Murder in Hum Harbour Page 20

  “Nothing’s going to happen to my father. Any theories you and your ridiculous brother have concocted are rubbish. They’ll never hold up in court.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  She gave me her coldest look, the one she saves for imbeciles and fools. “OK, tell me what you think you know.”

  I went back to gripping the doorframe. “Your dad tampered with Doc’s whiskey. Then, after Doc drank the poisoned liquor, your dad replaced the doctored bottle with an empty of his own. Andrew found that bottle on the Medical Convention.”

  “So.”

  “And I saw Doc’s poisoned empty is here on the Lori-Girl.”

  “When?”

  “When you dragged me aboard the Lori-Girl after you rescued me.”

  “There is no way you can prove which bottle is which,” she said as she adjusted our heading.

  “Sure I can. Just like your dad only drinks CC, Doc never touched anything except Arran Island Malt. Ever.”

  She shifted the throttle. “That still doesn’t prove anything.”

  “It will when Andrew takes possession of the empty Arran Malt off the Lori-Girl. I bet they’ll even be able to find traces of the methyl alcohol inside it.”

  Lori’s brows puckered into an angry V. “Then where’s Doc’s empty?”

  Releasing the doorframe with one hand, I pointed. “Back there.”

  Lori barely took a moment to digest what I said before she grabbed a length of rope tied to a metal ring on the wall. After looping the cord over one of the steering wheel’s spokes, she marched to the back of the boat.

  I watched her rifle around, kicking aside a pile of rope, poking the ruined tarp. She came up with a case marked Canadian Club. From that she pulled Doc’s empty bottle of Arran Island Malt. Apparently her dad had stashed it with his other bottles.

  “I’d planned to ditch this once I got farther out,” she shouted. Sliding the bottle back into the crate, she shoved the box towards the rail.

  I knew Lori loved her dad more than anything, but if she pitched those bottles into the water she’d be destroying evidence. Who knew what would happen to her.

  The Lori-Girl chugged past the breakwater. As Lori braced her feet so she wouldn’t be bumped off balance, I threw myself across the deck. I banged into her awkwardly, knocking her to her knees. The box hit the deck and skidded out of reach.

  At that same instant, the sky opened. Cold, hard rain drenched us in an instant. The Lori-Girl pitched this way and that on the churning water. Half the north Atlantic sloshed over the gunwales.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” she shouted, her teeth chattering.

  “Trying to save you from jail.” I yelled back over the Lori-Girl’s straining engine.

  “I can look after myself.” She edged towards the box of bottles. “Once I dump this evidence there’ll be no proof anyone did anything.”

  “But there’s still me. I’ll have to tell Andrew what I know.”

  Wind driven rain pelted us in sheets. Frigid water swirled across the Lori-Girl’s deck. The boat’s running lights barely pricked the darkness, yet as Lori turned, I saw pure hatred in her face.

  Water crashed over my head, blinding me. When the wave receded and I shoved my hair out of my eyes, I saw Lori towering over me.

  She surveyed me in mock dismay. “Poor Gailynn, nothing ever works the way you hope.” Another wave slammed the boat. The chilling blast distracted her long enough for me to scrunch myself into the narrow slot between Lori’s moving boxes and the stern. I thought I’d be safe there.

  But like she said, nothing ever works out quite the way you hope…

  Instead of saving myself I’d tangled myself in a pile of rope. The harder I tried to wrench free, the tauter it coiled around my legs. Tighter and tighter with every jerk. It was my worst nightmare.

  Lori stepped towards me. I kept my attention glued to her face while my hands groped for anything that might help me.

  “You can’t win, Gai, you know that. I always come out on top.”

  My fingers closed around something long and sturdy. It felt like a pole, maybe the gaff. I shifted position and Lori thought I was shrinking from her.

  “Can’t get away anymore, Gailynn. I have you cornered.”

  “No,” I said.

  “We’re going to get this over with nice and fast.” She gripped the front of my jacket and hoisted me to my feet.

  “No.” I squirmed, wriggled, bucked.

  “Cut it out or you’re going to hurt both of us,” she snapped.

  She didn’t see the pole in my hands. As she wrapped her arms around my waist and lifted me, the gaff jammed into one of her boxes and stuck.

  Lori’s feet skidded sideways on the water-soaked deck and she stumbled backwards, whacking her head against the gunwale. The crack rang so loud it echoed over the screaming wind, waves and boat engine. Then she slithered limply to the deck.

  God, don’t let her be dead.

  I crawled to her, dragging the rope with me. I felt her throat and found a thundering pulse.

  Wiping tears of relief from my eyes, I unraveled enough line and tied Lori to me and me to the boat, leaving enough rope between us to do what I must. Then I crawled to the cabin.

  I don’t know boats. The dials, switches and levers might as well be from a space ship. But, by trial and error, I found the radio and called “Mayday.”

  Then I turned the Lori-Girl around and chugged her back to the tiny spark of light in the distance I knew to be Hum Harbour.

  34

  The police car’s flashing blue lights guided me in. Andrew, Sasha, Sam and Geoff stood on the wharf.

  Sam shouted for me to cut the Lori-Girl’s engines and let her drift. I did as I was told. As the lobster boat banged hard against the pylons, he jumped aboard and tied her to the wharf.

  Andrew jumped onboard and crouched beside Lori, who lay where I’d left her. As best as I could tell, she hadn’t moved since I tied her up. Andrew waved Geoff aboard and the two conferred about taking her to the hospital. Waiting for the ambulance would mean a half hour delay, minimum. Could they afford to wait?

  “Does she need a back board?” Andrew asked. “We have one at the station. I could get Rose and the boys to bring it down. Lori’d have to go to Antigonish in the hearse but—”

  At the mention of the hearse, Lori’s eyes fluttered open. She pushed the men away and sat up. Maybe she hadn’t been unconscious after all.

  “I do not need a stretcher or a hearse.” She poked Andrew. “Untie my legs.”

  He began obediently picking at the mass of knots. “Gai, did you do this?”

  “She’d hit her head and I was afraid she’d wash overboard. Tying her to the boat was all I could think of.”

  Sam squatted beside Andrew and surveyed my work. “What were you trying to do? Keel haul her?”

  “What were you two doing out there in the first place?” Geoff asked.

  Sam nodded. “Not the best time to confront you fear of the water, Gai.”

  “Oh, I’m still afraid,” I said, shivering under Lori’s cold stare, “but my friend insisted I go with her.”

  Everyone looked at Lori. Her golden hair clung to her pale cheeks in serpent-like tendrils. Her blue lips quivered.

  Andrew peeled off his police issue rain slicker and slipped it over her shoulders. He untangled the last knot and began rubbing her ankles, encouraging the circulation to her feet. “Let’s get you home, into some warm dry clothes,” he said to her. “I have something to tell you.”

  “She already knows. In fact,” I said, pointing towards the smashing waves, “that’s why we were out there. She was trying to destroy evidence.”

  Andrew sighed. “I don’t think it will matter, now. Bud’s signed a confession. From here on, it’s up to the court.”

  Lori gripped the front of Andrew’s drenched shirt. “What do you mean he’s signed a confession?”

  He covered her hand with his own. “We re
ally need to get you out of this weather. We’ll talk about your dad, later.”

  Lori shook off his touch. “No. We’ll talk about him now.”

  Andrew shrugged his wide shoulders and helped her to her feet. “If that’s what you want. I went to the house to talk to your dad about Doc and your mother’s relationship and before I’d asked my second question, your dad confessed to murdering Doc in a drunken fit of jealousy. Just blurted it out, like he couldn’t keep it inside.” Andrew tugged the edges of his coat more snugly around her. “I’m sorry, Lori. I didn’t want to have to tell you like this.”

  “You’re an idiot, Andrew MacDonald, if you believe him. He’s a drunken old man who has no idea what he’s talking about.”

  Andrew drew himself up to his full official height. Some of the gentleness was gone from his face. Sam, Geoff, me, we all pressed closer.

  “Your dad had motive. Doc cuckolded him for years, sleeping with your mother. And if stealing your dad’s wife wasn’t enough, Doc pulled out of the golf course deal and there went your dad’s retirement savings. But the last straw was Doc cheating you when he backed out of his promise to give you his medical practice. You were going to have to leave Hum Harbour. Your dad couldn’t bear that so he killed Doc. I have his whisky bottle from the scene of the crime, and when the lab ever gets the DNA done it’ll prove your dad was aboard the Medical Convention and switched bottles. I have witnesses that will swear Doc never touched Canadian Club. Right Gai? And I have your dad’s signed confession. Case closed.”

  “You’re saying Dad killed Doc out of love for me and planted my seaglass earring at the scene to throw you off his trail?”

  He jabbed his finger at her. “You told me your pair was still in your moving boxes.”

  “She lied to you,” I said. “Sasha and I both have our pairs. The earring on the boat has to be Lori’s.”

  Andrew glanced from me to Lori’s mutinous face.

  “OK,” he said to her. “You went to see Doc off and you lost your earring on his boat. That doesn’t mitigate your father’s confession.”

  “Then why did she lie about it?” I demanded.

  “She was scared. She thought it might implicate her in Doc’s murder.” He wiped the back of his hand across his rain soaked face. “People lie to the police all the time. Believe me, I’m used to it.”

  I set my hands on my hips. “OK, how about the break in at my shop, did Bud confess to that, too?”

  “Not yet, but I’m sure he will.”

  Sam tapped Andrew’s shoulder. “Uh, Andrew, little brother of mine, I, uh, don’t think you’ll get Bud on that one.”

  Andrew glanced at him. “What do you mean?”

  “Well, see, I was some miffed at Gai for interfering in our lives.” Sam shuffled his feet. “She’s such a nosy piece of work, you know that.”

  I socked him in the arm.

  “Well you are, Gai, face it. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.”

  “So you trashed my shop?”

  He held out his hands helplessly. “I was drunk. I didn’t know what I was doing.”

  I couldn’t believe it. My own brother? I fisted my hand and smacked him as hard as I could. Sam didn’t even flinch. “As soon as this is over I am bringing charges against you. Just wait and see!”

  Geoff cleared her throat. “Don’t get too carried away, Gai. He didn’t do all that damage by himself.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Geoff inclined his head. “Do you want to explain to her, Lori, or shall I?”

  All eyes were riveted on Lori and she actually smiled. You’d think she was enjoying this.

  “No comment.”

  “Then, I will,” said Geoff. “Lori went by Dunmaglass to see Gailynn. She wanted to check about Sheba. Gai hadn’t called for help. Maybe she was a little curious to see how Gai was managing. After all, Gai’s not known for coping well in a crisis.”

  I glared at him. What was this: pick on Gailynn night?

  “Gai’d left her back door open. Lori went inside, but Gai was nowhere to be found.”

  “We’d taken Sheba to the vet in Antigonish,” I said.

  Geoff nodded. “Lori realized that once she found Gai’s place in darkness and my car gone.”

  Lori pulled Andrew’s coat a little tighter. “Gai was supposed to call me to help with the cat. Me, her best friend. Instead you called you.” She said you with such derision my mouth fell open.

  “You poisoned Sheba,” I said incredulously.

  Lori shrugged. “I wanted you to lay off the snooping. I know how stubborn you are but I thought a sick cat would distract you.”

  “So you poisoned my cat,” I repeated.

  Geoff said, “And busted up your shop.”

  I think my jaw dropped further.

  Andrew inserted himself between us. “Wait a minute, here. Are you saying Lori’s the one who ransacked Dunmaglass?”

  Geoff nodded. “Maybe Sam broke the display cases, but Lori did the rest. When I dressed her hand after she pulled Gailynn out of the water, I realized her cuts were more than scuffs from sanding the Lori-Girl. But it wasn’t until now that I put it together.”

  I lunged at Lori.

  Geoff grabbed me around my waist and dragged me back.

  Andrew stared at Lori in amazement. “You did all that to throw the scent off your dad?”

  I saw Lori’s face change. It was like someone had pulled down a blind inside her and my friend, my lifelong best friend, was gone. I don’t think I really understood what Lori was about until that minute. I went limp against Geoff.

  “It was you,” I said.

  Lori looked at me. Her lovely eyes were flat, contemptuous. “You’ve finally figured it out.”

  “But why?” asked Sam. “If you couldn’t stand Doc, why not just let him leave town, like he planned?”

  “Because he ruined my father’s life. Everything my father ever loved, Douglas Campbell destroyed. Dad’s marriage, his retirement, me. There was nowhere Dad could turn where he didn’t see Doc’s handiwork. For that, Doc had to pay.”

  “Doc bought you a future,” I said. “You could have used your success in Halifax to take care of your dad.”

  Geoff understood her better than I. “The practice in Halifax would have been a constant reminder that Doc could provide for Lori better than Bud Fisher.”

  She shook back her wet hair. “I’d rather scrape lobster boats the rest of my life than take one penny from Douglas Campbell.”

  “Doc gave you life,” Sam said.

  Her lips pulled back in a horrible smile. “Maybe. But I took his.”

  35

  It had been a week since Lori’s arrest. I’d spent the time at home working on my jewelry, thinking, praying, crying. How did you come to terms with something as devastating as discovering your best friend is a murderer? I had no idea.

  And it wasn’t just Lori. My own brother had been angry enough with me to break into Dunmaglass and smash my display cases. How did I respond to that? Mom and Dad, home from that cousin’s wedding in BC, wanted me to forgive Sam. It seems trashing my place was Sam’s low point. Since then he’d stopped drinking, and he and Sasha were seeing Reverend Innes for marriage counseling. Mom was afraid charging Sam would sabotage the good God was bringing out of a horrible situation. I bowed to her superior wisdom all the while praying God would show me how to forgive Sam in my heart.

  Not that I could rightfully claim I was above reproach in this whole affair. I had behaved abominably. Somewhere in the midst of Doc’s murder investigation, I’d lost all sense of proportion. I let my hunger for justice run away with me and I broke the most basic rules of trust and human decency.

  I guess it was my own sin that weighed heaviest on my heart.

  Geoff had given me the week off and I used the time to consider my options. In the end, I concluded I had only one choice.

  So Friday afternoon I took my resignation to the clinic. I was close to tears becau
se I truly loved working at the clinic. But I knew I’d broken Geoff’s trust. I had no reason to expect him to want me working with him any longer.

  It was four o’clock and the clinic would be closed for business. I took a deep breath, said a brief prayer for composure, and pushed open the clinic door. The place was a disaster. Kids’ toys were strewn across the floor, the magazine rack overturned, and the box of tissues, usually sitting on the corner table, had been shredded by a Tasmanian orangutan—or so it looked to me.

  Geoff knelt in the middle of the waiting room, collecting colored plastic blocks.

  “I’m sorry but the clinic is closed for the weekend,” he said without looking up. “Unless this is an emergency, I can see you when we reopen on Monday.”

  “Looks like you can use some help.”

  “Gailynn.” He dropped the blocks. “Am I glad to see you.” Bouncing to his feet, he rushed over and gave me a hug. “How are you doing?”

  I glanced around the office, taking in the stack of unopened mail on my desk and the wobbly pile of patient folders yet to be filed. “I think better than you. Rough week?”

  “Oh my gracious, yes. I’m a mess without you here.” He swept his arms wide, as though embracing the whole office. “The Baxter twins.”

  Say no more. I set my resignation on the desk and began collecting toys, returning them to the toy box, which normally lived under the corner table, not on top of the wooden dollhouse.

  “I know I gave you the week off but could you spare me enough time to help me tame this chaos?” He flashed me his most ingratiating smile. “I’ll do the waiting room, here, if you’ll attack the filing.”

  “It might be better if you did the files. You’ll need to know how the system works.”

  He stooped to right the magazine rack. “I trust you.”

  I stared at his back. Trust me? Maybe I’d better hand him my resignation now.

  “Geoff, we need to talk.”

  “Sure,” he said, sliding the magazines into the rack. “What do you want to talk about?”

  I passed him the envelope containing my resignation letter.

  He frowned. Wiping his hands on his pant legs, he accepted the envelope, extracted the letter from within and read silently. He blew out a breath and folded the letter back into its envelope. Then he tore my resignation in half and turfed it into the crammed trashcan beside my desk. “I’m sorry, but I can’t accept that.”