Foul Deeds: A Rosalind Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

that day and didn’t make it home to pick it up.”
    â€œSo it doesn’t appear that you were tricked by the original caller as you thought, because if you’d gotten this message you never would have gone to meet him. That meeting was hijacked,” I said. “And whoever took it was counting on you showing up.”
    â€œYup,” he said. “They got lucky.”
    He had nothing in the place to drink but tap water, but it was filtered and cold, and I took a long drink. Molly, thirsty from scouring the tuna tin, went to her big red bowl and followed suit.
    â€œSo now what?” I asked, putting down my glass.
    â€œI’ve got more reason than ever to keep digging through all this water resource business,” McBride said. “It’s hugely fraught with power struggles and corruption and will only get worse as the fresh water supply dwindles in the world. Peter King believed that communities should have control of their water rights, and he had enough smarts, wealth and clout to really rock the boat.”
    â€œSo you’re saying he may have been gotten out of the way by someone who stood to gain from these privatization deals.”
    â€œYou know Roz, there are millions, probably billions of dollars involved in this stuff. I’m learning that what the multinational conglomerates like Europa do is first move in on the bottom rung—say, as experts in sewage treatment. That garners them a bundle to begin with in construction and management contracts, and then they go for control of the water supply, maintaining that if they’re responsible for what comes out in sewage it only makes sense they have control of the water supply to monitor toxins and all that. And you know what? That all makes good logical sense, and is a service a lot of places really need. The problem is greed. Given all that control, many of these corporations limit people’s access to the resource, charging everyone an arm and a leg for their tap water. What should be reasonably available to everyone becomes an out-of-reach commodity.”
    â€œSo our man King was a hero,” I said. “I mean it sounds as though he was instrumental in stopping Europa from getting a foothold here in Canada.”
    â€œI think he was, and the irony is that most people simply have no idea what’s going on.”
    â€œThis is giving me the willies, McBride. We need to be really careful.”
    â€œAlways,” he replied.
    â€œNo comment.” I looked pointedly at his bandaged head.
    Suddenly I felt a creepy, clammy wave of fear. I picked up a pen and wrote on the paper towel he was using as a napkin, “Bugs? Maybe they got you into the hospital so they could do a number here.”
    He took the pen from me and wrote: “Or before, even. Maybe that’s how they knew about the meeting in the first place.”
    We stared at each other. McBride got up and started to look around. I began searching carefully too. Listening devices had changed since I studied them years ago in a criminology course on surveillance. Now they were a lot smaller—tiny, in fact—and a lot more sensitive. Our chances of actually spotting them were slim. Besides, McBride’s place was its usual knot of untidiness. We needed some sophisticated detection gear. Molly, who had been lying down under the kitchen table, moved to the back door and wagged her tail, signalling that, in her opinion, there were better ways to pass the afternoon.
Chapter Five
    I got to rehearsal about twenty minutes early. Sophie was already there working on her lines. As I was taking off my coat, she interrupted herself in the midst of, “
O what a noble mind is here o’erthrown
”
to ask, “How’s McBride?” I decided to leave my scarf on—it was damp and chilly in the Crypt. “You got his car and all that?” she added.
    â€œOh yes—all done. I spent part of the afternoon at his place. We