The Travelling Detective: Boxed Set

by Joan Donaldson-Yarmey

  "How did Sylvia happen to meet you here?" Elizabeth asked, wondering if it had been a coincidence that Sylvia had picked a retreat in the town where her father lived.

  "Sylvia said she’d gone on the Internet and had found out where I lived. She used the retreat as a reason to come here. She said she walked past here twice before getting up the nerve to come and visit me." John wiped his eyes on his sleeve.

  "That must have been a surprise."

  "It was but I recognized her immediately. She looks so much like her mother."

  "It must have been a surprise for you, too." Elizabeth said, looking at Wendy.

  Wendy averted her gaze.

  "I had told Wendy about her half-sister years ago. After I won the money I wanted to locate Sylvia and share it with her. Wendy tried looking for her but couldn’t find her."

  Elizabeth doubted that Wendy had tried very hard. "So you finally found each other and then she dies."

  John took a shuddering breath. "It can’t be true. It just can’t be true."

  "How did it happen?" Wendy asked.

  "She fell down some concrete steps and banged her head. She died from her injuries."

  "Oh, my poor Sylvia," John cried.

  "Do you know a Bonnie Stone?" Elizabeth asked Wendy. She was trying to get the message across to John.

  "No," Wendy shook her head.

  "You haven’t heard about her being killed near here?"

  "Oh, yes, I heard about that woman but I didn’t remember her name."

  "Do you know that she was your half-cousin?"

  "I don’t have a cousin named Bonnie."

  "I have a niece named Bonnie," John spoke up. "but I haven’t seen her since my divorce. Her last name wasn’t Stone, though."

  “That was her married name.” Elizabeth waited until he put two and two together.

  "Bonnie’s dead, too," he said, with resignation. "My god, what have I done." He stood and went into the house.

  "I think you’ve done enough damage," Wendy snarled. "You can go now."

  Sally picked up the picture of Sylvia and they left.

  * * *

  "If we can believe Wendy, she didn’t know about Sylvia dying here," Sally said. They had taken two coolers and gone down to the pool to enjoy some relaxing before supper.

  "I don’t think we can believe much that Wendy says. It took a lot just to get her to admit that Sylvia had actually been there at all."

  "We certainly can eliminate the theory that John killed Sylvia because she resisted his advances. And so neither he nor Wendy murdered Bonnie to keep her quiet about Sylvia’s murder."

  “So Sylvia was the daughter he had been talking about at the bar that night," Elizabeth said.

  "And Madeline is his first wife. It’s strange to think that she was just down the street from him a few days ago."

  "No wonder Bonnie had said he reminded her of someone," Sally said. “I wonder if that’s what Bonnie remembered when she was talking with Michael. Who John reminded her of. And so she went there to see him.”

  “But he didn’t act like she had seen him,” Elizabeth said. “Maybe they weren’t home.”

  “What if he was drugged and she talked with Wendy?” Sally asked.

  “You know,” Elizabeth began thoughtfully. “Wendy was worried about John meeting someone who would take advantage of him because of his money. Then one day Sylvia shows up and wants to renew their father/daughter relationship. What if Wendy was afraid that she would want some of the money?”

  “So she kills her,” Sally said. “But how does she prevent John from hearing about it?”

  “I don’t know. But he talks about Sylvia, and Wendy thinks that he will tell someone so she begins to drug him and then makes up stories about his behaviour so people avoid him.”

  “Then two years later Bonnie comes to see him. She tells Wendy who she is and the fear starts all over again. And Bonnie dies.”

  “I wonder how we can prove it.”

  “You don’t have to prove it,” Wendy said, stepping through the bushes from the empty lot next door. In her hand was a gun.

  Elizabeth’s first thought was to wonder if the handgun was registered. Her second thought was that she was going to die all because she was too nosy. It took all her courage to say.

  “You killed Sylvia and Bonnie.”

  “I thought you would eventually figure that out,” Wendy said. ‘That’s why I’ve come to get you two. We’re going for a drive.” She waved the gun. “Stand up and walk normally to my vehicle. Carry your dog and keep him quiet.”

  Elizabeth and Sally did as they were told. They walked around the house and down the path to Wendy’s van, not seeing anyone who could help them.

  “The keys are in it,” Wendy said. “You drive.” She pointed to Sally.

  “You get in the passenger’s side,” she said to Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth looked around as she climbed in, hoping someone would come along. But since the young woman’s body had been identified, most of the guests had left. The only one remaining was Daryl and he was probably slaving over his computer.

  Sally started the van. “Where are we going?” she asked, her voice shaking.

  “Just get out to the highway and turn right.”

  “You must have been scared when Sylvia showed up,” Elizabeth said, as they headed north towards Pemberton. She needed something to keep her mind off their predicament. “She must have been happy to see her father”

  “He’s my father,” Wendy said. “She came here because she had tracked Dad down on the Internet. As soon as Dad saw her he started to cry. He knew her the moment he saw her. They only talked a little bit and he was already wanting her move in with us. He wanted her to be part of our family. He thought we should get along like sisters.”

  “And you didn’t want to.”

  “Of course not,” Wendy sneered. “I knew from the start that she had only come because of the money that he had won. She could have found him anytime but no, she waited until he was rich, then came forward. And I couldn’t let her get her greedy hands on our money.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “I slipped some sleeping pills into Dad’s coffee and when he got tired I helped him to bed. I then told her that he did that a lot and offered to buy her supper. We talked and I let her think I was okay with everything. She kept telling me she was so happy to have found her dad and then to have the bonus of a sister on top of that. Then I said that I had to go somewhere for a few hours but would meet her again at eleven fifteen at the Upper Village.”

  “Where did you have to go?”

  “Back to check on Dad and give him some more pills to keep him quiet.”

  “And Sylvia agreed to meet you there even though it was late?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Oh, not immediately, but I told her it would be a quiet, peaceful place where we could sit for hours and talk. I think she was just so eager to get to know her sister that she agreed.”

  “So what did you do?”

  “Well, I didn’t show up. Instead I stayed in the dark and watched her go from being eager to worried to scared. Finally, she decided to leave and I jumped her when she got to the steps. I hit her with a rock then pushed her down them and when that didn’t kill her I banged her head on the corner of one of them. That worked.”

  The coldness in her voice sent shivers down Elizabeth’s spine. She looked at Sally who was concentrating on her driving on the curving road. She was going slow, probably trying to postpone the end event as long as possible.

  “How did you keep him from hearing about her death?” She hugged Chevy sorry that she had got him into this.

  “I unplugged the television and told him it was broken. Plus, we went on a trip to Sparwood to see some friends.”

  “Very smart.”

  “Thank you,” Wendy said smugly.

  “Where are we going?” Sally asked for the second time.

  “There are lots of old roads north of Pemberton,�
� Wendy said. “Keep driving. We’ll find one of them.”

  “And then Bonnie comes to visit last week,” Elizabeth continued.

  “Bonnie showed up at our door one morning. Luckily I had found a photo of her in Sylvia’s stuff so I recognized her. I told her Dad was sick and still asleep but she insisted on coming in and talking with me. She told me all about her and Sylvia’s childhood, how Dad had left her aunt, and how they hadn’t seen him in years. Then she showed me her Angel cards and explained how Bridgette had warned her to use caution. She said she had thought it was something at the retreat that she had to worry about. And she turned up Adriana saying that the card meant that she was going to help Bonnie find the answer. Bonnie was so excited when she told me that, stating that Adriana’s prediction had come true when she recognized her Uncle John.” Wendy laughed. “And she was right. It brought her right to me. But she should have paid more attention to Bridgette’s warning. It might have saved her life.”

  They passed the turn into the parking lot for Nairn Falls and soon reached Pemberton.

  “Just follow this road through town,” Wendy said.

  “So how did you kill Bonnie?”

  “She wanted to come back the next day to see Dad. I didn’t want her to but like her cousin she was insistent. I drugged Dad and kept her at the house till dark, just giving Dad enough medicine to keep him sleeping all day. When she finally left I crept out after her hit her on the head with a rock. I loaded her into my van and drove to near the retreat and dumped her out. I then found her precious Angel cards and threw them on her.”

  “Did you unplug the television this time to keep your dad from hearing about Bonnie and the fact that she was Sylvia’s cousin.”

  “Don’t mess with something that works, is my motto,” Wendy gloated.

  They were driving through the native reserve.

  “Turn right here and head towards Lillooet,” Wendy said. She began to watch out the windshield looking for a suitable road. The native reserve carried on for quite a few miles.

  Elizabeth searched her mind for something more to talk about. “Bonnie said that Sylvia had sent a text that she had something exciting to tell her. Finding her, ah, your father must have been it.”

  Wendy didn’t answer.

  “Why did you send us the note?”

  “I thought I’d try to scare you away. But you were too stupid to heed it and now you have to pay.” She spotted a road. “There, that one, turn down it.”

  Elizabeth’s stomach clenched. She felt as if she was going to be sick. She’d been trying to think about what she could do to prevent Wendy from killing them but nothing had come to mind. She didn’t know any self-defence, she was limber but doubted that she had the coordination to spin around, fling out her leg, and kick the gun out of Wendy’s hand with her foot.

  The road was gravel and as they drove the tires created a cloud of dust behind them. After a couple of kilometres Wendy told Sally to turn down a narrow lane. It curved to the left and ended in a gravel pit.

  “Well, this is perfect, better than I had hoped for,” Wendy said. “Now undo your seat belts and climb out slowly. Don’t try anything fancy.”

  I don’t have anything fancy to try, Elizabeth thought. She wished that she had listened to her father and stayed out of other people’s business. She wished that she had phoned her father and her siblings and Jared more while she was here. She wished a lot of things.

  “Now turn and walk into the trees. No use you lying out where you could be found easily.”

  Elizabeth hugged Chevy to her. Tears fell at the thought that he had always been so trusting, following her where ever she went and now he was going to die because of her. Sally put her arm around Elizabeth’s waist as they walked towards the bush.

  “I’m so sorry,” Elizabeth whispered to Sally.

  “It’s not your fault. I was the one who got us into this.”

  Suddenly there was a cry behind them and a gun shot. They both turned in time to see John with his arms wrapped around Wendy. He was shaking her back and forth while she was shrieking and trying to point the gun at him. Elizabeth dropped Chevy and she and Sally ran over to help. Elizabeth grabbed Wendy’s hand holding the gun and wrestled it out of her grasp. She threw it away.

  John let Wendy go. Sally pushed her face down on the ground and sat on her back.

  Wendy turned her head to see who it was. “Dad!” She struggled to free herself. “What did you do that for? We have to stop them. They killed Sylvia and Bonnie.”

  Sally grabbed Wendy’s wrists and held them behind her to stop her from trying to turn over.

  “No, you killed them,” John said sadly. “I knew it as soon as I saw that you had taken my gun.”

  “Dad, listen to me.” Wendy strained to see him better.

  John turned away.

  “Dad, I did it for us,” Wendy cried. “Sylvia would have wanted your money. I had to stop that.”

  John refused to answer her and, as if realizing it was over, she finally quit her struggles.

  Elizabeth was so relieved that she couldn’t speak for a few moments. She couldn‘t believe how close they had come to dying. “Let’s tie her up,” she said. “John, do you have some rope so we can tie her hands and feet?”

  John hurried to his car, which he’d left around the curve, and drove it up beside the van. He opened the trunk and rummaged around. “I have some duct tape,” he said.

  “That will work,” Elizabeth said. Sally still held Wendy’s hands behind her so Elizabeth wrapped the tape around her wrists. Now they could relax. “We’ll do her feet once she’s in the van.”

  “What are you doing here?” She asked John. “How did you find us?”

  John’s hands were shaking as he ran them through his hair. “Yesterday, I decided to quit taking the pills Wendy kept giving me to see for myself what was happening to my memory. I had to pretend though because I didn’t want her to know so I feigned sleep when she gave them to me with lunch. When she left the house I got up and as I walked by her bedroom, I saw the box that holds my gun lying on her bed. I went in to check and the gun was gone. I jumped in my car. I didn’t know where she would have gone but I spotted the van turning onto the highway. I saw that you two were in it and that Sally was driving. I knew something was wrong.”

  “Thank you for following,” Sally said.

  “Yes, thank you for saving our lives,” Elizabeth agreed. It must have been hard to choose them over his daughter.

  “What are you going to do with her?” John asked.

  “She confessed to killing Sylvia and Bonnie so we have to take her to the RCMP,” Elizabeth said.

  Elizabeth and Sally pulled Wendy up and walked her over to the passenger’s side of the van. Once she was seated Elizabeth wrapped the tape around her ankles.

  “I’ll drive and Sally you sit in the backseat so that you can keep an eye on her. John, are you going to be okay driving back alone?”

  “Yes. I’ll meet you at the detachment.”

  Before getting in the van Elizabeth went and retrieved the gun. She put it in the back of the van.

  Elizabeth drove straight to the RCMP detachment in Whistler and went in to find Constable Black. Wendy was taken into custody and Elizabeth, Sally, and John gave their statements.

  When John dropped them off at the bed and breakfast Sally dug the photograph of Sylvia out of her pocket. She turned it over and handed it to John.

  “Madeline gave me this photo when she came to pack Bonnie’s clothes. She put her phone number and address on the back. I’ll leave it with you.”

  “Thank you.”

  Elizabeth and Sally climbed the stairs to their room. After the close call they had just had neither felt like talking. They collapsed on the couch, drained. Finally Elizabeth said.

  “Don’t ever tell Dad or Terry or Sherry what happened today.”

  Sally shook her head. “If I did Phil would never let you go out anywhere and I’d have no one to do t
hings with.”

  Elizabeth reached over and picked up the remote turning on the television. It was on the news channel. After a few minutes of talking about world crises, the anchor person announced that Jessica Smallwood had been arrested for her daughter’s murder.

  “According to sources, Ms. Smallwood followed her daughter here. During an argument she killed her, then buried her body under the house, which was empty at the time.”

  * * *

  On Friday morning Elizabeth drove Sally to the retreat so she could say goodbye to her classmates.

  “So, did you get Reggie’s email address?” Elizabeth asked, when Sally climbed back in the Tracker.

  Sally grinned. “I sure did.”

  Elizabeth drove to Alta Lake where they loaded Chevy into a canoe and they headed out on the leisurely, three hour paddle down the River of Golden Dreams to Green Lake. After their near miss yesterday, it felt so good to relax, to feel the sunshine, to just be alive. Even Chevy seemed to sense that life was good. He spent much of the time looking over the edge of the canoe at the water.

  They spent the afternoon packing then went for supper in the Village.

  The next morning they rose early and loaded their things into the Tracker. They paid their bill then went across the road to see Cynthia.

  “I sent the SPCA a thousand dollars because you did find Penny’s murderer,” Cynthia said. “Plus, I heard you discovered who had killed the two other women who had gone to the retreat.”

  Elizabeth didn’t want to even think about that. “It was nice meeting you.”

  “Do you want a reference from me?”

  “I have your address. If I need one I’ll contact you.”

  They stopped in to see John. He was very subdued when he spoke but his voice got a little energized when he told them that he had called Madeline and she was coming to Whistler on Sunday to see him.

  Elizabeth followed Nancy Greene Way to Highway 99. She turned left, drove through Whistler and they were on their way home.

  The auras I have been seeing before receiving Mikks and Gwins stories are bothering me so I phone my mother. She is silent for a moment after I explain them then says.