The Honeypot Trap I. The Valley

 The road my client told me to take was more of a dirt trail. Winter or rain would make it impassable. And the country was flat. Pee on a plate flat. Watch your dog run away for two days flat. I was almost at the edge of the valley before I saw it coming.

I stopped at the brow of the slope, backed up so I wouldn’t be readily visible, dug out my field glasses and looked down and across. The valley, about a mile wide, ran east and west. Cattle grazed the far side. A small stream or river ran along the far side, crossed here and there by single span, narrow bridges, flowed into a series of small lakes, giving the valley and the village below its name, Lakeview.

The village, directly below me, looked like about 45 houses. A gas station/confectionary stood beside the two-lane blacktop that ran the length of the valley. Outlines of a long-abandoned railway showed vaguely. On what passed for main street was a small grocery store, a two-story hotel/bar, and a small school.

In two hours, one car went east on the highway and two went west. A cube van from the west made stops at the confectionary, grocery store and hotel. So the hotel had a restaurant as well as a bar.

The houses all had gardens. Flowers and grass in front and vegetables and fruit trees in back. By fruit, I meant likely saskatoons, chokecherries, or crabapples. All but one house, near the edge of town. It was a blaze of colour front and back. Field glasses revealed a beehive in the back yard. This was the house I was sent to investigate.

Suddenly I wished I’d spent more time on botany than bugs. But bugs are usually more use in solving murder cases. If indeed this was murder or simply the hazards of growing old. Fortunately Gooble was there to ask about the vegetation. IF there was Wi-Fi service.

Speaking of bugs, not knowing who or what had slept in the hotel’s rooms before me or if they might still be there, I stretched out in the car to spend the night. I’d packed a blanket just in case.

In the morning, I watched the town slowly come alive. At 8:30 a small school bus pulled up to the school, a few little kids got off and a few larger kids got on. The bus headed east. So, there were families scattered up and down the valley. The school was likely K-6 and a larger school in the next town that was 7-12. Interesting little community. Didn’t look like it would house a murderer but what rural community does?

By 9:30 breakfast sounded good so I stuck it in 3^rd gear and started down the hill into the valley. I sure hoped I could drive out on the highway as climbing back up was out of the question.

To be continued