by Amber Boffin
Tina grinned wickedly. “I’m curious to see how many people will ‘like’ that little video clip. Thanks for that!”
Tina turned her back to them. Maggie blinked as she watched her nemesis walk away toward the sun. She turned around, feeling a presence next to her. It was Adam.
It looked as though he was trying to stay serious, but his eyes were betraying him. His crow’s feet were pointing up. “No harm done, I hope?” Maggie shook her head. “What happened? You started out really well.”
“It’s my fault, I had an idea.”
“Not again. Maggie, you sure pick your moments.” Adam and Barrie looked at each other and laughed.
“I tried telling you, but you weren’t looking then.”
“Telling me?”
“Yes, we’ve got it all upside down. The wrong end of the stick, if you like.”
“I’m really confused now.”
Maggie wondered why Adam was so slow at understanding, until she realized she was unclear herself. “The papers I gave you, you know, about the logging. I think we can solve it and maybe what happened to Ben Fearon as well.” She had taken Adam by the arm and was walking him to a quieter area. “If you agree to ask a few people questions now—”
Adam stopped her. “Yes, yes, but why the rush?” He swirled his finger around at her face. “Maybe you should wipe that off first and change clothing.”
He placed his smartphone in front of her face. She was indeed a sight. Her green eyes stared back at her, circled by blotches of mud, and part of her hair at the front was caked in the shape of a tiara, with red curls sticking upright from it. Only her backside might have been spared the spa treatment. Barrie had fared better—he had landed on his knees.
She was very close to the explanation for what had happened in the trapper’s cabin, if only she could ask a few questions. Adam was right. She couldn’t possibly do that in such a state. She would have to change first. “I see what you mean.” She giggled. “I’ll be quick. Where should we meet to talk in private? I don’t want anyone else to overhear us, even Brigit.”
“You’re making a big deal here.”
“Don’t you want to prove your gut feeling that Ted didn’t kill Ben Fearon?”
“I thought it was about the trees?”
“It’s linked. At least I think it is now.”
“You and your mysteries. Go ahead then, I’ll be at the finish line to congratulate Raj and Indira. I think Raj should also be in on it. I’d like him to see the tree forensic papers as well. He was complaining that the sergeant was keeping him away from the case. Maybe this’ll help him.”
“Maybe because the sergeant thinks he’s already solved it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, Ted confessed. Right?” Maggie asked. He nodded. “If only he would tell you how he got hold of the papers, it would be so much easier.”
“I think he found them in the trapper’s cabin.”
“I disagree. Someone gave them to him, knowing they would end up in your hands. If my hunch is correct, we’ll soon find out who.”
Adam gently nudged Maggie forward. “Go and get changed. You’re shivering.”
Maggie ran back to her car.
*
Adam rejoined Brigit, who had been chatting with Raj. “Raj told me the caber tossing has started. I’ve never seen it before. Can we have a look too?” She seized his hands and pulled him against her for a soft kiss. Still holding his hands, she beamed at him. “I’ve got a surprise for you.” She pulled a hundred dollars out of her pocket. “You won.”
Adam looked at her, wondering how that was possible; he had only asked her to place a bet on Barrie for the sawing. “Oh, you mean you won? Did you bet on Raj and Indira? Good for you.”
“No, no, it’s your win. I changed your bet from Barrie to Andy Smith. It was obvious to me he would win. Here you go.” She slipped the bills into his hand.
It irritated him. The outcome was positive in monetary terms, but that wasn’t why he had participated. He had wanted to back his friend. She should have understood that.
Brigit had these irresistible doe-eyes when she sensed he was upset. She muttered, “I wanted you to win. Sorry. You don’t care about that. Look, what if Barrie gets the money? Isn’t he participating in all this for that reason? That way it’s the loser prize.”
“Well, I like the idea. Why not.” Adam thought of the hard time Barrie had already had with Kate and her betrayal with Andy. There was perhaps a better approach.
“I think we should give it to Barrie and Maggie for this race. It was a real show. That way it has nothing to do with Barrie’s past.”
“I like it. Well, then, I’ll also put in my win.” Brigit touched his arm. “Wait, what if we put it all on Barrie for the caber tossing. Raj just told me he’s practiced for it.”
“Good idea, but you’d better be quick. You might even be too late. I thought I heard them announce the last chance to bet, and that was five minutes ago.”
“Meet you at the caber tossing then!” said Brigit as she left him.
He still liked her, but the knowledge that she would be away for a year had triggered a protective shield that made him seek reasons to dislike her in order to avoid missing her. It was very selfish approach, he knew that, but he couldn’t help it. Unless this wasn’t the real reason for his growing unease toward her. It could also be that he had only known her for a few months, a very short time, and his rose-colored glasses were fading. He was starting to understand her character better.
Whatever it was, he still had difficulty coming up with a list of reasons to dislike her, aside from her desire for adventure. A deep sigh reminded him of his broken rib.
He scanned the place for Maggie’s red curls. No sign yet. He picked the papers out of his pocket to look at the professor’s email one more time. Maggie would always surprise him one way or another. So far it had all been in a positive way.
Adam tucked the papers back in his pocket and walked slowly, thinking. In the distance, a powerful magnet of some kind had drawn the majority of people to the far corner of the field. He headed in that direction.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The tossing of the caber was the last game. After that, more music and dance would take place before the prizes would be handed out during the closing ceremony. Sergeant Humphries, even though he had shown a lot of initiative and enthusiasm for this event, wasn’t of Scottish heritage, so the role of chieftain to lead and oversee the games had instead been bestowed on Ms. Stilton, the mayor of Foxton. However, Humphries had shared with Maggie that he would preside over the last game, his favorite.
Humphries appeared to have deserted his post at the betting booth as Maggie rushed by. She didn’t want to run, since it might seem a little misplaced in the contest of the slow-moving visitors around her. Instead, she used a walk-trot to move fast. She heard the sergeant’s voice in the loudspeaker announcing the name of the competitor, unknown to her.
She slowed down in front of an appetizing display of homemade scones with wild blackberry jam. They were very tempting, until she remembered the race. This time she was going to resist. She only needed to think that she was on the verge of uncovering the truth in the logging mystery for the appeal of the scones to pale in comparison.
Adam’s distinctive Australian leather hat stood out to the right of the group of people. She headed straight for him, relieved to see Brigit wasn’t with him but surprised to see he was speaking with Stuart and Kate.
Maggie stopped. She remembered the nose…it belonged to James. It had to be him, and yet it didn’t make sense for him to turn up at such a busy event when the police were searching for him. Her musing was interrupted by Adam waving her over to join him.
“Maggie, I was waiting for you. I thought you’d like to speak with Stuart about your findings, you know, the papers.” He handed them to Maggie and winked at her discreetly.
She had hoped to question Andy about it first, but now that s
he was confronted by Stuart and Kate, she was ready to take the leap. Glances exchanged between Kate and Stuart reinforced her suspicion that they were together. All she knew was that the analysis had been done for a forester.
“Oh, you mean the DNA analysis proving the origin of the illegal logging? It was very interesting, and you’d probably like it back. You don’t want it to fall in the wrong hands.” She gave the paper to Stuart, observing the pair. She lied, “It must have fallen out of your pocket when you visited me at my studio.”
Kate’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as she blushed and looked at the paper then at Stuart when he casually said, “Yes, you’re right. Thanks.”
“So you asked for those analysis?” asked Adam. “You know I’m on this case of illegal logging.”
Stuart nodded. Kate pushed him back with two hands and shouted at the top of her voice. “You liar, I don’t believe it, and I trusted you. How could you do that?”
“Calm down.” Stuart attempted to hold Kate back and grinned sheepishly at them.
It was too late; the cat was out of the bag, and Maggie’s idea that she had it upside down was true. She stared at Stuart. “You didn’t ask for those tests, and they weren’t in your pocket, because I lied about that.”
Kate was furious. “Of course he didn’t! Andy gave them to me.” Her lips trembled. “Let go of me. I hate you.”
Stuart was holding her firmly, as if she were having a crisis, ignoring what Maggie had told him. “Come on, Sunshine, you haven’t been thinking straight since Ben’s death.”
Maggie eyed Adam, who was ready to pounce but seemed puzzled as to who he should pounce on. She searched the crowd for Andy Smith. No sign of him. Instead, Raj appeared.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“You’ve got to find Andy Smith and bring him here. I think you’ll be interested in what they all have to say.”
Stuart shouted, “And while you’re at it, I want Sergeant Humphries. For once in his life, he could make himself useful.”
Kate had escaped Stuart’s hold and was standing a few feet away, arms crossed, brooding. Maggie approached her. “Did you leave the papers at the trapper’s cabin?”
She shook her head as she said, “Yes. How did you get them?”
Anytime Maggie saw someone shake their head in negation while confirming information, she was suspicious. The first time it happened was when she asked a PhD student whether he had taken the pictures of the bacteria himself, because she thought she had seen them a few years back in another paper. He had confirmed they were his but kept shaking his head. It hadn’t been the first time in her past life as a microbiologist that she had been confronted with plagiarism in papers, but she hadn’t thought it could happen in her team. Her instinct was correct; he confessed that he had been so short of time to submit the paper that he thought it wasn’t an issue.
Maggie planted herself in front of Kate. “You’re lying. I know it. But that’s a small detail. What I’m interested in is why you gave them to Ted. Did you feel remorse?”
“Why would I?” Kate stamped her foot and clenched her fists alongside her body.
“You could have kept them to yourself so there was no longer any proof of illegal logging. Was it because you discovered James was your brother, and you wanted to protect him?”
Kate didn’t seem to understand what she meant or was pretending not to. Maggie checked again whether Adam and Stuart were still heavily engaged in an argument and wouldn’t hear what she was about to say. She had gambled on the idea that Kate might confide to her, if she thought Maggie was the only one aware of the relation DNA results, aside from Kate and the family member Kate’s DNA had been compared to. Maggie ventured, “Yes, there was also a DNA analysis in the documents, this time for humans, relatives, you…”
Maggie had for the moment ruled out Andy as Kate’s brother, given their past relationship, but who knew, they might have been attracted to each other without knowing why—their common genes.
Kate wavered, then her face turned to stone. “You have no right to those papers. I want them back right away.” She stuck her hand out. “You must still have them. I didn’t see them just now.”
Maggie handed her the documents that were rightfully hers and confidential. Kate glanced at them and put them away. She looked down at Maggie with condescension. “And for your information, I wasn’t going to keep the tree DNA papers. Andy Smith was going to give them to Ben, but then he died…” She sighed. “So he gave them to me.”
Maggie was still hung up on the idea of James and wanted to question Kate but was interrupted by Andy Smith’s arrival with Raj.
Andy looked at Kate, worried. “What’s wrong? Did you tell them, like we agreed?”
Kate looked at Stuart, who gestured to Raj to come over. Stuart smiled and nodded complicitly at Kate behind Raj’s back. Maggie wasn’t the only one to see it.
Andy took a step closer to Kate into her personal space. “Don’t tell me you got smooth-talked by him. I warned you. You should never have gone with him.” His body tightened as he took an aggressive step toward Stuart.
Kate said through clenched teeth, “At least he treated me well. Unlike you, when I needed help.”
“What? I can’t believe this. You refused my help. You went to him instead.” He gave Kate a disgusted look. “I thought you were on our side.”
Maggie intervened. “Hang on, did Kate come to you for help when Ben died? Is that why you called the air ambulance?”
“Yes,” replied Andy.
That was all Maggie needed to know. Before asking more questions, she called out. “Adam, Raj, come over here.”
Maggie’s voice was drowned by Stuart shouting at Raj. It seemed to be his way to dominate people, raising his voice. “Arrest this man. Andy Smith’s here in front of you. And you have his accomplice right there.” He pointed to Kate. “She’s lying. I asked for the analysis. Unbelievable.”
Maggie didn’t need to call them again. Instead, when Andy and Kate heard Stuart, they both went to them, Maggie in tow. Meanwhile, the commotion had gathered a little crowd. A cut in the circle had opened up to let Sergeant Humphries through. Tina, as always, was close behind the sergeant anytime she sniffed there might be a story to tell.
Humphries was unlikely to take the disturbance lightly, especially when he’d had to give up his role as judge for the caber tossing. He marched into the open space to Maggie’s left, belly forward and head down. He went straight to Stuart. “This had better be important. Why did you ask for me?”
“Yes. The proof you needed for arresting the illegal loggers.” He handed the papers to Sergeant Humphries. “I had asked for them. I had lost them.”
Maggie was outraged. “That can’t be, Sergeant. He is lying.”
A chorus of voices backed Maggie’s. “He’s lying! He’s lying!” Kate and Andy shouted, at least agreeing on something.
Sergeant Humphries was overwhelmed, his head jerking from one to the other. Adam raised his hands and shushed everyone.
Stuart grabbed the brief moment of silence to say, “Arrest them. Yes, both of them—he was in charge of stealing the wood. And she made sure to cover up the operation, knowing that I would give the proof to Ben Fearon.” He looked at Kate with hate in his eyes. “She killed him.”
Kate fainted. Maggie knelt down at her side while Raj had jumped on Andy to restrain him. Andy fought back furiously.
Maggie looked up at Sergeant Humphries and Adam. “Raj’s holding the wrong man. Don’t you see?”
Sergeant Humphries pulled up his trousers and took a step toward Stuart. “I knew it.”
“What can you possibly know in that pea brain of yours? You know nothing. I’ve been working on this case for months, following those two, James Kravets and Andy Smith. They had a smooth operation running, and it wasn’t their first, I can tell you that. When Ben Fearon approached me, I knew we could corner them with the two of us…until she arrived.”
Kate
had regained consciousness. Maggie was still by her side, helping her sit up. She burst out in tears, softly saying over and over again. “I didn’t mean to. It was an accident. It was an accident.”
Stuart looked down at her. “You see, Sergeant, she is admitting it. She killed Ben Fearon.”
A heavy silence shrouded the group. No one knew how to react.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Maggie was fighting with her thoughts. She had to do something. She asked Kate, “What happened? How did he die?”
“It was the mushrooms or plants, I don’t know. I picked them. I didn’t mean to kill him. I also ate them.”
Maggie said softly. “Go on, what happened then?”
“I don’t know. He drank a lot that night.”
Maggie remembered the smell of alcohol in the mug at the trapper’s cabin. “Did you have an argument?”
She sniffed. “Yes. He had second thoughts about me befriending him.” She tilted her chin toward Stuart and said between her tears. “Ben was right. I should have listened. He’d be still alive.”
Raj asked, “Why didn’t you call for help?”
“I was scared. I did—”
“She did, sir, she came to me,” interrupted Andy. “She’s telling the truth. That’s why I called for help.”
Sergeant Humphries cleared his throat. “Well, that might be, but that wasn’t his cause of death, and we have the murderer already in our custody.”
Kate’s jaw dropped. Maggie looked at Adam, then back at the sergeant with anger. “No, you don’t. Ted didn’t kill Ben Fearon. Again, you have the wrong man!”
Kate frowned. “Ted?”
“Yes, he confessed, but he didn’t do it. He is protecting someone…” said Maggie.
Kate’s big eyes moved from Sergeant Humphries to Stuart, then back to Sergeant Humphries. “I didn’t kill him?” The sergeant shook his head, then Kate asked, “How did he die?”
Suddenly, it clicked. Maggie stood up. “Wait a minute. Who did you speak with that night, Kate?”
