Chapter XI

Padre oh Padre
Tu non hai visto
Re degli elfi
Ecolo la

Father oh Father
Haven't you seen
The King of the elves
There he is

Near Cardiff, Wales

"I don't understand this Nigel, I'm not asking you to assassinate the Premier of Russia. I'm asking to make sure a seven year old boy eats the food we bring him! How difficult can this be?" Charlotte demanded of her right hand man.

"Very difficult, if the boy in question is your grandson," Nigel replied dryly.

"He's not my biological grandson," she shot back, "You know that very well. Don't insult me like that. In two days we're shipping him off to Denmark. I'd like for him to at least survive the trip, Nigel. And because of your incompetence in the matter, it looks like I'll have to pay him a visit myself."

Charlotte Devane turned her back on Nigel and, cane in hand, walked along one of the seemingly endless corridors of her compound. 'It's time to make little Max aware that resistance is futile,' she thought, 'A child will stop resisting when he realizes it's pointless.'

At the end of the hallway was a recently installed elevator. Charlotte stepped inside it and proceeded to take it down two floors.

Once she was in the sub-basement, she walked along a second hallway, turned a sharp left, and saw the guard that was stationed outside Max's room.

"Good evening, Edward," she said crisply.

"Good evening, Ms.Devane."

"I would like to go inside," she told him.

"Of course. Shall I accompany you, ma'am?"

"That won't be necessary, Edward. Last time I checked, it is, after all, a seven year old boy inside. I think I shall manage without an armed guard."

Charlotte opened the door and found Max asleep on the bed inside. She pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat down in it. "Max," she nudged him, "Wake up."

He turned around and sleepily rubbed his eyes.

"Hello, Max. Do you remember me?"

Max shook his head.

"Of course you do. You used to live here in Wales with your Mum, and sometimes I'd come to visit her in the cottage. Your Mum, you, and Heidi. Do you remember that, Max?"

He looked at her, fearful and uncertain, "I guess, maybe I do remember you." She could almost see his clever little mind spinning, looking for some connection that wasn't there. The truth was she'd barely seen him once he'd grown past infancy. There was no reason for him to remember her.

"I'm your grandmother. Charlotte."

Max stared at her, "No, you can't be. Mum always told me I didn't have grandparents because both her parents and my Dad's parents are dead."

"She's right about that, your Mum's real parents did die when she was a little girl. Because of that, I raised her, so I like to think of myself as her mother. And if I'm her mother, that makes you my grandson, doesn't it?"

Charlotte Devane had no fondness for children and pretending otherwise was no easy task. She tried to give him a reassuring smile, but it took only one look at him to realize he wasn't won over by it.

"If you're my grandma how come Mum never mentioned you and how come you never spent any time with us, if you lived so close to us in Wales?"

'Aren't you a clever thing?' Charlotte thought, suppressing the urge to strangle the little boy. "Let's just say your Mum and I never got along very well. She didn't want me to be a part of her life. Even though that made me terribly sad, Max, I respected her wishes, and now, after what happened, it looks like you and I are going to be a family after all."

Max kept staring at her. His thick, black hair was a mess, and he looked tired and hungry. "What do you mean, 'after what happened?'" he asked her, still eying her with suspicion.

"After you went camping with your father, you came back to Wildwind, and there was an accident. Your Mum and Dad were riding in a car together and they had an accident."

He looked at her in wide-eyed shock now, "No, they didn't…you're lying!"

She shook her head sadly, "You don't remember, do you, sweetheart?" She moved close to him and tried to give him a hug but he pushed her away. "You poor thing, little Max, you don't even remember that your parents died."

His face was aghast, a mask of grief, fear and disbelief. "No they didn't…they didn't…they didn't!" he yelled the same words over and over again accusingly and Charlotte watched patiently until his energy faded and he stopped yelling and started sobbing. Pitiful, mewling sounds.

Charlotte wasn't entirely sure whether he believed her but the thought of her words being true had certainly jolted him.

'That's a good sign,' she thought. 'He's uncertain right now. In a couple of days, when he realizes his precious parents aren't coming for him, he'll have accepted it. He'll begin to grieve and then I can ship him off to Faison where he can begin a new life. Once he realizes his parents are gone he'll most likely make no efforts to run away.'

Max had ducked his head underneath the sheet covers now. Charlotte sat in the room with him for a long time.

Even so, she was immune to his wails and made no further attempts to comfort him.

Bison River First Nation, Northwest Territories, Canada

When David Hayward got up the following morning, he seemed surprised to see Alex already up, getting the clinic ready.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he asked, yawning as he stretched himself.

"It's going to be busy. I wanted to get things ready."

Alex saw him raising his eyebrows and answered his question before he had a chance to ask it. "Look, I have to keep busy; otherwise, I'll go mad thinking about Max."

It was the truth. Right now she felt that if she were to stop moving for even a moment, she'd lose it again.

"How are you feeling?" David asked her as he got up.

"Physically, I'm fine." She saw his doubtful glance, "Honestly. I think the iron helped. I guess, I'm back to owing you one."

"I'll remind you when we're back in Pine Valley…" he was about to say something else when her cell phone rang.

Alex looked at the number on the display, "It's Dimitri… unless Erica decided that I need to hear from her again.

David walked towards the bathroom door, "I guess you'd like some privacy."

Alex whispered a 'thank you' that she didn't think he heard, and answered the phone.

"Alex, is that you?" Thankfully, it was Dimitri.

"Yes…"

"Oh thank god…I tried to contact you after Erica called, but Hayward, he wouldn't let me speak to you. I'm so sorry you didn't hear this from me…darling, how are you holding up?"

Even over the static of the poor reception, she could hear the love he had for her in his voice and it made her realize how badly she had needed to hear it.

"I'm fine, but tell me everything…how…how could this have happened?"

Dimitri recounted every detail as he remembered it. From the kidnapping at the campground, to Trevor's disappearance, right down to Erica's reaction and her decision to contact the police.

"Do you think, there's a chance it's not Charlotte?" she asked him, hoping desperately he might say yes.

"I have considered it…thinking maybe it could be a kidnapping for ransom, but then yesterday I got a phone call from Heidi…"

Alex noted the change in his tone of voice, "Heidi? Is she alright? Tell me what happened, Dimitri."

He paused before going on, as if reluctant. Bracing her. "It's not good news, darling. Heidi's alright but they shot Philip, twice, in the chest. Heidi found him dead in their bedroom."

"Oh no…" Alex gasped. Her knees felt weak and she had to sit down. She could pictured Heidi so well. Her warm, selfless friend. The woman who had helped her raise Max, finding her husband shot to death.

"Oh god, Dimitri, she must be devastated."

"She told me she found out she was pregnant the same day…"

"Oh no…" Alex's heart broke for her friend and she suddenly wanted nothing more than to see her, "Is the baby…?"

"The baby's fine. Heidi's as good as can be expected, but her phone call confirmed it for me. Max's kidnapping and Philip's shooting on the same day? That's no coincidence, Alex."

"You're right…" Alex's words chocked in her throat as the brutal truth hit her. It could only be Charlotte. Sending her a message with a viciousness that made it unmistakable. "How…how could she hate me this much? To take a seven year old boy and then hurt someone like Heidi, someone so gentle she could never hurt a living soul, tell me Dimitri? How?"

There was silence on the other end as again he waited before speaking.

"Darling, when can you come home?" It was more of a plea than a question.

"I spoke to the Chief this morning. He said they expect the snow to stop tonight. I should be able to fly out to Yellowknife before the day is over."

"Call me as soon as the flight restrictions are lifted. I'll send the Lear jet to Yellowknife or Edmonton, whatever's easiest for you."

"Thank you…"

Alex held her hand over the phone, not wanting Dimitri to hear her cry.

But of course, somehow, he knew anyway. "Alex, we'll find him."

"I know. We have to. I love you."

"I love you too. Hurry home, alright darling?"

"I will." She turned off the phone,and placed it on the table next to her. As she did, she felt Hayward's hand on her shoulder.

"Did that help?" he asked.

"It did…Dimitri, he amazes me sometimes. He doesn't lose his strength and he doesn't give up. I don't know how he does it."

"He does it the same way you do."

She turned to him not sure what to make of the compliment, at the same time oddly grateful for his presence "It looks like I might leave tonight. Are you going to stay on for another couple of days?"

He shook his head, "No, I want to come with you."

"I don't need a bodyguard."

"I know, but I want to make sure you get home safe."

Alex glanced at Josie on the next room, "She's going to miss you. Dr. David, reader of teenage magazines."

"I plan on coming back here, in the near future."

Alex stared at the snow outside which now fell onto the ground in light sporadic flakes. 'The future…' she thought darkly. 'Who are we to dare and plan anything when really we have no clue what it holds in store for us?'

Later that day

Tina stood out in the airfield with Alex watching the float plane land. She lit a cigarette in the clear, crisp evening sky.

"Part of me still can't believe you're the wife of Dimitri Marick. The Dimitri Marick. Why did you never tell me?" she asked Alex. After David's run-in with the teenagers, word had spread quickly, and the Chief himself had called Tina earlier in the day, asking her if she had known. If it was the truth. And if it was how she could have kept that from him.

Alex shrugged her shoulders. "What difference would it have made?"

"I don't know. I think…if the Chief had known, he would have given you better accommodations, more respect, you name it. You'd have been his personal guest! Alex, do you have any idea how many people here work for the mine? How much money it pumps into this town? You've got all this wealth, the Marick name, why wouldn't you take advantage of it and make your life easier? Why come here at all? Just pay someone else to do it!"

Alex looked at her, wondering if that's what people truly believed, that money solved all problems. "My husband's wealth may be able to send a Lear Jet up to Yellowknife on a moment's notice, but there's so much it can't do, Tina. It couldn't even keep my son safe."

Tina realized what she had said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way. I just…I hope you find your son. I really do."

"I know," Alex embraced her before stepping up towards the plane. "David wants to come back here soon, maybe, I will too one day."

Tina exhaled, watching the smoke drift upwards in the ice-cold air, "I would like that very much." She took out a long, piece of braided, sweet grass, "Take this with you. I don't really believe in a lot of our traditions anymore, but if you burn this and make an offering to whichever god you believe in, the elders tell us that His strength will guide you."

Alex thanked her and gave her a final kiss goodbye.

Further from the plane, next to the hangar, David handed Josie a magazine, "Here, I bought this for you at the convenience store. Kind of like a temporary goodbye present."

Josie took it without saying a word.

"Don't I get a goodbye kiss?" he asked her.

She ignored his question. "Are you really going to come back?"

"Have I lied to you yet?" he adjusted her scarf, so the biting wind wouldn't penetrate it.

She twisted her lips, "I suppose not."

"Well, then why would I start now?"

David noticed a solitary tear, escaping one of her eyes. "Hey," he moved his hand over it, to wipe it away, "This is not goodbye. You don't have any reason to be sad." It was the first time in his life, he had any sort of interaction with a child, and this was not at all what he expected. He didn't know what to tell her. "Here," he said to her, "I expect a letter and a photo from you soon."

She looked at him, puzzled, "And what if I don't write you?"

"Then I'll have to give you a big lecture, in person, about what a terrible friend you are."

Her eyes lit up again and she was smiling now, knowing the letter would never be sent, "Okay, then."

He looked as her, sternly, "I'm serious, I mean it." He bent down on his knees and gave her a final pair of kisses, one on each cheek, before following Alex into the plane.