The Trouble with Turkeys (Zoe Donovan Mystery Book 2) (12 page)

“It’s nice to know the town has someone we can count on for all our pet needs,” Trish complimented.

I thought about pointing out that it was no longer my job to place pets or remove raccoons from people’s attics, but the truth of the matter was, I did what I did out of love for my four-legged friends and not because of a random although desperately needed paycheck. If there was a dog that needed a home or a family of raccoons that needed moving, I was happy to help out.

After finishing my conversation with Trish, I headed home. It was odd, but for some reason the prospect of a dog to place and raccoons to relocate left me feeling happier than I’d been since I’d been fired. I realized that I needed that sense of purpose in my life, and while babysitting turkeys and solving a mystery had turned out to be more interesting than I’d originally thought it would be, my destiny was here at the lake, high atop the mountain, dealing with the people and animals I was born to serve.

Thursday was a day of surprises. I arrived at the farm early, thanks to Zak’s willingness to accompany me and Ellie’s offer to look in on the dogs. Today was the much-anticipated meeting of the heirs’ lawyers, and as much as I wanted to be a fly on the wall, I knew there was really no excuse I could come up with to justify my presence in the house. Zak, on the other hand, had requested access to the property in order to inspect and survey his potential investment.

While Zak walked around, measuring walls and taking notes, Jeremy and I settled into what had become a predictable routine. Now that the turkey thieves had been arrested, our work went quickly, minus any incidence of missing or sick birds. We were close to completing our tasks for the day when an official-looking vehicle bearing a logo indicating that the occupant was from the department of fish and game pulled up.

“My name is Logan Cole,” the driver of the vehicle introduced himself. “I’m here to take possession of these birds, effective immediately.”

“Take possession?” I asked.

“They’re evidence in a criminal investigation,” he explained. “You’ll be paid in full for the duration of your contract, but the birds are being relocated to one of our facilities.”

“They won’t be slaughtered?” I asked.

“While I’m not privy to their eventual fate, I can assure you that the birds won’t be gracing anyone’s table this particular Thanksgiving.”

I smiled. A pardon, even a temporary one, seemed like a victory for the birds I had come to care about.

“I understand that you’re under contract to care for the birds through the weekend. As I said, you’ll be paid in full, although your employment is terminated immediately.”

This just kept getting better and better. Of course, I had effectively run out of time to solve the murders of Charles Tisdale and Dolly Robinson. I was disappointed I wouldn’t be able to complete my investigation but thrilled to be free of my daily commute and tedious tasks. Besides, with the holidays just around the corner, I had a million things to do if I was going to pull off the Christmas fund-raiser with the ease I’d tried to portray to Trish. I hadn’t wanted to worry her, so I might have slightly overstated my level of readiness.

“The family is meeting with their attorneys,” Logan informed us. “It you don’t mind waiting until the meeting is over, I understand there’s a check being cut for each of you.”

“That’s fine.” I smiled. “We’ll wait in the library.”

Jeremy finished up in the yard while I went in search of Zak. My only hope of completing the task I had set for myself was to figure out who had done it before the meeting wrapped up. Not an easy task, since we really didn’t have any new information, but maybe if we combined the brain power of the three of us . . .

“They’re waiting for someone else to show,” Zak informed us thirty minutes later as we observed the group through the same window in the library where Jeremy and I had watched them that first day.

“It looks like everyone is here
except Oliver and Olivia,” I commented as I considered each member of the eclectic group.

As before, Mason Perot was sitting at the head of the table.
Holly sat next to him with a man who I assumed was her attorney to her right. Leroy was sitting to Mason’s left, with Peggy beside him and Margaret to her left. It didn’t appear that any of the three had invited legal counsel to attend. Brent was sitting at the opposite end of the table next to a woman in a dark green suit who I assumed was his attorney.

I studied each member of the group in turn. Mason looked bored with the whole affair. He seemed preoccupied and was communicating with someone on his cell phone. I couldn’t tell exactly what he was doing, but he was so focused on the rectangular object that he barely looked up the entire time I watched him.

Leroy had a bottle of what looked like whiskey sitting in front of him. He spoke to Peggy a few times, but most of the wait he seemed content to down shot after shot. Of the people assembled, he was one of the few we’d cleared, yet based on his posture and binge drinking, he looked to be as nervous as anyone else.

M
argaret spent most of the time chatting with Peggy. She appeared the most relaxed of those assembled, and I suspected that of the potential killers left on the list, she was the least likely to be guilty of the heinous crime.

Brent and his beautiful attorney got up from the table and retreated to a far corner of the room, where they seemed deep in discussion about something.
Holly sat quietly, staring at nothing in particular. She neither made eye contact with nor spoke to anyone else at the table and they, likewise, didn’t speak to her. It occurred to me that she, like me, might suspect that one of the others had killed the mother she loved in spite of her faults.

“This is like watching a movie,” Jeremy commented. “Any guesses as to who did it?”

I shook my head no. “I really don’t know how we’re going to narrow this down without new information,” I said. “Oliver, Olivia, Peggy, Margaret, and Brent all lack alibis. Mason probably didn’t do it, even though he
is
acting strangely.”

“You started with fourteen
suspects and narrowed it down to five.” Jeremy tried to sound encouraging. “And we uncovered a conspiracy and saved hundreds of turkeys from holiday tables in the process. I’d say we had a good week.”

“I really wanted to solve the murder,” I insisted.

Zak turned to face me. “Let’s go ahead and eliminate Mason. I don’t think either of us believes he did it. If you considered the remaining five and had to choose the least likely suspect, who would it be?”

I turned to look at the group. “I suppose Margaret is the least likely. She seems open and genuine, and I’ve never picked up on any strange vibes from her.”

“I agree,” Zak said. “So then, who’s the second least likely?”

I thought about
Oliver and Olivia. Both gave me the creeps, but their stoic personalities didn’t necessarily make them killers. Brent was friendly enough but appeared to have a secret, and there was that journal.

“I guess Peggy,” I answered. “She has a good motive, but she doesn’t strike me as the deranged
-killer type.”

“Okay, so let’s focus on Oliver, Olivia, and Brent,” Zak suggested. “What do we know about each of them?”

“Oliver recently found out that Charles might have killed his mother, Olivia was trying to blackmail Charles, which seems to have backfired, and Brent met with Charles the week before he died about an issue we are not privy to. We also know that he is in possession of Charles’s journal.”

“Okay,” Zak prompted, “
let’s assume that all remaining suspects have motive to kill Charles, but who has a motive to kill Dolly?”

“Brent might want to murder Dolly
in order to avenge his grandmother’s heartbreak,” I suggested. “Holly mentioned that her mother knew Olivia, but I have no idea if she ever met Oliver. Holly told me she thought Olivia asked for Dolly’s help to get money out of Charles. Holly also revealed that Dolly didn’t really have all that much influence over Charles, and even if she was able to get him to part with some of his riches, she would keep the money for herself rather than giving it to Olivia. I suppose if Dolly did somehow manage to get some money out of Charles but then kept it, that could give Olivia a motive to kill Dolly.”

I watched as
Oliver, Olivia, and a man dressed in a suit came into the conference room and motioned Mason over. They whispered for a few moments and then sat down at the table.

“I wish I could hear what they said.”

“The man who came in told Mason that Oliver and Olivia have withdrawn their objections and agree to the will as written,” Zak informed me.

“How do you know that’s what he said?”

“I can read lips.”

I looked at Zak with an expression that clearly communicated my disbelief.

“It’s a thing.” He shrugged.

During my exchange with Zak, Mason had addressed the crowd, who then stood up and filed out of the room. Talk about anticlimactic. I realized that the main reason I doubted Oliver and Olivia’s guilt was because they
had
contested the will. I figured if they had been the killers, they would have wanted things wrapped up quickly. But now? Maybe one or both of them had done it.

I realized I had maybe an hour to work everything out before people started to leave. I needed inspiration and I needed it quick.

“Jeremy,” I turned toward my former assistant, “you mentioned it was Oliver Tisdale who initially contacted you regarding the job.”

“Yeah. He’s the estate executor, so I suppose making sure the birds were cared for was part of his job.”

“True, but don’t you find it odd that Oliver hired
us
to care for the flock? I mean, sure, we have a background working with animals, but virtually no experience working with turkeys. The estate paid us a
lot
of money. Why wouldn’t they try to find someone with more experience specific to turkeys?”

Jeremy stopped to consider this. “I never really thought about it. The guy calls me out of the blue and offers me a bunch of money to babysit a flock of dumb birds. I never stopped to question why.”

“Someone who worked with turkeys on a regular basis would have recognized that the birds were being switched right away,” I supplied. “What if Oliver was in on the theft? He knows he needs to hire someone credible for the rest of the group to go along with it, but he can’t hire a turkey expert, who might upset his plans. He stumbles across us, who perfectly fit his needs.”

“Oliver gets himself into financial trouble,” Jeremy began. “He asks his dad for help and is refused, then gets the idea to hijack birds and replace them with others of a lesser quality. He grew up on the farm, so he would have been aware of the money to be made by such a switch. He approaches the farm manager, Bill Parker, who has his own ax to grind, and they begin harvesting turkeys for personal profit.”

“Exactly.” I could feel my excitement build as I narrowed in on the kill. “Everything goes as planned for a while, until Bill gets greedy and trades out the birds Raymond Wells was set to receive. Charles gets suspicious, does his own investigation, figures out what’s going on, fires Bill, and threatens to cut Oliver out of the will. Oliver panics and kills his father before the new will can be signed.”

“So where does Dolly fit in?” Jeremy asked.

“Maybe she saw something she shouldn’t have?” I suggested, although even I doubted that was the answer.

“I don’t know,” Zak hedged. “If Oliver was in on the turkey switch, why wouldn’t he just continue to switch them out after they left the property, like they had been? It would have been much easier to make the switch during transport or at the slaughterhouse than making it on the premises during the night.”

“Yeah, I see what you mean,” I grudgingly agreed. “If Oliver wasn’t in on the switch, we’re back to square one in terms of narrowing things down.”

“So what do we do now?” Jeremy asked.

“I say we bluff,” I said.

“Bluff how?” Jeremy asked.

“We pretend we have it figured out and see what happens. Jeremy, you go find the sheriff, and Zak, you find Mason and tell him we need to talk to him. I’ll see if I can find out where the remaining suspects are.”

“Are you sure about this?” Zak asked. “We could just let the sheriff take over from here.”

“I don’t figure we have a lot to lose,” I pointed out. “We accuse one of the suspects in front of the others and see what happens. If the killer reveals his or her hand, the sheriff and his men are still here to handle things. If the killer doesn’t come forward, we’re no worse off than we are now.”

“It’s important to you to finish this?” Zak asked.

“Yeah, it is. I don’t know why exactly, but it seems sort of wrong not to see this through.”

“Okay, I’ll get Mason.”

“And I’ll get the sheriff,” Jeremy agreed.

As I wandered back through the house, I tried to figure out who was the most likely suspect. I needed to single out one member of the group to accuse. I thought back over everything we had discovered, which only confirmed that all three of the remaining suspects could just as well be the guilty party.