“Several pairs?” slipped out before I could stop myself. There are several reasons that someone might need to carry several pairs, and all were private reasons.
Kandi rolled her eyes at me. “I should have known by looking at you two that you wouldn’t understand. If you every want to learn how to get ahead in life, let me know. I’ll show you how to use your real assets. Especially you, Mary, you’re young and have that exotic oriental thing going on.”
“I’m from Minnesota. Plus, rugs are oriental. People are Asian,” Mary said.
Kandi rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”
As we walked down the hallways, the answer to the question of whether Kandi was looking rough or not was obvious. The promotion images on the MacSight booth had been heavily altered. Thin lines from the corner of her eyes, like the kind starting around my own, showed her as slightly older and the dull orangey tint of her skin indicated a spray-tanning obsession. Her hair had a thick section dyed a brassy, unnatural red, which offset the dull-blond section. Overall, her hair had been processed to the breaking point. Her breasts were high and close together, with deep vertical wrinkles between them; her ribs were visible. I tried to look past the heavy makeup slathered on her, but it was hard to see through that many layers.
Her husband had been killed earlier that day. She deserved some kindness. “How are you holding up?”
“Fine, I guess. It’s been really tough, but I’ll get the money soon then buy it back.”
We walked on for a few strides. Her answer soaked in, and it didn’t fit the question I’d asked. I stopped and blinked. “What?”
She stopped and blinked back as though we were in competition to see who was more confused. She gasped with dawning realization. “Oh that, I’m doing okay. I can’t believe I’m a widow.” Her tone was hard to place—was she sad or excited to be a widow?
But more than anything, I was curious about what she wanted to buy back. “What did you think I meant?”
Kandi twisted her hair into a bun and grabbed a hair stick out of her bag. Inserting the stick and tugging on the bun to check that it was secure, she continued, “I thought you were asking about me losing Kandi-covered. It’s not fair that it got sold to Westmound; it’s mine. I’m Kandi. I am Kandi-covered.”
“Wow, that’s awful. I have to admit that I only started working in the archery industry a few months ago, and I’m not familiar with Kandi-covered.”
She was on a roll and eager to talk. “Kandi-covered is a product line of women’s clothing, bumper stickers, hats, et cetera. Plus, we worked with companies to create branded Kandi-covered products. So, for instance, my first product was a Kandi-covered MacSight. We took an existing product and branded it with pink camo pattern, marked up the price a little, and sold it. We started with the pink camo but expanded into teal, lime green, salmon pink, et cetera and added cheetah, tiger, and a few other patterns. Once the Kandi-covered MacSights sold, I added other partnerships to product line: mechanical releases, bows, quivers, and so forth. I wanted to have my own company, so I told Mac I wanted to start Kandi-covered. Have it be my own project; do all the marketing materials, generate contacts, everything. He got me all set up and told me it was all mine. I had no idea that it legally belonged to MacSights. When he sold the company, Kandi-covered was sold, too. I have never been so mad in my entire life.” She looked at me, waiting for a reply.
“Oh, no.”
“Yes, then it was too late. I designed clothing: hats, yoga pants, jackets, everything. I knew everything involved with Kandi-covered from social media to finances. I once caught a two-cent error in the books. I turned a profit every quarter and reinvested all the profits back into the brand. When Mac sold MacSights, Kandi-covered was the most profitable part of the company, and the deal was dependent on it being included. I had no idea Kandi-covered was tied into MacSights. He said he would take care of me, and he screwed that up.”
“That’s really impressive, Kandi. I’m so sorry about your company.”
“Let that be a lesson to you both. Never trust a man to take care of you. Never. No one will take care of you but you. Get what you can from them, and you can get a lot if you play it right, but in the end, the only one you can trust is you.”
We arrived at the bathroom door. After unlocking the door, I reached inside to flip the switch and give the bathroom a once-over. “Here you go. Anything else you need?”
“No, thank you. If you girls ever want to raise your image, you would be great for the Kandi-covered brand. Once I buy it back, that is.”
This might be my last chance to sneak in some questions. “How are you going to get it back? Will you get anything from Mac?”
“Nothing. He was mortgaged to the hilt and in debt up to his eyeballs. I had no idea when we got married that he was in such bad financial shape. Next time, I’m getting a credit check before I say, ‘I do.’ He’s been on the edge of bankruptcy for years. Don’t you worry about me; I’ll land on my feet and get it all back before you know it.” She pulled the door shut behind her, and the clap of a deadbolt filled the hallways.
“Wow,” Mary said as we walked away. “That was kinda…”
“Bitter? Weird? Heartless?”
“Sad. That’s not normal, is it?”
I put an arm around her, pulling her in close. Moo wedged himself between us. “Nothing about Kandi is normal. I’m going through a divorce, and I still believe in love. Plus, you have awesome parents that have a great marriage. You’ll never be like Kandi.”
We followed the hallway around a corner and ran into Jess. She was smiling and looked more relaxed than she had last time I had seen her. Her freak-out meter had gone down from code red to a respectable yellow.
“Glad I found you two. Elizabeth wants to talk to you.”
I gave Mary’s shoulder a few quick squeezes then dropped my arm. “Is she ticked about the murder?”
“I’ll let her ask you, but it’s not about the murder. I can’t wait until the police get here, and I can go lay down. Robbie went back to the hotel with the buses to prepare for tomorrow and finish up his meetings. Now he is stuck over there.” Robbie was her husband and director of the center. The firearms staff and Robbie had taken responsibility for the hotel portion of the summit while Jess and the archery staff took over range day.
Unfortunately, range day had turned into one long responsibility.
We walked down the hallway toward Jess’s office. The door next to hers, the conference room that the firearms side of the center used for their meetings, was open. It was a large room with whiteboards and rows of tables and chairs, much like the archery conference room. The windows lining the far wall showed a dim landscape with thick snowflakes floating to the ground in a curtain of white. Loggin, Orion, Liam, and Elizabeth were inside, around a table. Loggin looking pleased, and everyone called out a greeting to us.
Elizabeth stood and joined us in the hallway and we went down to Jessica’s office. Elizabeth first asked to speak to Mary, alone then after a minute, she excused Mary and asked me in.
Stepping inside, I shut the door behind Moo and me. Moo settled in next to me, then I faced Elizabeth.
“I want to know your opinion on having Minx as an On-Site Athlete. You will be working with her and have worked with her.”
So much for no one caring about my opinion. I opened my mouth then shut it. I took a breath to speak then stopped again. I wasn’t sure what to say. I could give a pat answer that she would be great, but I didn’t want to stand behind that answer when I had concerns.
Elizabeth addressed my obvious hesitation. “I know that you ran a tech company for years. I want your honest, management opinion.”
“Technically, I didn’t run it all alone, but I know what you mean. Let me think about it for a second.” I sat back chair and sorted through my thoughts and feelings. I had strong opinions on hiring. When I first hired people, I relied heavily on things like GPA and grades, but eventually discovered that there were others
things that mattered more like work ethic, flexibility, communication, and being easy to work with. “Are you sure that you want me to speak freely?”
“Absolutely, that’s why you’re here.”
I took a deep breath and sent up a prayer that honesty was the right way to go. “I think it depends on what you are looking for with the OSAs. Minx is an incredibly talented archer, but she’s also a bit of a mess. She got in one physical fight tonight and then yelled at Loggin. I’ve worked with her twice, and for what it’s worth, we clashed. If you are looking for someone already at the peak of their career with their life together, that’s not her, but……” I trailed off. Everything I had said was fact; the next bit was supposition.
“But?”
“But if you are interested in developing employees, then I think Minx is a solid bet. She’s in a rough place in life, but with good mentoring, I think she could develop into an amazing return on investment. She recently learned that meeting her goal of attending the Summer Games hasn’t magically transformed her life. I know that I’ve been there—success doesn’t automatically equal happiness. In fact, it can do the opposite, ya know?”
Elizabeth nodded. “I do. Go on.”
“Mary has a lot of faith in Minx, and I have faith in Mary. I think…” I hesitated, wanting to make sure that I really believed in what I was saying. “I think that despite my personal conflicts with Minx and some of her behavior today, that if this is something she really wants then she could benefit from the program.”
Elizabeth smiled. “Thank you, Di, I’m very impressed.”
“Why?”
“I know that you and Minx have issues, but it’s great to see that you can be objective and think big picture. You have a natural flare for it. I would love to see you get involved in some of our leadership training someday.” She stood up.
I followed suit, beaming with pleasure at the compliment. When I left the company I had owned with my soon-to-be ex-husband, I had given up on the idea of ever being in a leadership role again. I had felt empty and deflated. But now I was building myself up again, and doors were starting to open. I reached out and shook her hand enthusiastically. “Thank you, Elizabeth. Is there anything else you need?”
“No, that was it. Jess and I need to get back to the group to finish off that meeting.”
We stepped into the hallway.
“Did they ask you about Minx?” Mary moved in close to my side as Elizabeth and Jess walked by to the conference room.
“Ya, but I think it was more of a test of me than it was about Minx.” I was buoyed by Elizabeth’s praise as we head back into the main archery hallways of the center. I spotted Minx and Tiger coming in the entrance, and we jogged down the hallways to meet up with them.
“Back already?”
Minx ran her hand through her wet, red hair. “Ya, I didn’t want to give Tiger any ideas by hanging out too long with him alone.”
We snickered and started walking down the hallway. I stuck my head in my office as we passed. “How are things going in here?”
Indy and Mouse were squished in tight. Indy looked up. “Awesome, Mouse is totally leet. We’re killing noobs left and right. Hey, Minx, you wanna see?”
Minx pushed past me. “I would love to. Tell me about it.”
She pulled a chair up behind them, and Indy started pointing and rattling off facts to Minx. Mouse’s eyes narrowed a little as she scooted in closer to Indy.
Moo whined next to me and scratched my leg with one gigantic paw. I knelt next to him to scratch his face. “What’s up, buddy?”
He let out a long warbling groan and pawed me again.
Mary pulled out her phone. “Hey, look at the time.”
Seeing that we had significantly missed Moo’s dinner time, I was thankful he wasn’t chewing my leg off. “I need to go”——I covered Moo’s ears and whispered the next two words— “feed Moo. How bad is it out there?”
Tiger turned to look down the hallway toward the entrance. “Not too bad. The snow is letting up some. I’ll walk you guys over there.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
I got Moo all fed, and this time, I remembered to warn everyone about Moo’s rough play in the snow. The sky was darkening as we walked back toward the center. The snow still fell heavily, but the visibility was much better. Hopefully, that meant the snow plows would be here soon, closely followed by the police. I had debated hiding in my room, far away from Mac’s body and his murderer, but Mary was being so brave that I didn’t want to admit I was uncomfortable.
“Thanks for escorting us, Tiger. That was very gentlemanly of you,” Mary said as she clasped the elbow he had offered.
I hung on his other side for balance and a bit of warmth. We opened the center door, and Moo pushed in ahead of us, shaking the loose snow off his vest.
I let go of Tiger’s arm and headed down the hallway. “If we hurry, we might be able to catch Cold alone.” I ducked my head into my office. “Minx, you still doing okay? We’re going to take care of some stuff.”
Minx looked up. “I’m gonna stay here with Indy and Mouse. Hang out with my little bro some more.”
Indy looked back over his shoulder at Minx with a big smile. “That would be great, big sis.”
Mouse relaxed a little, and a small smile crept onto her face when Indy said “big sis.” She turned around to Minx. “Do you want to play for a while?”
Stepping into the hallway, I turned to Tiger one last time. “Are you sure you are up to this?”
“Ya, I am sure I can handle asking a few questions of Cold.”
We rounded the corner and approached the dining room entrance. I peeked around the edge, and Cold was sitting alone with his back to the entrance. He certainly wasn’t worried about anyone sneaking up on him, and that worked to our advantage. The dining room had a half wall around the edge of the tables.
I ducked back. “If Mary and I can get over to the half wall without Cold seeing us, then we could listen. Tiger, you watch. Mary, come with me.”
I crouched low and raced over on the balls on my feet. Mary was silent behind me, but I had forgotten about Moo, who thought we were playing a game. He bounded back and forth then got down low and knocked me over. Doing my best action-hero roll, I managed to get to the spot I’d picked with only minimal rug burns on each arm and a sore knee. I grimaced and rubbed the spots, waiting for the sting to subside. Mary came in next to me.
At the entrance, Tiger shook his head. Then he entered and called out, “Hey, Cold, good to see you.”
From over the wall, we heard Cold reply, “Hey, man, good to see you. Come sit with me. How much longer until we can get out of here?”
The reply was lost when Mary leaned in close and whispered, “Are you okay?”
“Ya, fine. I thought I handled that roll pretty well.”
She grimaced. “Uh, it was not your most graceful moment, loose arms and legs everywhere. You sure you didn’t dislocate something?”
So much for being an action hero. I rubbed my hands over my body, and everything felt like it was in the right spot. “I’ll probably be sore tomorrow, but I’m fine. Thanks for the concern, but…” I pointed up at the conversation between Cold and Tiger going on over our head.
Cold was bragging…“On top of all of that, I’ll be coming to a few of your events. 3D archery has really taken off since I started covering it, and whoever runs your type of tournaments practically begged me to promote them, as well. We’ll see if we can get the terms worked out. As the voice of the archery industry, I want to do what I can to help, but I can’t be giving handouts.”
Mary stuck a finger in her mouth and fake-gagged. I held back a laugh as Tiger continued.
“Cool, cool, sounds like you’re doing great. Can you believe there was a murder today?”
“I could’ve told you that someone was going to kill that old geezer off eventually. He pissed everyone off. I didn’t work with him ’cause he was cheaper than a two-dollar hooker. You know who I
think did it? Loggin. When I’m filming, sometimes the guys forget I’m there, and I get all sorts of stuff recorded. I like to keep it in my back pocket for a rainy day. Loggin has been whining all season about some money he’s owed.”
“I don’t know Loggin. What’s he like?”
A sound of a body shifting around in a seat was audible before Cold answered, “He’s some hot-shot college athlete that had an injury, knee or ankle or something. He follows the rules and is a regular Boy Scout.” His tone sounded disappointed. I could imagine a snarl on his face.
“Do Boy Scouts commit lots of murders?” Tiger joked.
“Anyone could commit a murder. It’s not so hard.”
The hairs on my arm raised, and I scooted in close to Mary. I was regretting this conversation. Was Tiger in danger?
“Oh, ya, of course.” Tiger didn’t sound convinced. “What about Kandi?”
“She could have killed him or not. Anyone could have killed him— you, that uptight computer chick, M.C., anyone.”
“You?”
“What motive do I have? I’m just here filming. No idea how I got caught up in this whole thing.”
“I heard that you and Kandi have a thing going on. Maybe you wanted her to yourself?”
“Oh, is that getting around? I’m not surprised she’s bragging about it. Let me tell you though, if you’re getting the milk for free while some other dude is paying for the cow’s upkeep, do you off the owner? Of course not.” His laughter was loud and long.
I leaned closer to Mary and whispered, “Cold and Kandi deserve each other.”
She nodded back and petted Moo. His formidable tail started wagging against the floor with heavy whomps. I grabbed it as soon as possible and held my breath.
“Did you hear something?” Cold asked.
“Probably just the pipes.” Tiger’s voice was a tight and high. He quickly changed the topic. “Why do you think someone killed Mac?”
“Why do you care? It was probably sex or money. Hey, it’s been great catching up, but I am ready to go. I’m gonna find that cop and see about getting out of here.”
Death at the Summit Page 9