Echoes of the Past (19 page)

The storm had passed. The night was clear and the
moon, almost full, filled the sky as it rose out of the east. A full moon on
Halloween, only four days away, always seemed fitting. She missed seeing the
trick or
treaters
. Before her parents died, she’d go
home and hand out the candy. Maybe someday she’d consider getting a house
instead of an apartment. A vision of dark-haired children played through her
mind, and she sighed.
Never
going to happen
.

She looked up at the moon and stars.
If only wishing could make it so.
She
thought of all the things Aaron had told her—things she wasn’t supposed to
know—things she couldn’t let slip, no matter what.
Lissa
and the baby, the mysterious
lights in the marsh, ammonia hydroxide.
She needed to talk to Professor
Steele and somehow, make friends with him. She needed information only he could
provide—a real-live source for everything Aaron had divulged to her.

While she’d programmed the resort’s location into
her GPS before leaving the hospital, woolgathering as she was, she managed to
drive past it.

“Drive thirty feet and make a left turn.”

Fiona, as she’d named the voice on her GPS, didn’t
like it when you didn’t follow directions and missed a turn. Michelle did as
she was told. She was in a parking lot atop an escarpment. With the moon
hanging above the horizon, the view was spectacular. Instead of reversing as
she’d intended, she parked the car and got out to have a closer look. Fresh air
would clear her mind and get the kinks out. She stretched, aware of the
stiffness in her shoulders. Her body ached from hours of driving, bending, and
examining, and all she had to show for it were questions without answers.

She had to decide what to say to the professor,
and how she was going to get to the topic of pollution and toxins. She didn’t
doubt that aspect of the case was related to both the deaths and her mission
for The Three Sisters. Before she could do anything, she needed to get a handle
on her muddled emotions.

She walked to the front of the car and looked out
at the Bay of
Quinte
far below her and the mainland
in the distance. The sense of déjà vu she’d experienced earlier in the day
returned. She knew she’d been here before in another life, but it still felt
strange to be thirty-two and have two hundred years old memories. She chortled.

Good thing I
don’t feel my age.

Michelle strolled along the waist-high stone wall
designed to keep tourists from slipping down the steep slope, until she stood
beneath a government sign. She’d seen the heritage signs before and recognized
their shape and color. There wasn’t enough light to read the fine print, but
she could read the title. This was the scenic lookout, part of the Lake of the
Mountains Provincial Park, facing the Bay of
Quinte
some two hundred feet below her.

Michelle shuddered. According to what she
remembered from last night’s vicious dream, she’d climbed down there and back
up again. No doubt there’d been paths and trails. Things change in two hundred
years. The waterfall she’d gone over couldn’t be much farther along, and yet
she couldn’t hear the water because it now travelled through a pipe to be
harnessed down below at the fish hatchery. Jamie was a wonderful source of
information. He’d been raised in Prince Edward County. His reaction when she’d
mentioned Ron had surprised her. Jamie had said the mayor’s popularity depended
on which side of the breadline you found yourself. Some liked the
man,
others thought he was too slick. She hadn’t gotten
negative impressions from any of the people she’d met earlier—well, unless you
counted Tony, and he seemed to have an agenda of his own.

Her stomach grumbled reminding her she hadn’t
eaten since lunch. She hoped the kitchen was still open. She’d have to go
shopping tomorrow. Since the cottage had a kitchenette, she’d make her own
breakfast and pack lunches for the days she’d be at the hospital. She was a
grazer, and liked to have something to eat to carry her through when she was
working late. Right now, she’d be happy with almost anything.

She took another look at the bay far below her
shimmering in the moonlight and turned to retrace her steps. A man stood just a
few feet behind her, and she gasped. She recognized the shape of his body and
the way he held his head.

“You scared me, Dr. Steele. I wasn’t aware there
was anyone else here.”

The catch in her voice betrayed her nervousness.
Her heart pounded with both fear and excitement. She’d wanted to talk to him it
was true, but not here, in this lonely place. She trembled at the memory of the
anger and animosity he’d shown toward her this afternoon. Added to that, his
body shape in the dark more closely resembled that of her dream lover, and her
body responded. Heat suffused her.

“Don’t be afraid, Dr. Thomas. I didn’t mean to
scare you. I was just out walking the grounds trying to clear my head and
figure out how to get both my size tens out of my mouth. I don’t know how I’ll
ever apologize for making such an ass of myself this afternoon. I can’t even
explain it to myself.”

He walked over to the stone parapet and leaned
against it looking out as she’d done earlier.

“You don’t have to apologize.” Empathy filled her
at the genuine sorrow and dismay in his voice. She considered what this man had
suffered in the past twenty-four hours. No wonder he’d lost his cool. “You’ve
just experienced a loss. I can imagine you feel powerless and if someone has
been playing a trick on you, then I’m sure your anger toward them is
justified.”

She’d turned and stood beside him looking out.
Perhaps finding common ground wouldn’t be so hard after all.

“It’s a beautiful view, isn’t it?”

The moon, now a large glowing ball in the
star-filled sky silvered the surface of the water below. The bushes and trees
on the steep slope, devoid of leaves, rattled their skeletal branches in the
breeze. The air was clean and crisp after the storm, but Michelle could smell
wood smoke in the air.

“Since you probably already think I’m nuts, I’ll
share this with you. When I come here, especially at night like this, I get
this incredible sense of déjà vu. It was so strong when I was a boy that I
insisted on hiking down the slope just to prove to myself it could be done. I
was positive I’d done it before. I found a deer trail to follow and made it all
the way down. Coming back up was harder.”

He laughed wryly. “The lake empties down the hill
farther along, but that’s been changed by modern technology. It’s been
redesigned to drain into a sewer-like culvert running under the road. No one
can get swept over it and down the escarpment anymore.”

“How did you know someone had been swept over the
cliff?”

“It’s a Mohawk legend. Doomed lovers died here.
Think of it as the Mohawk version of
Romeo
and Juliet
. Enemies fall in love, but tribal laws keep them apart. Dad
plans to marry her off to someone else, she’d rather die than marry. She throws
herself into the lake and is swept over the edge and falls into the water
below. He tries to save her, but drowns and is trapped within the stone bowl of
the lake. They couldn’t be together in life, and they were kept apart in death.
The Mohawk legend was born long before any of its storytellers would have read
the Immortal Bard. Pretty tragic, if you ask me.”

Michelle shivered. It was as if he were condensing
her past life into a concise cue card.

“I never thought of it that way. I suppose there
are examples of similar tragedies in all cultural stories. Who told you the
legend?”

“A short version is written on the sign near the
boardwalk across the street, but Joseph Smoke, one of the elders from the
Tyendinaga
reserve told me the longer tale yesterday.”

“Joseph Smoke? His name is on my list. I have to
speak to him about a ceremony.”
And you.

“Joseph’s a great guy. He mentioned needing your
permission for a purification ceremony. Since the traditional Mohawk believe
the lake is sacred, the deaths have defiled it. They need to make amends to the
spirits they believe live there.”

“The Three Sisters.”

“Yes! How did you know?”

She shuddered. “I did some research before coming
here.”
Well, Audra is as good as any
research I could have done. Better in fact.

“You’re cold.” He must have noticed her tremor.

“A bit.
Hungry too.
I need to check-in and get something to eat.”
She looked at her watch. It was almost ten. “I don’t suppose the kitchen will
be open?”

“No, but I can make you some soup and a sandwich.
Allow me to as my way of apologizing to you.”

Michelle smiled. “That would be nice. I’d like to
speak to you about your students, and it probably would be best to do so in
private. Can I give you a lift back?”

Tony chuckled. “No, I can walk.
Park
behind the registration building next to the black SUV.
I’ll meet you at
your car and help you carry your things to your cabin.” He pulled away from the
wall. “See you in ten minutes or so.”

He turned, walked across the parking lot, crossed
the road, and disappeared into the night.

Michelle returned to her Camaro, exited the
parking lot, and drove back to the resort’s lot as Fiona demanded. She turned
off the engine, grabbed her purse off the seat, and entered the resort’s
administration building. She’d called earlier from the hospital and had been
assured someone would be there to meet her when she arrived. The office
normally closed by eight.

She opened the door and entered the pleasantly
decorated room. It looked more like someone’s living room than a hotel lobby. A
young girl sat in a stuffed chair in front of the gas fireplace. She was
reading and looked up at the tinkling bell, a welcoming smile on her face.

“Can I help you?”

“Hello, I’m Michelle Thomas. I have a
reservation.” She pulled the wallet and her personal identification out of the
leather purse Tasha had given her. The green and brown calf hair camouflage
print tote zippered on
top,
had two rounded handles,
and brown crocodile-style detailing.

“Welcome Dr. Thomas.
I’m
Kara. I offered to wait up for you. It’s such a shame about those kids. I
really liked them. I see you’re going to be with us right up until the inn
closes.”

“Unless I can finish the
investigation sooner.
Unfortunately, these things take time.”

“They found the bodies on the edge of the beach. The
area’s still marked off with crime scene tape. There was a really bad storm the
night before. Isaac, our handyman—he’s my uncle, a bit weird but I love
him—claims he heard the spirits of the lake cry out in pain. The next morning
he was walking down to the shed and saw the bodies. He had me call nine-one-one.
Have you seen any pictures?”

Could the
man have heard Aaron cry out? I’ll have to talk to him in the morning.

“Yes, I have. It’s proving to be an interesting
case. I’m tired, and I still have
work
to do tonight.”

“Sorry. I get a little chatty.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll need to talk to everyone
involved at some point.”

She waited patiently as the girl finished checking
her in and handed her a large brass key.

“I’ll take you down. Where did you leave your car?
You might be able to put it closer. This cottage is one of our most popular in
the summer.” The girl reached for a fleece jacket similar to the one Lindsay
had worn.

“That won’t be necessary. Dr. Steele is waiting
for me at my car. I’m sure he can find the proper cottage for me. That’s a nice
jacket. Where did you get it?”

“Dr. Steele’s cabin is right beside yours.” Kara smiled.
“The jacket’s okay for a freebie. One of the wineries gave them out as a
promotion, see?” She pointed to the crest on the jacket. “Pretty much everyone
around here has one of these now.”

Michelle looked at the crest on the jacket. She
hadn’t paid much attention to Lindsay’s jacket since she hadn’t realized it
wasn’t something the girl had always owned, and the front of it had been
covered in mud and slime. She could clearly make out the logo and the lettering
now. The stylized brown bird had the words Whippoorwill Winery written on
it—that was the winery she’d be visiting with Ron tomorrow.

“Thanks, Kara. I’ll see you in the morning.” She
stepped toward the door, stopped, and turned around. “Oh, when you toured the
winery, did they show you the corking room?”

“They did. They explained why so many wineries are
going to screw tops or artificial corks. Apparently the cork trees got sick.”

Michelle nodded.
“Interesting.
Well, I’ll see you tomorrow. Thanks for waiting for me.”

“No problem, doctor.” Kara walked to the door with
her. “I’ll just lock up now. If you need anything, dial seven on your room
phone. It connects to the bar. That stays open until one. A few of the locals
come by to hang out, especially on the weekend. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

Chapter Ten

Michelle pulled her coat tighter as she retraced
her steps to the car. Tony’s shadow moved away from the utility vehicle on
which he’d been leaning. An older model Chevy was parked beside it.

“All set?” he asked as she approached.

“Yes. I’m in Cottage Four. Kara says that’s right
next to yours. Should I move the car?”

“No. That’s your cottage right over there. You’re
probably as close as you’ll get. That’s my SUV.” He pointed to the utility
vehicle. “Nice car by the way. How old is it?”