Doubled Down Deadly

CHAPTER 4 - 10

CHAPTER FOUR

Carde went, first, to the white van near the second lodge. A forensic team was working on the vehicle. Marion asked what they had found. A middle-aged man in white, plastic coveralls moved away from the cab of the van to talk to her and Carde.

"The driver was about five feet ten judging from where the seat and steering wheel were set.

We found a thread on the seat back that leads us to believe he was wearing a black balaclava or hoodie.

"Balaclava," said Marion. "We saw that much."

"Apart from that," the man said, "we have nothing."

"Can I?" Carde moved to the cab of the van as the forensic chief nodded. He peered in. He motioned toward the man and pointed to the floor of the van. 'Can you?"

The man followed Carde's pointing finger and leaned in. He took a set of tweezers out of his breast pocket and reached in. When the tweezers were withdrawn, they held a tiny clump of what looked like dirt with a pine needle sticking out of it.

"Christ. I didn't expect that." said Carde with wonder in his voice.

"What?" asked the forensics officer. "The mud?" He squinted at the dirt held in the tweezers.

"No, not the mud. That's a needle from a Pitch Pine. It's rare. You see it in the Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence but not in the Thirty Thousand Islands here. At least not often."

"So, what does that mean?" Marion looked at Graham in puzzlement.

"It means I know where your fugitives might be. At least if they went back to wherever they had this van."

"It was rented in Parry Sound three days ago," Marion said. "We checked the plates first thing."

"Okay, I know where they might have been," said Graham. And it sure as hell wasn't Parry Sound."

Marion glanced at her wristwatch. "Listen, Graham, I have to go up to Parry Sound hospital to see the wounded shooter. Tell my guys where to go and they'll check it out."

Carde looked off to one side as he considered the situation. He turned back to Marion. "I think I had better go along. There's a couple of things I have to check. Then I can point them to the right place."

Marion doubted her boyfriend's plans. "Come on, Carde, you're bullshitting. You want in on the action, don't you?"

Graham adopted a look of innocence. "Me. I'm a coward. I'll just point."

Marion looked again at her watch. "No time. Just don't get killed. Talk to that guy." Marion pointed to a man in plainclothes standing a few feet away. She yelled at him. "Jesse. Do what this guy says." She tapped a hand on Graham's chest. "He knows where the shooters might be." Then she left at a trot.

Jesse Meldrake, a corporal with the Mounted Police, and Carde spent a minute or two getting acquainted and another minute agreeing on a plan. He and Graham would take Carde's pickup truck to the location Carde wanted to explore. Four Mounties would follow in two cars but would hang back until they were called in by Jesse. In this way, the shooters might not be panicked into using their guns or going on the run again.

Graham had kept Marion's revolver. The small gun was digging into his body where it was tucked into the back of his belt but he didn't want to produce the weapon with Jesse sitting beside him in the truck. It wasn't the time to be waving a gun around in front of the keyed-up cops.

Carde could see the police cars behind him. Thankfully, they didn't have their emergency flashers on. He drove the pickup at a good speed along the gravel road along the shore. After ten minutes, he turned down a dirt road with an entrance almost hidden by a dense stand of trees. He slowed the truck after covering half a kilometre down the road which was not much more than a path through the forest.