"Oh. I have a box of the same fishing line that I gave to Dan when he rented the boat. He said he wound it all back off the reel and got it all back into the box." Charlene got up and opened the filing cabinet and handed the box to Sarah.
"So, you're thinking...."
Charlene could see the confused look on Sarah's face.
"Yes, that's right." Charlene smiled. "I agree with you. If all the line is accounted for Dan didn't kill Lori with any of that line."
"Oh yeah. Good one Staff. I'll measure off Bob's line too."
"Don't forget Greg. He took the same line from the office and put his name on my tab sheet," Charlene reminded her.
"Okay I better get out of here before Joe comes back and you go back into bed."
"What makes you think we were in bed?"
"Are you kidding me?" Sarah walked toward the office door and called back, "Give me a few minutes to see if I can talk to the professor here, okay?"
"Your wish is my command. Besides, I'm adding the boat trip to your tab. Cha ching, cha ching."
Chapter 58
Charlene
The rain had stopped and the students and the professor were out on the docks with drinks in hand, in a party mood for the eclipse. Cottagers had the same idea, chairs out on docks. She and Joe waved like royalty from the pontoon boat as she slowly went past them in search of the perfect anchor spot.
The Porters took their fishing boat out onto the lake too and anchored close to one of the small islands, not Blueberry Island, she noticed. She veered away from that island even though Joe suggested it would be a great spot out of view and protected in the small bay. She ignored his request for them to moor there and pretended she couldn't hear him over the motor. She didn't want to go on that island for a long time. She drove the boat onto the shallow waters of a natural sandy beach along the side of an adjacent island where the night sky would be more visible to them, not a lot of trees with boughs overhanging and blocking the view.
Joe got up from the chair and jumped to grab the line to tie off to a tree at the shoreline. He pulled the rope around the branch quickly and effectively. He looked back at Charlene and grinned.
"I love tying knots," he said.
He opened the duffle bag he brought with him from home when he came back. He pulled out the blanket. He moved closer to Charlene and kissed her. She sensed some urgency in his kiss and was unsure what was happening. Was she imagining it? Had it just been a long time since they kissed?
He took her hand and led her to the bench and they sat down. He put his arm around her and pulled her into him and covered them up with the blanket.
"So, Sam told you he saw me on the lake with a woman in my fishing boat towing a yellow kayak and you told Sarah."
Charlene moved to pull back to look at Joe's face, but he held her tight.
"Sam told me what he saw and..."
She could hardly get the words out of her mouth. She wanted to yell that she knew he was not a killer, that she knew she could trust him, that she knew him better than that, but the words stuck. She sat quietly. Her body started to tremble and she knew it wouldn't be long before the tears fell. She realized she didn't trust him fully, and he knew it. But, he didn't tell her he was going to Hamilton or why he was going. He left her wondering why he didn't call and leaving empty air for her to fill with suspicious thoughts. It sounded so stupid in her head. Was that really enough to not trust someone? Not to trust Joe? Did she really love him then? She felt so strongly that she did. She wasn't sure what to think anymore.
"Oh Charlene, Charlene." He got up suddenly from the bench.
The blanket fell to the boat deck. He reached into the duffel bag and Charlene saw the box of fishing line. She could clearly see the logo on the front of the box. Spiderwire. She watched Joe put it into his hands and noticed he had scabs on the top of his hands, scratches that had healed.
Her knees started to shake.
Chapter 59
"He said he just went in to check on the girls."
Sarah put out her hands as if to say she had no idea whether to believe the professor or not. She was sitting at her desk with her feet up on her desk, ankles crossed. Officer Edwards was sitting in the desk facing hers. He put his feet up on the desk and stretched out his long legs. He was on night shift and there weren't any calls so he came into the station for a washroom break. He found Sarah sitting and staring.
He took his feet off of the desk after a glare from Sarah.
"This is a privileged position," she said.
"When you write your sergeant's exam and pass it, you can sit like this too."
She knew James made almost as much money as she did with all the overtime and court time he managed to squeeze in, so she wanted some perk for being a detective. Feet on the desk was a small but important thing she thought.
Glad to have a sounding board, Sarah continued.
"He said he walked up the steps to the cottage and knocked on the screen door. No one answered so he called out. He said he was concerned because they both said they were sick. The door from the porch to the cottage was closed so he knocked there too. No one answered so he left and went back into his boat and spent the rest of the day on the water trying to fish but caught nothing, except some great pics of a porcupine on the shore in front of him, which I had to look at and pretend to be impressed and as delighted as he was."
"That proves there was a porcupine," James said.
"No James, it proves he took a picture of a porcupine at a shore somewhere, sometime, and who cares about a porcupine?"
"You could ask him where he was anchored and compare shorelines and check the date and time on the picture," he suggested.
"Not bad Officer Edwards, not a bad idea at all."
Sarah hadn't thought of it and was careful to give credit where due. She needed a good working relationship with all the officers at the station and a pat on the back went a long way.
"I don't think he's a killer anyway," she said. "All the fishing line he got from Staff was back in the box, none missing."
"What about his Ashley theory?"
"No, I don't see that either. The doc said it took someone with great strength to get that fishing line so embedded in Lori's neck and to get her into the kayak and drag the kayak up on shore at the resort and lift it up onto the rack. Have you really looked at Ashley? She's weak. She has zero muscle tone and according to the other students, is a whiner when they have a lot of walking on field trips. I think Ashley played hooky with a hangover and got turned around just as she told us. Her description of the trails she took are pretty accurate according to Staff."
"Why is he trying to pin it on her then?" James asked.
"I'm not sure he's doing that. I think he believes what he thinks about her. It seems the professor was trying it on with her at the campfire and the other students found out. She threatened to report him after the course was over, according to Greg, who got this tidbit from Lori. And Greg said he saw Ashley take a go at Lori in their cottage when Lori told her they all knew she came onto the professor at the Brock pub night. According to all the statements, nobody blamed the professor for thinking he had a reason to put his arm around her the way she acted that night. They seemed more upset with Ashley than their professor."
"Why is she still at the resort then?" James asked knowing he wouldn't be able to figure it out. He could barely figure out Tracy most times.
"Because she had a black out and forgot she came onto him at the pub so when he put his arm around her she freaked. That's what Staff thinks anyway by her reaction when they had a girl chat. Dan didn't figure that out so he is nervous about why she changed her mind and is nice to him now."
"Okay. So Joe? No way would it be Joe," James said as he crossed his arms over his chest ready to do battle for the doc.
"No I don't think so. He comes out of the interview with the Hamilton detective looking so not like a killer."
"He's pretty fit though for a guy his age,"
James said not liking what he just said.
"He's pretty fit for any age. Cripes he could run circles around you and me."
Sarah looked down at her stomach. It was flat but getting soft. She better solve this case in a hurry so she can get back to going out for a long walk each day and going to the rec centre gym.
"What about what Sam said? Don't get me wrong, I don't believe it was the doc," James said with more conviction to make up for casting suspicion about Joe.
"Sam said the motor was like the doc's, cutting in and out. That creepy Bob guy has the same motor trouble and I'm sure half of the boats on the lakes around here are old and run rough," Sarah said, knowing Patty had an old motor on her fishing boat that blew out puffs of blue smoke every time it ran.
Patty kept saying it needed expensive parts so was waiting for it to just die on its own. Sarah refused to go out in the boat anyway so it didn't matter to her.
"There's no evidence to say Bob's the killer. Creepiness doesn't really count even though that huge pair of binoculars on his desk bothered me, especially with Staff alone at the resort a lot. His lap top really bothered him though. He kept looking at it and moving it farther out of our reach when Wendy and I were there. He had no scratches on his hands or bruising or anything and Lori fought when she died. He has a limp too remember? There's something wrong with one leg or something. He's out of shape and there's no way he could lift a body and stuff it inside a kayak, never mind lift the kayak and body up on the rack. Did you see his drinking gut? Anyway, when I asked if I could take his computer he said yes. That was a surprise. Phil checked it out and it seems Bob has been blogging and is writing an article for a fishing magazine and has loads of pictures of fish and even more of huge snapping turtles."
"Snapping turtles?" James asked.
"Yup. When pressed about it, he said he's been fishing them and taking pictures and writing about them and included some recipes for turtle meat." she said. "He used Spiderwire 10 pound line to get them."
"That's gross," James said.
"To you yeah, mother earth turtle and all that," Sarah said referring to the importance of turtles as sacred figures to the Native American Indians.
"But," she explained, "lots of people eat turtle and it's an expensive and a highly sought after meat. The MNR guys find snapping turtle as contraband a lot around here fished without a proper licence. Sometimes the meat and turtle bits go all the way to China."
"So he is illegally killing turtles?"
"Yup. Better to admit to that use of the fishing line, than to be a suspect in a murder," Sarah explained. "Besides his fishing line was all accounted for including the piece he cut and left in his fishing boat and we took."
"No porn?" James asked, curious as if that would explain the bad feeling he got about Bob.
"Not unless you include the pics of the turtles on fishing line struggling. Nope, nothing, and he had no chance to delete anything while we were there and he didn't know we were coming and he didn't know we would ask to take his computer."
"Are we going to do something about him?"
"Nope I let the Ministry of Natural Resource people know what he was doing and they will be all over him with probably stiffer penalties than you are I can expect from the courts for our cases."
"What about Greg? He had the same fishing line. The other students said he wanted Lori back. That's a motive," James asked hopefully.
"Yup. That's a great motive. The other guys vouch for him though. He was with them all day until Bob picked them up at the parking lot and took them over to the cottage where they worked on their assignment and had a few beers at the picnic table."
"So who does that leave us with?"
"Nobody," Sarah said. "We got nobody."
Chapter 60
Monday September 28th, 2015
"Hi Sam," Dan said as he and Haiden and Ashley got out of Jack's fishing boat at the parking lot.
"What's up?" Sam asked
"Jack is giving us a hand by getting us over here. Charlie didn't answer the office doorbell. The pontoon boat is docked in the usual place at the resort and her fishing boat is there," Dan said pointing over to the dock beside the one Jack was holding onto as Dan and the others got out of the boat.
"Peter and Greg are in the van already. Jack brought us over in shifts. It's not like her to not be ready," Dan added.
Smiling at Jack, he thanked him for helping them and walked to the van and drove off.
"I can take you over Sam," Jack offered.
"Hmm? Yeah okay," he answered. That was not like Charlie for sure. He looked back at the parking lot. Charlie's car was there. The Porter's car was there and no others now that the students' van was gone.
"Maybe she had a late night watching the eclipse with that friend of hers. We were all up really late doing the same thing," Jack said as he put the motor into reverse and backed away from the landing.
"What friend?" Sam asked.
"A man with a Scottish accent. I haven't met him, but we heard them talking on the pontoon boat last night as they were heading out on the lake to watch the eclipse."
"Okay," Sam said.
Maybe not okay, he thought.
Chapter 61
"You look rough detective," Officer Fisher said as he looked at Sarah. "Are you still wearing the same clothes I saw you in all week-end?"
"No I am not wearing the same clothes."
Sarah looked down at herself as she stood by her desk sorting through clear plastic forensic bags. She didn't remember wearing the same shoes yesterday.
"Not all the same clothes anyway. What are you doing here looking so fresh and chipper on your day off?" she asked him.
"I left some stuff in my locker. That terrible week-end of driving the boat around in the sunshine, mostly sunshine, chatting with nice people, looking at the fall colours, must have made me delirious and I left my sunglasses and wallet here when I finished my shift. Yes I drove here without my licence, no I won't do it again. I promise," he said and gave her his charming smile.
It had no effect on Sarah and he laughed as she just stared at him.
"What are you doing?" he asked picking up a bag. "What's all this?"
"Cripes Allan! Murder investigation! Young woman at Staff's place! It's evidence. Don't tell me you didn't know!"
"Yeah, yeah I heard it on the news and there was chatter in the locker room but I was away for two weeks on holidays. I just got back for the last shifts," Allan said defensively.
"What's with the blue rope? Was she tied up with that or something?" he asked.
"Oh Christ Allan. You need to get up to speed. You need to know what's happening. You're my eyes and ears out there for God's sake." Sarah grabbed the bag from him.
"Yes her hands were tied up with it and we found this blue rope tied around a tree at the shore where we're certain she was killed. Some bits of fishing line were in a fire pit stained with blood, Lori's blood type. There were blood stains on the rock beside the fire pit too, also Lori's blood type."
Sarah pointed to the other evidence bags.
"Poor kid struggled. We got lots of skin and blood from under her nails. She must have really scratched her killer up. She scratched at her own neck and chin trying to get a finger hold to stop him from choking her but she's got more than her own DNA under her nails for sure."
"Sarah..." Allan started to say something to her, but stopped and just stared at her.
"What?"
"This is probably stupid," Office Fisher said.
"Whenever someone says 'this is probably stupid' it usually isn't. Spit it out."
"I don't know. I stopped a guy in a fishing boat to check his licences etc. He had the same blue rope hanging from the bow of his boat. It looked like it was used to tie an anchor, only there was no anchor and the rope wasn't long enough to be of any use to tie off to a dock. It was pretty useless really. I asked him what happened to it but I don't think he really answered me. He had a rock attached at the stern to ma
rine rope as an anchor. I was just interested in basic emergency equipment."
He looked at Sarah and she was staring at him not moving. He continued, sure it was going to be stupid but thought he may as well carry on since he was almost finished, and the way Sarah was staring at him was making him nervous.
"He was messing with fishing line that was all tangled in his tackle box while I was checking out his boat operator and fishing licence. The backs of his hands were covered in scratches. I guessed that he hooked himself a few times while he was trying to untangle the line while in the tackle box. He had a mess of hooks in the box. The boat was a mess too and the motor was about to conk out when he put in in gear. I remember thinking he may not be out fishing too long and was glad he was close to the launch. He had paddles so I left him alone."
"What was his name Allan?" Sarah asked moving closer to him.
"He was a big friendly guy."
"Name Allan?" she asked quietly, holding her breath.
"He joked about going to the Black Cat for wings, not beer, or something like that anyway."
"Name Allan! Name for fuck sakes!" Sarah yelled at him.
Chapter 62
Charlene
Joe dropped Charlene off at the landing and turned around and drove away to get back to the police station to talk to Sarah. She knew she was late, but a group of angry students and the professor were the least of her worries. That she and Joe had an argument last night was way down the list of what was important right now too. Sure he saw the look of fear on her face when he reached into the duffle bag and shuffled around until he brought out the container with the upside-down apple cake he made just for her and the plates and forks.
"Don't worry Charlene, there's whipped cream to go on top," he said laughing when he saw her face as he pulled out the cake.
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