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Authors: Harrison Drake
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little luck. I barely
remembered Chen calling me and obviously I had forgotten the topic completely.
Something about a missing body?
“I’ve been busy here. Remind me.”
“We’ve got a shallow grave burial in Algonquin Park, looks
like an old one. Camper found a skull sticking out of the dirt and called it
in. They had to leave the area to get a cell signal and then couldn’t find
their way back to it. Took us a week, but we finally found the remains.”
My eyes stood unblinking and my heart began to race. I could
hear the heavy pounding in my chest. Nothing else existed in the room save for
me and the phone.
“I… I…”
“It’s alright, Link. I know you’re busy. We need you for two
days tops. They’re excavating the body later today and I was hoping to get you
here. You’re the only detective we have with a degree in anthropology, not to
mention experience on a dig site in university. We’ve got a professor from
University of Ottawa coming to oversee the dig and he’s bringing some students
to assist.”
“So what do you need me for?”
“You’re our police perspective. You’re uniquely qualified,
Link.”
I was getting enough control over myself to play it cool.
“Flattery will get you nowhere. We’re busy as hell here, Chen, I don’t know if
I can get away.”
“My boss has already approved it. The plane is leaving
Windsor in twenty minutes and is ready to touch down in London to pick you up.
It’s on its way to Ottawa to do some traffic enforcement on the four-oh-one
there.”
I thought of objecting again, but knew I had to go. It
wasn’t just helping out an old friend or that he’d gone through the trouble of
having it approved on his end. The dreams, there had to be a reason they were
so realistic. What was I missing? I couldn’t understand why I would be having
borderline prophetic dreams about what could have been a decades old murder.
And Algonquin? Why a place I had never been? All I knew was that I needed to
find out more.
“Give me a rundown on the terrain, Chen.” The perfect
question. He would assume I would be wondering about how to go about the dig.
“Lots of trees, pretty flat though. About a hundred metres
tops from a river, fast moving bugger too, wish I’d brought my canoe. It’s
pretty rocky but there’s a decent amount of soil, more than enough to bury a
body in.”
It was a match. Next question.
“How about the weather?”
“Gorgeous. Not a cloud in the sky and the sun is shining,
there’s a nice breeze too. Couldn’t have asked for a better day.”
And the knife? Did the skull talk? These were the questions
I couldn’t ask. Time to put my visions to the test.
“Chen, you might want to get some tarps ready. You’ll be
soaked soon.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s going to piss down rain like you would not believe.”
“What the hell, Link, you a meteorologist now too? Or maybe
a psychic? The sky is bluer than I’ve ever seen and we aren’t supposed to get
any rain up here for a few more days.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’ll ring you back if I can
make it.”
I hung up the phone on a very confused Chen and gave Kara
the benefit of being first to hear about the request for my services. My next
order of business was to call Detective Inspector McCaffrey and convince her to
let me go. It was a hard sell, but with Dr. Heisenberg’s theory that we would
be without work for a few more days, Kara’s undeniable abilities and the
additional detectives on the case I won out. I had to; there was not a chance
that I wouldn’t be on that plane even if I had to face neglect of duty charges
to do it. Of course, it helped that I swore to McCaffrey that if another murder
occurred I would be at the scene before the coroner removed the body if it
required me chartering a private plane out of my own pocket.
I really hoped that wasn’t going to happen.
* * *
Less than an hour later I was standing on the tarmac at
London
remembered Chen calling me and obviously I had forgotten the topic completely.
Something about a missing body?
“I’ve been busy here. Remind me.”
“We’ve got a shallow grave burial in Algonquin Park, looks
like an old one. Camper found a skull sticking out of the dirt and called it
in. They had to leave the area to get a cell signal and then couldn’t find
their way back to it. Took us a week, but we finally found the remains.”
My eyes stood unblinking and my heart began to race. I could
hear the heavy pounding in my chest. Nothing else existed in the room save for
me and the phone.
“I… I…”
“It’s alright, Link. I know you’re busy. We need you for two
days tops. They’re excavating the body later today and I was hoping to get you
here. You’re the only detective we have with a degree in anthropology, not to
mention experience on a dig site in university. We’ve got a professor from
University of Ottawa coming to oversee the dig and he’s bringing some students
to assist.”
“So what do you need me for?”
“You’re our police perspective. You’re uniquely qualified,
Link.”
I was getting enough control over myself to play it cool.
“Flattery will get you nowhere. We’re busy as hell here, Chen, I don’t know if
I can get away.”
“My boss has already approved it. The plane is leaving
Windsor in twenty minutes and is ready to touch down in London to pick you up.
It’s on its way to Ottawa to do some traffic enforcement on the four-oh-one
there.”
I thought of objecting again, but knew I had to go. It
wasn’t just helping out an old friend or that he’d gone through the trouble of
having it approved on his end. The dreams, there had to be a reason they were
so realistic. What was I missing? I couldn’t understand why I would be having
borderline prophetic dreams about what could have been a decades old murder.
And Algonquin? Why a place I had never been? All I knew was that I needed to
find out more.
“Give me a rundown on the terrain, Chen.” The perfect
question. He would assume I would be wondering about how to go about the dig.
“Lots of trees, pretty flat though. About a hundred metres
tops from a river, fast moving bugger too, wish I’d brought my canoe. It’s
pretty rocky but there’s a decent amount of soil, more than enough to bury a
body in.”
It was a match. Next question.
“How about the weather?”
“Gorgeous. Not a cloud in the sky and the sun is shining,
there’s a nice breeze too. Couldn’t have asked for a better day.”
And the knife? Did the skull talk? These were the questions
I couldn’t ask. Time to put my visions to the test.
“Chen, you might want to get some tarps ready. You’ll be
soaked soon.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s going to piss down rain like you would not believe.”
“What the hell, Link, you a meteorologist now too? Or maybe
a psychic? The sky is bluer than I’ve ever seen and we aren’t supposed to get
any rain up here for a few more days.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’ll ring you back if I can
make it.”
I hung up the phone on a very confused Chen and gave Kara
the benefit of being first to hear about the request for my services. My next
order of business was to call Detective Inspector McCaffrey and convince her to
let me go. It was a hard sell, but with Dr. Heisenberg’s theory that we would
be without work for a few more days, Kara’s undeniable abilities and the
additional detectives on the case I won out. I had to; there was not a chance
that I wouldn’t be on that plane even if I had to face neglect of duty charges
to do it. Of course, it helped that I swore to McCaffrey that if another murder
occurred I would be at the scene before the coroner removed the body if it
required me chartering a private plane out of my own pocket.
I really hoped that wasn’t going to happen.
* * *
Less than an hour later I was standing on the tarmac at
London
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