Chapter 24: The Birth of a New Legend

Gemma looked up from the floor and straight at her mother and repeated what she had just said, “They are now half way to Hamilton on the river in Keith’s leaky canoe!”

Another deadly silence followed before Keith added, “She’s right! The fat guy was getting abusive with your daughter so I sent them both packing down the river in my canoe with the hole in it.”

Both the police officers just stared at Keith with their mouths slightly open. The police woman finally asked, “And how long ago was this do you reckon, sir?”

Keith looked at the woman then at Gemma as he was doing some mental calculations then said, “About an hour ago now at the most. They didn’t have a paddle. I took that off them so they could only drift with the current so they should be about 2 to 3 kilometers down stream at the most ... unless they managed to drift into shore somewhere. In which case they could be anywhere between here and Hamilton. And oh ... they will be completely naked ... apart from one life-jacket ... I let them have one of those ... but nothing else. And the boat won’t sink completely. They’ll just be floating along with their butts in the water until you find them or they hit land as I said before.”