Deadly Homecoming

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.”