Leave Tomorrow Behind (Stella Crown Series) (12 page)

Chapter Twenty

“Rikki Raines?” Holy crap, Laura might have been the last person to see Rikki alive. Other than the guy she’d been with, of course.

“What time was this?”

“I guess around elevenish or whatever, because some of the lights had been turned out, but lots of people were still out doing rides and stuff. They hadn’t made their last visits to their calves. You know, they usually do that after one, when the rides close.”

That would fit the timeframe, when Nick and I got to the barn. Rikki had probably been stuffed on the manure trailer shortly after Laura saw her. Maybe the guy had been the one to put her there.

“You don’t have any idea who the guy was?”

Laura shrugged. “I didn’t see him, and they were talking real quiet, so I couldn’t recognize his voice. I’m sorry.” Her voice trembled, and she chewed her lip. Taylor put her arm around the girl’s shoulders.

I tipped my head sideways, and Zach met me several feet away.

“You realize she has to tell the cops this. And they’re going to wonder why she’s just now mentioning it.”

“I know. I just thought, if she told you first, it might make her feel more ready to tell somebody who matters.”

“Thanks. I appreciate the affirmation.” My sarcasm went right over his head. “But still, why didn’t she tell somebody this morning?”

I thought it was a valid question. We went back to the others. “Laura.” I kept my voice quiet. “Why didn’t you tell anyone till now?”

She squirmed. “I was afraid they’d think I had something to do with it.”

A common worry when dealing with crimes. I should know.

Laura continued. “But I would never put something in a calf’s food.”

I blinked. “The calf. Right, of course you wouldn’t. But what I mean is, why didn’t you tell anyone you saw Rikki?”

She shuddered. “Oh, I know, yeah, that’s way more…” Her chin trembled. “I was afraid they’d think I did that, too.”

I looked at the tiny girl. The only way she could ever kill someone was by accident. “You didn’t, right? Do anything to Rikki?”

“Stella!” Zach practically jumped me.

“No! No, I would never…” Laura hugged herself and sniffed.

“Of course you wouldn’t. I just wanted to make a point. Look at you. They’re not going to think you did it.”

“I don’t know about that,” Miranda said. “She withheld evidence for almost twelve hours now.”

“Miranda—”

“Fine. I get it, okay? I’m just saying the cops might not be so understanding.”

I hated to say it, but Miranda was right. “You need to go tell the cops. Right now.”

Zach frowned and pulled me aside again. “Judging begins this afternoon. What if they don’t let us go in time? We’ll both miss our event.”

“I’m sorry, Zach, but this has to take precedence. A woman is dead, and Laura has important information.”

“But—”

“How about if I take her over to talk to Detective Watts? You stay with Barnabas and get ready. That way you’re not at risk for being late, too.”

“I don’t know. Laura’s kind of scared.”

I smiled. “I can be non-scary if I want to. And I think Watts can, too.” Our little meeting this morning had showed me another side of the detective. One that was still young and vulnerable. That could be an asset in this situation.

He narrowed his eyes. “You sure?”

I slugged his arm—in a non-scary way—and we went back to the girls. Zach explained what needed to happen. Laura regarded me with something less than absolute trust.

“I’ll go, too,” Taylor said. “You won’t be alone.”

I decided not to argue that she wouldn’t have been alone with me. I wasn’t someone who mattered, anyway, so there was no point in trying to make a point.

Laura thought it over, and finally nodded.

“You sure?” Zach said.

I thought that was pushing it, so I said, “Come on, Laura. We’ll take care of you.”

“What about me?” Miranda said.

“You need me to take care of you?”

“No, Stella, I mean what am I supposed to do?”

“About what?”

“Being here!”

“I don’t know. Look around. Watch some judging. Check out the rabbits. Eat some deep-fried pickles.”

“Eww!”

“Or go home. I can give Nick a call when I’m ready.”

“Fine. Unless you need me. I can stay.” She said this half grudgingly, half hopeful, eyeing Taylor, like if she got in good with the daughter, that would further cement her new bond with Daniella, the salon goddess.

“No, go on home. I’ll be in touch.”

“If you’re sure…”

“Go.”

After a few more token “I can stays,” she finally left.

“Okay,” I said. “Laura, let’s go see if we can find the detective.”

Watts wasn’t at the building when we arrived, but one of the cops said he’d call her, and sat us in some chairs in the corner.

“Do you think she’s going to be mad?” Laura shrank into her seat. Now she looked more like a scared mouse than a rabbit.

“Just tell her your story,” I said. “If she’s mad, I’ll deal with her.”

Taylor squinted at me. “How?”

“She and I have come to an…understanding.”

I expected her to ask what I meant, but her attention was across the room. Gregg had come in with an older man in uniform. The sheriff, Watts’ dad. So he’d made it home already, sooner than Watts had thought. I bet she was thrilled.

“What’s he doing here?” Taylor said.

“He’s the sheriff.”

“No, I mean Mr. Gregg. Do you think they’re questioning him, as maybe the killer?” She sounded both hopeful and disgusted. I could relate. I wanted to both beat him up and chase him off, so the whole dual desires thing was familiar.

From the way he was being greeted by the sheriff and other officers, I doubted he was a suspect. Potential killers weren’t usually invited into the fold with bad coffee and donuts. And Gregg had one of each in his hands. He didn’t look very interested in the food, though. His hair was wild, and I wasn’t sure what kind of look he was going for that day with his dress pants and “farmer” shirt. It was almost like he’d gotten dressed in the dark. Or a daze. Sort of how you might behave if you’d killed someone and were feeling guilty. Or, to be fair, if one of your upcoming stars had gotten murdered the night before.

I studied Taylor. “Do you know him?”

“Not really.”

“But you don’t like him.”

“I’ve met him before, but he wouldn’t remember me. That’s how he is.” She shrugged. “I hear a lot about him from my mom, and from the other girls, you know, Rikki’s friends.”

“What do they say?”

She squirmed. “That he makes girls…do stuff.”

Exactly what Daniella had told me. I watched as the creep talked with the police officers. When it looked like he’d had enough small talk, the sheriff guided him to a more private area. What would the sheriff have to tell him? Or maybe the sheriff really was questioning him? That would be more believable. If I believed that politics and power never made people look away from obvious issues, like the fact that Gregg had been fighting with Rikki the same night she got killed.

“There she is.” I stood up to get Watts’ attention, and she came over. “I see your dad made it.”

“Yup. Wouldn’t want to miss the chance to be a hero.”

“But a hero for who?”

She glanced over at her dad and Gregg, and by the set of her shoulders I could tell she understood me. And I could also see she wasn’t sure which side her father would end up on, if he had to choose. She pulled up a chair, studying the girls. “So, what’s this big news you have to tell me?”

Laura looked up at me, and I nodded. “Go ahead. She’ll listen. And she won’t get mad.” I said this last part to Watts, of course. She gave me a funny look, but I think she got the point.

“Well,” Laura said, “it was late last night…” She told her story. I could see the war in Watts to either freak out and yell at the poor girl for not coming forward sooner, or to be the calm, cool, mother/big sister figure and gather information through non-threatening questions. Fortunately, the less frightening version came out, and Watts didn’t burst a blood vessel or anything. That I could see.

“Amanda.”

Her questioning jerked to a stop, but otherwise, she didn’t move.

I’d watched the sheriff walk across the room and hadn’t been sure whether to break Watts’ rhythm of questions to warn her of her dad’s arrival, or let it take its course. I hadn’t decided what to do until it was too late. Which I guess was making a decision not to tell her.

Watts still didn’t look at him. “I’m in the middle of something.”

“I can see that, but this is important.”

“So’s what I’m doing.”

He waited until she very carefully closed her iPad and stood up.

“Thank you,” he said. “If I could just have a minute of your time.”

They stepped away. My hearing wasn’t good enough to catch words, but it wasn’t hard to tell that Watts was pretty ticked off at being interrupted.

“You’re doing great,” Taylor said to Laura.

Laura shuddered. “Do you think she believes me?”

“Of course she does.”

Laura didn’t ask me, but then, I was just an adult who didn’t matter. What did I know?

Watts came back, looking shaken.

I sat up. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“Liar.”

She glared at me. “Nothing I can tell you. How’s that?” She sat and focused on Laura. “Still no idea who the guy was you saw Rikki with last night?”

Laura shook her head. “I’m sorry.”

“What about anyone else in the barn? Did you see anyone? Hear anyone?”

“I told you, I was sort of asleep before they came in, and then I was hiding so they wouldn’t see me. So I didn’t see anybody else, either.”

“Okay.” Watts let out a slow breath. “Let’s go through it all again.”

I glanced at my watch. Time was creeping toward Laura’s event. If we didn’t get out of there soon, she wouldn’t have time to get Bunny ready. I slid out my phone and texted Zach. It took me a year, but I did it.

could someone check on bunny

I only had to wait a few seconds before receiving an answer:

bobby and claire got it covered

Awesome. It made sense, since their judging wasn’t until tomorrow, and they knew what was needed to get Bunny presentable. All that would be left would be for Laura to get changed and present her calf at the ring on time.

“You again?”

It took me a moment to realize Laura had stopped talking and everyone in our little group was looking up. Gregg had broken away from his fan club, and was steamrolling my way, murder in his eyes.

Chapter Twenty-one

Gregg stopped a few feet away, staring at me, looking even wilder than he had when he’d first arrived. I slowly closed my phone, not wanting to spook him, but chose not to say anything. He obviously wanted a fight, and it wouldn’t be the smartest thing for me to slug him with all of our county’s finest standing around watching.

“Why are you here?” He wasn’t going to let it go. He obviously lacked my maturity. “Are you a suspect? Or just butting into things that aren’t your business?”

“I’m not a—”

“Mr. Gregg.” Watts stood up and moved in-between me and the idiot. “Ms. Crown is merely helping with our inquiries.”

“Oh, so it’s like that, is it? You are a suspect?” He took a step toward me, Watts mirroring his move.

“Mr. Gregg, please. I’m conducting an interview. If you could please move along, I would appreciate it. This doesn’t concern you.”

“Of course it concerns me. One of my most promising young protégés is dead, and this woman is in the middle of it.”

Oh, for Pete’s sake. Protégé? Really? The word “conquest” came to mind much easier than protégé. “I’m not in the middle of anything,” I said. Which wasn’t exactly true, seeing how I’d found the body, and had brought one of the last people to see her alive to talk to the cops. But who was counting? “I’m just being a good citizen. And you know what good citizens do? They report things they see. Like seeing someone have an argument with Rikki only hours before she shows up dead. Would you know anything about that?”

He went white, then red. Like a barber shop pole. He even looked like he might start spinning around. “What are you—Who is she to—”

“David? Anything wrong?” The sheriff—Watts’ dad—came up behind Gregg.

“That woman.” He pointed a shaking finger at me. “I want her arrested.”

“For what?”

“Killing Rikki Raines.”

The sheriff looked at Watts, who was rolling her eyes like a teenager. “She’s not even a suspect, Da—Sheriff.”

He walked over to me, holding out his hand. “Sheriff Nathaniel Schrock.”

I stood up to meet him. “Stella Crown.”

“Ah, the young lady who found our victim.”

“What?” Gregg was so loud the rest of the room went silent.

The sheriff hesitated for a second, then said, “It’s okay, everybody. Nothing to see here.”

Gradually, the voices started up again.

Gregg’s voice shook, but at least he wasn’t screaming anymore. “Are you telling me this…this woman found Rikki?”

Watts nodded. “She did.”

Gregg really was going to explode. I wondered how messy it would be. Eh. I’d seen worse.

“David, come on. Doesn’t one of your girls have an event coming up?”

Gregg blinked, like he wasn’t sure what the sheriff was talking about.

“Remember?” I said. “One of the events you bought for your daughters?”

Gregg made a move toward me, but the sheriff stepped in front of him, while Watts gave me the evil eye. I know. I needed to shut up.

Schrock pulled a schedule out of his pocket, along with a pair of glasses that he perched on the end of his nose. “There, see? Calf judging. Your youngest is in it. It starts in a half hour.”

Laura jerked her head up. “Half hour?”

I held my hand out toward her, like I would a frightened animal. “Watts?” I kept my voice low.

She swiveled her eyes toward me.

“We gotta go. Laura’s in an event. That same one your dad’s talking about.”

Sheriff Schrock led Gregg away, Gregg looking back over his shoulder at me, until finally they were out of hearing range, with several other people between us.

“Thanks for coming in, Laura,” Watts said. “Next time, though, it would be better to come right away, all right? Now, here.” She gave each of us a card. “Call me if you think of anything else.”

Taylor pocketed the card. “We can go?”

“Yes. Thank you. Stella, you have a second?”

I jerked my head at the girls, and they took off. “What?”

Watts glanced the direction her dad had gone, then scooted her chair closer. “Do you know the woman who is the official veterinarian for this year’s fair? I figured you might, since you’re a farmer.”

“Yeah. Her name’s Carla Beaumont. Why?”

Watts’ stylus hovered above her iPad. “What do you know about her?”

My hackles rose. It had only been an hour since Bryan had said someone was out to get my best friend. Was that “someone” the police?

“We have a theory about what killed Rikki Raines,” Watts said. She hesitated, as if deciding whether or not to share. She probably shouldn’t. But I wasn’t going to tell her that.

“We think it might have been poison,” she finally said. “Administered with a syringe.”

“So?”

“Stella, think about what Dr. Beaumont would have here, at the fair. Syringes. Medicine. All being carried around with her. Lots of it deadly to humans.”

I laughed. “Are you for real? Tons of people have syringes at the fair. I give my animals injections all the time for worms or whatever. Not a new thing.”

“This wasn’t a worm medicine.”

My mind raced back to a few months ago, when someone had stolen meds from the back of Carla’s truck. “Ketamine?”

“We don’t know for sure. They’re still running tests.” She glanced at her notes. “But it was something that caused paralysis, and we know Dr. Beaumont would have those things in her box. For surgery, and other things.”

“Was it Ace?”

“What’s that?”

“Acepromazine. A tranquilizer.” Vets used it as a sedative before operations, or even to help with car sickness in dogs. It had actually started out being used on humans, and still was sometimes used as an anti-psychotic drug. It shouldn’t be deadly, not unless…“How much medicine was she given?”

“Enough of whatever it was that her throat swelled to the point she couldn’t breathe, or swallow. She basically suffocated.”

My stomach dropped. Poor Rikki.

“She never had a chance,” Watts said. “And the worst thing is she would have known what was happening, but couldn’t do anything about it.” She shook her head, and I saw the sympathy in the slump of her shoulders. It was nice to see a cop care about the victim, especially after she’d been questioning my own emotions the night before.

But wait. She was saying Carla had something to do with it.

“Watts, Carla would never do something like that.”

“I’m not accusing her. Yet. But it does look suspicious.”

“Because she’s a vet? What does that have to do with Rikki Raines? Carla didn’t even know her.”

Watts’ eyebrows rose. “And you know this how?”

“We talk. If she knew Rikki Raines, I would have heard about it.”

“Just how well do you know Dr. Beaumont?”

Should I tell her?
“Carla’s my best friend. Or one of them, anyway. I’ve known her forever.”

“So I can’t trust you to see the truth.”

“Truth? What truth? All I see is stupid suspicion.”

“It’s a syringe. And a good possibility of veterinary medicine.”

“Oh, come on. There’s no way for you to know that about the medicine unless you have a detailed report. Do you?”

No response.

“Plus, anybody could get a syringe. And how do you know it’s a vet’s syringe, anyway? Syringes all look the same.”

She blinked. “Do they?”

“Well, sure. Except for the honking huge needles, I would think. And as for the medicine, you said it yourself she has it here at the fair. Anybody could have taken it.”

“Really? She’s that careless with her box?”

“She’s not…Listen, Watts. She couldn’t have done it. I was with her while Rikki was getting murdered.”

She went all skeptical.

“And not just me. My fiancé. Her boyfriend. We were doing the whole fairway games and unhealthy food thing. We met her after the concert and went from there. And it was for a while before Rikki was killed, because Laura saw Rikki after that.”

Watts tapped on her iPad. “What time are you saying you met her?”

“I’m not just saying it. It happened. And it would have been, I don’t know. Ten-thirty. Eleven. Way before Rikki died. And listen, I’m sure the carnies wouldn’t remember us, but the kids saw us over by the double Ferris wheel. That was right before Nick and I went back to the calf barn and found Rikki dead. Carla was with us the whole time. You can look it up in your notes. I told you that last night, the same as I told all the other cops.”

She frowned. “But—”

“So you can’t pin the murder on Carla. It didn’t happen.”

“But it could be her medicine.”

“Possibly. If someone broke into her stuff.”

She let out a huge sigh and sank back into her chair.

“Sorry to blow your lead, Watts, but I’m not going to let you destroy my friend just so you can look good to Daddy.”

“That is not—”

“What made you think of her, anyway?”

She wouldn’t meet my eyes.

“Let me guess. Anonymous tip?”

“We have to take every one seriously.”

“Whatever.” I stood. “I gotta go. And look, I really do hope you find who killed Rikki, but you’re wrong on this one.”

I left her hunched over her iPad, tapping uselessly on the screen.