Deadly Aim: A Shandra Higheagle Mystery #3

by Paty Jager

  The man’s eyes widened then narrowed. “I’ll tell you when you can go.”

  The beeping of a phone being dialed chimed. The sound came across as absurd in the middle of the forest.

  Deputy Trapp released Apple and strode toward Lil. “What are you doing?”

  “Calling Detective Greer to tell him you’re detaining us,” Lil said, staring at the man.

  Over the years Shandra had gotten used to Lil’s deadpan delivery of information. It was apparent her delivery came across as sarcastic to the deputy.

  He tried to swipe the phone out of Lil’s hands. Sunshine, a mare who’d been with Lil for twenty years, backed up, moving her owner out of harm’s way.

  Sheba also bounded into the mix and soon there was man, horse and rider, and dog swirling together.

  Shandra called and whistled trying to capture Sheba’s attention. From the sparkle in her eyes and tongue hanging out, she thought the man and horse and rider were playing a game.

  Fear stabbed her chest when Sunshine tripped and Lil nearly came unseated.

  “Stop!” Shandra yelled. The sound echoed through the trees, startling everyone.

  The commotion halted.

  “Lil won’t call Detective Greer. But you have no right to detain us.” Shandra urged Apple over next to Sunshine. She directed her attention to the men at the gate. “Would you please move so we can pass through and get back home?”

  The men moved. She waved Lil to go first. Once Lil and Sheba were on her property, Shandra turned to Deputy Trapp. “I’ll not say anything about this to Detective Greer. But if I see you on my property after this investigation is over, I’ll turn you in for harassment.” She urged Apple into a trot and caught up to Lil.

  “That’s one little rooster who has to prove he’s worthy of the badge,” Lil said.

  “You think that’s all it was? I felt more animosity than that.” Shandra glanced over her shoulder even though they were out of sight of the fence line.

  “Maybe. Why did you insist on coming that way?”

  “I wanted to see if they would be investigating that section of fence. Ryan didn’t think it had anything to do with the murder, but from the looks of things, he is having the whole fence line checked out.” I wonder if the SD card came from a camera along the fence line? If so, they’re heading downhill…

  Chapter Seventeen

  Ryan pulled up in front of the Fish and Game office fifteen minutes after one. He’d tried to return in time, but on the way back he’d come across an elderly lady sitting alongside the road with a flat tire. He’d stopped to change her tire, making him late for his meeting with Clower.

  He pushed through the doors of the building straight into the same bustle as the day before.

  “Good afternoon, detective. Melvin is waiting for you down the hall, second door to the left,” the receptionist said, before picking up the ringing telephone.

  Ryan thanked her and headed down the hall. He knocked on the second door to the left.

  “Come in.”

  He opened the door and found a desk covered with files, an old computer monitor, and a man dressed in the gray and green fish and game uniform.

  “You must be Detective Greer.” Clower stood and extended a hand over the desk.

  “I am. Mr. Clower, thank you for making time for me.” Ryan shook hands and took a seat in front of the desk.

  “No problem. I’ve never had a person I’ve been investigating come up dead.” Clower sat behind the desk, shuffled stacks of files around, and avoided eye contact.

  “What evidence did you have against him?” Ryan had read what he could attain at the courthouse but that was mostly legal jargon. He wanted the Fish and Game officer to give him his informal view of the investigation.

  “His employee, Red Hasting, tipped us to the illegal activities. I have his affidavit. With that I was able to get a warrant and seize his records. The man had been purchasing tags under his employee’s and family’s names for years and then selling them along with hunting privileges. Some of the animals were poached or shot out of season.”

  “How did he, or for that matter, his clients, get away with shooting out of season? The taxidermist would have known.” Ryan didn’t like the idea of yet another person who could have been implicated in the illegal hunting and took revenge.

  “Turns out Randal had a cousin who was a taxidermist. He did the jobs on the off season animals claiming the hides had been frozen to give him an income when the work was slower.” Clower rolled his eyes, insinuating he knew the man was lying.

  “Was the cousin upset Randal had been caught and he was fingered?” Ryan pulled out his notepad and poised his pen over a blank page getting ready to jot down the cousin’s name.

  “No. The cousin adamantly said he didn’t know the animals were poached or that J.W. was using illegal tags. When I asked him how he accounted for the fact people other than J.W. paid him for the jobs, he said they didn’t. J.W. paid for the mounts. Which means the mount fees were paid by the hunters directly to J.W. Going over his records, he charged them double the cost his cousin charged him.”

  “So the cousin wouldn’t have any reason to kill J.W., unless you told him about the higher charge.” He watched Clower.

  “I didn’t say a word. Figured when the information came out he’d discover he was being used then, but I wasn’t going to tell him.” Clower leaned back, placing his locked fingers behind his head. “You looking for someone in my investigation that might have had a beef with Randal?”

  “I was hoping you could lead me toward a good suspect.” Ryan placed his notepad on his knee.

  “The only person I came across in the investigation who appeared mad enough to kill the guy was his wife.” Clower leaned forward. “Everyone told me that woman was quiet and meek. When I went to their house to get the records and she heard what I was there about, she lit into him like a rabid cougar. She was hissing and spitting. Some of the things she was saying didn’t make much sense. But I can tell you, he went stone cold when she said she’d ignored his fling with June, but raking their names through the mud with illegal hunting she wouldn’t stand for.”

  Ryan sat up. “She told him she knew of his affair with their hired help? Was Red present?”

  “Red, June, that niece. They all heard her lay into J.W.” He shook his head. “The disgusting part? He admitted it to her and the whole lot of them. Turned the table on Mrs. Randal, telling her she was worthless as a woman and deriding her something awful. Red stepped in and told him to shut his mouth.” Clower tapped a finger against the desk top. “That man was sticking up for Mrs. Randal like he had a thing for her. And right after hearing Randal say he’d been sleeping with his wife.” He ran a hand over his face. “That whole house was confusing. But by the looks on all their faces…anyone of them could have shot Randal.”

  “Would you say the people on that property would have had more reason than anyone you came across in your investigations?” Ryan liked the idea of localizing his search to the inhabitants of the Randal property.

  “The people he involved in the illegal hunting were pissed, but they all wrote it off as bad business. None of them that I could tell took it personally.” Clower picked up a fat file on the right side of his desk. “I can have copies of my investigation sent to you or you can wait while I copy them.”

  “If you don’t mind, I’ll wait while you copy them.” Ryan settled back in the chair.

  “I’ll give these to Janet and get us a cup of coffee.” Clower left the room.

  Ryan took this time to look around. He spotted a picture frame hidden among the stacks of files Clower had shuffled around. Judging from the position of the files and photo, he’d tried to hide the photo. Ryan pulled the five-by-seven frame out from between the stacks. It was Clower, a dark-haired woman about Clower’s age, and a teenage girl with a close resemblance to the older woman, smiling for the camera. The setting behind them looked like a fair.

  The door opened
and the smell of coffee entered the room followed by Clower carrying two mugs.

  “Nice family,” Ryan said, replacing the photo on the desk.

  Clower stopped, dropped his gaze to the photo, and looked down at the mugs in his hands. “Thanks.” He continued into the room and placed a mug on his desk in front of Ryan. “My wife and daughter. We had someone at the State Fair take that photo for us a month ago.”

  He took his seat behind the desk. “Janet will be in with your copies in a few minutes.”

  Clower sipped his coffee. His gaze lingered on the photo. Something in his eyes piqued Ryan’s attention.

  “How old is your daughter?”

  The man’s angry gaze leveled on Ryan. “She’s seventeen. Too young for you.”

  Ryan raised his hands as if surrendering. “Hey, I’m not looking. I have a woman I’m interested in.”

  “Sorry. I tend to be overprotective. Or at least that’s what my wife tells me.” He smiled wanly and took another sip of coffee.

  A quick knock and Janet, the receptionist who had greeted Ryan when he arrived, walked in with the folder and a thick manila envelope. “Here you go,” she said, placing the file on the desk and handing the envelope to Ryan.

  “Thank you.” Ryan stood. “Thank you for your time Mr. Clower and the files.” He left the room and the building. Something about the visit ticked at his brain but he couldn’t put a finger on it.

  ~*~

  Shandra tried to ditch Lil at the barn and head back up the mountain, but the canny woman came up with reasons for Shandra to get into the studio and work. Even with her mind elsewhere, she managed to etch Huckleberry Mountain on four dozen clay coasters the local businesses sold as souvenirs. She’d made so many of them the last two years that etching the mountain had become second nature.

  Jazz tunes tinkled from her phone. She wiped her hands and dug the phone out of the breast pocket of the denim shirt she wore over a t-shirt. Ryan.

  “Hello,” she answered.

  “Hey there. I heard you were caught trespassing today.”

  Shoot! She thought she’d intimidated the deputy enough he wouldn’t say anything.

  “I wasn’t trespassing. I was delivering a sympathy card.” She’d stick to that line till she died.

  “What did you say to Deputy Trapp? He wouldn’t say you had or hadn’t been over there, but Scanlon said you and Lil were caught riding on Randal property and heading to the gate you were so angry about yesterday.”

  She heard the humor in his tone.

  “So Trapp didn’t say anything?” She had intimidated the man. She didn’t know if that made her proud or feel like a bully.

  “No, he didn’t. Scanlon said you were pretty tough. But I guess whatever threat you made to Trapp didn’t include him.”

  She laughed. “No I made the threat specifically to Trapp. He didn’t need to grab Apple’s headstall and go all Dirty Harry on me just for riding home from the neighbors.”

  Ryan laughed. “Dirty Harry? That’s not a nickname I’d give Trapp.”

  “Did you call to tell me you’re bringing the map of the wildlife cameras over?” She’d spent the time etching the coasters reliving the dream. She didn’t want to lose the vision and impression of the area where the SD card was shoved into the ground.

  “Yes. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. Any chance you can whip up something for me to eat? I missed lunch helping a lady change a flat tire.” Ryan’s voice drifted off wearily.

  “I’m sure you were a hero to the woman. Yes, I’ll start dinner as soon as you hang up.”

  The phone went dead. She laughed and headed to the house. Good thing I set out those salmon steaks this morning. Nothing cooks faster than fish. She started the grill on the way into the house, then washed her hands and prepared a salad while the fish marinated.

  Sheba’s welcoming bark told her when Ryan pulled up. Shandra carried the fish to the barbeque and placed them on the grill.

  Ryan came around the side of the house. His smile was welcoming, his step weary. He carried a file folder.

  “You look beat. Want a beer?” Shandra pulled out a chair by the patio table.

  “Yes and yes.” He plopped into the wicker chair.

  Shandra retrieved a beer and her glass of wine. She returned to the patio, handed Ryan the beer, and checked the fish.

  “That smells delicious.” Ryan twisted the cap off his beer.

  “It will be ready in ten minutes. Do you want to eat out here? It’s starting to get cool.”

  “I’ll follow you inside when you take the fish.” He swallowed the beer and settled into the cushion on the chair.

  They didn’t say any more while she plucked the fish from the grill, placed it on a platter, and turned off the propane.

  Shandra headed into the house with Ryan following. She’d set two places at the counter. Ryan pulled up a stool and took a seat to her right. Shandra placed the platter of fish on the counter next to the salad she’d made and pulled half a loaf of garlic bread out of the oven.

  “This looks good and smells delicious.” Ryan waited for her to take the stool next to him before dishing food onto his plate.

  “Since you know how I spent my day, how did you spend yours?” Shandra asked, placing food on her plate.

  “I talked with Smith and Clower. Both had some interesting information. Smith is the man who arranged the wildlife cameras and helped set them up. In his records there is mention of a missing SD card.”

  Shandra’s heart nearly stopped. As much as she believed in her dreams, she still found it hard to completely accept them. “So there really could be a SD card in the ground.”

  “Yes. Just like you dreamed.” Ryan grasped her hand.

  She stared into his eyes. He believed in her dreams. Why can’t I fully believe in them?

  “Do you know which one? Which camera?” She wouldn’t have to ride all over the mountain. They could go to the right spot, and she’d direct them to the area.

  “Yes. I know which camera and with the map Hasting gave me we’ll know where on the mountain to look.” He took a bite of salmon.

  Shandra stared at his tired face. “Do you have extra clothes with you?”

  His gaze jerked up from his plate and searched her face. “Yes. Why?”

  “You can stay in the guest room tonight, and we can ride to the spot in the morning.”

  A smile twitched his lips. “That’s the best offer I’ve had in a while. I’ll take you up on it.”

  They finished the meal in companionable silence. After the dishes were in the dishwasher, they retired to the living room.

  On the sofa, sitting side by side, Ryan pulled out the map and pointed to an area marked with a number five. “That’s the area where the SD card went missing.”

  “That isn’t very far from the county road.” Shandra pointed to a gray line. “That’s an old forest road you can take off the county road and drive onto the Randal property. It’s past their driveway. Do you think that’s how the person who took out the SD card got there or found the camera?”

  “Could be. But why look at it then try to crush it under his foot?” Ryan folded up the map.

  “Because there was something on it that either made him mad or he didn’t want anyone else to see.” Shandra thought a moment. “Maybe the person I saw was J.W. He could have checked the card, saw something he didn’t like, and ground it into the dirt.”

  “We’ll know tomorrow when we find the card.” Ryan leaned back, pulled Shandra down beside him with one arm draped over her shoulders, and promptly fell asleep.

  Shandra remained snuggled against him until the call of nature forced her to get up. After using the bathroom, she placed a blanket over Ryan and closed herself into her bedroom. If he woke, he knew where the guest room was. He’d used it during his last murder investigation in Huckleberry.

  Tomorrow they’d find the SD card. She donned her pajamas and crawled into bed. Sheba laid down at the end of the bed and was
soon snoring. Shandra drifted into a state between sleep and awake. She heard Sheba snoring and Ryan tiptoeing past her door to the guest room, but Ella also hovered in her mind. Ella dangling the blue, crystal pendant.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The following morning Shandra woke with exuberance. They would find the SD card today and perhaps even the killer. And it was a good thing. They were only three days away from Conor’s wedding to Ryan’s ex-girlfriend. Shandra shook her head as she dressed. She had to quit thinking of the bride as Ryan’s ex. She had a name. Lissa. But even thinking the name, it hissed in her head. The woman had to be blind to not see what kind of a catch Ryan would make.

  Clanging in the kitchen hurried her morning routine. She walked into the room and found Ryan breaking eggs into a bowl.

  “Morning,” he said, adding milk to the mixture.

  “What are you whipping up?” Shandra asked, stopping beside him and pouring a cup of coffee.

  He kissed her temple. “French toast. I haven’t had it in a while and you had all the ingredients.”

  “There aren’t that many. Do you keep your place stocked that poorly?” She leaned her backside against the counter next to Ryan and watched him cook.

  “I’m not home a lot and when I am I tend to forget to buy groceries.” He dipped bread in the egg mixture and placed it on the sizzling griddle.

  “Will you be able to get away this weekend for the wedding?” Even though she had cold feet about attending the wedding, she wanted to go for Ryan’s sake. He needed to show people Lissa didn’t meant anything to him anymore.

  “Unless I discover the murderer and need to move quickly, the sheriff knows where I’ll be this weekend.” Ryan plopped the cooked bread onto a plate. “Want to set out plates?”

  “It’s the least I can do with you cooking my breakfast.” She laid two placemats on the counter, added plates and utensils, and refilled the coffee cup on the counter next to Ryan.