34

 

Call the cops.

When you call the police you expect them to come running. After all, they are committed to serve and protect. You assume they’d do it immediately.

According to dispatch, however, Andrew and LeClerc were off tracking down some case-breaking lead and would get back to us when they returned. Hopefully tonight.

Geoff was reluctant to let Josh out of his sight while we waited. He thought the kid might chicken out on confessing and run, so he ordered pizza for us to share, and when it was ready I scooted downstairs to the Heron to pick it up. No need to pay delivery costs.

Geoff hung up the phone when I returned with supper. “Inverness Arms,” he said. Someone had needed a medication change; fortunately, the job could be done over the phone.

We sat around Geoff’s outdoor table—the inside one isn’t big enough for four people—and gorged ourselves on seafood pizza and talked about Hum Harbour Daze. More specifically, how I’d ended up as the festival’s troubleshooter when I had no idea what I was doing.

Josh said he knew someone who knew someone who worked for a guy who knew someone who’d rented a giant tent for some outdoor mattress event—truck loads of mismatched mattresses on sale cheap—earlier in the summer. A few text messages later, I had a name and a phone number. I excused myself and called the mattress guy.

Mattress Guy told me he’d borrowed it from a buddy who, years before, had bought one for his daughter’s wedding reception. The father-of-the-bride, when I called him, said he stored the disassembled tent in an old fish factory.

“I’ve promised it to a buddy for this weekend, but after that it’s all yours.”

“But I need it this weekend.”

“Real sorry, missy, but this weekend’s already spoken for. Where’d you say you were from?”

I couldn’t hold back my sigh. Here came the traditional who-are-you-related-to conversation. “Hum Harbour.”

“I don’t know what Sam MacDonald wanted my tent for, but he’s from Hum Harbour, ain’t he? Maybe you can work out something with him.”

“Sam?” My brother?

“Said he needed it for that big festival you got going. I come every year, you know. Love them lobster boat races. I never won, but always give it a shot. This year, though. I think I’ve got a good chance this year. My son-in-law’s designed this new engine boost system…”

By the time I got back to the table, the pizza was gone and Geoff had pulled out Scrabble.

Andrew and Inspector LeClerc arrived as I was about to add “un” to “requited” for a big one-hundred-six points. It would have put me out front and possibly marked the first time I’d ever beaten Geoff at Scrabble. So much for that.

The two were filthy. I poured them glasses of iced water while they took turns in the bathroom trying to clean up.

“Are we allowed to ask what you’ve been doing?”

“You may ask,” said LeClerc after draining his glass. He spotted the frogs displayed on the coffee table and muttered something in French that sounded a lot like a swear word.

“Are these what I think they are?”

“If you think they’re Carrie’s missing frogs.”

“Where did they come from?”

Josh gripped Ash’s hand as he faced the inspector. “Gai found them washed up on the beach.” OK, sorta true. “But they got there because I’d chucked them off the end of the wharf.”

“When did you do that?”

“Saturday night. Right after I found Claude lying in the middle of the floor in his front hall.”

Geoff shifted. That wasn’t what he’d directed Josh to say.

“He had fallen?” asked LeClerc.

“I dunno if he fell or not.”

“Did you try helping him?”

Josh’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “I touched him, if that’s what you mean.”

“How did you touch him?”

Geoff cleared his throat. “Look, I know you guys want answers, but this is not the statement Josh intended to make, and I’m going to suggest he stop answering until he calls his Dad and a lawyer.”

LeClerc shrugged. “This is his right, of course, but we are just talking. No one is accusing him of anything.”

Josh glanced between the two, panic registering in his face. “But you said if I told the truth—”

Geoff held up his hand. “I did. Telling the truth is always the best thing to do. But in light of what you just said—”

While Geoff talked, Ash pressed against Josh’s side and whispered, “You really touched his body?”

“—I think it would be wisest for you to have an advocate with you while you tell the truth.”

“But I can’t afford no lawyer.”

“I can” said Geoff. “Call your dad, and I’ll call my lawyer, and when they’re both here, you can tell Andrew and Inspector LeClerc everything you saw and heard.”

Josh’s dad arrived within minutes, his pajamas visible beneath his clothes. He seemed anxious for Josh to tell police everything he knew. “He doesn’t need a lawyer. He’s not being charged. No one’s read him his rights, have they?”

Geoff herded Josh and Mr. Pry into the kitchen. “This isn’t an American TV show. Our police don’t adhere to American laws.”

Mr. Pry sniffed derisively. “We still got laws here in Canada.”

“But they’re different. I personally do not know how they differ. I just know they do.”

Mr. Pry looked at his son. Like Josh, his prominent Adam’s apple bobbed whenever he swallowed, which he was doing often.

“Do you want to risk Josh’s situation getting more complicated than it already is?” asked Geoff.

“This is my boy’s life we’re talking about.”

“Then wait for the lawyer. He left Antigonish the same time you left your house.”

Mr. Pry checked his watch. “He sure better be on his way like you said, ‘cause I think holding out only makes Josh look more guilty.” He saw me hovering in the doorway, trying to be a wall between them and the two cops in the living room.

“Geoff’s a wise man, Mr. Pry. If he thinks it’s in Josh’s best interest to wait, then I can’t see what harm it will do.”

“Maybe we should wait for Josh’s lawyer at the station,” said LeClerc.

I tried to picture Andrew, Inspector LeClerc, Josh, Mr. Pry, and a lawyer, all squeezed into the tiny office at Hum Harbour’s police station. Sardines in a can had more leg room. “Couldn’t you talk here?”

“There is more space,” said Andrew.

I said, “Ash and I’ll leave. And when the lawyer arrives, Geoff can come over to my place, too. That way you’ll have as much privacy as you would at the station but more room to breathe.”

LeClerc hesitated. “MacDonald, you will take notes?”

Andrew produced a notepad and a pen. “Whatever you need.”

“Then it is settled. Ladies…”