Murder at Lost Dog Lake by Vicki Delany Read Free Book Online Page A

the sight of them.
    They
were polite enough to put up with our admiration for a short while
but soon tired of us and one of the adults registered displeasure
with loud shrieks of warning. We took the hint and moved
along.
    “ You appear to have done a bit of canoeing before,” I said to
Dianne in a classical understatement.
    She
laughed but her paddle never broke its powerful stroke. “Only every
year of my entire life. I guess that’s about 30 years now.” She
laughed heartily at her own joke and I smiled along. I am also an
all too quickly aging woman, trying to keep the years at bay with
jokes and laughter.
    “ My parents bought a cottage on Lake Rosseau when I was a
teenager, but even before that we did a canoe trip every summer. As
long as I can remember, really. After we bought the cottage my dad
still took at least one week a year away from work so that he and I
could go on a wilderness trip together.”
    I looked
over my shoulder to see her smiling at the memory as her paddle
sliced rhythmically through the water. The years had dropped from
her face. The memories were happy ones.
    “ Just you and your dad?” I asked.
    She
nodded. “My brothers weren’t interested, which made my dad so mad.
They weren’t interested in much that he loved. Such as his
business. My mom of course claimed to be too old for that camping
nonsense. Sad, isn’t it, how women of that era had to pretend to be
too frail or too timid or too old to do anything really fun? But at
the time I was glad enough of it. I adored my dad and appreciated
the time we spent alone together.”
    The sun
stood high overhead, and it shone directly into her face
illuminating every line and every wrinkle. I upped my estimation of
her age by a decade or so. Dianne wanted to be everything her
mother wasn’t, and I admired her for it. And her father for
encouraging her.
    “ Have you been on a trip with CBE before?”
    “ Oh yes, I’ve been traveling with them for many years now.
They’re a good reliable business. My dad passed away long ago; he
left me control of his company and his canoe and camping equipment.
But he couldn’t leave me anyone to travel with. So every year I
come on a trip with CBE. Haven’t had Craig before, tho’. He seems
good. Nice looking too.” She chuckled, a deep throaty sound.
“That’s always a bonus.”
    “ What about Richard? Doesn’t he come with you?” I
asked.
    “ He tries to be interested, but he isn’t really. Would you
believe that this is actually the first time in almost ten years
that he has come into the wilderness with me?” She laughed
lightly.
    I could
believe it, with no trouble at all, but I didn’t say so.
    “ The first couple of years after my dad died I booked a guide
for just myself. It was nice, I don’t mean it wasn’t, but I like
people and I found it rather lonely, only the guide and me. No
matter how good they were, they could never be a substitute for
Dad. So now I tag along on a regular trip and I enjoy meeting the
people.”
    She made
it sound like Marie Antoinette playing at milkmaid in the
Tuilleries. “What type of business did your father leave
you?”
    She
named the largest car parts manufacturer in all of Canada. I
swallowed my shock and mumbled, “I’ve heard of them. It was rather
progressive of your father to leave the company to you, don’t you
think? What about your brothers?”
    “ Oh, I make sure they’re taken care of.” She waved her hand
lightly in the air. The diamond on her finger caught the full force
of the noon sun and flashed like a sacrificial offering.
    “ The others are rather far behind. We should wait up a bit.”
Dianne stopped paddling and leant over the side to dip her plastic
bottle into the water. I took the opportunity to apply more sun
block and stretched out luxuriously, wiggling my ankles and toes to
get some of the kinks out.
    Unasked
she continued talking. “As I said, Richard came camping with me the
year we were first married. He