by Ann Yost
Once again he produced the pocket knife. He had just sliced open the package when we heard Blow the Man Down, in a familiar, cheerful off-key whistle. I rushed to the door to greet my bridegroom.
"Jack," I screeched, in exactly the voice I'd have used if he'd been my real husband, "where in the bleepity-bleep have you been?"
He was still wearing the wife-beater tee shirt, the dungarees and the red hat but his eyes were bluer and, by some miracle, he had more teeth. He looked as astonished as I felt.
"Who are you, den?" He asked. "Where's Jack at?"
He looked beyond me at Max and the item Max had extracted from the package in the woodchips. His eyebrows formed a line of thunderheads over his brow and something flashed in his blue eyes as he spoke, accusingly.
"What da hell you doin' wit dat sirrup?"
"Syrup?" I stared at Max who held up a plastic container filled with a mahogany-colored substance.
"Maple syrup, I'm guessing." Max said. "Let me introduce myself and my friend, here. I'm Max Guthrie and this is Hatti Lehtinen. We're friends of Jack's. I assume you are Jack's partner in crime."
"Not a crime," he said, stubbornly. "Just a bizness."
Max shook his head. "We're not here to bust your chops. What's your name?"
"Tonttu."
Max nodded. "We are here looking for Jack."
Tavi's eyes narrowed. "In dat barrel?"
"Touché," Max said, with a laugh. "We had heard some gossip about smuggling."
"Not smuggling," Tavi said. "Free enterprise. We get the syrup from Canada and bring it to diners in the U.P. Nobody gets hurt."
I stared at the little man.
"What's the point?"
"Visitors to the U.P. want syrup made here but Canada sugarbush is better."
"I think what Tavi is telling us is that some diner owners put the Canadian syrup in bottles with local labels."
Max had gotten to his feet and joined me. He held Tavi's gaze for a moment. "Putting aside tariffs and taxes and FDA regulations, it isn't honest," he said, quietly.
Tavi struck out his scrawny chin. "Where's Jack?"
"We don't know," I said, feeling another flutter of distress. "Nobody's seen him since last night."
"Give him this."
The little man dug his fist into his pocket, pulled out a wad of what appeared to be low-denomination bills and handed them to Max.
"You should probably hang onto it for now," Max said, gently. "You can give it to Jack when he gets back. Come on. This syrup is heavier than it looks. I'll help you carry it to your truck. How many customers have you and Jack got?"
"Half a dozen."
"Tavi," I said, remembering Chakra's comment, "do you and Jack ever use the lighthouse to send messages."
"Never," he said, decisively. "Hardly ever." He got into the cab of the ancient pickup truck and tipped his cat. "Bye, missus."
"Huh," I said, as we watched the rig drive off down a rutted, unpaved road. "He called me Mrs. How did he know I married Jack last night?"
"He thinks you're married to me." Max's grin made me shiver but this time it wasn't out of fear. Not for the first time I wondered where this relationship might go if I weren't still hung up on my AWOL husband.
We walked back along the lakeshore flanked by Larry and Lydia.
"Is there anything else about this business that you haven't told me," he asked, finally.
I thought through what I'd already said.
"There's the clothespin." I felt a little silly even bringing it up but I explained that Miss Thyra had sent me to the cellars to find it and that I'd found it in a most unlikely place.
"What do you deduce from that?"
"Riitta's the kind of housekeeper who keeps everything in its place and the coal bin was empty because of the bonfire. When I told Tom Kukka about the idea that the body had been moved, he said the killer could have used the wheelbarrow to get it to the window that opens into the coal chute. I can't help wondering if Miss Thyra moved the body and dropped one of her clothespins in the process."
"That would mean that Miss Thyra is the killer, right?"
It seemed absurd. Not only because she was an old woman but because she was a dyed-in-the-wool Evangelical Lutheran. She might be furious with Alex Martin for threatening to deprive her of her home, but she wouldn't have killed him.
"I don't know about that. I do think she knows something. She looks like death warmed over."
"If Miss Thyra had dropped the clothespin when she hid the body of the man she'd killed," he said, hypothetically, "why would she ask you to go to the cellar to retrieve it?"
"Oh, that's simple. Guilt. She wanted me to find the clothespin."
"Why?"
"I think she wanted me to find the body."
"But it wasn't there," he pointed out.
"No." I looked up at him but, for once, there was no amusement in his chocolate eyes. "I think she was surprised that I didn't find it," I said, thinking aloud. "She didn't kill him, Max. I'm certain of that. But I'm afraid she knows who did."
Chapter 17
Before Max left he cautioned me.
"It's not a scavenger hunt, Hatti, or a jigsaw puzzle. This is serious business for someone. You've got to be careful."
"Always," I said. "Anyway, there's safety in numbers. Thank you for coming out here today."
"Always," he said, with the crooked smile that had such a devastating effect on female hearts.
Ellwood had returned from Chassell and I found him at the interview table with Riitta and Danny. Tom and Erik were there, too, the former standing by the mantelpiece where the mittens were still displayed, the latter in an easy chair he'd pulled up close to Riitta. Something about the scene struck me as all wrong.
"Is something the matter," I asked.
Riitta spoke first. She turned toward me slowly, as if it required a great effort.
"Hatti, did you find Jack?"
"No. He's not at the oil house. Indications are he hasn't been there since yesterday."
"How can you tell that," Erik asked, pleasantly.
I hesitated. I didn't want to mention the contraband if it wasn't necessary. Why give away Jack and Tavi's secret? I was reluctant to mention the pillows with their indentations or Chakra's pentagram earring, either.
"A faint layer of dust on everything," I said. "The bed didn't look as if he'd slept in it and the place smelled musty, you know, as if the windows hadn't been opened in twenty-four hours."
It occurred to me that I had the makings of an excellent prevaricator.
"Where is Jack?" Riitta's voice trembled and faint freckles stood out on her pale face.
Erik Sundback put a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"He could easily be somewhere sleeping it off. From what I noticed, he consumed more than his fair share of beer last night."
She looked at Tom.
"You know Jack," he said, with an attempt at lightness, "he's happy as a clam sacked out in a hammock or even on the floor. For all we know he could have curled up last night down in the cellar."
"He's not in either cellar," I said. "At least he wasn't at eight thirty this morning."
"Hatti," Ellwood interrupted, "did you find out what time the rain started last night?"
"Twelve-forty-six," I reported. "You can take that to the bank."
"What's all this about the rain?" The question came from Erik. "Is that important?"
"We're working on a tentative theory that death took place before the rain started, that the body was left outside all night then moved after the rain stopped," Tom explained.
Erik looked at Tom as if the doctor had grown two heads.
"But the body was found under the tower, wasn't it? I don't understand."
"It doesn't make much sense," Tom admitted, "but, at the moment, that's what the facts suggest."
Ellwood cleared his throat.
"All right, to recap," he said, "here's what we know so far. Martin was with Hatti up in the
tower until about eleven. After that his movements are unclear until sometime after eleven thirty when Miss Irene heard him speaking with Madame X on the backstairs."
"Madame X?" This time both the doctor and the lawyer asked the question. Ellwood explained about Miss Irene's statement and both professionals continued to look skeptical.
"After that," Ellwood continued, "Martin was in the watch room. At about quarter to twelve he was visited by Danny who demanded that Martin turn the lighthouse and trust fund over to his mother and Doc Kukka on the grounds that he owed Riitta compensation for raising a son, Danny, alone."
I glanced at Riitta and saw that her slim fingers were clenched into a white-knuckled fist.
"The issue was not resolved and Danny left before midnight. So we have approximately forty-five minutes unaccounted for."
"I can account for them." Riitta's voice was clear and steady. "I went up to the watch room to talk to Alex and I was there for some time."
Ellwood's gaze shot to me.
"I heard Riitta and Alex talking," I said. "I know it was twelve because he said something about the witching hour."
"How long was she in there?"
If I lied she'd be safe. The thought flitted across my mind and was instantly rejected. No one would be safe until we got at the truth.
"I thought they deserved some privacy so I put my pillow over my ears," I confessed.
"So you don't know what time she left," Ellwood said.
"That's right."
"What did you talk about with Martin," Ellwood asked Riitta. His voice was gentle.
"Oh, the past, a bit. And Danny. He wasn't angry. He just seemed a little regretful."
"You mean he regretted missing out on watching his son grow up," Erik asked.
She considered that. "It was more that, just for a moment, he wished he were the kind of man who would have enjoyed that. He wasn't. I knew that. That's why I never contacted him."
"Did Martin tell you what he intended to do about the lighthouse?" Erik Sundback had taken over the questioning.
Riitta nodded. "He said he was giving it and Johanna's trust fund to me, that I could use it to house the poor or I could turn it into a casino and brothel. But then this morning I got a letter from him. It was pushed under my bedroom door." She produced the envelope and handed it to the deputy.
"It says here he's transferring ownership to the Copper County Board of Commissioners," Ellwood said, reading from the document. He looked at Riitta. "So you're telling me he changed his mind after talking to you and before getting pushed off the tower, a matter of less than half an hour." She shrugged.
"It doesn't make sense to me, either."
Tom Kukka rubbed the palm of his hand against the back of his neck. His broad face was drawn and there were deep circles under his eyes.
"I feel like we're all getting jerked around here, like a bunch of puppets."
Erik Sundback, more than twenty years older than the doctor, looked younger with his golden tan and his flashing white teeth. He pursued the questioning but in a low key way that shouldn't have been distressing to Riitta.
"Did you talk to anyone after you left the watch room? Did you tell anyone, Danny, for instance, what Alex had said to you about the lighthouse?"
She stifled a small, involuntary cry. "No. I thought about telling Danny and Tom, but Tom had gone off to the hospital and Danny wasn't," she hesitated and rephrased her comment, "and it was too late to bother Danny."
I was certain that each of us knew she'd been going to say that Danny wasn't in his room but, too late, she'd realized that left him without an alibi.
Erik quickly filled in the awkward silence.
"Does it matter so much to you, my dear? Of course that money would make you independent but, knowing you, I imagine you would just use it for the greater good here at the lighthouse in any event."
"No," she said. "No. It doesn't matter to me. Johanna's money was meant for the retirement home and that's how I should have used it no matter what."
"But it's a discrepancy," Tom said, heavily. "One more thing that doesn't make any sense."
"How long were you with Martin," Ellwood asked. I noticed he was making a physical timeline on his notepad.
"Quite a while," Riitta said. I got the distinct impression she was trying to leave a vague answer, no doubt to provide cover for Danny. "Maybe half an hour."
Ellwood gave her a long look but said, "all right. That leaves fifteen minutes or so." He looked at me. "I don't suppose you happened to remove the pillow from over your head?"
"Dead to the world," I said, then winced at the ill-chosen words.
"Well, who have we got?" Erik asked. He looked at me. "We know Miss Thyra was up all night. I think we can rule her out as the killer but maybe she saw something." I nodded. "Tom and I left at eleven thirty, Mrs. O. was upstairs asleep and Ianthe and Irene went to bed at, what time?"
"Eleven-thirty-ish," I said. "Irene heard Alex in the stairwell talking to some unknown woman."
"Leaving that aside for the moment," Sundback said, "what about Captain Jack? When was the last time anyone saw him?"
"He watched the Northern Lights with us on the porch around ten-thirty," Riitta said. "I don't know what he did after that."
"He helped me cover up the porch furniture when the thunder started," I said. "That was around eleven."
"All right," Erik said. He'd gotten to his feet and was pacing around the room, his hands behind his back. "That leaves his whereabouts unknown from, say, eleven fifteen last night until now."
"Not quite." Danny's voice was higher than usual but it didn't waver. "Jack was up in the tower later than that. I saw him."
"You mean when you went to see Alex at eleven forty-five," Ellwood asked. Danny shook his head.
"No. I'd gone back downstairs but I wasn't satisfied with the way we'd left things. I wanted to talk to him again." He had to have heard Riitta's harsh intake of breath but he didn't look at her. "I wanted to see him, again," he said, simply.
Chapter 18
"You mean Martin, don't you," Erik asked, in the hushed silence. "Just to be clear."
"That's right."
"But when you were up there, you saw Jack?"
Riitta's fingers were pressed against her lips in what, I knew, was an attempt to keep from crying out. She was frightened to death about what Danny would say.
"I'd better tell you the whole story instead of answering a lot of piecemeal questions. I went back upstairs around twelve fifteen but before I could knock on the door, I realized there was someone in the watch room with Martin. It was my mother." His handsome face twisted. "It was the first time I'd heard the two of them together." And the last time, I thought. "It felt kind of surreal."
"Did you consider joining them," I asked.
"Yeah. But I didn't do it. I figured they–she–didn't need the complication. I didn't eavesdrop or anything," he said, glancing at his mom. "I stood back in that little recess by Hatti's room and waited."
"So you didn't hear anything," Ellwood asked.
"Only what they said to one another when she left and that was because the door was opened."
"What was it?" I wasn't sure who asked the question. We were all straining forward, fascinated at the account of the interview between the star-crossed lovers.
"I know why my mother wrote her will as she did," Martin said. "She wanted me to come back to the Keweenaw. She wanted me to see you and to find out about Danny."
"What did Riitta say to that?"
Danny's eyes were still on his mom.
"She agreed. I got the feeling she'd figured that out a long time ago."
Tears were coursing down Riitta's cheeks. Tom and Erik were behind her and didn't see. Danny came around the table and gathered her into his arms. After a poignant moment, he sat down again.
"All right," Erik Sundback said, "how does Captain Jack come into all this?"
Danny accepted a tissue from me and wiped his nose.
"Jack was there, too."
"In the lightkeeper's study?" Erik sounded thunderstruck. (I should probably point out, somewhat belatedly, that the lightkeeper's study and the watch room are different names for the same place).
Danny nodded. "I listened to my mom go down the circular stairs. When I couldn't hear her footsteps anymore, I headed for the watch room door intending to knock but before I could, the door opened and I heard Alex Martin speaking. He said, something like, damnation, Jack! You scared the life out of me. What the hell were you doing up there with the light?"
"And what did Jack say," Ellwood asked.
"He said he was cleaning the lens and he didn't want to interrupt the reunion."
Riitta released a small groan. "Does everybody know about my former relationship with Alex?"
I figured it was a rhetorical question.
"So that's when you saw Jack," Ellwood said, getting back to the point. "What time was it?"
"After eleven thirty. He headed down the circular staircase."
"And then you went in to see your father?" Erik asked.
Danny shook his head. "No."
Riitta perked up. "You changed your mind?"
"Not really. It's just that someone else was coming up the steps to see him."
Once again we were all leaning toward Danny.
"Who?"
Danny shook his head. "I couldn't tell. I heard Jack's footsteps stop and then I heard Jack say something about it was good weather for ducks, and then I heard two sets of footsteps, Jack's going down the stairs and the newcomer coming up the stairs."
"But you must know who it was," Erik said. "You must have seen him or her on the landing."
"I didn't. I pressed myself flat in that little alcove. I didn't want to be seen. I don't know why."
I thought I understood. Danny had felt self-conscious about stalking the father who had abandoned him all those years ago. He didn't want to be seen and he'd had no idea that he might have interceded in a murder.
"The person coming up the stairs may have been the murderer," Ellwood said. "Did you get any impression of whether it was male or female? Young or old?"
"Only that I thought Jack didn't know the person very well. I mean, that duck remark was the kind he'd make to someone he wasn't comfortable with, you know?"
