Lethally Logged
Page 22
Ted stuck his hand out to Maggie. “I wanted to thank you in person. I heard from Adam that you figured it all out.”
Maggie felt her cheeks redden. “Not without everyone’s help, and not everything…but I think you might be able to help. And please, no ambiguous riddles.”
“Me? I already told Adam all I know just now,” replied Ted.
“Did he tell you who gave him the papers?”
“He found them at the cabin,” replied Adam.
“No, he didn’t.” Maggie glanced at Ted and asked Adam, “Do you remember you said you thought you saw something move when you were at Ted’s place? And he said it was a cat?”
“Yes. That really doesn’t make sense, when I come to think of it. It must have been Kate, given that she’d been to see him,” Adam replied as Ted looked at his feet.
“Ted, why would Kate trust you with those papers? A total strang…” Maggie clapped her hands. “Of course, why hadn’t I thought about it? How stupid of me.”
Everyone stared at her. “I’m not sure I can say it, though, if you want to keep it secret, Ted.”
“It’s all right. She’s leaving tomorrow, and I think I can trust you guys. But it has to stay between us, that’s all I ask,” Ted said in a low voice.
“I’m lost,” said Barrie.
“So am I,” Brigit chimed in. “Is it me, or are the villagers here weird and full of secrets?”
“I’m not a villager,” replied Ted, “although you can call me eccentric. I’m used to that and like it. I don’t think anyone else around here can be called weird, though.” He gestured to the people in the café.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I just heard that it wasn’t the first time someone was killed here. In this small village, the statistics seem a little high to me for a ‘normal’ place.”
“What is normal anyway? Have you ever wondered that? It doesn’t exist. Find me a normal person that fits the average weight, height, has the average life span, lives the average life… Maybe that isn’t the way to measure things, at least not people,” replied Maggie.
“I agree with you. If you look at a small sample of people, but when you take a large population say in the thousands, then you can get some da—” said Brigit.
“Enough,” interrupted Barrie. “The scientists can talk about statistics anywhere they like, but I’m not interested. I want to know what Ted’s secret is.”
It looked like the alcohol was taking effect—Barrie was getting impatient and more vocal. Maggie laughed. “You’re right, Barrie. Sorry. Ted, we’d really like to hear your story about Kate…”
Ted’s face softened, erasing years of life in the outdoors. He was full of fatherly love, and love it was. “She’s my daughter.”
They were silent. Maggie had guessed right.
“Your daughter?” asked Adam. “The papers…”
“Yes, those were mine. I’d put them with the others and gave those to you by mistake. She’d already come to me the previous night, when Ben Fearon was sleeping, to show me her proof.”
“Are you really sure that you’re her father, Ted? There was no name for the male sample, and you don’t—” said Maggie, gripped by a sudden doubt, thinking Kate was capable of anything to escape being convicted of killing Ben.
“Look alike? It was my DNA sample. I provided it to her voluntarily. I wanted to know if it was true. Maybe this will help.” Ted put a black and white picture of a young man on the bar. “Believe it or not, it’s me when I was twenty.”
They passed the photo around, staring at it and up at Ted.
“I can see the resemblance. The nose and the chin…” commented Brigit. “But how on earth did she manage to dig you out of your hole up there?”
“By chance, because she had come up here a month ago. Ben Fearon was already on Stuart’s trail before he came here, and it was natural for him to send her as a scout. She had been here before. No one would be suspicious of her, especially Stuart.”
“Oh yeah, she’s been here. I could have done without her,” said Barrie.
“Well, you know me, I didn’t want anyone staying at the trapper’s cabin.”
Adam asked, “So you tried to scare her with your ghost stories?”
“Yes. I tried, then I walked and banged on the roof at night, but what I hadn’t expected was that she wasn’t afraid. Instead, she followed me to my place. And the next thing I knew, she was in my cabin.”
“She was lucky. You don’t let many people inside your lair. But how did you find out she was your daughter? How did she track you down?” asked Adam.
Ted pulled out from beneath his shirt a gold chain with a small women’s locket on it. “Because of this. I was half naked when she walked in. I really didn’t get it when she put her arms around me.” He looked down at his body. “Look at me. Then she said, ‘You’re my dad. Look, I have the same one. Open it, you’ll see.’”
Ted flicked open the little locket. A picture of a woman with Kate’s long face and close-set eyes smiled at them. He clicked it shut. “She did make me think of her mom, and the locket was too big of a coincidence, but I didn’t want to believe it. It was so long ago, and her mom had dumped me for another man, but I never forgot her.” Ted sighed. “I wanted proof, and she brought it to me when she arrived up here.”
“Is this one of your stories, a good one by the way, but all the same?” said Adam.
“I don’t think it is. Why would he have taken the blame for her if he wasn’t her father?” replied Maggie.
Kate must have gone to him for help after having been to the loggers’ camp. She must have told him she thought she killed Fearon with the mushrooms.
“Ted, you know your plants and mushrooms. Did you believe that what he ate killed him?” asked Maggie.
“I didn’t know. I wanted to check that. Kate told me she hadn’t used all of them, so I thought there was hope I could see what he ate and maybe save him. He was dead when I arrived. I first got rid of the smoke in the cabin, before I could see anything, and then you arrived.” He sighed. “I thought she might have killed him with smoke, if the plants hadn’t. Why, I didn’t know.”
“So that was when I caught a picture of you next to the cabin? I didn’t even notice you were there because of your bearskin, I only saw you afterward in the photo,” said Maggie.
“I did see you. I was inside when I heard voices. When I overheard you wanted to speak to me, I ran back as fast as I could to my cabin and told Kate to get her bags out of there and go to Foxton, that I’d think of something.”
“Had she told you about the rock in front of the door?”
“No, nor the smoke. It wouldn’t have looked good. I should have realized this Stuart was behind this. I knew all along he was behind the illegal logging, the first time I saw him at my maple patch. I should have said something then. Maybe Ben Fearon would be still alive. I don’t know. I’ll stay clear of humans as soon as I get up there tomorrow. I find it so much easier to live with animals at their rhythm.”
“You won’t see your daughter again? That seems unfair to me,” asked Indira.
“I don’t know. I left it up to her. She’ll know where I am if she wants to see me. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll grab something to eat before you ask me more questions.”
They all settled at a table and ordered their meal. Maggie couldn’t resist asking another question about his past, but was beaten to it by Adam. “Ted, if my wolf pack enters your territory, can I count on you to tell me?”
“If you’re asking me if you can visit me, the answer is yes, if you can find me.” He laughed and swallowed his mouth full as Heidi approached the table. “This is very good, but not good enough to keep me from the forest.”
Heidi smiled. “You like it? I’m glad. I’ve got a surprise for this table. I hear you have many things to celebrate tonight. Not only is this dreadful death solved, but the trees are saved and Barrie must have some hidden Scottish genes in him. It’s the first time I have an
explorer in my café.” Heidi pulled out a bottle of bubbly from behind her back. “To Brigit and to the Antarctic.”
Brigit looked embarrassed. “It’s kind of you, but after all I’ve heard today, I’d like to change the toast to my friends here, who make it more difficult for me to leave, but like Ted, my calling is too strong. It’s only for a year. More importantly…” She stood up and raised her glass to Adam and then to Maggie. “To the Algonquin Wolf Safari!”
Having explained the project to Heidi, Brigit turned to Adam. “Tell us about Bella.”
It was enough for Adam to perk up and talk at length about the animals to an eager audience who had very little knowledge. Slowly, the apprehension and atavistic fear seemed to decrease around the table, so much so that Raj, who was a little shy with animals in general, was the one asking the most questions. It was as if Adam had never spoken to his friends about his passion before, only to Maggie and Brigit.
Maggie looked at her friends chatting. She was enjoying the evening and felt very lucky to have met them. Her eyes landed on Ted, who was silent, sitting back in his chair with a relaxed yet pensive look. His daughter must be on his mind, or the love of his life, who knew? His life history would remain a mystery; it seemed to be what he wanted. He lifted the corners of his mouth and winked at Maggie, who smiled fondly at him.
There was a coziness to the idea of Ted the hermit leading a simple and contented life, wrapped up in his bearskin, surrounded by wildlife, in his little cabin somewhere in the deep forest…
AMBER BOFFIN loves stories and writing. She started writing to keep in touch with friends from different continents and then to document her travels around the world. British-born, she worked and lived in a number of countries together with her husband before settling in Canada. The warmth Amber experiences living in cottage country, together with her passion for nature, inspire her to write the cozy mysteries with a twist—a little less peaceful than reality.
The Maggie Flanagan Cozy Mysteries
Lethally Green
Lethally Ripe
Lethally Logged