“Jesus Christ,” he muttered.
“You guys are going to get me fired. Stop messing around. This is a crime scene. What have you picked up there? Jesus, you can’t be fiddling with the evidence,” the detective said.
Chris handed the tooth to Pell who studied it before passing it to the detective. “I think we just found Bert Nadeau.”
Detective Martin stared at the tooth. He was visibly shaken as he pulled an evidence bag out of his pocket and dropped the tooth in it. After a moment of silence, he cleared his throat and said, “Why did Commander Clemens want you to get involved? What do you know about this?”
Pell’s face was hard, his expression cold as he studied the Detective. “I don’t know anything about any of these murders specifically. Bert’s name came up in another investigation. I couldn’t prove it right now, but my gut says that you’re right, the murders here and at the Wild Bear are connected. We’ve got to comb this entire area for evidence. We’re going to need more manpower. Can you get some?”
“That shouldn’t be a problem.”
“Good. We also need to know who owned these buildings. Has anyone talked to neighbors?”
The detective laughed and said, “Neighbors? There isn’t another year-round residence within ten miles of here. There’re plenty of hunting camps, but you won’t find anyone in those this time of year.”
“We need to find out who these people were. Someone around here knows who they were. They had to eat, right? Check the stores.” Pell pulled out his mobile phone, no signal. “Can you get me in touch with Commander Clemens?”
“Sure,” Detective Martin said. “I’m going to have to ask you to accompany me back up the driveway and off the crime scene while I do that.”
Pell and Chris followed him up the driveway and as he walked over to his cruiser to track down his boss Pell said, “We’ll get these guys started, and then we’re out of here. We’ve got to get down to Boston to properly escalate this.”
“Sounds good to me,” Chris replied. Seeing Pell in action was more impressive than he had expected. He exuded much more force than Chris would have thought him capable of.
“I’ve got the commander on the radio,” the detective yelled from his cruiser.
“Excellent,” Pell said. “Let’s get the wheels turning.” He jogged over to the cruiser, leaving Chris alone to ponder the scene. This was just further confirmation that the people responsible for these deaths didn’t mess around. He looked down at his hand and saw thin ash lines from the tooth crisscrossed his palm. He reflexively wiped it on his pants. A crow cawed from the lowest branch of an enormous pine tree. He looked at the large black bird. It stared back at him defiantly before letting out another chilling screech that echoed in the woods.
Pell had everything under control now. They didn’t need him anymore. After all, this was their job, not his. But he wanted to be involved. He had built TeaNet from the ground up and it had provided him with incredible professional experience and challenges, but it was no match for this sort of thing. The past few days had been the most exciting of his life. He felt alive, reborn – as if he had molted – shedding the aches, pains and drudgery of middle-age back on the banks of the St. Croix River.
He thought fleetingly about trying to reach Karen but if things kept up at this pace, he’d be home on time and he could explain it all to her then. He had been toying with the idea of making a change anyway and this conversation could open the discussion. Karen wouldn’t like it. She liked stability, security but she also enjoyed the nice things in life that came with being married to a successful entrepreneur – the country club membership, the social events, the convertible sports car.
When his accountant told him three years ago that he was a millionaire, they had celebrated, Karen more than he. Becoming a millionaire was a milestone. He had purposefully not told her about the meetings he’d had over the past few weeks. He was being courted for a buyout. They were offering eight million in cash and eight more in their company stock, which was abysmally low but would undoubtedly go up.
It was tempting. But he didn’t want to get Karen over-excited. He liked burgers on the grill and beer in a can, she liked designer handbags, sporty cars and cocktails at the most expensive restaurants with her girlfriends. He didn’t begrudge his wife her shopping and lifestyle habits, after all she was a good wife and he loved her deeply. But he would prefer to think about how to invest the money and what he really wanted to do next before talking to Karen about it.
Pell said, “We’re all set. They’re bringing in twenty men to comb the entire area. They’re also sending in a chopper to get us back down to Bangor, and we’re going to hop a plane to Boston. We’ll be there around four this afternoon.”
Chris nodded. “How’re you doing? You look better.”
“Good. This has really got me fired up. I’m starting to think David Rose really was telling the truth, and each little bit of evidence that we have been able to put together is confirming it. This could be huge.” He slapped Chris’ shoulder. “Let’s talk a little more about your Africa theory.”
10:30 am PDT Malibu, California
Camilla and Sarah sat on the terrace in the garden. Albert had prepared an amazing breakfast that they should have been savoring but neither of them was particularly hungry. Sarah’s smartphone sat in the middle of the wrought iron table, and both of them kept glancing at it. Sarah had a real bad feeling about this. Seth was almost six hours late with his call. It wasn’t like him.
They had been silent for most of the meal until Camilla said, “Why hasn’t he called yet?”
Sarah pushed the eggs Benedict to one side of her plate and put her knife and fork down. “I don’t know. The only thing I can think of is that the phones are out up there, there’s no signal or something. That wouldn’t be uncommon at all. I mean that’s the whole reason we chose that location. It’s in the middle of nowhere, no-one around for miles and limited network coverage.”
“Something went wrong, and I bet it’s all related to David Rose,” Camilla said.
Sarah was about to try to put some sort of a positive spin on it when the phone emitted a shrill chirp. Both women jumped.
“This must be him,” Sarah said as she picked up.
“Seth, is that you? Thank goodness, where have you been?” A smile spread across her face. She had been thinking the worst. At least he was alive. Across the table Camilla nodded – her face essentially emotionless except for a deep crease in her usually smooth brow.
“We ran into some problems.”
“What happened?” Sarah asked.
Camilla walked around the table, leaned down, and listened to the conversation from right next to Sarah’s head.
“Alby Fournier showed up at the lodge.”
“Alby Fournier?” Sarah muttered, running the name over in her mind. She had heard it in the past, but couldn’t associate a face with it.
“He was a guide down at the Wild Bear. It’s a long story. What’s important is we got everything out. We’re heading west right now. I’m calling you from Burlington, Vermont.”
The two women exchanged concerned glances. He was holding something back.
“What about Bert?”
“Taken care of as planned,” Seth said.
“Is everyone else okay?” Sarah asked.
Seth paused. “Curtis and Wendel are dead.”
“Dead! What happened?”
“Alby shot them. He turned up all crazy saying he knew what we were doing and talking about the bible and God and stuff. He shot Wendel and Curtis before we could get to him. ”