“You’ve done a lot of work in two weeks, Benny, and I know I should be thankful. I am in a way. But, in another, it still won’t bring him back, will it?”
“Would it have been better if there was somebody going to jail?” She shook her head.
“I don’t think so. I was never out for blood, you know. I was never out to get people. It was just that damn company, Kinross. I was thinking that Kinross was different than people, but it turns out that it’s this fellow Caine and all those others.”
“I guess it doesn’t help when the murderer is a stroke victim in her upper seventies.”
“I might go see her in the hospital. She must feel terrible not being able to communicate and all. I’m not doing anything this afternoon. I could just drop in for a few minutes around three o’clock.” She caught me smiling. “What’s the matter with that?” she asked.
“I was just thinking that three o’clock was the time of your appointment to see me back at the beginning of the month. You were ready to take on the world that afternoon. You’d already been to other investigators. Now, it looks like a provincial inquiry, which was already underway when you came to see me, will put an end to the way Kinross and the other companies have been ignoring the law. Maybe we’ll get better laws after this. We need them.”
“I hope so, I hope so, but it still won’t do me any good. I’m not getting the lift, Benny, that I hoped you’d provide. All I can think of is those poor people and that terrible, mad old man.”
“That’s why Biddy killed him.”
“She put a stop to him, that’s what she did. Funny the law can’t touch her for it, isn’t it?”
“It wouldn’t enhance the image of the law. It would bring it into disrespect, detract from its majesty and authority. And we can’t have that, now can we?”
“Well, I guess it’s all too late now anyway. It’s all dead and buried. Would you like to have another cup of tea?”
“Why not?”