Chapter 5

Matti left Bert Fontaine lying on the pile of firewood with his gun cradled on his chest, still pointed at the small round hole in the base of his chin. He had already verified that the bullet had passed right through the dead man’s head, exiting from a jagged half-inch hole in his smoothly shaved scalp. After five minutes spent recovering some of his composure, Matti once again placed a call to the OPP. After the basic facts were confirmed with him, they told him to leave the site alone, and that they would have homicide investigators and the coroner’s office start out immediately for the camp on Lake Watchanabi.

Matti’s first decision after he had ended his call to the OPP was that he wanted to see in a mirror that he wasn’t wounded in some way by the bullet that killed the biker. He went directly to the small bathroom in his camp. A careful examination in the mirror revealed only a scattering of smeared blood droplets along his cheek, just below a slightly reddened streak extending from a point near his ear to his forehead above his right eye. He decided it was caused by the muzzle blast of the handgun. A damp cloth was quickly able to remove the blood spatter. He was a little concerned about that spatter, and wondered if he could have caught something, some deadly bug, from the dead man’s blood. Matti soon decided that that was highly unlikely.

He already knew that it was going to take almost two hours for the OPP and the others to arrive, so he immediately decided that he wouldn’t take the chance of having the black bag discovered on the dirt floor of the dugout under his camp. After a bit of thought, he grabbed a plastic cooler that was normally used to transport his food to the camp and some of the fish he caught back to the city. Taking along a shovel, he soon disappeared down the opening in the spare bedroom. Half an hour later the bag and the 14 bricks of cash were in the cooler, buried under the sandy floor of the dugout. A dusting of dry sand over the disturbed earth completed the job. He would add a chunk of plywood later, after the earth was dry.

was dry.

“If that doesn’t do the trick, well, it just wasn’t meant to be.” Matti was speaking to no one but himself as he climbed the short ladder up into the spare bedroom in his camp. Five minutes later everything was back as it had been.

It was almost ten o’clock at night when the last of the police and coroner’s employees had left. Matti had realized right away that the only way to explain this whole thing was to describe what had happened exactly as it occurred. Unless he was telling the truth about everything that had happened, he was sure that they would have found some inconsistency, or problem with the logic of what he had told them. As it was, he had to tell the full story to two different investigators, on two separate occasions. Of course, he explained to them at every normal opportunity that the biker had been mistaken. Matti knew nothing about the money the man was searching for. As far as Matti was concerned, they completely believed him. Perhaps it was because he was finding it easier and easier to tell that particular lie. Practice apparently did make perfect.

The body wasn’t removed until just shortly before they left. A lot of photographs were taken, samples were collected, and one of the forensic technicians took Matti’s fingerprints. Pictures were taken of his facial injuries. Matti hadn’t realized that the block of wood Bert Fontaine had slipped on had left a gouge in the earth at his feet, along with an impression of his boot heel in the bark of the block. This was photographed and the wood removed in an evidence bag. Strong, portable, generator-operated lights had remained set up around the scene until everyone was satisfied that they had all of the pictures and information that was needed. The lights were the last thing removed before the caravan of vehicles headed back to Thunder Bay. Although it was likely premature for them to specifically say so, Matti felt that they accepted he was the aggrieved party. Indeed he truly was, but throughout the evening he had expected to be brought in for further questioning. All they asked was that he make himself available, if necessary, for further interviews. The fact that they hadn’t used the loaded word ‘questioning’ made Matti feel much more at ease.

Tuesday morning brought a light rain, and it continued throughout the afternoon as well. Matti needed a break after everything that had been happening, so the excuse was welcome. He spent the morning lazing around, something that he rarely did, but which felt right this time. By early afternoon, though, he was beginning to feel like it was time to accomplish something, so he began making a list of possible improvements to his drilling business. He soon had a lengthy list of ideas and equipment that he felt he should price for replacement. Rough figures that he assigned to the major items would put a significant dent into the first bundle of cash that he had opened.

Matti had been putting off finding a better location for the $90,000 that was presently jammed into a coffee can and hidden under fire wood that was drying in his woodshed. He didn’t want to disturb the cooler in the dugout, and decided that he wouldn’t go near it again until he had spent the entire first bundle. He finally chose to place it in a tough plastic bag, which he then put at the bottom of an empty, round, plastic container that once held rolled oats breakfast cereal. Matti had emptied it first, and then refilled it with the rolled oats. Once it was placed on the top shelf of the kitchen cupboard, along with the regular boxes of cereal, he couldn’t imagine anyone finding it there. As far as he knew, he was the only one that ever cooked a portion of that cereal. Even if someone else did take the container down, there were at least 6 inches of rolled oats to scoop out before anyone would reach the special contents. Matti was confident his hiding place was secure and conveniently located.

He had already decided that he would spend the next day, Wednesday, at his camp, and then return to Thunder Bay at the end of the day. He intended to get in a bit of early morning fishing, and to split some more of the firewood in the afternoon. As well, he intended to make an afternoon phone call to Ernie Stewart, to see if everything had arrived at the drilling site.

The early morning fishing part of his plans worked out well, and he returned with three nice pickerel, all averaging about two pounds. Once they were on a stringer he played catch and release, before finally tying his boat up to the dock just before ten o’clock in the morning. In no more than 20 minutes the fish were fillets that had been rinsed and were now cooling in the refrigerator. He planned on having a couple for his supper, and the rest would return with him to Thunder Bay.

Just before noon Matti was sitting on a comfortable lawn chair in front of the camp. He was in the process of ending a satellite phone call from Ernie. His foreman had pre-empted him by calling to say that the food and equipment had arrived, and that the men were quite happy to hear that they would be able to make some use of the expensive satellite phones for personal calls. It seemed that they all had a renewed interest in their work, now that Matti had signaled his interest in spending more money on the company. Matti had just said goodbye, and pressed the End button on the phone, when he heard the crunch of gravel. It signaled the arrival of a vehicle, and considering the fact that his main visitors over the previous week had either been police or a biker club enforcer, Matti really assumed the sound could not mean anything good for him. His pulse immediately quickened with the anticipation of more trouble. Once again he thought about the money, and all the trouble it had already caused him.

Matti was shocked, but pleasantly surprised, when an immediately recognizable woman walked around the corner towards him. There was probably no male in the area that wouldn’t have recognized her, as she was one of the most, if not the most, popular local television personalities. ‘What had caused Dawn Winters to show up on his doorstep?’ was his first, and immediate, thought. She looked exactly like she did on the evening news, right down to the station logo on her blue jacket’s breast pocket. Matti also immediately saw that her eyes were grey; he’d always thought they were blue.

“He ... Hello, Ms. Winters. Where did you come from? Are you lost?” Matti had jumped to his feet quickly when she rounded the corner. All thoughts, as well as all of his concerns, about police and bikers had immediately disappeared.

“I don’t know if I’m lost or not. I’m looking for Matti McEwen, and if you’re not him, could you tell me where I might find him? I’m hoping to interview him.” Dawn Winters was smiling as she finished speaking, and it wasn’t clear if it was because of Matti’s flustered appearance, or her normal reporter’s attempt to charm her public.

Matti regained control of himself, and quickly replied, “I’m Matti. What can I do for you?” He almost asked her why she would be interested in interviewing him, but it quickly came to him that it would have to be concerning the crash, or the death of Bert Fontaine. Maybe it was both.

Before she could answer a bearded, stocky man of almost Matti’s height followed Dawn Winters around the corner. He was probably at least 10 years older than Matti, and was wearing a checkered shirt and blue jeans. A compact video camera was hanging from one shoulder, and a bag of equipment from the other. A couple of small pieces of equipment were attached to his belt. Matti could see that he had sandy brown hair and pale blue eyes.

Dawn Winters noticed that Matti’s attention had been diverted from her, so she turned slightly to her right until she caught sight of the man following her. She quickly said, “Matti, I’d like to introduce you to my camera and sound man, Art Lowery. I should call him my right-hand man, because he is invaluable to me. Without Art, my reporting wouldn’t be much good at all.”

Matti and Art exchanged hellos before Matti returned his attention to the reporter, and Art turned to the task of setting up his equipment.

Dawn smiled at Matti and said, “I’d like to interview you for our weekend newsmagazine show. We try to present in-depth stories about current news items, and we think that you would be a natural for this weekend’s program. It’s not often that one person is at the center of a story about a plane crash, and another about a sudden, violent death. Both of these stories have been covered on the news already, based on the reports released by the OPP, but I’d like to interview you for a more comprehensive report. Art will record our conversation, and will take some representative video as well.”