Revenge Finds a Home by Bill Coultas

Author:Bill Coultas
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Flanker Press
Published: 2023-05-04T18:06:21+00:00

25

* * *

A Strong Westerly

* * *

Lynch had had a long day. It wasn’t until nine that he got back to his apartment. The pizza he had for supper was starting to repeat on him. He poured himself an Irish whiskey. He wanted some music, and when he pressed the play button on his stereo, up came a CD of traditional music. He relaxed, but soon his mind wandered to the Peyton case.

The more I dig, the worse it’s getting, he thought. Hopefully we’ll have those two lists so we can begin crossmatching the archery club with the list of people who knew Peyton was going to his cabin and where it was located. The killer had to be there, somewhere.

He had spent a large part of the afternoon in his office putting together an overview of it all. Their approach of compiling two lists, an archery one and a grad list, seemed promising, but as time wore on, he began to have doubts. He had the feeling that approach might not give them anything definitive. In his chats with Gus Fagan and Jason Penney, they had all wondered if they were heading in the right direction. But he knew that was all part of the process. Turn over a stone and it often reveals other life forms that need a closer look.

Lynch sipped his whiskey, sighed, closed his eyes, and imagined the web chart on his office wall. He mentally reviewed the conversation he’d had with Penney that morning. Who else knew of Peyton’s side trip besides the students at the party? His brow furrowed as he concentrated harder on the web chart.

Right in the centre was the large bubble-circle that said Peyton Murder. Branching off to another bubble was the word Archery. He thought about offshoots from there—the killer might have learned archery on his or her own, so that would put a hole in the crossmatching plan. Then there was the issue of gender—would some club members have daughters who were interested in archery but were not members? If so, would any of them be going to the university? Would they have any connection with Peyton? Had any of them been sexually assaulted by Peyton? Would any of them have planned a revenge? A rape victim might very well do that, he concluded.

Another archery offshoot was the stone arrowhead. Lynch recalled his conversation with Professor Janet Marshall. It was now certain that the arrowhead was made of Ramah chert, a rare stone only to be found in a quarry in Northern Labrador. Marshall had been clear that no one was allowed to take stone from that quarry unless they were Indigenous or had a special permit from the government. In checking government records that afternoon, he found that only registered geologists from three universities in Canada had removed specimens from the quarry.

There were three Indigenous groups in the province—the Innu, Inuit, and Mi’kmaq. He saw a reference to a group titled Qalipu but found out they were an offshoot of the Mi’kmaq.

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