We searched a bit more around the barn site, mostly for the sake of appearances, and then loaded up in the car. We had covered a lot of ground in just over an hour. I suggested we drive up that way, see if we could catch a glimpse of the person who was watching us, but Santiago wisely pointed out that it might seem suspicious that we drove up the mountain at this point.
“I’ll go up later in a patrol car. One of us drives through once a week or so anyway just to check on things, talk with folks who are out and about. It’ll seem natural,” he said.
“Or better yet, maybe Savannah should do it since you were just here,” I suggested.
“Good idea,” he said. “We definitely have to figure out what that was about.”
“What are you talking about?” Sawyer asked from the back seat.
“Nothing, Love Bug. Just that we saw someone with binoculars.”
“Were they doing some bird watching?” he asked.
I laughed. “Maybe, bud. They were looking around for sure.” I turned to look at him. “Want to do some bird watching with your binoculars when we get home?”
“Yeah, and you get your ’noculars, too, Mama.” He smiled at me and then sat back to look out the window. My dad had given Sawyer a pair of binoculars, but when a friend gifted him an entire insect hunting set with binoculars, the old ones became mine and the fancy new ones his. It worked. As soon as we got home, we spent a few concentrated minutes on the porch looking for birds.
Or I should say I pretended to watch for birds most of the time, pointed out the occasional bird that crossed my path for Saw, and spent most of the time thinking about who from Farrow’s house would be watching us and checking my phone to see if Santi had texted.
Finally, at almost eight, after Sawyer and I had exhausted bird watching, playing on his playground, and looking for worms in the garden, Santi called. “I expect you’ve been hoping to hear from me,” he said with a chuckle.
I felt the heat rise to my cheeks. “You know me too well,” I said as I pulled weeds from around the pepper plants and watched Sawyer “aerate” the soil in what would be our garlic bed.
“Savannah took a ride up and talked to a bunch of the neighbors, told them we were looking into Farrow’s murder again. She didn’t get any new information.” He paused for what I knew was a dramatic effect.
I waited a millisecond and then blurted, “Okay, but what did she find out at the Farrow place?”
Santiago chuckled. “You are such an information hound, Ms. Sutton. She spoke with one Luke Farrow.”
I stood up and stared across the yard. “What?! The Luke Farrow who enlisted? How is that possible? He would have to be in his nineties.”
“Ninety-one, to be exact. Once Savannah got him talking, apparently, he had a lot to say, but not much about his dad’s death.” Santiago sighed.
“Oh, that’s disappointing.” I felt the surge of energy that I’d just gotten slip away at his words. “So another dead end?”
At that moment, car tires sounded on the gravel driveway, and Sawyer climbed over the fence to Santiago’s approaching sedan. “Surprise. I just had to see your face when I tell you this next part,” he said into the phone.
I stared at him as I held the phone to my ear and slowly walked his way.
“You can hang up now, Paisley,” he laughed.
“Oh, right,” I said as I pushed the button on my phone and slipped it into my pocket.
“You are adorable,” he said as he met me in the yard by the garden. “Is there anything you’re not curious about?”
I stared up at the sky for a minute. “Hockey,” I said.
“Fair enough,” he said with a smile. “Okay, so Savannah wasn’t sure Luke Farrow was telling the truth, but then, she didn’t want to raise too much suspicion or make him cautious. So she left.”
I stared at Santiago for a minute. “You wanted to see my face while you told me that?”
“Oh no, it’s this next part I wanted to witness.” He pulled me into a hug and looked down at my face. “As soon as Savannah was out of sight of the house, a man about my age stepped out of the trees down the road a bit and flagged her down.”
I pulled back. “Wow. That sounds a little creepy.”
“Yeah, but get this – it was Landon Farrow.”
I held his gaze and waited.
“Leo’s great-grandson.” He watched my expression as it went from apathy to shock.
“Whoa.” I pulled back from him and looked over the garden to think. “Great-grandson? Where’s the grandson?”
“He died a few years back. Cancer,” Santiago said quietly. “Apparently, Landon goes up every few days to check on his grandparents. Be sure they have what they need.”
“Wait. Luke Farrow’s wife is still alive, too?”
“Sure is. Annie is a spry eighty-seven, according to Savannah.”
“Wow, so what did Landon want to tell Savannah?” I asked.
“He said that he didn’t think his grandfather knew anything, but he might. Asked us, though, to not come up there again because he didn’t want to upset his grandfather.”
“That’s interesting, I guess.” I felt a shiver run down my spine, but nothing in my mind gave me a real clue about why that was.
Santiago pulled me close. “Maybe we can grow old together like Luke and Annie.” He almost whispered the words, but he didn’t look away.
My heart kicked, and I smiled. “I’d like that,” I said. It was a tender moment that was interrupted when Sawyer blew the horn on Santiago’s car and then grinned like the Joker.
“Stop talking,” my son said. “Let’s eat.” He launched himself out of the car window and ran toward the house. “I’ll make noodles.”
Santiago and I exchanged a glance and then jogged after him to be sure we were there when he began his cooking preparations.
We walked in just as Saw was reaching for a box of noodles. “Did you wash your hands, Saw?” I asked.
He held up his grubby mitts. “They’re clean,” he said.
I rolled my eyes. “Seriously?” I said as I took his dirt-encrusted fingers in mine. “This is what you consider clean?”
“I’m just kidding. I’m playing a trick on you.” Then he trotted off to the bathroom to wash his hands while Santiago and I did the same in the kitchen.
Sawyer did a surprisingly good job of cooking his macaroni and cheese noodles, and when I took his chicken nuggets out of the oven, he said, “This is my favorite dinner, Mama.”
I smiled. “I’m glad, Saw.”
Soon, we were all eating – Santiago and I had a chicken Caesar salad I whipped up – and laughing at more of Sawyer’s made-up jokes that had absolutely no sense behind them. We finished dinner and the cleaning up, and then Santiago and Sawyer took the metal detector out into our yard to see what they could find while I sat under the porch light and sewed for a bit.
The guys didn’t find anything but fairly recent nails and some old barbed wire on their hunt, but Santiago offered to leave the detector with us so that Sawyer and I could do more detecting the next day when there was better light. Saw was giddy, and I was pretty excited, too. We had some old outbuildings and what I thought was an old privy hole behind the house, and I was eager to see what we might find. I just hoped it wasn’t another skeleton.
The next morning, Sawyer was out of bed at dawn and ready to head out with the detector. I waylaid a tromp through the dewy grass with some waffles with Nutella and a requirement that Saw have on both shoes and socks. It was still pretty damp when we went out, but there is nothing that will stop a determined three-year-old for long, I’d found.
We spent the next two hours on the ground in the dirt with the metal detector under the chicken coop and the old kitchen, and it was incredibly fun for both of us. Sawyer found some old canning jar lids, and I managed to locate an old saw blade that was in pretty good shape and would make a great wall-hanging for me to sell in the shop.
After a quick shower for me and a washcloth bath for Sawyer, we headed in to see Mika. I felt like I had a million things to do for the store, but my brain was firing too fast for me to focus. A rambunctious little man wasn’t helping, so I figured I might as well surrender to the situation and let the wildness ensue.
We rode with the windows down and Bob Dylan’s “Along the Watchtower” blaring as Sawyer sang along to some semblance of the lyrics. I laughed, and we danced, and by the time we got to Mika’s store, I was more relaxed than I’d been in days.
The store was busy, so Sawyer and I teamed up and helped people find things. I swear Mika made more sales because of Saw’s dimples than she usually did. The three of us tended customers and tidied shelves, mostly shelves that Saw untidied first, and by the time she closed up at five, we were all giddy and laughing.
We decided to have dinner at the Mexican place down the road and invited Santiago and Chris to join us. I hadn’t heard a lot of details about how things were going with Mika and Chris, but I did know they were texting a lot and had made plans for a second date on Saturday after they came to my grand opening reception. It seemed hopeful, especially if they were both willing to double date with us on the spur of the moment.
The guys were already at a table when we arrived, and when four frozen margaritas arrived at the table along with the nachos and salsa, both Mika and I let out a little whoop. It had been a good day, but a good day in retail means a physically taxing day. The tequila in those margaritas was just the relaxation trigger we needed.
And when Sawyer’s virgin margarita showed up a moment later in a paper cup with an umbrella and a straw, everyone was very content to drink and chat for a bit. Eventually, though, the conversation did turn back around to Leo Farrow and Melvin Smith’s murders. I was dying to know what Landon Farrow had told Santiago and Savannah, but I knew that if Santiago was comfortable sharing what they learned, he would.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long because as soon as we caught Chris up on what had been happening, Santiago said, “There’s new news. Well, maybe not news, since when I talked to your dad, Pais, he seemed quite familiar with this fact, but apparently, Leo Farrow was quite the amateur photographer, took pictures of everything about his life.”
Mika laughed. “A black-and-white Instagrammer before his time,” she said.
I smiled. “What kind of things did he take pictures of?”
“Really, everything, according to Landon. His chickens, the sunrises and sunsets, interesting leaves. Anything and everything.” Santiago paused, and all three of us leaned in. “But he also took pictures around the house, and after we found his body, his great-grandson started looking through the pictures.”
“He found something?” Chris said rather loudly before realizing that he was attracting attention.
“He did,” Santiago said more quietly. “He found pictures of his great-grandmother holding things like knives or pokers as she stood over Leo.”
I sat back. “Whoa, that’s creepy. Were they posed or impromptu shots?”
“Hard to tell,” Santiago said as he sat back. “It seems weird that someone would grab their camera when they were being threatened, but I’ve seen more strange things on the job.”
“Maybe she didn’t like having her picture taken?” Mika said.
Santiago bounced his head back and forth. “Maybe. She looks very angry in the photos, so she was either a very good actress, or she was very, very upset with her husband.”
Sawyer took a long slurp from his drink and said, “She was trying to kill him.”
I looked at my son, who regularly talked about killing Beauregard in the same breath that he talked about how he’d love him forever, and said, “What do you mean, Love?”
“The knife. You can kill someone with a knife. That’s why I can’t run with them or have them much.” He sipped more of his drink.
“Out of the mouths of babes,” Santiago said. “He may well be right. If so, then I’ll have to look into it, even if I’m not sure it’s relevant to our investigation, given how many confessions we already have.” He sighed heavily.
I was about to suggest we steer the conversation in a new direction because the idea that my three-year-old might have just provided valuable insight on a murder investigation was a bit much for me when a woman walked over to our table.
“Hi, Summer,” I said as I stood up to hug her. “It’s good to see you.”
She smiled and waved at the table before looking at Sawyer and saying, “You must be Sawyer Sutton.”
He hid behind my leg and whispered, “Sawyer Lee Sutton.” He always said all three of his names if someone said his last name.
I looked back toward the direction from which she came. “You here alone?”
“Yep. It’s something I do from time to time, just to get out in society more. And these guys have the best salsa around.” She pointed to the empty bowl in the middle of our table. “I see you all agree.”
Everyone smiled, and then Mika said, “Would you like to join us?” It was the polite thing to say, especially since our food hadn’t yet arrived, but somehow, the invitation made me a little uneasy. I chalked that up to my crime-solving son, though, and shook off the feeling.
“Yes, please,” I said as I moved to get an extra chair from the wall behind us.
“Well, if I wouldn’t be intruding, I’d love the company, and to get to know you a bit more, Sawyer.” She smiled and slid her chair on the other side of my son. “So what were you all talking about?”
Santiago met my eyes, and I took the hint quickly. “Oh, just the goings-on about town. You heard that they’re thinking of widening the twenty-nine/thirty-three intersection, didn’t you?” It was the most banal conversation topic in the world, but it was the first thing I could think of that might let us chat and give Mika and Chris the hint that we had to discontinue our earlier conversation.
“Oh, I hadn’t, no,” Summer said with a smile as the server brought her a glass of water and some fresh chips and salsa for the table. “Can you just move me over here? Sorry for the trouble.”
The server smiled with a look of mild annoyance that seemed too intense as small as the request was, given that she only had four tables. Still, she moved Summer’s utensils and place mat to her new seat and headed back to get our food.
When Sawyer’s quesadilla arrived, he put two fingers on it, declared it gross, and refused to eat. Fortunately, I was old hat at the eating refusal world and decided to simply ignore his comments while also giving him my phone so he could quietly watch videos. Sometimes that worked to help him eat mindlessly. Not the best habit to instill in a child, but the boy had to get some food in him.
Meanwhile, in the conversation about the road widening, all of us were in agreement, it seemed, that it was a good thing, but then, we weren’t personally invested in the antique shops and small stores that were being demolished to make room. In fact, despite my love of old buildings, I was going to be glad to see the ill-maintained old structures go. I did hope, though, that I’d get a chance to salvage there, so I kept my mouth shut about that.
The food was delicious, and our conversation slowed while we all ate. I had chicken tacos with mole, and while they weren’t the best I’d ever had – that title was reserved for a food truck in a little town called St. Marin’s that I’d once visited – they were really good. The spice combined with the sweet of the margarita really hit the spot.
That is, until Summer steered our conversation back to Farrow’s murder. “Any further information on that body you found under my barn?” she asked.
Santiago played it cool, although I felt his leg tense under the table, and he took a bite of his burrito. “Sorry, I’m not allowed to talk about that with civilians,” he said as he wiped his mouth.
Summer’s brow furrowed. “But I just heard you talking about it a few minutes ago.”
I winced. We had made a mistake.
“Sawyer said someone was trying to kill someone.” She looked at each of us, and when we stared blankly back at her, she said, “Oh, maybe you were talking about someone else.”
Sawyer looked up at me and gave me a puzzled look, but when I shook my head no just enough for him to see it, he looked back at his videos. I breathed a sigh of relief. My son could be shy, but when he got going, sometimes, he didn’t stop talking. This was one of those times when his shyness was better.
“It was a show we watched,” Mika added. “I was just telling everyone about it.” She glanced at Sawyer. “Probably not my wisest move, with little ears present.”
Go, Mika, I thought. She’d both covered up our conversation and protected Sawyer from more murder discussion in one comment.
I looked over at Summer and said, “Yep, you know Manifest? It’s this sort of time travel, spiritual, mystery thing.”
Summer shook her head. “Nope, don’t watch much TV myself. Sounds interesting, though.” She glanced over at Sawyer. “If you don’t mind me asking, did you find anything when you were out in the field yesterday?”
This woman was not going to let this go, and Santiago must have known it. “Nope, nothing. I decided it was worth taking a little bit more in-depth look, but we didn’t turn up anything, did we, Saw?”
Sawyer looked up at him and said, “What?”
“Nothing, Buddy,” Santi said with a laugh. “Just watch your videos.” Then he turned back to Summer. “I hope you don’t mind that we went out there. I saw your alpacas in the field, but since they were grazing along the other side, I hoped it wouldn’t disturb them for us to be there.”
“Oh goodness, no. Totally fine. They’re pretty sedate critters, unless they have babies, but the one mama isn’t due for a couple more weeks yet.” Her voice got more serious then. “If you would, though, call me next time to let me know. It’s disconcerting to see someone on your property when you aren’t expecting them.”
I flicked my eyes over to Santiago, and he was nodding. “Of course. I should have done that yesterday. So sorry. Saw and I were just so excited about metal detecting that I was rude, I apologize.” He held Summer’s gaze, and when she smiled, I knew she believed him.
I, however, knew that he had intentionally not called her because he didn’t need her permission to visit a crime scene.
“How’s Dom?” Mika asked as Chris reached over and took her hand.
I smiled, but then I lost track of Mika and Chris when Summer spoke.
“I expect he’s fine. I haven’t seen him. Just not my type, you know.” Her voice was brisk, almost cold.
Chris frowned but didn’t say anything, and we finished the rest of our meal in silence with a bit of spattered conversation about stuff going on in Octonia. Clearly, things were more awkward now, and I wished Summer hadn’t joined us. But soon enough, we were done, Santiago was paying the bill for all of us, including Summer, and we were out on the sidewalk.
I really wanted a chance to talk with Mika and Chris about Dom, and apparently, Santiago had the same idea because he said, “Nice to see you, Summer.” Then, to Chris and Mika, “Ready to go, guys?”
We all turned and followed Santiago to his sedan and climbed in. Santiago started the engine, waiting to see – as Southern politeness dictated – if Summer’s car started and she got going. Then he pulled out, swung up the block, and parked behind the library, just steps from where my car was parked near Mika’s shop.
When the car was parked, Chis grabbed his phone out of the console and shot off a quick text before saying to all of us, “Dom is going to be surprised and hurt.”
A moment later, his phone rang, and Mika, Sawyer, and I stepped out of the car to give the three friends some time to talk. Meanwhile, the three of us strolled up and around the library to the side street by the courthouse. The evening was cooling off, and as twilight set in, the old buildings of the courthouse square looked particularly magical with the orange glow of sunset coming off the bricks.
I decided it wasn’t going to do us any good to speculate about the murders or about what Dom was going to say, and I was really wary of having Sawyer hear more about this case. So I pried into something that I was very curious about and could understand more deeply. “So, you and Chris?” I said.
Mika blushed. “Yeah. He’s really great.”
“And things are going well?” Like I couldn’t tell that at dinner or from Mika’s reaction here.
“Really well. I like him. A lot. Maybe too much already,” she said with a little catch in her voice.
“Stop shaming yourself for what you feel. Just go with it. You’re smart and wise, and all this will work out as it should.” I was really good at giving this advice, and far less good at taking it. But I still meant what I said.
“Chris is nice,” Sawyer chimed in.
Mika smiled. “Thanks. That helps.” We walked on a bit more, and then she said, “I’ve been thinking about Melvin Smith. Someone gave him something in his food or drink, right? Isn’t that what Santiago thinks?”
I glanced down at Sawyer, who had stopped to study an ant on the sidewalk. “Yeah, that’s their working theory.” The ant grew boring, apparently, because Sawyer walked on in a few moments. We turned onto Main Street and looped back toward Santi’s car.
“And he thinks that happened at your house?” Mika asked.
“Or just before, I guess,” I said. “Why?”
“Well, if it was at your house, then that means someone there really had something to hide and must have thought Melvin Smith knew about it, right?”
I took a deep breath as I thought about what she’d said. I’d been so preoccupied with the idea that he might have been poisoned at my house that I hadn’t given much more thought to the fact that, if so, that meant the murderer had been at my house, too. “I suppose so.”
We didn’t have further time to talk about it as we walked up to the car. The two guys were leaning on the hood waiting. “Dom okay?” Mika asked when we reached them.
“Yeah, a little hurt and angry, maybe, but okay,” Chris said.
“It just didn’t work out?” I asked as Santiago picked up Sawyer, who had come to rest his head on Santi’s leg.
“Apparently, ‘it’ didn’t even get started. He thought they were really connecting that day, but then she blew him off later, hasn’t answered his texts, and the one time she did answer when he called, she said she wasn’t looking for a relationship and to please leave her alone.” Chris was definitely more than a little angry.
“Ouch,” Mika said. “I definitely thought she was into him, too. Wonder what that was about?”
“Who knows?” Chris said before slipping an arm around Mika’s waist. “You aren’t going to start ignoring my texts and calls now, are you?” He smiled at her in a way that said he already knew the answer to his question.
“You never know,” Mika said with a wink. “I might suddenly get very busy.”
“Speaking of busy,” I said, “I need to get home and get some sleep. And so does this guy.” Sawyer had dozed off on Santiago’s shoulder. “See you all Saturday?”
“Saturday? I’m coming to your shop tomorrow to help you get everything set up. Nine a.m. work?” Mika said.
I smiled. “That’s perfect. Thanks.”
As Santiago walked me to my car and helped me get Sawyer into his seat, I kept thinking about Summer’s behavior. Something was definitely up with her. I just didn’t know what that something was.