Echoes of the Past (13 page)

She looked up as motion behind the glass door
caught her attention. A woman in her mid-forties, dressed in a black skirt and
gray blouse opened the door. The woman didn’t look any friendlier than Michelle
felt.

“Can I help you? The municipal offices are closed
until Tuesday.”

“I’m expected.” The woman’s tone was offensive,
and Michelle had to force herself to remain calm. She reached into her pocket
and pulled out her identification.

“I’m Dr. Michelle Thomas from the Provincial
Coroner’s Office.”

The woman scowled. “Sorry. We were expecting a
man. Follow me.”

Michelle’s anger, just under the surface, boiled,
and she bit her lip to keep from saying something she’d regret. She pulled down
her hood, unzipped her jacket and followed the woman down the hall. Her
headache had increased, and the tension wasn’t helping.

“Excuse me, but could I freshen up someplace
first? At least wipe my face?”

The woman, as silent as stone, brought her to a
door marked
Employees only
and
indicated she should enter.

Michelle went into the room and turned on the
light. It was a break room with an attached bathroom. She removed her wet
jacket, glad to see that the coat had kept her rust-colored wool sweater dry.
She used paper towels to dry her face and tried to wipe down her hair as best
she could. She swallowed two painkillers, hoped against hope they’d work
quickly, added lip gloss and sighed. Under these circumstances, this was as
good as she’d get.

She opened the door and turned off the light. The taciturn
woman moved away quickly, and Michelle followed her. Photographs of Prince
Edward County lined the hallway, some of them eerily familiar. She stopped for
a second to examine a black and white photograph of the marshlands, which so
closely resembled the area she’d seen in last night’s dream, but the woman
walked quickly, and Michelle hurried to keep up with her.

The woman stopped abruptly in what must be a
central reception area, and Michelle stumbled almost running into her back.

“Wait here while I see if the mayor can see you
now.”

Michelle dropped onto an uncomfortable wooden pew
stunned.
She’ll see if the mayor could
see me now?
Unbelievable.
Don’t these people talk to one another?
Why the hell does she think I’m here?
The mayor can’t refuse to see me; he
doesn’t have a choice.

The woman returned.
“If you’ll come with me, Dr. Thomas…”

Michelle stood and followed her to a massive set
of double doors. Expecting to be led into the city’s council chamber, she was
surprised to see a beautifully decorated modern office. The furniture was
heavy, dark oak, polished to a gleam. Behind the wide desk sat a handsome man
with close-cropped dark brown hair.
Ron
Davies
. Michelle’s nerves tingled. It had been a very long time since she’d
found a man attractive at first glance.
If
his hair was longer…
He looked up as they entered, and the surprise and
appreciation on his face warmed her.

Déjà vu gripped her. Mayor Ron Davies looked
younger than his official photograph suggested. He was dressed casually in a
navy polo shirt with a municipal crest on the pocket. He smiled. Michelle
blinked. The smiled transformed his face. It gave him an open, friendly
demeanor, and she found herself drawn to him as she rarely was to any man.

“Dr. Thomas.” He stood and moved quickly around
the desk, his hand extended toward her. “This is a pleasant surprise. We were
expecting a man. Welcome to Prince Edward County. I’m sorry you aren’t here
under more pleasant circumstances.”

Michelle returned his smile and reached for his outstretched
hand. Her palm and fingers tingled at the contact.
Interesting.

“Thank you. I agree the circumstances aren’t the
best, but from what I’ve seen you have a beautiful island.” The excitement in
her voice surprised her. She didn’t usually show her emotions like this. “I’ll
have to come back again when I’m not working.”

The mayor spoke to his eagle-eyed secretary
without taking his eyes off Michelle.

“You can go now, Mildred. Thanks for coming in.
I’ll lock up when Dr. Thomas and I leave. I’ll see you Tuesday.”

The ever-vigilant Mildred nodded and left. Ron
continued to stare at Michelle, and she noticed how dark his eyes were. There
was warmth and humor in them, but they held secrets too. This wouldn’t be an
easy man to understand. He reluctantly let go of her hand.

“There’s something familiar about you, but I can’t
put my finger on it. Have we met before? You certainly don’t look like any of
the provincial coroner’s I’ve met in the past—probably the trend these days to
have women doing jobs that used to be reserved for men.”

Michelle frowned at his words. If she looked
familiar to him, he could be her dream lover, but his comment upset her. Had
she read this man wrong? She’d heard those comments before, but this guy seemed
a little young to be a misogynist, and the attraction she’d felt waned
somewhat.

“We can’t all be at home raising our one point
four
children
. Some of us feel we can contribute to
society in a different way.”

He flinched, and from the way his face registered
surprise, understanding, and embarrassment, she knew he’d gotten her point. He
reddened.

“Oh God!
Let me take my
size twelve shoe out of my mouth. I’ve insulted you, and it’s the last thing I
meant to do. I’m extremely happy you’re a woman. I mean…Please, let’s start
again. Dr. Thomas, I’m Ron Davies, the mayor of the Municipality of Prince
Edward. Call me Ron, please. How can I help you with this investigation? My
office and whatever you need are at your disposal. The sooner we have answers
the better. I really want to get to the bottom of this for the sake of those
parents.”

Michelle knew it would be churlish to take offense
where none had been intended. She’d try not to jump to conclusions on this
case. Besides, the man was gorgeous when he blushed, and it had been a while
since a real-live man had made her feel this way.

“Dr. Michelle Thomas. Please call me Michelle.
I’ll do my best to wrap things up as quickly as I can. I know there are
grieving parents to consider. The longer they have to wait for answers, the
worse it will be for them. I’ll probably need to do a full autopsy on both
bodies. I’ll have the Belleville M.E. help me to speed things up a little. I’ll
order toxicology screens and other tests as soon as I see the bodies for myself
and draw the blood. I’m sorry it can’t be faster, but these things take time. I
should have some preliminary information for you by the end of the week.”

“Of course, I understand, or at least I think I
do, but the paramedics said they’d drowned. Why do you have to do all these
tests and the autopsies?”

“Because drowning alone isn’t an
acceptable cause of death.
It hasn’t been since the 1980s.” She spoken
abruptly and hadn’t meant to. Her stomach rumbled loudly, and Michelle suddenly
wanted the floor to open up and swallow her.
So much for
trying to impress this man.

Ron laughed good-naturedly, and she relaxed.

“I anticipated we’d need lunch, so I made
reservations at Sophie’s Restaurant over at the Explorer’s House, one of the
other fine dining places on our island. The chef’s a good friend. We can talk
in more pleasant surroundings, and you can explain all about the complications that
will keep this case open. Normally, it would be a bad thing, but now, it’ll
give me a chance to get to know you, and that’s good.”

“I’d like that too, Ron. Lunch sounds wonderful. I’m
afraid I didn’t have breakfast, but I warn you, I’m not a salad for lunch kind
of girl. I like my protein, and if there’s a chance I can get seafood, I take
it. ”

He chuckled. “That’s fine by me. The longer we’re
there, the more time we’ll have to get to know one another. Come on. My truck’s
out back. I’ll drive you back here to get yours after lunch. The restaurant is
back the way you came, so we might as well travel together and save you
retracing your steps. You have another half-hour or so to get to the resort.
That is, if that’s okay with you? I don’t want to put my foot in it again.”

She smiled.
Cute and thoughtful.

“Sounds like a plan. Can I use your phone to let
my office know I’ve arrived? My boss was a little worried about the roads.”

“Of course.
I’ll leave
you to it, and be right back.”

Michelle reached into her purse and pulled out the
cell phone. She thought of what Colin had said about the mayor and shook her
head. Grief did strange things to people’s perceptions at times.

* * * *

After his morning run, Tony showered and dressed.
The need to do something compelled him out into the foul weather. As he drove
down
Picton’s
main street, his gaze stopped on a
beautiful, black Camaro parked in front of the municipal offices.
Ron’s?
What a sweet ride it must be.

He parked in the lot next to Clancy’s Pharmacy. He
wanted to verify what Mayor Ron had told him yesterday. According to Jackson,
this had been Aaron and Lindsay’s destination. If they hadn’t made it here,
where had they gone? More importantly, how did their vehicle get back to the
parking lot, and why hadn’t the police impounded it?

Clancy, the owner stood behind the counter.

“Morning, Professor. Lousy weather
were
having. I heard about your students. It’s a damn
shame.”

“Good day, Mr. Clancy. Yes. Both Aaron and Lindsay
had great futures ahead of them. I’m still trying to figure out what happened.”

“I heard from Liam, he’s one of the O.P.P.
officers here, some hot shot coroner is coming from Toronto. That’s good.
Moorcroft has important friends. He’ll figure things out and get the bastards
responsible.”

Tony started at the man’s words. “I thought the
police believe it was an accident.”

Clancy’s boisterous laugh was followed by a bout
of coughing. “Damn wet days just make the asthma worse. The little lady was
supposed to pick up her medication that night too. I even kept the store open
late for her.
Such a waste.”
He shook his head. “You
saw the way the bodies were bundled together. No one believes it was an
accident.”

The door opened and a couple of teens came in.
Clancy nodded at them. “Now what can I do for you, Professor.”

Clancy had confirmed the mayor’s words. Lindsay
hadn’t picked up her prescription. In fact, he hadn’t seen them, and he’d been
working Thursday night. Tony had no reason to doubt the man’s word.

“I need some cold medication for one of my
students. She’s pregnant. Have you got anything that might help?”

“Sure do.” Clancy led him to an aisle filled with
a variety of over the counter cold and flu medications. “That stuff just flies
off the shelves.” He laughed. “It works or rather people are convinced it does.
Either way, with the weather we’ve had, I can hardly keep it in stock lately.”

Tony thanked him and left, but the pharmacist’s
words stayed with him, forcing him to confront an unpleasant truth. Whoever was
cooking the meth probably got the supplies locally. In the larger cities where
meth labs were a growing problem, people purchasing certain over the counter
drugs had to sign for them and were limited in the amount they could buy. The
last time he’d purchased cold medication for himself, he’d had to do it.
Clancy’s was an old-fashioned place in a small town. He didn’t seem to have
much in the way of security either. Didn’t anyone check on these places? Were
the people here so far removed from the realities of the twenty-first century
they thought themselves impervious to them?

You could get the recipe for meth on the Internet
for God’s sake. Regular cold medicine like the stuff he’d just bought for
Lissa
was the key ingredient in its production. The meth
cook extracted the stimulant from the cold remedy and increased its strength by
using chemicals found in battery
acid,
drain cleaner,
lantern fuel, or antifreeze. It was easy to make—hell a good cook could produce
that poison on the front seat of his or her car, but the cooking process,
disposing of the waste, and using the drug were extremely dangerous activities.
Why anyone would willingly ingest poison Tony couldn’t understand.

The rain continued and Tony hurried into the hair
cutting place next door. Within twenty minutes, he was back in his car. His
hair had been cut short and spiked. It had been years since he’d had it cut
like this. It felt strange, but it gave him an extra measure of respectability.
The more professional he
looked,
the better. He needed
to make sure he got off on the right foot with the pathologist.

While he’d seen what was on the north side of the
lake and knew what was to the east, he was curious about the southwest and
western sides. The strange lights he’d seen last night played on the edge of
his memory. If they’d come from the road, he should be able to see the resort
from it, right? So far, he hadn’t seen anything, but the road around the lake
seemed a long way from the water. Maybe he’d seen a farm vehicle, but what the
hell would a farmer be doing out in the middle of the night?

He continued along the road, passed Mayor Ron’s
Whippoorwill Winery at the south west end of the lake. It was quite an
impressive sight, easily the largest winery he’d seen on the island. Obviously
the man was doing well for himself. While Ron probably used spring water in the
fermentation process, Tony wondered briefly what he did with his solid waste
and wastewater. He’d noticed the large water tanks near the back of the
building. Cleaning and reusing wastewater was a good, safe environmental
practice more popular now than ever. Spreading the residue of the grapes and
stems was probably excellent fertilizer too.