Free Flashback by Ted Wood Page B

uncle and then put him in the car and drove down to the Parry Sound police station.  
    There was only a lone uniformed man on duty in the station but he knew me and let me look at the arrest report they had drawn up on Hanson. He was charged with assaulting me and possession of a restricted substance. There was a space left on the page for the chemical name to be added once their forensic people had checked out the powder. I thanked him and was about to leave when I saw a golf bag leaning against the wall in the corner of the office.  
    'Going golfing when you get off work?'
    He looked around. 'Not me. That was there when I came on at twelve. The detectives found 'em at the motel where you caught the Hanson kid.'  
    I hadn't seen any clubs in the motel room but then, I hadn't looked in the closet. But I checked them out anyway. A fine-looking set including three different putters. And the monogram on the bag was JW, the same one I had noticed on Waites' shirtfront at the funeral parlour.  
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    CHAPTER 5
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    The constable said, 'Don't touch it, it's tied in with that homicide this morning.'
    'I know. And I'd be happier if it was out of the way until the detectives can fingerprint it. Could you put it somewhere?'
    'Sure.' He picked the bag up carefully, putting both hands on the soft sides where his prints wouldn't blur any that already existed, and carried it into the inspector's office.  
    I thanked him and went back to the car and headed down the highway. Daylight was beginning to seep into the sky. It was almost fully light when I reached the Harbour and drove through town, slowing down to check from the car that no windows had been broken in any of the Main  
    Street properties. Normally I did it on foot but I was tired and I didn't stop, just went up to my house and let Sam out to seek again around the property.  
    There was nobody around and I stopped on the dock for a minute or two, watching the night mist dispersing on the surfaces of the lake and listening to the redwing blackbirds in the reeds. I was one lucky man, I figured.  
    But I was still alert, so I sent Sam into the house ahead of me to check it was clear before I went through to the kitchen and put some coffee on while I made the phone calls I had planned.  
    I let the baby announcements wait until I'd called George Horn in Toronto. He's a one of a kind guy, an Ojibway from the local reserve. He saved my hide one time, using skills a non-Indian doesn't have. Since then he has out-performed a whole crowd of city-bred hopefuls by graduating high in his law class. Now he was articling in the Crown Attorney's office in Toronto, on a fast track to a judgeship, I reckon. A lot of guys would get swelled-headed to have done what he's done but there's not an ounce of arrogance in him. He's stayed the same as he was when he ran the gas pump as a kid at the marina. I reached him at his apartment.  
    'Hi, George, Reid Bennett. How are you?'
    'Hey, Reid, good to hear from you. How's Fred?'
    I told him about the baby and he congratulated me. Then I asked, 'Do you have any time to do me a favour?'
    'I can make time. What's up?'
    'Well, there's three people I'd like to know more about. One of them is in custody for drug trafficking. Should be simple to chase him up.'  
    'In custody where?' He doesn't waste words.
    'Parry Sound. The detectives will be following up, I guess, but it would be faster for you, he's a Toronto resident.'
    He wrote down Hanson's name and then I told him about the other two. 'This is a bit more complicated. First, a guy called John Waites. He's a lawyer.'  
    'Why are you interested?'
    'His car was stolen and recovered with a dead woman in the trunk. She's a Parry Sound resident so they're following up, but this guy identified her as his wife at first, and now the dead woman's husband and Waites' wife are missing.'  
    We talked it over and he made notes. 'I've seen his name around the