Standing behind the grill, Leia Bonner couldn’t believe how hard everyone seemed to be taking the news. Even the kidnapping and murders of Collette Whittaker and Marnie Hightower hadn’t left this many people in shock. Not even the death of Marissa Sarrazin had caused such a buzz. And Marissa had been a defenseless elderly woman who’d been viciously attacked in her own garage.
As the eatery cleared out and people went back to work, Leia found herself getting angry over their response. What had been so special about Mallory Rawlins, a self-described bad girl with a penchant for deceit and lying and finding her way into trouble?
For as long as Leia could remember, Mallory Rawlins had been at odds with somebody---teachers, principals, and later, the law. Arrested for shoplifting at fourteen had only been the beginning but certainly not the end of Mallory’s fondness for breaking rules. By using her position and considerable influence, Louise had always managed to yank her spoiled brat of a daughter back from the brink of spending time in prison. Whatever infraction Mallory committed---and the list was long---she always seemed to bypass doing jail time.
Mallory’s death made Leia wonder what mess the woman had gotten mixed up in this time. Whatever it was had gotten her killed.
And the town seemed shocked? How was that possible?
Leia looked up to see Zebediah Longhorn, the tribal police chief on the Rez, stroll through the front door. Her main squeeze looked wrung out and worried.
“Want coffee?” she asked.
Zeb slid onto a stool at the counter, scrubbed both hands down his face. “I could use about a gallon.”
“What’s this? You’re usually calm, cool, and collected. What’s wrong?”
Zeb glanced around the room to make sure no one was listening. He didn’t start talking until Leia appeared with the coffee in hand. Leaning closer, he shifted in his seat. “That’s a loaded question. I’ve been hearing bits and pieces all morning about Mallory’s death. Along with a lot of accusations regarding Gemma. None of it good or flattering.”
“I know. I saw Gemma this morning before I opened up. She was taking Louise’s allegations in stride. It’s flat out ridiculous to think Gemma could kill anyone. But you want to hear what really pisses me off? I’ve been here all morning listening to customers act like the queen died or something. I didn’t realize before today that Mallory was so popular or had such a following. They act like she was a saint or something. And we both know better.”
“Yeah. Louise and her PR group are hitting the streets hard and heavy against Gemma. And get this. People around town are saying Lando is covering for her.”
“Maybe we should get everyone together tonight and figure out a way to fight Louise on her own terms. She needs to know Louise’s agenda will only get worse.”
“Tonight’s fine. But I have a better idea. Why don’t we plan on spending an entire day out at the stables? Maybe this Sunday. We could ride horses into Shadow Canyon, like we used to do when we were kids.”
“How’s that a better idea?”
“We get Gemma’s mind off all this and show her she has support in her corner.”
Leia lifted a shoulder. “Sure. I guess it couldn’t hurt. We haven’t done that since we were sixteen.”
“Okay then. We’ll bring it up tonight at dinner and see what happens.”
That evening, Gemma hosted supper at her house because Rufus seemed to be acting strange since finding Mallory’s body that morning.
Gemma stood at the counter chopping cloves of garlic, then mincing them into tinier pieces. She dropped the little chunks into the simmering spaghetti sauce. “Look at those sad brown eyes. He hasn’t been himself all day. He even whined when I started out the door this morning for work so obviously I couldn’t leave him here by himself tonight.”
Leia ruffled the dog’s thin coat of fur. “He does look…peaked. He usually has a lot more energy.”
“That’s just it. He’s been lethargic all day,” Lianne added. “Ever since Gemma brought him in, all he seems to want to do is curl up in the corner of the shop. What do you think, Luke? Is he sick?”
Luke sent her a sidelong glance. “Doctor of people here. But I’d say he’s depressed.” Luke took hold of the pooch’s muzzle, noticed it was wet. He checked the dog’s eyes. “I’d say he’s been crying.”
Gemma left the stove to see for herself. “He’s always been a sensitive little thing. Seeing Mallory like that…it was his first dead person. So of course he’d be upset and depressed.”
Zeb walked over to the counter, picked up a chip and stuck it into the dip. “No one forgets their first DB. Am I right?”
Lando bobbed his head. “I had hoped that we wouldn’t have to discuss this tonight. But hey, I also know it won’t go away.”
“Not any time soon,” Luke said. “If what I’m hearing is any indication, Louise is determined to win over everyone to her way of thinking.” Sensing they needed a change of topic for now, he sniffed the air. “That sauce is getting to me. When do we eat? I’m starving.”
“I’ll just give the pasta a quick stir,” Lianne offered. “If that’s okay with you, Gemma. You should stay with Rufus.”
Gemma ran her hands around the dog’s collar and felt Rufus shake a little bit. “Thanks. My mind’s not really on the meal, is it? Sorry. I think I’ll make an appointment for him tomorrow to go to the vet just to make sure nothing else is in play.”
Lando got comfortable next to her on the floor. Sitting cross-legged, he held the dog’s head in his lap. “Rufus is just sad is all. He’ll be okay.”
Luke snuck him a bite-sized treat out of the big doggie jar sitting outside the pantry. “He’s gonna be fine.”
“Pasta’s ready,” Lianne announced. “Luke, will you finish setting the table?”
Luke got up to get the plates but handed them off to Lando. “Do your part. Any word from the coroner? Did I get the time of death right?”
Lando took the plates and did as he was told. “I don’t how you manage to do it, but yeah, you were right. Whoever killed Mallory did it sometime between ten and eleven o’clock. And it’s Tuttle’s opinion for now that she wasn’t sexually assaulted.”
“Then why didn’t she have a stitch of clothes on?” Leia asked. “Did the killer not yet get around to it?”
“Maybe the killer was interrupted and ran off. Maybe he heard someone coming,” Gemma suggested as she got to her feet. “Not me. The time of death pretty much lets me off the hook. Lando and I watched the fireworks at nine. That lasted about thirty minutes and then we ate the pot roast he brought home, and by ten o’clock we crawled back into bed. If you know what I mean.”
Zeb traded looks with Leia. “You want to tell them?”
“Not really.” Leia glanced at each face and then zeroed in on Gemma. “Louise is working overtime to make sure you look guilty. She’s gone out of her way to tell everyone Lando’s covering for you. And…rumor has it you put some kind of spell on Mallory and then killed her.”
Gemma winced. “And people believe this crap? A spell? Really? I would have to be a witch to do that. Right about now I wish I could conjure up a cauldron and throw Louise into it. Hard to believe folks used to like me here.”
“What about the carnival workers?” Lianne pointed out. “They were packing their stuff up between nine and midnight. Luke and I saw them after the crowds thinned out. By the time the fireworks kicked in the crowd had pretty much gone.”
Zeb stuck a fork in his pasta. “I saw them breaking down the tents and hitting the road shortly after midnight. Lianne could be right. Maybe one of them killed Mallory before leaving.”
“I’d already thought of that,” Lando admitted. “I have a list of all the workers, plus the vendors. Payce and Jimmy spent the better part of the day tracking them all down. According to the carnival owner, everyone knows the drill after a festival ends. They immediately start breaking down the rides and gathering up their equipment in preparation to move on. It’s like a well-organiz
ed machine. He says everyone was where they were supposed to be and ready to pull out by midnight. It doesn’t mean one guy didn’t stray from his assigned duties. It just means the carnival workers are down on the list.”
“For now,” Zeb added in between bites. “The thing is we don’t let these allegations against Gemma take hold. Lando shouldn’t be put in a position where he has to defend his…Gemma.”
“I just found the body. I wish Rufus and I had never been out there. Look at my dog. He won’t eat. He’s depressed. He’s…can’t you see this has made him sick.” She studied the table and realized something was wrong. “I forgot to set out the salad.”
Gemma tried to act like everything would be okay by going to the fridge and taking out the Caesar salad she’d thrown together that afternoon, but her knees wanted to buckle. “Lianne and I figured Louise would try to turn the entire town against me. I just thought it would take longer than a day. I should’ve known better. I can’t believe the same people who knew me as a kid are so easily fooled by Louise’s claims. Why is that? Because now they treat me like an outsider. Me. For Pete’s sake, I was born here, went to school here…lived here nineteen years.”
She brought the bowl of salad over to the table, let out a huge sigh. “It’s a shame, too. The shop was just starting to turn the corner as far as seeing a profit.”
Lando walked up behind her and put his arms around her shoulders. “It’s nothing we didn’t expect and can’t handle. We’ll beat her at her own game. You’ll see.”
Leia gritted her teeth. “That’s right. If you think the people in this room are going to stand by and let Louise win over public opinion, you don’t know us very well.”
“Damn straight,” Lianne chimed in. “Louise doesn’t get to dictate public opinion, especially when it’s so damaging to your reputation and your career. It’s not right.”
Gemma looked around at her friends. “What would I do without you guys? Before you answer that, it means we all have to find out what happened to Mallory.”
Lando and Zeb exchanged cop looks that spoke volumes. But it was Lando who cleared his throat. “You know how I feel about you interfering in an investigation. And this is a tricky one. I won’t even bring up how you went around my back and talked to Gafford about Marissa. Yeah. Duff confirmed it for me. That giant of a man could’ve had a screw loose and you confronted him on your own with no idea what you might be walking into without backup. Gafford is a wild card. I want you to steer clear of Mallory’s homicide.”
“Sounds to me like you have no problem bringing it up,” Gemma countered as she plopped into a chair and gave Lando a death stare. “Since you just brought it up in front of everyone in the room, what exactly am I supposed to do? Sit idly by while Louise ruins me by spreading a bunch of lies she knows will hurt my business? This morning I thought I could just ride it out. But that won’t work with Louise. She’s a bully just like her daughter. I won’t be bullied into losing the business Gram worked her ass off to keep going. I’m not going down without a fight.”
Exasperated, Lando took a seat next to her. “Here’s an idea. How about you let me do the fighting for you? By finding the killer my way.”
Zeb cut his eyes to Lando in sympathy before going forward with his idea. “I had a thought that I wanted to run by you guys. I have several horses that need exercise. Some of their owners pay for boarding but don’t seem that interested in coming out to ride them. Anyway, I was hoping this Sunday you could help me out with that. We could all go horseback riding up in Shadow Canyon. It’d be a good time to get away from all this crazy talk concerning Gemma.”
“And I’d get to take Rudy for a ride,” Lianne piped up. “I’m in.”
“If she’s in, then so am I,” Luke added, dishing a pile of greens onto his plate. “We used to take horses up there all the time, especially during the spring. We’d cram picnic stuff into the saddlebags and stay out there all day.”
Gemma looked at Lando. “I think it’d be a great way to spend the day. But you look like someone just punched you in the stomach. What’s wrong?”
“Dale going out with Mallory. I can’t get past it.”
“You aren’t letting him anywhere near the investigation, are you?” Zeb asked.
Lando sent him a cool stare. “I’m not a rookie at this. I warned him about keeping his distance from anything that had to do with Mallory.”
“So what’s bothering you then?” Gemma wanted to know.
“Dale doesn’t have an alibi for Sunday night.”
Gemma’s eyes widened. “Oh, come on, you can’t possibly think Dale killed her.”
“I don’t know what to think. When I talked to him I got the feeling he was holding something back. He downright denied having anything to do with it though.”
“What a mess,” Gemma said, glancing over at her dog. “Would you really fight for me?”
“What kind of a question is that? You know I would.” Lando looked around the faces at the table. “Everyone here would. Louise won’t win this war of words. Just promise me you’ll stay out of Louise’s line of fire. Don’t antagonize the situation. Let me handle it.”
“Okay, but if she comes after me, I won’t just stand there and take it.”
5
While Lando became consumed by the investigation, Gemma had to get her dog some help. Rufus was more than tired. He was listless and sleeping all the time.
The town veterinarian was Cheyenne Song, a woman with a bubbly personality to go with eight years of experience looking after an array of animals. Large or small, domestic or wild, Cheyenne treated them all the same---with tender, loving care and a gentle hand.
Raised in Great Falls, Montana, as part of the Little Shell Tribe of Chippewa Indians, she’d arrived in California as a sixteen-year-old prodigy to attend college at UC Davis. Because she adored animals, vet school had been a piece of cake. Thanks to her grades she’d been offered internships at a variety of top clinics, but settled on Coyote Wells because her father, a full-blooded Chippewa, was best friends with Dane Barstow, the vet here. Three years into her residency, Dane passed away after a hard-fought battle with lung cancer.
Cheyenne decided to stay on and keep the practice running. Grateful animal lovers rejoiced.
With a crop of coffee-brown hair that hung down her back in a long, layered cut, she could wrestle with a stubborn mastiff or a temperamental stray. It didn’t matter. She could contain a feral cat without breaking a sweat. Cheyenne had a way with animals and everyone within a hundred miles knew it.
Her eyes were a piercing shade of green that sent out a confident vibe. She loved her job and proved it every day because she was the best at what she did and because everyone who worked for her gave off that same professional, confident demeanor.
Dr. Song’s staff included a receptionist named Ebbie Lucas, who’d been with Dane Barstow from the beginning. Ebbie ran the office like a well-oiled machine, taking care of billing and all the things Dr. Song found boring. Ebbie had hired a competent tech nurse named Corkie Davenport, a newcomer to town with big-city experience from Oakland.
Ebbie had Gemma fill out a series of paperwork that the receptionist double-checked in detail, reading every answer to every question before getting a stamp of approval. “I see you haven’t been in before. You’re both from San Francisco and this is Rufus’s first visit to see Dr. Song.”
“It is. But I hear Dr. Song is the best vet around for fifty miles.”
“More like a hundred,” Ebbie boasted. “Dr. Song insists on not turning away new patients even though she’s swamped. Some days she doesn’t get out of here until eight o’clock at night.”
“That’s dedication,” Gemma volunteered.
“We’re all devoted to animals here,” Ebbie added. “Take a seat. Corkie will be out in a jiffy to take you back.”
After a fifteen-minute wait, a bubbly Corkie came to get them, instructing Gemma to guide Rufus onto an oversized weight scale in the hallway.
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Gemma watched as her pooch sat obediently in place.
“Such a good dog,” Corkie remarked. “And he’s weighing in at seventy-seven pounds. Does that sound about right prior to moving here?”
“Maybe down three pounds or so, but then he hasn’t been eating.”
Corkie made the notation in the dog’s chart. “He’s in exam room five. Has he been having any other problems we should know about?”
“Not really. Not until recently.” Gemma decided to hold back the dead body info for the doctor as she guided Rufus up a few steps onto the exam table. The goal was to make him feel more comfortable and less anxious, so she stroked his back and neck. “There you go, boy. It’ll be okay. You’ll see. It’s just a checkup to make sure everything’s okay. You aren’t due for any shots so stop shaking.”
Which prompted a smile from the tech. “I can always tell a true dog lover. We like to see concerned owners and you certainly fit that category. The doctor will be with you soon so just relax. Both of you.”
“Easy for her to say,” Gemma whispered. “Don’t worry. We’re in this together, pal.”
After thirty minutes, Dr. Song came in with a wide smile on her face. Either she hadn’t heard the rumors that Gemma was a card-carrying, spell-casting witch, or she didn’t believe such nonsense because Dr. Song was downright friendly. Pulling up a stool, the doctor sat down and immediately went into a soothing routine using her voice to calm the frightened dog. “Hello there, Rufus. You should know I love labs. You’re the best, aren’t you? What seems to be your problem today?”
“You must be a dog whisperer. Look at that. He stopped shaking.”
Dr. Song gave Rufus a hug. “Animals take to me.”
“I can see that. You have such a calming aura about you. It doesn’t hurt that you’re absolutely gorgeous.”
“Why thank you. What a nice thing to say when I’ve just come out of surgery.”
“I like you,” Gemma announced and went into how Rufus found the dead body. “He hasn’t been the same since.”
Shadow Canyon (A Coyote Wells Mystery Book 2) Page 5