by Amber Boffin
“It was just an idea I had. I’m not sure of it anymore.” Adam finished his beer. “Besides, having discussed it with Brigit, I don’t see how any of us would have the time for it.”
“I could spend time on it, and then we could test the concept with a one-off trip?”
Adam filled his plate with lasagna and a few salad leaves on its rim. “Just what I needed.” He rubbed his hands. “When will you take me on a sightseeing flight? You must be ready for your exam…”
Now it was Maggie who didn’t want to talk about the topic. “It depends on the weather, and autumn is unpredictable. Will you be going to the Highland Games? I saw in the Daily Stumble that it’s next weekend. I remember going as a kid, it was fun. Not sure what it’ll be like now.”
“Do you know if they’ll also have the vintage car show? I liked that.”
“Yep, it’s part of it. Barrie will show the old Cadillac he’s been working on. You’re lucky with your broken rib…”
Adam put his fork down and stared at her.
“You won’t have to participate in the games.”
Adam grinned.
“Don’t laugh…it’s not good for your ribs, but Barrie lost a bet with Raj, which means that he’ll have to participate in the partner-carrying race. Raj and Indira will do it; it was Sergeant Humphries’s idea to show the fun side of police officers.”
Adam laughed. “That hurts. I would participate, if Humphries would carry his wife.”
“No chance there.”
“But who will carry Barrie? That’s the only way I see him doing it.”
“Don’t say that!” Maggie looked up in horror at the prospect of lifting Barrie off the ground. She had only agreed to be Barrie’s partner for the race because Indira had persuaded her to join.
Adam laughed some more, holding his chest. “Stop it. You and Barrie?” He put a hand on his ribcage. “I can’t laugh.”
“Don’t, then.” Maggie pouted as if she were offended.
“Now that is a race I don’t want to miss. Can we place bets?”
“Barrie is strong, and I’m small. At least in height. We should have a fair chance.”
“Raj’s more used to running after people…Barrie gets out of breath walking. He might be strong, but that won’t be enough to win. Raj isn’t that strong… You’ve got a fair chance, I say.”
“It would’ve been better if you were to carry me, then we would have won.” Maggie felt her cheeks redden. “You would have with Brigit too. Look, there’s a small piece left.” She stood up to help Adam with the remainder of the lasagna.
“No, thank you. It was really good. I can’t expand too much; my ribs won’t allow it.”
Having cleared everything, Adam lay down on his old couch, propped up with cushions, while Maggie dropped onto a poof in front of the fire. The beads in the bag held her body tight, making it difficult to reach for her cup of tea. She had to roll out of it. She cradled her mug, sitting cross-legged on the carpet. Beans and Carrot both snored happily, stretched out next to her.
“What do you think of Kate? You must have met her when Barrie was dating her.”
Adam opened an eye, followed by another. “I only met her a few times. A very independent character. Smart. Never trusted her.”
“Why? Because she lies?”
“It’s not even that. I think she never trusts anyone herself.”
“A bit like Ted then? He doesn’t seem to trust anyone, and I don’t trust him.”
“I do…somewhat. It’s different. She always seems to have a hidden agenda, and I don’t like that. I think that’s it, really.”
“I can’t get rid of the idea that she might have killed her boyfriend, because she lied about not being at the trapper’s cabin. I’m curious what Sergeant Humphries will have gotten out of her now that he has evidence she was there.”
“She’ll have invented another story.”
Maggie poured herself another cup of green tea. “Can I take a copy of the papers Ted gave you? I’d like to check out the lab it came from.”
Adam nodded.
“You’ll tell me how your talk with Ted went? I can go back to his cabin if needed.”
Adam looked at her with concern.
She smiled. “With Raj. I think he has his day off tomorrow or the day after.”
“Not sure he’ll do that off duty, but it’s worth a try. It’s best if you don’t go on your own. Ask Arthur if need be.”
“I wasn’t planning on going on my own.”
Adam had closed his eyes again. It was time to let him rest.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Raj walked out of the interrogation room, his hands gripping his short curls. He seemed oblivious to his surroundings as he closed the door behind him and leaned against it. Adam had been chatting with the constable on duty over a cup of coffee as he waited to speak with the sergeant or Raj. He cleared his throat. “Hey, Raj, is Ted giving you a hard time? She told me you’ve been in there with him for over an hour.”
“Yeah…” As if Raj suddenly had an idea, he raised his index finger. “You know Ted well, don’t you?”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that. Better than you, yes. Why?”
“I’d like to see how he behaves when you speak with him, and I have a few questions I’d like you to ask him. You wanted to question him on the logging, didn’t you?”
Adam nodded. “He gave me evidence that might help us find the guys behind it, but I need more details.”
Raj appeared confused and shrugged. “I really don’t get it. We have confirmation that Ben Fearon died of CO poisoning. Ted admitted he locked the door from the outside and put damp wood in the stove when he saw he was asleep. But I don’t see his motive, since he keeps denying being part of the illegal logging business.”
“What about the fact that we found the door open?” At this point, Adam omitted to mention the picture Maggie had taken with Ted’s silhouette next to the cabin, giving him the benefit of the doubt that he might have seen the body but not touched anything.
“He says he did that too.”
“I see your point. He’s also told me he was the ghost and responsible for at least some of the night noises at the trapper’s cabin. He really hated it when it started to get popular with hikers, but to kill for it…why kill an activist?”
“He said he’d only speak to you about the logging. The sergeant agreed to you questioning him because he believes you’ll get the proof he was the spotter for hidden forested areas that would be easy to log illegally. He wants to pin it all on him, that way the case will be closed and Stuart will be off his back.”
“With a major flaw—Ted isn’t the mastermind behind the illegal logging. He can’t be. I want to find whoever is.”
“I know. We’re still looking for James Kravets, the guy you nearly caught. We had to release Andy Smith because we didn’t have anything on him other than that he fled when you tried to catch him and his tendency to give out blows now and then. We can’t keep him locked up for that.”
They had a brief discussion about how to proceed. Having taken the place of his colleague as an observer in the corner of the room where he could have full view of Ted’s body language, Raj flipped open his notebook, ready to take notes. Adam greeted Ted and took a seat opposite him. He spread all the papers Ted had given him on the table, facing Ted.
Ted’s good eye blinked and settled on the tree DNA report. His hands were tucked under the table.
“Do you know their significance?”
“That’s why I gave them to you.” He turned to Raj. “Why would I give this to Adam if I was in on it?” He turned back to face Adam.
“Where did you get these papers?” Adam asked.
“Can’t remember.”
“You should try harder. Or maybe I’ll tell you. You stole them to use them as blackmail, and I interrupted your transaction back there. You knew we’d ask you to empty your pockets, might as well turn it in your advantage—try to ‘help’
me.”
Ted shook his head. A cloak of sadness had swept across his being, from his face to his drooping shoulders. He appeared deeply hurt. He was silent. Although this could be one of his acts, Adam had to consider whether he had been on Ben Fearon’s side all along.
“All right, you didn’t want to blackmail, but what were you doing with those loggers?”
Ted sighed. “Looking for the illegal logs.”
Adam didn’t recall seeing any pile of logs. “With those loggers? Come on.”
“I’ve seen trucks belonging to the logging company drive along that path with those large maple trunks. I wanted to hide and wait for the next pickup to confront them.”
“All by yourself? Doesn’t seem very wise to me. Why didn’t you tell me about all this?”
“I needed proof.”
“Would you then have come to me?”
Ted looked down at his soiled fingernails. “You’d have found it, like you found my first note, and I would have been far away from this mess.” He sighed, looking up as if he pictured his idyllic spot in nature. “But here I am.”
“I don’t get it. Why did you kill Ben Fearon, as you claim you did?”
Ted glanced at the table, where the papers were still lined up, and averted Adam’s look. A tear moistened his lower eyelashes. It didn’t last. “I was angry. A fit of anger, that’s it.”
“He wanted to protect that forest, like you.”
“No, he wanted fame. It would have been all over the papers, and then more people would come…”
Adam couldn’t believe he would kill a sleeping man. That was premeditated. How could you have a fit of rage against someone like that? His gut told him Ted liked his forest so much that he would want to protect it.
Ted grew stern. He stacked the papers up. “I only ask one thing. You can do it, with this.” He pushed the papers to Adam. “If you go back to that area today, you might still find some logs…if you’re lucky, because they might be gone by now. They don’t keep them at the camp. They take them out at night. Follow their trucks, and you’ll find the wood.”
“We need a record of where they went, if you say it’s already too late. You saw them and their drivers?”
“No, not the drivers. They’re just following orders. It’s all there, Adam. If what your godfather says is true, you’re intelligent, but be careful—they are dangerous and smart too.”
“Who gave you these papers?”
“Don’t remember.”
Adam leaned forward, exasperated. “Ted.” He was being stubborn; the crack in the rock had closed up again, and there was no entry to the cave to be seen. Adam knew that distant look of his, an absent look. He bent forward and said softy, “I know I shouldn’t say this.” He looked at Raj and back at Ted. “I believe you didn’t kill Ben Fearon, and we’ll find who you’re protecting, but you’ll still be in trouble for withholding information.”
Adam knew he might have crossed the line of what was permitted in such a situation, but he wanted to play on other emotions to see if he could crack open the slit in the rock again. Ted’s bottom lip quivered, but then he shook his head.
On his way out, Adam asked Raj, “Did Ted have a paper in his pocket? I’m missing the cover letter for the documents.”
Raj looked for them and came with a sheet of paper. “Only this one, but I doubt it’s of use to you.”
It was addressed to Kate Bingham.
“It could be. Can I have a copy?”
“I don’t see why not. There isn’t much to go about on this paper anyway.”
Adam left the building. He had been so tense in the room with Ted that his rib was painful again. He hadn’t thought he was that fond of Ted to be so upset with his behavior. It made him cranky. Perhaps his disappointment with Brigit leaving had made him sensitive. He needed to be alone to think.
*
Maggie stayed busy all morning searching online for clues about the papers she had copied at Adam’s place. She had called a number of labs to find out if they did tree forensics. Most of them had never heard of it and didn’t know who would do such test. She had seen a number abroad, but she was convinced this had been done in Canada because of the Canadian English spelling used in the text.
The lack of website and company name on the pages of the tree DNA made her wonder if it came from a professional lab. It had to be a small outfit, or perhaps a larger lab doing the test as a favor on the side. It would make it difficult to use it as evidence if she couldn’t get the full copy, and even then, it would have to be retested to confirm the result.
She was getting more and more frustrated with her search. She had stayed up late last night after her visit to Adam to work on a photo calendar for next year. Her eyes were tired from staring at the screen. It was time for a tea break. She stretched her arms up as far as she could before heading to the kitchen.
A pile of mail and photography magazines were stacked in a corner of her kitchen table. She hadn’t yet opened any of the letters or had a chance to read the magazines. She flicked them aside one by one, and at the bottom of the stack, last week’s copy of the Daily Stumble caught her attention.
The Highland Games were advertised, with a photo of two draft horses pulling heavy weights. She opened the paper to see if there were any details of what was planned for that day. She checked the date. Tomorrow! For some reason, she had woken up thinking it was Thursday. She had a day less than she had hoped for to find something out for Adam about those labs.
She poured some Earl Grey tea into a dotted mug, the largest one she had. Her cupboards were empty of treats, and so was her freezer. She had just enough food to keep her going till Saturday and no time to shop today. She sighed and took her mug and paper to her living room, where she slumped in her red couch. Five minutes—that was all she needed, and she would be back in her office room.
Some of the loggers might turn up at the event and even participate, given the types of prizes. Who wouldn’t want some extra cash if it meant showing off to others what they did day in, day out? She might even have a go. Why not?
The prize for the partners run was a lunch for two at the Horizon Cafe, and that was worth hanging on to Barrie for. Maggie smiled as she tried to picture who would participate. Sergeant Humphries and his wife?
She scanned the rest of the article. The sergeant had found a way to escape the race—under Sergeant Humphries’s watchful eye, there would be a betting scheme, part of the proceeds of which would go to the local food bank. Without practice, it was unlikely she and Barrie would beat Raj and his wife, Indira. Raj could be very competitive, especially when it was for a good cause. Whatever the outcome, Maggie was looking forward to a laugh.
The caffeine in the tea, or perhaps the prospect of a pleasant day, spurred her back into action. She looked up the lab name that was on the DNA relationship test. They seemed to be up to speed with the latest methods of testing for relatives, and the date was very recent. All she could deduce from the results was that they were related, and it was a man and a woman. She called the lab with the reference number but couldn’t obtain any information, since it was confidential.
Before she abandoned her quest for the tree forensics lab, she spotted a forestry research department at a university south of Foxton. The professor who headed it had written a paper on the different approaches to tree forensics and how it could be applicable to Canadian trees. He could be a good contact for Adam in the future. She had nothing to lose by contacting him. If anything, he might shed some light on the details of the analysis and advise her on how to track any resulting products made out of the illegally cut maples.
After emailing him, she struggled to keep her energy flowing, until she received a call from Adam.
“Hey, Adam, how’re you feeling today? Better, I hope?”
“Yes, it’s getting better.” He didn’t sound like it. He kept puffing and sighing. Something was wrong, Maggie could tell.
“It didn’t go well with Ted?”
“Maybe he’s scared that someone could get hurt if he talks.”
“I don’t know. Raj didn’t get lucky—the logs were no longer there, and a colleague of mine is trying to check their camp. Nothing I can do now. And have you found anything positive?”
She didn’t want to trigger any hope. “Not much, but you might be able to get more out of the labs than me, that is if we can find the one that did the tree analysis. Tomorrow, maybe you—” she heard a grumble, “—or I can find out from Kate if Ben Fearon asked for it. That is if she’ll be at the games, which I doubt…unless Andy will go.”
“I guess so.” It was unlike Adam to be downcast. He sounded depressed.
“Is there something else the matter?”
“No. I’ve got to go. I hear Brigit’s arrived.”
“Will you come tomorrow? I’ll be there around ten.”
“Yes. G’day.”
Maggie stared at the phone. She hadn’t heard him sound so grumpy before, and he never ended a call that way. He always said something like “good talking to you,” or teased her. It must be the blow to the chest. She looked at her emails; no response from the professor.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Before leaving for Foxton, Maggie checked her messages once more. She had received a long response from the professor. Not only was he keen to help, but by a stroke of luck she had found the source of the analysis, which meant it could be used as evidence. She forwarded the email to Adam and printed it to give to him in case he didn’t read his emails, as had happened in the past. He would have to follow up in his official role as game warden to get access to all the professor’s information.
