The overhead light filled the room with a cold fluorescent glow and an annoying hum.
‘When I was twenty years old, I had a father, a wife, three kids and a scallop boat. I was poor, but I was happy. And I was bloody naive. By the time I was twenty-six, I’d lost it all. My ex bought herself a semi-detached house in Rimouski with my money. Since she told the lawyers she was the one who’d always looked after the kids, she got full custody. Of course she was the one who’d always looked after them, because I was always out on the water so I could put food on the bloody table!
‘I’m not sure if you know how child support works, but they calculate it based on your salary. The first year after the divorce, the lawyers calculated how much I had to pay based on my last year of fishing. No matter which way you looked at it, there was no way I could ever afford to go back to school now. So anyway, I scratched that out of my life and did what I could. I got a job at the fish plant and told everyone I was all right with that. I said I didn’t want to go out to sea anymore, I just wanted to keep my head down and work indoors. I don’t know who I was trying to fool.’
Jimmy Roberts bit the corner of his lips and drummed his fingers on the wooden table.
‘I’ve never had a bloody cent of my own. My ex works under the table, waiting tables at her boyfriend’s pub. I’m not saying she’s happy, but she must be raking in the tips, and if she declared what she earned, I wouldn’t be on the hook for as much child support. My kids are ten, eleven and thirteen now. I’m not done sticking my hand in my pocket yet, am I? But that’s not the worst of it. The worst thing is, Rimouski is four and a half hours away. So that means I only get to see my kids a couple of times a year. They come here for two or three days at Christmas and then again in the summer holidays. And don’t get me wrong, they never stay long, just twenty percent of the time. Their mum calculates it down to the minute so I can’t claw back a cent of child support I pay her. Then off they go again, and I don’t see them for another six months. It’s not that we don’t love each other, me and my kids, we just don’t know how to talk to each other. We have to go camping, because my apartment’s too small. I cook for them, we go off exploring in the park, but they’ve got nothing to say to me. Maybe it’s normal at that age not to know what to say to your dad, but I don’t know how to talk to them either. I can barely recognise them sometimes, they’ve changed so much.’ He shrugged, as if resigning himself to something. ‘And then, whenever some hot-headed young things come along and preach at us about feminism, they’ve got the gall to tell me I’ve got anger issues. For fuck’s sake! I live in an apartment as big as a postage stamp, I barely ever see my kids, and every one of my pay cheques gets siphoned off by my ex who works for cash in hand and can afford to dress herself in bloody North Face.’
‘So you started poaching, then?’
He smiled bitterly. ‘It’s true, we have used my sister’s boat a few times. But last night was an accident. We didn’t know it was you. When we parked the quads, we saw footprints in the mud. At night, we’re not the only ones to … use the boats. And after what happened to Angel, we’ve all been a bit on edge. I never laid a finger on you, I want you to know that.’ His voice was breaking up. ‘To you, and to plenty of others, I’m just a lowlife. But I love my kids. I’ve never raised a hand to them. I’ve never raised a hand to anyone. And I swear I didn’t lay a finger on you. If you slap an assault charge on me, they’ll never let me see my kids, not even in the summer.’
Moralès could feel his ribs aching.
‘It’s true that I used my sister’s boat on the sly. But Angel knew I was doing it. She wasn’t the type to blow the whistle on me, though.’
‘On the night your sister Angel disappeared, did you go into the national park to use her boat?’
Jimmy was struggling to breathe. He picked up his pack of cigarettes, opened it and closed it again mechanically. This admission might cost him dearly. Eventually, he put it down flat on the table again.
‘Yes. Angel had told us we had to pull up our traps.’
‘Why?’
Jimmy Roberts glanced uncertainly at the two-way mirror. Moralès wondered what he hoped to see in there.
‘I don’t know why, but she told us to. So I went down to the wharf with the Babin brothers.’
‘Around what time?’
‘About half past three.’
‘Half past three? Are you sure?’
‘Yes. The commercial fishing season was over. There was no one out on the water anymore. Other than a few crackpots who go out sport fishing at times they’re not supposed to. You know what it’s like: I’ll keep my mouth shut if you keep yours shut too. We turn a blind eye to each other.’ He wiped a hand across his brow. ‘That night, the tide was high at half past one. Two hours after high tide, the current’s running too strong for sport fishing. We knew we weren’t going to run into anyone.’
It was a convincing explanation.
‘What did you see when you got there?’
‘Angel’s car was parked down there and the Close Call II wasn’t at the wharf.’
‘Did you find that strange?’
‘Yes I did. I left it to around seven, and tried to call her, but her phone was off. So I went straight up to Rivière-au-Renard to hang around the wharf. The Babin brothers took turns keeping me company. I was worried about her, and I knew my old man and Clément wouldn’t bother letting me know if she turned up. So I just waited there and kept telling myself if Bruce and my old man went out looking for my sister, I’d go as well. I just had a feeling that something had happened. I was on tenterhooks, waiting for someone to get a search under way.’
‘To find your sister, or the boat?’
Moralès almost regretted the question as the words passed his lips. He hated sarcasm. Jimmy Roberts sucked in a deep breath. Saltwater filled his eyes. He waited for a moment before he opened his mouth to answer.
‘I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering if I could have killed her. No way. Why would I kill her?’ He looked Moralès square in the eye. ‘Think about it, detective. I was free to use that boat as much as I wanted because my sister never said a word about it.’
‘But she asked you to pull up your traps, didn’t she?’
‘Well, I’m not going to be poaching again, am I? Especially not with you lot watching my every move from now on.’
He shook his head energetically left and right as he toyed with his pack of cigarettes.
‘Angel asked me if I wanted to work for her two years ago, but I said no. I should have said yes, but I didn’t. What can I say? We tend to have a misplaced sense of pride in our family. But sometimes, I used to go along the coast and watch her sail past. I liked to see her with her captain’s hat on, kitted out in her orange overalls and heavy deck boots, going to sea to set her traps in the spring, the boat sitting low and steady in the water, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t envy her. She used to head out in the roughest of seas to prove she was just as capable as the men. She used to sit at the helm and blast reggae out of her speakers. Reggae! People around here only listen to the local pop stars, or they just put the radio on. I suppose she wanted her deckhands to feel like they were on holiday, or something.’