Leaving Tracks

Chapter Five – Leaving Tracks

“Jessie Sharp”, she replied when the police constable asked her who she was, “I heard the hounds and I had to come down and see what was happening.” She paced back and forth in front of the constable who, quickly opened the rope barrier and let her through.

“Mrs Sharp, I’m Constable Morley of the Kingston Police”

Jessie Sharp was a handsome woman. Fine dark hair parted down the middle and caught up in a bun at the rear, olive complexion, and dark brown eyes. She wore a light summer frock and sensible walking shoes. She twisted the handle of a small hand bag back and forth as she said “This is not like William, at all”

“Why do you say that?” he asked

“He always let me know where he was going and what he was going to do, especially since he came back from France with the kidney and liver problems”

“Kidney and liver problems?”

She looked at the constable and said “Yes, when he was wounded, he got gangrene and it affected his kidneys and liver. Haven’t your investigators talked with the Militia office in Ottawa about his war record and his disability?”

“Maybe they have Mrs. Sharp. I don’t know everything that’s going on. You really believe, if I may be so blunt, that he’s in the pond don’t you?”


“Well in as much as he has put up such a fight to get well since he got home I don’t think he would do something horrible. He saw so much dying and maiming in France, that his life is very dear to him. He wouldn’t have tried to take it for any reason. It just meant too much. He was so glad to get home and to have been spared. With the diagnosis he got from the medical board being so …” she looked away from the Constable for a moment and then, steeling herself continued, “being so final. He wanted to make every moment important. His only regret was that he couldn’t serve a more active role. The army has been his whole life.”

“You told us last night that you thought he had drowned”

“Yes I do” she said quietly.

Constable Morley thought that over and then asked “Did anything unusual happen with him in the last several days?

“Not that I can think of”

“Well if anything occurs to you, will you contact me?”

“I surely will” she said as they were interrupted by four men coming back from the town area with the two blood hounds. They were straining at their leashes, making that singular howl that blood hounds make. The handlers were bracing themselves as they followed.

“Did you find anything Bill?” asked Constable Morley

“Yes, actually we’re following a scent right now”. The dogs continued past Jesse and Morley and then circled near the edge of the river.

“Looks like that’s were it started” said Bill

“You picked up a trail? Where ‘bouts?

“Outside the train station under the water tower. Dogs picked up the scent from the uniform he’d left and we followed it back here. I guess he got on the train”

“Well, that must be his trail then, because this is where the uniform was found”

Morley said “Any sign of a struggle?”

“No”

Jesse looked at Morley and said “Thank God”



British Whig 8 Aug 1918


Downing Theory Has been Abandoned


And that of foul play in case of Major Sharp is discounted


Kingston Aug 7—The search for the body of Major W. J. Sharp, Casualty officer, whose uniform was found Saturday on the bank of the Cataraqui River near Kingston Junction, has been abandoned and the opinion is growing that he was not drowned. The river has been thoroughly searched. The fact that an English bloodhound which followed the scent to the point were GTR trains stopped to take on water has convinced many that Major Sharp is still alive. An unconfirmed rumor was in circulation today that he had been seen in Montreal



The New York Central coach moved slowly through the City of Montreal and then onto Victoria Bridge as they crossed the St Lawrence. Sharp watched the shadows of the structural steel girders play across the interior of the car. He remembered the great celebration when the bridge was rebuilt with steel girders and the old covered bridge replaced.