Murder at Lost Dog Lake by Vicki Delany

everyone.” Craig
noticed that we were stopped. Some of the tension in our voices
probably carried across the water if not the words themselves. He
slowed down and looked as if he were about to turn and come over to
us. Trying to look causal, and not to be noticed by Rachel, I waved
him away. He took the meaning and kept his distance.
    “ I need my things, my bathroom and my hair dryer. Will you
look at this hair,” she sobbed. I thought her hair looked great.
The red waves were tied back into a thick bundle behind her head.
Tendrils had escaped from their band to drift into gentle curls
around her forehead and cheeks. Her hair probably looked a hundred
times better than it did when, teased and sprayed, she walked out
of the hairdresser.
    “ My clothes are dirty and my nails are broken.” She burst into
full-blown sobs. Oh great, I mumbled to myself. Here we are out in
the middle of the lake and I am stuck with this crying woman.
Unable to touch her, I made soothing gestures with my
hands.
    Dianne
and Barb and Richard and Jeremy were getting fainter and fainter in
the distance. Craig and Joe bobbed quietly ahead of us. Craig’s
face was etched with concern as he watched one group almost
disappear out of sight and another stranded in a sea of
emotion.
    “ I’m almost due to have my period. What will I do then?” She
continued to cry.
    “ You’ll manage. Like women have always managed.” This was
enough. I was supposed to be on vacation here. I paid good money
for this trip and I don’t run a counseling service. “How do you
think women managed for thousands of years before tampons and
sanitary bins? Believe it or not, they got on fine.”
    A cry
caught in her throat and Rachel looked up at me, “I guess you’re
right.” She pulled up her T-shirt to wipe at her eyes. “You must
hate me.”
    “ Oh, for heaven’s sake. I don’t hate you at all. Why did you
come on this trip anyway? Surely you read up on it before, didn’t
you? You must have known what to expect.”
    She
looked sheepish. “I didn’t know anything about it. Joe told me we’d
been invited to go on a vacation with his new partner and his wife.
He said the wife is the one who really controls the money and this
would be a great opportunity to butter her up.
    “ At first I thought we were going to their cottage. Joe told
me that they have a fabulous cottage on Lake Rosseau. I had a
boyfriend when I was in High School whose family had a cottage near
there, on Lake Joseph. It was really nice, like a house on the
water, you know, not a cottage at all.
    “ Then Joe told me that we were going on a wilderness trip. So
I kinda thought, you know, it would be a fly-in sort of thing.
Where you get into a little bush plane to fly into a really nice
luxury resort, you know.
    “ Then we got to that lodge. It was okay, for one night. I
thought the next stop would be more luxurious.”
    “ Listen Rachel,” I said, “the others are waiting for us so we
have to move on. But I have a little bit of advice for you. Never,
never, accept what someone tells you without checking it out, not
if it’s important. Even if it is Joe. Sometimes people don’t mean
to deceive you, they just don’t want to tell you the whole truth.
Would you have come on this trip if Joe had told you exactly what
it would be like?”
    She
looked at me in amazement. “Of course not.”
    “ There we are. He didn’t tell you because he knew that you
wouldn’t come if he did. So you should have asked. Do you
agree?”
    She
nodded glumly. “I guess so.”
    “ Don’t be afraid to ask questions. You have to protect
yourself, you know.”
    “ But, Joe loves me.”
    Deep
inside my chest I screamed and mentally pulled out all my hair, but
on the outside I managed a faint smile. “I’m sure he does. But even
Joe doesn’t always know what is best for you. No one does. In fact,
Joe might be regretting bringing you. Things don’t seem to be going
very well right now.”
    She
returned my