The Fundy Vault Page 21

  “After I wrapped her in the flag, I carried her out and placed her body on the trunk and tied her arms into the tree roots. By then the moon was rising and the tide was flowing…. I rowed out, pulling the tree to the other side of Cape Split. Then I let her go…. I didn’t want her to just disappear. I wanted someone along the coast to find her—to see what they’d done to her.”

  “I saw her, Jacob,” I said. “Early the next morning—I’m the one who called it in, but they swooped in and took her away before anyone noticed.”

  Riley reached down and put her hand on Jacob’s shoulder. “It’s okay,” she said.

  Jacob looked back at her. “I was so afraid the truth wouldn’t come out,” he said.

  “Well it’s out now,” Arbuckle said, “and who knows, if you hadn’t done that and Roz hadn’t seen her, that bunch might still be up there emptying one tanker after another of poisoned water the ocean. But that’s over now.”

  “Is it?” I said to Arbuckle.

  “We’ve got Harvie working on the international front, Roz, and true to form, he’s moving fast. I went straight to the Environmental Protection Agency when I was down there, and we discussed the possibility of offering the tanker drivers leniency if they’re willing to testify about their part in Ratchford’s scheme. We’ll see. They’re considering it. If the drivers come forward, it would save a lot of money on the litigation side. Harvie’s already got one of the lawyers in your office working on the case, and you’ll be researching the ins and outs of the international extradition treaty as soon as you’re back at work. Monday, right?”

  “I’m all over it, Donald,” I said. “And dare I ask what happened with Dudgeon?”

  Arbuckle grinned. “McBride cornered Dudgeon today like no one else can. Got him to admit he was turning a blind eye to illegal dumping into the Bay of Fundy. And Aurelia knew it. She must have been one fearless girl. When Riley and I went to the restaurant, they remembered them. Apparently, she accused Dudgeon—actually made a bit of a scene. He played it cool, though, got up from the table and went to the bar to buy them all drinks, wanted her to calm down and talk about it. It’s possible that’s when he slipped the GHB into her glass, which, according to the medical examiner, is unquestionably what killed her.”

  “Did McBride ask him?”

  “Total denial. We’ve also secured the bluff—all the hardware that’s built around the vault, clear evidence of how the dumping was carried out. So I’m sitting here with a list of charges as long as my arm!”

  “What about Aurelia?” I looked at Riley.

  “The medical examiner is releasing her and we’ve been in touch with her family. We’ll be sending her body to Portland on Monday,” Riley said.

  People had begun to drift in from the reception to look for us and say good night.

  Björn came over. “All the pieces were wonderful, Roz, and many I had never seen, nothing like a good dose of Beckett.”

  He greeted Jacob warmly. “You’ve had quite a number of adventures these past few days. It’s good to see you, my friend.”

  Then Katie was there, squeezing between us all to sit beside Jacob.

  “Hi, Katie,” I said. “You remember me?”

  “You’re Roz. I remember. Jacob said you’re the one that put this whole show together.”

  “We all worked on it. I’m kind of the outside eye.”

  “Well, you did an awesome job.”

  “Thank you—that means a lot to me,” I said. “I’m glad you made it.”

  “I’m never letting my brother out of my sight again!” She hugged Jacob.

  Jacob grinned at her, and messed up her hair.

  “Hey!” she said. “Stop that!”

  Mark hurried in from outside, a little out of breath. “We’re all packed up, Roz—getting ready to hit the road. We’ve got a gig tomorrow.”

  I stood and nodded at Mark.

  “You okay?” I asked Jacob.

  “Getting there,” he said.

  I followed Mark out to the van where everyone was lingering in the warm summer air.

  “Okay,” I said. “I think we’re on for a fall tour, don’t you? You all did great work tonight!”

  “More Beckett!” Ellie said. “I love that stuff!”

  “We’re just getting started,” I said. “I’ll see you all in the city next week.”

  Then Sophie was beside me saying farewell to the company and giving everyone a hug. We waved as Regan’s car and the company van made their way up the familiar driveway.

  “You and McBride are coming to Kingsport for the night, right?” I said to Sophie.

  “Yup,” she said. “Molly’s there, waiting for us. McBride didn’t tell you?”

  “I’m sure the cat has held her own,” I said. “Gorgeous reading tonight, Soph.”

  “Thanks for including me, Roz. It was really a powerful event. What a great audience!”

  McBride came out of the building and stood with us in the balmy air.

  “We should all do something tomorrow, ” I said. “Last two days for me.”

  “We could have a picnic,” Sophie said.

  “On the Bay of Fundy,” McBride said with a grin.

  At that moment, Darlene and Katie came out of the centre with Jacob and the three of us watched the family make its way over to the parking lot. “That was a lovely show, dear,” Darlene called over. “You can come by the cafeteria for beef with barley soup anytime.”

  “Thank you, Darlene. I might take you up on that.”

  I looked at McBride. “You were too busy sleeping to try her excellent soup,” I teased.

  Just then, Riley appeared with Arbuckle.

  “So I haven’t even had a chance to ask you about Boston,” I said to her.

  They were both silent.

  “Something’s wrong,” I said.

  “I just got an email,” Riley said.

  “It changes the water on the beans,” Arbuckle added.

  Riley, seeing that Jacob was about to pull out of the parking lot, suddenly bolted away from us. “Strike while the iron is hot,” she shouted back to me.

  “Can we take Jacob into the studio here, and sit down with him?” Arbuckle asked me.

  “Sure,” I said, “we have it booked until eleven.”

  “You two join us,” he said to McBride and Sophie. “I’ll tell Jacob’s mother to take Katie and go home.” Arbuckle crossed to the driveway, where Riley had stopped them.

  “Let’s’ go in and set up some chairs,” I said.

  Chapter 30

  “It’s about Aurelia’s car, Jacob,” Arbuckle said, once we were all seated around a work table in the studio. “The one you said you were driving that night. Corporal Monaghan has just received the results from the forensic lab and there’s residue of vomit and GHB in the car. So tell us what really happened.”

  Jacob shook his head. “I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

  Riley cut in. “Jacob, the story you told Roz and me when we found you up on the ridge, about how Aurelia was dragged out of Steve’s rental and then driven down to Caroline Beach in the SUV, is now looking like a complete fabrication. If you were in her car waiting up the road from the restaurant, maybe you did pick her up. Did you?”

  He was staring at the floor.

  “Tell the truth, Jacob,” I said.

  There was a long silence. Then he looked up. “I watched the three of them come out of the restaurant. She told me they offered her a drive, but she refused. She said she had a car. After they drove away, she took out her phone to call me, but I pulled up to the curb and she got in beside me. I remember she said, ‘You got my car fixed!’ and I said, ‘Surprise.’”

  “So they didn’t know you were there?” Arbuckle said.

  “They were gone, and I’d made sure they didn’t
see me.”

  “And then?”

  “Then, I was driving her home, up to the cabin. I asked her how it went. I mean, I had a right to know.”

  “Of course! Because you were Aurelia’s source, weren’t you? Her informant,” I said.

  “When she first moved up to the cabin, she told me why she’d come here, what she was investigating. She was so into it—I wanted to help her. So I went down there to Jasper Creek and asked for a job. They hired me part-time. I helped out with everything. I got to know a lot of the drivers, I found out who the boss was. I chauffeured people, I picked people up at the airport. I kept my head down and learned everything I could about the whole scheme and in the evenings I would pass it all on to Aurelia.” He paused. “I was her secret partner—that’s what she called me. So yeah—I wanted to know what she’d told them and how they reacted. I was worried about her doing the interview. But she was determined to get some real quotes from Ratchford. She didn’t expect that cop to be there. She thought Ratchford would be alone.”

  “So what did she tell you about the meeting?” I said.

  “She said after she told them she was an environmental journalist and what she was working on, they argued with her and said it was a perfectly safe disposal method and that lots of people were getting work and it would be best for everyone if she just forgot about it. She told them she could list all the dangerous substances that are in fracking wastewater and that the citizens of Nova Scotia deserve to know exactly what was being pumped into the Bay of Fundy. She said she asked the cop point-blank how he could turn a blind eye and suggested that maybe he was on the take and then he told her to calm down, that he would never be involved with anything that wasn’t safe. And she said, ‘So you admit you’re involved!’ He said that they could work this out, that they should all have a nice dinner, and then he went over to the bar to get the three of them drinks.”

  Riley leaned towards Arbuckle. “Dudgeon would have access to GHB,” she said. “There’ve been several seizures of the stuff. There was a rash of it at the university this spring.”

  “That could explain why he was there,” McBride said. “To see what she was up to and shut her up if need be.”

  “Premeditated,” Arbuckle said.

  “Do you think she told them about her connection with you, Jacob?” I asked him. “About you providing her with information?”

  “She wouldn’t do that,” he said.

  “But if she did, that might be why they abducted you.”

  “They probably figured I’d learned too much just working there.”

  “Hold on—let’s not get sidetracked. So, you’re driving her home,” Arbuckle said. “Then what happened?”

  “She was so hyper, she said she had a couple of good quotes; she was really jazzed about exposing the scheme. She couldn’t wait to start writing. It was like she was on a high. We were already up on the mountain when she suddenly felt really sick. She was as white as a sheet. Then she said, ‘Oh my God, Jacob, I think they’ve poisoned me!’ So I said, ‘I’m taking you down to the hospital!’ But she was panicking. She was crying and convulsing and throwing up—she was trying to open the car door. So I pulled over and went to help her out of the car. She was just retching and then she fell down on the road. It was horrible. I was sitting on the road with her…and she just…she died.

  “I didn’t know what to do. I put her in the car and took her down to Caroline Beach. I was going to put her in the cave, but that tree was there—and when I saw it I decided to send her out on the tide so she’d be found and—you know the rest….”

  “We don’t know everything, Jacob,” Arbuckle said. “For instance, why did you clean the car?”

  “It reeked. I washed it out. Then I took it home and parked it in our garage.” He shook his head. “I was so scared. I told my mother I’d taken her to Kentville to get the shuttle to the airport.”

  “That’s true,” I said. “Darlene told me that in the cafeteria. But Jacob, if Aurelia was never in the cave, why did I find part of her name written on the rock with her own lipstick?” I asked.

  “That morning you found me coming out of the cave, I’d put the letters there, and I left the lipstick tube on the ground. I wanted whoever found McBride to know the same people had hurt her.” He looked at me. “What are you going to do?”

  “We’re building a case, Jacob,” I said. “Against Ratchford. Against Dudgeon. The two thugs.”

  “And you, my friend, are part of that case,” Arbuckle said.

  “I wouldn’t hurt her. I would have done anything for her. I loved her.”

  “If nothing else, you’re a key witness, so you’re not going anywhere,” Arbuckle said.

  “I want to help. I’ll do whatever you need me to do.”

  “Good,” Arbuckle said. “We’ll release you on your own recognizance and we’ll expect you to be available for further questioning whenever we need you.”

  “Are we done for now?” Riley asked.

  Arbuckle nodded.

  “I’ll take you home Jacob,” she said. “Let’s go.”

  I walked them out. Jacob got into the cruiser. I asked Riley if she thought taking him home was the right thing to do.

  “I got to know him pretty well this past couple of days,” she said. “He’s been through a rough time. I think he’s a good kid, and he’s smart. In fact, he says he wants to join the RCMP. And you know what, if he gets through all this, I think he’ll make a good cop.”

  An hour later McBride and Sophie and I sat around the porch table in my cottage finishing the takeout ribs and salad we’d picked up on the way home. The animals were fed and everything was calm.

  I told them what Riley had said about Jacob wanting to join the RCMP.

  “What do you think, Roz? Do you buy Jacob’s story?” McBride asked.

  “I definitely believe he was Aurelia’s source, and that he wanted to help her uncover the truth. But he got in too deep, doing errands for those creeps, practically running the place some days. Things got crazy.”

  Sophie said, “I believe him. And he went through something horrific in that car with her that night. Those are the symptoms of a GHB overdose—the euphoria, the compulsive talking, the vomiting. I experienced it once—a long time ago. I didn’t get the convulsions and of course I didn’t die, but that is what happens, and it can happen fast. When she died, it makes sense that he panicked.”

  “If it was Jacob who poisoned her,” I said, “why would he have wanted to float the body through the channel for everyone to see?”

  “Jacob didn’t have the motive to harm her that those guys had,” McBride said. “I think they wanted to put a good scare into her to shut her up, and they ended up killing her with the stuff. That’s why Dudgeon was so rattled and defensive when I paid him a visit.”

  “They must have done it,” I said. “Otherwise, why would they go so far as to remove her from the basin in a helicopter and bury her up on the ridge? They were trying to get rid of the evidence.”

  “They botch things up, don’t they? Look what happened when they tried to kill you, McBride. They blew it,” Sophie said, teasing him.

  “I’m too tough,” he said, taking her hand.

  I stood, and started to gather our dishes up and put things away. “So yeah, McBride,” I said. “In answer to your question, I do believe him.”

  “So much happened today,” Sophie said. “The reading feels like it was a week ago.”

  “Maybe you can join the Beckett tour in the fall,” I said, “if you’re not shooting that crime series.”

  “I didn’t tell you, Roz—I got the gig!”

  “Really? Congrats, Sophie! So you’ll be going to Toronto in August.”

  Sophie nodded.

  “And will you have company?” I said, nodding towards McBride.

  “I’m working o
n him,” she said, grinning.

  “We’ll see,” said McBride.

  “What’s the part?” I asked her.

  “I’m playing an investigator…. I’ve been studying your every move.”

  I laughed. “I can’t wait to see your interpretation of me on TV.”

  “You’ll have to come and visit me,” Sophie said. “I’ll have lots of room—apparently they’re renting me an apartment.”

  “Maybe I will, Soph. Take the long weekend in September before rehearsals start. Visit you, and then drop into Montreal on the way back….”

  The next morning Sophie and McBride and Molly left early for Halifax, and the cat and I slept in. When I got up, I made myself a cup of tea, grabbed an intriguing mystery from the cottage bookshelf, and stepped out into the yard.

  It was sunny and fragrant and there was no wind. With some trepidation, I looked out across the basin. The tide was coming in, and for the first time I wasn’t overwhelmed by images of Aurelia. I hoped she was now at peace. That we would attain the justice she so bravely sought.

  I breathed deep and settled into the Adirondack. The cat jumped up onto the flat wooden arm and purred. “Happy days,” I said, scratching her ears.

  About the Author

  Chris Nicholls & Lorca Moore

  Linda Moore resides in Halifax and has a cottage in Kingsport, Nova Scotia, on the Minas Basin. She works as a theatre director across Canada and was artistic director of Neptune Theatre in Halifax throughout the nineties. She has received several Robert Merritt Awards, including the 2015 award for Outstanding Direction. Linda has been a guest director at McGill, Memorial, UVic, and Dalhousie and was the Crake Fellow in Drama at Mount Allison. She is the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Saint Mary’s University. The Fundy Vault is her second novel in the Rosalind Mystery series.

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