The sky was almost dark when Casey's mother turned into the Templetons' driveway, raised the garage door with the automatic opener, and drove in. Casey helped her carry all the food she had bought into the kitchen. Several cars were lined up in front of their house, including two RCMP vehicles.
Casey's father had transformed the living room into a police operations base. He stood with a black marker in his hand, writing on a huge newsprint pad hung over a ladder. Staff Sergeant Deblo was talking. Sarah was there, and next to her were Hank, Jeff, Kevin, Terry, Constable Hexall, and four other Mounties.
"Casey," his dad asked, "is there anyone not here that knows about your investigation?"
Casey told him no, but then remembered Mrs. Phipps at the library and how she had tried to look up a number when he told her it had something to do with Mr. Deverell. Casey's father glanced at Staff Sergeant Deblo, who shook his head.
"We won't need to include her," his father told him.
"Oh," Casey said, "and Mr. Sanford knows about the screws."
"The long brass screws?" his dad asked. "What about them? Never mind. You'll have a chance to tell us in a few minutes. If we think Sanford's needed, we'll call him."
Casey's father told Kevin, Terry, and Jeff that he wouldn't keep them long. He told Sarah she would have to wait until someone could drive her home. Then Chief Superintendent Templeton gestured toward the dining room. "Before we continue we'll take a few minutes for some food and coffee."
Casey was the first to reach the spread his mother had laid out: cold cuts, cheese, sliced bread, butter, and plates of brownies and cookies, as well as a big urn of coffee. His father put together a huge sandwich, poured a cup of coffee, sat down, and started in. Passing his father on the way to the table, Casey heard him mutter, "No one should ever have to be this hungry."
It seemed that everybody felt the same. His mother had to fill up the food trays twice more.
When it looked as if everyone had had enough, Casey's father said, "Take your coffee with you and sit down." He asked the four young people if they had told anyone else about helping Casey with his investigation.
"I didn't," Sarah said.
"Well, our parents know we're into something," Jeff admitted, "what with my using the car yesterday and all. But when we said it was something important and that you approved, sir, they said okay."
Casey wished he could make himself invisible.
"All right," Casey's dad continued, "I want you to listen carefully to Casey's report and see if you have anything to add. When that's done, you can go, except, as I said before, for you, Sarah. You'll have to stay until Sergeant Hexall can drive you back to Fraserville." He took his seat and turned to Casey. "You can start, son."
"Sure, Dad." Casey swallowed hard and gave a point-by-point report of everything he had done to date. There was a long silence when he finished.
Casey's father stood and faced the group. "Is there anything anyone can add to Casey's report?"
They all shook their heads.
"Jeff, Kevin, Terry," Casey's dad continued, "did either of you see or hear the men Casey talked to? Did you see the red Toyota in the garage? Did you see the woman in the window?"
"We were parked past the gate at first," Kevin said. "When Jeff turned the car around, I saw Casey being chased by one man. I didn't see another man or the red pickup or the woman."
"That's all I saw, too," Jeff said. "Just one man running after Casey. When we parked at the gun club and saw the blue van go by, we couldn't see through the smoked windows."
Terry told Casey's father the same thing.
"Well, thank you so much for coming," the chief superintendent said. "Jeff, will you drive Terry home?"
"Sure," Jeff said as the three put on their coats and headed outside.
"Tell your parents I'll be in touch with them about this very soon," Casey's dad told them as he shut the door. He then turned to Sarah. "I wonder if you'd mind waiting in the kitchen, Sarah, until the official report is over?"
"No, I don't mind," Sarah said, getting up and walking to the kitchen.
"Maybe Hank could keep Sarah company," Casey's mother suggested with a look in her eye that only Casey caught. "Hank can read the report later."
"Fine by me," Hank said as he followed Sarah into the kitchen and shut the door.
Casey's father turned to the group. "I'll summarize for you what we now know occurred prior to Casey's discovery of Mr. Deverell at the Old Willson Place. Then Staff Sergeant Deblo will report on what's gone on since."
Casey thought there likely wasn't much about the investigation he didn't know, but he was wrong.
"Point one," Casey's father began. "Mr. Deverell regained full consciousness eight days ago and has explained why he was out at the Old Willson Place and what he expected to find. He had a second operation last Friday and was under heavy sedation when you were there, Casey.
"Point two. About six months ago Mr. Deverell got a call from his sister, Eleanor Deverell Calvin, in Idaho. She told him she was worried that her son, Jason, who lived with her and ran the family gas station since his father's death, had gotten himself involved with a white supremacy group. She had accidentally on purpose overheard a phone call Jason made where he mentioned a place just outside Richford, Alberta, as ideal for setting up a … she didn't know what, because at that point Jason realized she was listening and put down the receiver.
"Point three. Two weeks later, at the end of last August, Jason told his mother she'd better find someone else to run the gas station and that he was leaving. He didn't say why and didn't say where. But he was gone the next morning.
"Point four. More background. Jason Calvin had visited the Deverells several times as a child, and sometimes he and the Deverell boys had played at the Old Willson Place. Calvin was considered by the family to be a bully.
"Point five. Because the Old Willson Place was the only intact abandoned building anywhere near Richford, Mr. Deverell concluded that it had to be the spot Jason Calvin was talking about for his headquarters. Deverell spent a lot of evenings near the Willson Place, parking his car in a lay-by near the property and going through the house. He'd never seen anyone there, but he'd noted changes to the place. The first change was to the attic door. One day in mid-September he noticed the cross-pieces were no longer nailed on but screwed on with brass screws. Unlike Casey, he never tried the attic door. The last time he was there he noticed that new drapes had been hung." He turned to Casey. "Incidentally, I've been wondering about the drapes you burned, Casey, and was going to ask you about them. Now I know. Your turn, Staff Sergeant."
"Thank you, Chief Superintendent." Staff Sergeant Deblo took his place in front of his audience. "As you've just been told, Mr. Deverell never saw anyone at the Old Willson Place and never saw who hit him. We do know someone took his flashlight and car keys and drove his car to the Deverell garage where we found it with the keys in the ignition and the flashlight on the back seat.
"Until this afternoon we hadn't been able to track down Jason Calvin. With Casey's information we did apprehend Jason at the Fraserville hospital, but his van was empty, he had an answer to everything, and swears he has no connection with the attack or with the Old Willson Place."
"What about the phone number for the drape pickup?" Casey asked.
"Calvin swears he's just staying at the Sorum place for a few days and knows nothing about any drapes," the staff sergeant said.
"Well, what about him coming to the hospital to see Mr. Deverell?"Casey asked.
"Calvin says he didn't know his uncle was in the hospital until he got the call from the hospital this morning. He told us he was glad his uncle was getting better and had just come to visit him." The staff sergeant continued. "We sent a team to the Sorum address when Chief Superintendent Templeton phoned us. There was no one in the house, no evidence of anyone besides Calvin living there, and no new red Toyota pickup. Half of the garage floor had been freshly washed, so there were no tire marks. It would have been your word against his that you saw and heard what you did, Casey."
"Come in here for a minute, Hank," Casey's father called. When Hank entered the living room, the chief superintendent asked, "In your search for the Sorum address, did you find out anything else? Knowing you, I imagine you tried to get more information on Sorum."
Hank looked sheepish. "Well, you're right. I did try, but I found nothing."
Staff Sergeant Deblo continued, and Hank went back into the kitchen. "Our tactical team dusted the Willson attic for prints, but none they found matched the ones we took from Jason Calvin today. We believe Calvin imported all the illegal hate literature, but we don't have any proof. We believe he was behind the abusive calls we've been hearing on our wiretap at the Finegood house, but the calls were all made on public phones in different towns."
Casey sat quietly through all the questions. "Dad," he said when there was a break, "I have an idea."
"I hope it's as good as your drape caper," Constable Hexall said.
Was he hearing right? Casey asked himself. They weren't going to put him in detention? They were actually praising him?"
"Well," Casey said, "as I told you, I wondered whether someone at Sanford's Hardware might remember who'd bought the second half dozen of the long brass screws. Of course, when I checked, I took Elsie Tavich's picture, not Jason Calvin's."
Casey's father broke in. "We showed Calvin's picture to the employees of every store in town. No luck. Many said how much the picture looked like Mr. Deverell, and when they heard who he was, some said they remembered him as a kid, but not fondly."
"That's not what I was going to say, Dad. I spent a lot of time in Sanford's going over all the screws they had. Sanford's doesn't store screws the way they do it in the big box stores in Fraserville. Sanford's keeps the various-sized screws and nails in an old-fashioned sort of Lazy Susan. You look down into the compartments and slide a piece of glass toward you to get at the screws. The glass pieces are old and don't slide easily. Mr. Sanford had already put the long screws I'd ordered in one of those compartments when I went to buy them. There were six still in it when I left. Whoever bought the last six would have had to press very hard on the glass to get at them. That person's fingerprints could still be on the glass."
"Thank you, Casey," his father said, glancing at his watch. "That took rather longer than we thought it would." He turned to the four other RCMP officers, none of whom had spoken. "Now that you've been briefed, we'll be calling on you to help close this case. For now, let's have a bite more to eat."
Staff Sergeant Deblo went to the kitchen door, knocked, and called out, "Miss Vance?"
"Here," Sarah said, coming out of the kitchen with Hank, who was smiling. He looked happier than he had in months.
"Sarah," the staff sergeant said, "Constable Hexall will drive you back to Fraserville."
"Well," Sarah said, "unless it's against the law, I'd rather take up another offer I've had for a ride."
"Hank," Casey's dad said, "there's no way you're going to drive your motorcycle with that bad wrist!"
Hank held out his good wrist. "I know that, Dad. I've got the car keys from Mom. Okay?"
"Uh … um …" Casey's father spluttered.
As Hank and Sarah headed for the door, Staff Sergeant Deblo said, "Thank you for your continued discretion in this matter, Sarah. But none of this is to get into that sociology essay you're writing."
"I'm just using generalizations," Sarah said as the door started closing. "I promise."
"It's a school day tomorrow, Casey." His father wasn't smiling. "Bed!"
"Yes, sir! Good night, Officers. Good night, Mom and Dad."
"Good night, Casey." His mother looked up at him and smiled encouragingly. "Sleep well."
"Like that's possible," Casey muttered as he climbed wearily to his room.