Once Upon a Time by Barbara Fradkin Read Free Book Online Page A

He’d spend Sunday nursing a hangover with more booze and Monday sleeping it off.”
    â€œDid he hang out with a particular group at Paddy’s place?”
    Don shrugged. “Eugene wasn’t a party animal, but Renfrew’s a small town, and it was probably the same crowd of serious drinkers who closed the place each Saturday. They drank, watched the hockey game, argued about sports.” He made no attempt to keep the contempt out of his voice. “The night of the fight, one of the local farmers brought along his cousin from out of town—Hamilton, I think—who was visiting the family. This cousin and Eugene exchanged words —no one knows what it was about—and suddenly Eugene jumped him. He threw him against the bar and started beating the shit out of him. The others broke it up as fast as they could, but it put the guy in the hospital. Eugene was charged, but I don’t know what happened to the case. He probably got off.” Don shook his head, and his lips curled in a curious sneer.
    â€œYou didn’t like your father-in-law, did you?”
    Don shifted in his chair edgily. “Does that make me a suspect?”
    â€œNo more than anyone else at this point,” Green said amiably.
    â€œEugene was a cold, self-absorbed bastard. My wife suffered a lot because of him, and I get sick of the whole family making excuses for him.”
    â€œWhat was he like as a father?”
    â€œUnpredictable. That was the worst of it, really. If he had always acted like a cold, disinterested bastard, his kids might have been able to write him off and get on with their lives. But he’d dole out these tiny morsels of love at unexpected times, and it kept them coming back for more.”
    â€œThat’s a classic abuser’s technique. Keep ’em guessing, keep ’em hoping, but afraid. It’s a powerful way to control people.”
    Don nodded his head slowly up and down, and his edginess dissipated. “Yeah, that was Eugene. And it left its mark on Margie. She’s so goddamn unsure of herself. The least hint of trouble, she crumbles. I don’t have the patience for all this love and understanding shit, Inspector. I mean—not that I don’t believe in love, but I figure you’ve got to take what life gives you and get on with it. None of this I-can’t-be-a-decent-human-being-because-of-what-I-went-through-in-the-war crap. I mean, if we had that attitude, we’d let all the crooks out on the streets and you’d be out of a job, right?” He grinned, but when Green did not join him, he sat forward as if preparing to leave.
    â€œDid Howard have the same insecurities as his sister?”
    Don sat back in the seat again. “Howard was trying to write him off and get on with his life. But Eugene still played him like a trout on the line. Even three hundred kilometres away, the hook is well set. The poor kid is going to kill himself trying to be everything his father was not.”
    *    *    *
    After Reid left, Green ran Eugene Walker’s name through the police computer, hoping at least to find out the outcome of the assault charge. But as he feared, there was nothing. The Canadian Police Information Centre coughed up no record of the case at all, merely one conviction of impaired driving five years earlier, which had resulted in suspension of his licence. Whatever had transpired between Walker and the visitor from Hamilton, only the Renfrew police files would tell. If they even still existed.
    It was Friday night, and November darkness had long since set in. Green locked up and hastened out to begin the homeward trek before he was hopelessly late for Shabbat dinner. The trek to Barrhaven took an incredibly long time, he’d discovered in the two months they’d lived there. He called the suburb the End of the Earth and had only moved there as a concession to Sharon, who wanted clean air, safe streets and a house