by Ted Wood
It was sleepy mid-afternoon time. The trees were buzzing with cicadas and the heat was enough to soften the bones, sending most vacationing adults for a siesta.
I called at a dozen or so houses, talking to the occasional group of swimming children but getting no help and causing a little embarrassment at some places where guys came to the door yawning hugely and explaining that their wives were lying down at the moment. Nobody had heard anything the night before.
Sam was on the verandah at my place and he bounded down to the car to greet me, wagging his tail and keening low in his throat. I took a moment to fuss him, then went in. Freda met me at the door.
'Time to go, old sport,' she said. 'My water broke about an hour ago. I called the doctor and he said I should head up to the hospital.' Her face was a little pale but she seemed confident and I put my arm around her.
'I'll get your bag.'
'It's in the kitchen, behind the door, ready for a flying start.' She sounded as cheerful as ever, but she doesn't panic easily so I didn't waste any time. I just grabbed her bag and led her out to the police car.
'Really? You're taking me in that?' she laughed. 'The nurses'll think I'm a charity case.'
'Not a chance.' I didn't feel much like joking. All I had to do was stand around while she did the work. 'This thing's got a siren. If the stork picks up speed, I can still get you there on time.'
I tossed her bag in the rear seat and put her in front, handing her the seat-belt which she put on carefully. Then I told Sam 'Keep' and left him in charge.
The same bunch of kids on Main Street saw us together and instantly worked out what was happening. Some of the noisier girls called out good wishes and Fred waved. Now we were on our way I asked her about the pains and she told me there weren't any. 'But my water's broken. That's why he wants me up there.'
'Is that normal?' I had been to Lamaze classes with her through the winter but I was too close to this birth to be objective.
'Later is better but it's no cause for alarm.'
She sounded relaxed and I reached out my hand to squeeze hers. 'Hang in there, have you there in half an hour. Just keep me posted on the pains.'
'It's a bit like your tooth stopping aching when you head for the dentist. Nothing's happening.'
'That's a comfort. I like leaving tricky jobs to the experts.'
She didn't say much and I concentrated on my driving, pushing the speed to the limits of safety, overtaking everything in front of me. One doddery old guy didn't look in his mirror to check my flashing lights behind him and I gave him a quick squirt of the siren which scared him out of his coma. He pulled right on to the shoulder in a cloud of dust and sat there while I accelerated over the top of the hill in front and lost him.
We came into Parry Sound twenty minutes later and I eased into the last space in front of the Emergency door at the hospital. Fred wouldn't let me get a wheelchair and we walked in arm in arm. The nurse on duty glanced at us oddly, wondering if a mercy call had turned into a romance. 'My wife's water has broken, Dr Rosen is her doctor, he said to come in.'
She pushed a form at me. 'Fill this out, please.'
'Not until she's taken care of,' I said and the nurse shook her head pityingly and said, 'Fathers,' but she got a wheelchair and whisked Fred away. 'Your husband can come and see you when he's been a good boy and filled out the form.'
I squeezed Fred's shoulder and waited until the nurse came back, then filled in the form, thanking my stars that I'd moved back to Ontario after my service in the US Marines. I love the States but hospitals there cost an arm and leg. Here it's all paid for.
Twenty minutes later I was up in an examination room with Fred, waiting for her doctor to get in from the golf course, it was Wednesday after all, his half day. He had spoken to her from the clubhouse, Fred told me, where he'd come in from the first tee to answer his pager. I guessed he'd lingered to hit a few balls but he was there in ten minutes, a small, young guy with round glasses and not much of a tan.
He whisked me out of the room to examine her, then came out to report. 'It may be some time,' he said and immediately went over my head with details of dilation. 'Are you attending the birth?'
'I've taken the classes but honestly the idea scares the hell out of me. I don't want to be in the way.'
'Thank God,' he said earnestly. 'Some of the fathers are a royal pain in the ass.' He gave an apologetic half-smile and went on, 'You won't be needed for a couple of hours anyway. Why don't you talk it over with your wife? Then, if you've got anything else to do come back at— 'he checked his watch—'let's say six o'clock.'
'Thank you, Doctor.' I went back in to see Fred who was being moved out to a pre-natal room. I walked with her as far as the door. The nurse left us there for a moment to talk, tactfully heading off somewhere else.
'Look, Reid, you don't have to be here, you know,' Fred said.
I stopped and gave her a quick kiss. 'I'm all trained up to help, wouldn't want to waste all that knowledge.'
'Yes, you would,' she said firmly. 'Why don't you head out for an hour or two anyway? If you come in with me now you'll have to gown up and you're stuck here for the rest of the time.'
I weakened, very easily. 'Well, I have to check with the local people. I didn't tell you before but a Parry Sound woman has drowned at the Harbour. I should talk to the police here.'
'Vaya con Dios,' she said and waved me away.
The nurse must have been hovering. She was back in a moment, all brisk. 'You can come inside but you'll have to change.'
'I'm coming back later.' Fred was with me on the decision, so why did I feel like I was retreating under fire?
The OPP constable on duty at the Parry Sound desk was a fishing buddy of mine and he stuck out his hand and asked after Fred. 'In the hospital, the doctor says to come back at supper-time. Figured I'd check on the Carolyn Jeffries investigation.'
'The inspector's in his office. Come on through.' He flipped up the hinged section of the desk and opened the gate.
'Thanks, Mike.' I went through and tapped on Inspector Dunn's door. It was open and he was on the phone. He waved me in. 'Chief Bennet just walked in, I'll put him on,' he said. He handed me the phone. 'S' arnt Holland, he's at the Jeffries' store.'
'Thank you.' I took the phone. 'Hi, Bill, Reid Bennett. What did you find out?'
'Hi, Reid.' Bill Holland is a good detective although he hasn't had much homicide experience. 'I was just in the store. There's a kid working there, says she hasn't seen hide nor hair of the Jeffries since yesterday. She came in and opened up like always, nobody there. First time ever.'
'Do they live over the store?'
'No. Got a place on the water on the edge of town. The girl, her name's Peggy Lindhoff, says she's rung the house, no answer. First time she's ever had to open up on her own. She figures something's wrong.'
'Let me explain. The owner of the stolen car says his wife had big eyes for this Stu Jeffries guy. She was a good friend of the wife but her husband led me to believe that she liked the husband a lot.'
'You sayin' they might have killed the wife so they could be together?'
'It's possible, but according to the husband, who's a lawyer, his wife and the Jeffries couple were all kind of hippy. They'd have shacked up together or something like that if they had hankerings. Not the types for a crime of passion.'
'Well, it's strange. This clerk says the Jeffries were always there ahead of her. She's not a partner or anything, only helps out in the summer, says they're nice people.'
'I don't know much about them, except that the other woman's husband doesn't like any of them, including his wife.'
There was a pause and Holland said, 'Guess I should drive down to their house, see if there's any sign of life or if the car's still there. No matter what anybody thinks, this Jeffries guy and the Waites woman could've offed the wife and left for parts unknown.'
'I'll come down there and meet you. Where is it?' He told me and gave directions and I hu
ng up and spoke to the inspector. 'I'll go over there. I'll need the husband to identify his wife's body. It's at the funeral parlour in Murphy's Harbour.'
'OK.' Dunn stood up. 'On the face of it, it sounds like a triangle. Even hippies get jealous, least these days they do.'
The Jeffries house made Waites' description of their lifestyle seem appropriate. It was small and neat with artfully contrasting blue shutters and a big well-kept garden. There was a bright yellow VW beetle in the driveway.
Holland was waiting for me, in his car. He's a typical old-time copper, big, running to fat, wearing a neat suit that looked like it came with two pairs of pants. He got out and shook hands. 'Hi, Reid, how's the wife?'
I told him and we opened the gate and walked up to the gingerbread porch. There were potted geraniums all along the sill and a set of oriental windchimes hanging silent in the stillness.
The door had an old-fashioned ratchet bell and Holland cranked the handle on it a few time. Nobody answered. There was no sound from inside. A woman in a big sunhat was watering her flowers in the next yard and Holland sauntered over to talk to her. No, she hadn't seen the Jeffries that day. 'Are they in trouble?' she wanted to know.
'No, ma'am. This is a social call,' Holland lied easily. He came back to the verandah. 'This is a pain,' he said.
'There's a cagebird singing in the house,' I said. 'People like this would've set it out here this morning if they'd gone to their store.'
'Y'reckon?' He looked at me thoughtfully. 'Guess you're right. An' if they're not, they could be long gone while we're waiting around here for them to come back.'
I bent and flipped the doormat over. A key lay under it. 'How convenient,' Holland said. 'Lemme see that a minute.'
He took the key and tried the door. It opened and he stepped inside and called 'Hello, Mr Jeffries. Anybody home?'
The cagebird fell silent and I stepped in after him. The house was tiny inside but beautifully furnished, not expensively but with real style, antique Ontario pine everywhere, contrasting with bold modern paintings and good prints. We glanced into the two rooms off the centre hall. One was a dining-room, the other a sitting-room with a big bookshelf and an expensive music system. The birdcage was hanging in the window and I could see from the door that the water container was empty. That seemed out of character with the rest of the house and I followed Holland through to the kitchen. There were unwashed dishes in the sink, dinner dishes, and a glass baking pan with some dried-out greenish stuff still in it. Holland looked at the mess. 'Two plates. They didn't all eat together.'
'Let's check upstairs.' I led now, up the polished stairs to the bedrooms. Both were empty and were neatly made. There was nobody there, even in the closets or the bathroom.
'Looks like they've been away all night,' Holland said. He scratched under his chin thoughtfully. 'But their car's still in the driveway.'
'The wife's body was in the Accord.' I thought out loud. 'And that bug of theirs stands out like a burning bush. If the other two were taking off somewhere maybe they rented another car.'
'I'll check that out,' Holland said. He was opening the drawers in the chest of the bigger bedroom. It was full of neatly folded men's socks and underclothes. 'If the husband was takin' off he was travellin' light. Did this Waites woman have a whole bunch of money maybe?'
'Didn't sound like it, to hear her husband talk. He said she married him because she needed a meal ticket.'
'Yeah, but maybe she's got a satchelful of his credit cards.' Holland was rolling the thoughts around in his mind.
'Could be. But she was a painter, not into shopping, according to the husband.'
'I'd like to talk to that sonofabitch,' Holland said. ' 'S he still at the Harbour?'
'Says he's leaving for Toronto when he can get a car. I've got his home address and phone if you want to call him.'
'Thanks.' Holland copied the information into his book, then closed it firmly. 'Come on, we're through here.'
We went downstairs and I unhooked the birdcage and took it with me as we left. 'Where you takin' that?' Holland asked.
'Leave it next door, give us a chance to talk to the neighbour.'
He grunted but we walked over to the fence and spoke to the woman who was still standing in the same place, obviously curious about us. 'The Jeffries have been called away,' Holland said. 'If you see anybody in there, could you give me a call, please, Sergeant Holland. Don't go over there, please, just call. And could you take care of their bird for them?'
'Of course, Sergeant.' She took the cage happily, a mystery of her very own, right next door.
She wanted to talk at length but Holland just nodded and beamed and we walked back to our cars. I took a minute to talk to him about the dead woman, mentioning the wound on the temple.
'Golf clubs?' he said. 'Likely ended up in the lake somewhere but I'll flag it at the station, see if anybody comes in with a set they've found somewhere.'
'Good idea. What's next?'
He yawned. 'Guess I should print the car you got out of the lake. Where's it at?' I told him and he said, 'Better get it up here in our pound where it's secure, be easier to get at anyway.'
He slumped into his car. 'Thanks for the help. I'll call if I hear anything.'
'Fine. I'll head back to the hospital, see if anything's happening.'
'Yeah. Good luck, hope everything goes OK.' He waved and left and I got into my own car and drove back into the heart of town. It was only five o'clock so I pulled in at a diner and ordered a burger and coffee. I wasn't hungry but remembered what they'd told us at the Lamaze classes: eat normally or you'll pass out in the delivery room. This was a duty.
The place was half full but I got a seat by the window and sat there looking out as I waited. The place next door was one of the better eating spots in town and I watched the first of the evening's customers drifting in. Most were holiday-makers, young groups of men and women laughing together, but as I was eating I saw a Mercedes pull into the lot. It jangled my memory and I realized it was the same model and colour as the one that had dropped Waites at the gas station. I would check the licence when I left, I decided, to see if I was right. I watched it and as its doors opened I saw that Ms Tracy was driving. She had a young guy with her and when he turned to speak to her I realized he was the leader of the gang I'd chased out of Murphy's Harbour earlier.
He was talking animatedly, giving the impression that he was very much in control of himself, sophisticated even, not like the angry gang member he had been that morning. He seemed older, more mature and, most important of all, he seemed to be courting Ms Tracy, acting with the eager agreeableness of a man trying to win over a new conquest.
I considered my options. My authority doesn't extend beyond the limits of my own bailiwick. If I went up to the kid here and asked him questions he could tell me to go to hell. Then he and Ms Tracy would leave before I could get a local guy to do the asking for me. I had to get something on him without his knowing.
I paid and tipped the waitress and went out to the parking lot. First I checked the licence plate of the Mercedes. It was the same one that Waites had ridden in, so he and Ms Tracy were friends at least. With that done, I went through the back door of the hotel. The kitchen was busy but one of the cooks waved and made a drinking motion with his hands. Did I want a coffee, beer, something? 'I'd like to talk to the manager or one of the waiters, can you call them for me, please?'
He went to the door with its glass panel and waved through it. A moment later a trim young woman in a smart blouse and skirt came through the door. The cook pointed at me and she spoke, smiling formally. 'Yes, what's up?'
'I'm here to ask a favour, please. Can you help me?'
'Depends what it is.' She was intrigued.
'There's a couple who came in three or four minutes ago, a woman around thirty-five, wearing a green top and a gold chain. There's a man with her, a little younger.'
'They're at table fourteen.' She cocked her head. 'You want to t
alk to them?'
'No, but I'd very much like to get the young man's glass or bottle if he orders a drink. Is that possible, do you think, please?'
I never majored in charm but I applied all I had. She frowned. 'Is this going to make me liable in some court case?'
'Nobody else will ever know, I promise, it'll help me in an investigation I'm conducting.'
'Stay here,' she commanded and clacked out of the kitchen on her high heels, skirt swinging to stir a man's heartstrings. I waited four or five minutes before she returned, wearing a white glove on her right hand, carrying a highball glass. 'I put white gloves on the waiter. The only prints on this are your guy's right hand.'
'Thank you very much. I appreciate this.'
I held out my left hand, flat, but she said, 'Hold on, we have plastic bags somewhere.' One of the kitchen staff brought her one and she slipped the glass into it and handed it to me. 'There. Hope it helps. If it helps your case any, he drinks Glenfiddich.'
'Glad he can afford it.' I hefted the bag with my left hand and touched the peak of my cap with the right. 'You've saved me a lot of work.'
'Your name's Bennett, isn't it?' she said.
'That's right. I'm from Murphy's Harbour.'
'I was down there visiting one time and my friend told me you were a tough cop, lived alone with a big dog.'
'That's Sam, my German shepherd. He's off duty tonight.'
'And you're working on a case?'
'Kind of. I'm also waiting for word from the hospital about my wife, she's having a baby.'
'Oh.' Her tone became brisker. 'Well, glad I could help.'
She tritch-tratched away and I left with my package, remembering how lonely it can be when you're single.
I debated whether to hand over the glass to Holland for comparison with the prints he found on Waites' car but decided against it. I would check them myself and let him have them later. Right now the fact that this kid had been a gang member might be completely irrelevant to the murder he was investigating. The only tie I could see was that both he and the husband knew the Tracy woman. I would call in on her later, I decided, and ask about the boy. Meantime I went back to the hospital, where I met Dr Rosen who shook his head at me. 'Your wife's fine. She hasn't started having contractions, but the baby's head is high so I'm keeping her in bed. If she's still hanging fire this evening I'll induce labour.'