**Warning, there are spoilers in this text. If you didn't read through the book yet, don't read**
Forty words for sorrow is set in action when the partly-decomposed body of the native 13-year old girl, Katie Pine, was found preserved in the ice within the abandoned mine shaft on Windigo Island. John Cardinal was in charge of Katie Pine's case and kept it open before her body was found, insisting that she was no mere runaway. Cardinal was demoted to burglaries because of his determination for Katie Pine's sake. Katie Pine however is not the only teenager that disappeared In Algonquin bay. Cardinal had the “green light” to reopen the cases of the other missing teens such as the case of Todd Curry and Billy Labelle. Cardinal is assigned a new Partner, Lise Delorme, who just got out of the Special Investigations department. Lise Delorme however was assigned to investigate Cardinal for helping a know counterfeiter, Kyle Corbett, get away from police. With his wife, Catherine Cardinal, in the hospital with clinical depression and his daughter away studying at York University, this was no surprise for him and was actually expected. When Cardinal and Delorme were called to forensics to extract evidence from the body of Katie Pine, they found some fibers and a tape of her murder. To some, people would think that this was enough to catch the serial killer but in reality, the two detectives couldn't identify who's voices, other than Katie Pine's, was on the tape. So, it was back to square one for Cardinal and Delorme. Cardinal was determined to solve the case quickly and so, he investigated the case of Todd Curry, who was last seen in the area. After some sleuthing, he concluded that the last possible place that Todd would've visited was an abandoned house near main street. When he entered the house, after a little search, he discovered the gruesome murder scene of Todd Curry, who was viciously beaten to death and had a screwdriver rod in his skull. When Keith London disappeared when he arrived at Algonquin Bay, the race is on to catch the serial killers and to rescue Keith. Keith was having a drink when he encountered Eddie Soames and Eric Fraser. Little did he know at the time, that they were planning on torturing him and eventually killing him in the most gruesome ways. After bringing him to Eddie's house, they began drugging him and making him as weak as possible so that they wouldn't have a hard time “having fun” with him. One night, Cardinal invited Delorme to “brainstorm” at his place but in reality, he was giving her an opportunity to search his house for any “evidence” of him helping Kyle Corbett escape the police raids. When he left to attend a “press thing”, Delorme did just that. She found a lot of evidence of questionable purchases and properties, based on a policeman's salary. Meanwhile, the thief Arthur “Woody” Wood was about to enter Eddie's home to steal some recording equipment to sell on the black market. He certainly didn't expect to find Keith London tied up in a chair without any clothes on in the basement. When Eric and Eddie got home, Woody's fate was sealed with a bullet. The clock was ticking for Keith and Cardinal was running out of time. Cardinal was finally cleared from the Kyle Corbett fiasco when sergeant Dyson ended up being the perpetrator passing information to Corbett and could finally work the case without Delorme suspecting him of doing anything. The final chase was near and Cardinal could feel it when he found the missing detail that linked all of the missing teenagers; The Troy music center. As Eric and Eddie were transporting Keith to his set for death in an abandoned Pump house, the police were closing on on them. Finally, Cardinal figured out who was the killer and surrounded Eric Fraser in the Pump house while Eddie was out getting lights for the “show”. With bullets flying and an epic final chase, Cardinal and Fraser were face to face in Fraser's van. When the van's front end fell through the ice, Fraser's life came to an end in the freezing arctic waters. Just when Cardinal thought it was all over, Eddie arrived at his house posing as a rape victim. She shot him in the stomach so that he would suffer before he died. As she posed for another shot, she was taken down by Delorme just in time. In the end, it was exposed that Cardinal did do something wrong to get money for his daughter...While he was still a new cop, he was on a police raid for Rick Bouchard and Kiki, who were known drug dealers. He found a hidden stash of over $200,000 and took that money. Int eh end, it was intended that there will be another conflict with this situation.
-Bridget
