I'll See You in My Dreams: An Arthur Beauchamp Novel

I'll See You in My Dreams: An Arthur Beauchamp Novel by William Deverell

Book: I'll See You in My Dreams: An Arthur Beauchamp Novel by William Deverell Read Free Book Online
Authors: William Deverell
Tags: Mystery
Ads: Link
drew him forward.
    â€œMy friend, I am going to come after you with all guns firing, and when I prove you’re lying – because I’ve got the goods – the judge will send you up for twenty years on a perjury beef. You’ve been in the joint, you know what they do to informers in there.” It was my hard-boiled voice, but I didn’t have to feign anger. In retrospect I’m not sure it was wise to imply I had secret evidence against him, but I wanted to shake him, dissuade him from being so certain on the stand.
    Wall’s head disappeared into a rain poncho and he went off to pay his bill. “It’s on me, Doug,” I called. He turned and walked out into the downpour, everyone staring at him.
    The young waitress leaned over to me as she served my soup and sandwich. “Good luck, Mr. Bo-champ,” she whispered.
    â€œBeech’m,” I said.

    I turned north to Cheekye, where Chief Joseph lived, just over the Cheakamus bridge. My little car slithered dangerously near some grazing horses, near a collapsed cedar fence. In this rain-darkened afternoon, lights were on in the reserve’s scattered frame dwellings. No one was outside. Everything looked wet and sad.
    I had no set plan for the weekend’s most delicate task: separating Monique Joseph from her parents, entreating her to tell the truth. She had got Gabriel into a bad pickle by lying to her parents. He could be hanged were she not to recant – that’s what she must understand. But she was only sixteen and dependent on her parents, perhaps in fear of them. The cop-suckers, Gabriel had called them.
    I was kicking myself for not having invited Ophelia to come when I ought to have insisted. Who better to interview Monique Joseph than the crisis intervener who’d won over the mutinous women of Oakalla?
    The cultural centre loomed through the rain, a windowless sawn-lumber longhouse with a few smoke holes in a shake roof. Election signs out front, stuck there proudly – the great white chief, Diefenbaker, had recently granted treaty Indians the right to vote.
    Around the corner was a two-storey dwelling, obviously that of Benjamin Joseph. Obviously because an RCMP van was sitting outside it, engine running. I called down curses on my own head for not going there first. They’d wasted no time after Doug Wall alerted them.
    I parked nose to nose with the van, whose driver was slouched, wiping a wet nose, pretending to ignore me. Puffy red cheeks and recessed, close-set eyes. Jettles, I guessed.
    A girl’s rain-blurred face stared from a second-floor window: Monique, confined to her room. The front door opened and Staff Sergeant Roscoe Knepp stepped out, pulling on a rain cape, and came purposefully down the path toward my car. Rugged, handsome, square-chinned – the Sergeant Preston type one saw in the tourist posters. He called, “Step out of the car, sir, with your hands up.”
    I was astounded at his effrontery. Grabbing my umbrella, I alighted to find him unhooking his handcuffs from his belt.
    â€œI’m afraid we have to impound this vehicle, sir. We don’t allow people to drive tin cans on the public roads.” A broad grin at my confusion, then a raucous laugh. “Gotcha!” He grabbed my hand. “How’re you doing, counsellor? You sure picked some kind of pissy day to come moseying around the valley.”
    I recovered, attempting a smile. “So what’s going on here, Staff?” As if I didn’t know.
    â€œLet’s talk about it in comfort – we got the heater on. Grab the front seat there, I’ll jump in the back.” Pushy, but I didn’t resist. “Brad Jettles, Arthur Beauchamp.” Just a chortle issued from those pudgy lips; he was still enjoying his honcho’s little joke.
    Knepp leaned toward me from the back. “Last time you were up here, it was over that narcotics roundup, a really big shew – youwatch Ed

Similar Books

Talker

Amy Lane

The Lich

Adventure Time

The Werewolf Cowboy (Moonbound Book 1)

Krystal Shannan, Camryn Rhys

Where We Belong

Emily Giffin

Slow Hand

Michelle Slung