A Kayak for One

by K. L. McCluskey

  Charlene

  "That's it. That's where we stopped to have our picnic," Edna pointed to the small island, set among several other islands affording great privacy from most of the big part of the lake.

  Charlene inched the pontoons forward after seeing a natural shallow, sandy, beach, just perfect for putting the boat to shore. Officer Edwards and Officer Phil Henderson, SOCO trained, were in one of her rental fishing boats. The police boat was in use out on the nearby lakes with an officer checking fishing licences. Officer Miller had a day off. Her car, Charlene noticed, was still at the landing. Sam phoned at 7:30 in the morning and asked if it was okay if he came in later to paint. She hoped Sam knew what he was doing. He was a sensitive guy who took his single-parent situation pretty seriously. Maybe that's it, she thought. He was taking his parenting seriously and just having a fling. He needs that too. Wendy did say she was checking out house prices around Espanola, so maybe she was ready to settle in the area. With the O.P.P. though, she could be transferred anywhere in Ontario in a flash. Where would that leave Sam?

  Charlene didn't mind taking Jack and Edna with her, knowing they would only be needed a short time. If the police found anything they could be hours and hours and Charlene had guests to take care of. Renting the fishing boat to the police seemed like the best solution. Of course she had Sarah on board too.

  She left a note on the office counter to let the guests in cottage #4 know she would be gone an hour or so, and they could help themselves to a canoe from the rack since the police tape had come down. Her own kayak was still at the police station. James forgot to throw it on his truck his last shift. Maybe she would just get it herself, Charlene thought. She was anxious to have it so she could use the kayak in the nice fall weather. She shuddered. She wondered if she could ever use it again. Though not generally creeped out by death, she was having a hard time with this one. It was probably because of what Sam told her he saw. Things had been going so well with Joe. She wondered how she could carry on as usual with him again once he was cleared. She wouldn't be able to she knew. He didn't tell her about going to Hamilton or that he would be at his ex's house. Something was up and nothing he wanted to share with her it seemed. He hadn't even called her since he left the message to say he'd be away.

  "Staff. Staff!"

  Charlene shook off her thoughts and looked over at Sarah who was waiting for Charlene to get off the boat. She pointed out a tree in front to tie the bow rope. It was a perfect spot to tie off. The boat wouldn't drift off, anyway. There was little wind so far and the island was mostly tucked in out of any wind that could kick up soon, which it usually did on the lake like clockwork, starting about 11:00 o'clock, not dying down again until about 5:30 or 6:00 p.m. The rental boat fit nicely beside the pontoon boat and Officer Edwards tied it off to the side rail of the pontoon boat before stepping over the rail to board the front of the pontoon boat, only to step off again at shore.

  "I can't get my shiny boots wet Ms. Parker!" he said.

  Officer Henderson hopped over the side of the fishing boat into the shallow water making a point, Charlene guessed, showing the young officer what a rough and tough he was. She couldn't help but notice though that some water squelched out the side of his boot when he made it to the rock on shore. She would have opted to keep her boots dry like James too. There was nothing worse than working a long shift in wet leather police boots. The boots these officers were wearing were a combination of supposed water-proof material and leather, but looked to be no better quality than Charlene's old police boots that ended up feeling like slippers after six years of wearing them as a beat officer, the imprints of her feet and toes ingrained in the leather insole.

  After Charlene dropped off the students and the professor, she picked up the police officers at the landing as prearranged and took them over to the resort to get them settled in the fishing boat before stopping to pick up the Porters at their dock. Charlene thought they would have just walked the 100 feet to the pontoon boat dock, but no, they were standing at the end of the dock like royalty. She was sure it must have been Edna's idea.

  Edna had on a bright, flowery, long-sleeved shirt over lime green linen pants, and was wearing bright green linen pull-on flat shoes. She was wearing what one could only call an Easter bonnet. It looked like she was dressed to go painting plein air, or to go to a tea room or something, not take a windy boat ride to the middle of the lake to point out where they stopped for lunch out in the wilderness. Jack had on his fishing cargo pants, a short-sleeved tee shirt, and had his windbreaker in his hand. He saw Charlene look at Edna and must have caught what she was thinking. He gave a little smirk with a slight shrug of his shoulders before he hopped onto the boat.

  Edna started to walk off the boat, hand outstretched toward Charlene. Sarah stopped her by saying, "Stop!" It worked, but not without an angry look from Edna. Jack smiled and sat facing the sun and closed his eyes.

  "Do not leave the boat please Mrs. Porter. Are you certain this is the place you had lunch?"

  "Yes. We pulled our boat up right here in this exact spot and used that same tree to tie up the boat. We walked up there." She pointed to the smooth rock surface up a bit from the shoreline that flattened out on top.

  "There's a fire pit up there. We didn't light a fire since it was so warm that day, but we carried our little cooler and put our chairs up there on top. We walked around a bit to stretch and were amazed to see so many blueberry bushes on one little island."

  "I guess that's why they call this Blueberry Island," Charlene said. She added as she realized Edna didn't appreciate her humour, "I've been told there was an island called that but have never been here."

  "Really Staff? You love blueberries. I thought you would have found out where this was and come here," Sarah said.

  Charlene knew the only way Sarah got her blueberries was after Patty picked them hunched over alone in the bush with Sarah sitting in the truck, working at her police files.

  "I can't come this far in July to pick blueberries and leave the guests. I can go up the back trail after the office closes for a half hour or so, but I'm too busy to take the time away to pick any longer. I get a little container each time. If I picked here though, I could pick enough at one to put in the freezer for the year!"

  Sarah and the other two officers grabbed the police equipment bags from the deck of the pontoon boat. Charlene was ready to step onto shore when Sarah told her to stay where she was too. Edna looked pleased but had the grace to look away when Charlene looked back at her.

  From where she was sitting, something fluttering near the tree caught Charlene's attention. She walked to the front of the boat and walked out over the pontoon, careful not to touch land and suffer the ire of Sarah. She knew she shouldn't walk on the island anyway. Since it was where the glasses Jack turned in were found, the whole island would be a crime scene. It would have to be treated as one anyway until otherwise. Charlene still didn't get why Sarah was fixated on the glasses as Lori's. The rightful owner already picked them up. She described them to the finest detail before Charlene took the glasses over to the landing to give to her. Sure they were exactly the same as the ones Lori was wearing in the pictures at the pub that night, but.. But what? Charlene thought. Same pair of glasses on two women on the same lake? Yeah. She could see how Sarah was thinking it was too weird. Sarah practically kissed her before she left the office to talk to the Porters, after she saw the picture of the glasses on her cell phone. Well, she did in fact kiss her. Full on the mouth. An attempt at a lingering kiss if Charlene was not mistaken. She may have to be careful with her.

  She could see that it was a small length of blue rope tied to the same cedar tree she tied her rope to, just under one of the boughs. It looked like it had been cut at one end. The other end looked like it had been burned to stop it from fraying. She knew the rope. It was cheap rope that she saw a lot of cottagers use on their boats. She bought it once to tie down a tarp over the Muskoka chairs in front of the office for
winter. The rope didn't hold up to the ice and snow and fell apart in her hands when she untied it in the spring. She learned to buy good marine rope after that for all her boat lines and any outside project, so she knew the blue rope did not come from Jack and Edna's rental boat when they moored on the island. She remembered the blue rope tied around Lori's wrists and that Officer Edwards found small blue strands on her neighbour's dock across the lake.

  She snapped a picture of it with her cell phone. It reminded her of a murder of a young woman, a girl from a farm, new to the big city, a McMaster University student. Her ex-boyfriend walked into her dorm room, with her roommate there too, and pulled out a shotgun from under the long coat he was wearing and shot the woman he did not want to lose. The first patrol officer to arrive was there quickly, but so were the paramedics, working on the young woman in a futile attempt to save her life after being shot at full blast from only a few feet away.

  The officer knew the crime scene was being contaminated with the rush of the paramedics and firefighters on scene and the hysterics of the roommate running about the room. He saw a camera in the room and started taking pictures of the victim and of the room from every angle. He gave the camera to the detectives who arrived later to take over the investigation. This was before cell phones were small enough to put in a uniform shirt pocket. The pictures on the developed film proved to be valuable to the investigation and the officer was praised for his quick thinking. The victim's body had been removed from the room and rushed off in hopes of resuscitation so the detectives had to rely on the snap shots to figure out what happened to prove the case in court. It was awful for them though, since the film had snap shots of the victim with friends and family and her ex-boyfriend, looking happy, very much alive, mixed in with shots of her body on the floor with the fatal damage from the shotgun blasts. Charlene never forgot that case and used her camera, now her cell phone, on instinct, especially when involved in police investigations.

  She would tell Sarah when she came back to the boat. She looked back at Edna. She had her nose in a book she pulled out of her handmade cloth bag she carried everywhere. She doubted Edna was reading. There's no way she would want to miss this. Jack's eyes were still closed and she thought she saw a twitch on his cheek. How he could be so relaxed living with Edna was a surprise to her.

  Charlene could see Phil walk quickly from the flat area by the fire pit to his equipment bag. He rummaged around for a few seconds then walked back to the pit and pulled something from the ashes and put it into what looked like an evidence bag. He took his pen from his uniform pocket and spent a minute filling in the label before sealing the bag. He set the bag into his pant leg cargo pocket then took out his notebook and spent a moment writing. Charlene figured he was making note of whatever he found, where he found it, and the police report number for the Forensic Unit in Orillia or The Centre for Forensic Science in Toronto. He went back to his bag and pulled out a square piece of mesh and began sifting through the ashes. Sarah walked up to him and crouched beside him. Charlene couldn't hear what they were saying, but knew something important had been found. She could see James walking slowly around the edge of the small island, using his baton to pull back the brush and the branches of the blueberry bushes. Sarah stood up and walked toward the pontoon boat.

  "Okay Staff. You may as well head back with the Porters. We'll be here for awhile. I'll be fine. James will help me into the boat and I will be okay for the short trip back."

  "Look Sarah. Text me when you are finished. If I'm available I'll come get you," Charlene answered.

  "Thanks. I'll see."

  The look of relief on Sarah's face would make the extra trip back worthwhile. Charlene would hate to see her suffer. Her phobia about being in small boats was real to her.

  "Before I go Sarah...," Charlene said as she pointed to the piece of blue rope tied to the tree.

  She watched Sarah's face as she looked at the rope. Her face went from puzzlement to understanding before the smile spread across her face, erasing some of the stress lined between her eyes. If the Porters weren't there she probably would have pumped her fists in the air.

  "We are here Staff," she whispered, looking over at Edna who was leaning forward on her chair watching them.

  "This is the crime scene. I'm positive. There's a piece of fishing line in the fire pit. It hasn't been burned and there is something on it, blood I'm hoping. It looks like spots of blood on the ground beside it on the flat rock. We're closer to getting the bastard. Phil! Bring the camera and an evidence bag."

  As Phil came running Jack snorted and opened his eyes.

  "I'm coming back with you now Staff. Our visit to your neighbour has been moved up to now. I'll get Wendy to meet me at the landing and come with me."

  "She may be at the landing already. Her car was still there when we left. I guess you didn't notice it, oh great detective," Charlene smirked. "Sam will have to drop her off at her car anyway when he comes to paint this morning, if he hasn't already."

  "Sam?"

  "I'll tell you later."

  Chapter 51

  "I need to see your boat and fishing licence and your emergency safety equipment."

  Geez, was the guy stupid or something. It was the third time O.P.P. Officer Allan Fisher told the guy and the third time the guy just stared at him. Was he deaf or something? Oh, shit, he thought, maybe he was.

  Before he could try to mime what he wanted, the guy sitting in the fishing boat answered him.

  "Sorry officer. I must have been daydreaming," he said as he opened his tackle box and lifted the top layer.

  "Here's my fishing licence, and here's my boat operator licence."

  "Daydreaming of the big one that got away, eh?" Officer Fisher said as he reached from the police boat to get the licence.

  "Maybe the one that didn't get away," the guy said with a loud laugh.

  As Officer Fisher studied the licences he noticed the guy was fidgeting with some fishing line that was loose in the tackle box.

  He saw him looking and said, "It's a mess. I guess I better buy some new stuff. It's all tangled."

  "I guess you better buy an anchor while you're at it," Officer Fisher said pointing to the front of the boat. A blue line was tied to the bow of the boat and hung down into the boat, a few feet long.

  "I have one here," he replied, said lifting a big rock tied to good yellow and blue marine rope on the floor of the boat beside his seat. It was tied to the handle on the outside of the boat at the back.

  "At least you have better rope there than at the front. That blue line is useless. What happened? Did it just break while you had your anchor in?"

  "Yeah, something like that."

  "Okay then. I see your baler."

  Officer Fisher smiled at the old bleach bottle with the end cut out that a lot of boaters used. They made good balers actually, he thought, with the handle at the other end and the bottom cut out like a scoop. It would be better than the stupid little orange container that contained the rest of the boating emergency kit that he used in his own fishing boat.

  "Have you got a flashlight, whistle and rope?" he asked.

  "Yup," the guy said as he crouched forward to get off the life jacket he was using as a seat cushion. He reached into the front pocket and pulled out the small LED flashlight. The whistle was attached to the life jacket.

  "I've got lots of line on this anchor," he added, pointing to the rock.

  "Okay. Yeah, okay, that's good." Officer Fisher was content to leave the guy in peace. It was a gorgeous sunny day and he was assigned to spend his shift in the police boat checking for fishing and boating licences and liquor infractions.

  He had just come back from two weeks of vacation, spent with family in Hamilton and he was glad to be back in the north and out on the water. He was hoping to get out on his own boat for a bit after work. His wife couldn't deny him that after he agreed to being in the city with her parents for all of his summer vacation.

  He looked
at the licence again before passing it back.

  "Okay thanks," he said, noticing the local address. "I hope you catch some. I've been told the bass have really been biting."

  "Yeah they are. I'm on this lake a lot. It's close to motor over and dock behind the pub. Not for beer!" he said when he saw the look on the officer's face, "the chicken wings!"

  Officer Fisher started the police boat. He looked at his watch. It would be dark soon and his shift was almost over. He made his way to the dock. As he pulled away he looked back. The guy pulled at the motor and put it into gear. With a wave in his direction he moved off down the shoreline trolling, probably hoping for a big bass in the shallow weeds. Officer Fisher was glad the guy wasn't far from the dock either. His motor was missing every few seconds and seemed like it might conk out on him.

  Chapter 52

  Charlene

  "Sorry Charlie. I meant to bring it back a few days ago."

  The professor held the box of fishing line out for Charlene to take.

  "I put it on the reel, but didn't catch anything so I took it off again and got it back in the box."

  He put the fishing rod against the office counter.

  "I like this light-weight rod. With the heavier line it would have been fun to catch a big bass and test both the rod and line. I was lucky to watch a porcupine for a long time though. It was huge. It was on the shoreline right in front of the boat, eating the weeds at shore. I got some great pictures on my new digital camera. I'll send you some when I get back to good internet."

  "Thanks Dan."

  Charlene put the box of line back into the drawer. Why does everyone send her pictures of the lake and the resort when they get home? She wondered. She felt like yelling at them sometimes. 'I live here! Remember?!' Oh well, they get excited and they keep coming back and she gets excited when she sees her bank balance and the retirement house in Nova Scotia becomes more of a reality. No. Not just that, she thought. She liked when guests got excited about nature. She did too.