marshes, just after sunset, when his canoe suddenly upended and he disappeared. When the remaining man retrieved the canoe he found that bits had been burned away without flame and it carried the mark of all the dead they'd stolen from the lake.'
'The mark of the dead?'
'The record says it stank, Detective. Like offal.' About to eat another cookie, she paused. 'You do know what offal is?'
'Yes, ma'am. Did the survivor see anything?'
'Well, he said he saw what he thought was a giant snake except that it had two stubby wings at the upper end. And you know what that is.'
'A wyvern. One of the ancient dragons.'
'There's a dragon in the lake.'
'No, of course not. The spirit of the lake can take many forms. When it's angry, those who face its anger see a great and terrifying beast. To the trapper, who no doubt had northern European roots, it appeared as a wyvern. The natives would have probably seen a giant serpent. There are many so-called serpent mounds around deep lakes.'
'But it couldn't just be a giant serpent?'
'Detective Celluci, don't you think that if there was a giant serpent living in this lake that someone would have got a good look at it by now? Besides, after the second death the lake was searched extensively with modern equipment and once or twice since then as well — and nothing has ever been found. That trapper was killed by the spirit of the lake and so was Thomas Stebbing.'
'Thomas Stebbing?'
'The recorded death in 1937. I have newspaper clippings'
In the spring of 1937, four young men from the University of Toronto came to Lake Nepeakea on a wilderness vacation. Out canoeing with a friend at dusk, Thomas Stebbing saw what he thought was a burned log on the shore and they paddled in to investigate. As his friend watched in horror, the log 'attacked' Stebbing, left him burned and dead and 'undulated into the lake' on a trail of dead vegetation.
The investigation turned up nothing at all and the eyewitness account of a 'kind of big worm thing' was summarily dismissed. The final, official verdict was that the victim had indeed disturbed a partially burned log and, as it rolled over him was burned by the embers and died. The log then rolled into the lake, burning a path as it rolled, and sank. The stench was dismissed as the smell of roasting flesh and the insistence by the friend that the burns were acid burns was completely ignored — in spite of the fact he was a chemistry student and should therefore know what he was talking about.
'The spirit of the lake came up on land , Ms Joseph?'
She nodded, apparently unconcerned with the contradiction. 'There were a lot of fires being lit around the lake that year. Between the wars this area got popular for a while and fires were the easiest way to clear land for summer homes. The spirit of the lake couldn't allow that, hence its appearance as a burned log.'
'And Thomas Stebbing had done what to disturb its peace?'
'Nothing specifically. I think the poor boy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It is a vengeful spirit, you understand.'
Only a few short years earlier, he'd have understood that Mary Joseph was a total nutcase. But that was before he'd willingly thrown himself into the darkness that lurked behind a pair of silvered eyes. He sighed and stood; the afternoon had nearly ended. It wouldn't be long now until sunset.
'Thank you for your help, Ms Joseph. I — what?'
She was staring at him, nodding. 'You've seen it, haven't you? You have that look.'
'I've seen something,' he admitted reluctantly and turned towards the water. 'I've seen a lot of thi'
A pair of jet skiers roared around the point and drowned him out. As they passed the house, blanketing it in noise, one of the adolescent operators waved a cheery hello.
Never a vengeful lake spirit around when you really need one, he thought.
'He knew about the sinkholes in the marsh and he sent those surveyors out anyway.' Vicki tossed a pebble off the end of the dock and watched it disappear into the liquid darkness.
'You're sure?'
'The information was all there on his laptop and the file was dated back in March. Now, although evidence that I just happened to have found in his computer will be inadmissible in court I can go to the Department of Lands and Forests and get the dates he requested the geological surveys.'
Celluci shook his head. 'You're not going to be able to get him charged with anything. Sure, he should've told them but they were both professionals; they should've been more careful.' He thought of the crocodile tears Stuart had cried that morning over the death and his hands formed fists by his side. Being an irresponsible asshole was one thing; being a manipulative, irresponsible asshole was on another level entirely. 'It's an ethical failure,' he growled, 'not a legal one.'
'Maybe I should take care of him myself then.' The second pebble hit the water with considerably more force.
'He's your client, Vicki. You're supposed to be working for him, not against him.'
She snorted. 'So I'll wait until his cheque clears.'
'He's planning on acquiring the rest of the land around the lake.' Pulling the paper he'd retrieved from the garbage out of his pocket, Celluci handed it over.
