by Paul Doiron
“Your mom has a fever and a low white blood cell count. Febrile neutropenia is the term the doctor used. They think she has an infection from the chemo. We’re in the hospital in Portland. Is there any way you could come down here?” His voice cracked. “It would mean a lot to us.”
“I’m on my way,” I said.
Rain was pattering on the roof as I returned to the kitchen table.
“I need to go to Portland,” I said. “My mom’s in the hospital.”
Kathy stood up. Her knee knocked the edge of the table, causing it to shake. “What’s the matter?”
“She has ovarian cancer. Now they think she has an infection from the chemo.”
“Jesus, Mike,” she said. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
I didn’t know. My mother had told me that I’d shut her out of my life, and I’d heard the same thing from my girlfriend Sarah. It seemed to be a pattern I was doomed to repeat forever. “I’ve got to go.”
She grabbed her coat from the back of the chair. “I’ll go with you.”
“It’s a four-and-a-half-hour drive,” I said. “Maybe five.”
“So what?”
“You really don’t have to do that, Kathy.”
“I’m your friend.” She reached out and touched my arm with an uncharacteristic gentleness. “Now stop being a stupid idiot and let me help you.”
I felt something break inside me. I’d struggled so long to keep the cracks from showing, but suddenly the wall just gave way.
“Can you drive?” I said.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
When an author bases a novel on real events, he faces a choice: either cover his tracks or come clean. I’m choosing to come clean.
Back in 1999, someone slaughtered at least nine moose and two deer in an unorganized township northwest of Moosehead Lake. The Soldiertown shootings were the worst recorded wildlife crime in Maine state history. For years, game wardens conducted an investigation into what became known as the “moose massacre.” They chased countless leads and identified numerous suspects—all of whom were later exonerated. The case was closed and remains technically unsolved to this day.
My involvement in the story began when former investigative journalist Roberta Scruggs informed me that a district warden named Mike Favreau had continued searching for the culprits on his own initiative. Scruggs compiled a thousand-page notebook on the case, consisting of her own interviews with suspects and wardens, evidence reports obtained from the state through Freedom of Information requests, court documents, and transcripts. Although the statute of limitations has run out on the massacre, Scruggs is confident that the individuals who killed the animals have been identified (although they will never be imprisoned), thanks primarily to one warden’s determination to uncover the truth.
When I began this book, my intention was to base it as closely as possible on the actual events, but I soon realized that the complicated case deserved a factual telling. Fiction can reveal deeper truths than reportage, but history demands a corrected record. And so I decided to depart from the realities of Soldiertown and let Roberta Scruggs tell the full story, which I hope she will do in print someday. While I based aspects of my novel on the real investigation—the use of .22s to kill the moose, for example—this is ultimately a work of fiction, and none of the characters or situations I depict are based upon persons living or dead. I am immensely grateful, however, for the research Roberta Scruggs provided me.
Another inspiration for Massacre Pond is the expansive Maine North Woods National Park, proposed originally by the group RESTORE: The North Woods and the entrepreneur and philanthropist Roxanne Quimby. For more than a decade before the concept was shelved, the park attracted national controversy. Environmentalists saw it as a much-needed sanctuary in the boreal forest; conservatives viewed it as the death knell of Maine’s logging industry and its hunting and fishing heritage. Quimby (whom I have never met and who is not the model for “Queen Elizabeth” Morse) has been especially vilified in the press. My imagination began to wonder what a woman in her position must feel: what drove her to invest so much of her fortune into advocating a cause that has resulted in so many death threats. Novels often start with the question “what if,” and so it was with Massacre Pond. Again, this is entirely a work of fiction—which is why I have moved my proposed park to eastern Maine, near the existing Moosehorn National Wildlife Refuge.
Whenever I finish writing a book, I find myself with a host of people to thank. As always, I am grateful to Bob Fernald and my team at Down East. I owe a debt to Wayne Curtis for introducing me to the wonders—and wonderful people—of the Grand Lake Stream region, especially the staff of the Downeast Lakes Land Trust and the guides at Weatherby’s. Thank you to the men and women of the Maine Warden Service for answering my many nitpicking questions and to the crew of “North Woods Law” for taking me behind the scenes. I am grateful to the readers of my early drafts: Monica Wood, Kimberly Bryan-Brown, Beth Anderson, and Erin Van Otterloo. At Minotaur Books I have had the good fortune to work with some of the best people in the business: editor Charlie Spicer; senior publicist Sarah Melnyk; and publisher Andrew Martin.
Thank you, Ann Rittenberg, for always having my back. You don’t know how much I depend on your support.
Lastly I want to express my love and gratitude to my family—all you Doirons out there—and especially my wife, Kristen Lindquist, the best writer in our house.
ALSO BY PAUL DOIRON
Bad Little Falls
Trespasser
The Poacher’s Son
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bestselling author PAUL DOIRON is the editor in chief of Down East: The Magazine of Maine. A native of Maine, he attended Yale University and holds an MFA from Emerson College. The Poacher’s Son won the Barry Award and the Strand Award for best first novel, and has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, and Macavity awards in the same category. He lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine with his wife, Kristen Lindquist.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
MASSACRE POND. Copyright © 2013 by Paul Doiron. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.
www.minotaurbooks.com
Cover design by David Baldeosingh Rotstein
Cover photograph © Joel Calheiros/Shutterstock.com
The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:
Doiron, Paul.
Massacre Pond: a novel / Paul Doiron. — First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-1-250-03393-2 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-250-03392-5 (e-book)
1. Game wardens—Fiction. 2. Animal rights activists—Fiction. 3. Animal welfare—Fiction. 4. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3604.O37M38 2013
813'.6—dc23
2013009814
e-ISBN 9781250033925
First Edition: July 2013