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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Well, we had an interesting visit with Peter and Laurie Boardman, parents of Jacie, although poor Laurie had to be sedated after finding out that Jacie’s body was cremated, something they did not want. We will visit that funeral home later today, whether they want us to or not. We need to put a little pressure on them, they are a weaker link in this chain of mystery. Right now we are heading to a new section of Calgary to visit with Jacie’s boyfriend Dan, and his partner, Barry.
This should be fun, though not in the usual definition of the word. I don’t expect much cooperation from them. I am going to ask some tough questions, and they might not like that, but their reaction will be helpful anyway. This house is quite large and valued at $1.8 million. Apparently he has no mortgage, he paid cash for the house. Not bad considering that their business has only been in operation for 12 months. They must have been in the sex trafficking business for a while before starting their present business venture.
Hannah is trying to find out some information about that possibility. We brought one of the guys with us on this trip and that was Mac. I figured if anyone could find a hit man in this city, he could. Or anyone willing to kill if the price was right, but it had to be someone that is professional, or close to it anyway. Although, in some ways this didn’t look like it was a professional hit, but Mac thought it was, just that the man deliberately did some things to throw off anyone who might decide to investigate.
So, Mac is doing some investigating on his own, in a bad part of town. I wanted him to take 4 of the girls with him, but he said no to that because it would scare the people away that he wanted to meet. I agreed with him, but I still didn’t like it. As he left this morning in his own car, I told Kristina to go with him, invisibly of course. Mac likely knows I did that, but he didn’t say anything. We pulled into the driveway of Dan’s house and got out of the car.
As we arrived at the front door a voice came over the speaker and invited us to come in. The door opened by itself and we walked inside with the door closing behind us. Very nice indeed. Then Dan appeared, coming out of the living room and inviting us to come in and sit down. He called down the hall to let Barry know we had arrived. “He’s working in our home office this morning so he would be available for your visit,” said Dan. Barry came jogging in and I introduced each of us.
“I knew you were Crystal,” said Dan, “Jacie had showed me your pictures each time you sent some. I wish we could have met at our wedding, instead of Jacie’s funeral.” Dan got quite somber at that point, something I did not expect. Then he asked if we would like some coffee and we all said yes, so he went out to the kitchen to get it for us. Samantha went to help him. “Barry, may I use your washroom?” asked Crystal.
“Yes, just down the hall,” he said, “on the left, that’s the green bathroom.” She thanked him and left, then returned immediately carrying a tray with 4 cups of coffee. I could see Barry frowning a bit as Crystal handed out coffee. Samantha brought more with her, plus cream and sugar. “Are you not going to use the washroom Crystal?” asked Barry. “Um, no, that’s not necessary,” she said, “but where is it anyway?” “I told you when you asked before,” he said, “don’t tell me a private investigator has a bad memory.”
“I never asked about a washroom,” she said smiling. “That’s true, she didn’t,” said Kitty. “I think you are trying to play with me,” he said chuckling, “but really, I have nothing to hide so just ask whatever questions you want.” We did ask questions and they both answered perfectly, though Barry’s answers seemed to be quite rehearsed. Dan, however, had more normal responses, including getting choked up at times and he even had tears a couple of times. That was definitely a surprise.
Then a phone call came in for Barry, so he went to the office. Crystal asked about the washroom again and Dan told her where to find it. She returned immediately from the kitchen with more coffee for everyone. “Wow, that was fast Crystal,” he said. “Well, the kitchen is not far away,” she said smiling. “I meant about using the washroom,” he said. “I didn’t go to the washroom,” she said, “I went to get more coffee, don’t you remember?”
“Oh, yeah, guess my head isn’t working too well these days,” he replied. “That’s understandable,” I said, “may we see the bathroom where your wife was found?” “Yes, of course,” he said and took us to a second floor bathroom which was all yellow. Apparently it was Jacie’s favorite bathroom, and it definitely was nice. “I understand that a man called the police and said he found your wife in the bathtub,” I said, “but he was gone when the police arrived.”
“Yes, that’s what the police told me,” he said, “but it doesn’t make sense. Why didn’t the police try looking for that man? I mean, Jacie had been beaten, maybe she had been raped too, and then drowned by that man. But the police felt it was just an accidental death. So what, did she beat herself and then accidentally drown in the tub? And what about the river water found in her lungs? That makes no sense either.” Then I told him that the original police report said Jacie’s body was found at the river, not in the bathtub.
“I think they are trying to cover up what really happened to Jacie!” exclaimed Dan. “I think so too,” I said, “but proving it might not be easy. And we were told that Jacie’s body had been cremated yesterday as well.” “What?!” he exclaimed, “They can’t do that! Her parents wanted to bury her, not cremate her, and that’s what I wanted too! They’ll hear from me about that one I assure you!” He then broke down crying and Barry showed up right then so he took him to his bedroom to lie down.
Samantha said she could give him a sedative and Barry thought that might be a good idea. Barry did invite us back anytime we had more questions and I thanked him. We then left and went back to the hotel restaurant where we met the rest of the team. Interestingly, that same Mercedes came by Dan’s house while we were there, the same man in the back seat, minus his black coat. Brandy took more photos and also sent the license number back to Wisty.
She already had an answer for us while we were eating. The car was owned by a wealthy businessman here in Calgary, named Lionel Kenwood. Hmm, now why is he so interested in this case? Meanwhile… “Don’t worry, they just asked a few questions, said person one. “I still don’t like them being involved,” said person two, “they could spoil everything.” “What can a small team of investigators from France find out?” asked person one, “They will look around a bit and when they can’t find anything, they will go back home.”
“You better be right,” said person two, “or some serious problems will come your way.” Meanwhile, in another part of town. “Hey old man,” said Rick, “we don’t like people snooping around our territory. So now we gotta teach you a lesson, then you leave.” “Don’t start something punk,” said Mac, “you are taking chances, and that isn’t smart.” Rick came closer, but Mac took out his knife and had it at Rick’s throat. But then there were 5 other young men surrounding Mac in the alley…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
It was a nice, quiet night for us, something we don’t often get while on a case. However, this case hasn’t really started much yet, so maybe that’s why it was so quiet. After today things might be a bit different. I expect we will get some kind of a fire started today. We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and discussed some of our plans for today. Some of the girls, namely Sky’s Bad Girls, will drive around the city a bit and see where Dan’s office is located.
They will also check for access sites to the nearest river from where Jacie lived. Even the nearest river is quite a long distance from their house. I still don’t understand why anyone would risk being seen twice by taking Jacie to the river, drown her there, then bring her body back home again and put it in the bathtub. Why not just drown her in the bathtub? It would be safer for the perpetrators, and faster. That part just didn’t make sense at all.
But maybe that is the point, to throw of anyone investigating and making it harder to find the murder, or murders. If someone was hired to kill Jacie, then it likely was a local individual. It didn’t make sense to hire someone from farther away, which would be more expensive, unless you have a prominent target in mind. But Jacie is young, not wealthy and her parents are certainly not wealthy either. Unless Dan and Barry were starting to move into someone else’s territory with their activities and they didn’t like that, so they might have been trying to send Dan and Barry a message.
One they would understand quickly. But that means that someone must have contacted them ahead of time giving them a warning first. Then when the warning didn’t work, they resorted to murdering Jacie. However, that is just an idea I had, not something based on any evidence. Hopefully we will learn more today speaking with Jacie’s parents, then later with Dan and Barry. I’m not really expecting to get much help from Dan and Barry though, but hopefully I will be wrong about that.
Well, our first stop for us this morning is meeting with Jacie’s parents, Peter and Laurie Boardman. There was Crystal, Sherry (our driver), Samantha, Brandy, Kitty (my new pretend wife, Jennifer decided it would be better to have a ghost as my wife, for safety purposes), and myself. Sherry would not be coming inside for the visit though, she would stay in the car and watch things. Brandy would also stay in the car, she is one of our best photographers and I want her to take photos of anything she considers interesting.
Like cars driving by slowly, especially if they are looking at the house. There ended up being two such cars, though one was a neighbor that just might have been a snoopy type. The other one was a new, black Mercedes, with dark windows. However, the one back window opened part way as they drove slowly past the house. The girls could only see one man in the back. He was wearing dark glasses and a black coat and hat.
Sherry thought he looked to be in his 50s, while Brandy said more like 35 to 40 years old. That didn’t help much. However, let’s back up a bit. We arrived at the house in an older neighborhood of the city. I had already asked if others could come with us to visit and they said yes. I rang the doorbell, but couldn’t hear it ring. “Maybe it doesn’t work,” said Crystal. I tried again, but still nothing. We were just 5 minutes early, so they should be home expecting us.
I then decided to knock and Peter answered the door quickly. He invited us in and we sat in the living room. They recognized Crystal right away and were happy to see her. She introduced me as her friend and boss and Kitty as my wife, plus Samantha as my personal doctor. “Did they let you see Jacie’s body?” asked Peter. I frowned a bit. “Um, we were told that the funeral home had picked up her body and cremated it according to your wishes,” I told them.
When Laurie heard that she nearly went hysterical, yelling, “They burned my poor baby!” Peter then told us they did not want a cremation, but wanted to bury her normally. He then called the funeral home who confirmed that Jacie’s body had indeed been cremated according to their wishes. They even had the papers they signed for that. He got in a little argument with the person from the funeral home saying they had not signed anything and they would sue the funeral home for such gross negligence.
While he was on the phone, I contacted Sienna and told her. She knew a prominent lawyer in Calgary and would get him to work on this right away. Someone didn’t want anyone to see that body. Was it even Jacie’s body? I talked with Cristy next and asked her if there was any photos of the body. “Yep, several of them Steve,” she said, “I will send them to you. Bridgette said it looked like she had been beaten before being drowned.”
Crystal had taken Laurie into the kitchen to get her something to drink and calm her down a bit. That gave me time to do my calling. “She was definitely beaten Steve,” said Samantha, “that is so obvious it should have led them to check and see if she had been raped as well.” “But they wanted this to be an accidental drowning in the tub,” I said, “or that she deliberately drowned herself. So why check for anything else? Someone is covering up this murder for some reason, but who is it and why?”
“That’s your department,” said Samantha. Peter then came back to us. By this time we could hear Laurie in the kitchen yelling and crying. “It’s that horrible Dan Giraud and his friend Barry, they killed my baby! She found out about him selling women for sex and they wanted her to join in and she said no! So they beat my baby and drowned her in the river! They murdered my poor baby and the police let them go free!” I sent Samantha in to help Crystal with Laurie.
“She is very upset by all of this,” said Peter, “Jacie was our only daughter. We have 5 sons, all older than Jacie and she was still living here with us. Laurie believes Dan and Barry took Jacie to the river and drowned her after beating her. It’s all in the coroner’s report.” “But she was found in the bathtub,” I said. “No, some people walking by the river discovered her body,” said a confused looking Peter, “why did you think she was found in the bathtub?”
“It was in the coroner’s report they gave us,” I said, “and we have photos they took of your daughter in the bathtub.” We showed him the photos and then he went and got their copy of the coroner’s report which was quite different than the one we were given. When Samantha returned I gave her the coroner’s report Peter showed us. “This is obviously the original report Steve,” she said, “it is written more like a normal report should be done.”
She told Peter she had given Laurie a mild sedative and Crystal took her to lie down for a while. We stayed and talked with Peter for about half an hour longer and then left. I did tell Peter that a good lawyer would be coming by to see him and would represent him free of charge if he wanted to sue the funeral home and the hospital/coroner and anyone else involved in this coverup.
He wasn’t sure if he wanted to do that though, it would be very hard on his wife. I could understand that, but the offer was there anyway. He thanked us and told me to feel free to ask them any other questions we might have. We then left and that’s when we found out about the Mercedes. This is not an ordinary murder, but what is it?
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 