by Amber Boffin
Maggie leaned on a tree with her hand, panting slightly. “Why are you afraid of Ted overhearing us? Do you think he’s involved with the death?”
“I don’t know. The fact that he never seems to trust anyone makes me not trust him. A crook sees many crooks in other people. Besides, he’s capable of vanishing into thin air.” Adam clicked his fingers. “Just like he appeared one day out of the blue. My gut tells me he knows something.”
Maggie was intrigued, but she would keep her questions about Ted for a better time. “Did you contact the police?”
“Yes, that’s why we’re heading back.”
Maggie looked ahead at what looked like the back of a building between the trees. “Is this the cabin already?”
“Yes, this is his shortcut. Much shorter…interesting.”
“Good. We’d better hurry then.” Maggie tucked her hands under the straps of her backpack, pointing the way with her nose.
They finally emerged into the clearing at the back of the cabin. No sign of a helicopter yet. Maggie looked around as they walked to the front. The wind had abated, but something had changed. The image she had registered in her brain before leaving the cabin was altered. She put her hand to her mouth. “The door!” The stone had been removed.
Adam took his knife out of its leather sheath once again and gestured for Maggie to remain behind him. “This must be a bear. I smelled one earlier.”
He quietly approached the cabin, careful to stay downwind of the breeze. Maggie followed, tiptoeing behind him, imagining a bear appearing in the doorway, the only reason she could think for this approach this time. A loud crack whipped through the air. Adam turned around.
Maggie looked up at him, feeling scolded. She hadn’t mastered the art of a stealthy approach yet. It was only a branch under her foot. She let Adam move ahead and waited, keeping an eye on the surroundings. Chickadees called out in staccato tweets to announce the intruders in their patch as they flew from one branch to another on the sapling next to her. Maggie attempted to shush them, aware of the ridiculousness of her endeavor.
It occurred to her that he must think it a person, not a bear; with an animal he would have made noise to warn it of his presence. He didn’t want to scare her. That was it.
Adam was at the open door. His back against the cabin logs, he waited. Had he heard something? Maggie watched, holding her breath. She put her hand to her mouth when Adam jumped like a leopard into the cabin.
“Maggie.”
“What’s wrong?”
Adam pointed to the back of the room and the counter next to the stove. Some of the items had been removed—the loaf was gone, the box of tea bags, only the partially consumed omelet was left on the plate. She doubted the accuracy of her memory, seeing the sleeping bag, the plants wrapped in newspaper, and the plate on the table were still there. It was hard to identify what was missing.
An animal could have eaten the loaf, but what about the tea? Maggie shook her head, attempting to retrace her steps in her mind to visualize what was there. She had found this technique very useful to find lost objects. They suddenly appeared under her eyes as she walked through the house of the past.
She opened her eyes. A backpack was leaning against the bed, and the body was still there, slouched over the table as they had found it. Her emotions seemed to fog her memory. She instinctively reached out for her camera. It wouldn’t lie.
“Someone removed—”
“Yes, Watson.” Adam squatted down, his legs folding like an accordion, culminating in a clicking sound.
“But it couldn’t have been Ted—could it?” Maggie imagined Ted would have had to see them at the cabin, remove the items, then run to his place. It seemed so unlikely, even if he had taken the shortcut.
“He can do many things, but that…” Adam stood up. “I just don’t get those footprints anymore. We’ve left our own all around the place, and it makes it hard to see new ones. I have the impression there are at least five different types of shoe prints.”
“People can have two pairs of shoes. This must be an animal’s—look!” Maggie followed what looked like a raccoon paw in the dusty floor close to the entrance.
“Yes, but I’d—”
The sound of chopper blades cutting through the air engulfed Maggie’s words. They ran out, looking up at the red ambulance helicopter hovering above the tree line. A dark figure popped out of its door and was lowered down together with some gear. A gust of wind swung the load toward the trees.
Maggie felt a little useless as she approached Adam to help and was rebuffed with a wave of the hand. She went to the front of the cabin to wait for instructions.
A woman was dangling a few feet above the ground in front of her. She knew the usual air ambulance team, but she hadn’t met this woman before. It surprised her that they sent an air ambulance for a dead person, yet if they were in the area and they had a doctor on board, why not?
Adam had mentioned with anger that a large logging operation had set up camp just north of them a few months back. He was worried for the wolf pack. Perhaps that was where the air ambulance was heading. That didn’t make sense either, unless it was some sort of training.
Adam grabbed hold of the pendulum of a woman with unusual care as she hovered over the ground. He cradled her briefly in his arms before releasing her onto firm ground. He could be gentle and caring, but this looked a bit more than that. The helicopter flew away.
Maggie approached the talking pair. The woman was carrying two bags as she jogged toward the cabin while talking to Adam. “That’s strange. Our call was from 911 switchboard, not much detail. The police can check who called, I guess.”
“I don’t know what happened here. I was expecting the police with a coroner, but I must admit, it’s really nice to have you come down the cable. What a surprise. Anyway, we’ll soon find out when the police arrive.”
The woman acknowledged Maggie’s presence with a glance and walked into the cabin, leaving Adam at the door.
Maggie watched Adam’s smile linger as his eyes followed the woman in red overalls. She felt a tinge of anger, or perhaps it was jealousy rearing its ugly head. “You know her?”
“Yes. Such a coincidence. She’s training for an expedition in the Antarctic as a medic and spending some time with the air ambulance crew. Can you imagine living for a year down there? Quite a woman.”
Maggie felt a little relieved that this woman wouldn’t be staying in the neighborhood.
The doctor walked out of the cabin, shaking her head. “You might be right. It could be food poisoning. I had a case at the foresters’ camp a few days ago, close by, actually. But I also noticed bruises on his right arm.”
Maggie asked, “What had he eaten? The person at the camp? Did he survive?”
She turned to face Maggie. “Sorry, when I’m working, I can be so focused, I didn’t even greet you.” She stretched her hands out to Maggie, as if she already knew her.
She seemed to be one of those open, empathetic characters. Maggie couldn’t detect any animosity in her, or any judgment.
“You must be Maggie.” She held Maggie’s hand between hers. “I’ve heard so much about you.”
Unlike me. Maggie put on the best grin she could muster and glanced at the name badge on the doctor’s red overalls, Brigit Jenson.
“Brigit, sorry. And, yes, we arrived on time to save the person at camp, and he’s even back at work.” Brigit had a beauty spot just next to her right eye that disappeared when she smiled. She pursed her plump lips, her eyes losing their friendly twinkle. “I need to prepare the body to remove it. Can you give me a hand?”
“No, wait. The police should be arriving, and I want them to see it like this.”
“But the helicopter is at the forester camp just north of here, and we can’t just wait!”
As Brigit spoke, another chopper sound reached their ears. Adam smiled, pointing to the sky, where a blue helicopter hovered over the small clearing in front of them. It seemed
to take forever until, after a few attempts, down came a pale Sergeant Humphries, clinging to the cable with both hands.
Adam raced to him with his body bent in half. Another figure gesticulated from above to remove the hook. This time Adam wasn’t as gentle and only just prevented the sergeant from crash-landing. Sergeant Humphries had turned into a stone statue. Having unfastened the carabineer, Adam had to pry open the sergeant’s stiff fingers one at a time from the cable.
Adam gestured to the person above to lift the cable and in a loud voice said, “Glad you made it so fast.” He tapped Sergeant Humphries’s back. “I hate being lowered like that. I’m afraid of heights.”
The sergeant rushed out of the reach of the propellers toward Maggie and Brigit. He adjusted his trousers on his prominent belly. “A piece of cake for me. If only this pilot had kept the aircraft in position, it would have made it easier.”
The sergeant pointed to another figure in uniform swinging in the wind as he was lowered down into the clearing. Brigit looked at the sergeant with big eyes. She hasn’t met him or heard about him yet, thought Maggie.
The sergeant scanned Maggie head to toe with his small, slightly bulging eyes. “Let me guess, you found the body?”
Maggie sighed. “No, we did.”
It so happened that each time there had been an unusual death in the area, Maggie had been in the immediate vicinity of the incident. The sergeant looked at Brigit, his right eyebrow reaching new heights Maggie had never seen before.
“No, Adam and I. Adam called you,” Maggie replied.
Maggie wondered when Sergeant Humphries would urge her to leave the scene, as he always did. He appeared unusually calm this time. He lifted his chin to the sky, the hairs of his gray moustache pointing toward the helicopter blades. He tilted his head toward Brigit. “You’re a doc?”
“Yes, with the air ambulance. And I can confirm he is dead. Could be food poisoning.”
“Right…but we didn’t call you.” Brigit opened her mouth to speak but was stopped. “No matter. You can deal with the body once I’ve seen it. That way the coroner doesn’t need to come out.”
The time Maggie had found a body in her beaver pond, the sergeant hadn’t treated the death as suspicious and had suffered the consequences. Poor Constable Raj Gupta, of whom she was fond, had been at the receiving end, his promotion no longer on the table. This might be the opportunity he needed to rise in the police hierarchy.
Maggie tentatively asked, “Will you be looking at all eventualities? If it wasn’t a natural death?”
Her last sentence bounced back into her ears, the helicopter no longer muffling her voice. Constable Raj Gupta and Adam joined the group. Raj took out the police tape tucked in his pocket and looked sternly at the sergeant. “Sir. Do you want me to secure the site for forensics?”
Only the sergeant’s stiff moustache moved with his lips, rising and lowering like the quills of a hedgehog. “Enough unprofessionalism. Right, everyone, stay away.” He pushed the group away from the building. “I’ll check the situation myself. And you.” He pointed to Brigit. “Get ready with the body bag. Best to remove the body fast and get it to the coroner.”
Brigit busied herself with her gear and contacted her team. Raj disappeared behind the sergeant into the cabin. Adam signaled to Maggie to join him. Maggie whispered, “I’m confused. Don’t you think two people stayed in the cabin? Who would have called for help otherwise?”
Adam shrugged. “There’s no phone reception here, and none for miles around here as far as I know.”
“You did see items missing, or am I mad?”
Adam nodded, staring ahead of him at Sergeant Humphries’s silhouette growing incredibly fast in front of them, until he stood nose to nose with him.
“Doesn’t look suspicious to me,” said Sergeant Humphries. “Constable Gupta keeps asking about the other person you told him about. Gupta must have misunderstood you.” He sighed. “I didn’t see any evidence that made me think someone else was with him.”
“Yes. He did hear me correctly,” replied Adam.
“Really?”
Adam looked down at the sergeant with dagger-like eyes. Adam was over a head taller than the sergeant. They looked like two stags with their antlers intertwined—one looking up at the other, the pupil rotated up, revealing two waxing moons.
“Go see for yourself again.” Adam pointed to the cabin. “There’re still traces on the floor, that is, if you haven’t covered them with your footprints when you looked at the body.”
To Maggie’s surprise, the sergeant took the sarcastic reply in stride. “Okay, calm down. I’m just making sure I got the picture…” He looked at Adam sideways and lifted a virtual glass to his lips. “You never know, you were off duty and might have…”
Sergeant Humphries always seemed to know how to ruffle feathers if he let his mood get the better of him. No doubt his helicopter ride must have pumped a lot of adrenaline through his veins, and now Adam was on the receiving end. Adam’s jawline was so taut, a vein on his temple throbbed like the ticker of a watch.
Feeling the urge to defuse the tension, Maggie looked the sergeant in the eyes. “Enough unfounded accusations. There was a loaf wrapped in cloth, a book on edible wild plants, and even another backpack. How can it all have disappeared like that?”
The sergeant took a step back, tilting his cap back on his head. “Really? All that? I saw the omelet, but you’re sure there was a loaf? Our mind can play tricks, you know. It’s well known that witnesses make mistakes. Even well-meaning ones.”
Maggie shook her head. “Two witnesses seeing the same thing should be enough to warrant a search. You want proof?”
She swung her camera forward and flicked through the pictures she had taken. She lifted the little screen of the camera toward where the sergeant had been standing. Too late. The sergeant had moved his attention to Brigit, who was holding her radio in her hand, trying to get a signal.
Adam sighed. “Poor Brigit. She’s next.”
“Good training for her expedition. At times, she’ll have to face this kind of tension in cramped quarters in Antarctica,” Maggie replied, checking whether she really was heading for the Antarctic rather that becoming part of the local air ambulance crew.
“Yup, I guess so. If she’s selected,” Adam said.
Maggie’s ears were ringing. “So, it isn’t a sure thing then? That she’s going?”
Adam didn’t reply, just pointed at Raj, who was unrolling his police tape around the cabin. He signaled to Maggie with a flick of the head to join him to pick up their backpacks before they would be part of the cordoned-off area.
Chapter Four
Maggie dropped onto her backpack next to the shortcut trail they had taken on the way back from Ted’s hideaway. All the activity was centered in front of the cabin; at the back only chipmunks raced through the fallen leaves, making a lot more noise than their size would let on. She sighed as she propped her head onto her hands, elbows resting on her legs.
Adam headed back to Brigit to help out with the body. As a civilian, Maggie had to wait on the sidelines. No one needed her input at this point.
She thought about the other person who must have made the call for help. Who could it be, without phone reception? Ted?
What if the other person had left in search of help and was ill somewhere in the woods, having eaten the same omelet? But that wouldn’t explain the food disappearing and the book. Unless an animal or yet another person picked those up…
For the police to send a search party, Sergeant Humphries had to believe them. If it wasn’t an accident, and even if it was, the other person might be heading back to Foxton. He or she managed to find the cabin, so finding the way back shouldn’t be an issue.
Too many unknowns. It was up to the professionals now. As Maggie contemplated what she could do to help, she turned her head to what looked more like an animal track than a man-made path. She would never have spotted it if it hadn’t been for Adam highl
ighting the specifically nipped branches and disturbed leaves on the ground.
Right next to her foot, an imprint of a big shoe stood out under the sun’s soft rays. So that was what Adam was following? Ted’s shoe? From her seated vantage point, Maggie spotted another, this time pointing in the other direction. Seeing her own soles next to it, she concluded it must belong to Adam.
She counted the time it had taken for the police to arrive since they had given the alert. A little more than an hour for the sergeant to arrive. She estimated it must have taken them around twenty minutes to walk back from Ted’s place—a gain of ten minutes from the other route.
She hit her thighs with the palms of her hands at the recollection of the image of a second backpack. This time she was sure her memory wasn’t playing any trick. While they were away, someone had picked it up, together with the food, and disappeared into the bush. Sergeant Humphries had to do something about it. They might still find the person.
He or she couldn’t be that far away. But then again, people disappeared into thin air in this vast forest. Only recently, Maggie had read in the Daily Stumble, the local paper, that a man who had gone berry picking was never found, despite a huge search effort. They did find his car with a bucket of blackberries on its back seat, but no man.
In her rush to share her insight, she tripped on a strap of her bag and fell on her knees in a swirl of dried orange and red leaves. She pushed herself back up, and something dug into the flesh of her palm—a broken turquoise button. Irritated by the thought that it was once again rubbish left behind, she pocketed the piece.
Just as she was about to rush to speak with the sergeant, she heard the growl of an engine. It came from behind the cabin, where she hadn’t seen any other path than the one she was sitting next to. Two men on a quad appeared out of the thick woods with a load at the back.
She hesitated, then approached the pair as they drove in front of her. The man at the back waved with one hand; the other clutched a chainsaw. His fair mullet was glued to his neck, wet from perspiration. He only had a T-shirt on, with a large hole. Maggie had never seen such large biceps before. And yet the mullet man was of small build, with narrow hips. It was a build she had seen in climbers, but never with bodybuilder’s arms. He smiled at her while the driver hid behind a thick beard and avoided eye contact.
