Lake Crescent by J.J. Dupuis

Author:J.J. Dupuis [Dupuis, J.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Mystery & Detective / Women Sleuths
ISBN: 9781459746503
Publisher: Dundurn Press
Published: 2021-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

The way back to the inn took us past the ambulance station, where two RCMP cruisers and an ambulance sat outside. Sergeant Deloitte stood next to it.

“Could you let me out here, please,” I said to Chris. “I’ll walk back to the inn. It’s only a couple minutes away.”

“I’m starting to feel like a cabbie,” Chris said, smiling at me in the rear-view mirror.

“On your salary? You’re more like my chauffeur,” I said, smiling back.

“We still have work to do,” Danny said, turning around to face me.

“I know,” I said. “I won’t be long.”

They dropped me off in the parking lot, the van crunching over the gravel as it left. As I drew closer, I saw that Sergeant Deloitte stood with his hat in his hand. The skeleton was being loaded into the back of the ambulance.

He nodded at me as I approached.

“We’re taking her to a funeral home in Springdale,” he said, his eyes fixed to the gurney and the body bag mounted on it. “The medical examiner was recalled from his holiday, it’s —”

“St. George’s Day weekend, I know.”

“I believe he’d booked the whole week off, but that’s sunk now. He’s being flown in from St. John’s. I don’t think he’s too happy about it, but I’m sure he’ll confirm your friend’s findings for the record.”

“I see,” I said, not knowing what I should or could say.

I felt eyes on my back. I looked over my shoulder and saw the silhouette of a tall lean figure in a window of the nearby library. He — the figure looked male — backed away from the glass.

“When you join the Mounties,” Sergeant Deloitte began, “you don’t get to choose your post. It took me a long time to get stationed in my home province. Which is all well and good until a time like this. I like being detached from death. When I was in Saskatchewan, I knew I’d never come across the body of someone I knew. I could very well have known that lady.”

We stood beside each other in funereal silence, watching as the remains were loaded into the ambulance.

“You haven’t seen Beave Cannings around, have you?” I asked.

Sergeant Deloitte, squinting, looked over at me.

“He was supposed to take us around to visit a couple of Cressie eyewitnesses this morning, but he never showed. I checked his house. He wasn’t there, and the place was locked up.”

“A body turns up in a small town and everybody gets suspicious,” Deloitte said. “Everything becomes mysterious.”

He turned to face me. “I appreciate your help on this, but try not to get carried away.”

“That doesn’t seem weird to you?”

“I’ve known Beave since I was a boy. He and the other lads here used to beat my school’s hockey team every single game. I don’t know that he’s ever left the island his whole life. Just give it a few hours, he’ll pull up red-faced and ashamed that the whole thing slipped his mind.”

“Phil Parsons, whose boat we chartered —”

“I know Phil,” Deloitte said.

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