The Fundy Vault Read online

“Anyway, that’s why Jacob ran from me, Riley. Because he’s in too deep. I don’t believe for a second he just happened to look in the cave. He knew McBride was in there. So that’s what I know. And now I think I deserve to be told what you know. If it wasn’t for Sophie and me and Björn, you’d have a corpse on our hands instead of a man recovering in the hospital.”

  “Let’s back up a bit here. So you’re saying they arrived here this afternoon and started ransacking this place right in front of you?”

  “Not in front of me. I made a run for it when I saw who had pulled into my driveway. I’d already had a close call with those two, and I wasn’t looking forward to another one. I hid in the trees the next lot over. Then the farmer who rents out this place showed up and told them to leave.”

  “Jeffrey did?”

  “Yeah. And his dog, George.”

  “George, the golden lab who gets loose and likes to run down the middle of the highway?”

  “So you’ve met George?”

  “Well, it’s a small place. I’ve had to arrest George a couple of times. He’s kind of a traffic hazard and, well—” Riley started to chuckle—“a bit of a…well, a pedophile.”

  “What do you mean a pedophile?” I asked.

  “Oh, you know. Little kids. George gets sort of obsessed when he sees one and likes to push them down in the garden or the field or on the beach. I mean he doesn’t hurt them. He just sees a little kid and he can’t help himself—next thing you know, over they go.”

  “Oh dear.”

  “Yup.”

  “I hear he’s adopted,” I said.

  “Yup. The Mennonites across the road from Jeffrey’s moved away and kind of forgot to take him along. Understandably.” It felt good to share a laugh with her, even if it was at the expense of poor George.

  “But seriously, Roz, I mean, what were those three looking for this afternoon?”

  “I…assumed it was my phone, which is what they were looking for the first time, because it has the pictures of the girl and the helicopter recovery, which they saw me taking. The pictures haven’t surfaced anywhere and I guess they haven’t given up on getting them from me—to make sure they never do surface.”

  “But they didn’t find your phone.”

  “No, luckily I’d managed to grab it just before I hightailed it outside.”

  “Can I see the pictures—I mean right now? I promise I won’t forward them or anything. I just want to see them.”

  “Okay, why not?” I went into the living room and got the phone. I scrolled back to the beginning. The first picture was of the girl placed on her right side on the sandbar and facing out across the basin. I could see that despite Riley’s stalwart demeanor, she was affected by the image. The sequence took us through the securing of the body, the lift up into the helicopter, and finally the departure of the helicopter to the north.

  I was surprised to feel relief as I showed the images to Riley. Could I trust her enough to tell her about Aurelia Strange, that I was 100 percent certain I knew the identity of the girl? I could hear McBride in my head saying, “Keep your cards close, Roz. Don’t play them unless you’re sure it’s the right move.”

  “So the chopper flew over North Mountain,” Riley said.

  “That’s right, and that’s the direction it had come from as well. And I have a theory about where it was heading.”

  “Which is…?”

  “I told you about the bridge that McBride was standing in front of when we lost contact.” I stood, and walked over to the window. “There’s something up there, Riley, across that bridge and on the top of the bluff right on the coast. Something they don’t want anyone to see. A place that’s visited regularly by tanker trucks—maybe some kind of factory or something.” I turned and looked at her. “I think that’s where the helicopter went. Sophie and I were intent on hiking up through the woods this morning to try and suss it out, but we ended up tracking down McBride on Caroline Beach instead.”

  “Let’s you and I go.”

  “What?”

  “Tomorrow morning. Let’s go find out what’s beyond that bridge. This has been going on long enough. I’ll pick you up at seven.”

  Riley’s invitation was completely unexpected—and presented me with a tempting and much safer option for finding my way to the top of that bluff.

  “What about the ‘higher-ups’?” I asked.

  “What about them? I don’t have any instructions to curtail my movements.”

  “Okay Riley, you’re on! See you at 7 A.M.”

  I stepped outdoors to watch Riley’s cruiser disappear into the darkness. I’d been awake forever and felt desperate for a few hours of sleep, but just for a moment, I settled on the stoop and breathed in the balmy night air. The moon had turned to bright silver and was hanging like a charm in the night sky. “Bring us luck,” I whispered.

  Chapter 20

  The cat was standing on my pillow putting her paw on my face. I started awake. “For heaven’s sake!” I said to her. Instant loud purring. Now that she’d had a taste of the great outdoors she wasn’t about to waste time doing something boring, like sleeping. I looked at the clock. “Oh no.” I leapt out of bed. It was 6:40. “Yikes—Riley will be here any minute! Okay, let’s go.” There was no shared moment of deliberation this time. She was off the stoop in a flash. “You’re welcome!” I shouted.

  I hastily dressed and washed my face. The images of the helicopter recovery were fresh in my mind from showing them to Riley a few short hours before. When I looked in the mirror to brush my hair I could see Aurelia Strange staring back at me, just as she had when I’d taken that first image of her on the sandbar. “I know,” I said aloud, staring back at her. “I’m working on it—I’ve got Riley onside now.”

  I jumped as my phone bleeped. Donald Arbuckle. “Hi, Roz. Hope I’m not disturbing your sleep.”

  “The cat got to me first, Donald. Anyway, I’m almost out the door. Heading over North Mountain this morning. I’m determined to see what’s on the other side of that bridge.”

  “Well, after McBride’s close call, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you to be extremely careful.”

  “Actually, I’ll be with Corporal Monaghan, so I’m expecting to get somewhere.”

  “I’m calling to make sure that security service is working out for you.”

  “So far they’re excellent! And thank you—because we did need assistance yesterday and Clint is smart and pleasant. He managed to keep the invaders out of McBride’s room without trouble, and last evening as I was about to leave, I met Andy—his night replacement. I haven’t heard from Sophie, so I’m assuming all is well. I’ll let you know if McBride’s able to leave today.”

  “Good. I put in a call to an old acquaintance of mine from out that way who’s a regional superintendant with the RCMP. I’m going to see what he’s got to say about all this ‘classified’ business and who those thugs actually are.”

  “So your RCMP acquaintance would be one of the ‘higher-ups’ then?”

  “Well, possibly. His name is Dudgeon.”

  “As in High Dudgeon?” I said, laughing.

  “Exactly.”

  A horn sounded in my driveway.

  “Oh—there’s my ride, Donald. Gotta go. Talk soon.”

  I fastened my seat belt, Riley handed me a takeaway from Tim’s, and we headed off down Longspell Road. A few minutes earlier when I’d let the cat out, the bright sun had been climbing over the basin, but now a bank of dark clouds obscured the sky.

  “Looks like rain,” I said.

  “It’s overdue. Anyway, the farmers need it to get that hay growing. It’s almost time for the first cut of the season.”

  “So what’s the plan?” I said.

  “Yesterday’s EHS rescue puts McBride’s case smack into my purview and since, as you reported, that bridge was
his last known contact position, it’s a legitimate place to start. Once we’re there I intend for us to cross the bridge, and check out what’s beyond it. After that, I’ll go over to the hospital and see if McBride’s alert enough for an interview.”

  I nodded and took a sip of coffee. I would have approached things the other way around—interviewing McBride first to find out what he’d uncovered rather than going in blind. Violent encounters had landed McBride in that cave at Caroline Beach and Molly at the vet’s, not to mention the tragic demise of the girl in the tree. Whatever these guys were up to, it was no joke.

  On the other hand, I was itching to get a close look at exactly what was going on up there on the bluff. I was grateful to have Riley with me, finally willing to take this on.

  “Still blue sky over North Mountain,” I said as we turned at the juncture and headed up the hill. Within minutes we had jogged over to Jasper Creek Road and were on our way down to the Bay of Fundy.

  “That quarry’s just ahead, where Constable Cudmore found McBride’s car.”

  “Right,” Riley answered.

  “Slow down a little. I want to see if that guy’s there.”

  “What guy?”

  “Björn and I met him yesterday when he drove me down to pick up McBride’s car. Donny, his name is. Says he works at the quarry in the mornings. We asked him about the bridge, but he claimed to know nothing about it.”

  “They’re all the same, those guys.”

  “Are they?”

  “Oh yeah—you can’t pry a thing out of them, especially if you’re a ‘come-from-away,’ which you are, being from the city. And don’t forget, you’re also a ‘girl’.”

  “You wouldn’t want to share any information with a ‘girl’.”

  “Nope.”

  We were chuckling about this as she began to slow down. I couldn’t see Donny anywhere, but it was hard to miss the tanker truck looming in the quarry entrance.

  “Yikes,” I said. “Just keep going, Riley. We can’t risk the driver getting nervous about cops.” I could feel her bristle at my giving the orders, but she kept the car moving. “Let’s pull off somewhere along here. I know, take the cabin road that goes off to the left near the shore. I have stuff to tell you,” I said.

  We took the left and stopped just out of view of Jasper Creek Road. “Shoot,” she said.

  “Okay!” I looked at her and tried quickly to bring her up to speed. “I told you last night that there were tankers up on that bluff,” I said. She nodded. “When Constable Cudmore called me about locating McBride’s car, Sophie and I drove out to the quarry. While we were there, three different tankers used the quarry. We figured out that they were waiting their turn to cross the bridge. So that truck we just passed is either in a queue or maybe the bridge is just opening up for the day, but in any case he’s waiting for a call.”

  “You’ve actually seen these trucks cross the bridge?” Riley asked.

  “Yes. We followed one and watched him cross it and drive up onto the bluff, and yesterday, at mid-morning, Björn and I saw one come down from there and leave. In fact, he almost ran Björn over!”

  “What do you mean?”

  I told her about Björn’s failed attempt to flag him down and find out what he was up to. “Honestly, we’re lucky Björn’s not in the hospital with McBride.” I said.

  “Maybe you and I will get the answer for Björn. What do you think? Should we wait until that tanker we just saw at the quarry crosses the bridge—or should we cross now?”

  “Well, timing is everything….” I didn’t have to decide because just then we heard the lumbering sound of the tanker approaching.

  “That must be him,” I said. “Let’s leave the car here and go out to the road on foot. We can watch him from up here. That way he won’t get spooked by the cruiser and once he’s gone across, we can get the car and follow.”

  She tucked the cruiser off to the side of the narrow lane, and we walked through the trees to the road. A clap of thunder made me jump. We stayed on the shoulder. From there we could look down and see that the truck had stopped at the bridge. As we watched, the cable released and the tanker rolled across. Riley’s attention was glued to the truck as it began to climb the steep slope to the bluff above.

  I looked back to where the old fella normally sat. “Riley, look! That’s Jacob down there manning the cable. See—he’s working for them!” I looked down at the parking area and sure enough, there was his silver Honda.

  Another huge crack of thunder was followed immediately by lightning and a torrent of rain. It was coming down hard. The two of us raced back to the car.

  “Oh God,” I said, slamming the door. “I’m soaked through.”

  “Me too. But it won’t last.”

  “You don’t think?”

  “No—you can see it moving. Look at those clouds whipping out over the bay.”

  “Why don’t we go see McBride now, and then come back after he’s given us the lowdown? By then, this rain will have moved on. ‘Forewarned is forearmed,’ right?”

  “That’s a good old adage, Roz, but mine is ‘Strike while the iron is hot.’ I want to see what that tanker’s doing up there on that bluff right now. I mean, we’re here, let’s do it. How long do you think we have? How long does it take to empty a tanker of that size?”

  “From my research—depending on the quality of the pump—it’s about 350 gallons per minute, so if it’s 10,000 gallons it would take about half an hour to pump it out, and from what Sophie and I have been able to observe, the tankers aren’t up there for long before they’re signalling to the next one.”

  “Let’s get going!” Riley said. She began to back around in the pelting rain. We pulled out onto the main road. The wipers were going a mile a minute and I could barely see, but Riley had no problem negotiating the pitched slope. She turned right and drove the twenty yards to the start of the bridge. The cable was secured, but Jacob wasn’t there.

  We sat there in the pouring rain. Riley beeped her horn. I looked down into the little parking lot and could see Jacob through the rain-streaked windshield sitting in his car. “He’s not moving, Riley. Just sitting there.”

  Riley, impatient, backed the cruiser up until it joined with the road that ran down into the parking area. We drove down and pulled in beside him.

  “This kid is not going to stop me from getting across. He’ll do what I tell him!” she said.

  Now I could see that Jacob was on the phone. “Who’s he talking to?” I said.

  He signalled to indicate she should wait a minute and continued talking. After what seemed like forever, he put the phone away, put the hood of his slicker up, got out, came over and stood by Riley’s door.

  She lowered the window and the rain blew straight in at us. “Corporal Riley Monaghan, Jacob. I need to cross that bridge.”

  He bent down to see who was riding with her and our eyes met.

  “Please go on over there now and release the cable for us,” she continued, hollaring over the din.

  “Everything’s closed,” he hollered back. “The storm! It’s too dangerous to climb the hill in this rain. You’ll have to arrange to come back another time.”

  “I’ll be fine on the hill. Now release the cable, Jacob.”

  “It’s a safety issue!” he yelled.

  “I take full responsibility. Let’s go, or I’ll have to charge you with obstructing an officer.”

  “Go back and wait by the bridge. I have to clear it first.”

  Riley reversed and turned around to go back to the bridge. Jacob was on his phone again. Perhaps sending a warning that the RCMP was on the way up.

  “Obviously in a lot deeper than running a few errands for those guys,” I muttered, more to myself than to Riley.

  “We’ll deal with Jacob, Roz, but one step at a time. I hope we’re not too la
te to see what’s going on up there. It’s already been at least twenty minutes since the truck went in.” We stopped in front of the cable once again. “That’s got to be a tough climb for those heavy trucks. I wonder what they’re carrying—or maybe they’re loading something into the trucks up there…no, that doesn’t make sense, does it. What the hell is that kid doing?” She leaned on her horn.

  The rain was letting up. Riley opened her door a little. I followed suit. The lightning flashed over Cape Split as the storm moved out to sea. We both pushed our doors wide open, got out of the car, and stood waiting on either side.

  There was a screeching engine sound from behind us. It was the Honda.

  Jacob pulled up along the driver’s side of the cruiser. He got out.

  “What’s going on, Jacob?” Riley called over to him. “The rain’s letting up. Let’s go!”

  He walked around the front of his car, and came and stood next to Riley. I joined them. “Your visit wasn’t pre-arranged,” he said. “I’ve been instructed to make an appointment with Corporal Monaghan to visit another time, and to ask you both to leave immediately for your own safety.” I could see he was trying to sound calm and managerial but he could barely catch his breath.

  “We’re here now and we’d like to get a look at the operation, and a proper understanding of what’s going on up there,” Riley said, pointing at the top of the bluff.

  “Yes, and we’ll arrange for you to do that at a better time. For now, let’s clear the area.”

  “Nice try,” I said.

  “It’s for your own protection,” he countered.

  “Protection from what?” I asked.

  “It’s an industrial site. It’s not safe for members of the public to be up there.”

  “I’m not the public,” Riley interjected. “And neither is Roz. She’s a private investigator, and a partner to Mr. McBride, who as you know, Jacob, may have been assaulted while investigating this location.”

  “Exactly. We don’t want to see any more injuries. So you need to leave now,” Jacob said.

  “Look,” Riley said, “I’m going to try not to construe what you just said as a threat. But only if you give us the opportunity right now to see what that tanker is doing up there. And I want a sample of whatever he’s carrying. Otherwise I’ll be compelled to call on the Department of Environment, and you can tell your bosses it often takes them months to check things out. In the meantime, they might order a shutdown. So it’s in everyone’s best interest for you to help us out now. And then, presto! We’ll be out of your hair.”