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Murder at the Lake
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ArchiveAlgonquin Land Claims
Gray MerriamLegaleseGeneral information and opinion on legal topics by Rural Legal Services
Mazinaw Musingsby Bill RowsomeNature Reflectionsby Jean GriffinNight Skiesby Leo Enright
Murder at the LakeA serialised murder mystery byJack Benjamin(a Sr. Constable Thompson mystery)
Part 6
Previously: Ed Hargreave dropped dead during a Canada Day Party at his cottage compound on Bobs Lake. His two sons, two ex wives, his mother and girlfriend (who had stabbed him with a brochette skewer earlier in the day), were all on the scene at the time. Investigating Constable Nick Thompson has concluded that Thompson died of an induced heart attack. The others had placed Lily Boutillier, the girlfriend, at the scene of Hargreave’s death, but she has an alibi. All of the principals, except Hargreave’s first wife, have been brought together at Hargreave’s house on the day before the funeral and Constable Thompson is addressing them.
Gathered around the oversized dining room table sat Ed Hargreave Jr, his younger brother Bob, their grandmother Celia Hargreave, Elaine Parkinson (Hargreave’s estranged wife), and Lily Boutillier. Ed Jr.’s daughter was siting on the couch, engrossed in a TV program.
Constable Nick Thompson smiled as he looked at the assembled crowd, then called over to the girl.
“Excuse me, but I don’t know your name.’
“Wha’?” she said in daze, turning slowly to look at Thompson, still keeping the TV screen in her sights.
“Your name?” Thompson repeated.
“Oh, Shelly,” she said.
“Do you ever watch CNN, Shelly?” Thomson asked.
“A bit.”
“I wonder if you’ve ever heard about Charles Cullen from New Jersey. He was a nurse who murdered patients,” Thompson said, keeping his eye on the people siting around the table.
“Oh, yeah, I heard about him,” she said.
“And did you ever tell anyone in your family about him,” Thompson said, still keeping his eyes on the others.
“I told grandma, because he used the same drug she takes. I forget what it’s called,”
“Digoxin,” Thompson said.
“That’s right, so you know all about it,” Shelly said, surprised.
Thompson fixed his gaze on Celia Hargreave, who was glaring at him; then he turned to Elaine Parkinson, who looked away.
“I’m guessing it was you who did the deed, Ms. Parkinson. After all, you were a nurse before getting into real estate,” Thompson said.
“That was a long time ago,” Elaine Parkinson said.
“But not so long ago that you couldn’t find a vein, apparently.”
“Mr. Hargreave,” Thompson said, turning away from Parkinson and addressing a bewildered-looking Ed Hargreave, “Let me ask you something. Did you actually see Lily Boutillier standing over your father just after he collapsed?”
“Well, I was by the rocks when I looked over, but I saw a woman standing over him. It was dark but she was dressed in shorts and a light top and she had short hair, just like Lily,” he said.
“Could it have been Elaine Parkinson over here? I recall she was wearing shorts and a light top that night. And perhaps with this wig on that we found...” Thompson motioned to Pupillo, who held up a short, black wig.
“I suppose, but everyone said Lily had been there,” Hargreave responded, sounding a bit uncertain.
“Who is everybody?”
“Well, my mother, and Bob, and Elaine.”
“Yes, they make quite a trio, don’t they,” Thompson continued, “So, Bob, why did you take the old rowboat out? From what people tell me, you’re partial to the high-powered inboard. Nobody I talked to remembers the last time they saw you in a row boat.”
“I don’t know. I was drunk and it was handy,” bob said.
“Handy? It was stored in a shed; it wasn’t even in the boat house. You had to drag it out to the water. Maybe you didn’t want to ruin a good boat.”
Lily, who was siting on her own, at the end of the table, said “What are you saying, Constable? Do you think they were trying to set me up?”
“Not if they didn’t have to. They wanted the heart attack story to work out, but if there was any suspicion, they couldn’t help but try to pin it on you.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about, Officer Thompson, but if you want to accuse anybody, you’d better explain yourself,” Ed Hargreave intervened, angrily.
“You’re right, Mr. Hargreave, it’s time to explain what happened. It wasn’t totally planned, the way I see it, but events conspired to make your father’s murder inevitable. First, Bob over here, who had a habit of taking money from his father’s bank accounts to finance his own gambling debts, began to notice something was wrong. Ed Hargreave was building up debt, and his money was disappearing. What Bob didn’t know was that Ed was hiding money in foreign banks so when his divorce with Elaine came through he wouldn’t have anything left to pay her with. He was planning to take off, and leave all of you with nothing. When Bob told his grandmother what was going on, she figured out what Ed was doing right away. She realized that it had been idle talk when Ed had told her about how nice it was at the seniors’ home down the road. I bet you didn’t want to move to a seniors’ home, did you Celia. But Celia knew about the insurance policy as well. It would leave $5 million to be split five ways, and Celia, Bob, and Elaine are each looking at a $1 million pay out, as are you, Ed.
“So, when Celia heard about digoxin, and told Elaine she had a supply because she’s been taking it for years, a plan began to form. Lily’s outburst on Canada day presented a tantalizing opportunity. Do it that day, and any suspicions would fall on her.
“Bob began convincing everyone he was drunk. He knew everyone would come to save him if he was drowning. When he struck the kayak with the rowboat, bellowed and dove under water, everyone was drawn to him, leaving Elaine the opportunity to knock Ed senior down, and inject him with digoxin, right in the upper leg, near where Lily had stabbed him. The wound from the stabbing hid the needle mark at first, but we checked again, after checking the digoxin levels, which were easily high enough to kill a man.”
“Mon Dieu!” Lily Boutillier said.
“Celia Hargreave, Bob Hargreave, and Elaine Parkinson, you three are all coming to the station with me now,” said Nick Thompson, as Ed Hargreave shook his head in disbelief.
As Constable Pupillo began escorting the three to the police cruiser, Celia Hargreave looked up at Nick Thompson and sneered, “You’re a fool! I’ve known that since you were in Grade One. Good luck proving this.”
