A Kayak for One

by K. L. McCluskey

"I know so please Sarah will you go talk to Mr. Blake?"

  "Yes. I will head over from here. It still doesn't clear up how someone could launch a boat on the lake without anyone seeing."

  "It would be the same question if it was Joe on the lake," Charlene said.

  "That's exactly what I've been saying! It has to be someone already on the lake. I told you I don't buy it that it was Joe who Sam saw. A lot of boats have motors that run rough. If Joe's neighbour vouches for Joe, then we have to concentrate on the cottagers on the lake, or your guests. "

  "I can't see the Porters killing Lori. Can you?" Charlene smiled. "I know they can't be ruled out until they are ruled out, but...really?"

  "Hey, they were out on their boat on the lake the same afternoon Lori was killed. We haven't ruled them out because we can't yet. The professor was on the lake the same time in your rental boat and your creepy neighbour was out on the lake in his boat the same afternoon too. The boys were picked up by him at the dock, remember? So, they were in the area the same afternoon too. Ashley said she was hiking, but she was alone and no one can vouch for her either."

  "Yeah, and I was working alone at the back shed clearing up the old roofing and no one saw me either don't forget."

  "Sam saw you at times. You saw Sam around the property at times during the afternoon. You both alibi each other...somewhat. I guess Sam could have killed Lori and stuffed her into the kayak or you could have, and the boat on the lake with a man and a woman towing a kayak never even happened or had nothing to do with the murder. I know Sam though and he's not a likely suspect. Nor are you," Sarah added quickly.

  "Phew!" Charlene said with another exaggerated eye roll. "Hey, why did you say creepy neighbour?"

  "James got the creeps when he was talking to him. He got the impression the guy was hiding something in his cottage. He blocked James' view and didn't let him in. James said he practically pushed him back out onto the deck when he opened the patio slider and James picked up some bits of blue rope from the guy's dock. You know, the same kind of rope we found tied around Lori's hands. It's pretty standard cheap rope that a lot of people use, but James bagged it anyway."

  "What does he have to say about where he was that afternoon?" Charlene asked.

  "He told us he was out on his boat for a few hours before he picked up the boys at your dock at the parking lot and took them to the dock at cottage #1 then went to his place. We don't have any grounds for a search warrant and Officer Edwards knows we can't use the rope as evidence without a warrant, but it was enough for us to try to get the guy to come into the station for an interview."

  "And...," Charlene prompted hoping Sarah would tell her more. "Am I living across from a murderer or what?"

  "He refuses to come in to the station, so we can't rule him out. We're going to try just going over to his cottage again and see if he will talk to us there, you know, routine canvassing stuff or something. If we can find where Lori was killed I'm hoping we'll find more evidence and be able to rule out some suspects. It's like an Agatha Christie novel right now, with everyone a suspect. The professor says he heard another boat on the lake but didn't actually see it. Sam said he saw a boat he is positive was Joe's boat, with a man sitting at the back running the motor and a woman at the front of the boat, and they were towing a yellow kayak. He also said he heard other boats but didn't see them from where he was painting. The Porters said when they were fishing they saw another fishing boat from a distance with only one person in it but they don't know if it was a man or a woman. Ashley told us she didn't see or hear any boats from where she was hiking or lost for a bit. The boys said the only boat they saw was your neighbour when he picked them up.

  “This is all going on the premise that the suspect had a boat at all. Someone could have killed Lori near the resort and somehow then stuffed her into the kayak. That would explain no one seeing a boat launch the day she was killed. It's only Sam's statement that makes us look at a fishing boat since it sounds like he saw the killer. It adds up...the boat, the man, the woman with long hair and the kayak. But, the suspect could have come from land and that includes all the same people again. They could have easily pulled their boats up on shore somewhere and walked to the resort and killed Lori. Ashley could have walked back and killed Lori. This whole scenario includes anyone and everybody and I can't bear to think that." Sarah's shoulders slumped as she seemed to take in what she just said.

  "That scenario puts Sam and me back on the list of suspects too. Seriously though, if the killer came by land then you'd think Sam or I would have seen the suspect at the canoe rack. That would take a lot of effort and time to get Lori's body from cottage #2 and placed in my kayak. It looked like she struggled too so I'm sure we would have heard something. I was working far back from the cottages for a few hours though and Sam was back and forth to the shed that's pretty close to that cottage but he usually puts on the radio pretty loud and closes the door while he's in the shed. And, the kayak was wet. How did it get wet if it wasn't in the water? I didn't take it out earlier," Charlene said.

  "No but everyone told me Greg took it out without your permission a few times. You said he took your paddle from the office without asking. The professor told me he warned Greg about taking your kayak or canoes out again without your permission. He could have taken it out when the guys came back from the field day early."

  "Yes but then Haiden and Peter would be at cottage #1 right in front of the canoe rack and would have seen Greg take it and seen him with Lori."

  "That's assuming again Staff. Peter and Haiden could have had a nap or had their heads in their school stuff and not seen anything or worse case, be covering for Greg."

  "When I put the canoes back with the professor, the guys were out front by the picnic table and there were beer bottles out. I think they were all drinking together after an early return from the field, playing truant since the professor was out in the fishing boat."

  "Anyway, we're working hard Staff. We're going over the interviews and we've had follow-up interviews and checking everyone's statements against the others’ etc. You know the drill. On another note, before you get me blabbing too much more, when are you going to Nova Scotia?"

  "I don't know now, with this happening. I was thinking of November before the weather and roads get too bad. Everything is finished with the lawyer, so all I have to do is go there. He mailed me the key with the paperwork. I have a few new pictures the insurance guy sent to me. He went out there to see if it could be insured. Want to see them?"

  "Sure. Anything right now would be a good diversion, even looking at pictures on someone’s cell." Sarah smirked.

  "Yeah, I know it's like watching someone's home movies."

  "Home movies?"

  "Oh yeah you're too young to know anything about those, lucky you. Anyway...here is a picture of the outside of the house."

  "Gee Staff, I know I'm pretty new at this detecting stuff but I think I could have figured that out myself. Seeing the outside of the house would have been my first clue." Sarah ducked as Charlene threw one of the chair cushions at her.

  "It's pretty old looking and looks like it will suck all the money out of your account. Are you sure about this?" Sarah asked with a look of disdain as she scrolled the cell screen.

  Not only did Sarah not cook, she did not do house repairs. Patty ran the house and Sarah, well, Charlene wasn't sure what Sarah did at home. Patty and Sarah got along great though it seemed, so something must be working between them.

  "Hey stop that. You're not supposed to look at someone’s pictures without asking." Charlene laughed and tried to grab her phone.

  "What is this a picture of?" Sarah asked, all the smile gone from her face as she stopped scrolling, cell phone held toward Charlene.

  "Pass me the phone. Oh, those are those glasses Jack turned in. Remember, you saw them on the counter. I was going to send the picture in to the paper but changed my mind and the radio bit worked so fast I didn't need to. I just forgot to delete
that picture."

  Sarah pulled her phone out of her small black leather MEC back pack she always carried, on or off the job, and scrolled quietly, then turned her phone toward Charlene.

  "Check this out."

  Charlene took the phone and looked at a picture of Lori standing at a bar. It looked like she was smiling at someone beside her. Her face was to the side, not looking at the camera.

  "Is this the Black Cat?" she asked.

  "Yup. That's the picture the professor took and sent to me."

  "It doesn't seem she's aware he took the picture."

  "No but not just that. Look at it again."

  Charlene used her finger tips to enlarge the photo on the screen. She looked up at Sarah and the colour drained from her face.

  "You have my permission to scroll," Sarah said. "There's another more close-up picture of Lori that Ashley sent me."

  "Oh man," Charlene said.

  "Man oh man is right. Lori is wearing the same glasses that Jack turned in."

  Chapter 48

  Charlene

  After Sarah left the office and walked over to cottage #5 to see if Jack and Edna were at the cottage, Charlene checked the time. She had time before the students would be back. She would take Officer Edwards over to the landing the same time she picked the students up and hopefully Officer Miller would be there too for a lift over. Sarah may be awhile talking to the Porters if they were even back. She heard a boat coming close to the resort while she and Sarah were having tea, and it sounded like her rental Yamaha, but she didn't look out.

  Now would be a good time to eat a bit. She picked up some homemade bread from the general store on her way back and was hankering for a peanut butter and honey sandwich with lots of butter on the gooey white bread. Stacy seemed a lot more at peace then the last time Charlene saw her. Maybe living alone was agreeing with her and she'll be happier without Bill.

  She felt hungry now that she was certain that Joe would be in the clear. Mr. Blake said Joe was in his shop around noon. Now if he could only place Joe in his shop for the next few hours then there would be no way Joe could drive to the resort, launch his boat, take her kayak, pick up Lori, kill her somewhere and put her into the kayak, get the kayak on the rack, take his boat off the lake then drive home. She knew for some of that day he didn't have his own motor on his boat, but for how long?

  Charlene had come back the day Lori was killed and saw Lori and Ashley around 1:00 o'clock. The boys and the "creepy" neighbour across the lake both say the boys were at the parking lot about 3:00 or 3:30 pm and as far as Charlene knew they stayed at the cottage. They certainly didn't take any of her boats out. They didn't ask to take any of her boats out was all she really knew for sure. They could have taken her kayak down and killed Lori and put her back. All three of them together? No, not a likely scenario she didn't think, and the other two would see if one of them killed her and was messing about at the canoe rack. The Scottish canoeists didn't get back until about 5:00 o'clock. She just happened to be walking down from the back of the property when she heard them out on the lake talking and saw them paddling toward the beach. She was heading back to check on the time to get the boys for 5:00 o'clock. When she got to the beach to greet the canoeists, she saw the boys were out by their picnic table. So, Lori was killed between 1:00 o'clock and 5:00 o'clock she knew for sure, but likely killed earlier since the boys were back by 3:30.

  The professor showed up about 5:00 o'clock, so he was out on the lake all day alone as far as she knew, but he could have come back while she was working out back. He had no one to give him any alibi.

  Sam was on the property with her all day. He still had the time to kill Lori with Charlene out back working. She knew he was no killer though. No way. Not Sam.

  Chapter 49

  Charlene

  Still no word from Joe. Charlene wasn't going to leave another message. He let her know he was out of town, but not where he was, she thought, as she felt the anger rising. At least the police in Hamilton are going to ask him about that guy's motor repair. If only the time could all be accounted for then Joe would no longer be a suspect.

  She took a sip of her whisky, as she sunk lower in the soaker tub. She poured herself an ounce of the only single malt whisky distilled in North America. She visited the Glenora Distillery on a drive to Cape Breton that spring when she went to Nova Scotia to look at the old house and decided she would buy it. The drive from the house was beautiful along the curvy, hilly road beside the eastern shore through quaint and subtle towns like Hadleyville, Sand Point, Pirate Harbour, Mulgrave, and into Auld’s Cove and over the Canso Strait to Port Hastings, the entry point onto Cape Breton Island.

  She took the tour of the small distillery and inn and got a sample taste of the 10-year-old whisky, learning that it was not called Scotch only in that it was not distilled in Scotland. She stopped off at the liquor store outside of Port Hood on the way back to the old house and bought a bottle of Fiddler's Choice, the distillery tribute to a Cape Breton fiddler, John MacDougall who played and taught traditional fiddling on Cape Breton Island. The almost $60.00 price tag stopped her, but only briefly, before she thought it only fitting that she bring home a bottle of the local crafted whisky. Charlene stopped drinking beer and wine years before, the alcohol going to her head even after just sips. She poured the whisky, neat, into the little Irish pottery cup she bought at a flea market outside of Victoria on a trip to British Columbia. The ounce of precious liquid was warmed by her hands wrapped around the little tumbler. She liked that the whisky and tumbler had traveled across Canada reminding her of both coasts, one mild with not much snow, and the other cold and wild, but affordable for her. In a few years it would be her only home when she sold the resort and retired.

  Whisky was a drink she could sip for a long time and with it came a quiet chance of contemplation, not impairment. The alcohol tingled her lips as she tried to conjure up the smell and taste of the water of MacLellan's brook, the source of water for the whisky, running through an old apple orchard and maple trees in Glenville known as 'The Glen' in the hilly terrain of Inverness County.

  It had taken her years of trying to get the hang of whisky. After reading so many books with characters sitting in the tub after a busy, hard day sipping the drink, she was determined to make whisky her drink too. For some reason in the past year she just started to enjoy the taste of the wee dram, called by a former police colleague as 'nectar of the gods.'

  Charlene swooshed the bubbles up around her, covering her body with the heady lavender smell. The whisky and the scent was calming her. She smiled as she thought of Officer Miller at her parking lot, not there to relieve Officer Edwards since Sarah released the area as a crime scene, but to meet Sam. Charlene took Sam over after the long day he spent painting exterior doors of some of the cottages and re-staining all the picnic tables. Wendy stepped out of her car as Sam stepped off the boat. She waved at Charlene and walked over to Sam's car and they both got in. Sam drove off, leaving Wendy's car in the lot, but not before turning toward Charlene with what Charlene thought was his version of a small smile. Well, well, she thought. Good for them.

  I should make her pay for parking, thought Charlene, as she took another sip. The car was still there, the last time she looked when she picked up the students about 8:00 o'clock, a bit later than expected and in the dark.

  Charlene recapped her day like usual. She found it made it easier to organize and file away details in her head in case she needed to recall something later. After eating two large sandwiches and a tall glass of milk, Charlene worked at raking up some of the pine needles along the paths between the cottages while waiting for the students to arrive. Sarah had some good luck when speaking to Jack and Edna and Charlene was going to take them out on the pontoon boat the next morning to see if they could locate the island where they found the glasses. They were certain they could.

  Sarah told Charlene she thought they must be Lori's glasses, though how that could explain the y
oung woman claiming them as hers was not yet figured out. Sarah didn't want to stay to work out that puzzle. She had a long night ahead of her at the station before coming back around 8:00 o'clock the next morning.

  Everyone was accounted for. The Porters were in their cottage. The students, including Ashley, looked like they were hard at some course project. So much for Ashley not going near Greg. She never did find out what she meant when she yelled at the professor when Lori's body was found. Rocks and lots of charts and notes were strewn about the table in cottage #1. Paper was taped to the front windows. Charlene knew it would be hard to clean the bits of tape and sticky residue left on the glass. The students did it every year. She was going to ask Dan to tell them not to do it but forgot every year. Charlene had walked over to the cottage to check to see if they needed any more fire wood. She figured they were getting low, but they said they had enough and barely looked at her before getting their collective noses to the rock samples again.

  As she walked back to the office, she thought she saw Dan sitting in his front porch. She heard the tinkling of ice. She waved in his direction and thought she saw him wave back. It was hard to tell even with the little porch light on.

  The couple in cottage #4, were sitting out on their front screened-in porch. Charlene could see wine glasses in their hands as she said goodnight to them when she passed by in front of them on the path. They had come into the office after taking the canoe back to the Porters' dock, delighted with their outing, chatting to Charlene about what they saw on the lake. They left holding hands and went into the cottage and Charlene did not hear them come out again.

  After Charlene locked up the office, she got her bath ready, and slipped into the tub with drink in hand and tried to make sense of the past few days.

  Chapter 50

  Saturday September 26th, 2015