The Fundy Vault Read online

  “Goddammit!”

  “Where are you going?”

  “To make a cup of tea!”

  “Make one for me too.”

  Chapter 24

  McBride and Sophie left for Halifax the next day, and I spent the weekend shifting gears and focusing on the upcoming Beckett workshop. Early Monday morning I was sitting in the porch reading Beckett’s Play, trying to figure out what we could use in the workshop to substitute for the three urns that the characters are trapped in—stools? Large boxes?— when I heard the sound of a car in the driveway. Surely not the actors landing on me a day ahead of schedule…. But it was Corporal Monaghan who came around the corner and up the steps.

  She opened the porch door and waved a paper at me. “I was the first one there this morning. The judge was barely awake.”

  “The warrant!”

  “That’s right—so are you coming with me?”

  “No time to waste!” I said, grabbing my bag and jacket. And I meant it. A day from now I intended to be completely absorbed in the Beckett project.

  “I know more about what’s going on up there now,” I said as we approached the turnoff to the mountain. “By the way, was this case assigned to you by the regional superintendent—Peter Dudgeon?”

  “Hardly. That’s not how it works, Roz. He’s got bigger fish to fry. Why do you ask?”

  “I have a cop friend in Halifax who was talking to your superior on Friday. Apparently he said he’d assigned it to you.”

  “I can’t think of a single time he’s actually assigned a case to me,” Riley said. So McBride’s gone? I wanted to interview him when he got out of the hospital. You were going to keep me posted.”

  “He needs recovery time, Riley—he and Sophie left Saturday morning. But he told me what happened to him up there.”

  I proceeded to catch her up on McBride’s account of events.

  “So McBride was assaulted immediately after he observed that tanker pumping something into a hole that leads to the Bay of Fundy?”

  “That’s right,” I answered.

  “Well, whatever they’re up to today, it will be us that catches them in the act.” She held the warrant up and gave it a shake.

  We were well along Jasper Creek Road. We passed the quarry. No tankers—at least not yet. We were soon approaching the end of the road.

  We eased over the slope and turned right onto the gravel road that led to the bridge.

  I leaned forward. “What the…Riley?”

  “What?”

  “Is it just me or…where’s the cable? Has the electronic steel cable been removed?”

  She stopped the car halfway to the bridge and we each got out and stared at it.

  “You’re right! It’s not there, and look on top of the posts—the cameras are gone.”

  The crate the old codger used to sit on next to the cable post was not there either. The parking lot down by the fish shacks was empty. We looked at one another.

  “This is totally weird,” I said.

  “Well, at least there’s nothing stopping us from crossing the bridge. Let’s go on up there and see what’s what,” she said, and started moving back to the car.

  “Riley, wait! Either everyone and everything is gone or this is some kind of trap. Were they expecting you?”

  “Not unless they were informed that I got the warrant, which is unlikely, and it was barely an hour ago.”

  “Should we get backup?”

  “I think we should just drive up to the top of the bluff and take a look around.”

  I relented. “Okay—let’s do it.”

  We got back in. She put the cruiser in gear and we headed across the bridge. The steep hill was tricky with deep ruts from all the tanker travel, but Riley maneuvered around them with skill.

  “Not bad,” I said.

  “It’s all those Valley back roads, Roz—lots of experience.”

  Finally at the top, we drove onto the flat of the bluff and paused. The gravel road continued ahead through the trees. The spruce stand was so dense it was like peering into a dark cave. Looking to our left, I could see the edge of the bluff and out over the bay. The narrow point of Cape Split was directly across the water.

  “Let’s get out and walk,” I said, remembering McBride’s detailed description. “I want to get a first-hand look at the target of all those tanker trucks.”

  Riley pulled over to the right side of the gravel road and tucked the cruiser in close to the trees.

  “Gotta leave room for all the traffic,” she said.

  We got out and walked along the road for a bit. It suddenly widened into a large clearing and there was the defined circular track around the pumping area.

  “So it looks like the tankers turn here, hook up and pump, and then they’re facing in the right direction to go back,” I said. “And it clearly is a set-up that works for only one truck at a time.” We looked more closely at the steel plate with the connector in the centre that the drivers could attach their pump hoses to.

  “So as Björn described it, this metal plate sits over a hole on the surface of the basalt rock. The hole opens into a large cavern, or “vault,” which extends down below sea level and empties into the Bay of Fundy.”

  Riley took out her phone and photographed the steel plate and the connector.

  I looked around. “According to McBride, right near here is where Molly was attacked by the German shepherd. McBride ran over to rescue her, and that’s when he was grabbed and severely beaten.”

  “It’s quiet enough up here now,” Riley said, looking around.

  “Eerily so,” I said. “Feels like they’re gone.”

  “Let’s keep walking.” On the far side of the circle, the road continued through the trees. Riley stopped in her tracks. “Now look at that!” I followed her gaze. She was looking at an open area near the edge of the bluff.

  We walked towards it. “I know exactly what that is,” I said.

  We were looking at a 12-by-12-foot square aluminum platform about 5 feet high with cross-braced adjustable legs. Painted on the platform were three red arrow-like symbols that crossed in the middle.

  “That is a temporary touchdown pad for a helicopter.”

  “Bingo. Your theory was correct, Roz. This is where the helicopter was heading,” Riley said, taking a photo. “But if they’re gone, why would they take away the cable infrastructure from the bridge, but not this?”

  “A hasty departure? Or they’re coming back for it,” I said.

  “Or maybe it belongs to a different company that will come and pick it up.”

  “Maybe. Let’s keep going. See if they’ve got anything else up here.”

  We continued along through the spruce along the shadowy road; it had narrowed to a single track but was still wide enough for a car.

  “I’d always imagined they had some kind of warehouse or headquarters up here, but there don’t seem to be any structures,” I said, peering around.

  “Keeping it simple,” Riley said, “in case of having to make a hasty exit. Look, Roz—see that enormous boulder up ahead? Look just beyond it. Is that a car parked on the other side of it?”

  We hurried up hill towards the boulder. The car was tucked in—almost completely hidden. It wasn’t a car I knew. We got up behind it and looked at the plate. MAINE, it read, and underneath in smaller letters, Vacationland.

  “Holy crow,” I said.

  “What?”

  I looked at Riley. “This must be Aurelia’s car.”

  “Aurelia Strange?”

  “That’s right,” I said.

  “But what’s her car—”

  I interrupted her. “Can you hear that sound?”

  “What sound? All I can hear are the waves hitting the shore.”

  “It’s coming from the other way
—not from the bay.”

  I stood still and listened. Riley did the same.

  “It sounds like….”

  “Digging?”

  I squeezed between the side of the car and the boulder. Behind the boulder was a narrow path that travelled inland away from the main track. I began moving along it trying to get closer to the sound. Dense foliage and broken tree limbs were lying across the path, but the sound was getting clearer. There was a dip in the land and the path went steeply downward into a copse of hardwoods. I crouched to see better. Riley did the same.

  We peered down through the leafy branches of the maple and ash trees and I could see the flash of a shovel glinting in the sunlight, and what appeared to be the shirtless back of a man, digging frantically.

  I lay flat on my belly to get a better view through a gap in the trees. At that moment the man threw the shovel aside and began to claw at the dirt with his hands, pushing it out of the way until some muddied ragged fabric began to appear. It was unmistakable: the American flag.

  I watched him reach into the earth and begin to lift the lifeless body of a girl.

  “Oh God,” I whispered. “Oh God, Riley!—It’s Jacob, isn’t it? She’s there! Aurelia’s buried there.”

  He gradually pulled her body free, lifting her out of her muddy grave.

  Not even thinking, I was on my feet and running down through the trees towards him.

  “Jacob!” I called. “Jacob, what are you doing?”

  Startled, he looked up. He was sitting just to the side of the grave now, leaning against the gnarled trunk of an elm, his arms and upper body streaked with dirt. He held her, facing him, and pulled her body close against his chest. “Get away!” he called. “Leave us alone!” His voice was hoarse and he was out of breath.

  “Jacob, it’s okay. Talk to me—tell me what’s going on.”

  “They can’t just get rid of her like she never existed.” His blue eyes darkened and he stared intently at me.

  “No they can’t, Jacob. That’s very wrong.” I crouched down a few feet from him. Riley kept her distance, up above us, and watched silently.

  He had his right arm across her back, holding her against him, and he placed his left hand on her cheek. “She was so beautiful.”

  “She was,” I said.

  “And they killed her.”

  “Who did? Who killed her?”

  “I warned her…she didn’t know how dangerous it was…I tried to stop her from going, but she said it was too important.”

  “So you found her…?”

  “I had her car—I’d gotten it fixed for her. I parked a ways up the road from the restaurant so I could see the door. I wanted to surprise her and drive her home after the dinner. But when they came out they had her between them.”

  “There were two of them?” I said.

  “Steve—the CEO, and the other one, the older guy—the cop—I’d seen him at things over the years.”

  “So they had her between them,” I said, “and then what? What happened next, Jacob?”

  He grew silent, just looking at her.

  I waited and took a deep breath. I could smell the pungent stench of death, mixed with freshly dug earth. “Tell me Jacob.”

  He looked into the distance. “They pushed her into the back of Steve’s fancy rental, and drove off….”

  He’d become still and much calmer. The harsh tones had gone from his voice, and he spoke with a distant, trance-like quality. He began to stroke her hair. “I followed them.”

  “They didn’t see you?” I asked.

  “They took her up the mountain. I thought they were taking her home.”

  “You mean, to her cabin?”

  “But at the turnoff to Jasper Creek Road, the SUV was there…waiting for them. I parked in someone’s driveway and watched. They pulled her out of the back of his car—she couldn’t seem to walk at all—they were just kind of dragging her across the road. Like a rag doll—then they pushed her into the SUV.”

  “Then what?”

  “Steve and the cop left—they headed back down towards the valley. The SUV drove past me and turned down the next road towards Fundy. It was getting dark. I stayed well back but I saw them turn off onto the narrow track to Caroline Beach. I parked her car in the trees by a deserted camper and ran the rest of the way down to the shore. I started to climb down onto the sand when I heard their voices in the distance—coming closer. I hid in the rocks.”

  “What did you hear?”

  “One of them said, ‘The tide will take her. She’ll be gone in the morning.’”

  “Was she in the cave?” I asked.

  “The tide was running—they must have put her right into the water. It’s taken me a long time to find her, but now I have, and I’m never letting her go.” He wrapped his arms more tightly around her in a gruesome embrace.

  Chapter 25

  Riley did a magnificent job of getting all of us off the bluff. She had an ambulance come to remove Aurelia’s body, and arranged for her car to be taken to the police lab.

  She led Jacob toward her cruiser. “You’re coming with me to the detachment,” she told him. “We’ve got some business to take care of.” Riley was determined to get to the bottom of this case, and seemed willing to take on the higher-ups if necessary.

  She had Constable Cudmore drive me back to Kingsport, and I called McBride when I got home and filled him in on the events of the morning.

  “So they’ve skedaddled out of there, eh?” he said. “Maybe that visit you and the corporal paid them the other morning was too close for comfort.”

  “And maybe the fact that both Riley and Björn started checking to find out what permits they had was too much pressure. Anyway, they’ve cleared out…gone like the snow on the water,” I said.

  “Guilt can do that. Will you follow up with Arbuckle on what Jacob said about someone from the police being involved at the restaurant meeting?” McBride asked.

  “Yup, I’m calling him next. Arbuckle can step in where Riley can’t. She’s willing to take them on but she’s in an awkward position, obviously. Jacob’s a mess, McBride. He’s been sitting on all this. He’d clearly fallen hard for Aurelia. And he must have been afraid. He’d seen those thugs in action, although they now seem to have vanished with the rest of them.”

  “And good riddance to them! I still have scars.”

  “How are you doing?”

  “Molly and I both slept in today.”

  “What’s Sophie doing?” I asked.

  “Right now—she’s vacuuming.”

  “I see.”

  “Don’t get on your high horse, Roz. I washed every dish in the house when we got here. The place is starting to look like home again. How are you?”

  “I can’t wait to escape from all this madness and dive into Beckett for three days with my company. Speaking of which, let me talk to Sophie for a minute.”

  Sophie came on the line. “Listen,” I said, “I’ve been thinking about Beckett’s Eh Joe piece that you wanted to work on. If we end up doing a little invited reading on Friday evening, would you come up and read the last section of it for us? I know the company would be thrilled to have you join us.”

  “In a heartbeat, Roz. I’ll get started on it.”

  “Thank you. I’ll let you know how our plans shape up.”

  Next I called Donald Arbuckle and told him what we’d learned from Jacob’s revelations about Aurelia’s death.

  “And Jacob’s certain that the man having dinner with Aurelia and the CEO was with the police?”

  “Yes. Jacob said he was older, and that he’d seen him over the years at various events, but he didn’t give me a name. Mind you, I didn’t interrupt to ask—it was all just pouring out of him. I mean, there must be lots of photographs of the senior officers in this area that we can
show him.”

  “Leave it with me, Roz. I’ll be back to you soon.”

  Riley arrived around four thirty, and she brought a pizza with her. “I know you have no food,” she said.

  “Björn and Grace sent me home with the leftovers after we had dinner there Friday night but I consumed every last bite over the weekend. So I’m starving now. You’re an angel. Do you want some tea—or a hit of the Irish with your pizza?”

  “Water’s good.”

  “How are you, Riley? How did everything go this afternoon?”

  “We got Aurelia’s body to the medical examiner. On first look they’ve indicated she doesn’t appear to have been beaten. From Jacob’s account, they may have drugged her. We’ll know in a couple of days. I took a statement from Jacob. Protocol is to keep him overnight in lock-up, but considering the shape he was in, I decided to take him home.”

  “I think that was best,” I said.

  “I dropped him off a couple of hours ago. It’s his mother’s day off, so she’s there to give him a meal and sort him out. And I’m working on getting a search warrant for that cabin Aurelia was staying in.”

  “There’s nothing in there,” I said, “apart from a few clothes—unless Jacob put her computer back, in which case, it would be invaluable. Flopsy and Mopsy probably ate it. I hope Jacob’s okay. Maybe I’ll see him this week if he’s working at the centre. You know I’m rehearsing up there right? You could come to the reading on Friday night if you like.”

  “See what you’re up to. Make sure you’re not breaking any laws.”

  “You never know. They’re a rough crew.”

  “And they arrive tomorrow?”

  “That’s right, and then Wednesday through Friday we’re at it. Take another piece.” I pushed the pizza box towards her.

  “No thanks. I should hit the road. I’ve got some paperwork to do at the detachment before I call it a day. I’m wiped. I was getting that warrant pretty early this morning. So can you forward those notes of Aurelia’s that you said you have?”

  “Let’s do it right now,” I said.

  “Good idea. Get it over with.”