Now that I knew that Bruce was okay, I was annoyed at him. Really annoyed. “You must’ve known we’d be worried about you.”
He looked down at the floor.
“And you’ve dug yourself in deeper with the police by taking off,” I added.
“I couldn’t cope with Foster any longer.”
I saw that he was still rattled. “He told you not to leave the area without notifying him.”
“Bruce hasn’t left the Glencoe Highlands,” Frances said. “We’re in the township here.”
“I don’t know if the police will see it that way.” Then I turned back to Bruce. “You have to get back. Your team at The Times is reeling. They just lost Wilf, and now they’re worried about you.”
He gave me a hangdog look. “The police have no other suspects. Foster wants a confession from me.”
“Why make it easier for him?” Frances said. “Stay here.”
“I’m sorry, dear,” Daniel said, patting her arm, “but he can’t do that. Bruce has to face Detective Foster, and sooner would be better than later.”
Frances frowned but said nothing.
“You can’t run away from him,” Daniel said to Bruce.
“The longer you stay away, the worse it looks,” I said. “It looks like you have something to hide.”
Bruce blinked and I could almost hear his mind clicking. I hoped Daniel’s words and mine carried some weight with him.
“Remember our plan?” I said. “We’re going to find out what happened to your mother. Put up with Foster and his questions, and focus on the plan.”
“She’s right, Bruce,” Daniel said.
Bruce bowed his head.
I stood up. “Get your things together.”
Bruce looked as if he was about to protest, but he got up and went into the house.
Frances stood up. “I’ll give Rob a call. He can take them back to the launch.” She gave Daniel a slight nod of her head and went inside.
Daniel turned to me. “Bruce was doing well until Vi…”
“He lost his mother who he cared for deeply. And the police wouldn’t let up on him.”
“So he said.”
“Bruce needs to get back to work. He has a good team at The Times, and he enjoys putting out the paper.”
Daniel looked at me closely. “How did you find us?”
“I was told that Vi had a friend called Daniel when she was a girl. Someone who knew all about the great outdoors. When I heard that Daniel Laughton visited her at Highland Ridge, I assumed that was the same Daniel. I looked in the phone book and I saw your son’s listing.”
He smiled. “I had a crush on Vi when I was nineteen. She was a few years younger than me, a lovely young woman.”
“Anything serious develop between you?”
He smiled. “Nothing serious. I got up the courage to ask her out a few times. Some holding hands, a few chaste kisses. But when I saw her the next summer, she’d set her sights on Ted Stohl.”
“You stayed in touch over the years?”
“No, but I met up with her in Toronto many years later. From then on, we had lunch once a year, just before Christmas.”
“Who suggested that?”
“I did.” He brought a hand up to his face. “She looked a little sad when we first met in Toronto and I wanted to know why.”
“Did you find out?”
He shook his head. “No. It was foolish, really. I was happily married to Frances and, as she will tell you, to my work. But I couldn’t let go of my memories of Vi. I was ready to have her cry on my shoulder if she wanted to. But she never did.”
“Did Frances know?”
“Of course. She had no problem with it.”
“Did you know that Vi worked at a bank in Toronto?”
He nodded. “Yes, but she never told me which one.”
“Did she tell you there had been a problem at work?”
He looked thoughtful. “That would’ve been…six years ago. Her memory had started to slip. She missed our Christmas lunch that year, and we had to reschedule. When we got together in January, she said there’d been some problems at work.”
“Did she say what happened?”
“Some money was missing. She thought a fellow employee had taken it and put the blame on her. I didn’t think for a moment that Vi had stolen money, but with her memory problems she could have misplaced it.” He held out his hands. “I gathered Ted came up with the sum that was missing and charges were never laid.”
“Did she tell you how much money it was?”
“No.”
“Did she suspect anyone at the bank?”
He shrugged and looked out at the lake.
I left him on the porch and walked around the cabin. Hydro and telephone lines ran from the cabin to poles beside it. On the other side of the lake, an Internet tower rose above the trees. The Laughtons were connected to civilization at their sylvan retreat.
A speedboat zoomed across the lake, water spraying out from it. It came to a stop in front of the Laughtons’ property. Daniel, Frances and Bruce came out on the porch, and I joined them there. “Our son has a cottage on the next bay,” Daniel said with a wry smile. “There are times when his boat comes in handy.”
“So much for saving the planet,” Frances said.
Daniel led us down the path to the waterfront and introduced me to his son. “I wish there was a fast, ecofriendly boat,” Daniel told him.
“You can’t have everything, Dad,” Rob said.
Bruce sat slumped on the seat beside me on the trip across the lake. When Rob dropped us off at the boat launch, we thanked him and I followed Bruce to his Chevy.
“You’ve got to see Foster right now,” I said at the driver’s door. “I’ll go with you.”
“I want to stop at my place,” he muttered, clearly stalling for time.
“Fine, it’s on our way.”
He grunted and got into the Chevy.
I was right behind him as he pulled out of the parking lot.
From the driveway, the cabin on looked exactly as it had on Monday morning. The window shades were drawn, and the screen door on the front porch was closed. The maples between the neighboring homes waved gently in the breeze.
“As you left it?” I asked Bruce when we’d got out of our cars.
“Seems to be.”
It wasn’t until we were on the porch that we knew something was wrong. The door to the house was ajar.
Bruce’s face drained of color.
I pushed the door open with my foot. Bruce stepped into the house and moaned like a wounded animal. Dozens of cardboard boxes had been stacked against the living room walls. Several were torn open, and papers were scattered across the floor.
“Don’t touch anything,” I said. “The police may be able to lift fingerprints off the boxes and papers. What are these papers?”
“Notes for the classes I taught at the University of Calgary.” He gave me a weak smile. “Probably not what my visitors expected to find.”
“What about your personal documents?”
“In a safety deposit box at the bank.”
I checked the windows and the back door. They were all secure. Then I went back to the front door. “Your intruders either had a key, or they picked this lock.”
Bruce gave me a look of pain. “I thought I’d bought a home but there’s no peace for me here. Foster shows up whenever he likes, determined to break me. Now someone’s got in and gone through my things.”
I put a hand on his shoulder. “Hang in, Bruce. Right now, we’ve got to get the police over here.”
I went out on the porch and turned on my cell. No Signal Available came up on the screen.
I poked my head inside the house. “Dead zone out here?”
“Yup. No Internet tower at this end of the lake.”
“We’ll drive over the police detachment, but pack some clean clothes first. You’re staying with us tonight.”
When he was packed, I wat
ched as he locked the front door. “Better get the lock changed tomorrow,” I said.
“They’ll just pick the new one.”
“Talk to a locksmith. There are locks now that are supposed to be pick-proof.”
Foster wasn’t at the detachment. Sergeant Roger Bouchard fixed stern black eyes on Bruce. “He’ll want to speak to you. Take a seat in the waiting room.”
“Bruce’s home has been broken into,” I told Bouchard. “He’s staying at my place tonight. Detective Foster can talk to him there.”
“Stohl waits here,” Bouchard said.
Bruce looked ready to bolt. I had to get him to our cottage. I wrote my name, roadside number and phone number on the back of a grocery list I found in my pocket. “Here are my contacts at Black Bear Lake.” I handed the paper to Bouchard.
I gave him the no-nonsense look I’d perfected on my daughters. “Get hold of Foster and have him come out to the lake. Bruce will be there.”
Static erupted from a police radio behind Bouchard. “Fitzwilliams here,” a male voice said. “Accident on Highway 36, five miles south of Braeloch. Speeding car collided with a rock cut.”
“You’re at the scene?” Bouchard asked.
“Yes, sir. We need an ambulance and backup.”
Bouchard picked up a telephone receiver.
I inclined my head at Bruce. He followed me outside.
“Leave your Chevy at The Times,” I told him. “We’ll take my car. I’ll get you to town in the morning.”
We were silent on the drive to the lake. While Bruce brooded, I thought about how we should handle Foster. But those thoughts vanished when I saw the black Ferrari in the driveway. I braced myself for another confrontation with Yvonne.
We found the kids in the kitchen. Kyle was chopping vegetables at the table, while Laura stirred something in a pot. “Hello, Mrs. T,” Kyle said. “Hey, Bruce.”
I looked around. No Yvonne.
“You’re back, Bruce,” Tommy said, coming down the hall with Maxie. “Where did you go?”
Bruce smiled, and ruffled Tommy’s hair. “To a friend’s house.”
Laura didn’t look happy. “Kyle turned up half an hour ago,” she whispered to me, “so I put him to work. He wants to talk to you.”
“Let’s go out on the porch,” Bruce said to Tommy.
“Can we go fishing?” Tommy asked.
“No fishing right now,” I said. “We’ll be eating dinner soon.”
Bruce held the door open for Tommy. “We’ll be on the porch,” he said.
I sat beside Kyle at the table. “Finished work early?” I asked him.
He put the knife down and looked at Laura. “Mom and Dad told me last night they’re going to raise our baby.”
She came over to the table, her hands clenched. “What?”
“That’s not their decision to make,” I said.
“Who do your parents think they are?” Laura cried. “They want to arrange the world to suit themselves.”
“Mom and Dad believe money can buy anything,” Kyle said. “I told them that you and I are going to bring up our baby, but they wouldn’t listen to me.”
“Make them listen,” Laura said.
Kyle raised his eyes to the ceiling. “Easier said than done. Mom was all revved up. Talking about decorating a room, buying baby furniture.”
“Your parents aren’t going anywhere near my baby,” Laura hissed.
“That’s what I told them.” Kyle looked at me. “Then Mom drove up here today to speak to Mrs. T.”
Laura turned to me. “Did she?”
I nodded. “Yvonne came to the branch this afternoon, but she’d already made up her mind.”
“She called me after she saw you,” Kyle said. “Said you weren’t cooperating. So I left work, took the Ferrari and drove up here.”
“The boss’s son can leave work whenever he likes.” I shouldn’t have said that, but I’d had enough of the Shinglers.
“We can’t let her—” Laura said.
“I wish I knew what it would take to make her back down,” I said.
Kyle banged a hand on the table. “I do.” He jumped to his feet and grabbed his windbreaker from the back of the chair. “Gotta go.”
He was at the door in three strides. We heard the Ferrari start up and roar down the drive.
A car came up the drive while we were eating dessert.
“Kyle’s back,” Tommy cried. “He’ll take me fishing in the morning.”
I could tell by the sound of the engine that it wasn’t the Ferrari. I went to the door with Tommy, and we watched Foster get out of a gray Chrysler sedan.
“Go down to the lake with Tommy,” I said to Laura.
I held the door open for Foster. “Bruce is here.”
Foster brushed by me. His face was a thundercloud. “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t take you to the detachment and lock you up,” he said when he saw Bruce.
Bruce slumped in his chair. “I told you he’s after me.”
“I’ll give you a good reason,” I said as Foster took a chair at the table. “You have nothing to go on. A lawyer would tear your case to shreds and you know it.”
Foster leaned back in his seat but said nothing.
“You can’t charge Bruce with anything,” I continued. “You’ve questioned him since his mother was found, but you don’t have a shred of evidence against him. And don’t bring up that cardigan. If Bruce had killed Vi, he would hardly display her clothing on his porch.”
I took a deep breath and went on. “Now Wilf Mathers has been murdered, and you can’t pin that on Bruce either. I was with Bruce at the fireworks when Wilf was killed.”
Foster ignored me. “I told you not to leave the township,” he said to Bruce.
“He didn’t leave the township,” I said. “He was with his friends, the Laughtons, on Raven Lake. In this township. He’s been with them since early Sunday morning. I met him there this afternoon—”
Foster turned to look at me. “You knew where he was all along.”
“I didn’t. Daniel Laughton called me this afternoon. I went out to their place and brought Bruce back with me.”
“You knew we’d want to speak to you again about Saturday night,” Foster said to Bruce.
Bruce’s eyes flicked away.
“We have something else to tell you,” I said. “We stopped by Bruce’s cabin on the way to the police detachment. Bruce?”
He told Foster about the unlocked front door and the ransacked boxes.
“When I went out to the cabin yesterday morning,” I said, “the door was locked.”
“That’s how I left it,” Bruce said.
Foster scribbled in his notebook, then got up from the table.
“Are you going to the cabin now?” I asked. “I’ll drive Bruce.”
“It can wait till morning.” Foster snapped his notebook shut. “Meet me there at nine.”
Then he turned to me. “I wasn’t speaking to you.”
When Tommy was tucked into the twin bed beside mine, I handed Bruce clean sheets and a pillowcase, and pointed to the hall. “Room to the right with the Star Wars poster. The light is on.”
It had been a long day and I needed some time to myself. I pulled on a canvas hat and a long-sleeved shirt. I didn’t bother with DEET.
Outside, the stars illuminated my little corner of the world. The lake was calm and ringed with the lights of cottages. An owl gave a series of quavering whistles, descending in pitch. I stretched out on the expanse of rock that sloped into the water; it was still warm from the sun. I swatted at the occasional blackfly, but their numbers had dropped since the barbecue the previous Friday night.
The sound of rippling water caught my ears. Paddle strokes. A figure in a canoe glided from behind the bushes at the property line.
“Good evening,” I called out.
“Pat?” A woman’s voice. She eased the canoe closer to the shoreline.
“That’s right, Zoe. What brings y
ou out on the water at this time of night?”
“It’s lovely out here. There’s mist on the water, and you see things you don’t during the day. Beaver and mink. One night, I saw a bobcat drinking at the edge of the lake.”
I nodded, although I didn’t think she could see me. “And no speedboats.”
She gave a throaty chuckle. “Not many, thank God. Still, I keep close to shore where it’s safer. And where I see wildlife.”
“Shouldn’t you carry a light?”
“I wouldn’t be part of the night with a light.” She paused for a moment. “Nate told me you have a kayak. We should go out together some evening.”
“I’m just getting the hang of it. I’d slow you down.”
“At night, it’s not about speed and it shouldn’t be during the day either. Give me a call if you want to join me.”
She raised an arm and continued on her way, her paddle making small splashes as it dipped into the water.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Foster be damned, I thought as I drove to Raven Lake in the rain the next morning. Bruce’s car was in Braeloch and he needed a lift to his cabin. Foster couldn’t keep me away.
Bruce and I were the first to arrive. “We’d better wait here,” I said when I’d turned off the ignition. “We don’t want Foster to say we’ve contaminated a crime scene.”
“We certainly wouldn’t want that.”
We stared at the rain on the windshield for a few minutes. “Where is he?” Bruce asked. “I told Maria I’d be at the ten o’clock meeting. We go to press tomorrow night.”
“The newspaper will still come out if you miss the meeting.”
Fifteen minutes later, Foster turned up. He glared at me as he stepped out of his Chrysler. “I said you weren’t invited.”
“Bruce needed a lift, so here I am.”
He frowned. “Let’s get on with it.” He turned to Bruce. “Let us in, Mr. Stohl.”
Bruce unlocked the front door and we followed him inside. It was a warm summer day, despite the rain, but the cabin felt chilly.
I’d brought a thermos of coffee, and I asked Foster if he wanted a cup. He waved off my offer. He did a quick tour of the cabin and returned to the front door.
Raven Lake Page 15
