Murder at Lost Dog Lake (25 page)

“
We knew what it was. Right away. I guess you hear that sound
so much on TV that when you hear it in real life you automatically
know what it is.

“
My mom wouldn’t let me into the study. She stood in front of
the door and screamed at me to call 911. I was really mad at her,
then, but she was right of course. There was nothing we could do
and she didn’t want me to see what he had become.

“
She let the ambulance people into the house and made me go
upstairs to my room. I could hear them down below. I could tell by
the way that they were talking and moving around that they weren’t
in any sort of hurry.”

My heart
breaking for him, I still was able to enjoy the light touch of the
first of the sun’s rays as they caressed my face and
arms.

But it
was a long way from that teenage boy, alone in his room with the
fabulous stereo, to the tortured young man on the rocks beside
me.

“
I realize that would have been tough, Craig. My father also
died way too young. But I don’t see what all that has to do with
what happened here over the last couple of days.”

“
It was Richard who killed my dad. I know he shot himself, but
he did it because Richard ruined him.

“
He came to the funeral. It was awful - my mom absolutely lost
it and flew at him, yelling and screaming that he was a crook and a
murderer, trying to get at his eyes with her nails. She always had
really nice nails, long, clean, sharp and painted bright red. She
went for a manicure every week.”

He
turned and smiled at me. “I have never liked a woman with long red
nails. They look like bloody claws. Makes my skin crawl. I’m glad
you keep yours short.”

I
shivered.

“
Anyway, she had to be carried her out of the church,
screaming the whole time. They took her to the hospital and she
missed the rest of the funeral. We stayed behind with my grandma.
And Richard Blackwell sat there, staring straight ahead, not giving
a damn.”

The sun
was rising over the water. Warm and welcoming, it stretched
life-affirming rays across the wet rocks and through the sodden,
dripping trees. I could feel my sweatshirt drying out on my
body.

“
How do you know he didn’t care? Men of that age can’t show
their emotions very well, you must know that.”

His face
changed in an instant. The mildly flirtatious smile disappeared as
if it had never been and he glared at me, red eyes full of fury and
remembered hate.

“
You don’t know anything, Leanne. He didn’t give a damn
because when my mom lost everything, the cars, the club membership,
her self-respect, her happiness, her husband, the bastard didn’t do
a thing to help her. You see, all the stuff that my dad bought for
us was with money borrowed from the company. He’d sunk the mortgage
money into their stupid scheme so we lost the house. My mom was so
goddamned trusting that she didn’t even have her name in the house
that had been bought with her inheritance. The company went bust,
bankrupt, out of business.

“
And good-old Richard conveniently didn’t owe it one single
cent. I heard Mom on the phone crying and begging him to help her.
I picked up the extension and listened in. He said it was my dad’s
fault. That if Dad was stupid enough to spend money he didn’t earn,
he, Richard, didn’t owe us anything.”

Craig
sunk to the ground beside me. He was crying now, full scale weeping
with unstoppable tears and gut wrenching shakes. He hugged his
knees into his chest and sobbed.

I could
only sit on my patch of rock and watch. The way I saw it, Richard
might have acted unethically, but Craig’s father was nothing but an
idiot to get himself tangled up into those sort of debts, and then
a heartless bastard to kill himself, leaving his innocent family to
face the consequences all alone. But it wouldn’t help Craig to say
so. “Where’s your mom now?”

He
looked at me coldly. “Dead, of course. She’d never worked a day in
her life and Dad didn’t have any insurance. Suddenly she had no
home and no money, huge debts to pay, and two kids to take care of.
She had to go on welfare. She was so humiliated. She lost all her
friends. They all dropped her like that.” He snapped his fingers.
As soon as she quit the golf club and we moved to a rented house in
a crummy part of town, well then they didn’t want anything to do
with her anymore.”

I
sighed, remembering the old feminist saying: “Every woman has one
man standing between herself and welfare.”

“
She died about two years after Dad. I was seventeen by then,
so I went out to work and earned a bit of money to pay for school,
part-time. My sister, Marcia, moved in with my grandparents. She’s
okay now. Has a nice little catering business.”

Enough
of the past. “Tell me what happened two days ago,
Craig.”

“
I didn’t mean to kill him, really I didn’t. I only wanted him
to say he was sorry that he ruined my family.

“
I recognized him back at the lodge. I thought it might be
him, soon as he stepped out of the van. But of course, time changes
people, so I wasn’t sure, but it didn’t take me long to realize it
really was him. I didn’t even need to hear his name to know.
Nothing could change that attitude. Arrogant prick. Of course he
didn’t recognize me.”

He
laughed, a dry, mirthless laugh. “I guess I’ve changed a bit. He
probably didn’t even bother to notice me at Dad’s
funeral.

“
I decided that I needed to go on this trip, thinking that
maybe I could talk to him, get a chance to tell him how I
feel.”

He
stared out over the lake, silent and brooding. It was heavenly to
see the most wonderful of all colors, blue, all around us again.
The morning sun delighted in the sheer joy of tossing cheerful
patterns of dancing light on the surface of the water and drying
out the rain-sodden leaves of the trees.

“
So I fed Scott some bad mushrooms. Chop them up finely
enough, mix them in with some nice fat good ones, and who’s to
notice? Craig’s special, saved for after the rich city folks are
all snug in their beds. Right?”

I
pictured Rita’s face, white and pinched and frightened, as they
rushed Scott to the hospital. Even though it happened as I had
suspected, it still came as a shock to hear him come right out and
say it. My face reflected my feelings.

“
I knew what I was doing, Leanne.” He scolded me lightly.
“Scott would only have been sick for a day or two, and then right
back to normal. No real loss. I’ll share the money I earned for
this trip with him.”

I
nodded, as if that would make it all right.

“
I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to Richard though, not
in private. Not like I wanted. Seeing him just made me so mad,
hearing the way he talked to his wife and to Rachel. Bossing Joe
around like he was still the big shot out here, in MY territory. So
when the rain started and he and I were well back from the rest of
you on the portage, I walked with him. I told him who I was; I told
him he had ruined my life.”

I sighed
at the waste of it all. Did Craig honestly believe that after all
these years Richard would be overcome with remorse and vow to make
it all up to the son of the man he had wronged? Not the chance of
the proverbial bat in hell. It was unlikely that Richard even
thought he would have anything to apologize for.

Craig
stopped talking and turned back to the lake. He bent over to scoop
up more pebbles and tossed them idly. No attempt to skip them this
time - they fell with a dull plop and sunk into the water, casting
tiny waves in ever-increasing circles.

“
So, what happened?” I encouraged him, no longer concerned for
my own safety. He had climbed down from threatening, and was
telling me the story in a nice, friendly, chatty way. But I didn’t
relax my guard. His mood swings were highly erratic, to say the
least.

“
He told me that my dad was a two-bit loser. Said if he
couldn’t play with the big boys he shouldn’t have entered the
game.” His rage against Richard was building again, his voice tight
and angry. He stood tall and still with his broad back to me,
staring out over the water, every fiber in his body clenched with
barely controlled tension.

“
He laughed at me.” Craig’s voice broke but he didn’t turn
around. “The bastard. So I swung at him. I didn’t even know I was
holding my paddle until I saw it flying through the air. It hit
Richard’s head and he fell and he didn’t move. And that was
all.”

“
The man was dead, or dying, Craig. That wasn’t all. And you
know it. You should never have kept quiet about what happened. You
know that there have to be consequences.”

“
I don’t think so, Leanne.” He was still facing the lake, his
voice calm and in control and so very cold. “What’s done is done,
and no one ever needs to know.”

I
laughed. “Are you crazy?” Bad choice of words. “Of course it will
all come out. Do you think Dianne is going to bury the body in the
woods and tell people that Richard ran out on her? Get
real.”

“
I mean no one has to know it was me who killed
him.”

I stood
up. “I won’t keep quiet, Craig. And even if I did, the police will
figure it all out, just like I did. You were smart to destroy the
canoe paddle; it would have had your fingerprints all over it. But
they don’t give up on this sort of thing. Believe me, I
know.”

Craig
turned and stood with his back to the lake. The rising sun outlined
him in a field of orange flame. I heard a plane fly overhead, a
small plane circling low over the lakes. Looking for storm-trapped
canoeists.

Craig
heard it as well. “Don’t try signaling, Leanne. It’s time I got out
of here.”

Down at
the campsite Rachel and Jeremy and Barb were screaming and yelling
at the plane. I didn’t dare take my eyes off Craig, but my
peripheral vision could make out the shape of a white T-shirt being
waved with much enthusiasm. The plane droned on and disappeared
over the green forest.

Craig
started back towards camp. I followed at a respectful
distance.

“
Only one canoe left,” he said. “I would therefore guess that
you have sent some of our more intrepid adventurers off in search
of help. A bit of a useless effort, wouldn’t you agree?”

I
shrugged, still keeping my distance. “I figured that someone should
go.”

He
walked down to our only remaining canoe and lifted it off the rocks
with no effort at all. The leftover members of our trip joined us,
all smiles at the end of the storm and the possibility of the
return to civilization.

“
When are we going to be off?” Rachel demanded. “Looks like
there’s only one canoe here. I wonder what happened to the other
one. Oh well, no matter. I’ll go with you, Craig, and the rest can
stay behind with Richard’s body.” She looked around. “I don’t know
what’s happened to Joe and Dianne, maybe they started the portage
back without us. Silly them.” She grimaced. “Silly, Joe, rather.
Probably trying to get help without worrying my pretty little head.
Jerk.”

“
Where are you going, Craig?” I ignored Rachel. It seemed
somewhat unfair to let her be mad at the first decent thing the guy
had done on the whole trip. Too bad.

Craig
placed the canoe into the water and pushed off. “It’s been a slice,
Leanne. But it’s time for me to take my leave of you
all.”

“
You can’t go without us,” Rachel yelled, suddenly worried.
“Besides you’re going the wrong way. Aren’t the lodge and the
highway behind us? We have to do the portage thing first, don’t
we?”

She
looked around in confusion. Barb joined her. “Maybe he knows some
sort of secret route. Do you, Craig?”

He
stepped lightly into the canoe and took his seat. “See you in hell,
Leanne.”

I waded
out after him. “This is stupid, Craig, really stupid. If you run it
will only look worse for you.”

He
guided the canoe out into the open water with strong, sure strokes
and not a backward glance.

I
considered swimming after him, but no one’s that good a
swimmer.

The
yellow canoe turned and headed parallel to the shore running north
of our camp.

I
climbed out of the water and sprinted down the barely-there path.
The remaining three erupted into babbling circle of frightened
questions and excited commentary.

I
crested the hill and there was the canoe, cutting serenely through
the sparkling blue water. The sun was high in the sky, and I could
feel the heat as it evaporated the last of the rainwater from my
sweatshirt.

“
Craig,” I shouted. “It won’t do you any good to run away.
They won’t give up looking for you.”

He
turned his face towards the shore. “Enough talking. I thought you
were my friend.” His voice broke. “I thought you were a together
sort of chick. But I guess I was wrong. You’ll turn me in, won’t
you?”

I jogged
steadily beside him. The path stretched out before me, straight and
clear, running parallel to the lake. But it wouldn’t stay that way
much longer.