Murder in a Cold Climate: An Inspector Matteesie Mystery by Scott Young

didn’t. Nobody asked me directly about Morton Cavendish but there were questions in a lot of eyes. We said maybe we’d be back. We tried a couple of other places before finding her at the Caribou Arms.
    She was alone and wouldn’t speak. Just sat there. Maxine sat next to her and put her arms around Gloria’s shoulders and said, “Listen, sweetie, look, we both know what you’re going through. Let us help.”
    Gloria just looked at her.
    I asked if she knew where I could find William Cavendish. Her eyes might have indicated she knew, but she didn’t reply.
    â€œWhen you left Maxine’s with William Sunday night, did you go with him to the Mackenzie?”
    Finally, she spoke. “No, I wanted to, but we went to the Eskimo Inn and he had a couple more drinks and told me to wait for him there.”
    â€œAnd he went to the Mackenzie?”
    â€œHe must have, because he took his father . . .” she paused and took a deep breath . . . “took Morton to the hospital, didn’t he?”
    The Caribou Arms used to be a restaurant called the Raven’s Nest. It had served good food, some of the best in the North, Arctic char and musk-ox and caribou steaks, great French fries, strong coffee, but eventually it had closed due to some dispute about the building being sold, a new owner having different plans. Not much more than a year ago he had re-opened. He sold hamburgers and steak-and-kidney pie and the place was decorated like every other ersatz English pub in Canada. Apparently you could buy the whole deal in Edmonton, fake beams and fake velvet wallpaper, fake hunting prints and old maps of London on the walls and an expert in fake English pubs to put it all together until presto, it was the Caribou Arms. A can of English beer, Double Diamond or Bass Ale or Newcastle, cost $7.50.
    â€œHow long did you wait for him?”
    â€œIt seemed like forever.”
    She was wearing pants and a jacket of that stuff called acid-wash, blue with white streaks. Her blue parka with Arctic symbols on the fringe at the bottom and wolverine fur on the hood was thrown over a nearby chair. She had been drinking a vodka on the rocks, which was almost finished. When I was ordering she asked for a Coors Light. I really wanted to ask her in detail about her relationship with Morton Cavendish. Maybe if Maxine hadn’t been sitting there looking so worried, I would have.
    Gloria watched me as I took a swallow of Double Diamond.
    â€œI didn’t know you drank beer.”
    â€œI don’t, much. But order a drink here and you have to get a triple or you can’t taste it.”
    Gloria said with a faint smile, “You can feel it, though.”
    â€œOkay,” I said. “So you were waiting for William and he didn’t come back. How long did you wait?”
    â€œI don’t know. Long. I was just thinking to hell with it, I’d go home, he could find me there if he wanted, when Jules Bonner came along and told me to come to his place, that William would be over later, so I went with him.”
    She paused briefly. “I had the impression that William had called Jules, or even gone to his place, and asked him to get me over there. When we got there Jules told me there’d been a big fight, William and his father, and Morton had collapsed and had to be taken to the hospital.”
    â€œA fight about what?”
    â€œI don’t know, but Jules still thought William would be along any minute.
    â€œI got sleepy and Jules gave me a blanket on the couch and next thing I knew it was morning and the news had just come on the radio that”—again she paused and swallowed hard when she came to Morton Cavendish’s name—“Morton was in real bad shape and might have to be flown out. I felt like trying to see him, but I didn’t. Then I just stayed there. I felt rotten. I kept thinking I’d hear from William but I didn’t.”
    I pressed a