Читать книгу Meg Harris Mysteries 7-Book Bundle - R.J. Harlick - Страница 37

Late afternoon shadows were creeping across Three Deer Point by the time I finished cleaning the second floor of my too-large cottage. Although it didn’t quite meet Marie’s high standards for cleanliness, I felt very proud of my efforts. But once was enough. I’d have to begin the search for a new housekeeper soon.

When I entered the kitchen to return the cleaning paraphernalia to the pantry, I found Sergei whining to go outside. He raced off through the opened door and disappeared into the trees, yelping shrilly, which meant deer in sight. I hoped he wouldn’t go far. I was more than ready to relax with Eric at the Fishing Camp.

Deciding hunger would soon bring the dog back, I placed his food bowl outside. I showered, then changed into a more presentable set of clothes. When I was ready to leave, Sergei still hadn’t returned, nor had his bowl been touched. I called his name. A muffled bark answered. I waited a few seconds, but he didn’t come.

I called again. Another bark, but no dog. I cursed. I wanted to go, but I was afraid to leave him outside in case he met up with the wrong kind of animal, like a porcupine. I used the whistle he’d been trained to respond to and got only a barking response.

I groaned in frustration. A cornered animal was the one thing that would keep Sergei from his food. Unfortunately, the only method of extrication was to forcibly drag him away by his collar. I tried to catch a glimpse of him through the trees, but it was impossible to distinguish his black body from the deepening shadows. Besides, his muffled barking suggested he was further into the forest.

With leash in hand and dog bribes in my pocket, I walked quickly towards the sound, which seemed to be coming from the direction of Aunt Aggie’s sugar shacks. While I could still see the web of overhead branches against a sunset sky, I could barely see my feet on the path. I figured I had about ten minutes, fifteen at the most, before it became too dark. I debated returning to the house for a flashlight but didn’t want to waste any more time. I quickened my pace instead.

Sergei’s barking drew nearer, then abruptly stopped. Worried, I called out and was answered by the rustling of leaves. He’s finally coming, I thought, and walked on, expecting to see Sergei’s dark shape bounding towards me, but reached the sugar shacks without even a glimpse of him.

I blew his whistle. This time only dusk’s stillness answered. Where was the damn dog? Half annoyed, half worried, I felt my fear of darkness rise. I frantically pushed it down. Now was not the time to run panicking back home.

I searched the ground for signs and found a number of tracks in the mud near the door of the main shack. Unfortunately, in the fading light it was impossible to tell if a dog had made them. I peered through the surrounding forest, searching for Sergei’s darker mass and saw only the converging shadows of night. Frantic, I called again, several times, each time more shrilly as I fought my rising panic.

All of a sudden, the rustling started again. It was coming towards me. I froze. Every nerve ending in my body tingled as I strained to see through the dark.

“Sergei?” I whispered.

I waited. The rustling drew nearer. I edged towards the shack door with the idea of escaping inside. Before I reached it, a black mass suddenly lunged towards me and knocked me to the ground. A wet nose jabbed my face, followed by the sandpaper lick of a dog’s tongue.

“You stupid animal!” I cried out in exasperated relief, and gave him a big hug to show that I was more than glad to see him. Then as I stood up, I noticed another dog, almost as large but lighter in colour.

A voice cut the silence, “Meg, that you?”

My nerves spiked. This person knew me. Footsteps slowly approached.

“Who’s that?” I gingerly called back. I unlatched the shack door with the intention of barricading myself inside.

“Hélène. You got my bitch with you?”

“God, did you scare me. What in the world are you doing here?”

The glowing tip of a cigarette moved towards me and stopped a few feet in front. I could just make out her tall, lanky shape. Her face loomed into view as she sucked on her cigarette. Her eyes sparked with its fire, then went black.

For a moment she remained silent, then she said, almost as a challenge, “I was at the Lookout. That okay with you?”

“Sure, no problem,” I said, then remembering my last trip to the rock outcrop, I asked, “You go there often?”

Her cigarette glowed brighter as she took a deep drag. I heard the slow release of air when she answered, “Why do you ask?”

“Saw some butts on top. Another time, when I was on the lake, I saw a figure in purple close to the cliff edge.”

“Yeah, that was me. Look, I know it belongs to you, but that rock has special meaning to my people, kind of religious like, eh? Your aunt used to let us visit.”

“Be my guest,” I answered, while wondering why Eric had never mentioned the Lookout’s sacred properties.

“Do you always go there so late in the day?”

The cigarette glowed again, then she answered, “I guess I kinda lost track of time. And your dog came.” She laughed. “Could be your dog’s gonna be a daddy.”

I groaned. “Don’t tell me your dog’s in heat. No wonder Sergei refused to come when I called. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

I didn’t completely relax until we finally reached the security of the light surrounding my cottage. Holding Sergei’s food bowl inches from his nose, I managed to lure him away from his new friend and lock him inside the house. With a last glance at the building to ensure everything was secure, I headed towards my pickup.

Knowing Hélène would have a very long and dark walk home through the woods, I offered her a ride as far as the turn- off to the Fishing Camp. She gratefully accepted and put her dog, now revealed to be a nice looking golden retriever, into the back of the truck and jumped into the cab beside me. She sat with her long, angular body folded into itself, staring out the windshield while I started up the truck. Under the overhead cab light, her face appeared strained and tired.

“You must be working too hard?” I asked. Shifting the truck into gear, I headed down the drive.

She sat as if she hadn’t heard me, then turned a bleak stare towards me and answered, “Just a few things hitting me right now, but nothing I can’t solve.”

“Want to tell me about it?” I asked, not sure if I really wanted to delve into her personal life. I felt I had enough problems of my own to deal with at the moment.

But she saved me from having to battle my conscience by answering “Ain’t much. Only bore you.” And continued staring at the beam of light bouncing in front of us.

To lighten the mood, I said, “Nice retriever you got there.”

She sat silent for a moment, then answered, “Not mine, Charlie’s.”

“You mean Charlie Cardinal?” I asked in surprise. Somehow a rottweiler seemed more his type of dog.

She grunted “Yup” and hunched further forward.

Unsure of what else to say, I drove on in silence and quickly reached the end of the Three Deer Point road. I turned onto the main road towards Migiskan Village. Night surrounded us in an impenetrable blackness as we pursued the moving tunnel of light. Occasionally, a stray object would flash into life, then die as the headlight beam pushed forward. I felt as if my entire world was reduced to this barely lit cab of a broken-down truck with Hélène and me its sole inhabitants.

“Too bad about Marie,” I said.

Hélène sighed. I felt the back of the truck seat move as she leant against it. “Yeah, a real shame,” she replied. “But if a woman puts up with a man beating her up all the time, she’s gonna fight back, eh? Might even kill him.”

I decided not to challenge her. Better to let the real story of Marie’s murder come from Eric or Police Chief Decontie. Instead, I made some benign comment about Marie’s funeral.

Hélène continued talking as if she hadn’t heard. “I tell ya, I woulda left the bastard years ago. Any man lays a finger on me, wham, I hit him right back. Jeez, no way I take that guff.”

I heard her zip up her jacket with one long forceful yank.

“Now me and Charlie, we got an understanding,” she continued.

“Are you saying you and Charlie Cardinal are more than just friends?”

“Yeah, well him and me, we have a thing, see,” she replied, turning quickly in my direction and then back to the front of the truck. “I guess ya could say we connect. I’m good for him. He and that bitch of a wife don’t get along. In fact, he’s gonna leave her.”

She turned her gaze back to me. “Nov, Meg, I’m telling ya this on the q.t. . . . I don’t want ya blabbing this around, eh?”

“I won’t say a word. But you surprise me. I thought you kept pretty much to yourself.”

“Yeah, that’s what I want people to think. Keeps them from sticking their nose in where it don’t belong. Ya know once the word gets out, it’ll be game over. Me and Charlie have been real secret like. We have a secret place we go to, eh?” She glanced at me. “Anyways, by the time they find out, we’ll be long gone.”

“You’re leaving?” I asked, even more surprised by this additional news.

“Yeah . . . sometime . . . Soon as Charlie gets his affairs in order. Then we’re outta here. Now don’t ya be telling nobody.”

“But I thought you loved your job at the store?”

“Yeah . . . I do. But I gotta get out of this hole. I ain’t never seen nothin’. Charlie’s gonna change all that. Him and me, we’re gonna see the world.” Her voice shook with defiance.

“I suppose if you’ve never lived anywhere else, this place can get to you. Where do you plan to go?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere with lots of lights and glitter. Toronto, New York, maybe even Paris, you know the big city in France, where all them painters hang out. I saw some of them pictures in a book once. They were real pretty, that’s for sure.”

“Sounds exciting, but won’t this require a bit of money? Why not settle for Toronto? It’s cheaper and would have just as much action as the other two cities.”

“Like I said. Me and Charlie got plans. And maybe, just maybe these plans include getting a few bucks. And then maybe they don’t.”

I didn’t bother to ask where the money was coming from. I knew it was courtesy of CanacGold. And judging by Charlie’s fancy new Yukon, they were paying him a bundle. No wonder Charlie didn’t care about preserving the island. He wasn’t going to be around when the mine finally got going.

Out of the darkness, a pinprick of light suddenly loomed into view. Worried it might be a reflection from the eyes of an animal, I slowed the truck down. As I got closer, the white dot was joined by a red one, and rather than remaining stationary the way a deer would when startled by oncoming headlights, the lights wove from side to side across the road.

“Jeez, not another damn drunk,” Hélène muttered, voicing my own thoughts.

I slowed my truck to a crawl and wondered how I was going to get around the car without getting hit. I blasted the driver with my horn, hoping to convince him to remain on one side while I attempted to pass on the other. No such luck. The car suddenly swerved across my path. I jammed my foot on the brakes. My truck slid over the loose gravel and came to a stop, inches from the car’s bumper.

However, the car, one I recognized with unease, continued its slow aimless course, like a wind-up toy winding down. It bumped along the shallow ditch, lurched over a boulder protruding from the side of the road, narrowly missed a tree before wobbling back across the road. Finally, it came to rest against a hydro pole. For one long second everything froze, and then the horn began emitting one loud continuous blast.

With anger overriding all caution, I jumped out of my truck, yelling, “Hey! What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” A dark shape slumped over the steering wheel. In the glare of headlights, I saw Tommy.