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The officer emerged from the backyard, talking on his phone. She spied him ringing off as he walked up the gravel driveway toward her. This must be quite an anomaly for the local police force. Surely Northwind had little crime now that she’d moved away. Regardless, hers had been petty kid stuff, nothing like murder.
The police would come from Saint Stephen or Saint John, two bigger urban centers. Though Northwind Island, stuck out in the Gulf of Maine, was closer to the U.S. shore, it was Canadian. The RCMP would come, as would the media.
And the islanders wouldn’t like that. Not one bit.
The wind had no effect on the officer’s short, gray hair as he looked down on them grimly. Lawson frowned, then stood. Peta found herself thankful that he towered over the officer. It was almost like having an ally.
And she needed an ally, especially here.
“Eventually, we’ll have to go to the station so you can give a statement, Miss Donald,” the policeman said. “And you’ll have to stay on the island until we’re done with the investigation. But you can’t stay in the house like you’ve been doing.”
Peta stood, then stepped up on the concrete tread to meet the officer at eye level. “I only just got here, Constable—” she glanced at his name tag “—Long. But sure, I guess I can find a room at the B & B.”
That local inn had a name, the Wild Rose, but everyone just referred to it as the B & B. She was hoping it had a new owner who didn’t know her.
The officer eyed her suspiciously. “My partner is on her way. But it’ll be a while before I can leave this property, so why don’t we start your statement now?”
So there was another police officer here. Given the islanders’ quirky behavior, she was surprised they’d even have two officers. These people discouraged tourists, and, if she remembered correctly, had even opposed a new wharf fifteen years ago because it might bring “troublesome mainlanders.”
Peta started her statement, disjointedly giving the details of where she’d spent last night and when she’d left the mainland, all her words tasting slightly bitter, even with the hot sweet tea on her tongue.
She shut her eyes. The image of Danny still lingered in her mind. He’d aged more than she’d expected. A hard life of partying?
Oh, Lord, take that image away. Why have You imprinted it in my mind?
She’d been living in Toronto, working at an indoor construction company. She’d seen injuries, even fatal ones.
Again, as she rattled off her address in Toronto, Peta wondered why Danny had invited her. Was it really to help him celebrate his big 3-0? Because he had so few friends here? Because he knew he might die?
With another warning not to leave the island, and a receipt for her knapsack, which she’d left in the house, Peta was ordered off the property. And the officer returned to his phone.
“No place to go?” Lawson asked as she found herself dismissed at the end of the short driveway.
Feeling foolish, she shrugged. “I guess I could go down to the B & B, but I don’t even have my wallet. I’ll have to pay later, if I’m allowed to.” With that, she started walking toward the village center.
Lawson fell in step beside her. Having lifted the fog, the wind now blew hard in their faces. She could hear it hum the power lines above. “You said you’re here to celebrate Danny Culmore’s thirtieth birthday.”
They passed the café before she answered, “We’re old school friends, and he asked me to come back this one time, so I did.”
He shook his head, his eyes unreadable in the bright, cool day. “You must have been special to him.”
Was she? He hadn’t spoken much to her these past few years. Peta stole a glance at the man beside her. She wanted to ask him what he was doing on the island, but held back. Ten years in Toronto had taught her not to even look people in the eye anymore. She lived in a community of strangers, all as foreign to her as she was to them. It was better to mind her own business. That way, everyone else did the same.
They’d reached the B & B. It was still the image of what it had been years ago, with huge, unruly wild rosebushes guarding its perimeter, and wind-bent trees shading one side of the large house. The wooden sign out front still rattled in the constant breeze, and, as in years before, Kathleen McPherson still sat in the front-room window, glaring out at the world from below her VACANCY sign.
Peta shook her head. It was sad to see Auntie Kay hadn’t changed her bitter outlook on life.
A car growled behind them, and Peta turned. Constable Long brought his patrol car to a halt, then got out.
“Miss Donald? Can I have a word with you?”
She shot a glance at Lawson, then walked to the front of the car. “What’s wrong?”
He peeled off his sunglasses and squinted against the sun and wind. “I’d like to take you to the station to ask you a few questions.”
She shook her head. “I’ve got nothing to hide. Ask me here.”
Lifting his eyebrows, he shrugged. “How long did you say you’d been here on the island?”
“I just got here around lunch, about fifteen minutes before I called 911. Why?”
“It looks like you’ve been here for longer. Your belongings are scattered all over the spare room. Where did you say you stayed on the mainland?”
“An inn called the Lilac Cottage. I got there yesterday morning and left around eleven this morning. I’d decided to stay there because I was tired from driving. I have the receipt in my knapsack.”
He pulled out a zippered plastic bag. In it lay a handwritten receipt. “The date on this says you left yesterday. I called the inn and the woman confirmed that you’d spent one night, but had checked out yesterday, not this morning.”
Peta hadn’t read the receipt. She’d simply shoved it into her bag. Frowning, she shook her head. “That’s not possible. I just arrived here. Ask the guy who owns the blue boat called the Island Fairy. He brought me here today.”
The officer flipped open his notepad and scribbled down the names. “I’ve been told that none of the ferry boats have come in today. And I’m told that you used to live here. You dated the deceased, didn’t you?”
“Yes, in high school. What difference does that make?”
“You split up with him under angry circumstances, I’m told.”
The locals did have long memories. “True, but we settled that dispute a few months later. We were kids.”
“You left here ten years ago and swore you’d never return.”
“I was young and angry. But I did come back, because Danny asked me to come to his birthday.”
“Anyone else see you?”
She paused. “Doc Garvey and Jane Wood saw me. Ask them.” Though with their obvious disapproval of her appearance, would they help her out, or want to see her off the island, as soon as possible?
“Anyone else invited?”
Peta wasn’t sure. She hadn’t received a formal invitation, just the phone call. That had always been Danny’s style. With a frustrated shrug, she felt the blood surge into her face. This was stupid and confusing, and not making an ounce of sense. “I don’t have all the answers. All I know is that I arrived here today because Danny asked me to come.”
“Don’t you find it odd that a man would ask his old girlfriend back?” the officer asked.
“This is a small community, and I was also his friend.” She frowned at the officer. “What are you saying, Constable?”
The constable walked to his patrol car, then returned carrying a paper bag. “Miss Donald, is this your medication?”
He pulled out a prescription bottle. Peta took it, and peered through the clear plastic at a few round tablets. She frowned. “This is my prescription bottle, but these aren’t my pills. Mine are small yellow ones. These are white.”
“These were the ones found in this bottle, Miss Donald. In Danny’s house.”
She handed him back the bottle. “I sometimes get migraines so I carry pills to ease the pain. But these aren’t my pills.”
“Do you know what kind of pills these are?”
“I’m an accounting officer, not a pharmacist. They look like small aspirins.”
“These are a type of hypnotic drug commonly known as the date rape drug, or ‘roofies.’ Several were found in Danny’s mouth. The autopsy will show if he ingested any, but he appears to have exhibited the outward symptoms that this medication, when mixed with liquor, causes. And when mixed with alcohol, this drug can kill a person. Did you know that this drug is illegal in this country?”
“I can imagine! But you can see on the bottle that the medication I take is for migraines!”
The officer said nothing, but she knew what he was thinking. She could have replaced the medication with something more dangerous and offered it to Danny if he complained of a headache.
She slumped against the patrol car, battling fear and nausea. There seemed to be proof she’d been here for a least a night, and there seemed to be proof that she had given Danny a drug that would have at least rendered him unconscious, maybe even killed him.
Constable Long’s expression turned dark. “I’d like to take you into custody, Miss Donald, to hold you for questioning in the murder of Daniel Culmore, but I have only one cell and it’s got a drunk in it right now. So I’m forced to wait until backup from the mainland arrives before we can make a decision on formally charging you.”
“You want to charge me? I didn’t kill Danny!”
“I’ve also instructed all boat owners to lock their watercraft so you can’t leave,” Long continued, as if she hadn’t interrupted him. “And wherever you find lodging, I’ll need the address immediately.”
He actually thought she’d killed Danny? Peta glanced wildly around, catching sight of Kathleen McPherson flipping the sign in her window to read NO VACANCY.
Mercy, she’d recognized Peta, after all these years.
And after all these years, this island was trapping her again. Not as a troubled youth forced to live with a long-dead aunt who cared for nothing but the support check.
No, this time, the island wanted her for murder.
TWO
A few feet away, Lawson watched Peta pale as she stared at the officer. “Are you arresting me?” she finally managed to say with a catch in her throat.
Coolness lingered in Long’s expression. “No, Miss Donald, but this evidence isn’t confirming your story.”
Lawson took in the scene and felt for Peta. He hadn’t had much to do with the law here in Canada, unlike back home in Boston. Here, the business that brought him to this island was his own, and the fewer people who knew it, the better. Especially the police.
However, Lawson regretted not having cultivated a better relationship with Constable Long. The officer was trying to gauge Peta’s reaction. Right now, her reaction was very typical. She was outraged, shocked and, yes, scared.
Lawson quickly held up his hand to get the officer’s attention. “What you’re saying is that Miss Donald can’t leave the island, and as you can see—” he pointed to the NO VACANCY sign that had, with disturbing suddenness, appeared “—there is no room at the inn, nor in the only cell you have. So why not call the mainland police to come get her?”
The officer colored slightly.
He’s bluffing, Lawson thought. “In the meantime, I have a solution. I just rented the lighthouse cottage at the cliff. It’s a bit run-down, but it’s okay to stay in.”
“I thought you were staying up Fishing Weir Road,” Long said.
Lawson kept his expression deliberately cool. “Just a change of scenery. The lighthouse and cottage are unused right now, and come as a rented set, so to speak. The owner’s too old to do anything with them, so I thought I’d move. But Peta can stay there for a few nights. I’ve still got the house I’m renting right now.” He decided not to add that the place he had right now belonged to Danny Culmore.
He felt Peta’s stare settle on him. “That old lighthouse is still standing? It was abandoned years ago.”
“It’s a good piece of local history. The point I’m making, though, is that you need a place to stay and I’m offering the cottage. I really don’t think there’s any other place available.”
“But is it okay for you to stay at that other house?”
“The owner won’t mind.” Peta didn’t need to know anything more than that. Not right now, anyway.
She bit her lip and blinked. “Thanks.”
He cringed inwardly as he watched how her situation was affecting her. She wasn’t welcome. She was scared. And she looked like a caged animal.
The officer nodded. Just then, a call came over his radio and he turned away to answer it quietly. Lawson caught only a few garbled words, like media, boat, two hours.
Peta stepped toward the officer when he finished the short call. “I can’t explain the receipt, Officer, but I’d like to have my knapsack back. Surely you’re done with it by now?”
“I’ll make sure it’s delivered to you as soon as it’s released. But considering these—” he held up the bagged receipt and bottle “—I can’t guarantee when that will be.”
Shoulders sagging, she moved away from the patrol car as Long climbed back in. Lawson watched him do a U-turn in the middle of the deserted street and return to Danny’s house. A heavy sigh escaped Peta as she dropped down on the nearest bench, a few feet from where they’d been standing. She looked up at him, her expression hollow. “You didn’t have to offer the lighthouse cottage, but thank you. It was very kind.”
He found himself blinking at her direct stare. “It’s no big deal. But the place does need some work.”
“That’s okay. You saw Danny’s house and I was willing to stay there. I was just surprised that the spare bed was made. Danny was never very neat.”
Lawson sat down beside her. “The officer thought you’d been there at least overnight. He probably thought you were being a good guest and made the bed.”
Peta shook her head. She had wide, innocent eyes, the color of the bay. Her hair was cropped, messy, thanks to the wind. Its color seemed to be both caramel and coffee.
“I’d make the bed, but not pick up my things? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Lawson wanted to ask why her belongings were scattered to start with, but she said, “I just got here. I knocked on Danny’s front door. When he didn’t answer, I went in. The place looked exactly the way it had looked years ago. I’d spent enough time there to remember. There was no one downstairs, so I went upstairs. I knew Danny liked to sleep in. He…well, he partied a lot, so I figured he was sleeping it off, but he wasn’t. I looked out the master-bedroom window and that’s when I saw him.”
“But your stuff was all over the place.”
Peta frowned, then lit up. “It was! I knew right away that he was dead and went looking for a phone. I couldn’t find one upstairs, so I grabbed my cell phone out of my bag. I was panicking. I threw everything out of my knapsack before I found it. Stuff got scattered.
“I dialed 911, and for some reason, got Maine’s emergency instead. I must have accidentally connected to a U.S. cell. As soon as I realized that, I shut the phone and tore downstairs. I found the landline in the kitchen.”
“Where else did you go?”
She shot him an odd look. Was she thinking he was a cop? The thought made him smile wryly. That was hardly the case. “I raced through the house looking for the phone,” she answered. “I must have gone everywhere.” She drilled him with a hard stare. “But I just got there! Once the police find that ferry operator, he’ll tell them that he just brought me over.”
“What about the woman at the inn who puts you there two nights ago?”
Peta shook her head, too swiftly for his liking. “I don’t know why she’s saying that.” She ran her hands through her hair and let out a strangled noise. “This is crazy! I just arrived, I just found Danny dead and suddenly I’m the prime suspect? Do you think I would report his death if I’d killed him? I’d have left the island with that ferry operator and I’d be on my way back to Toronto by now. And I wouldn’t have left any evidence behind!”
“Who thinks straight when they’re killing someone?”
As soon as the question left his mouth, he knew who would. Gary Marcano, the man who he was certain had made his family disappear. And who would think straight when hiding the bodies?
Danny Culmore, as he and his investigator had begun to suspect?
