Martha was pushing a little pea around her plate when Sam walked in. He was soaking wet and I instinctively swivelled to look out the window, but of course I couldn’t tell if it was raining because the windows were still boarded up.
He must have seen me because he grimaced and said, “Flooding down by the docks. I thought I could power through it but then my ride started coughing water halfway through and died right in the middle of the puddle.”
He whisked a wet lock of hair out of his eyes and answered my question before I asked it. “I tried to pull it out but the footing was slippery. Had to hike over to the compound and get Trevor.”
Trevor seemed to have his fingers in an awful lot of pies.
“Have you seen Melanie?” he asked as he glanced around the room.
I told him she had just been here and then I threw in a nice little aside. “Are you and she an item?”
Sam turned his head back to me, and the expression on his face told me he was wondering whether he should answer or not. “Let’s just say we’ve been there, done that,” he said. But there was no anger or even sadness, just frustration, which was kind of weird if they’d just broken up. Or maybe he was just frustrated with me.
“She seems like such a nice young woman,” said Martha in an unbelievably matronly way.
“Yeah, well, people aren’t always what they seem, are they?” he said bitterly.
The silence lengthened into the uncomfortable range, and I said, “Was Stacey?”
It was as if a fart had just been let loose.
“Was Stacey what?”
“Was she exactly what she seemed?”
Sam looked down at his feet and scratched his head. “Are any of us?” He looked at me with a steady gaze. “I don’t know what you want, Cordi, but I will not speak ill of the dead. Stacey was a friend.”
“But what if she was against the vaccination. The discovery that the vaccine was sugar would make her want to support the vaccination. You knew that and you couldn’t let it happen so you killed her.”
Sam looked at me, his mouth twitching in amusement. Finally he said, “You’ve got to be kidding. What kind of motive is that?” Said so baldly it did seem rather far-fetched.
I tried a different angle. “When exactly did Stacey discover that the vaccine was fake?”
Sam squared up his shoulders and brushed the hair from his eyes. I wondered why he didn’t get sick of brushing the hair out of his eyes.
“When Darcy told her about the conversation he overheard with Wyatt.”
“And when did you corroborate it?”
“I told her verbally the night before she announced someone had stolen the vaccine. She wanted the lab report and diagram to show to someone, but she didn’t say who.”
“How did she take the news?”
“She was visibly agitated but she was also in good spirits, as if she had just got a Christmas present she wasn’t sure she deserved.”
Someone dropped a pot in the kitchen and Sam jumped. I could see he was aching to leave. He kept looking up at the front door.
“Where were you when Stacey was killed?”
He glanced over at Martha. “I was with Martha until about 2:30 and then I went to bed, just like everybody else.”
“Not quite everybody else,” I said.
We stared at each other and then he abruptly said, “Gotta find Darcy. Be seeing you.”
I watched as Sam threaded his way through the tables and out the front screen door, his bulk practically obliterating the doorway. Whatever was on his mind couldn’t be anything compared to the physical damage he could do if he ever got angry. Had he got angry?
I had cabin fever and persuaded Martha to come with me to the beach. The sun was out but the wind in the upper canopy was still flag-flapping strong. It took us ten minutes to attach Martha’s enormous bag to the back of the trike, and then Martha complained vociferously about getting onto my three wheeler, which required her to nearly do the splits. Once on she hung onto me so tightly I could hardly breathe. I wondered if maybe that was why they stopped making them, and not because if driven the wrong way they were major killers when they rolled over.
The trails were awash and several times we had to retreat from puddles that were too big and find another route. Even with the wind the interior of the island was soothingly quiet and sheltered by the dunes.
“What was all that about Mel anyway?” Martha yelled in my ear.
I pulled the trike over at the entrance to the beach and turned to look at her. She was so close I nearly hit her with my nose.
“Yeah, that was weird wasn’t it?”
“They seemed as thick as thieves yesterday. What causes such a seismic change so quickly?”
“Murder?”
“You think they are involved somehow?”
“Sam can be pretty passionate.”
“Passionate enough to kill because of three horses?”
“He knew the vaccine was fake and wouldn’t work so, being on the side of habitat preservation, he would have wanted to make that public knowledge. Stacey, on the other hand, being on the side of God, would have wanted it to remain secret, so that the horses would breed before anyone was the wiser.”
“That comes full circle, back to Sam murdering Stacey because of three horses.”
It did sound pretty ridiculous.
“Maybe’s he working on a higher plane. The greater good. The slippery slope. Vaccinate two horses and opponents will think you’re opening the doors for an onslaught of vaccinations on millions of horses. He wanted to stop Stacey before she could do some harm.
“You really think someone would murder over fake vaccine?” asked Martha.
“Maybe Mel and Sam were in it together and one of them is getting cold feet.”
“For heaven’s sakes, Cordi, what motive could Melanie possibly have?”
“Maybe she doesn’t have to have one. Maybe she helped him out because she loves him.”
“And then she bails on him? I’m not buying it, Cordi. But if it’s true that leaves two murderers who aren’t talking to each other. A volatile situation.”
I watched as Martha untied her bag and dragged it behind her down to the beach. It was a beautiful day but the wind was whipping sand in swirls around our feet. Martha sussed out a sheltered spot behind a dune and set up a blanket, pillow, towel, book, reading glasses, granola bars, potato chips, Kit Kat chocolate bar, water bottle, and suntan lotion. When she caught me staring at her she smiled and said. “You can share, Cordi.”
What do you say to that? I smiled.
While Martha was staking out her spot I climbed the dunes to a point where I could see the entire length of the beach. It stretched from the north in a long band of dazzling white sand, swinging inland like a crescent moon and then swinging back, cradling the sea in its curve. A long row of pelicans braved the wind, flying as low to the water as they could, their gawky heads folded back upon their necks and their webbed feet tucked up close to their bodies. I came down off the dune and around to its backside and ground to a halt. Wyatt was sitting in meditation pose, eyes closed, his white hair as dazzling as the sand he sat on in the leeward of one of the dunes. I carefully backed away, not really wanting to talk to him.
“I won’t bite, you know,” he said through half-slitted eyes. How the hell had he known I was there?
I pretended I hadn’t heard him and that he hadn’t said anything.
“Nice spot for meditation.”
He uncoiled his legs and bunched them up so that he was propping up his head on his knees.
“What brings you down here, Cordi?” and he flung out an arm to encompass the whole island.
“Research.”
He smiled. Unnervingly inviting. “Research on what?”
“Bird song.” He raised an eyebrow. “The dialects birds sing. Lots of birds sing the equivalent of English, cockney English, Scottish, Irish, Indian, depending on where they live. I’m just mapping it for the Indigo Bunting.”
“Are you musical?”
I looked at him guardedly. “No. Not really.”
“Sounds as though that would be quite challenging without a musical ear.”
“It has its moments.”
“But you plow right through them?”
“Something like that.”
“Is something like that happening with Stacey’s murder?”
I’d walked right into his trap and the only way out was to go on the offensive. “I know what you’re hiding,” I said.
A vein in his right temple twitched but the smile breaking across his face was at once warm and paternalistic. It momentarily took me off guard. “Do you now?” His smile didn’t miss a beat.
“Your vaccine is fake.”
I must hand it to him, he was as cool as they come. If anything the smile got broader. “So?”
“So, aren’t there some ethical issues here?”
“Such as?”
“Such as lying to the islanders, taking their money, and doing the opposite of what you said you would do.”
“Why do you think…?” He stopped suddenly, his smile fading.
“Lots of people would be ragingly angry to be so misled, if they knew,” I said. When he didn’t respond I continued, “Maybe Stacey found out about it. Threatened to expose you. So you killed her.” Much better motive than Sam’s, I thought.
He was smiling again. “I’ve got to hand it to you, Cordi. You are incredibly persistent, but you are way off base.”
“Enlighten me then.”
“I don’t see you wearing a badge.”
I ignored him. “Word leaks out that your vaccinations are placebos and your vet practice goes belly up. Stacey must have known that.”
A shadow crossed his face and I knew I had hit a nerve.
“What was the note that Stacey gave you the night she died? Was it about the vaccine?”
Wyatt slowly rose to his feet, and as he walked past me he said, “You’re way out of your depth, O’Callaghan.”
It sent a shiver down my spine and I couldn’t stop myself. Self-preservation I guess. “Do you really think that Stacey was the only one to know?”
There was a slight hesitation to his walk. “I’d be circumspect with that information if I were you,” he said as he swivelled to face me.
“Is that a threat?”
“Just a piece of advice.” And with that he turned and left.