Death Stalks Door County: A Dave Cubiak Door County Mystery

19. Saturday Morning

203 19 Sat­ ur­ day Morn­ ing Cu­ biak rose with the crows and ran an ab­ bre­ vi­ ated track ­ through the woods near Jen­ sen Sta­ tion. The for­ est was cool and quiet save for the birds, and the tree­ tops shone like ebony ­ against the wash of ­ bright sky. Pe­ nin­ sula Park Golf ­ Course was ­ groomed and ­ trimmed, ready for the fes­ ti­ val tour­ na­ ment later that day. Below, the harbor’s warm wa­ ter lay blue and still. Along the shore, the ­ quaint vil­ lage of Eph­ raim ­ waited to re­ prise its role as per­ fect sum­ mer host for the final two days of the cel­ e­ bra­ tion. It was the kind of sum­ mer day that re­ sort bro­ chures hyped and the­ county tour­ ism board cov­ eted, the epit­ ome of na­ ture in prime, A-one con­ di­ tion. The kind of day that en­ sured large ­ crowds at every fes­ ti­ val event. In his room, Cu­ biak re­ trieved his po­ lice ser­ vice re­ vol­ ver from his worn Army duf­ fel. Try­ ing hard not to over­ think what he was doing, he se­ cured the hol­ ster ­ around his right ankle and ­ slipped the .38 Smith & Wes­ son into place. The gun felt all too com­ fort­ able in the fa­ mil­ iar hol­ low above his foot.­ Dressed, he fol­ lowed the aroma of break­ fast sau­ sage and ­ fresh-baked rolls into the ­ kitchen. John­ son was push­ ing food ­ around his plate while 204 his ­ nephew in­ haled a mole­ hill of eggs and sau­ sage, seem­ ingly obliv­ i­ ous to any but his vis­ ceral needs. Cu­ biak lim­ ited him­ self to cof­ fee and toast. While Ruta fret­ ted in the back­ ground, the park super­ in­ ten­ dent and his fur­ loughed as­ sist­ ant went over the day’s staff­ing lo­ gis­ tics. Six ­ part-time work­ ers had been hired spe­ cif­i­ cally to help dur­ ing the fes­ ti­ val. One of them was Barry Beck, who had yet to show up for duty at the Na­ ture Cen­ ter. As­ sum­ ing he ­ wouldn’t be on the job that day ei­ ther, John­ son had slot­ ted his ­ nephew into ­ Barry’s spot. “You need any­ thing from us, you just let us know,” he said to Cu­ biak. After the two left, Cu­ biak asked Ruta if she would stay in that morn­ ing. “I’m ex­ pect­ ing a long dis­ tance call at noon and I need some­ one here to an­ swer the phone. ­ You’ll miss the pa­ rade, but it’s im­ por­ tant,” he said. “It will help, with this?” The house­ keeper ­ pointed to­ ward the win­ dow and the for­ est be­ yond. “Yes, I think so. I hope so.” “Then I will stay. I do not need pa­ rades,” she said, brush­ ing toast­ crumbs from the table into her ­ cupped hand. Cu­ biak was rins­ ing his mug when Beck ­ called. “Didn’t I tell you not to worry? Im­ a­ gine the fi­ asco if we’d can­ celed the re­ gatta and cut back on ­ things like you ­ wanted,” he ­ taunted. “Day’s not over.” Beck chor­ tled. “You keep up this happy pat­ ter, we’re going to have to start call­ ing you ­ Grumpy. But ­ you’re right, the day’s not over. Ex­ cept it’s a mag­ nif­i­ cent day. Look out the win­ dow, you don’t be­ lieve me,” Beck said and hung up. All of Door ­ County ­ seemed ­ caught up in ­ Beck’s ­ feel-good mood. After the ­ dreary ­ spring and the trag­ e­ dies of early sum­ mer, a feel­ ing of civic pride and op­ ti­ mism re­ ver­ ber­ ated over the land­ scape. The pe­ nin­ sula would re­ claim its fine rep­ u­ ta­ tion. The fes­ ti­ val prom­ ised to con­ tinue in its tra­ di­ tional ster­ ling fash­ ion and to go out in fine style. Only Cu­ biak 205 could not shake free from the gloom that had ­ dogged him for the past three days. The day’s ­ events ­ kicked off in Eph­ raim with the pa­ rade. Mack­ lin had died in...