The Whole, Entire, Complete Truth

by Caroline Rennie Pattison

  “Put it down, Roy! Don’t swing that thing our way,” screeched Sarah, holding up a hand as if to ward off an attack. I pretended to shoot her. It didn’t even have a dart loaded in it and she just about fainted in fright.

  Mindi stood wide-eyed. “What’s in the freezer?” she asked, her voice shaky.

  “I don’t know, but there’s one way to find out,” I said, putting the tranquilizer gun back on the shelf.

  Sarah pushed up the freezer’s lid. An interior light came on, making Sarah and Mindi’s faces glow as they looked inside.

  “It’s just a bunch of brown packages like you get from the butcher.” Mindi sighed with relief.

  “Yeah?” I asked, looking over their shoulders. “What’s in them? Pot roasts?”

  The girls looked at each other, then Sarah scooped up one of the packages and bounced it in her hand a little as if testing its weight. She carefully picked at the end of the brittle tape holding the paper closed then peeled it back, unwrapping the package. Underneath, clear cellophane caught the light of the bare bulb. Sarah frowned and turned it this way and that.

  “What is it?” asked Mindi, leaning in closer. We examined it with growing horror.

  “It looks like ...” I began, frowning.

  “... a bear’s paw!” finished Sarah, dropping it back into the freezer. “Ugh!” She frantically wiped her hands on her pant legs.

  Mindi’s face went white. “Do you think all these packages are ... paws?”

  “Some might be gallbladders,” Sarah said, dully.

  Mindi turned away holding her hands to her mouth. “I think I’m going to be sick,” she said weakly.

  “Me, too!” gasped Sarah, clutching her stomach.

  “You two need to get out of here,” I said. “I’ll wrap that thing back up and put it away.”

  But the girls were falling apart. It was one thing to read about poachers and what they did to bears but to actually hold a severed bear part in your own hands ... they were pretty shaken up. I’d have to take charge.

  I put an arm around both girls’ shoulders and gently led them out of the tiny room.

  “The paw ...” started Sarah weakly.

  “Don’t worry,” I assured her. “I’ll take care of it.”

  With the girls holding onto my strong arms, I led them to the back of the barn and in behind the cages towards our little doorway, coaxing them as they shuffled along as if in shock by what they had seen. Once I made sure they were safely outside, I hurried back to the hidden room to cover our tracks.

  It was easier to think without two hysterical girls on either side of me. I carefully wrapped the paw back up in the brown paper and taped it into place. It didn’t look as neatly packaged as before and the tape wasn’t very sticky anymore, but it held. I stood back to admire my work. There sure were a lot of packages in that freezer. If they were all bear parts, then a lot of bears must have been killed to get them. I swallowed hard. Sarah wanted more evidence and I guess she found it. I closed the lid on the freezer, pulled the string to turn off the overhead bulb, and left the tiny room, pulling the door shut behind me. Mr. Braemarie would never know anyone was in there.

  As I walked back down the long passage between the cages, I was aware of the eyes sombrely watching my progress. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the bears somehow knew what I had seen in that room. I couldn’t look at them now without thinking of that hard, frozen paw; I wondered if it came from a friend of theirs. What was in store for these bears?

  The two girls were sitting on the grass, leaning against the outer wall, when I crawled out of the barn. They watched glumly as I replaced the boards and returned everything to normal.

  “Thank you, Roy,” said Mindi. “We should have stayed and helped.”

  “Don’t worry,” I said. “You were too upset. I didn’t mind.” She smiled at me gratefully.

  “What would we have done without you?” she asked. I sat down beside her.

  “Are you okay?” I put my hand gently on her arm. She nodded, her eyes moist.

  “Yeah, and I’m okay too, Roy. Thanks for asking,” butted in Sarah from the other side of Mindi.

  “What are we going to do?” Mindi cried. “We can’t just stand around and watch that freezer fill up with more paws and ... other things.” She shuddered. “We have to stop it!”

  Sarah nodded. “Roy, what do you think we should do? We have to stop Mr. Braemarie and those men from hurting any more bears.”

  I knew exactly what needed to be done.

  “We have to tell Dad about this right now,” I said. “That’s the only solution.”

  “Roy’s right,” agreed Mindi. “This is too big to keep quiet anymore. There are absolutely no doubts left about what Colin’s doing with those bears.” She blinked back tears. “This is really going to upset my mom. I’m sure she doesn’t know anything about this. She’s belongs to the Wildlife Foundation — there’s no way she’d knowingly have anything to do with someone who would poach bears, or any other animal.”

  We sat a bit longer. I didn’t know what to say. Mindi was upset, so I put my arm around her to comfort her. Finally, Sarah stood up.

  “Let’s get this over with. Say goodbye to me ’cause as soon as we tell Dad about being in this barn I’ll be grounded for the rest of my life. It’ll be all my fault, just wait and see.” She started walking towards the house. “It’s been nice knowing ya.”

  We were quiet on the bike ride home. I doubled Mindi and still beat Sarah there. They followed me to Dad’s study. He was working at his desk; it was piled high with files and papers. I knocked before walking in, the girls stood behind me. Dad scowled at the disturbance.

  “Hi, Dad,” I said.

  “Hi, kids,” he replied, not looking up from the papers on his desk.

  “You look a little busy,” Sarah noted, needlessly.

  “You bet I am.”

  He set down his pen and swivelled around in his chair to face us. “I’m telling you,” he began, wagging a finger in our direction. The wagging finger was never a good sign. “I spend more time dealing with runaway kids, kids on drugs, and kids doing all-nighters worrying their parents to death. I spent all last night dealing with juvenile delinquents and now I’m swamped in the paperwork. Just think how much time I’d have to go after the real criminals of this world if kids would just listen to their parents!”

  “Maybe we caught you at a bad time,” said Sarah, biting her lip and backing away.

  Dad put his finger down. “It’s very frustrating,” he said, then sighed. “At least I don’t have to deal with this kind of thing in my own home.” He looked right at Sarah and said, “At least I know my own children follow the rules and don’t go running off to places where they shouldn’t, right?” He swivelled back around to face his desk and muttered, “If I had to deal with one more case of youth delinquency right now, I think I’d explode.” He turned back to us and smiled grimly. “So what’s up, kids?”

  “Uh ...” stammered Sarah. Her face was white. “Uh ...”

  Once again I had to step in and save the day for Sarah. “Nothing, Dad,” I said. “We just thought we’d say hi, you know, let you know we’re back from biking.” I nudged Mindi forward. “Have you met Mindi yet, Dad?” I threw Sarah a look, to get her to introduce her friend. She wasn’t getting it. She was still stuttering. I sighed and introduced Mindi to Dad for her.

  Then, I got the girls out of there. We escaped to the rec room. Good plans need to have good timing, and this was not the best time for telling Dad about Mr. Braemarie’s barn.

  So much for Plan A.

  Can you believe that load of garbage? Give me a break! There’s no way Roy will be writing any more of this report, not that he’d want to anyway. The only reason I’m including his section, Dad, is so you can see what I have to put up with every day — Roy’s full-blown, hugely overestimated opinion of himself. I think he actually believes everything he wrote!

  Let me set the record straight ..
.

  First of all, Mom doesn’t always tell Roy he’s the best son a mother could have. That’s just gross! Next, I do not need to work out more. I only stay behind him when we’re biking so I don’t have to listen to him bragging all the time about how fast he thinks he’s going. Mach 2! Whatever! And it wasn’t me pushing my way into the barn first. I have more manners than that. In fact, Roy was in the barn and down the corridor looking at the bears before Mindi and I even crawled through the opening.

  While he did tell the truth about me being the one to find the freezer room, I wasn’t all freaked out by it like he said. Mindi and I were definitely not hysterical. In fact, I was the one who wrapped the paw back up and we left the room and the barn together. Unbelievable! He led us out while we were holding onto his strong arms. I think I’m going to puke!

  To think that he has the nerve to talk about me not getting the facts right. The main reason he wanted to write a part of this report was to make himself look like a hero. Yeah right, some hero. Just remember, Dad, that Roy makes Roy sound good while making me sound bad. It was a little payback for how I’ve been portraying him, even though I’m just telling the truth. It’s so Roy.

  So basically, what he did get right was that the three of us went into the barn together and I found the room with the tranquilizer gun and the freezer full of bear parts. More evidence against Mr. Braemarie. He also got the scene with you pretty much right although I don’t remember stuttering!

  Do you understand now why we didn’t tell you what we knew about the barn that day? You have to believe me, Dad, we were planning to. But we caught you at such a bad time and we really didn’t want to make you angrier and more frustrated than you already were. After what you said about us not being disobedient like those other kids you deal with all the time, I just couldn’t tell you that for weeks I’d been going to the Braemarie farmhouse against your direct orders. I don’t know if you realize it, but you’re a little scary when you’re mad.

  So we didn’t tell you what we found in the barn, but this is what we did do ...

  WHAT TO DO?

  DATE: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29

  (CONTINUED)

  LOCATION: HOME

  “We can just go to another police officer,” suggested Roy. “It doesn’t have to be Dad.”

  “Dad will still find out that it was us that made the report,” I pointed out. “We’d get into just as much trouble as if we’d gone to him ourselves.”

  “True.”

  “But we have to let the police know somehow,” protested Mindi. “They only have till next Saturday to stop Colin from killing the bears.”

  “Maybe you could talk to our dad, Mindi,” suggested Roy.

  “No way,” I protested. “He’d link that to me in an instant. I’d end up getting into trouble and you’d be off the hook, Roy.”

  “Well, what better ideas do you have?” he asked, crossing his arms.

  I frowned. I needed time to think.

  “What about Cori’s dad? Why don’t we go to him?” asked Roy.

  “Mr. Gabby?” I asked incredulously. “He’d be no help; he’d probably just talk us out of it. He doesn’t even think poaching’s a problem here in Muskoka. He’d never believe us.”

  “We could still call the Ministry of Natural Resources office,” argued Roy.

  “They’re closed on Saturdays,” I retorted. “That’s why Mindi and I had to make the appointment with Mr. Stedman on a Friday.”

  Then Mindi had a brainstorm. “Why don’t we make an anonymous tip? You know, like they do with Crime Stoppers. Can we do that?” she asked.

  “Hey, that could work,” said Roy.

  I whacked my forehead. “Why didn’t I think of that?” I moaned. “I just read about how Ontario has an anti-poaching campaign through Crime Stoppers when I was doing my research. That’s perfect! You’re the best, Mindi!”

  So that’s what we did. We just looked up the number in the phone book. It was a lot easier to find than Mr. Stedman’s number. Roy did all the talking. He tried to disguise his voice by making it sound really low. If it wasn’t so serious, I would have found it funny. Afterwards, there was a heavy feeling of finality. We couldn’t take it back; we’d started things in motion that couldn’t be reversed.

  “Well, I guess that’s it,” Mindi said as we plunked ourselves down in the rec room. “Colin’s going to be arrested and put in jail. My mom’s going to be devastated. And I won’t be going to his farm anymore to ride his horses. Everything’s ruined.”

  Roy sighed. “Maybe he won’t get arrested, Mindi. Maybe he’ll just be fined or something. The bottom line is that what he’s doing is illegal, and like my dad says, ‘all choices have consequences.’”

  “Dad says that?” I asked, puzzled.

  “Yes, he does, Sarah. Maybe you should listen to him once in a while,” Roy suggested. I made a face at him.

  “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.” Mindi shrugged. “No matter what, I can’t see my mom wanting to have any more to do with him after she finds all this out.” She shook her head. “And I feel the same way. I don’t know how I’ll be able to look him in the eye again. What he’s doing to these bears is terrible and has to be stopped, no matter what.” A tear welled up in her eye and she briskly wiped it away. “I like Colin — well, I did before now. I thought he was a really nice guy for my mom and now we find out that he’s nothing but a bear-killer. So if that means he needs to get arrested or fined or whatever happens to poachers, then he deserves it.”

  Ontario Provincial Police

  Crime Stoppers Division

  Record of Citizen’s Report/Complaint

  Date: Saturday, September 29

  Recording Officer: Constable Nichols

  Name of individual: Anonymous

  Address: Withheld

  Phone Number: Withheld

  Details of Citizen’s Report/Complaint:

  A phone call was made at 12:35 p.m. by

  a young male. A recording was made and

  filed #32683.

  The male reported concerns regarding a

  farmhouse owned by Colin Braemarie, 1735

  Brackenberry Road. On this property there

  is an alleged barn containing live bears

  as well as body parts of bears kept in a

  freezer. The speaker claimed to have

  overheard a conversation indicating that

  a deal would be executed next Saturday,

  October 6, involving the illegal selling

  of bears and bear parts.

  Follow-up:

  The recording and a copy of this report

  will be forwarded to Detective Ed Martin,

  who is currently leading an investigation

  involving poaching.

  In case you’re wondering, Dad, Constable Coleman gave me that copy of the police report. He felt sorry for me because of you making me write this, and he wanted to help. I would have liked to have seen your face when you received that report, now that I know it was given to you. Did you realize that it was Roy on the phone? I’m sure you did. You must have had a fit! I guess that explains all the extra jobs you gave us at home that week — you wanted to keep us busy and away from the farmhouse.

  As for us, once we made that call, we figured that Mr. Braemarie would soon be arrested. Every day we expected the police to show up at Mr. Braemarie’s doorstep with handcuffs, but nothing happened. As far as we could tell, it was business as usual at the farmhouse. I began to wonder if our call had been taken seriously.

  By Wednesday, Roy and I had given up on the idea of a police raid anytime soon. We got our chores done quickly, as soon as we got off the school bus, and pedalled over to the farmhouse to meet Mindi, who was there with her mom, as usual. Roy had a little lesson on Ginger. He was terrible, shrieking like a girl whenever the horse started to trot. Mindi told him he’d catch on, but I think she was just being nice. I hadn’t laughed that hard since Roy’s shorts fell d
own to his ankles at the public pool in Mississauga, when he was showing off to a bunch of girls. He really is a schmuck!

  By Friday, we were at our wit’s end. The thugs were due back at dawn the next morning. If the police actually planned to respond to our call, it would be the last day of Mr. Braemarie’s life masquerading as a law-abiding citizen. And the way Mindi figured it, that also meant he’d no longer be her mom’s boyfriend, so it would also be the end of her spending time with his horses. It wasn’t just his lifestyle that would be changed dramatically; we all had a lot to lose here.

  We were supposed to go over to Cori’s house that night for a sleepover. Can you imagine? Cori invited me along with Stacey and Mindi. She said that her dad insisted that she include me because I seemed like such a nice girl when he met me with Mindi in his office. I wasn’t really looking forward to a whole evening with Cori, but I agreed to go for Mindi and Stacey’s sake. However, at the last minute, Mindi bailed. She just really wanted to spend time with her beloved horses at the farmhouse, in case it turned out to be her last chance to be with them.

  So that’s how it came about that Roy and I ended up at Mr. Braemarie’s farm that day after school. To share with Mindi her last visit with her beloved horses. We were the only two people who knew what was going on and who understood how she felt. Who would have known what was in store for us? And who knows how things might have turned out if we weren’t there?

  UNEXPECTED VISITORS

  DATE: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5

  LOCATION: THE FARMHOUSE

  As Roy and I cycled to the farmhouse, thunder rumbled in the distance. Dark clouds scurried across an ominous sky. I shivered as a huge gust of wind whipped my jacket around me. I bent forward and pedalled faster against its force.