The day slowly drug on, as I waited for James to return to the cabin. The hours seemed to last forever, and as I got more and more impatient, I started pacing across the small cabin. There was nothing for me to do, nothing to occupy my time. I had already read through all of James' meager supply of newspapers twice, and I really took no interest in it anyway. Eventually the time for lunch came, and awhile after I finally made up my mind to try and make something to eat. Digging around in the large cabinets, all that I found that looked good to eat at the moment, and was easy to make, were a couple of cans of soup. So I fired up the gas stove, and began heating the soup.
As I sat there watching the soup cook on the stove, it suddenly occurred to me that I had no idea where the power for the cabin came from. So I stepped outside and walked around the house, looking for a power source. There was a small gas generator, but it obviously wasn't running, and as far as I could see there were no electrical lines running to the house. Then I noticed, however; that there were several solar panels on the roof of the cabin. Apparently they provided enough power to run the small electric heater, power the lights, and a few other electrical odds and ends.
Finally at about 2:00 in the afternoon, James came back, as soon as I heard his sled pull into the yard, I decided to start a pot of coffee so he would have a warm drink. After taking care of the dogs and the sled, James came inside, and began taking his warm heavy coat off. As soon as he was done he sat down at the table and I handed him a nice steaming hot cup of coffee. For a long while James sat at the table just silently drinking his coffee, but once he had begun to warm up he said, "There was nothing on the body at all, no wallet, keys, identification, not even a stick of gum." I sat there staring at him for a moment, not realizing what that statement meant, but then it dawned on me, someone had probably searched Dr. Harwin's body.
That night as I lay on the cot trying to sleep, I pondered why the murderer would have searched Dr. Harwin's body, and then taken whatever he might have had in his pockets. Did they kill him to get something that he had, or were they trying to hide who they had killed?
No comments:
Post a Comment