LITMIR.BIZ

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sake, Martha. You’re starting to sound like the Libelled Times. On the other hand, if the other will shows up, she’s out of luck and Shannon comes into a small fortune.”

      “Right, but Lianna didn’t know about the other will until after the dastardly deed was done,” said Martha, relishing her words and rolling the Ds off her tongue like a professional bowler rolling a strike.

      “Remember, Cordi? You said Lianna’s lawyer contacted Shannon’s trying to find the black book. Of course, if my theory is right then Lianna will be trying just as hard as Shannon to find that will.”

      “Whoa, Martha. The black book was found. I saw it at Don’s. There was no will in it.”

      “So it was the wrong black book.”

      I told her about the torn out pages, and we speculated that someone already had the will.

      “What about Shannon?” asked Martha suddenly. “She did know about the will, and Diamond had promised to put it in the safety deposit box. She could have gone up there intent on killing him, thinking the will was safe in the deposit box.”

      We fell into silence then, as we moved into rougher country.

      The back roads were all washboard and bumpy, and Martha hung on to the Land Rover like a leech. The dust swirled up through the floorboards as we neared the turn off to the biology station and the portage trail into Diamond’s site.

      “Who’s Patrick?” Even though I had known the question was coming ever since she’d taken the phone message from Patrick about the film, I wasn’t prepared for it and stammered around for an answer, like a guilty kid caught red-handed.

      “Ooooh. Lord love you, Cordi. You’ve fallen hard.” Was there nothing I could hide from this woman?

      When I tried to protest she just chuckled and asked me when she could meet him. Before I could answer I felt a strange vibration judder through the Land Rover, and I instinctively jerked it over to the right-hand side. As we came around the corner I watched in fascination as the monstrous snout of a tractor-trailer carrying a full load of logs came barrelling toward us, smack in the middle of the road. There wasn’t room for both of us. I pumped the brakes and jerked the wheel frantically further to the right. I could see the driver’s eyeglasses glinting in the sun, his mouth set in a scowl. The tractor-trailer swerved back to its side, its body groaning and wailing. A horrendous deep, continuous squealing scratched the air like nails on a board as the man at the wheel struggled to keep the truck on the road. It careened past us, missing us by centimetres, and roared out of sight.

      I could feel the sweat standing out on my forehead and I gripped the wheel harder as I tried to control the shaking. I guided the Land Rover over to the edge of the road and stopped. I took a deep breath and looked over at Martha, who was frozen in a moment of pure terror, her eyes wide and bulging, her body still, and her face drained of all but its rouge. Still gripping the wheel I sank my head on my arms and breathed deeply. Was it my imagination or had that truck taken its own sweet time about swerving, my reflexes being all that lay between us and death. God was I being paranoid!

      “You stupid fuckin’ idiots!” The voice was loud and menacing and unpleasantly familiar. I whipped my head off my arms and looked in my side-view mirror. Cameron was hoofing it toward the Land Rover from the direction in which the truck had disappeared.

      “What the hell are you doing on this road? You could have got us all killed, you know that? The driver just managed to keep the rig on the road. He’s pissing his pants right now. Jesus.”

      I rolled down the window. Cameron’s big red beefy face approached like a storm cloud.

      Martha was squirming in her seat. “We did? We?” she croaked. “It was his stupid truck going too fast in the middle of the road on a corner that nearly killed us.”

      I motioned Martha to be quiet and controlled my own seething anger.

      “You both okay?” I asked. He stopped, bewildered by my question, his anger spluttering, but then he recovered.

      “This is a logging road, lady. You shouldn’t be …” He stopped suddenly and peered at me more closely. “Hey, aren’t you the nosey parker who found Diamond’s body? Yeah, sure, you were the one pawing around in my truck that day. You were with those damn screaming greenies. What the hell are you doing here, anyway?”

      “Trying to find out who murdered Diamond.” Why the hell did I say that? I thought. But it was too late. I couldn’t take it back, even with Martha’s face staring at me incredulously.

      “Murdered?” Cameron’s voice rose an octave, but its loudness never varied. “Who the hell’s talking murder here?” He looked behind him quickly as if making sure no one was listening, his eyes darting around like worried marbles.

      “Look, lady, we don’t need any more trouble around here. Leave it alone. It’s all in the past now. Whatever happened out there that night, it’s all over. The guy’s dead.”

      “You hunt?” I asked on impulse. He looked at me, taken aback, and a look of pure calculation flitted across his face.

      “What of it?”

      “Bear?”

      “Yeah, so?”

      “Were you the one who shot the bear they say killed Diamond?”

      “Damn right.” Bingo.

      “How did you find it?”

      “What the hell’s this got to do with anything?” he said.

      I said nothing, and the silence lengthened until Cameron could stand it no more.

      “We baited him. Threw out some old fish where we knew he’d be — near Diamond’s permanent camp there — and then waited until he came and then we nailed him. Easy as anything and they’re suckers for fish.”

      “Is that how Diamond died? Someone baited him and threw him to the bear?”

      Cameron leapt back from the truck as if he’d been bitten.

      “Jesus, lady, are you nuts?”

      I shrugged and took a different tack, aware that Martha was squirming beside me.

      “Why didn’t you wait for the wildlife guys to shoot the bear? Why do it yourself?”

      Cameron licked his lips and wiped the sweat forming on his brow, looked behind him and leaned forward.

      “We’d had some trouble with a bear. A real rogue bear he was. One of the guys got mauled just before Diamond got nailed.”

      “You?” I pointed to the scars on his arms. He kept quiet. I tried again.

      “Who knew about the rogue bear?”

      Cameron shuffled his feet and looked away. “We kept it pretty much to ourselves. Didn’t want any trouble up here.”

      “Too bad you waited until the day after Diamond’s body was discovered to get the bear.” I paused. “Or was it?”

      “What the hell are you getting at?”

      “You were pretty angry at Diamond that night at the information meeting. You looked pretty damn smug after belting him one. You must have felt pretty good when his body was identified.”

      “Sure, I was angry. You would be too. The fool was looking to take away my livelihood and couldn’t see my problems for his bloody trees. But that doesn’t mean I wanted him dead. Transferred somewhere far away would have suited me just fine.”

      I could hear the sound of a chainsaw somewhere deep in the woods and a lone mosquito hovered around Cameron as he glared at me. I shrugged, feeling considerably less confident than I looked.

      He gripped the side of the window and said, “If you’re fool enough to be thinking murder, leave me out of it. There’re people a lot happier than me that Diamond bought

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