Free Never Sleep With a Suspect on Gabriola Island by Sandy Frances Duncan, George Szanto

Kyra.
    â€œYeah, that’s the word.” Sue nodded. “Roy joined the Faith Bearers, they’re celibate too. Just till marriage. You see the problem, if I married Roy he wouldn’t let me be a BAV. Also maybe I want children. It’s just been hard to decide.” She scrunched up her face.
    â€œThat is a dilemma,” Kyra nodded in A+ confidante style.
    After a moment Sue said, “Well, I guess it isn’t now.”
    â€œDid Roy have any enemies?” Noel asked, needing to change the subject. Though he thought, three celibates in one room talking about a dead celibate, is that some sort of record?
    â€œEnemies?” Sue, picking at a hangnail, thought about that. “No, Roy liked everybody. Even if he didn’t really, I mean. Maybe before he’d get drunk and there’d be some clowning around, you know how guys are. He had a fight in the pub once. With the Gallery guy.”
    Carefully Noel repeated, “The Gallery guy? Artemus Marchand?”
    Sue blurted a laugh. “No, the cute one, Rose’s brother.”
    â€œWhat was it about, the fight?”
    She shook her head. “I dunno. I wasn’t there.”
    â€œYou must have heard something—”
    She turned to Noel with defiant squinting eyes. “I didn’t see it, I said.” She shook her head. “I don’t spread gossip.”
    â€œWell, your opinion then. Could anyone at the Gallery have had it in for Roy?”
    â€œWhat a terrible thing to think!”
    Kyra changed tack. “Patty Bourassa told us Roy meddled in her sister’s marriage.”
    â€œI wouldn’t say ‘meddle.’ It’s just, Roy was really keen on the Faith Bearers and one of the faiths is to help others.” Sue seemed to have succeeded with the hangnail. She turned to Noel. “I know this because Roy told me. So it’s the truth, not a rumor.” She glanced at Kyra, almost shyly. “There was a guy Roy wanted to get into the F.B.s and kept inviting him and one day his wife yelled at Roy, right in the parking lot, ‘You leave us alone and don’t ever talk to either one of us again!’ and a lot of swearing.” She shook her head. “Some people are just really hard to save.”
    Noel smiled. “Anybody else he tried to save?”
    â€œMmm—he wasn’t really keen on the homos on the island. He was thinking it was maybe his duty to show them a better way.”
    Oh dear, thought Noel. “Did he approach any of them?”
    â€œI dunno.”
    â€œWhen did you last see Roy?”
    â€œOh, late that afternoon. He liked to go birding toward evening when the birds come home.”
    â€œDid Roy live near the clearcut?”
    â€œNope, he’s over on Berry Point.” Noel unfolded the map and Sue got up to show him.
    â€œWhat’s the address?”
    â€œI don’t know. It’s just past Seagirt,” she pointed. “Brown with pink trim. You can’t miss it.”
    Noel scanned the map. “And where’s the clearcut?”
    â€œIn here, behind the Community Hall.” She pointed to the middle of the island. “The trees are growing, it’s being renewed.” Suddenly she looked shy. “Just like himself, Roy said.”
    â€œHow did Roy get to the clearcut?”
    â€œDrove.” Sue looked at Noel, a guy who’d flunked Basic Knowledge 101. “Mounties found his truck at the Community Hall the next day. Maybe whoever killed him put it there.” Her tone doubted Noel could figure this out for himself.
    Kyra stood. “Thank you, Sue, you’ve been helpful.”
    Noel scribbled his name and phone number on a blank page in his notebook, tore it off and handed it to Sue. “If you think of anything else, give us a call.” He crossed to the door, opened it and nodded goodbye.
    Back in the car, Kyra said, “Truck at Community Hall, body at Eaglenest Gallery. We really do