by Gilian Baker
I spoke in a consciously quieter tone. “Why didn’t you tell us this sooner, Dillon? And are you serious? Or are you sending me on a wild goose chase to keep from asking you the hard questions that need to be answered?”
“Yes, I’m telling you the truth. I’da thought Ellie woulda mentioned how she’s always right there, wherever I just happen to be. It’s creepy. In fact, you just missed her. She was here just before you arrived.”
“Let me guess, she brought you food?”
“Yep.”
“Is that so bad? She’s trying to help.”
“No, she isn’t. She’s trying to take over. Ask Ellie. She’ll tell you.” With that, he clamped his mouth shut.
***
The adrenaline from our heated exchange abated, I felt drained. After a rest, I’d write up my notes and see if I could find a way to piece the new information I’d gathered together.
I’d just started the car when the “check engine” light flashed at me, announcing the urgency of making a service appointment for the Subaru when I got a text from Ellie. Pathologist found drug in Jack’s body. Need to talk.
I moaned a little. Couldn’t this wait until tonight? Then I reconsidered. I shouldn’t put it off. I texted back. T & S in 20?
A few moments later, I got a positive response to my text. I’d half-hoped she would be too busy at work to meet me. But who was I kidding? It’s not like she worked at The New York Times. These two murders had been the biggest news we’d had here since…ever.
I put the car back into reverse and made my way to the tea shop.
Chapter Fourteen
Arriving before Ellie, I ordered our favorite chocolate chip scones and iced tea for both of us. I made some notes on today’s interviews while waiting on my fresh-from-the-oven scone and my daughter, in that order.
I hadn’t believed Betty capable of murder, but all the boxes needed to be ticked. And you never know, right? She’d convinced me that she hadn’t done it, though I wasn’t sure she knew her philandering husband as well as she thought she did. I could still picture the wolfish way he’d watched Paula flounce out of the teahouse the day of the blowout between her and Dillon. I didn’t trust Roger any further than I could throw him.
And then there was the argument Kaye Kilgore from The Hair Hut had witnessed outside Tea & Sympathy. I didn’t know what that was about, but it could’ve been a lovers’ quarrel. I planned to find out. He was on my interview schedule tomorrow, along with Natalie and Shelly.
Ellie and Millie met up at the counter and came over to the table. Millie delivered the scones. Ellie grabbed hers up and took a bite.
“Mmmm. These are so good. But hot.” A few crumbs flew out of her mouth when she spoke. She’s all class, my kid.
“I told ya they’d just come outta the oven, child.” Millie shook her head.
“Thanks, Millie.” I hollered at her as she walked back to the kitchen. She never stayed in one place for long.
To my daughter I said, “Your text was cryptic.”
“The paper’s doing a follow up article on the murders with the angle of how they fit together, and they gave me the first crack at it. I can make sure Dillon’s name isn’t plastered all through it that way.”
“It still has to pass over the editor’s desk though, right?”
“Yeah, but that’s just a formality.”
Oh, the optimism of youth.
I mentally rolled my eyes. “Get to the point. I’m dying to know the details.”
“The pathologist found a large amount of ketamine in Jack Bristol’s system.”
“Ketamine? I know I’ve heard of that, but I can’t put my finger on it. What’s it for?”
“It’s often used by vets as an anesthetic, but it’s become popular as a club drug in the last few years. It’s similar to giving someone a roofie.”
I sucked in air. “Like the date rape drug?”
“Yep. Ketamine is one of the drugs they most often see used for that purpose. It can relax you to the point of unconsciousness. It acts fast, depending on how it’s administered, though the effects don’t last all that long.”
I leaned further over the table and spoke quietly. “So someone wanted Jack to be physically easy to manipulate.”
“And possibly mentally too. It can cause hallucinations—a person can dissociate from their environment. Many people even report the sensation of floating outside their body.”
“You said the effects wear off quickly. How long?”
“Less than an hour, depending on the dosage.”
I fell back against my chair. “Wow. I didn’t hear anything about Paula having drugs in her system. Did you check on that?”
“You bet. Especially since the piece I’m writing focuses on the connections between the crimes. They found nothing in her system. Not even alcohol.”
“Well, she was supposedly going there to work, so she wouldn’t have been drinking.”
Ellie laughed out loud. “Mom, not everyone is a total lightweight like you.”
I ignored her insinuation and concentrated instead on the information she’d given me. “I suppose not. Still, I’m not surprised.” I flipped to a new page in my notebook, still trying to wrap my mind around this new detail.
“Did the pathologist say how the killer administered the drug?”
“When doing the autopsy, they found an injection site on the left side of his neck. They weren’t sure what it was from until they received the toxicology report."
“So, what do we think this means?”
Before she could answer, I saw Shelly moving in our direction with the iced tea pitcher. Was she manufacturing a reason to come over and spy on us? After all, I had caught her looking over my shoulder at my investigation notes just the other day.
“Shh,” I cautioned.
Ellie looked over her shoulder and then turned back to me and rolled her eyes.
I stifled a nervous giggle.
“Need a refill?” Shelly was unusually pale, except for the dark circles under her eyes.
I took a rather large gulp of tea to wet my dry mouth.
“Sure, thanks, Shelly,” I said.
Her hand shook to the point I thought she’d spill the tea all over the table. Usually chatty, Shelly stayed silent. The only sound was the plunking of ice cubes as they landed in the glasses.
Once finished, she gave us a wane smile and walked back to the kitchen without another word.
I looked inquiringly at Ellie. “Does ketamine have any taste? Do you think we should drink this?”
“Do you really think Shelly is trying to drug us? I can’t believe she’d have the imagination to come up with such a thing.”
I sniffed my tea. It smelled the same. Ellie was doing something on her phone.
“Mom, it says here it tastes bitter and salty. Just take a tiny sip to see if it tastes weird. If so, we’ll have the case all sewn up.”
I knew she thought I was being silly, and maybe I was. But all of a sudden I was on high alert. There was a murderer on the loose in our little town. They’d already killed two people. Now was a time for caution.
Sniffing it again, I took the tiniest amount of liquid into my mouth. Nothing. I took a bigger nip. Nope, tasted like Millie’s iced tea.
“Okay. I think we’re safe,” I said in a serious tone.
My daughter cracked up. “Mom, you are so suggestable.”
“No, I’m cautious.” Thinking of the time she had been spending with Dillion, I said, “Something you should be too. Especially during this time.”
I picked my pen back up. “So, we know for sure Paula wasn’t drugged, but Jack was. And now we know the drug tastes vile, and therefore, was administered to Jack via an injection.”
“That means the killer was worried Jack would be more than they could handle, but they weren’t worried about Paula.”
“Right. That could be for a couple of reasons. First, they probably assumed she’d be sitting at a pottery wheel working w
hen they attacked her. They came up behind her and she was sitting down, not expecting anything. But Jack wouldn’t have been at a wheel. There’s no way he’d mess up his manicured fingernails. And he was also a lot bigger than Paula. She probably only weighed one-hundred and ten pounds soaking wet. He wasn’t a big guy, but men are built differently. He had at least fifty pounds on her, and probably more like seventy-five.”
“So someone was afraid they’d lose control of the situation, and to make sure that didn’t happen, they drugged him.”
“Right. But wait. What if Jack took ketamine as a recreational drug? Is that possible?” I asked.
“I’ve heard a lot of things about Jack, but never anything about drugs. In a town the size of this, I think we’d have heard at least rumblings if there was any hint of him being a drug user. Even a casual one. Besides which, he wouldn’t have been shooting up in his neck.”
“Oh, yeah. And the killer would’ve taken the syringe with them to hide the evidence. Oh, wait.” I pulled out my own phone and brought up the pictures of Jack lying dead on the dusty studio floor. My daughter wasn’t the only one in the family who could use technology to solve a case.
I zoomed in to scrutinize the photo. Taking off my bifocals, I held the phone closer to my face, then zoomed back out to view the surrounding area.
“Let me see.”
I handed over the phone. She zoomed in and out and looked at the different shots I’d snapped, just as I had.
“What are these marks on the floor?” Ellie asked.
She moved the phone where we could both see the screen and pointed out the drag marks I’d noticed when I was there. I’d forgotten about them. In fact, I hadn’t thought much about the scene since I left it.
“It looks like someone dragged him across the floor.”
“Could it be that he dragged himself? Maybe he was trying to get away or reach his phone to call for help.”
“Wait, Ellie.” I grabbed the phone out of her clutches and zoomed back in. “There’s no blood,” I whispered.
“What?” She yanked my hand over so she could see the screen again too.
“Look under his neck. There’s no blood. When the sharp wire is tightened around flesh, it cuts in. Gravity would’ve pulled blood down from the wound and onto the floor.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like his throat was slit. Would there have been enough blood to congeal?”
“You’re the one with access to the sheriff photos. Look to see if there’s blood on the floor of Paula’s murder scene.”
She grabbed up her phone and clicked a bunch of keys and then used the touch screen to scroll.
“Here they are. Look, Mom. You’re right.” She put her phone so we could both look. “There’s a thin trail of blood where she was dragged. It wasn’t gushing out of her, but there’s enough to see it clearly in the photos. We should be able to see some at Jack’s crime scene too.”
We looked from her phone to each other, both with wide eyes. “Jack was killed somewhere else and transported to the studio,” I said in hushed tones.
“Wow, Mom. We just made a huge discovery in the case.” She grinned, picked up her glass and held it up. I picked up mine, and we toasted, and then took a big, satisfying drink.
***
I hit the deli and headed home, not in the mood to mess with cooking dinner. I had a lot to think about before the next morning when I had another full day of sleuthing to do. I put the sandwiches in the fridge and then headed up to my office and sat in my comfy writing chair to make a list and think. I wanted to ponder how this new information might impact the suspect list.
Since Dillon was the best suspect, I tackled him first. He was a big, strong guy. And at least fifteen years younger than Jack. Would he need ketamine to take him on? I didn’t think so, but maybe he didn’t want to take a chance.
Next, did he have access to the drug? It must be easy enough to get ahold of if you were looking on the street drug market, but I wasn’t sure we had one. Okay, maybe I was being naïve, but we’d never had a huge drug problem in our little hamlet.
In fact, it was much more likely someone would get it here through a veterinarian. Dillon’s family had always been ranchers, and ranchers needed vets. That meant technically, Dillon could have gotten it at their house. Though he wasn’t the only one by a long shot, it was still one more thing that had stacked up against him.
Finally, why would he kill Jack and then take him to the studio? At the time, Ross still believed his alibi for Paula’s murder. Maybe he thought if he made Jack’s murder look similar to Paula’s he could pin both murders on whoever ended up being in the frame. Wouldn’t Jack think it odd if Dillon asked to meet him at the studio? Yes, it made more sense for them to meet somewhere else and transfer the body.
My next-best suspect, Charley Hesston, was going to be more of a challenge since I didn’t know much about him. He’d been described to me as being of medium build and closer to his 60’s than his 40’s, so he might have felt the need to use a drug to subdue a younger guy.
He wouldn’t be around vets as much, living and working in Cheyenne. But, that town, like all larger ones, did have a street drug market. And, if my theory was right, it made sense for him to ask Jack to the studio since their business revolved around it. Jack could have been killed outside and dragged in later, or they could’ve met somewhere else and Charley could have moved him to replicate Paula’s murder.
One thought still nagged at me about Charley though. Would Paula have felt comfortable with her back to him? Whoever had killed her was either super stealthy or she’d trusted them. She’d worked with Charley for several years, so maybe she would feel safe with him.
If it were Charley, he would have had to come back through town to kill Jack. I noted that on my list—I’d ask Gabby if there was a way she could find out his whereabouts. Until then, Charley would remain a big question mark in my book.
***
After supper, I asked Ellie to help me clear. To entice her, I placed the gooey chocolate chip cookies I’d gotten at the deli on a plate and set it on the table.
“Come and sit down, sweetheart. I’d like to get your take on some things related to the case.”
We sat down and she grabbed a cookie off the plate and nibbled at it. I brought over my notepad and pen and sat across from her.
“You know Dillon has been keeping stuff from Gabby and me. Honestly, we are in a precarious situation. I need to know if he’s told you anything he won’t tell us. Otherwise, Ross would have every right to lock him up at any moment. In fact, I’m not sure why he hasn’t already.”
“Is it really that bad, Mom?”
“It is, I’m afraid. I hate to ask this, but are you sure he didn’t do it?”
“Of course I am. I wouldn’t have gotten you and Gabby involved if I’d thought he was guilty. The guy I know isn’t capable of brutal murders. He’s kind and gentle.”
“We all have our limits though. Has he talked to you about the possibility of Paula cheating on him? You were the one who first told me about the rumor.”
“He claims she wasn’t, and he seems genuine. I can tell when he’s lying. He says she just didn’t have the time.”
“But don’t you think it’s odd that Paula insisted he work nights? Maybe she did that so she could spend the evenings with someone else. She could have the apartment to herself after Harper went to bed and Dillon went to work.”
“I guess.” She’d finished the cookie and then chewed on a hangnail.
“What’s your work day look like tomorrow? I could use some help with the interviews—I need to move quickly on this.”
She sat up straight. “Yeah, I could help a little. Just tell me what you need me to do.”
She’d go to Dillon’s apartment complex and ask the neighbors if they’d noticed Paula having evening visitors. In that small area, someone would’ve seen something if she’d entertained on a regular basis.
“Anything else?”
&
nbsp; “Would you be able to go out and talk to Dillon’s parents’ tomorrow too?”
“I should be able to fit that in. Tomorrow’s a light day since we just got this week’s issue out. Besides, this could be considered work since it might help me with my big story.”
“I don’t want to take advantage of your employers, but if that feels right, it'd be a big help to me.”
She made notes in her phone on what to ask. “It’ll be nice to see them again, even under these circumstances. They were always so nice to me.”
“They are good people. I hate they’re having to go through all this. I want to ask you something else too. I’m not trying to be a mom here…this is for the investigation. Do we have a drug supplier here in Aspen Falls? I’m wondering where someone could get ketamine other than from a vet.”
“Oh, you can get the usual stuff if you want it, and probably ketamine too, but it’s not like it is in larger cities. Mostly weed.”
“I didn’t know if I was being naïve or not. Thanks.”
“Who are you going to talk to?”
“Tomorrow I’ll interview Roger Garber and Shelly, if you can take care of the other two. Frankly, I don’t want you alone with Roger, and I know how you feel about Shelly. I assume the feeling is mutual?”
“You’d not know it by the way she acts, but I’m sure she sees me at a threat for Dillon’s affections.”
“Speaking of which, Dillon mentioned today that Shelly has been driving him nuts, showing up night and day. He used the word ‘stalk’—he said she’d practically stalked him on Facebook when he’d lived in Cheyenne.”
“Yeah, he told me she was messaging him so much that he finally closed his Facebook account. She is over there a lot, and I know he doesn’t want her there. She seems to think she’s helping him out, but that’s not what it feels like to him. It feels intrusive. I wish she’d just get a life and leave him alone.”
“Honey, are you being honest about your friendship with him? I just want to know the truth. You’re technically an adult now, so you might not feel like you need to tell me things like this anymore, but I worry.”