It was after eight when Mary finally woke. It wasn’t that she wanted to be awake but the sun was streaming in her window and Millie was sitting on her chest, nudging her with her nose and making whining noises.
Groaning a little and holding one hand on the small of her back, she opened the kitchen door, didn’t pause to watch the dog shoot down the stairs and onto the grass but checked the coffeemaker to be sure she’d indeed filled it last night, sighed with relief and pushed the button. She watched the coffee drip for a moment before she opened the broom closet and pulled out the brown paper bag of dog food. It felt unusually light. She poured a scoop in Millie’s dish, opened the back door to let her in and sighed. ‘Not only do I not know how to get to the Grady place, we’re almost out of your food.’
Millie paid no attention to Mary. She buried her head in her bowl and started to devour her breakfast.
Undeterred, Mary sipped her coffee. ‘I can’t believe I didn’t even ask the Gradys for directions last night. I must have been more tired than I thought. Never mind. We’ll stop by Furry Friends on our way back, but first I’ll call Ellen and find out where we’re going.’
Two cups of coffee, a hot shower and a couple of Tylenol later, Mary felt almost ready to cope. Directions on the seat beside her, wondering what had possessed her to make an offer to drive the check out to the Gradys, she and Millie headed out of town. It had been at least four years since Ellen had represented the seller on the piece of land the Grady brothers had purchased, but Ellen hadn’t forgotten how to get there. She’d also said the house and barn had been falling down when the brothers bought the place and Mary was to see if they’d done anything to fix it up. If not, she didn’t see how they could live in it.
Ellen’s directions were explicit, down to how to recognize landmarks instead of signs. A lot of the roads in the sparsely populated area called Paradise Valley weren’t marked very well, if at all, and most weren’t paved. But Ellen thought they could find it and she had her cell. Who she’d call for help if she got lost, Mary wasn’t sure, but having it was comforting. She didn’t get out in the real country very often and was always surprised at how undeveloped it still was, and how beautiful. Rolling hills covered with oaks, cattle grazing on what looked like very dry grass, horses eating hay out of large tubs and ground squirrels playing chicken as they tried to cross the road before Mary rolled over them. She muttered a word she rarely used then spotted the large red barn Ellen had described. She turned right and up ahead was a field gate. The sign on it said, ‘Grady Pyrotechnics, private property. Trespassers will be shot.’
Hoping that didn’t mean her, she got out, pushed the unlocked gate open and drove through then closed the gate. She didn’t know if the Gradys kept cattle on their twenty acres but she was in no mood to find out by having to chase one down. Up ahead was a large, two-story barn. That it was old there was no doubt, the wood weathered by years of heat and storms, but it had undergone extensive and recent renovation. The green metal roof was new. So were the sliding doors and the metal-framed windows. The siding that had been replaced had been left unpainted, evidently to weather along with the old boards. It would be a while before they attained that same gray. In the meantime, the barn had a strange patchwork look. It also looked serviceable and somehow stern.
The house was a different story. It had never been much, even when new. It hadn’t been new in a long time. It was also gray, but not because it had been painted that color. The original paint was long gone and the bare boards had faded to a dirty, dreary shade. The once-white trim was now mud-colored. The rotted boards on the porch steps looked dangerous and several of them were missing. There wasn’t much screen left in the screen door. The contrast between it and the well-kept barn was jarring. But the house had electricity. There was a large electrical pole in the middle of the yard and thick black wires ran to the barn and to the house. On top of the pole were two floodlights – one facing the barn, the other the house. There would be no shadows in the yard when they were turned on.
The useless screen door was pushed open and Gabe Grady stood in the doorway, hand shading his frowning face. Then, recognizing Mary, he broke into a grin. ‘Hi. Been expecting you. Any trouble finding the place? We’re tucked back in here pretty good.’
Mary snapped Millie’s leash on her harness and they climbed out of the car. Millie looked around with interest, especially at the ground squirrels, who could be seen running for cover behind the barn. ‘No. My niece, Ellen, gave us good directions. Good thing. My GPS would never have found it.’
‘You’re right about that. Ellen. Would that be Ellen McKenzie, the real estate lady? She’s your niece?’
‘It’s Ellen McKenzie Dunham now, and yes, she is.’ Mary looked around at the fields, the spreading oak in the dirt-packed yard and the lack of any kind of landscaping. A brown pickup truck was parked under a lean-to attached to the side of the barn but there was no sign of any other farm equipment, nor did the field behind the house look as if it had been worked or grazed in a long time. ‘She told me about this place when you bought it but I didn’t realize just how isolated you are.’
‘Yeah. It’s perfect. All our fireworks are in that barn. We make some, put together all the displays and store a whole lot of stuff in there that could be dangerous. Last thing we wanted was a bunch of kids getting in there and making their own little celebration. They wouldn’t have thought it was so much fun on their way to the hospital. We keep the door padlocked and the yard light on at night, and we’re hard to find. Never had a minute’s trouble.’
Mary believed that easily. She also believed a group of teenagers bent on creating a little trouble could be very tempted by a barn full of high-powered fireworks. She approved of the Grady brothers’ caution.
‘Your check is in this envelope.’ She handed it to him, along with a clipboard with a form attached. ‘This is a receipt, showing the check is for the amount contracted. Take a look at the check, then if you’ll sign the form, I’ll leave a copy with you. It really was a spectacular show last night, Gabe. Thank you.’
Gabe took the check, examined it, signed the receipt and handed it back to Mary. ‘Heard there was some kind of problem last night after it was all over. Heath and I were pulling out when all of a sudden cops were everywhere. Seemed headed for those oaks trees. You know what happened?’
‘Someone was shot.’
‘Yeah? Who?’
‘A Mr Ian Miller.’
Gabe stared at her then shook his head. ‘Never heard of him. Who shot him?’
‘I have no idea. He was a visitor here. I only met him a couple of times. Tall man, about sixty maybe, had a German shepherd with him.’
Gabe’s eyes flickered. ‘There was a guy with one of them dogs watching us set up. Just stood there, the dog sitting by his side, staring at us. He was there for a long time. Never said a word. Lots of folks watch us set up but most are full of questions. Not this guy. Made me nervous. You think that was him?’
Mary told Gabe she couldn’t say for sure but she didn’t know anyone else who had a German shepherd. It probably was Mr Miller. Had he seen Mr Miller talking to anyone, doing anything other than watching him?
‘We were pretty busy. Like I said, the only reason I even noticed him was because of the dog. He growled at me when I took off my hat so I kept my eye on him pretty good. He stayed staring quite a while, then he was just gone. Heath noticed him, too. Said the guy was creepy.’
‘Where is Heath?’ Mary looked around but their white-paneled van with the painted fireworks all over it was nowhere to be seen.
‘He had to meet a guy about a job. He’ll be back tonight, later.’
A closed look settled on Gabe’s face. He was done talking about Heath. She wondered why the abrupt change in attitude but dismissed it. It wasn’t any of her business, but that Mr Miller had been so interested in what they had been doing might be Dan’s.
‘I think you need to tell Chief Dunham about Mr Miller and his dog. Give him a call, all right?’
‘Isn’t anything to tell. Just some guy we’d never seen before watching us set up, then when he got bored, he left.’
It was obvious that topic wasn’t going anywhere either. Mary thanked him again for a job well done, then she and Millie got in the car and left. All the way to town, she wondered. Why would Ian Miller be so interested in how you put together a fireworks show? Maybe Gabe wasn’t going to talk to Dan but perhaps she should think about telling him of Miller’s interest. If nothing more, it put him on the showgrounds way before the fireworks started and Ranger was with him. She wondered when he’d dropped off Ranger. Karl would know. Did any of it matter? If Dan didn’t think so – well, at least she would have done her part. They hit the pavement and she picked up speed as she and Millie headed back to town.