Entry Island(34)

‘Hardly any. I mean, I can see Entry Island from my house at La Grave. Sometimes you feel you could almost reach out and touch it. But it was never somewhere you would drop by casually. Of course, there were occasional family gatherings. Christmas, funerals, that sort of thing. But the English-speakers are Presbyterian, and the French mostly Catholic. Oil and water. So, no, I never really knew Kirsty that well.’ He stopped picking at his nails and stared at his hands. ‘In recent years I’ve hardly seen her at all.’ He looked up. ‘If I didn’t go to see her, then she certainly wouldn’t come and see me.’

Sime wondered if he detected a hint of bitterness in that. But there was nothing in Aitkens’s demeanour to suggest it. ‘From what you know of her, then, how would you describe her?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘What sort of person is she?’

There seemed to be a fondness in his smile. ‘You’d be hard pushed to find a more gentle person on this earth, Monsieur Mackenzie,’ he said. ‘Almost … what’s the word … serene. Like she had some kind of inner peace. If she has a temper, then I’ve never seen her lose it.’

‘But you said yourself, you haven’t really seen her that much over the years.’

Which irritated him. ‘Well, why the hell are you asking me, then?’

‘It’s my job, Monsieur Aitkens.’ Sime sat back and folded his arms. ‘What do you know about her relationship with James Cowell?’

Aitkens made a noise somewhere between a spit and a grunt to express his contempt. ‘Never liked the man. And never could figure out what it was he saw in her.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Oh, no harm to Kirsty. I mean, she’s a good-looking woman, and all. But weird, you know?’

And Sime remembered Crozes’s description of her – She’s a weirdo, right?

‘Weird in what way?’

‘This fixation she has with staying put. Never leaving the island. Not Cowell’s thing at all. He was all fancy cars and airplanes, big houses and expensive restaurants. I was at the wedding. He had a big marquee erected over on the island, a company brought in from Montreal to do the catering. As much champagne as you could drink. Flash bastard! More fucking money than sense. Full of himself, too. Thought he was better than the rest of us because he’d made a pile. But he was just another islander. A fucking fisherman who got lucky.’

‘Looks like his luck ran out.’

Aitkens inclined his head a little. ‘How did he die?’

‘According to Kirsty she was attacked by an intruder at the house. When Cowell intervened he got stabbed to death.’

Aitkens seemed shocked. ‘Jesus! An intruder? On Entry Island?’ Then he had a further thought. ‘What was Cowell doing there, anyway? I heard he’d left her.’

‘What, exactly, did you hear?’

‘Well, it was pretty much common knowledge. Whatever his obsession was with Kirsty it seemed to have burned itself out, and he’d found somebody else to lavish his millions on. Ariane Briand, wife of the mayor here on Cap aux Meules. It’s been quite a scandal!’

‘You know her?’

‘Hell, yeah. I was at school with her. A few years older, but I didn’t know a boy then who didn’t have the hots for her. I mean, a real looker she was. Still is. And much more Cowell’s style than Kirsty. Kicked the mayor out, apparently, and Cowell moved in.’ He snorted his derision. ‘But just a temporary arrangement for sure. You can bet your bottom dollar that Cowell would have had plans for something much bigger than the Briands’ little house in the woods.’

Sime nodded. ‘Like the house he built on Entry Island.’

‘Something even flashier, I would have thought. You set the bar that high, you can hardly start lowering it.’

Sime stroked his chin thoughtfully and realised he hadn’t shaved that morning. ‘I suppose she’ll inherit,’ he said.

Aitkens cocked his head and frowned at Sime. ‘You don’t think she did it?’

‘We don’t think anything yet.’

‘Well, you’re wrong if you do. I mean, she wouldn’t kill him for his house or his wealth. She’d have got the house and half his money in any divorce settlement anyway. Cowell could hardly have taken the house with him, and no way would he have wanted to stay in it.’ He spread his big hands out wide. ‘And anyway, what would she do with all that cash? There’s nothing to spend it on over there on Entry.’ His eyes suddenly strayed towards Sime’s right hand resting on the table in front of him. ‘That’s an interesting ring. Can I see it?’