The Travelling Detective: Boxed Set

by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

  “Julia and I went to Winnipeg but we split up after a few months. I invested in a couple of businesses that did not do too badly but my partner decided he was entitled to the money more than I was and one night he ran off with it.”

  “You don’t look very good. Are you sick?”

  “No.” He grinned. “I guess it’s the years of hard living just taking their toll.”

  Elizabeth carried her pop to the counter.

  Harry looked at her. “Well, if it isn’t the writer.”

  “Hello, Harry.” She didn’t know what else to say. It wasn’t as if they’d been introduced but he seemed to know about her just like she knew about him.

  “I hear you were going to write about the finding of the skeleton. Now that you know it’s not me are you still planning to?”

  Elizabeth shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “In case you do, are there any questions you’d like to ask me while you’ve got me here?”

  By the leer on his face, she realized he was actually coming on to her. She couldn’t believe the ego of this man. But she couldn’t pass up an opportunity. “As a matter of fact, there are a couple of things I’d like to ask you. How long have you been here, and where have you been staying since you came here?”

  He looked at her thoughtfully. “I’ve been here since Thursday evening. Corrine Duncan, one of my old girlfriends, graciously let me stay with her.”

  Elizabeth thought back. Thursday was when she’d met Corrine at the Musical Ride. At the time she’d still asserted her belief that Harry had killed Mike Altman.

  “Why skulk around? Why didn’t you reveal yourself before?”

  “I wasn’t skulking. I was visiting with Corrine and waiting to see what was happening with the investigation.”

  “So why show up last night?”

  Harry grinned. “Well, maybe I was skulking after all. Dick and Peggy looked like they were having too much fun at the fair.”

  Resisting the temptation to follow that line, Elizabeth stuck to her agenda. “Are you really going to try for some of Peggy’s money?”

  Harry stepped back and opened his arms. “Look at me. Wouldn’t you if you were in my position? Besides, I made payments on both places for years. I’m entitled.”

  * * * *

  After washing her clothes and having supper, Elizabeth went back to the B&B. The heavy clouds had returned, making the sky darker than usual. She’d folded her clean clothes and put them in their bag so she only had the ones she’d wear tomorrow to carry into the house. She wondered if anything had happened while she was gone but she didn’t have a chance to go in and ask, because Chevy was already headed down the driveway on his walk. Actually, not a bad idea, Elizabeth thought. Get it over with in case it rained. She didn’t want to really admit that he was boss.

  When Chevy saw that she was following him, he began to run. It had been a while since their last walk and there were a lot of places to check.

  When they came back, the house was dark and everyone had gone to bed so Elizabeth tiptoed up the stairs. She carried Chevy so his claws wouldn’t make noise on the wood. She was just about ready for bed when her cell phone rang. She answered it quickly.

  “Elizabeth,” Sally said. “I know it’s late but I just want to let you know that Phil is taking the news of Sherry’s lump awfully hard.”

  “I know. I talk to him every night. I was just about to call him as a matter of fact. I wish there was something I could do.”

  “Well, I’m spending as much time with him as I can,” Sally said. “We’ve watched a lot of movies in the past few days.”

  “Thanks, Sally. You are a great friend.”

  * * * *

  There was a bottle of rye, a smudged glass and a dirty cast iron frying pan on the table in front of Dick. The frying pan had a fork and the dried remains of some fried eggs from this morning’s attempt at breakfast. He had eaten the eggs right out of the pan, not bothering with a plate. So far, that was all he’d had to eat today.

  Dick picked up the bottle of rye and poured some into the glass. The bottle was almost empty. He’d been drinking most of the day. This time he hadn’t even tried to talk himself out of having that first one. There was no use, no reason for him to stay sober any more.

  Harry was back. He looked in terrible shape, so thin and old, but he still had his belligerent attitude, the attitude that intimidated people and made them do what he wanted. And from the way he spoke, he wanted to mess up everyone’s lives just as he had done for all those years before he’d left.

  And there went Dick’s chance with Peggy. He fully expected Peggy to be pulled into Harry’s magnetic field again. As soon as Harry had walked into the kitchen Dick could feel his energy, his force. Harry had always had that belief that he was right no matter what. And he had taken control of everyone in the room. It didn’t matter what they told him, he followed his own game plan. And if his plan was to get money from Peggy, then he would follow it until he did. If it was to win Peggy back, then nothing would stop him until he obtained his goal. No one was safe as long as he was around.

  Dick downed the rye and emptied the last of the liquor into his glass. In spite of his best efforts he had only reached the edge of being drunk all day. He just couldn’t seem to get over the hump and into that saturated state where his feelings faded into nothing. He had just raised the glass when there was a knock at the door. He peered at the clock. It was late, after midnight. Who would be coming to see him now? He ignored whoever was there and continued with his little consolation party. For the rye was his consolation for losing Peggy.

  The knock sounded again, this time louder. “Open up, Dick,” a voice hollered. “I know you’re in there.”

  Dick stood and staggered a bit. He walked to the door and flipped on the outside light. He pulled the curtain a little to the side so he could see out.

  Harry! What was Harry doing here? He dropped the curtain.

  “Hey, Dickie. I saw you. Open up.”

  Dick groaned. What did he want? Had he come to gloat? Was he going to rub it in about Peggy?

  He didn’t open the door. He didn’t need to be humiliated in his own house.

  Harry began pounding on the door. “Open up or I’ll wake all your neighbours.”

  “Go away!” Dick yelled. His words were slurred.

  “Not until you open your door.” The pounding continued.

  It was against his better judgment, but Dick opened the inside door. He didn’t need someone calling the police.

  “What do you want?” he asked, through the latched screen door.

  “I want to come in and talk to you, old pal.”

  “I’m not your old pal.”

  “Come on, let me in. I just want to talk to you about Peggy.”

  “What about Peggy?”

  “I just want to tell you that I didn’t come here to win her back.”

  Dick just stared at him. Could that really be true? His drunken mind wished it was.

  “I’m being honest here,” Harry said. “Let me in and I’ll prove it to you.”

  If he’d been sober he’d have shut the door but he so wanted to believe Harry. Dick raised his hand and unlatched the door. Harry opened it and stepped in.

  * * * *

  When everyone was just about finished eating breakfast the next morning, Peggy came in. “Al is offering a trail ride today. Are any of you interested in going on one?”

  A trail ride? Elizabeth admired them for their resilience. Of course, they really had no choice. This was their livelihood.

  “I’d like to go,” Cindy said, looking at her father.

  “We’ll go together,” he smiled.

  Since this was one of the reasons Elizabeth had picked this place to stay, she agreed to join them. She could check out afterwards.

  When she headed out to her vehicle to get an old pair of jeans, Elizabeth saw Reverend Raymond pull into the yard. He looked tired as if he’d been up all night. He didn’t acknow
ledge her, just walked past and into the house.

  When Elizabeth went back into the house, Reverend Raymond was not in the dining room or the kitchen. He must have gone straight to bed.

  “What time is the trail ride?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Al usually leaves about eleven o’clock,” Shirley said.

  Elizabeth hadn’t been on a horse in years. As a child she’d gone to her aunt and uncle’s farm for two weeks during the summer and had ridden their horses with her cousins. The horse she rode must have sensed her ignorance because no matter how hard she tried to make it go where she wanted, it went where it pleased, which was usually back to the barn. At the time she’d considered them huge, mighty animals but looking back at pictures she now saw that they were tired, old nags.

  At five to eleven Elizabeth joined Cindy, Brian and Stormie at the barn where Al had already saddled the horses and stood waiting for them. Once again Peggy had volunteered to keep an eye on Chevy.

  “How gentle are these?” Brian asked.

  “Stormie can ride any of them with no trouble,” Al answered.

  “That’s because she’s used to them and they to her. What about someone who has never ridden before?” he asked, anxiously.

  “Most of our guests have never been on a horse. So far, no one has sustained any injuries.”

  Brian nodded. Elizabeth and the Sinclair’s signed the waivers stating that they were riding at their own risk. Then with Al’s help they all mounted the horses. Elizabeth rode a brown and white pinto named Jessie.

  Al explained how to use their heels to get the horses going and how to pull on the reins to make them stop. “Do not kick too hard or pull too hard on the reins,” he said. “Anyone who abuses my animals will walk back to the house. These horses know the route, so all you have to do is stay on.”

  They left the yard in single file. Al led with Stormie behind, followed by Cindy and Brian. Elizabeth brought up the rear. They headed along a path through the field that surrounded the acreage. The hay was now in huge round bales.

  It felt good to be on a horse again with the warm sun on her back, and she was transported back to the sunny, fun-filled days of the holidays spent with her cousins. She tried to see if Jessie would obey her commands to go right or left but the horse just continued following in line with the others. The only difference between now and her childhood was that she was bigger and the horses were younger. I have no more control over Jessie than I had over the old nags, she thought, smiling.

  They worked their way across the field toward the row of trees. When they reached them Elizabeth saw that the trees were thicker than they had appeared from the road and that they lined a small creek. The path continued through some tall grass and wild flowers that grew beside the clear water, and the trees provided a lovely shade that kept them cool. She was truly enjoying herself and thinking about joining a riding club in Edmonton when Al abruptly stopped. This caused Stormie’s horse to run into his. Cindy got hers stopped in time, as did Brian and Elizabeth.

  “Go back!” Al yelled, waving his hand. “Go back!”

  Elizabeth tried to see what the problem was but there were too many horses in the way. She pulled gently on the reins hoping Jessie would back up, but she refused. This was obviously not part of the ride for her. Brian and Cindy’s horses were getting agitated, pawing at the ground and snorting. Cindy screamed as hers threw back its head.

  Since she was last in line, Elizabeth dismounted and pulled Jessie around to face the other way. She led the horse a short distance and tied her to a tree. Then she went back and took hold of Brian’s bridle and turned his horse around.

  Elizabeth went to Cindy’s horse and patted its head while leading it over to where Brian sat on his beside Jessie. As soon as they were together the horses settled down.

  Al had climbed off his horse and was leading it and Stormie’s towards them.

  “What’s the matter?” Elizabeth asked.

  He looked at the others and then at her. “I’d like you to stay here while I take everyone to the house and call the police.”

  “Call the police?” Brian demanded. “What for?”

  Al looked up at Stormie. “There’s a body lying in the creek.”

  Cindy gasped and looked in the direction they’d come from.

  Brian sat with his mouth open. He shut it then opened it again. “A body? What’s a body doing there? Is it a man or woman? Are you sure it’s dead?”

  “He’s laying head first in the water,” Al said. “He’s dead.” He was very calm under the circumstances. He looked at Elizabeth again. “Will you do that?”

  Elizabeth didn’t like the idea of being left there with a dead body. She wanted to suggest that Brian stay but Cindy looked pretty shaken. He’d want to be with her. “Okay,” she agreed. “But don’t be too long.”

  Al mounted his horse and led the others out of the trees. Elizabeth stood beside Jessie and looked to where Al had stopped his horse. She could see a pair of sneakers sticking out of the grass onto the path. Her heart skipped a beat as she recognized them. What had happened to him? Had he been walking on the path and had a heart attack? Had he fallen and hit his head on a rock and drowned in the water? Had he been murdered? She didn’t dare go any closer. They had probably already contaminated any evidence that might have been there.

  It seemed like forever before Al returned on foot with Hildebrandt and Martin. The officers looked at Elizabeth and walked over to the body. Hildebrandt knelt in the tall grass. After a few moments he stood and turned toward Martin. They conversed in quiet tones then came back to Elizabeth and Al.

  “Please return to the bed and breakfast and don’t go anywhere until we have questioned you,” Martin said.

  They did as they were told, Elizabeth leading Jessie. Al was quiet. Neither one of them wanted to talk about the body. Just to make conversation, she asked him how long they’d had the B&B.

  “We bought the house and ten acres eight years ago with the idea of making it into a bed and breakfast. We did some remodelling and we’ve been open for seven years.”

  It must have cost a lot of money and they weren’t always booked. Either they had a heavy mortgage and secretly had ulcers, or they’d had money to begin with. Maybe an inheritance on his side?

  “Do you like it? I mean do you like strangers always being in your home?”

  “That took a while to get used to,” he admitted. “But we’ve made some good friends and many have come back more than once.”

  “How did you pick this area?”

  “Shirley was raised here and she wanted to come back,” Al said. “And I was glad to leave the stress of my engineering job.”

  “Where did you meet Shirley?”

  “In Calgary. That’s where I was living and she moved there after graduation to go to work.”

  “How long have you two been married?” She envied them the relationship they had. It was exactly what she was looking for, but so far had not found.

  “It will be thirteen years next month.”

  That meant Shirley would have been around twenty, twenty-one when she married. If she left here after graduation she must have met Al shortly after arriving in Calgary. And if they came back here eight years ago, that was just after Harry left. She had a feeling that wasn’t just a coincidence.

  “And yes, I knew all about Mike Altman before we were married.”

  “You came here after Harry was gone?”

  “Yes. When Peggy phoned to say Harry had run off with another woman, Shirley wanted to return to be near her.”

  They were almost back to the barn. “Do you want me to unsaddle the horses and groom them?” Elizabeth asked.

  “No, no I’ll do it, but you can help if you want.”

  Elizabeth hadn’t actually unsaddled the horses when she was a kid. Her cousins were so quick at it that they could have theirs done before she was even off her horse, and then they always did hers. But she did get to brush the horses afterwards and that
was the part she liked.

  The other horses had been left in the corral. They led them into their stalls in the barn and Al removed the saddles while Elizabeth took off the blankets. He handed her a brush and they began grooming them.

  When they were finished, Al gave each of the horses some oats. A convoy of police and other cars had pulled into the driveway. Al went over to talk with them while Elizabeth went into the house through the back door. The kitchen was empty. She looked at the clock. It was almost three o’clock already.

  Officer Branson was waiting in the dining room. “Would you please go to your room and wait until you are contacted,” he said, his voice revealing little emotion.

  That was fine with her. She needed to shower and change. Brushing horses was a dusty job.

  Chapter 18

  Chevy was lying on the bed sleeping. When she was dressed in clean clothes, Elizabeth phoned her father, siblings and Sally. They didn’t need to hear about this through the media. She told them she would be home as soon as she finished her research, that she’d cancelled her camping plans.

  Elizabeth knew it was Harry lying on the trail; she’d recognized his sneakers and pants. She didn’t know if he had been killed or if he had died of natural causes, but she figured it was probably murder. It would be too much of a fluke that he came here in the middle of all this and then died of a heart attack or some natural cause.

  She switched her thoughts from Harry to the Harriet that Brian was looking for. The name had been nagging at her. Then, a sudden thought gave her goose bumps. Harry had been new to town when he met Peggy. Harriet and Harry were very similar names. Could Brian’s father have changed his name to Harry while searching for his mother? Could Harry be the father Brian was looking for?

  She mulled it over some more. If that were so then why hadn’t Harry said something to Brian? He would surely have recognized the name. And if it were true, then that meant that Brian and Shirley… Oh, that would be hard to take.

  From what she’d learned of Harry he could just have been waiting to drop that bombshell when it would do the most damage to both of them. Or maybe he didn’t even associate this Brian Sinclair with a son he hadn’t seen in thirty-some years. After all, lots of people have the same name and as far he knew, his son was in Ontario.