Come home Page 11

  “It’s not that, I need, I need, oh I don’t know what I need, but I know I need to go up there, and I need some help. Do you think you and Barry could come with me? I know you’re always busy on Saturday, but I think I’m going to need a very level head with me, one that will be able to understand when I fall apart.”

  “Good heavens, what’s going on?”

  “I really don’t know, but if the RCMP wants me to have a relative or friend with me, I know it’s going to be terrible.”

  “Did they say that?”

  “Yes, and you know I’m an only child, and dad’s got such a bad heart, I can’t ask him to come, whatever is going on would kill him.”

  “Have you thought; maybe you need some legal help? You don’t know if the RCMP is charging Jack with something. Maybe some bad thing has happened to him, you can’t go up there without someone who’ll understand what’s going on.

  “You need some professional help. Is there a lawyer up there you’d be able to hire?”

  “I don’t think Merriweather is big enough for one, and I don’t know about Carling either. What do you think it would cost to hire one for a whole day?”

  “A whole bunch of money!”

  She looked at Carol and her eyes began to fill up again. This is not going to work, she thought, I’m just too dumb to do this on my own, and the tears started down her cheeks.

  “Okay, okay, just let me think, I’ll call Barry, maybe he’ll have an idea,” Carol said, pouring two cups of coffee. “There must be some way we can get some legal help up there.”

  Carol left the kitchen and went in search of her husband. She knew he was home, he usually came in the back way through the garage, but today he’d come in through the kitchen and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

  “Barry are you still in the house?” called Carol.

  Just then, she heard a whoop of laughter coming from the front of the house. She rushed to the door in time to see her husband extracting himself from under the overturned bicycle in the driveway.

  The boys were laughing and shaking their heads that such an old man would even try such a thing, imagine, he tried to do a wheelie!

  Carol stood on the porch and wondered if she should be sorry for him, or tell him what an idiot he was to try to do these things! He was lucky he didn’t break something important. As it was, he’d be stiff for a week.

  “Barry, come into the kitchen when you can get up, Rikki needs to speak to you,” she said, finally giving in to laughter. “You boys should be ashamed of yourselves, picking on such an old man. You could have broken him, and then what would I do?”

  Some of the group said sorry, but there were also a lot of grins and sniggers from behind their hands. Donny didn’t know whether to be proud that his dad tried, or embarrassed that he did.

  Barry and Carol returned to the kitchen. He was a little bent over, but when he saw Rikki sitting at the kitchen table he straightened up and put on a brave face.

  He expected some smart remark from her, about acting a person’s age, or maybe, how old did he think he was, something along that line. But there was no laughter in her eyes, only tears.

  “What’s wrong?” he said.

  “Sit down,” said his wife, “we’ll fill you in. Have some coffee, you’ll need it.”

  As the three talked, it became plain; there had to be a lawyer or someone other than an hysterical wife, some neighbors and a cook. They needed a professional.

  Barry sat back and you could see the wheels turning, “you know,” he said, “my buddy from work’s son just came home yesterday. He’s been over on the Island at the University of Victoria. I think his dad said he took Law. Do you want me to call and find out? Maybe he could come over and give you some advice?”

  “Oh, Barry, could you?”

  “Let me use the phone in the bedroom, it’s quieter in there. I hear the boys coming in for a drink, and I need to able to hear.”

  Barry sat down on the edge of the bed and wondered if what he was doing was right. It was one thing to babysit somebody’s kid in a pinch, but a whole other, to go up to Carling with them to face the RCMP.

  He gave a deep sigh and looked in his wallet for the name and phone number of his friend from work.

  It took a little explaining and some questions going back and forth but finally his friend put his son on.

  “Yes,” said the son, “I’m finished my degree, yes, I really am a lawyer, no, I’ve never been to court, but I’m ready.”

  Then he wanted to know what kind of advice they wanted.

  Barry took his time and explained the happenings of the past six months.

  There was a pause on the other end of the line. “You do know,” he said, “I haven’t even got a job yet.”

  “No problem, consider this on-the-job-experience, you will never have another case like this in a million years. Every lawyer in town will be full of envy, who gets this kind of ‘practice’ right off, and you haven’t even hung out your shingle.”

  “Humm... You’re right! I better come over and talk to Mrs. McKinnon; I’ll get a better feel for the problem. Bye now.”

  And he hung up.

  A short time later, there was a knock on the door and there stood a nervous father and an anxious son.

  “Hi Barry, we live a couple of blocks over on 132 Avenue and Milly hasn’t started supper yet, so I thought we should come and see what’s what,” Ralph Kullman said, “this is my son, Richard.”

  “Thanks for coming so soon,” said Rikki, introducing herself. Handshakes and names made the rounds and soon everyone was sitting at the kitchen table with a strong cup of very black coffee and some day-old Danish that Carol found in the cupboard.

  “Let me get this straight,” said Richard, the brand new lawyer, putting a yellow legal size note pad and pencil on the table. “Just try and remember the dates and the names of the individuals involved.”

  It took until Ralph and Richard said they had to go home for supper, but they’d be back around 7:00 pm to finish the preliminary information.

  Barry, who didn’t really know everything that went on, wondered at the resiliency of the small woman across the table. And, he thought, she probably doesn’t even know everything that’s happened recently.

  What a mess!

  * * * *

  “Okay everyone, buckle up,” said Barry, very early next morning “we have to get going it’s almost 5:00 o’clock and if we’re not gone soon, we’ll be caught in the traffic in Rawlly . Don’t want to keep ‘Betty’ waiting.

  We’ll introduce you to ‘Betty’, Richard, it’ll be the highlight of your young career,” kidded Barry.

  The miles sped by, three hours later Rikki’s Volvo pulled into Merriweather and they made their way to the towns’ best fast food, ‘Betty’s Hilltop Cafe’.

  Standing in front was the biggest man Richard ever saw! Where was he going to sit?

  Introductions all around, and when they told ‘Betty’ this was the lawyer, he wondered how old he was. Never mind, nothing like ‘First Hand Experience’.

  Barry looked at the little group and realized they would never fit into the Volvo. Rikki saw what he was thinking and said, “let’s go over to the grocery store, Jack parked the van there. I brought the spare key.”

  “Smart thinking, is it still there?”

  “Actually yes, I got a call from Freddy’s dad and he wanted to know if I was going to come and get it. I told him to leave it there, Jack will be home soon and he’d deal with it.”

  The little troop walked over to the store parking lot and sure enough, there sat the McKinnon van.

  Once inside, everyone talked at the same time, “Okay everybody, now’s the time to listen to the advice we’re bringing along,” said ‘Betty’, “what d’ya say, kid?”

  “My best advice,” said the budding young lawyer is this. “Be quiet, listen carefully to everything. Ask questions if you must, but don’t tell them anything unless you have to.�
�

  “You’re going to do okay kid,” said ‘Betty’, as he put the van in ‘drive’, “next stop Carling RCMP Detachment Headquarters.”

  Chapter 36

  Harrold Fitzgerald, Detachment Chief, sat at his desk and contemplated his cold coffee. This was a meeting he didn’t want to host. “Clive Petsnick owes me one,” he muttered, “I delegated this problem to him, and now he’s on Compassionate Leave, he said his grandmother died. I don’t know if I believe him,” said a very unhappy Chief.

  Who wants to be the one to tell a young wife and mother that the RCMP inadvertently lost her husband? Well, maybe not lost him, just misplaced him.

  Yesterday when Jack came to the office looking for information, they realized he wasn’t himself and made arrangements to take him to the University of BC in Harrisburg to see a very progressive professor who happened to be of Indian decent.

  But Bill Majors didn’t get in touch with his superior at the end of the day as he was supposed to, they looked everywhere but couldn’t find the Sergeant or Jack McKinnon.

  And now, there was more trouble with the Xaali’pp Indian band.

  “This isn’t the Wild West,” he said to anyone who’d listen. “Indians don’t do ‘uprisings’ anymore.

  “We’ll be the laughing stock at the Administrative Meeting in Regina this fall,” he said, shaking his head. “I can hear it all now.”

  Chapter 37

  Very early in the morning, consciousness was stirring Sergeant Majors, and it finally came and sat on the gravel beach with him. There seemed to be fog all around and he couldn’t make out exactly where he was or remember why he was there.

  He was cold and realized he was wringing wet, not because he fell into the lake, but because he was sweating profusely. The events of the past day came back, and he looked around wildly to see if he was still in front of the McKinnon’s cabin.

  And where was the dog?

  Of all the freaky things he’d encountered in his career as a Mountie, this was the worst.

  The fog over the water and in his head, was clearing now, it felt like the beginning of a cool Indian summer morning. He turned in a full circle on the beach to see if anything was familiar. Then he noticed the Company boat still tied to the run down old dock.

  He felt himself slipping back into the fog, but reached into his inner reserves and said loudly to himself, “this is over, I’m going home. I don’t care where I am, but I know where I’m going.”

  At the dock, he checked the boat. Didn’t matter why it was there, he was just grateful that it was. He had to get away as fast as he could.

  As he was pulling away from the dock, he noticed an old cabin set in the trees; then he realized... it looked like the cabin at the south end of Andover Lake, right under Scuff Mountain.

  The Sergeant couldn’t help it, he had to know.

  Pulling forward again, he killed the motor, slapped the mooring rope around a battered old post, and ran up to the cabin. He stood and looked; the door and frame were hanging by a nail. And...the two headed white bone that hung over the door was still looking down!

  Now he really was afraid!

  He ran back to the boat. The further away from shore he got, the better he felt. The day began to get brighter, the sky was clear and blue; the early morning sun warmed him.

  With his mouth set in grim determination, Sergeant Majors set his course for the marina and the Merriweather dock in particular. “I don’t know what’s going on, Jack McKinnon is gone, so is the professor and his grandfather, but at least I’ve still got the boat. Nothing is going to stop me from getting back to headquarters.

  “The Chief is going to have my hide. I don’t know what day it is, I’ve lost my Charge. And... I don’t know why!” said a very stubborn Mountie getting hold of himself.

  * * * *

  “Please sit down, Mrs. McKinnon, good of you to come,” said Harold Fitzgerald the Carling Detachment Chief a little after 9:00 am. Everyone milled around and looked at the two chairs in front of his desk.

  “I’ll send for chairs for your friends. Can we get anyone anything to drink, tea, coffee?”

  He looked from person to person but no one said anything. ‘Betty’ was mumbling under his breath about it wouldn’t be a bad thing if they provided a cold beer or two. But he knew, that was never going to happen.

  Carol and Barry Adler sat on either side of Rikki. She was trying to be calm, but she was zipping her jacket up and down at an alarming rate. Finally, Carol leaned over and put her hand on the zipper.

  “Maybe we should just go home and wait? What do you think, Rikki?” said Carol trying to find a calming thing to say. She knew it wouldn’t do any good, but maybe it would help Rikki not focus so hard on what they would hear.

  Chief Fitzgerald waited until his aid brought in two more chairs. Now the office was crowded and that brought the temperature in the room up.

  They really didn’t need the additional heat.

  Rearranging himself behind his desk he harrumphed a few times, and said, “Thank you all for coming, I know it wasn’t easy for you with such short notice. But now that you’re here, there are a few things I have to clear up.”

  “I don’t want to hear about things you have to clear up,” said Rikki, “I want to know where my husband is! He was with you day before yesterday, where is he now? Why won’t you tell me?” she said, clutching a Kleenex and starting to twist it back and forth.

  “We’ll get to that in due time, now what we need to go over is the problem that started all this. Did you bring the papers for your speedboat? It says here it was a 1984 Thunder Craft. Is that right? That’s supposed to be an unsinkable model, can you tell me why it sank? Was the boat loaded beyond its’ capacity? Did you not keep it in good repair? Boats like that don’t just sink. It’s usually poor maintenance, and sometimes a bump or hole that wasn’t fixed in a timely manner.”

  The little group in front of the Chief could not believe their ears, what was he babbling about?

  The young lawyer stood up. “Excuse me Chief Fitzgerald, my name is Richard Kullman. I’m a Junior in a Law Firm in Harrisburg (he lied), but I don’t think the boat is the main topic of this meeting, we were given to understand you had Mr. Jack McKinnon in your care. Mrs. McKinnon has driven a great distance to see him. Since he’s still here, she’d like to see him. If you released him and did not inform his wife, there seems to be some mishandling of prisoners here.”

  The young lawyer sat down, pleased that his first ‘argument’ had gone so well.

  The Chief harrumphed loudly as though he would begin again.

  He was getting red around the ears, and was harrumphing every few words now. It began to dawn on the group that he didn’t have Jack in custody, and was stalling, he probably didn’t even know where he was.

  Since no one was answering him, the Chief began to run out of steam, he put the papers down and looked at the little group of Jack McKinnon supporters.

  If I was in trouble, he thought, would there be this many willing to come all the way up here to support me?

  “Well, folks, seems we have a little impasse, we can’t tell you what’s going on until we know ourselves,” said Chief Fitzgerald. “What I can tell you is he’s with one of our most trusted Sergeants, and is in the right hands that can help him.”

  Everyone was on their feet, some were yelling, others were talking loudly and gesturing wildly. Rikki, still sitting was crying and Carol was trying to calm her.

  The Detachment Chief stood up and slammed his stapler down on the desk, this got everyone’s attention and they stopped shouting.

  One by one they sat down, until the last one, the young lawyer, was the only one still standing.

  “Since I represent Mrs. McKinnon, I speak for her, she would like some ‘real’ information, she feels this has gotten out of hand, and if better information is not forthcoming, we request an interview with your superior.”

  This w
as not going as planned, fumed the Chief knowing they called Rikki too soon. He should have waited until Bill Majors came home with his Charge, but everything was happening so fast. And now, not only was Jack McKinnon gone, but so was Bill Majors.

  He didn’t have time for this, he had a band of wild Indians ready to scalp half the population of Carling, and who knew what they had in mind for Merriweather.

  “Mrs. McKinnon, I’m sure you are concerned for your husband, and I apologise that we can’t be of more help. I’m also sorry your husband isn’t here, but let me assure you, he’s in good hands. Go home, wait. I’m sure he’ll be home in a day or two. Right now, the RCMP, and I shouldn’t be telling you this, has an Indian uprising on its hands. If you leave now, you may be able to avoid the little unpleasantness that’s coming.”

  The group sat with open mouths, and stared at him. What kind of shit was he trying to sell?

  ‘Betty’ stood up dwarfing the Chief by over a full head, “tell us again. Jack’s gone, you don’t know where he is, the Indians are on the war path and going to scalp us all, and you are telling us to go home to avoid this ‘little unpleasantness’?”

  Everyone was on their feet again, questions and accusations were flying around the room, Rikki was crying at full volume now and the Chief was sitting at his desk with his head in his hands, wondering why he ever got into policing.

  “Hello Chief,” Bill Majors said, his head just in the door, “I didn’t know you had a meeting going, I’ll come back later.”

  Instant quiet fell over the group, as they turned in unison to look at the intruder...

  Chapter 38

  Seven Years Later, July 1

  “Come on, Mom, we’ll be late if you don’t get a move on,” Harry McKinnon said to his mother as she searched her purse for the elusive set of car keys.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming! They can’t start without us you know. I’m not sure I want to be a part of this. Your father was never much for formalities like this.”

  “Quit trying to weasel out, Mom, you promised we’d be there, if we don’t leave soon we’ll be late, and then everyone will really look at us.”

  “I never thought donating the money for the dock at the head of Andover Lake would cause all this fuss. I just wanted it named McKinnon Dock, in memory of your father. He was a good man, you know.”