“What’s this?” Eulalie walked up to a metal control box with its door hanging open.
“That’s the box for the electricity. Evan was always fiddling with it, trying to figure out why we had so many outages.”
“There’s a naked wire here, Mrs. Wong. If your husband touched this, it could well have caused cardiac arrest.”
“Really?” Mrs. Wong looked inside the box and glanced over both her shoulders. “I suppose that could be it.”
They walked back to the office. The medical student still knelt next to Mr. Wong but had stopped her CPR attempt.
“I’m sorry, Ma’am. There’s nothing more I can do.”
Mrs. Wong’s eyes darted to the door again. “That’s okay, dear. I’m sure you did everything you could. Oh, Evan. Why did you have to be such a fool? Why couldn’t you have left everything as it was?”
“Could he have been electrocuted?” Eulalie asked.
The young woman frowned.
“It’s possible. Yes, it’s very possible. Electrocution is usually diagnosed by circumstance rather than physical symptoms.”
“There’s an open electricity box outside with an exposed wire. And his hands are wet.”
“There’s one place I can look.” She unbuttoned Evan Wong’s shirt and pulled it to one side to expose his right armpit. Then she leaned in so close her nose was almost touching his skin. She sat back with an exhale.
“It’s not conclusive, but I think I can see some redness here. When an electric shock burns through the body, it sometimes creates reddish flash marks in certain areas of the body, like the axilla.”
“The armpit?” asked Eulalie.
“That’s right. But that exposed wire is the biggest indicator. They might find more signs on macroscopic examination of the heart during autopsy, but even then, not necessarily.”
Eulalie glanced around, hoping Mrs. Wong wasn’t finding this conversation distressing. She was nowhere to be seen.
“Mrs. Wong?”
Eulalie went to the open door where Marcia Wong could be seen staring down the slope that led to the generators and then to the forest.
“The paramedic will come from the other side,” Eulalie said, indicating the front of the gift shop.
“I know, I know. I was just… I can’t believe he’s gone. Why couldn’t he have left well enough alone?”
“You say your husband frequently fiddled with the electrical control box?”
“What? Oh, yes. He did. He was always fiddling. Didn’t want to leave it up to the professionals.”
A commotion inside the gift shop made them turn around.
“The paramedic,” said Eulalie. “At last.”
The paramedic went straight to Evan Wong to check for vital signs. The medical student filled him in on what had happened so far.
“How long did you keep up the compressions and breaths?”
“Forty-five minutes. I timed it on my phone. I got nothing.”
“Unfortunately, this man is deceased. How long after the exposure to electricity did you begin CPR?”
“I’m not sure. I was standing in the gift shop, looking at the little pots of lavender sugar when I heard – we all heard – a thumping noise, as though something had fallen. Then we heard this man’s wife starting to scream. Some of us rushed to the front to see what was happening. He was lying on the floor as you see him now, but rigid. I didn’t go forward at once. I waited to see if there was anyone else who knew what they were doing. There wasn’t anyone, so I asked this lady if I could begin CPR and she said yes.” She rubbed a finger over her upper lip. “Do you think if I’d been faster… if I’d started CPR sooner…?”
The paramedic shook his head. “I think this man was dead when he hit the floor. The sad thing about CPR without a defib is how often it doesn’t work.”
She closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded.
Eulalie waited while the paramedic filled out a preliminary death certificate. Mrs. Wong paced from the small office to the back door and back again. She seemed greatly agitated.
“Why did this have to happen? Why couldn’t he have left it alone? I finally find a man of my own and this has to happen. He didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve any of it.”
She spoke in a hurried, breathy manner, mumbling the same phrases over and over to herself.
Not once did she look at her husband. Eulalie wondered if the sight of his body was too much to bear. She just paced and shot anxious glances over her shoulder.
At last Eulalie heard the sound she had been listening out for.
A deep voice said, “Thank you, Mr. Brel. This looks very thorough. We’ll take it from here.”
Eulalie looked out the window and smiled to see the tall figure of Chief Macgregor striding through the door. The police launch had arrived. He had two uniformed officers with him. He took the death certificate from the paramedic and filed it in a leather folder. Eulalie went out to meet him.
His eyes widened in surprise. “I didn’t know you were here. Is this part of your investigation?”
“I came to interview the people who work at the tearoom, and the Wongs who own the gift shop. Mr. Wong died barely twenty minutes after speaking to me.”
Chief Macgregor took out his notepad.
“Where were you at the time of Evan Wong’s death?”
Eulalie had to force down her visceral reaction of annoyance. These were routine questions. He had to eliminate her from his investigation.
“I took a walk down to the generators after I’d finished my interview with the Wongs. A few minutes later, I heard screaming and ran back to the gift shop to see what had happened. Mrs. Wong rushed out saying that she thought her husband was dead. I walked into the back office and found a medical student trying to revive him with CPR. I told her that the ferry was due to arrive soon and that it would have a paramedic on board.”
“So, you were nowhere near Mr. Wong when he died. That’s good. Were there witnesses who can attest to that?”
“At least a dozen people must have seen me running up from the generators.”
“Good. What happened next?”
“It became clear that the medical student was not going to be successful in reviving Mr. Wong. Mrs. Wong speculated that he might have tried to lift something heavy in the stockroom and had a heart attack. When I went outside to look, I noticed that the electrical box was standing open with one of the livewires exposed. I had already noticed that Mr. Wong’s hands were wet. She checked him for burn marks and found redness around his armpits. It’s not conclusive, apparently, but it does point towards the possibility that he electrocuted himself by accident.”
Chief Macgregor looked up from his notepad. “My officers have secured the scene and are taking statements from the witnesses. Let’s go and look at this livewire of yours.”
She led him through the gift shop, past the back office where Evan Wong’s body still lay, and outside towards the stockroom. The electricity box still stood open, but now there was a uniformed officer keeping an eye on it.
Chief Macgregor looked closely at the spaghetti of wires inside the box, including the one that had been stripped of its insulation. He took out his cellphone and photographed it from different angles.
“What do you think?” said Eulalie. “Would that deliver enough of a charge to stop a grown man’s heart?”
“Very possibly. I’m just wondering how the wire came to be exposed like this.”
“I noticed that too. The insulation seems to have been cut off or ripped away.”
“This isn’t wear and tear. Someone stripped this wire on purpose.”
“According to Mrs. Wong, her husband was always tinkering with things against her advice. She wanted him to call in professionals, but he insisted on doing things himself.”
Eulalie heard a familiar voice inside the office.
“Is that…? No, it can’t be.”
The voice got louder, and soon Carson Fairweather was standing a
mongst them.
“You.” She looked at the man in mystification. “What are you doing here?”
“Nice to see you too, Ms. Park. I came over from Prince William Island the moment I heard about the trouble here. I came to be of service to Mrs. Wong. We are old acquaintances.”
As they watched, Marcia Wong came out of the office and threw her arms around Mr. Fairweather.
“Oh, Carson. Why did he have to die? I know I didn’t show it often, but I loved him dearly. He was my man, and it took me more than twenty years to find him. We only had seven years together. It’s not fair.”
“Now, Marcia.” Fairweather patted her shoulder. “Evan brought this on himself. You said so yourself, and you’re right.”
“It’s so unfair,” she sobbed. “I’m never allowed to be happy. It’s been the same ever since I was a little girl. As soon as I got something of my own, it had to get snatched away from me.”
“You’ll meet someone else, Marcie. You see if you don’t.”
“You don’t get second chances in life – not at my age.”
Eulalie felt rather than saw Chief Macgregor move quietly away to continue his investigation. She stayed where she was.
“Why am I always the one who has to pay the price?”
“It only seems like that sometimes, Marcia. In fact, you’ve been very privileged, haven’t you?”
“It doesn’t feel like it.”
They stood together for a long time, with Fairweather patting her shoulder, and Mrs. Wong alternating between grief and anger.
It was almost a relief when Chief Macgregor came back to say that he was finished.
“My officers will stay here to preserve the scene for the medical examiner and the crime scene technicians.”
“You’re treating it as a suspicious death?”
“I’m treating it as an unexplained death. It’s the job of the crime scene people and the medical examiner to explain it to me. Mrs. Wong says she is closing up for the day.”
“As I would have expected. Is she coming back with us now?”
“She says she’s going to stay with this man, Fairweather. She says he’ll bring her back on the ferry. Who is he?”
“He’s a fixer for the Hodge family. She claims to have known him for years.”
“Then we can go.”
They walked down to the docks together. Eulalie thought they would take the police launch back to Prince William Island, but Chief Macgregor said he would leave it for his officers. She glanced at her watch.
“It’s only twelve-thirty. We’ll have to wait until one for the next ferry.”
“No, the ferry master will take us now. They’ve shut down the normal service to allow us to investigate.”
They were the only people on the ferry. The ferry master came out to speak to them once they were underway.
“Am I cleared to resume service at three o’clock, Chief?” he asked.
“I’ll confirm with the ME and the crime scene techs, but I’m sure that will be fine.”
“Thanks. We halted service the moment the call came in that there’d been an unexplained death on the cay, just as you asked. But the sooner we can resume the better. With the cost of fuel these days, we need every trip just to break even.”
“I’ll let you know by two at the latest,” said Chief Macgregor.
The ferry master went back to his cabin. Eulalie and Chief Macgregor sat side by side as the sturdy craft ploughed its way home.
Chapter 20
As soon as Eulalie came into cellphone range, she took out her phone to check her messages. There was one from Mrs. Belfast confirming that a Skype call had been set up with Chuck Weston for two-thirty that afternoon.
Lorelei Belfast: He’s a day trader in New York. Says he can fit you in after gym and before he hits the office. It will be 7.30 his time. I didn’t expect him to get back to me so early, but he did.
“Do you have time for lunch?” she asked Chief Macgregor.
“I don’t. I have to get to a meeting. I ate a packed lunch on the police launch on the way over to Monk’s Cay.”
Eulalie stopped at a food cart for her favorite falafel in pita. She added a fruit and vegetable smoothie to soothe her nutritional conscience. By the time she got back to the office, both were half finished. She stopped off at La Petite Patisserie for some coffee for her and Mrs. Belfast.
When she walked into the office, her secretary was nowhere to be seen. Assuming that she had gone to the bathroom, Eulalie put the coffee on her desk and headed for her own cubicle. She had almost reached her desk when she heard a loud scuffling in the back of the office.
“Mrs. B.? Is that you?”
There were more scuffles, and then silence. Eulalie frowned. There was nothing through there except a small kitchen and a bathroom. There was also a backdoor that led to a grassy courtyard that they shared with the other tenants in the building. She was just walking towards the kitchen when the door burst open and Mrs. Belfast came out looking flustered.
“It’s you! Sorry I wasn’t at my desk. I was just…”
“You don’t have to apologize or explain, Mrs. B. You’re not chained to your desk. You’re free to get up and do whatever.”
Mrs. Belfast’s smile was harried. “Yes, of course, thank you. It’s just that…”
“Is that blood?” Eulalie pointed to a slash of red on the inside of Mrs. Belfast’s forearm, just below the elbow.
“No!” Her hand came up to cover it. “I mean, yes. I cut myself in the kitchen. I was chopping something. I have Band-Aids, don’t worry.”
Eulalie thought it looked much more like a scratch than a cut.
“I hope that cat hasn’t been coming around here again.” She watched Mrs. Belfast’s face for a response.
“Cat? What cat? There is no cat. I was just slicing something.”
“And the knife slipped and cut you under the elbow. Could happen to anyone.”
“I finished my report on the flashing lights.” Mrs. Belfast changed the subject. “I emailed it to you. I think you’ll find it interesting.”
“That’s great, Mrs. B. Thanks. I’ll have a look at it after the Skype call. What did you arrange with him? Must I call him?”
“I arranged to call him on his cellphone at half past two to confirm that you were both sitting at your computers and ready. Then you can call him. I’ve added his number to your Skype address book.”
All thoughts of cats and scratches went out of Eulalie’s mind as she prepared what she was going to ask Chuck Weston.
The face that appeared on her computer screen was almost unchanged from the clean-cut young man she had seen in media reports. His face was a little thinner and more mature looking, but it was unmistakably him.
“Good morning, Ms. Park.”
“Good morning, Mr. Weston. Thanks for your time.”
His face broke into a smile. “I haven’t heard that island accent in five years. I’d forgotten what it sounds like. Prettiest accent in the world.”
“Thank you.” She smiled back at him. “So, you haven’t been back to Prince William Island since that spring break vacation?”
“Nope. Been too busy working. I graduated at the end of that summer term and moved straight to Manhattan where I’ve been working ever since. You live on a beautiful island, Ms. Park, but for me the associations weren’t great.”
“The disappearance of Jessica Manilow.”
“Not my finest hour, as you can imagine.”
“Do you see yourself as responsible for her disappearance in any way?”
His eyes were sad. “We left her there, Ms Park. We got on a boat and left her there. It’s the shame that will haunt me for the rest of my life. We shouldn’t have left her there.”
“Why did you?”
“I’ve asked myself that about a thousand times. My memory of that night wasn’t clear to begin with, and it’s been getting fuzzier as the years go by. I was drinking that night, and I mean heavily. I’d had m
ore than anyone else. Thought I’d give those island boys a lesson in how to hold your alcohol. It ended with me hurling my guts up into the Indian Ocean. Not very dignified, I’m afraid. I was so wasted that night.”
“Why don’t you tell me what you do remember, and I’ll ask questions if I need to. Does that sound all right?”
“Anything I can do to help. It still bothers me that the poor girl has never been found. If only we hadn’t got talking to her, she would be waking up and going to work right now, just like me.” There was a pause while he seemed to be looking at something over Eulalie’s right shoulder. Then his eyes shifted back to hers and he continued.
“It must have been around lunchtime when we started joking about going to Monk’s Cay. Those two local boys, Damien and Pete, had been telling Jess and me about the island all week long. They told us tall stories about how it was supposed to be haunted, and all the crazy stuff they’d seen there when they were kids. They told us how no one had ever managed to last a whole night on the island. Apparently, they always come back early wailing about spooks and shit. So, of course we took it as a personal challenge. I still didn’t think we were really going to do it. I don’t think any of us did. But as the afternoon wore on, we drank more and more beer, and it suddenly began to seem like a fine plan.”
“What was the relationship like between the four of you that day?”
“Slightly tense, to be honest. We’d been getting on great all week, but that day was a bit different. Things were coming to a head between us boys. It was clear that something was going to blow.”
“Was there tension over Jessica?”
“Sure was.”
“The three of you had a pact that you weren’t going to make a move on her during that holiday. It was a pact that you came up with.”
The flash of surprise in his eyes was gone almost before she saw it. “I suppose you’ve been talking to Pete and Damien. Yes, that’s right. We made that dumb pact, and it was my idea. I did it to spike their guns, of course. I’m not proud of it now, but that’s what was in my mind at the time. I thought I’d get them off their guard, and then move in on her myself. And if the whole friendship imploded after that, I wouldn’t care because I would have got what I wanted, which was Jessica.”
The Complete H-Series of The Eulalie Park Mysteries Page 60