Читать книгу Meg Harris Mysteries 5-Book Bundle - R.J. Harlick - Страница 48

The tragedy of Whispers Island didn’t end with the explosion. Four days later, I discovered Aunt Aggie had one last secret.

It had been a strange day, starting with a heavy morning snowfall that was still falling as dusk darkened into night. It was as if kije manido wanted to erase the crimes of this terrible autumn with the innocence of winter’s first snow.

I sat on the sofa in the orange warmth of a simmering fire with Sergei curled at my side. Although heavy-hearted, I felt strangely at peace. The uncertainty was finally over.

I found it difficult to believe that only three weeks ago, Marie and I had been laughing in the sun of that fateful Indian Summer day, the day the CanacGold planes had swooped into our northern paradise and triggered the fight over gold. Now Marie was dead, my life set on a different course, and the lives of those lured by its promise of wealth changed forever. Even Whispers Island hadn’t come through unscathed. The gap in its profile would be a warning to us all not to violate its sacred shores.

Charlie was in the hospital. He had suffered third degree burns to his hands and face and would require skin grafts. But he wasn’t going to jail. It was evident Charlie had nothing to do with the murders of Marie or Louis or the shooting of Tommy. As for his killing of Hélène, it was deemed self-defense.

Although he had broken into my place, shot at me, and was responsible for the tree almost killing me on Whispers Island, I decided not to press charges. He told me he’d accidentally dislodged the tree when he leaned over the cliff to check out my actions on Marie’s beach, and the gun shots were fired only as a warning for me to return his money. At no time did he intend to harm me.

Charlie’s only real crime was greed and falling in love with Hélène. For his love of Hélène, he was punished. His wife of twenty years left him, taking their three children back to her own reserve, five hundred miles away.

As for his greed, the money he had earned from CanacGold was smouldering ash. And, more importantly, he’d lost his standing as tribal chief and elder within the band. While the Band Council allowed him to remain on the reserve, he was to undergo a sentencing circle to determine what his punishment should be and to begin the healing process, which, according to Eric, had already begun. Upset over Hélène’s role in the killings, Charlie had accepted his responsibility for the deaths, no matter how unwittingly.

As for Hélène, she was dead. No greater punishment could be served on her for the killing of Marie and Louis.

And the gold mining saga was definitely dead. Whispers Island now belonged to Tommy. Well, not quite, but it soon would be in his possession.

At a meeting with William Watson’s lawyer, Wilson McLeod, I received a cheque for the remainder of the money that Aunt Aggie had put in his firm’s trust in 1925 to handle the taxes for Whispers Island. It was the year I now knew to be the actual date of the death of her husband, Baron von Wichtenstein, alias William Watson, alias Two Face Sky. The lawyer also passed me an envelope she’d left with his firm in 1935.

One document was the transfer of ownership of Whispers Island from crown assets to Mr. William Watson. The second, a request form with “Approved” stamped in red for a name to be changed from Johann von Wichtenstein to William J. Watson. And the final document was the deed to the property.

At last I had the means to stop CanacGold. Even Gareth couldn’t fight such concrete proof of ownership.

Although I was furious over his role in this gold mining affair, I owed him one. Because he’d saved my life, I decided not to inform on him. He might be an abusive, controlling bastard intent on feeding his own selfish ambitions, but I believed that deep down inside he still retained a trace of the caring man I thought I’d married. I’d let him make the choice; stop this downward spiral into crime by owning up to his involvement or one day find himself facing a far greater sentence.

After reading Aunt Aggie’s letter, written ten years after the deaths of Two Face Sky and Summer Wind, I called François. Following her wishes, I set in motion the transfer of the ownership of Whispers Island to Tommy and his sisters.

I will let you decide, the heir to my lands, what shall become of Minitg Kà-ishpàkweyàg. You have read my story and know of the anguish I have suffered with the death of my husband Johann, the man I would never divorce. While I have promised the band full use of this land, I am unable to complete the full transfer. My destiny has been too closely linked to this island. I cannot give it up. Regardless of how painful, it is the last token I have of Johann, that and his treasured peace pipe I found in the embers. But in the fullness of time, if you, my heir, are able to understand and forgive me, I ask that you give this land to the descendants of Whispering Pine, the tiny daughter of Johann, the child who replaced our own dead daughter.

And also in her letter, she removed whatever temptation Tommy might have had, despite his best intentions, not to develop the gold mine. There was no gold on Whispers Island, at least not enough to justify the high cost of development.

Aunt Aggie wrote that she had discovered what looked to be a seam of gold and brought in experts to determine the extent of the deposit. But the drilling had proved the vein was worthless. No doubt CanacGold would have discovered this, but not before destroying the soul of the ancients’ forest.

Whispers Island still had one last secret to reveal, the final tragedy of Agatha Harris, her confession, which once read explained so much.

I killed my husband, Johann. There, I have finally written it down in indelible ink. It has taken me ten years to face up to what I did that dreadful day on Minitg Kà-ishpàkweyàg.

Day in and day out I spied on my husband and that native girl, watching every move of their indecent behaviour. Until one day I could no longer endure it. I took my rifle and skied over to the island.

I surprised them in the act of rutting. Something inside me snapped. Wanting only to wipe out the evil, I fired. In my frenzy, I knocked drying clothes into the hearth fire. Within minutes, the lodge was in flames. I fled outside, but once outside I heard the wail of the small child, the living child for whom Johann had left me. I wanted to rid myself of this evil, too. But I couldn’t. Thank goodness my reason returned and I was able to save this tiny daughter of my husband’s from the fire.

With the crying child in my burnt arms, I stood and watched the fire consume the lodge and all that was within. I then took her to Rushing Bear and said she was by rights his child and should grow up in the Algonquin culture she was born to. I promised him I would ensure that she never wanted. And through the years I have looked out for Whispering Pine, providing her with the means to prosper.

And on that day I also made a pact with God. As punishment for the terrible sin I had committed, I would condemn myself to a life of loneliness and isolation. Three Deer Point would be my prison. And this I have done. I have lived here these last ten years, cut off from my family and friends, and shall continue to do so until the end of my days.

At my trial, there will be only two, God as my judge and me as the defendant. Now you, my heir, have become my jury. I leave this secret in your hands to do with as you will.

And what could I do? Revealing the secret to Tommy would achieve nothing. Though I believed Marie had known. Either from the murmurings of her ancestors or the whisperings of the pines, she had known our pasts were inextricably linked through the tragedy of the crosses. But whether out of friendship or a fear of angering the spirits, she had kept this to herself.

Long since dead, Aunt Aggie was well beyond the reaches of the law. Besides, I believe she had served her penance the sixty years or more she lived in complete isolation, using the remoteness of Three Deer Point as her prison.

No, I would keep this between Aunt Aggie and myself. But I would also use it as a warning to ensure Three Deer Point didn’t become my prison.

And it looked as if Eric could very well be the key.