Saddle Up for Murder

by Leigh Hearon

  “Well, luckily Becka doesn’t have the same issues. I’m convinced she will grow up and be president someday. Marky’s just going to lead a different kind of life, that’s all.”

  “I think you have a lovely family,” Annie said, thinking the opposite and wondering if Marta’s weight issues had any bearing on her son’s development problems now.

  “Thanks. Take care, now.”

  Annie drove off, thanking her stars for the umpteenth time that all her children were four-legged animals.

  * * *

  She had prepared herself to see the ranch peppered with patrol vehicles, roaming deputies, and more crime scene tape plastered across one of her buildings. After all, she’d given Tony carte blanche to search far and wide on her property—not that he needed her permission, but it had still been nice of him to ask. So she was pleasantly surprised when the only official Suwana County vehicle she saw in her driveway was Dan’s. He and Kim emerged from the woods as Annie was parking. It appeared that they’d been waiting for her return.

  “What’s the news?” she called out to them.

  Dan waved an arm in her direction and pointed toward her farmhouse. Inwardly, Annie grinned. She strongly suspected it was going to be Glenlivet time.

  But first, she had horses that need care and feeding. Not to mention a pasture full of sheep. Duplicating Dan’s gesture, she pointed off to the barn. Dan nodded. Cupping her hands, Annie yelled out, “And as long as you’re on county time, would you mind throwing a dozen bales of orchard into the sheep pen?”

  “Already done,” Kim called back. “Tony told us what to do. We’ll meet you at the bar.”

  * * *

  Now comfortably settled around Annie’s kitchen table, Dan took one long, appreciative sip of Annie’s coveted single malt and sighed with satisfaction.

  “That’s the best thing that’s happened to me all day,” he declared to no one in particular.

  “I take it your search was not successful?” Annie took a more delicate sip of the amber liquid. Dan was right—single malt just might be able to solve all the problems of the world. Taken in moderation, of course.

  “No sign of Pete or anyone else.” Kim sounded discouraged. She had yet to take a sip, but then, she paid attention to her body and probably didn’t often indulge in the substance Dan and Annie privately thought should be part of the FDA’s food pyramid.

  “Now, Kim, we did make some headway.” Dan put down his glass. “Tony’s metal detector picked up several round metallic balls just outside your fenced-in area. They appear to be the same kind we found in our search of Pete’s home a few days ago. They’re ammo of some kind. We’re just not quite sure what kind—yet. Too big for a BB gun, definitely not something you’d want to put in a gun or rifle, unless it was the musket variety, but it’s ammo, all right.”

  Kim took up the conversational thread. “The good news, Annie, is that there’s no evidence that anyone’s been squatting on your land since we plowed the primitive meth lab site. Whoever came by yesterday and spooked your horses seems to have been just passing through.”

  Whew. Annie felt much, much better, and just not from the Glenlivet.

  “Did you find anything else when you searched Pete’s house?”

  “We did, indeed,” Dan said with immense satisfaction. “Meth, Spice, Europa, sherm, drug paraphernalia, you name it. Plus a notebook with coded writing that appears to be some kind of spreadsheet. Most likely it tracks drug deliveries, money paid and perhaps still owed. We’ll sort it out.”

  “You said that Pete and that woman Clarissa were still AWOL. Who else is in custody at this point?”

  Dan and Kim looked at each other and smiled. They seemed inordinately pleased at the swell in jail population over the past several days.

  “Well, there’s Roy Sharp, the county dump operator who accepted the drugs.” Dan started ticking off the names using his oversized fingers. “In the house . . . well, that was quite a party. Port Chester PD gets the credit for nabbing these guys. Let me see if I can remember all these miscreants’ names. There’s Marty Goldberg, Melissa Clarkson, Ben Franklin . . .”

  “Ben Franklin?”

  “His parents must have had a sense of humor. And one more gal. Who was it, Kim?”

  “Zoe Hampstead,” came the immediate reply. “I’ve arrested her for shoplifting and vagrancy too many times to count.”

  “So . . . has anyone given you the complete story yet? I mean, I know the drug stuff is serious, but we are trying to find out if Pete killed Ashley Lawton, as I recall.”

  “Not if—how.” Good old Dan. Why wait for the facts to prove one’s hypothesis when you knew, in your heart of hearts, you were right?

  “Well, there is Ashley’s new boyfriend. He may have been the last person to see her alive. In fact, my money’s on him as the killer. Has anyone identified him?”

  Again, Dan and Kim looked at each other, but there were no corresponding smiles this time. Kim reached down and finally took a tiny sip of her drink.

  “Roy Sharp is holding firm,” Dan said reluctantly. He hated it when people didn’t immediately confess. “We haven’t had the pleasure of interviewing him, thanks to his lawyer, but we’re being told that he never met Ashley. Oh, and he apparently had no idea whatsoever that the bag he voluntarily accepted contained illegal drugs.”

  “You think a jury will buy that?”

  “Nope. Not when you have witnesses who will testify that they saw Roy taking possession of black trash bags on the sly from Pete every Monday for the past six months.”

  “You’ve already found these people?”

  Dan looked a trifle embarrassed. “We’re working on that angle, Annie. Give us time.”

  Annie felt a twinge of despair. It looked as if Dan and his crew were doing a fine job of dismantling a significant drug ring, and she was delighted at their success so far, even though her ego reminded her that she had played a small part in it. But it seemed the Sheriff’s Office was absolutely no further along in solving Ashley’s or Mrs. Carr’s murder than they had been two weeks ago, and now their prime suspect was missing.

  “How about the people in the house? What do they say about Pete? And what about Ashley’s mysterious new boyfriend?”

  Now Kim looked pained. “Nothing yet. All of them have been through the system and know enough not to talk outside the presence of their attorney. We don’t know who represents them, yet—apparently their lengthy criminal records are making it difficult to find lawyers who don’t have a conflict of interest—but the bottom line is that we can’t talk to them. At least, not until one of their attorneys convinces his or her client to cop a plea. Judy Evans is figuring out the best deal strategy right now.”

  Judy Evans was the prosecutor in Suwana County. She was pretty and petite and could destroy a defendant’s story on the stand so thoroughly that even the courthouse janitor couldn’t find enough shreds to sweep up.

  “Well,” Annie said with a sigh, “it looks as if it all hinges on finding Pete. Although good luck talking to him when you do. He’ll just exercise his Miranda rights the same as everyone else.”

  Normally, Annie was a stalwart supporter of a person’s constitutional rights. At the moment, however, she bemoaned the inherent problems with a case in which every defendant and most of the witnesses knew those rights as well as she did, and wisely figured that exercising them was in their best interests.

  She looked up at her companions. “Welcome to the world of criminal justice,” Kim said kindly.

  * * *

  By ten o’clock, Annie was looking forward to a good night’s sleep, but she was interrupted by the sound of her cell phone, still in her jacket pocket. She pulled it out and looked at the number, curious as to who would call her so late. She knew it would not be Marcus; he had informed her the previous night that today was his mother’s birthday and, short of a national disaster, he would be celebrating that austere occasion with her from five o’clock on.

  It
was a local number, but one she didn’t recognize. There was only one way to find out. She punched the answer button. It was Mary Trueblood, who just wanted to make sure Annie was all right.

  “Thank goodness the police didn’t find anything,” she told Annie, after learning about the search by the Sheriff’s Office on her property. Annie had omitted any mention of the mysterious ammo Tony had discovered.

  “Yes, it is comforting,” replied Annie, although deep down she did not believe that this meant the stranger might not appear again. She decided, however, to tell Mary about the earlier sighting on her property and the makeshift camp that for a brief time had been the site of a small meth lab. Mary lived only a half mile away. She might as well know the neighborhood was going to hell in a handbag.

  “Such a terrible drug,” Mary told her. “I suspect that many of my Eddie’s problems were the result of an early use of meth. But he wasn’t above stealing from our medicine cabinets, either. We were blind to it for so long. And when we did find out, we were astounded by the street value of the drugs pilfered from our home. If a drug dealer has targeted your home, Annie, I hope you’re keeping that Winchester clean and oiled.”

  Annie found it deliciously funny to hear Mary, the paradigm of good breeding, offer the same advice as Dan.

  But later, as she drifted off to sleep, Annie thought about what Mary had said. She could understand why Pete might kill Ashley. She knew about his drug dealing and presumably could have turned him in any time she felt so inclined. But why would Pete kill Eloise Carr? Even if Eloise had discovered that Pete was taking her prescription meds, why would he waste pills that had an absurd street value on a nice old lady just to make sure she was permanently shut up? He could have put a pillow over her mouth and accomplished the same thing. And it wouldn’t have cost him a dime in profits.

  CHAPTER 21

  THURSDAY MORNING, MAY 19

  “That sister of yours has really ticked me off.”

  Kim Williams sounded a tad ominous and blatantly displeased. She’d driven into Annie’s driveway at seven forty-five that morning on her way to work. Initially, she’d told Annie she just wanted to make sure that no noxious fumes still emanated from the abandoned campsite. None had for weeks, but Annie appreciated her kindness in inquiring. However, something else was clearly on Kim’s mind, and when Annie had asked what was really bothering her, Lavender’s name, predictably, came up.

  Annie put down her wheelbarrow filled with used shavings, wiped her forehead, and sighed.

  “She’s my half sister. What’s she done now?”

  “She’s done the one thing that always makes my blood boil. She lied.”

  Annie groaned. “Come on in. This conversation will require more caffeine. Too bad it isn’t five o’clock, or I’d offer you another shot of Glenlivet.”

  Kim laughed, and followed Annie into her farmhouse. The stained Mr. Coffee on the kitchen counter still showed half a pot that was hot and drinkable, and Annie pulled out two clean mugs from her dishwasher. She found a small container of half-and-half that hadn’t spoiled and set it on the kitchen table, where Kim now sat erect, looking every inch the athlete she was.

  “Did your mother make you walk around with a book on your head when you were a child?” Annie queried. She’d never known anyone who sat up so straight.

  Kim smiled. “No, she just told me to be proud that I grew up to be so tall and to make sure everyone saw every inch of my height.”

  “Good for her.”

  “Well, it took a while. I used to slouch something awful until I got to the sixth grade and discovered basketball. Then I was happy I was such a string bean.”

  “So was the coach, I imagine.”

  “Knowing how to dunk baskets sure didn’t hurt when I was applying for college. I think half the force with justice degrees went to school on athletic scholarships.”

  “True. And it’s amazing how so many of you have kept that trim, athletic build.”

  This got a raucous guffaw out of both women. Kim, Annie knew, was a serious bodybuilder and a devoted gym rat after work and on the weekends. Many, if not most, of her colleagues spent their weekends watching games on a couch and drinking beer. Annie knew for a fact that this was Dan’s Sunday routine.

  “So what’s Lavender gone and done now?”

  “Well, you know Lavender was with Ashley the day she discovered Eloise Carr’s body.” Annie nodded her assent, and Kim continued. “The executive director of Elder Home Care debriefed her that same day. We got a copy of his report, of course, but essentially it told us nothing. A week later, the autopsy report came in, showing that Eloise had died from an overdose, Now it was critical that we talked to Lavender. She’s a potentially important witness. She might have seen Ashley or Pete steal Mrs. Carr’s pills, or heard her say something that implied that one of them was responsible for her death.”

  “True.” It was of some comfort to Annie to know that if either of them had poisoned Eloise Carr, it had to have occurred before that morning, which was the first time Lavender had met Ashley. Presumably, Mrs. Carr had ingested the pills sometime on Monday evening.

  “And true to character, Dan wanted me to get the follow-up done without giving Lavender a lot of advance notice, ” Kim continued. “Said he didn’t want to give her too much time to think.”

  “Always a good plan. Thinking is usually her downfall.”

  Kim threw a questioning glance at Annie.

  “Just kidding. But Lavender’s been known to dance around the truth, if it suits her purpose.”

  “Exactly what Dan said. So I was on her doorstep as soon as I could find the time. Ashley’s death was keeping us all pretty occupied.”

  “Right. I saw your patrol car at Martha’s coming back from Ashley’s memorial service at the high school, remember? I also happened to be present when Dan initially called Lavender at home.”

  “Really? How’d that happen?”

  “I was having dinner with Lavender and Martha that Friday evening.”

  “I didn’t know that. How’d she take the call?”

  “Well, I wasn’t privy to the actual conversation, but as soon as she knew it was Dan on the line, the waterworks started.”

  “Odd.”

  “My reaction precisely. I mean, she told me she barely knew Ashley. And she certainly never met Eloise Carr when she was still alive.”

  “It was all one big, fat lie!” Kim slapped her hand down on Annie’s kitchen counter so hard that both Annie and her coffee mug jumped.

  “Sorry,” the deputy said sheepishly. “It’s just that she completely took me in and it really fries me. If I’d only waited for the results on Ashley’s cell before succumbing to Dan’s directive, I would have conducted an effective interview. Instead, Lavender gave me the sweetness-and-light version, exactly what you got. And I walk away thinking Lavender knew nothing.”

  Something in Annie’s stomach began to churn. “Ah, are you implying that Lavender was more than just an innocent bystander in this woman’s death?”

  “Well, she sure as hell knows more than she’d told me so far.” Kim managed to inject a sense of impending doom into the last two words. “Jack Clauson gave me a printout of Ashley’s text messages this morning. He’s really been burning the midnight oil on this case, bless his soul.”

  The turmoil in Annie’s gut worsened. “And what exactly did you find?”

  Kim sighed. “This goes under the usual you-can’t-breathe-a-word-of-this-to-anyone warning.” She waited to get Annie’s solemn nod before continuing.

  “Lavender and Ashley had been communicating with each other for more than a month. They were burning up the airways with texts. Most of them had to do with Ashley’s boyfriend troubles, but there were more than a few that pertained to you, too.”

  Heat was now rising from Annie’s belly. “Do tell.” Her tone was icy.

  “It’s just what you already know—that Lavender told Ashley all about your stables and suggested she ask you
for a job. In fact, she practically promised Ashley a job on your behalf.”

  “Figures. Lavender’s so good at running other people’s lives.”

  “In return, Ashley seems to have been instrumental in getting Lavender a job as an aide at the in-home nursing business. In fact, Lavender’s application looks suspicious, as if it was filled out by Ashley.”

  “Wise move. Lavender’s spelling is atrocious. I have the letters to prove it.”

  “And there’s more. We’re still waiting for copies of all the erased voice messages. The ones that were still on Ashley’s phone go right up to the morning of April twenty-sixth, the day the two women discovered Mrs. Carr’s body. There’s something cryptic about their messages that I still don’t understand. But I will.”

  Annie had no doubt that Kim would wring every last fact that Lavender knew about Ashley and Mrs. Carr’s death, and perhaps even Ashley’s own demise, in very short order. But she was curious about the messages Lavender and Ashley had exchanged.

  “Can you tell me what they said? It’s a long shot, but I might know what they’re referring to.”

  Kim looked at Annie critically. “Well, I shouldn’t, but since you were so damn good at deciphering the last cryptic message in those recent homicides in our jurisdiction, you might as well have a shot at it. On Monday at 20:50 hours, Ashley texted Lavender and reminded her that tomorrow is ‘the day.’ Ashley sent another text twenty minutes later reminding Lavender not to forget ‘to bring what I gave you.’ For the next hour, they texted back and forth, but the only theme is that it’s an important day for Ashley that will change her life. Oh, and how excited Lavender is that Ashley will be moving in with you.”

  Now Annie’s hand hit the counter as she stood up, spilling coffee all over her Levi’s.

  “Every time I hear that story, I get angrier. I just don’t get it! I mean, I was nice, but I made it abundantly clear to Ashley that I didn’t have any work for her right now!”

  Annie was wildly gesticulating as she said this. The truth was, her heart ached at the insouciance she’d shown the day Ashley wandered onto her property. What would it have taken for her just to say “Yes, I have work for you” and thereby changed Ashley’s life for the better, as Lavender had so foolishly promised? Annie was convinced that if she had, Ashley would be alive today.