It’s me again, I’m having a blogging frenzy today!!
Well folks, the long wait has ended, the drought is over — Irene has written the ever elusive Chapter 6 of our Novel Collaboration. Yay!! Everyone, a big round of applause for the lady who saved my day!
If you’ve forgotten what’s happened so far in the story you can read it from the beginning by clicking here. Now is the time to step up and volunteer to write Chapter 7. Send me an email and let me know you’d like to do it.
Now, without further ado, here’s Irene:
Chapter 6
Posted by Irene, November 26th 2003
Maybe this was the Laughing Bear Lodge but nobody was laughing, Dallan, least of all.
What a shock it had been for him, the spoiled son of wealthy parents, to find himself with a dead body on his hands. Well, not quite. What he had on his hands was the leg of a pair of pants – with a dead body in the pants. He had dropped that piece of material fast once he realized what it was, and then he yelled for the doctors he was trying to guide around the area. He had to get somebody’s attention.
And now, moments later, the place was crawling with police officers busy directing the removal of the body.
Naturally, they found it necessary to question Dallan.
“How did you happen to find the body?” one of the officers asked the rather green-faced young man.
Then the dreaded question, “What were you doing here?”
His answer, “Having a little leak” would have brought forth guffaws if the situation weren’t so serious.
With straight faces, the police officers asked the doctors and Dallan how long they had been at the scene and if they had seen anyone else around. Even as young, spoiled and ignorant of crime scenes as he was, Dallan couldn’t see any connection between their length of time at the scene and whether or not they had seen others in the vicinity. That discolored corpse had been in the water much longer than that!
Having sent the body to the crime lab for further inspection, the police, before vacating the premises, warned Dallan and the doctors there would be more questions. Dallan’s nervousness and his sometimes curt responses had led the police to believe that he knew more than he really did. The police added that they would want to question everyone at the Laughing Bear Lodge and reminded them that no one should leave the lodge for any reason.
The news of a corpse found so near Laughing Bear Lodge made the local newspaper. The wire service also carried it and the newspapers in Alberta where Dallan Bowden’s parents lived picked it up.
“Oh, what have we done?” wailed Mrs. Bowden when she read about Dallan’s plight.
“What do you, mean “What have we done?” yelled Mr. Bowden, unaware of the predicament his son was facing over at Laughing Bear Lodge.
“Our precious Dallan is being questioned about a corpse that was found near Laughing Bear Lodge,” Mrs. Bowden cried. “And to think, we thought we were sending him to Miramichi to help him form character! This will ruin him for life.”
“We’ll go there right now and straighten this thing out,” shouted an angry Mr. Bowden. Secretly, he felt guilty about what he’d done to Dallan but he wasn’t quite ready to admit that.
“We’d better call first,” suggested Mrs. Bowden. “Maybe we can find out exactly what’s going on.”
What they learned during that phone call made them decide to leave immediately for Miramichi. It seemed that the police, in their haste to find the killer, mistook Dallan’s nervousness and curt responses as evidence that he was hiding something; perhaps knew more than he was willing to divulge. Of course, that was the furthest thing from the truth, as anyone would know who was familiar with Dallan. He was too lazy to go to the trouble of killing anybody. That would have been too much work!
The Bowden’s hurried to their son’s side. All the way there Mrs. Bowden prayed her rosary while Mr. Bowden cussed his son’s ineptitude.
Giv’er Miramichi is about “What’s up, what’s new, what’s happening”. We are focused on building people up, supporting one another and celebrating our successes.