LITMIR.BIZ

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the last dreadful image of my friend — and failed. Her body had probably lain there rotting since my first visit to the beach more than two weeks ago. More than enough time for the animals to feast.

      It looked as if I’d failed her again. Not once, but twice, I’d noticed this stench of decay; when I’d first discovered the isolated beach and later with Eric. Both times, instead of investigating the cave, I’d turned away. If I’d only had the smarts to question the smell’s source, I would have discovered Marie’s body sooner and prevented this final insult. I looked to where Eric stood at the edge of the lake and wondered if he was thinking the same.

      He was here along with several others from our raiding party. On hearing my horrified screams, they’d quickly joined us. The moment Eric realized what had happened, he cleared us from the cave. Her death was clearly questionable, and he was the only one with sense enough to recognize the need to preserve whatever evidence might still remain. The rest of us were too dazed to do more than meekly follow his orders.

      He sent John-Joe for the police and told the rest of us to stay put. The waiting group included the men who’d ambushed us. Not surprisingly, they were Charlie Cardinal and his groupies.

      It appeared Gareth had warned Charlie to be on the lookout for trespassers. But the island was large and his men few, so whether it was coincidence they were in the pine forest at the time we began spiking or whether it was because of prior knowledge, Charlie wasn’t saying, nor was Eric asking. For the moment, the battle between them was on hold.

      We waited in the growing dawn, each person immersed in his or her own thoughts, some trying to wipe off the black war paint, others just staring into the empty cold lake. No one was feeling particularly triumphant. An unspoken truce had settled. The reserve was a small community. All had known Marie. Everyone had liked her.

      I found myself sitting next to Charlie on a large flat rock within sight of the ruined crosses of Two Face Sky and Summer Wind. At this point, I didn’t care whether he was the guy in yellow. After Marie’s tragic death, my scrimmages seemed trivial. We both stared across at the far shore and watched the rising sun’s light creep down the night-shrouded hillside. From behind us drifted the same singsong murmurs Tommy had chanted when we’d entered the cave.

      Curious, I asked, “What is Tommy chanting?”

      “The traditional chant of the dead,” Charlie replied, and closing his eyes, joined Tommy in the chant.

      While I sat absorbing the hypnotic rhythm, I contemplated the troubling implications of what he’d just told me. However, not wishing to interrupt, I waited until Charlie stopped, to ask my question. “Don’t you find it curious that Tommy began chanting before we knew his mother’s body was in the cave?”

      “No. This cave belongs to the ancestors,” replied Charlie, pointing to the remains of the crosses. “A warrior must ask their permission to walk on sacred ground.”

      His answer left me feeling not only relieved but a little sheepish for even thinking that Tommy had known his mother lay dead in the cave. It also meant I didn’t have to contemplate the more troublesome question of how Tommy knew.

      As if voicing his inner thoughts, Charlie started talking, his face a carved statue in the spreading light. “We grow up together, Marie and me. Our fathers were sons of Mishomis, my grandfather. They trapped the line together. In winter, when they were in the bush checking the lines, Marie and her mother, Whispering Pine, moved to my mother’s hearth to share food and fire.

      “When Marie’s dad got killed huntin’, they stayed. Whispering Pine had no parents. My father said we look after them. It is our destiny, Mí enendagozidj. And now I fail. Marie’s dead.”

      He walked to the edge of the lake, threw his half-smoked cigarette fizzling into the water, bent down and picked up a large round rock and flung it as well. He picked up another and threw it in, then another . . .

      “What happened to Whispering Pine’s family?” I asked.

      “They died when Whispering Pine was a small baby.” Charlie lowered his heavy body slowly back down onto the flat rock beside me. “They died in a fire. Mishomis saved Whispering Pine and took her to his mother’s hearth. Whispering Pine lived with my grandparents until she married my uncle, the first son of Mishomis.”

      He got up and paced along the beach, kicking the rocks and bits of driftwood that were in the way, while the whine of several motor boats drew nearer.

      He returned and sat down again. “Marie is of my clan. Like a sister. I never wanted her hurt. I only wanted what was good for her. And now this!” He flung another rock into the water.

      I asked the question, which had been waiting since he first mentioned the word ancestors: “Do these crosses on the beach belong to—”

      Before I could finish, he closed his eyes and started chanting again.

      I let my question die in the cold morning breeze. I shivered and moved over to warm my hands at the small fire someone had started with some deadfall, which I noticed with a wry smile just happened to be from my notorious spruce. I searched for Eric to ask him my question, but he was talking with one of his men. From the cave, Tommy’s soft chanting continued.

      I felt numb, not fully believing Marie was dead, that those lifeless bones had once been my living, breathing friend. I shivered again, but not from the cold. I was certain there was only one cause. Someone had killed her. I glanced at the others waiting on the desolate beach and wondered who.

      A sudden loud roar of engines ended the waiting. Three boats rounded the point, raced towards us and beached on the cold wet sand. Several policemen, including Chief Decontie and Sgt. LaFramboise, swarmed onto the beach.

      The sun had turned the beach into day by the time the police finished questioning everyone but Tommy, Charlie and me. Since we were the only ones who’d actually seen Marie’s body, I figured we were in for some intensive questioning. As the police began ferrying the others back to their canoes, Sgt. LaFramboise started his interrogation of Charlie beyond hearing range at the other end of the beach.

      I remained seated on my flat rock and watched Chief Decontie and the other Migiskan police search the beach. A useless exercise, since we’d already trampled over most of it. From inside the cave came the strobe flashes of a camera. Another boat arrived with the coroner, or so I assumed from the official looking medical bag. Decontie led him into the cave.

      And while this activity went on around him, Tommy stood on guard near the cave entrance, his face a frozen mask, his eyes closed. Next to him stood Eric, a worried look on his partially smeared face, the hawk feather drooping from his hatband.

      I had a sudden feeling of being watched and looked up to see the raven perched at the top of the pine where I’d first seen him. His black, beady eyes glared back at me. He burped a low hoarse croak, ruffled his feathers as if trying to gain a more comfortable perch, then sat still. From time to time his head moved as if he were watching and listening to the scene unfolding below him.

      This was the third time I’d seen him here on this beach. Eric had said his people consider the raven a spirit messenger. Maybe he had witnessed Marie’s death? Too bad he couldn’t talk.

      When Sgt. LaFramboise finished with Charlie Cardinal, he began my interrogation. He adopted the same high-handed, arrogant manner he’d used in Eric’s office. Needless to say, this did not predispose me to be helpful. I answered only the questions he asked. Maybe it was irresponsible of me not to tell him about the two sets of footprints I’d seen on the beach and my suspicions. But I wanted to confirm how Marie had died before raising awkward questions. And for the moment, LaFramboise either didn’t know or wasn’t saying what had caused her death.

      The questioning was just finishing when one of the SQ policeman emerged from the cave carrying a fluorescent orange object in one hand and a rifle in the other. He held up the rifle. “C’est à quelqu’un? Anyone know this?”

      It

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