Lethally Logged

by Amber Boffin

  “I’m surprised. Tina Partridge is renowned for her knowledge in that field.” Kate fidgeted with her tissue. Maggie hastily added, “It’s easy to make a mistake, though, even more so with plants, I find.”

  Kate stared out the window in silence.

  Maggie ventured, “Do you have any ties to Foxton?” Realizing it might be interpreted the wrong way and that she was enquiring about her relationships, she asked, “I mean business activities?”

  “No. Not that way, thank goodness. I’m out of here as soon as I can. If it weren’t for my…” Kate didn’t finish her sentence and instead asked, “Are you from here? You must be…just like Barrie.”

  Maggie wasn’t sure how to take her remark. She liked Foxton very much, and Barrie was a good friend. There was a time when Kate had liked Barrie. “I am, but I’ve spent many years in England. What about you?”

  “I don’t know, really. If you mean where I was born, then it’s Calgary. I’ve lived in many places since then. I like traveling and can’t imagine settling anywhere.”

  Maggie sensed a rapport with Kate had been established, albeit fragile. It was a sense of mutual trust. They had signalled they weren’t enemies, and social curiosity had replaced her fear and defensive behavior.

  Maggie had the preconceived idea that she had to watch out for her, from all the lies she had told Barrie. Now it seemed to her that Kate had been hurt deeply, under her apparent thick skin. “Do you have family in Canada?”

  “No. I’m adopted, when I was eight. I only came back to Canada a year and half ago.” She sighed. “Not that it has been a success. Only bad things happen to me here. I even heard a man disappeared, a hermit of some kind? Have they found him?”

  “Ted. I met him. Sadly, no, they haven’t. At least as far as I know.” Maggie cast a sideways glance at her. “Why? Do you know something?”

  There was a slight flicker in Kate’s left cheek that didn’t last. She tucked her left leg under her right and said pointedly, “You don’t have a husband or boyfriend?”

  Maggie grimaced, thinking of Adam. “Not at the mo—”

  Kate gently squeezed Maggie’s thigh. “Oh, sorry, you have a girlfriend. That’s fine with me. I think I’ll go for that route now. I’ve always hesitated between the two.”

  “I was about to say, not at the moment, but I do love a man.”

  “Don’t bother if he doesn’t show any interest. My advice is to keep moving on till you find the right fit and keep testing. That at least is fun.”

  Maggie understood why Barrie might have suffered with her; Kate had behaved with him a bit like he had with previous girlfriends. Although she had never heard of Barrie betraying anyone. Maggie wasn’t in the mood to talk about love, or relationships, for that matter. Kate’s insinuation that Ben Fearon killed himself by accident nagged her.

  A little voice in her head told her to check if Kate had lied to poor Barrie and why. “It must have been awful for you…after his death, to have to find your way back from the trapper’s cabin—”

  Kate put a hand on Maggie’s arm, and this time her nails dug into her flesh. “Stop now.” She pointed with her other hand at the side of the road. “Pull over. That will do. I want to walk to clear my mind.”

  Maggie rubbed her arm, surprised at the sudden change. Their emotional bridge had collapsed. She didn’t argue. She had only ten minutes left to get to her appointment, if she wanted to be on time. Before slamming the car door shut, Kate said, “For your information, I wasn’t with him when he died. I never set foot in that horrible haunted cabin and never will.” Without a thank-you, Kate stormed off, head down.

  Maggie put her foot down on the accelerator to make up for her delay. Kate seemed like a bundle of nerves. Maggie couldn’t make out why she told Barrie that she thought she poisoned Ben Fearon by accident. She could imagine Kate lying to Barrie to soften him into helping her out, thinking she could have used him as an alibi. Since that plan hadn’t worked out, she had to find another alibi: not being at the cabin when it happened.

  She felt in her jacket pocket for a tissue and pulled out the entire bundle she had stuffed in that morning, taking with it whatever else was in there, dog cookies, coins…it all tumbled to the floor of the car. She would deal with that later. Two minutes to go, and she would once again be on time for her flight. She prided herself on being punctual.

  She was excited about her plan to fly over the logging camp. Hopefully, she could find where she and Adam had seen the illegal logging. The police or the natural resource ministry staff should have captured photos of the sites by now, but she doubted it. Adam had mentioned they were stretched for resources and relied on him for the information.

  As she grabbed her camera bag and flying logbook, her eyes fell on a turquoise button, the one she had found at the trapper’s cabin. She picked it up. Now she was sure it belonged to Kate. It was exactly the same button as the ones she had seen on the woman’s coat a moment ago. Kate had lied to her. She had been at the cabin, and it was her backpack. Maggie was convinced of that too.

  This small piece of plastic was evidence, depending on what Kate had told the police. Maggie put it in a paper bag she kept in her glove box to collect wild seeds. She looked at the time on her father’s pilot watch. She was late.

  *

  Maggie was in her element. She shuffled in her seat, having experienced for the first time the wings of the plane as an extension of her body. Her father had often talked to her about how he could sense what he needed to do to steer the plane, like with walking, his legs doing what they did best, carrying him around without him having to tell them what to do. She was one with the machine—her exoskeleton.

  It was an exhilarating sensation, but it didn’t last long. Turbulence reminded her she needed a lot of practice to become an experienced pilot. Light-brown patches signaled the presence of logging sites. She tilted the plane to the right to get a better look at them. Checking her camera was set up for geolocation, she took a snap.

  She was following the trail of a giant who had flattened the forest under his footstep. Ahead of her, smoke rose from the forest. Her chest tightened. A forest fire? She headed straight for it and circled around it, careful to keep a safe distance from the billowing cloud of particles.

  She sighed with relief. It was the camp, and she could see people piling branches onto the smoking heaps. She took more pictures and set her direction to the coordinates Adam had showed her on his map, where they had seen the illegal cutting. When she looked down, the plane was pointing exactly in the same direction as a narrow logging road.

  Sadly, the clear-cutting was much more extensive than Adam had estimated. Beyond the clearing they had witnessed, two more larger areas were decimated. The fuel gauge indicated she had over half a tank left.

  Maggie flew on to see if the dirt road was leading to yet another patch. It stopped short at a lake. She circled the area once more to ensure she captured the scene properly.

  She smiled to herself. Had she seen a moose walking on the road? She had often found it was best to stick with paths in a forest to capture pictures of animals, since they liked using them as much as humans did. She dared a low flight to enjoy the spectacle. It wasn’t a moose!

  Chapter Nineteen

  It was a human on an ATV. How could she have thought it was a moose? Along the shore of the lake, a figure scampered off before disappearing under the cover of the trees. Now that looked like a bear. A bear running on two legs? Could she have found Ted?

  Maggie looked down for the ATV, but it too was out of sight and she hadn’t taken a picture. Her engine rumble must have scared them away—why else disappear from the only track in this area? She flew to the east, hoping that when she came back to have another look, they would be visible.

  No luck, and she was running out of time. She had to head back before her instructor got worried. The wind was picking up. A seagull glided effortlessly past her. She peered over the high dashboard of the Cessna. She could bar
ely see the Foxton cell tower blinking red ahead of her. Not far to go.

  Maggie heard a crackling on the radio. She hastily called her base. After establishing that she was in no danger, she said in the radio telephony alphabet, “Message for police. Ted located,” followed by the coordinates of the lake. She repeated the message, hoping they would understand what she meant. Next, she sent a text message to Adam with her findings and a picture of the area.

  Maggie reached the Foxton airfield and prepared for landing. It was the smoothest landing she had ever made. She was ready for her final exam. Stepping out of the plane, she said aloud, “That’s it, next exam date available will have to be yours.”

  Maggie trotted to the airfield control room, knowing she had better book it while she was in action mode. Her phone vibrated with a message from Adam. He was on his way to Ted’s location and had spoken to Sergeant Humphries. The noose is tightening, thought Maggie.

  From the first encounter, she had thought Ted was hiding something. It made sense for him to be the scout for the loggers. He knew those woods inside out. They could never have logged vast areas without him noticing it. He had to be in their pocket some way or another. It would explain the ghost that appeared at the cabin roughly a month after a charming picture of the cabin with smoke spewing out of its chimney was posted on Instagram by none other than Ben Fearon.

  The photo had received so many likes that it had rendered the place popular with hikers and followers of Ben Fearon—a perfect strategy to annoy loggers. A strange thought crossed Maggie’s mind as she reflected upon her interaction with Kate. Maybe she wasn’t on Ben Fearon’s side and never had been. What if she were still dating Andy Smith? This Chainsaw had a lot of explaining to do.

  *

  At the loggers’ camp, Adam was grilling its operations manager, Stuart, on his practices when he received Maggie’s message. He had already spotted the training Cessna flying above earlier and had smiled to himself, thinking it had to be the little terrier on a mission; no other student would circle a logging camp. It didn’t take long for Adam to ride his ATV together with Stuart, who insisted on joining him on his own quad, to the coordinates provided by Maggie.

  He hadn’t anticipated he would have to break up a fight between three men. In the melee, Adam wasn’t sure who was hitting who. Only when he held Ted back while Stuart pulled James away, both careful to avoid strongman Andy, did he see Andy rush to James’s neck. Adam let go of Ted to pound on him. As Adam grabbed Andy by his narrow waist to topple him, Ted threw a punch over his head that landed on Stuart’s nose.

  A blow to his chest threw Adam to the ground, forcing him to release his grip on Andy, who rushed to the ATV and sped off. Ted had also taken flight, Adam in pursuit, bent over, one hand on his bruised chest. Ted was as fast as a snowshoe hare but not as fast as Adam’s long legs could run.

  Adam seized Ted’s shoulders from behind. They both fell down, Adam on top of Ted. Adam grabbed Ted by the arm and immobilized him. Searing pain when he breathed made him grumble, “You idiot. What’s wrong with you?”

  Ted, with his face half buried in the leaves, calmly said, “Nothing. You’re holding the wrong one.”

  Adam pulled Ted up by the cuff of his shirt. “You’ll have to tell that to Sergeant Humphries. Why did you disappear?”

  “I left a note.”

  “I found it, but that doesn’t explain a thing.”

  “I thought you were clever, and that girlfriend of yours, the little red-haired one, she’s a smart cookie. Didn’t she figure it out yet?”

  Adam’s patience had run out. He pushed Ted in front of him back to the dirt road. He thought he had caught a glimpse of them talking, James looking at Stuart’s nose, with no sign of hostility between them. When they reached the pair, Stuart was sitting on Adam’s ATV, holding his nose with a blood-soaked piece of cloth with one hand. The other had gripped James’s arm from behind and was holding it in a locked position. “You’ve got your men. At least two of them. You have to move fast to catch the third one.”

  James whispered something in Stuart’s ear, wide-eyed at his sudden immobilization. In response, Stuart tightened his grip. Stuart pointed his bloodied hand toward Ted. “You have to charge this man with assault, for a start.”

  Adam wasn’t sure if Ted had intended to hit Stuart; it could also have been James, who managed to duck on time. It had all happened so fast. He preferred leaving it up to the sergeant to take up Stuart’s claim, although he could have charged him within the context of the illegal logging operation. Sergeant Humphries was on his way and insisted that Adam could lean on Stuart for help if need be.

  He didn’t want to wait for Sergeant Humphries to arrive, not with Stuart’s broken nose, and most likely his own broken rib. Stuart should be able to hold James on the journey back, while he took care of Ted. He didn’t think it wise to have Ted sit behind or in front of Stuart, given the exchange of virtual bullets fired between the pair’s eyes. Even with his one good eye, Ted could be menacing.

  Not that James seemed an easy man either, judging by how he wiggled out of Stuart’s grip under his eyes. Taking in what had just happened, Adam shouted, “Stop!”

  This time, Adam was unable to catch up with him—Stuart and his ATV were in his way. James jumped onto the other vehicle and spewed a cloud of dust in their faces as they tried to catch him. Adam glanced back at his bike, from which he had removed the key. Ted was leaning against it with a grin, an ‘I-told-you-so’ expression.

  For a fleeting moment, Adam had the impression Stuart had deliberately let James escape, until he saw more blood coming out of Stuart’s nose. He handed him a clean cloth he always kept tucked in one of his pockets. Reaching for it was painful. He swore. “Here, take this. Let’s get out of here.”

  Ted had come over and put his hand gently on Adam’s shoulder. “I can drive. Take care of your ribs.”

  Stuart stepped forward and pointed to Ted. “Don’t tell me you’re going to trust this man.”

  Adam sighed and immediately regretted it, since it caused the pain to increase. “Sergeant Humphries and his constable, Raj Gupta, are heading toward us as we speak. We can go. Ted won’t run away, not with me sitting behind him.”

  Stuart raised a hand. “You’ll regret it. I warned you.” He let go of Ted, who he had grabbed by the scruff. “If Sergeant Humphries hasn’t changed since he worked as a constable for me, then I’m sure you can escape easily. Ted, is it?”

  Ted didn’t say a word. He didn’t need to; his one-eyed stare was enough to show contempt for Stuart. Since Adam had met him, Ted had been open and direct. At times, he could even be offensive, perhaps a reason for disliking the company of other people. Yet since the death at the cabin and the story of ghosts, he had become cryptic.

  Ted and Adam bumped up and down the dirt path on Adam’s ATV far enough from Stuart on his vehicle to avoid his dust cloud, but close enough to keep an eye on him. Adam asked in Ted’s ear, “What did you mean with your note in the cellar?” Ted shook his head. “You’d better tell me now if you want me to help you out of this mess.”

  Ted dug into his shirt and pulled out a few folded papers. “Don’t ask me how I got these, and what it all means, but it might come in handy to you. All I know is that it’s proof.”

  Adam stuffed them into his pocket without looking at them. He liked Ted, and although he had no trouble imagining him involved in shady businesses, it saddened him that he would end up in custody. He had always stopped by Ted’s on his solo journeys into the forest to check on the wolves. He would miss their chats about the wildlife Ted had seen. He was Adam’s forest sentinel, warning him of its health and of any threats.

  Ted would likely be interrogated by Sergeant Humphries and no doubt was a suspect in the death of Ben Fearon. He had better ask him all the questions he still had while he was so close at hand and out of hearing range of the likes of Stuart.

  “Why were you here?”

  “I was following the loggers.
I knew they were up to no good. You have to go this way. A clear-cut.” Ted pointed with his left hand to the east, which seemed to be in the direction of the illegal logging site, if Adam wasn’t mistaken. “The activist knew about it.” He ran his finger under his chin. “That’s what happened, he got very close. Too close. If you know what I mean.”

  “You must know that area. There must have been very large trees, judging from their stumps, lots of them…”

  Ted let go of the handlebar and opened his arms out wide. “Maples this big. No idea how they escaped the saw until now.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me about it before? I could’ve tried to protect it—or was it all about the gains?”

  Ted turned back on the seat, forcing Adam to bend backward. “No.” He hit his chest with his fist. “It was my secret.”

  Did Adam really see a tear in Ted’s good eye? He could be acting the part. He knew nothing of Ted’s past, only that he seemed to care for nature and its inhabitants. He had on numerous occasions claimed it was his home, and he would protect it from human intruders.

  They reached the logging camp where Sergeant Humphries and Raj were waiting for them. Ted climbed down from the ATV and took Adam’s hand. In it he slipped a little paper packet. “Take it, it will help the pain.” Adam looked down at it. “It’s safe, I picked them.” He put a hand on Adam’s shoulder and looked him in the eyes. “I trust you.”

  That was all Adam would get out of Ted before he was whisked off by Sergeant Humphries. The on-duty first responder approached Adam after having tended to Stuart. Adam waved him off. Raj walked up to Adam, looking worried.

  “I’m fine, you have to get your hands on Andy Smith and the other one…James…they managed to escape.”