Maybe she’s jealous. Maybe she’s afraid of you, afraid that you’ll keep her away from your dad’s money somehow. Maybe she wanted you out of the picture.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me. He’s a smart guy but put a hot chick by him and he turns into a moron. Does whatever they say. She wasn’t the first to take advantage of him since Mom died.”
“That must have been really hard on you, it was just a few years ago, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And now, after that fight, you think you’re losing your dad as well.”
He nodded, then wiped his hands on his pants.
“So you guys fight, he tells you to leave and the next day he decides to go take his friend’s boat out, go cool down and think about things. You feel badly, call him, what, the next night?”
“Yeah, he kept apologizing. I asked him where he was and he said he was up in Tobermory. I got in my car and drove right up there. Got there really late, he was already asleep on the boat. Had it in the harbour. Not sure why he didn’t just stay docked at his friend’s place. Anyway, I woke him up and he said we could talk about everything in the morning. He seemed really happy to see me.”
“That’s good, gave you guys a chance to work things out. I knew you were a decent guy, you just wanted to patch things up. But it didn’t go well at all, eh? What happened?”
He didn’t speak for a moment, considering the weight of his words. “I told him I was sorry, that I loved him and that I knew I needed to get my act together. I told him I’d go back to school, get a business degree and learn how to run the business. I was finally ready to step up.”
“But he still wanted to sell.”
“Yeah, wanted the money to go live on a yacht in the Caribbean with his little whore. Said they were getting married and he wanted me to be his best man. My step-mom? I told him he had to be shitting me. I couldn’t do it, couldn’t do that to my mom. I mean, Christ, this broad’s younger than me. For all I knew I screwed her one drunken night in college and don’t even remember.”
Kara stifled a laugh.
“No shit, eh? Anyway, told him I wouldn’t be at the wedding. He wasn’t happy but said he understood, said it was hard for both of us losing Mom like that.”
“Where’d you guys leave it with the money?”
“I told him I’d take his offer, take the quarter mil and go back to school, maybe start my own business. He seemed proud of me, but…”
“But you had other plans. You told him you wanted to go on a dive with him, told him you’d brought your gear. But you tampered with his tank after you got it filled, let out most of the air and set the gauge to read a thousand psi when it was actually empty. You took someone else’s wetsuit, fins and mask since you didn’t actually bring yours and you guys set off.”
He didn’t say anything.
“Did you have any regrets? When he panicked, knowing he was out of air and a hundred feet underwater, or when he thought you were coming over to help him and instead you pulled out his regulator, held him there so he couldn’t surface. Held him inside the wreck. Or was it when he slashed at you with his knife, when he cut you deep, the way you were cutting him?”
Kara stopped for a second and I could hear Walter’s fast and heavy breathing through the monitor.
“Did you look him in the eyes and watch the life drain out of him, or was it—”
“Enough,” he yelled, sitting bolt upright in his chair. “All I wanted was a chance, a chance to finally prove myself and the selfish bastard wouldn’t even give me that. The business was still willed to me, he didn’t give me a choice.”
And the canary sang.
“So you killed him, your own father?”
“Fuck, why wouldn’t he listen? If he’d just listened.”
“You say that like it was his fault.”
“I lost it, okay. I fucking lost it.”
“But you took the time to tamper with his gauge, to steal someone else’s gear and later try to frame them, you two made your way out to the Arabia, you descended to the bottom. Any time you could’ve backed out. But you didn’t want to. The way you saw it, the business was already yours.”
“He’d promised it to me.” He sank down in his chair again. “God forgive me, what have I done?”
“You killed the only man who still cared about you. You killed him and you left him there, at the bottom of the bay like a piece of garbage. And then what? You went for a little pleasure cruise on his friend’s boat.”
“No. It wasn’t like that. I took it out there, I…” His breathing was getting faster now, the sobs louder. “I didn’t know what to do. Then I decided to end it all. I was going to try to torch the boat, burn it and sink it… with me on board. I drank to get my nerve up but I passed out, I only woke up when I heard you guys coming.”
“Thought you could solve it with more death?”
“I don’t know. I probably wouldn’t have done it. Would’ve just ran the boat aground somewhere and tried to lay low, hope you guys wouldn’t figure it out.”
At least he was honest.
It was over, and done with style and grace. Everything I’d heard about Kara was true, she was a hell of an interrogator. She made it look easy. And once we had Walter in a cell, a taste of what he’d be looking at for the next twenty-five years, I told her.
“Absolutely amazing. The rumours for once were true.”
Kara blushed, redness springing up around her freckles. Then her face went paler than before. “Wait, are there other rumours?”
“None that I know of. Should I know of any?”
Kara shook her head. “Nope, not at all. So, we need to get back up to Tobermory, get our car.”
“A masterful change of subject, and yeah. You’re right.”
My phone started ringing, any rumours about Kara would have to wait.
“Lincoln Munroe.”
“Link, buddy!”
“Chen-Chen, how goes it?” Vincenzo “Chen-Chen” Chen, one of my best friends since our days together at the Ontario Police College and the only one who still called me Link.
“I hear you’re trying out for Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”
“How the hell did you hear about that already?”
“Word travels fast, you know that. Cops talk, and if we don’t have something to talk about we make it up.” Too true. Starting rumours was hobby number one for many police officers. But all the way to Ottawa? “Fine. It hasn’t hit rumour central yet, Chang texted me.”
“Ahhh.”
“Yeah, we met on course last year. I guess I must have mentioned you being a buddy, probably before I came to visit that one night. He obviously remembered.”
“Well, I don’t plan on making a habit of shit like that.” My phone buzzed in my hand. “Hold on, Chen, another call coming in.”
“I’m hanging up, I don’t want to be on the line with you for this one. Sorry.”
I was confused. Really confused. Until I answered the phone.
“Lincoln, what were you thinking? You could have killed yourself. Is arresting someone really worth risking your life, risking leaving me and two kids behind?”
“Kat, it’s fine. I’m fine. And let me guess, Chen couldn’t keep his mouth shut and Julie called you.” Chen had a habit of saying things to his wife that would get me in trouble with mine.
“And I’m glad he did. There’ll be no more of that daredevil crap.” She paused, probably waiting for an apology. “And Link says ‘way to go, Dad, you’re awesome.’”
I laughed. “That’s my boy. But why do I think he wasn’t quite as monotone when he said it?”
“Just don’t be an idiot, Lincoln. Are you going to be home soon?”
“Won’t be until late tonight. We’re in Wiarton right now, need to take the boat back up to Tobermory then drive home.”
“Alright, I love you.”
“Love you too, babe.”
“And be careful.”
I heard the click of her hanging up before
I could respond. She got the last word on this one.
“We’re taking the boat up?”
“That’s it? No other comments? You’ll have an aneurysm, you keep straining that hard to keep it in.”
“Nope, nothing to say. No comments about doghouses, sleeping on the couch, and definitely no whip noises.”
“Nice. But yeah, we should probably bring that boat back with us, it would be a waste of resources to have someone else do it while someone drives us back up to Tobermory.”
She smiled. “Who’s changing the subject now? And you just want to drive it.”
“Pilot.”
“It’s not a plane.”
“Really? Damn, I must be confused.” If translated, the look I got would have involved a four-letter-word followed by ‘off’. “But you still pilot a boat. Go ask Dunlop if you can ‘drive’ the boat. He’d probably put you in the brig for that.”
“So, that’s it. We’re done?” Another change of subject.
“Yeah. Case closed. ‘Full fathom five my father lies’.”
“Eh?”
“Brush up on your Shakespeare, there’s a quote to fit every case.”
“And that one?”
“The Tempest, part of Ariel’s song.”
“Ariel? Like the Little Mermaid?”
I hadn’t learned her sarcastic voice yet and her face didn’t give me anything to go on.
For the sake of our partnership, I sure as hell hoped she was kidding.
“Lincoln, you ass! The water’s freezing!”
“Suck it up,” I said as I jumped in beside her, the beauty of a boat anchored just offshore. Could they fault us for making one stop along the way? Wiarton to Tobermory was a boring boat ride if we didn’t stop at the Grotto. And there was no way Kara could