Mercy Among the Children

Lyle leaves Percy alone to murder Connie Devlin. Inside Connie’s house he finds his father’s duffel bag on the floor and Connie hanging from the wardrobe. Lyle cuts Connie down. Connie confesses he has spent most of Sydney’s $25,000. Connie tells Lyle how he slowed Sydney’s progress and stole his money. Sydney had appendicitis yet helped Connie up from a ledge where he’d fallen. When Sydney reached Connie, Connie told him to give him his boots and that he would go and get help. Sydney asked Connie to take his poems and the money to Elly. Sydney hallucinated and began speaking to Elly. Connie left Sydney’s poetry there and a group of students picked him up. He tells Lyle he couldn’t face going back for Sydney.

Cynthia and Gladys try to take Leo in the car, but Leo believes that she will take him to Mat Pit. Cynthia sees two dots in the distance, Mat and Rudy. Mat and Rudy smash the kitchen window and break in. Cynthia, Gladys, and Leo hide. Rudy cannot open the safe, so Mat drags it to the window and throws it out. Leo fetches Gladys’s bag, which has a phone in it, but Cynthia remembers she had taken the phone to the car. Leo looks at her sadly and prepares for a final battle. Mat sees the trail of coins from the purse and thinks they might lead to more money, but he instead finds their hiding place. Mat hits Cynthia, and Leo punches Mat. Leo and Mat fight for the shotgun. Mat kicks Leo in the face, and his blood spurts everywhere. Mat turns the gun on Leo and intends to fire it above Leo’s head, but he hits Rudy, who has jumped in front of the old man. Mat slings the safe and his sister in the car and drives wildly through the snow.

Autumn is busy directing a play she has written about the Escuminac disaster, about to return home to Percy. Percy tries to call Jay Beard, but the lines are down. Percy stops believing Lyle will return, so he carries Scupper, the dying dog, to the vet. He keeps falling and picking the dog up again. He cannot find the lane because the drifts are so big. Mat’s headlights appear too quickly, and Percy is hit. Jay Beard sees everything from his trailer, and Autumn runs from the bridge. Scupper is still lying across Percy, licking his face, but Percy is dead. Mat does not stop, though Cynthia fights him. Cynthia jumps from the car and finds herself at the civic center, where Vicka, the child visionary, blesses her.

Lyle doesn’t go to Percy’s funeral, nor his father’s, because he feels unworthy and is looking for Mat Pit. Autumn’s play wins a prize at the provincial drama festival. Gladys tells Autumn and Lyle they can have the Bellanger place for free, but they don’t want it.

Cynthia spends a few months in jail, and Leo lives four more years. Gerald Dove reopens McVicer’s Works and teaches at the high school. He marries Gladys, whose MS goes into remission. Lyle has all the money he has ever wanted but can’t forgive himself, so Autumn leaves. Lyle looks for Mat and sleeps on the streets.

Three years later, Gerald Dove finds Lyle in Toronto. Lyle has a compensation package awaiting him, and the Hendersons are now honored. Autumn’s novel and Sydney’s poems are published. Lyle is ashamed and escapes to Europe and Oslo. He sees Autumn’s book and reads on the cover that she is married with one son, Sydney. It’s dedicated to Percy. Lyle buys the novel but doesn’t read it. Lyle goes to Paris but can only think of Percy, so he returns home.

The Sheppard boys ask for money until Lyle beats them. Lyle tries to propose to Cheryl Voteur, but she is marrying Griffin Porier. About to commit suicide, Lyle catches sight of Mat Pit on the television. He arrives at the boarding house where Terrieux and Mat Pit live. This is where Terrieux meets Lyle. Living with Mat Pit are Teresa and Cynthia. Mat, ill with bone cancer, says he is sorry. Lyle realizes he hasn’t been searching for Mat all this time, but Percy. Teresa May has Percy’s heart.

It was Terrieux who had arrested Roy Henderson. Terrieux looks around the Henderson house, then goes to Mat Pit’s funeral. Terrieux visits his ex-wife and tries to make amends, but she blames him for her sadness in life.

Lyle lives as a hermit for a while, then disappears.