“Are you going to try to find the killer?” Rainy asked.
I slowly shook my head. “As the saying goes, this isn’t my circus.”
“Not your circus, not your monkeys,” Rainy muttered. “Unfortunately, it’s definitely mine, though.”
She had a point, especially now that she owned Hold Your Horses.
“I better get going,” I said, tearing my gaze away from the blood. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
“If Mallory tries to pin this on me, I’m calling you to figure out who killed him,” she said. “I’ve done some bad things in my life, but shooting Kevin in the face is not one of them.”
I followed her back to the bar, wondering if she’d been involved in other murders. The way she phrased her sentence made me think it was a possibility.
“Come on, Daisy,” I called as I headed for the main entrance. “Time to go.”
“No! Gina, I don’t want to leave my friends!”
The three dogs stood in a row staring at me. A small ball of guilt began to build in my chest, but I didn’t want to hang out at a murder scene any longer, especially if the regular clientele would be making an appearance soon. “We have to get home, Daisy. We’ll come back and see your new friends soon, but we have to go home now.”
Rainy chuckled. “It’s cute how you talk to her like she understands every word you say. I do the same with the Misfits.”
“Sometimes I think they do understand every word.”
“I think you’re right.”
“Of course I understand everything,” Daisy said. “We all do! You just can’t understand us!”
Unless you ran into a tree in the forest and knocked yourself unconscious, just as I had. Too bad I could only understand what Daisy had to say and not any other dog.
“I’ll see you later, Rainy.” I waved as I pushed open the door. “Give me a call if you need anything.”
“Will do. Thanks for stopping by, Gina.”
“Bye Fruit Loop! Bye Maverick!” Daisy called. “I’ll miss you!”
As we walked across the parking lot to the car, it occurred to me that Daisy may have had a conversation about the killing with the misfits.
“Did Fruit Loop and Maverick have anything to say about the man who died in the bar?” I opened the door and she jumped in.
“It’s the gates of Hell! I found the entrance to Hell, Gina! It’s inside this car!”
I slid into the driver’s seat and didn’t argue. The temperature definitely sat in that range. After turning on the car and blasting the air conditioner, I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main highway. Then, I repeated my question.
“Yes, they told me about it.”
“Were they there when it happened?” I asked.
“No. Rainy takes them home at night. They like the bar, Gina. They said that the people who go there are very nice and they always get nice pets.”
Apparently, even the troublemakers of society liked dogs.
“That’s too bad,” I said.
“Why is it too bad that the people are kind to my new friends?” Daisy asked.
“I didn’t mean that. I’m glad they’re happy there. I was hoping they could provide some information about the murder.”
“They weren’t there.”
“Yes, you said that.”
“Gina, I don’t want to answer any more questions. I’m thirsty. I drank all the water Rainy gave me and I’m hot.”
“Okay, we’re almost home.” I sighed and turned up the air conditioner one more notch.
When we arrived at the house, she bounded up the driveway to the front door and stared at it while I inserted the key. We both walked inside and headed for the kitchen, each of us fetching some water. I tried not to think about the murder. My intention for going to Hold Your Horses had been to check on Rainy. I didn’t care who’d killed poor Kevin. However, I found it interesting that Rainy had been sleeping with him and she’d been tearless, pretty unemotional when telling me about his death and showing me the murder scene. Annabelle had said Rainy had been seen crying over the limes in the grocery store. Maybe her grief had caught her off guard in that moment. I wasn’t one for public displays of emotion, and Rainy struck me as the same.
She was now the owner of the bar, which was a great motive, but she hadn’t been very excited about it, and that confused me… unless her uncertainty about being a bar owner was an act. Rainy might have killed Kevin but was trying to portray that him leaving her the bar was more of a nuisance to her than a blessing. I felt she was hiding something.
Still, although I didn’t know Rainy as well as I knew Annabelle, I had a hard time believing she’d kill anyone, despite her rough persona. And maybe that’s why she hadn’t seemed that upset—she’d been dealing with the misfits of society for so long and seen so much, nothing fazed her.
“Gina, I’m smelling weird things,” Daisy said, sniffing around my shoe as I stood in the kitchen.
“It’s probably from the bar. Who knows the last time that floor has been cleaned?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“What do you smell?”
“Someone who isn’t us.”
“Exactly. It’s from the bar. The place should probably be burnt to the ground and rebuilt for sanitary reasons alone.”
My phone rang and I pulled it out of my pocket. Glancing at the screen, I smiled and immediately answered.
“Hi, honey.” Jacob, my son, was home for the summer and had gone camping with friends for the week. “Thanks for calling and letting me know you’re alive. Are you having fun?”
As I listened to his tales of mosquitoes feasting on his legs, how they’d forgotten a can opener so they hadn’t been able to get their beans open, and the snake that was found in the campground toilet, I was only reminded of why I hated camping. “But we caught some fish and that was really good. We’re trying to catch more for tonight.”
“It sounds like you’re having a great time,” I said.
“Did Trevor leave?”
“Yes. It’s just me and Daisy.”
“Do you want me to come home?”
I furrowed my brow. “Why would you ask that?”
“I don’t know. Because you’re there alone.”
Was he looking for a reason to get back to civilization? “I’m fine, honey. You don’t have to come home on my account.”
“Are you sure?”
“Jacob, do you want to come home and you’re looking for an excuse to do so?”
My question was met with a beat of silence. Finally, he answered. “Maybe.”
I burst out laughing and shook my head. “Don’t come home because of me. I’m fine. But if you want to come home because you’ve reached your limit of mosquitoes and snakes, then I’ll put the key out.”
“Okay, Mom. Please do put it out, just in case. There are actually some cute girls who arrived at the campground today, so maybe things will get a little more exciting.”
“Go ask if they have a can opener,” I suggested.
“Oh, that’s a great idea,” he said. “We’ll invite them to our campsite for fish and beans.”
“That sounds wonderful,” I replied, not meaning it even a little bit.
“Okay, I gotta go. Call me if you need me to come home.”
“Will do. Have a good time.”
I hung up, set the phone on the counter, and glanced down to find Daisy staring at me. “Was that Jacob?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Is he having fun?”
“Yes.”
“Even without me? Did he say he misses me?”
“Of course he did,” I lied. Leaning over, I scratched under her chin. “He misses us both.”
“He probably misses me the most, though.”
“I’m sure you’re right.”
“I don’t make him do things like empty the dishwasher. I just like to play and snuggle.”
“Why wouldn’t he miss his dog more than his mean mom?”
“Right,” Daisy said, then yawned. “I think it’s time for a nap now. When Jacob gets home, I want to have lots of energy to play with him. He’ll be super excited to see me.”
As she trotted into the living room, I almost followed her. A nap didn’t sound half-bad. But then my phone rang again. I picked it up and glanced at the screen. Trevor.
“Hey,” I answered. “What’s going on?”
“Well, I think it’s hotter than Satan’s armpit here in Phoenix. It’s reaching one-hundred-and-twenty-five degrees today.”
I winced at the thought. “We need to stop complaining up here in the mountains. Everyone was moaning about our ninety-five-degree temperatures.”
“Yeah, tell them to shut it.”
“Are you a little cranky?”
“Wouldn’t you be?”
I laughed and leaned against the counter. “I suppose so.”
“Listen, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Well, then please do so.”
“My boss is wondering if I can stay in town for the full week. It won’t be a regular thing. He needs someone to cover for a guy who’s having some minor surgery. I told him I needed to check with you before giving an answer.”
“That’s sweet,” I said, smiling. “Yes, it’s fine with me.”
“So, you won’t miss me too much?”
“Nope. I’ll just see you when you get home. You can take me out to dinner with all that extra money you’ll have made.”
“Deal. What else is going on up there?”
I told him about the murder and me visiting Rainy.
“Ah, man,” he said, sighing. “That’s too bad. Do they have anyone in custody?”
“No. There’s quite a few good suspects, so I imagine that finding the killer will take some time.”
“And what about you? Are you getting involved?”
“Nope. I told Rainy today the murder isn’t my circus.”
“Good. Keep it that way. I think I’ll text a couple of buddies in the department and see what’s going on in the investigation, just so I have an idea in case anyone asks me about it when I get into town. That reporter from the Heywood Sentinel has been calling every now and then, asking me about different things happening in town. It’s almost as if he’s playing a gotcha game, ready to throw me under the bus if I say the wrong thing.”
“I’m sure he is,” I replied. “That’s what reporters do, especially that little weasel. It’s a good idea to get a feel for the investigation so you’re prepared for his questions, but don’t get too many details. You don’t want to get your friends in trouble for feeding you information.”
“Yeah, I’ll just get the basics. How’s the campaign going?”
“It’s going well, but it would be nice if the candidate was actually in town and talking to people about how he’s going to shape up the sheriff’s office, so please don’t make this new work schedule a permanent thing.”
“I won’t. I promise. And if I did make it permanent, then I’d never see you.”
Despite my attempts not to gush at the compliment, my cheeks heated. “Now you’re just overdoing the mushy stuff.”
He chuckled and we talked for a few more minutes, then I hung up. My solitary existence hit me like a slap in the face. For the next week or so—depending on if Jacob bailed on the camping—it was going to be me and Daisy.
I tried to remain positive and think of all the things I could get done. The spring cleaning that hadn’t been done in the spring. It was a first time in a while that I hadn’t had any rescue dogs to take care of. I could go knock on some doors and talk to people about Trevor’s candidacy. And I could watch whatever I wanted on television.
With that idea, I poured a glass of wine and sat down next to my snoring dog. As I flipped through the channels, I tried to watch a few different shows, but nothing held my attention. Twenty minutes later, I turned it off and set down the remote.
Honestly, there was only one thing that interested me: who had killed Kevin Cox?
“Not my circus,” I mumbled.
“Not your monkeys,” Daisy replied.
Then why did I feel the need to step into the role of ringmaster?