Chapter 4

"What did you find out," asked Francis.

            They were both now walking back to the crime scene.

"Not much," replied Mark, "except that Mr. Rhinert's on a business trip. Did you find another body?"

Francis shook his head.

"No, I didn't expect one really. But that cottage is the cleanest place I've ever seen and there are even little air fresheners all over the walls and some are even plugged in."

"Wow, must have been a nice smell to greet."

Francis glanced at his watch and turned back to Mark.

"It's almost nine-thirty and I think we won't get much done until Mr. Rhinert arrives. Do you know when he's back?"

Mark shook his head.

"But do you want me to find out?"

"It doesn't matter. Do you think he killed Mrs. Rhinert?"

"It's a possibility."

Francis nodded.

"Do you want me to show you the Rhinert's place?"

"Sure."

"I find it very peculiar in the bedroom."

"Why do you say that?"

"I'll show you."

And for second time that night, Mark followed Francis. He felt like a lost and confused dog following his owner home.

"This is the place," said Francis, as he pointed to a large brown looking cottage.

It was much bigger than the one the Mabels were staying in and as Mark stood beside Francis, he could see the yellow cottage and knew that the two cottages were about a metre apart. The evening sun had cast itself upon the yellow cottage and had made it look taller than it really was.  Since the cottages were so close together, Mark had a feeling that the Mabels shared the land with the Rhinerts.

The brown cottage had a long wooden porch that wound from the right side of the cottage all the way to the back. There was no back door only a side door which had a few wooden steps leading up to it which also lead to the porch.

The back of the cottage had three windows and a small garden at the bottom that had many batches of flowers blooming and had been tended to well.

"It's just through here," said Francis, as he pointed to the black screen door above the steps.

Francis held the door open for Mark as Mark walked inside.

Once inside, Mark noticed that there was another door that led into the main part of the cottage because all that was here was a small wooden door that lead to a small bathroom and a large closet that seemed to be filled with tool equipment.

Mark held the second door for Francis as they walked inside.

Once in the main room, Mark was hit with the strong smell of lavender and suddenly noticed all the little air fresheners all over the walls. He even saw some that were plugged into sockets and seemed to be humming as they freshened up the cottage.

"Jesus Christ, it's like Mr. Clean lives here!" exclaimed Mark.

He was tempted to take off his shoes because of how clean it looked and he didn't want to ruin the beautifully patterned rugs that lay on the floor. But as he began to bend down to remove his orange Nike shoes, Francis stopped him.

"That won't be necessary," he said.

As they walked farther into the room, Mark noticed a large window that looked out into the beautiful lake of Couchiching, the sun was in mid-setting over the lake and was letting off all these beautiful blues and pinks into the air.

"Look at the sunset," Mark pointed out, in aw. 

The sun shone a deep orange as it let off its beautiful rays.

"Lovely, just lovely," said Francis, amazed.

"Such a beautiful setting," admired Mark.

Francis nodded.

"If I had a cottage, I choose something like this. You even can sit on the porch and watch the sunset," said Francis, as he pointed out to the porch, which was in front of the large window.

"Did you know that the reason the sun gives off all those beautiful colours when it's rising and setting is due to all the layers of pollution in the sky?"

"You're not serious."

"That’s what creates all those beautiful colours. So keep polluting and you create beautiful sunsets and sunrises, kind of ironic."

Francis chuckled.

"At least one good thing came out of pollution. You know I have a Hybrid actually."

"Really?"

Francis nodded.

"Well good for you. I still got a polluting Mazda five."

"Well at least it's not an SUV or a Hummer."

Mark nodded.

"Well let's get back to business," said Francis, as he clapped his hands together.

Now that Mark wasn't staring at the sunset, he noticed that there were three separate doors that lead to three separate rooms from the main room and a long kitchen table that was very close to the third room.

Francis led Mark into the second room.

The room wasn't very big but was still able to fit a large queen sized bed with a light blue duvet cover on top of it. An opened book lay facedown on top of the duvet and Mark noticed that the book was Charles Dickens' David Copperfield. There was a large brown chest of drawers in front of the bed with a large mirror attached to it and beside it sat a small brown rounded table that had a glass vase standing on top of it that held five healthy looking red roses. There was a small walk in closet to the left side of the chest, which had a long yellow metal bar that held hangers holding all sorts of clothes and there was also a small shelf was located above the hangers and was stuffed with all different sorts of women's shoes. Mark noticed that there were three pairs of men's shoes at the end of the far right wall of the bed. To complete the room, a small window was located on the wall to the right of the bed. Mark looked at Francis, confused.

"Looks like an ordinary room," replied Mark. "I would think it would look cleaner because of how spick and span the main room is but maybe the woman is not as meticulous with cleaning as we thought. Or is that what's peculiar?"

Francis shook his head.

"Look at the book," said Francis, as he pointed to the book.

Mark glanced at the David Copperfield and looked back at Francis.

"Charles Dickens. Is it peculiar someone reads Dickens?"

Francis shook his head.

"I see that you don't see it, so I'll just tell you," said Francis, looking disappointed. "That bed looks like it hasn't been slept in for a couple of days and that book is sitting facedown on the bed as if it had been intended to be read again. As if someone had read it, put it down, and had planned to get back to it very soon. If not, you'd think they would stick a bookmark in it."

"So they planned to read it again but got interrupted."

"Exactly."

"So you think this person who was reading this book was Sandra Rhinert?"

"Precisely."

"And she was reading the book and something focused her attention to look outside and for some reason was forced to leave and never came back."

"Exactly and then we found her in the ditch."

"Interesting theory."

"What doesn't fit is the bed. It looks too neat to have been slept in and it only makes sense that she would have sat down on this bed to read, and there are no creases in it."

            Mark scratched his head.

            "She could be very neat when it comes to making beds."

            "But what about the book?"

            "That does look peculiar."

            "And here's something else, if you look around any of these rooms you won't find a suitcase or any piece of luggage."

            "Well, Mr. Rhinert's in Toronto and maybe these two live here."

            "It's been concluded that they only stay here for the summer and if they did live here you'd think they'd have it some place in the house."

            "Closet maybe?"

            "I've checked everywhere, haven't found anything."

            "Hmm…"

            "And let's go back to the late scream. You know that the Mabels rent that cottage from the Rhinert's?"

            "I had a hunch, but what's that got to do with it?"

            "What if they killed the Rhinert's?"

            "What makes you think that?"

            "Just a hunch. What if they killed Mrs. Rhinert after some dispute and then called the police. They could have been planning to kill Mrs. Rhinert anyway and were just waiting until her husband left so they could complete the job. That way, they get the police before the husband arrives and when he comes back it looks like he killed his wife."

            "Interesting theory, but we can't prove it."

            "No, but we could find a way."

            "Yes, but what about the screaming?"

            "There's no way of knowing there was screaming, they could've made it up, so they had a good alibi."

            "We could ask the neighbours?"

            "Knowing this place, they could've all been in on the whole murder."

            "Are you saying all of Orchard Park wanted Sandra dead?"

            "Could be and why you calling her Sandra, you know her or something?"

            "No, but I do have a cottage here and know of the Rhinerts and I just like addressing people with their first names."

            "Oh."

            "But Detective Malcolm�""

            "If you like first names, you can call me Francis."

            "Alright, but Francis I don't think we should be making so many accusations so early into this case."

            "They're just hunches."

            "I know, but why don't we sleep on it and meet back in front of the cottages in the morning. Besides, we'll have more information on hand when Mr. Rhinert arrives."

            "What time?"

            "Is eight in the morning too early?"

            "Well I live up in Orillia, so that should be fine."

            "Very well."

            "But before you go, did you find anything interesting on Mrs. Rhinert or Sandra as you like to call her?"

            "She reeked of cigarettes, was blonde with big green eyes, wore a bright green dress that had been smeared with blood in the chest area, and had been shot with a twenty-two caliber pistol."

            "You think she smoked?"

            "If she did, she covered it very well in this place," said Mark twirling his finger up in the air.

            "Haven't seen an ashtray anywhere in sight or maybe she was more secret with it and smoked outside all the time."

            "Could be, but we'll know soon enough when the husband arrives."

            "Goodnight Detective Flinn."

            "Goodnight Francis and the name's Mark."

            Francis nodded and the two left the brown cottage.