravioli road. Each tiny ridge on the outside of the squares needed to fit into the opposing indentations. Or else? Or else the universe would explode in fire and their flesh would bubble and sear off, and he would see his whole family die in front of him, milliseconds before his own horrible death. There was a lot riding on Chef Boyardee.