“The way everybody knows everybody around here,” she said. “This is a community of neighbors. We all depend on one another.”

“What can you tell me about Mary before all this happened?” I asked both of them.

Claude Lapierre started. “Nice girl. Quiet, polite, loved boating. On Lake Memphremagog. Not a whole lot to tell, really. She worked at the diner when she was in high school. Served me breakfast all the time. But so very quiet, like I said. Everyone was pretty surprised when she got pregnant.”

“And even more surprised when the father stuck around,” Mrs. Lapierre said.

“For a while, anyway,” her husband quickly added.

“I assume that was Mr. Beaulac?”

They both nodded.

“He was ten years older than her, and she was all of seventeen. But they did make a go of it. Tried their best. Even had a second kid together.”

“Ashley,” Mrs. Lapierre said.

“Nobody was really bowled over when he finally took off. If anything, I would have expected it sooner.”

“George Beaulac was a real bum,” said Mrs. Lapierre. “Took a lot of drugs.”

“Do you know what happened to him? Did he see Mary or the kids again?”

“Don’t know,” said Claude, “but I’m inclined to doubt it. He was a bum.”

“Well, I need to find him,” I muttered, more to myself than to either of them. “I really need to know where George Beaulac is now.”

“Up to no good for sure,” said Mrs. Lapierre.

Chapter 109

Chapter 109

I DIDN’T BOTHER TAKING NOTES after that. Whatever wasn’t already written down, I wouldn’t need. A whirring sound had been coming from the kitchen, and I finally asked Mrs. Lapierre about it. I never would have guessed what the sound was. Turned out she was making venison jerky in a dehydrator.

“Where were Mary’s parents during all of this?” I asked, moving back to more pertinent questions.

Again, Mrs. Lapierre shook her head. She topped off my coffee cup while her husband continued.

“Rita died when Mary was about five, I guess. Ted raised her, pretty much on his own, though he didn’t seem to put a lot of effort into it. Nothing illegal, just real sad. And then he died, too, the year Brendan was born, I think.”

“He smoked like a chimney,” Madeline said. “Lung cancer took him. That poor girl never got a break.”

After George Beaulac left, Mary fell in with another local man, a part-time mechanic by the name of John Constantine.

“He started running around on her almost as soon as she got pregnant,” Madeline said. “It was no great secret. By the time Adam was six months old, John was gone for good, too.”