Death on the Range: Target Practice Mysteries 1

by Nikki Haverstock

  Her voice was clear, but tears made little rivers down her face. She wiped them off her chin, where they had collected.

  “I don’t remember much after that. Jess was there. She got my flight changed, packed me up, and took me to the airport. I sobbed the whole way home. I almost missed my connecting flight because the layover was short and I was way in back. I started calling out, ‘Please let me out, my mom is dying, please let me get off, I’m gonna miss my flight.’ People stepped back into the seats to let me out.”

  We had grabbed napkins to dab at our faces while she finished.

  “I got to the hospital, and nothing else mattered but being there for my mom. I was so ashamed that I thought archery was more important. I held her hand all night, and in the morning she was actually a bit stronger. The nurses and doctors were amazing. Mom was there for a month, and I was there every day. You know, I haven’t touched my bow since that day.”

  Minx gasped. “You haven’t?”

  Mary shook her head and stared at the table. “Nope. It’s in my room, but I haven’t unpacked it since the trials. Sometimes I open the bowcase to look at it, but it messes with my head. First I was super guilty ’cause I knew Mom was sick but I thought the trials were more important, which is so stupid. Nothing is more important than family. Then it got to a point where I’m not even sure I can shoot anymore. Maybe I’ve lost whatever I had.”

  Jess shook her head. “That’s not how it works. Shooting archery isn’t some magical spark that you can lose. Whenever you are ready, we can get you back to the level you were at. But no rush.”

  If she wasn’t shooting, then…? “How did you end up here?”

  “Mom eventually got better, and now she’s in remission. It was the right time for me to go to college, but I felt out of synch with everyone else. Remember when I said that Elizabeth is a hero of mine?”

  I nodded my head.

  “I used to have a Westmound Sponsorship. It is like the best one in the industry. When I left the trials, she called me right away. She said I did the right thing leaving, and they would be praying. After that, she checked on me every month or so. She never pressured me to get back to competing but did say that whenever I was ready, she would like to help. I heard about the center here and that Jess and Robbie were slated to work here. I called Elizabeth and asked about living here. It just seemed right. Archery has been my second family my entire life, and it would be like being with family while I attended the state college.”

  I pursed my lips. “You could have told me all this, you know.”

  She shrugged her shoulders. “When you came and didn’t want to talk about anything personal, I thought that was awesome. I didn’t have to talk either. I could just pretend nothing had happened.”

  Minx snorted. “Birds of an emotionally unhealthy feather flock together, eh?”

  I giggled. “Mary, I think we both need therapy. I’ll go if you go.” I threw my arms around her and stole a quick hug. “If you are this hot-shot archer, then why don’t you go by a pro name like everyone else?”

  “I kinda do. Mary is my real name but they call me Bloody Mary ’cause I can really destroy a bracket. Even if I qualify low, it is almost guaranteed that I will knock out the higher-ranked archers. Something about the head-to-head competition really ups my game.”

  “Wow, intimidating.”

  Mary, Minx, Jess, and I sniffled and laughed, when a voice broke through. “Why is Moo wearing a Batman shirt?”

  I looked up to see Liam had joined us. “It’s hard to explain.”

  Jess got up. “I’m going to check on Tiger.” Minx followed along behind, carefully balancing a bowl of tiny pickles, a second bowl of olives, beer, a plastic glass of OJ and vodka, and a potato chip bag clenched between her teeth.

  Liam pulled out the chair opposite me and sat down. Moo got up from where he was lying and shoved his head between the table and Liam’s chest. “Hey buddy, have you done a good job of keeping Di and Mary out of trouble?” He cast a meaningful look at me.

  I hitched my chin up in what I hoped was a delightfully defiant look. He looked even more handsome tonight; maybe I have a thing for Vikings. His hair looked so soft, I wondered how it felt. I quickly shook my head to clear my mind. “You’re not my boss; you can’t tell me what to do.”

  Mary poked me in the arm. “Um, he kinda is.”

  How the heck is the equipment guy kind of my boss? “I was just kidding. We’ve been staying out of trouble.”

  With one eyebrow raised, he didn’t seem to believe me. “You haven’t been Nancy Drew-ing around, trying to solve the mystery?”

  “More like Caped Crusading, but if I was, then I would have asked about your motive.” I was pleased with how smoothly I had worked that in.

  “And I would have told you that I have no motive. I didn’t really know her all that well. She applied for a sponsorship through Westmound, which I’m in charge of, but we turned her down. But the real clincher is that I have an airtight alibi.”

  I looked at Moo, who was meticulously scratching his huge ears with his back paw, looking very much like a huge bat. “I’m not sure if Moo would be allowed to testify in court.”

  Liam chuckled deeply. “Moo would say anything for some f-o-o-d. But I was actually referring to the video surveillance.”

  “The center doesn’t have surveillance cameras.” It was on a to-do list in my office.

  “The center doesn’t, but the equipment room does. We have one of everything made by Westmound or Westmound-owned companies, plus accessories, tools, and”—he leaned in close—“we might have a few products from competitors.”

  “Who’s on it?”

  He leaned back in his seat. “I don’t know who’s on it, and I’m not sure if you can even see the door. We had it installed when the center was built. It’s set into a bullet-proof box in the far corner of the room. It took all day to get the police the footage. The guy who installed it had to drive over from headquarters with the key and walk the police through the process of getting the card, or downloading or whatever. They left not too long ago, then I went to clean up the mess in there.”

  Mary and I exchanged a meaningful glance when Liam looked at Moo then darted out of his seat.

  “Can you stay here for a bit? I need to grab something from my room. I just realized someone didn’t get dinner.” He mouthed the word dinner, and when we nodded, he jogged from the room.

  As soon as Liam disappeared into the hallway, Mary grabbed my arm and squealed. “Quick, we have ten minutes tops. Let’s go.”

  I had been too busy watching Liam’s strong back and the way his jeans clung to him as he left and was slow to follow her train of thought. “Huh?”

  “We have to go check out the equipment room. There is a window in the door. If we can see the camera, then we know that the police have footage of the killer. Come on.” She was already out of her seat, grabbing my hands to pull me up. “Batdog, away.”

  The equipment room was just down the hallway and around the corner. We could easily get there, poke around for a minute or two, and be back before anyone even noticed. Moo and I followed her out the door and down the hallways when she suddenly stopped. “Dang it, I left my tablet and notebook. I’ll go get them and be thirty seconds behind you.”

  Moo and I went around the corner and approached the door. The room was dark inside, and I squinted, hoping to catch sight of the camera. I tested the door handle; it was locked, but the latch hadn’t caught. I opened the door and flipped the switch. The large room had cabinets, counters, and shelves running the perimeter of the entire room, with a huge table in the middle. The door was set by one corner of the room, while in the opposite corner, set into the wall, was a clear window. I scurried over to get a closer look. The corner did not have cabinets or shelves. I could faintly see something behind the clear panel. I was trying to figure out where the camera was pointing when I heard something behind me.

  I turned around, expecting Mary, but inste
ad Owley stood in the doorway, playing with a hammer. A cold prickle danced across my skin. “Hey, Owley, what are you doing here?”

  Owley’s face was split in two by a huge smile, much larger than natural. She stared at me while weaving slightly in the doorway. She giggled and tried to spin the hammer in her hand with thick, clumsy fingers. Moo pushed up against me, and the hairs on his neck lifted under my fingers.

  “Owley are you okay?” I had seen her drink quite a bit tonight; maybe she was just drunk?

  “I’m fine.” Her words were slow, thick, and she almost sang them. “I took quite a few anti-anxiety pills, and I don’t feel anxious anymore.”

  A low rumble that I felt from Moo more than heard echoed my feeling of discomfort. “I don’t think you are supposed to mix those with alcohol.”

  Owley snarled at me and screamed, “Don’t tell me what to do!” She threw the hammer over the table in my direction. I ducked and wrapped my body around Moo. The hammer banged off the table and hit the cabinet a foot to my right. “No one tells me what to do anymore, but you know that. You know!”

  The area under the large table was filled with boxes, but I could see through a small space. Owley was still opposite me. “I don’t know anything, Owley.”

  Another hammer flew through the air, this time hitting the shelves above the counter to my left. A waterfall of tiny boxes hit the counter and floor, scattering ammo and tools everywhere. Moo barked.

  “Don’t act stupid. You know! You recognized my shoes.” A hammer hit a shelf about eight feet to my right this time. A horrible crash rained down complicated equipment I didn’t recognize.

  “Why are there so many hammers in here?” So far nothing had hit me or Moo. I kept an eye on Owley’s legs to make sure she didn’t try to move around the table for a clearer shot at us.

  “They’re your shoes. I took them after you dropped them by Honey’s body. Minx said to make Honey respect me, and boy did I show her. No one will disrespect me again.”

  Finally I was getting the information we had spent all day searching for, and I couldn’t focus. Where was Mary? If Moo got hurt, I would be destroyed. I thought of him as my dog, even if he was with me only part time. He was part of my new family, my new home, the new life I was building here. I could catch glimpses of Owley from under the table. She was playing with a big rubber mallet, bouncing it off the countertop.

  She stopped suddenly. “I was so happy when you told that story. I knew you meant it for me. You caught your husband cheating and wanted to kill the girl. I caught Tiger cheating, and I did kill the girl. I’m even better than you.”

  I was sniveling on the floor, wiping my tears on Moo’s shirt, when the mallet banged on the cabinet above my head. It bounced off hard and hit me in the temple. I saw a flash of light and heard a bang. I was clutching my head when I realized the noise was not from my head but the doorway. Peeking under the table, I saw more legs than before.

  Liam’s strong voice broke through the chaos. “Get the officer; he’s in his car in front of the center. Run!”

  A sob broke through my clenched throat. Peeping over the table, I saw Mary coming through the door while Liam had Owley with her arms behind her in the hallway.

  I stood up and rushed quietly through the wreckage to hug Mary. “You guys came to save me. Where’d you go?”

  Mary hugged me. “I’m so sorry. I went to get the notebook and tablet, but it was gone. Owley said Jess took it to her place. I went outside then ran into Liam. I explained, and he took off running, then we got here and…” She squeezed me around the neck. “I’m a lousy sidekick.”

  I hugged her back hard and lifted her off the ground. “You’re the best sidekick ever.”

  We walked into the hallways, where Owley had lost whatever control she had left. She was talking to Liam, begging him to just let her go. “No, really, it’s fine. Just let me go, and we can all pretend it never happened. No one even liked Honey.”

  Tiger turned the corner. “Minx just went running down the hall. Is everything okay?” He saw Liam holding Owley and slowed. “What’s going on?”

  Owley brightened. “Tiger, tell them to let me go. Tell them it’s okay that Honey is dead.”

  Tiger stopped and stared at her. “What did you do?”

  “I knew that she was forcing you to pretend to be her boyfriend and have sex. Minx told me to make Honey show me respect, so when I saw her go to the center, I followed her to the weight room and told her to leave you alone. She just laughed at me and turned away. I grabbed that weight and just smacked her. It felt amazing. She fell down and never moved again.”

  Tiger’s Adam’s apple bounced on his neck. “Oh, Owley.” His voice was heavy with his realization and disappointment.

  “No, no, no, it’s okay. She never felt a thing, and I’m fine. I did get blood all over my shoes. There was no way to clean them, then Di left me a pair in the weight room. I was able to get back to my room before anyone saw me. I ran out the back door. It’s okay.”

  She was begging him to understand, but he stood there shaking his head. An officer ran around the corner, his eyes darting around the group.

  Owley was blind to him. “I had to kill her, for us.”

  The officer moved over to Owley. I ran a hand over my face. My temple was throbbing (which I deserved for investigating alone). A pattering of voices was around me, but it had been such a long day, and so much had happened. A strong grip on my arm broke my thoughts.

  “I recognize that look. Come over here and sit down.” Liam directed me over to a wall to sit next to Moo.

  I smiled gratefully at him. “I swear I’m not always like this. I normally go just days and days without nearly fainting.”

  “I’ll believe it when I see it.” He left me while Mary sat next to me up against the wall.

  Mary leaned over and let her head fall on my shoulder. “Owley is out of her mind. Does that mean that the Joker did it?”

  “Not even the Jack Nicholson version.” I looked at Owley screaming at the officers. “Definitely the Heath Ledger version.”

  Minx had joined the group at some point and came over to sit on the floor opposite us. “Wow, so Owley killed Honey? I totally thought it was Di.”

  “Me? Why would you think I killed Honey?”

  “You found her body, and you have this evil glint in your eye. That’s why none of us wanted to be alone with you. We always made sure Mary was around, too.”

  Mary and I exchanged a surprised look. I hadn’t considered it from that angle. “Did you know that Owley is saying that you told her to do this?”

  Minx reeled back. “She what?”

  I nodded my head then put on a falsetto to repeat what Owley had screamed at me. “Minx said to make Honey respect me, and boy, did I show her. No one will disrespect me again.”

  Minx shook her head. “Wow, that is not how I meant it at all.”

  We all sat in silence and watched Owley. She was ranting at the officers, in turn pleading then yelling then crying. Several more had joined the first officer, and a few more appeared around the corner. It was like last night all over again.

  Mary asked, “Do you think she just snapped?”

  Minx turned back toward us. “Yeah, Honey had walked all over her for years, and Owley hated her, but I didn’t realize it went so deep.”

  Minx had joined us late and missed the interaction between Owley and Tiger. “I think Tiger was the final straw.”

  Minx’s eyebrows knit together. “Tiger?”

  Upon hearing his name, Tiger looked around. He spotted us and collapsed on the floor next to Minx. “I can’t believe she killed Honey. We weren’t even that serious.”

  Minx fiddled with her fingernails. “You and Honey weren’t that serious?”

  “No, Owley and I weren’t.”

  “Are you serious, Tiger? I could’ve told you that was a bad idea. Is she who you were with at the Summer Games?” Minx shook her head.

  “I just needed to blow
off some steam. We’ve kept in touch since then but I didn’t think it was serious.”

  Minx snorted. “Men.”

  Liam came over to sit next to me. “They have a search warrant. They would have found Owley even without someone’s help.” He gave me a meaningful look while I tried to avoid his eyes.

  Jess rounded the corner and descended on our group. “What is going on? Why is everyone here? What did you do?”

  The last question was directed at me. “What did I do? I got hammers thrown at me for no good reason.”

  Mary pointed to the door. “I can’t believe she threw hammers. There are actually guns and bows in that room.”

  Liam shook his head. “I just cleaned it.”

  Jess looked at us huddled on the floor then at the police gathered around Owley. “Oh no, our women’s recurve program has taken a serious blow. In one day we lost two of our top three ranked archers. Who’s gonna fill the gap?”

  I looked at Mary. We exchanged a side hug and burst out laughing.

  I hope you enjoyed my first book. I would love to interact with you more. If you would like to learn more about me, join my mailing list or discover my social media accounts please check out my website.

  http://nikkihaverstock.com/

  Target Practice Mystery #2 to be released in Fall 2015.

  If you would like to learn more about Target Archery check out this great resource from the Archery Trade Association http://www.archery360.com/

  Nikki Haverstock lives with her husband and dogs on a cattle ranch high in the Rocky Mountains.

  Before escaping the city, Nikki taught collegiate archery for ten years. She has competed on and off for fifteen in the USA Archery women’s recurve division.