*
I followed the signs downstairs, past a laundry room that smelled of detergent and dryer exhaust, and an old-time video arcade where a few kids were zapping aliens and steering furious hot rods. The Black Diamond Room seemed to be some sort of banquet hall. The lights were off and the room was vacant, but the spirits of past wedding receptions seemed near. I waited inside the door, in the dark, amid the round tables and stackable chairs, feeling ridiculous at being made an accessory to Amber’s act of subterfuge.
Fifteen minutes later, a burly little man in a black snowmobile suit stuck his head into the room and flicked on the fluorescent lights.
“Are you my passenger?” he asked.
“I’m not sure.”
He had the crow’s-feet and weathered skin of someone who had never worked a desk job in his life. There was snow mounded on his fur-lined hat and snow melting in his grizzled brown muttonchops. He removed his deerskin mitten to shake my hand. “I’m Elderoy.”
“Mike Bowditch.”
“Bowditch? Jack’s son? Well, isn’t that something! I worked with your old man before he got the heave-ho. Wasn’t he a ticket, though. Anyone ever tell you you’re the spitting image?”
“Not today, but it’s still early.”
He flashed one of the wider smiles I’d seen. His teeth looked as strong as the rest of him. “Where’s Amber?” he asked.
“Trying to get away from her manager, I think.”
“Gerald may be the first het’rosexual man Amber hasn’t been able to snake-charm.”
On cue, as if summoned, she appeared, out of breath and flushed in the face. “Elderoy, I need you to take Mike up to the top for me. Josh is working the ski patrol, and Mike needs to talk with him. It’s really important.”
The old man scratched one of his impressive sideburns. “Let me get this straight. You expect me to stop the important work that I am doing and chauffeur this young man to the summit just because you asked?”
“It’s really, really, really important.”
“Goddamn it, Amber,” he said, trying but failing to suppress another smile. “You know how to play me like a fiddle.”
“You’ll do it, then?”
He pursed his lips and tapped his furry cheek for her to kiss.
She obliged, leaving lipstick marks.
Elderoy turned to me, beaming. “I’ll meet you over at the Shady Lane Lift. This pretty lady can tell you how to get there.”
I couldn’t remember having agreed to interrogate Josh Davidson. Those lines I thought I knew? They seemed to be getting wavier by the minute.
“Are you sure Josh Davidson is going to talk to me?” I asked Amber after Elderoy had left the room.
“He’s worried about Adam. Josh is his only friend left in the world.”
“You said that before.”
“Did I? Adam used to be so popular, too. He was such a great skier, and all the girls thought he was so handsome.” She winced, as if the admission had caused her physical pain. Then she gazed directly into my eyes. “You really do look like him, you know.”
She seemed so convinced—and so convincing. I had made a lifelong practice of building walls against my emotions. Now I felt something begin to crumble inside of me. Bricks coming loose.
The question was out before I could stop it. “Does Adam know?”
“Know what?”
“Who his real father is.”
Her expression became soft as she studied my face. “Not yet. But I want him to know—especially now.”
I cleared my throat, zipped up my coat, and made to leave.
She touched me lightly on the arm. “Mike? If you don’t mind, there’s a question I’ve been meaning to ask you, too.”
“Go ahead.”
“Where is your father buried? I want to go see his grave with Adam.”
“I don’t know.”
She yanked her hand from my arm as if from a burning stove. “How can you not know?”
“I’m pretty sure the state had him cremated. I never bothered claiming the ashes.”
“Did anyone?”
“I have no idea.”
“Jeezum, that’s kind of cold. Don’t you think?”
I pressed my lips together hard to keep from saying something I couldn’t take back.
“You need to find out where he is,” she said. It was the first time she’d assumed a motherly tone. “You owe your father that much at least.”
What I owed my father was not a subject I cared to discuss. Not with her. Not with anyone.
I was learning that Amber Langstrom had a prizefighter’s gift for knocking me off balance. I needed to do a better job of keeping my guard up when I was around this woman.
*
The snow had begun to drift down steadily and silently. It seemed like such a tranquil scene. I made my way through the stream of skiers and snowboarders tromping back and forth through the village plaza.