No Return (A Lee Smith Mystery Book 2)

by Jay Forman

  I scrolled through my pictures some more and sent Jack a close-up of River’s smaller extra special rock. It was shaped like an ice cube and was clear enough in one corner to look like glass. Or diamond. “What kind of rock is that?”

  “Quartz.”

  Damn. River’s other extra special rock wasn’t as white, but it had a sheen to it. I sent Jack a close-up of the bigger rock. “And that? More quartz?”

  His jaw dropped, but no sound came out of his mouth. I could tell by the way his chest was moving he was almost hyperventilating. “Holy fuck!”

  “Is that a diamond?”

  “It can’t be.” His face moved so close to the screen that I could see the pores on his nose. “Do you have a picture of it against something so I can gauge its size?”

  “How about an eight year old boy’s hand?”

  “Send it.”

  I sent the photo of River holding his extra special rocks. The big one was slightly smaller than a tennis ball.

  “My God. If that’s what I think it is, it’s on par with the Lesedi La Rona.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The second largest gem-quality diamond ever found. It was found at the Karowe mine in Botswana in 2015.” Jack jumped up and started moving around the room he was in.

  “How many carats was that one?”

  “Over 1100.”

  And I’d thought the 6-carat diamond on the ring Jack had given me was big? “How much is it worth?”

  “Ninety million, give or take.” He tossed a large suitcase on the end of a bed. “I’m coming there! You can’t tell anyone about this, Lee. I mean it. It could be nothing, but if it’s … well, then it’s more than something.” He walked back into camera range carrying a bunch of shirts on hangers. He struggled to fold the shirts and ended up just balling them up and shoving them into the suitcase.

  “Get Adaya to help you do that.”

  “She’s not here. I dropped her off in Toronto. She’s back in the office.”

  Good. “Jack? When you get here? Can we keep us quiet?”

  “Why?” He wasn’t in the shot anymore, but the shoes he was tossing in the general direction of his suitcase were.

  “I don’t know. I guess I don’t want to disappoint Chief Troutlake, you know, make it obvious that I wasn’t completely honest with him. If he finds out about me, he might not trust you, either. He might think you asked me to lie about us.”

  “Whatever. Hang on …” I could hear him talking on his cell phone to George, his co-pilot. “… File the flight plan now … 15 minutes. See you there.”

  “Do you think this might have something to do with Ross being killed?”

  He stopped moving, with his back to the camera, for just a minute. “I don’t see how it could.”

  “Well, if someone from the reserve thought Ross knew about the rock, if it is a diamond, they might have wanted him out of the way to make sure that nobody else found out about it and tried to start mining here.”

  “No one could mine there without the band council’s approval. If it’s a diamond and if there’s actually a kimberlite pipe on Webequie land, that is.”

  “What about Ross’ partner, Aileen? Maybe he told her about it and she killed him because she wanted the find all to herself?”

  His fly filled my computer screen as he stood in front of the desk and started picking up things from it. “That doesn’t work, either. Ross and Aileen record all their claims as 50-50 on their applications. No matter what happened to Ross she’d only be entitled to half of the claim; Ross’ heirs would get the other half. And if they recorded the claims they’ve been staking up there she’d have to wait a year after the date of his death before she or anyone else could do anything with it.”

  “What do you mean, if they recorded the claims? Don’t you have to do something official with the Ministry? Let them know where you’re going to put your posts?”

  “It’s the other way around. You stake, then record. And you’ve got 30 days to do it after you place your last post.”

  “How do you record it?”

  “Mail, fax or in person in Thunder Bay or Sudbury. Hang on …” He was on his cell phone again. “… Adaya, I need you to get someone to bring the Sikorsky up to Thunder Bay … no, now, I’ll be in Thunder Bay in about five hours and I want the Sikorsky sitting on the tarmac waiting for me … Well, tell them to work overtime, a landing gear overhaul shouldn’t take that long. If they push it they can be in Thunder Bay shortly after I get there … And I need someone at Winisk to print out an E size plot of a CLAIMap of the area east of Webequie, recent claims, within the last thirty days … I know, but I want a printed one. It’ll be easier to explain it to Chief Troutlake. Have someone bring it to me in Webequie … George is already on it, it’ll take us about 45 minutes to get down to Yellowknife and they’ll have the Global ready for us by the time we get there … When I get to Thunder Bay I literally want to step off the jet and get into the Sikorsky … I don’t care! Get me a pair of night vision goggles. I’m not waiting until tomorrow, this is urgent … I don’t pay you to say no to me.”

  Wow. I’d seen Jack in bossy action before, but he was really on a roll with Adaya.

  “Good point,” said Jack.

  Good job, Adaya! I had no idea what she’d said to Jack, but she hadn’t backed down.

  “Agreed. Next, call Oliver, tell him to get a team together, his best men. I want them at the Winisk mine, ready to go to do a possible aeromagnetic geophysical survey … damn, I’d forgotten about that. When is he scheduled to come back from Namibia? … We’ll bring him back early if we need to … This is strictly confidential, Adaya. I don’t want anyone to know what we’re doing.”

  Jack closed his suitcase and sat back in front of his computer to talk to me again. “I’ll be spending the night in Thunder Bay, then flying up to Webequie first thing tomorrow morning. I should be there around eleven. Hang on, I just remembered something …”

  He held his cell phone against his ear again. “Adaya, make sure there’s enough Jet A at the airport in Webequie. Right. Thanks.”

  “What’s Jet A?”

  “Fuel for the Sikorsky.”

  “Why can’t you just fly straight here from Yellowknife?”

  “My jet’s too big for the landing strip in Webequie.”

  “Oh, so it’s a size thing.”

  “Don’t start on me again.”

  It was fun to watch him fumble as he tried to roll up his ties. “Why did you ask Adaya for night vision goggles?”

  “Because I don’t have a night licence for helicopters, just fixed wing, and I didn’t want to wait around for daylight.”

  “You wouldn’t really have done that, would you? Flown with night vision goggles?”

  He tried to look innocent. He failed.

  “Does George have his night licence for the helicopter?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re an idiot. You’ve got to get over that thing you’ve got, Jack. George is a damn good pilot and you’ve known him for years. Of all people, he’s the one you should be able to trust by now. You can’t have your hands on the controls of everything.”

  “Do you really want to talk about trust and control?”

  “Nope!” Definitely not. “Where will you sleep tonight?”

  “On the plane.”

  “In that really nice bedroom at the back of it?”

  “Yes.” He was smirking. He knew where I was going.

  “I like that bed.”

  “I remember. You liked the sofa, too. And we still have to christen the dining table.”

  “The leather on the sofa’s cold.”

  “I’ll get a blanket.”

  “A beaver blanket? I slept under one last night and it was—”

  “I’m going to end this call now.”

  “Why?”

  “Because any conversation about beavers and christening furniture is going to make it really hard for me to—”

  “Hard
, huh?”

  “Goodnight, Lee. Love you.”

  “Goodnight, Jack. Love you, too.”

  “See you tomorrow, around eleven.”

  “Oh wait! I won’t be here. That’s when I’m meeting Aileen.”

  “When will you be back from that?”

  “I don’t know. Don’t leave without me.”

  “That’ll never happen.”

  I looked down at the puddles of congealed grease on the pizza slices. It would be rude to not eat them. Sara and Joshua had spent big dollars to buy them for me. I lifted up the smallest piece and put the tip of it in my mouth. The cheese was cold, the crust as soggy as wet toilet paper. I gagged the piece out of my mouth. I just couldn’t do it. There was a window above the head of their bed. What would happen if I tossed the pizza slices outside? There were so many dogs running around that one of them would eat them, right? There wouldn’t be any evidence in the morning. But what if a bear found them first? That would be bad. I rolled the pieces up in the paper plate and gripped it tightly as I walked back into the main room of the house, heading for the garbage can.

  Unlike Jack, I could easily walk around in front of people without a noticeable physical indicator of the lingering heat from our conversation. Worst case scenario, Sara and Joshua might wonder if I was feeling cold.

  ****

  Sara, wearing a T-shirt that was long enough to fit Joshua, was walking to the door as I came out of my room to see who was pounding on her front door so early in the morning.

  “What do you want?”

  “Joshua. I know he’s here.” Officer Marlee pushed her way around Sara and came into the house.

  “Did they find Bernice?” Sara asked as she walked back toward her bedroom.

  “Not yet.”

  Joshua came out of the bedroom, wearing only a pair of boxer shorts. “What do you want, Marlee?”

  “Someone’s stolen a lot of things from the winter shed. They called me from the gathering camp a few minutes ago. I need you to come with me to tell me if anything of yours or Arthur’s is missing.”

  “It’s seven-thirty. Can’t it wait?”

  “No.”

  “Dad’ll be up. Take him. He knows what I’ve got in there.” He turned to go back to the bedroom.

  “No, I want you to come.”

  She may have used the word ‘want’ but it sounded more like an order.

  “Of course you do.” He slammed the bedroom door.

  I filled my water bottle and looked around for a coffee pot. There wasn’t one. Marlee stood at attention by the door.

  “Will they send as many planes up today to look for Bernice?”

  “No, the NAPS plane is the only one we’ll be using today. The OPP have more important things to do, apparently.”

  “Like what?” I looked in Sara’s two kitchen cupboards, but didn’t find any tea bags.

  “They’re going to the hunt lodge to check the Americans’ guns. They don’t think I did a thorough enough job. They even went and got a search warrant to make themselves look more important. Did you tell them about what you heard those kids say at the Northern?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they asked me to tell them everything I knew, just like you did.”

  “And you thought I wouldn’t do a good enough job looking into it?”

  “I didn’t think anything. I just answered their questions and told them what I knew.” The OPP officer was right – Marlee had a monster chip on her shoulder.

  Joshua came out of the bedroom, this time wearing jeans and a hoodie. “I’ll meet you over there,” he said and he lifted a baseball cap off of one of the coat hooks by the door and then sat down to put on his boots.

  “We can go in the same boat.”

  “I won’t be coming back to Webequie. I have to get down to the lodge to make sure everything’s set for the bear hunt.” He stood up and towered over Marlee. “So, unless you want to swim back from the winter shed, I’d suggest you take your own boat.”

  “Don’t be long.” Marlee slammed Sara’s front door.

  “Jesus,” Joshua muttered.

  “Why doesn’t she like you?”

  “Because I broke up with her and started seeing Sara.”

  “Ah.” Marlee’s fixation on everything related to Joshua made sense now.

  “How are you getting to the lodge today?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll figure something out.”

  “Want to come with me now? It won’t take long for me to check out the winter shed. I can show you around the lodge before Aileen comes to get you. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind a mention or two for the lodge in your article.”

  “Give me five minutes to get ready.”

  ****

  We had to walk three houses up the road to get to Joshua’s truck.

  “Why did you park here?”

  “So it wouldn’t look like I was staying at Sara’s house. Lot of good that did me, though. Want some coffee?”

  “Yes!”

  “Tim Hortons, here we come.” The truck coughed to life and we headed south.

  “There’s a Tim Hortons here?”

  “No, but the next best thing. There’s one of those pod coffee machines at the Northern and they’ve got Tim pods.”

  While the machine noisily spit out my coffee I went to the back of the Northern to see if the sad bananas were still there. I desperately wanted something that wasn’t laden with preservatives and hadn’t been pre-packaged or deep fried. The bananas were gone. There was one orange, but it reminded me of Elba’s shrunken head so I left it alone to decompose in peace. Joshua munched on a couple of donuts from a package that had a best-before date sticker that was so outdated it was almost a historical document.

  With three spoonfuls of sugar and an unhealthy dollop of cream my coffee almost tasted like a real double-double from a real Tim Hortons.

  We’d both guzzled our coffees down by the time we got to Elba’s house. When Joshua took my empty cup I thought he was going to take it inside either Elba’s or Arthur’s house to throw it out with his, but he tossed both of them into Bernice’s boat as we walked by it.

  “There. Now she’s got two bailing devices.” He pulled the cord on Elba’s engine and it roared to life. “How’s your ankle feeling today?”

  “Better. Just a little stiff.”

  “And the shoulder?”

  “It’s being less forgiving.”

  “Try to stay upright today. Then again, that parka of yours is so packed with padding that it’s almost like you’re wrapped in bubble wrap.” He turned the throttle to full and laughed at his own joke as we drove away from Webequie.

  We headed straight over to the middle of the peninsula and beached the boat beside another canoe that someone had hand-painted ‘NAPS’ on. There was a very small pathway from the shore to the winter shed that obviously wasn’t used much.

  Marlee was waiting inside the shed and she didn’t look pleased to see me. “Why are you here?”

  “Joshua’s giving me a ride to the lodge after you’re done here.”

  “Oh.”

  I’d ruined her chance at some alone time with Joshua.

  Joshua looked around inside the shed while I tried my very best to not look at the big clear plastic garbage bag that was sitting just outside the door of the shed.

  It was full of scraps. Dead animal scraps. I thought I could even see a small head in the bloody red mass. I definitely saw a furry foot.

  Why was it there? I doubted there was garbage pick-up service in Webequie.

  I couldn’t stop looking at it, so I forced myself to look at anything else. The inside of the shed didn’t look any different than it had the day before, but then I glanced down at the corner where the medieval torture devices had been lying. “There were some big traps here yesterday.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Marlee dismissed my input. “Harold already reported them gone.”

  “What were they?”<
br />
  “Wolverine traps.”

  I didn’t ever want to meet a wolverine if it needed a trap like that to stop it. The metal jaws on it had been huge.

  “Nothing of ours is missing.”

  “You sure?”

  “Positive.” Joshua stepped out of the shed and picked up the bag of blood and guts. “Let’s go.”

  “Why are we taking that?”

  “You’ll see.”

  I could hardly wait. Not.

  I sat as far away from the bag as I could and was glad that the force of the boat moving forward sent the blood that was leaking out of it toward Joshua’s feet in the stern and not mine. Even so, I put my feet up on the seat. I knew things would slosh around when we slowed down to beach at the lodge.

  We went past the southern tip of the peninsula, crossed the open mouth of the bay, and then continued further south along the shore of the mainland. A single-prop plane started crisscrossing the sky above us. Joshua slowed down as we got near to a big dock. It stuck out into the water so far that a barge could have docked at it, but there was a pontoon boat, not a barge, docked across the end of it. There were several freight canoes like ours docked along the sides of the dock and Joshua cut the engine and left us drift up next to one. I crawled over the other canoe and jumped up on the dock before he could ask me to help him get the bag of guts to the dock. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realised that it was a floating dock. The pain in my shoulder roared to life when I had to cartwheel my arms to get my balance, causing Chief Troutlake’s satellite phone to fall out of my pocket and almost end up in the river.

  “Why the big dock?” I asked as I bent down to pick up the phone.

  “Some customers come in float planes. These guys came in a private jet; you probably saw it at the airport.”

  I had seen it. It was a lot smaller than Jack’s. Jack had a big jet. I smiled and felt a shiver of excitement at the thought of seeing him in just a few hours. Under my parka, I looked cold again.