Echoes of the Past (10 page)

“Holy cow.
You were in there over
an hour. I was about to go looking for you. Well, what did she say?”

“She spoke in riddles. She said I’m going on a trip and the
roads will be bad. Let’s get out of here. I need a beer.”

Promise or no promise, there was no way she’d share anything
Audra had said with anyone, not even Tasha.

Chapter Five

Tony sipped his beer. What Joseph had revealed flabbergasted
him. If what the elder Mohawk said were true, he’d been reincarnated to right a
wrong and be reunited with the woman he loved—the ghost who walked the beach
and inhabited his dreams—the one he’d failed to save two hundred years ago. To
the best of his knowledge, the only way you could “be” with a ghost was to
become one yourself. Would dying be the price for helping The Three Sisters?
His death didn’t really matter to him, but surely they could have found a
better way to get his attention than by letting innocent kids die?

He let another mouthful of beer slide down his
throat. The locally brewed ale wasn’t
bad,
in fact, he
enjoyed its slightly hoppy taste. He scanned the room. Lindsay’s parents and
her uncle sat at one table intent on their conversation. No one blamed him for
the deaths, but they had too many questions—questions he couldn’t answer.

Aaron’s parents had arrived earlier than expected
because they’d been able to get on the first flight out of Calgary.
Lissa
sat with them. She’d told them about the baby and it
had brought a measure of bitter sweetness to the sad occasion. Their son might
be dead, but part of him would live on.
Lissa
and the
baby would always have a place with them.

Food and drink—the great
sustainers of life.
They’d all gathered in the resort’s restaurant for
dinner and afterward stayed in the bar where they sought comfort and closure,
but with the release of the bodies in limbo, resolution wasn’t something they’d
get tonight. Liam Moorcroft had admitted the delay was his fault, but contrary
to what Mayor Ron had said, Aaron’s parents were pleased his death wasn’t going
to be considered an accident without a proper investigation. Liam had said the
provincial coroner was sending his top forensic pathologist to handle the case.
Dr. Thomas was the foremost authority on deaths involving drowning.

“Colin’s a good friend. He knows how hard this is,
and he won’t let it drag on. Dr. Thomas will be here by noon tomorrow, and then
we’ll get to the bottom of things.” Moorcroft’s confidence had brought everyone
some measure of comfort.

Jackson brooded alone in the far corner. Although
he hadn’t known the others on the team well, Tony knew the tragedy had touched
him deeply. The young man had the potential to be a great researcher. Tony
hoped this wouldn’t change him too much, but how could it not—he’d been the one
to find the bodies.

He noted his student’s beer stein was empty. He
ordered another round from the girl tending bar and walked over to the solitary
young man.

“Can I join you?” Tony set the glass of beer on
the table in front of him. Normally, he didn’t socialize to this extent with his
students, but tragedy forced exceptions to a lot of rules.

Jackson looked up, and Tony read the misery and
guilt in his eyes.

Guilt?
What did I
miss?

Tony sat, not giving him the chance to say he’d
rather be alone.

“Are you okay?” He took a mouthful of his beer and
watched the young man look down into his.

“It’s
all my
fault
Lindsay and Aaron are dead.”

The words, barely above a whisper, were wrenched
from Jackson’s heart.

“Why would you say that?” Had something been going
on his students had kept from him?

Jackson, a haunted look on his face belying his
twenty-one years, stared into Tony’s eyes.

“After our discussion yesterday afternoon, we went
out and collected more samples as you’d suggested. I started checking them.
Those we’d collected from the southwest section of the lake had a higher
concentration of toxins than the ones from the southeast section. It was as if
the chemicals had settled right there. With the recent rains, that stream is running
high. I thought maybe if we could test the stream’s water in a few different
places, we might be able to narrow the entry point. I wanted some water from
there to compare with what I’d taken from the center of the lake yesterday
afternoon. That whole bottomless thing had me guessing…If you wanted to dump
something no one would find, properly weighted, that’d be the place to do it,
but how would you get the stuff out there? I mentioned my idea at supper time.
Lissa
felt like crap, and Lindsay needed something from
Picton
, so Aaron offered to take her into town and stop to
get water samples on their way. The weather wasn’t the greatest, but they
figured they’d have time before the storm hit. I’d pulled an all-nighter the
day before and fell asleep watching a movie on my laptop. When I woke up around
two—I saw you run down to the lake…”

“Did you see anyone else on the beach?” Tony
interrupted. If Jackson had seen the woman too, then Tony would have
corroboration for what he’d seen, an alibi at the least. Maybe Joseph was
wrong.

“No, just you, Professor.
You looked a little crazy to me, but I was half-asleep, so I thought I might be
dreaming. You looked like some kind of avenging warrior from one of my video
games. The rain was really coming down at that point. What were you doing out
there?”

“I thought I’d seen someone on the beach, but I
was mistaken.”

“That woman you mentioned the other day after the
break-in? I’ve been watching for her, but I haven’t seen her. She’d have to be
nuts to be out last night.”

Not if she
was a ghost. The weather wouldn’t bother her.

Tony looked at the young man. “No matter what you
might think, it wasn’t your fault. If they did go looking for samples in that
weather, then I’m ultimately to blame. ”

“But if I hadn’t said anything…Why else would they
have gone out on the lake? Maybe it was before the storm, but what I don’t
understand is why didn’t they come and get the life jackets off the cabin
railing? Aaron was anal about wearing the life jackets especially if we went
out in the evening. He said the fish jumped at night. A big enough fish could
startle you, and it didn’t take much to tip a canoe. He never got over ending
up in the water that first afternoon. Those waves had to be running two to
three feet high last night. I don’t understand. It doesn’t make any sense. And
another thing—how could they have gotten together like that? I should have
followed protocol and come to you with my findings, but I wanted to prove
myself…”

Tony’s heart went out to the boy.

“Listen to me. Yes, you should have come directly
to me with your findings. Where are your samples?”

“That’s the other thing that doesn’t make sense. I
can’t find any of my samples, and the ones Lindsay had are gone too. They’re
all gone. Everything we’ve taken within the last two weeks. I thought Aaron had
given them to you for comparison, but from what you’ve just said, I assume you
haven’t got them. Aaron and Lindsay must have taken them, but why? There’s a
collection kit missing too.”

Tony’s stomach clenched.
All the
samples gone?
They don’t exist?
Was the mayor clairvoyant? Wasn’t that a bit too convenient?

“They gave me their results, not the physical
samples. You must still have the results somewhere, right?”

“Oh yeah.”

Jackson pulled a USB drive shaped like R2D2, the
Star Wars
robot, out from under his
shirt.

“All my results are backed up in the cyberspace
,
on the hard drive, and here. I’m kind
of paranoid about losing stuff, which is why I’m so upset about losing those
samples. I still have my shots. I keep them separate, but…” Shots were what the
students called the minute plastic cylinders used in the chemical analyzer.

“That’s great. Give me that USB drive, and I’ll
check your results on my laptop. I want you to go and get the shots right
now—in fact, I’ll come with you. Something doesn’t feel right.”

Tony stood. “Let me say goodnight to the others.
We can’t walk away from this. The mayor may not understand the danger, but
Moorcroft might, and I’m hoping that pathologist will. We can’t abandon this
project now. Two people are dead, and who knows how many others are in danger.
We need proof, irrefutable proof.”

Tony turned and walked away from the table, said
goodnight to those remaining in the bar, and followed Jackson to his cabin.
With the shots in hand, he retraced his steps to the house he’d chosen for
himself. Of the three buildings his team had occupied, the tree house was the
closest to the lake. The night was clear and cold, as different from the
previous night as it could possibly get. Steam rose off the lake, and in the
mist he imagined canoes setting off from shore. Thanks to the beer he’d
consumed earlier, and the story Joseph had told him, he visualized a canoe,
paddled furtively along the shore by one person, a woman, dressed in
light-colored buckskin, her black braid a dark shadow against the pale
background of her dress. She glowed in the moonlight. From the beach, another
larger canoe set off, two men after her, paddling hard. He blinked twice and
the fog settled into its low, seething mist again. He shivered.

He turned away from the view and unlocked his
cabin door. He locked it behind him and closed the drapes. He thought back to
his conversation with Jackson and remembered the mayor’s words.

They don’t
exist.

“You know something, Mayor Ron, and I intend to
find out what it is,” he vowed to the empty room.

Tony walked over to the chemical analyzer set up
on the table. That piece of equipment had arrived only three days ago. He
opened the chamber, dropped in the water to be analyzed and closed the door.
Let the magic begin. This device was far more accurate than the one Lindsay had
used.

As Tony looked through the information on the USB
key, he understood the young man’s consternation. He compared Lindsay’s
findings to Jackson’s and frowned. The boy was right. His concentrations were
much higher than hers. That stream and swamp area had to be the key. There were
farms, wineries, and a slaughterhouse along that side of the lake and stream
too. That meant private land. The only way he’d get the samples from there
would be if he convinced the coroner his students’ deaths were related to their
findings. Without the original samples…He rubbed his forehead to ease the ache
behind his eyes. The migraine was back in full force. He looked at the clock.
Ten-thirty.
He reached for the packet of herbs Maggie had
given him and put the kettle on. He’d have another cup of willow bark tea and
try to get some sleep. It had been a hell of a day, and tomorrow wasn’t looking
so hot either.
Tomorrow afternoon—what
the hell’s supposed to happen then?

* * * *

Michelle brushed her teeth, rinsed her mouth, and
looked up at her image reflected in the mirror. Tasha was right. She looked
like crap, definitely not the best look for her. There were dark circles under
her eyes and her skin was sallow. She looked as if she hadn’t had a good
night’s sleep in three months, which was pretty much the truth.

She glanced at the clock—half-past ten. She was overtired
and irritable, and as much as she’d like to climb into bed, she couldn’t. She had
too many things to do. The eerie meeting with Audra had left her an emotional mess.
Tasha’s incessant questions about the interview hadn’t helped either.

Rather than snipe at her, Michelle chose to leave
Tasha half-an-hour ago when Simon, her EMS boyfriend, arrived at The
Thornless
Rose, the local pub where they’d gone after
leaving Ages Past. She’d battled the wind back to her car, grateful the rain
hadn’t started before she got safely inside. She’d been less than half-a-mile
from home when the skies had opened up. One of the biggest draws to her
apartment had been its underground parking, and she’d certainly appreciated it
tonight.

She walked out of the bathroom and went down the
hall to the guest room. She turned on one of the two matching Tiffany lamps and
walked over to the bed where she’d left her suitcase. She emptied it, put away
what was clean, and tossed the rest into the hamper.

Mechanically, she went into the laundry room,
emptied the washer, and put the items in the dryer. Her work clothes’ shopping
philosophy was simple. If it couldn’t be washed and dried, she didn’t buy it.
She changed frequently during the day—the fear of smelling like the dead never
quite assuaged—and she needed stuff that could be laundered quickly and
effectively. She did have some good clothes for social occasions, but it had
been a long time since she’d worn them. Visions of Ron Davies and Tony Steele
swam before her eyes. She moved to the closet where she kept her dressier
garments. Maybe she’d add a few
girlier
things this
time. She stared down at the box on the floor, the one Audra had told her to
open.

Not now.
After I do what I have to do.

She repacked her bag with what she thought she’d
need. Lastly, she added her favorite cool weather running gear and added an
extra couple of pairs of thermal socks, a pair of wool gloves, and a woolen cap.
She left the bag open to accommodate the items in the dryer. She got a large
reusable shopping bag and tossed in her favorite dress boots, lined rubber
boots, runners, hiking shoes, and a pair of strappy heals. She selected a few
pieces of jewelry and added them to the suitcase. Satisfied she had everything
she’d
need,
she padded into the kitchen, made herself
a cup of mint tea, and carried it in to her office.