"I'm calling 911," I heard someone from the crowd yell.
I couldn't believe what was in front of my eyes. I scanned the crowd and locked eyes with Jenni, who was sobbing hysterically. I made my way over to her.
"Are you okay?" I asked, even though it was very apparent that she wasn't.
She tried to say something, but couldn't get the words out. I rubbed her back and waited for her to calm down. I could hear sirens in the distance and while Josie wasn't the nicest person I had ever met, I didn’t want anything to happen to her. While it was hard to imagine anyone killing someone, it happened every day somewhere.
Finally, Jenni's sobs started to calm down, and I thought I saw Katy approaching with a bottle of water, which she handed to Jenni. Jenni fumbled through her tears gratefully.
"Thank you," she said with a hiccup.
"No problem," Katy said.
"I hate to even ask this, since you're so upset."
"I didn't kill her, if that's what you're thinking," Jenni interrupted.
"No, no. I wasn't thinking that at all. I was just going to ask if you saw what happened."
"Sorry. I shouldn't jump to conclusions."
"I understand."
"To answer your question, no. I was walking back from getting a drink from the little café in the corner," she said, jerking her thumb over her shoulder in the direction of the food stand area. "I started to approach her table, and there were a bunch of people she was talking to. I was walking toward her table, and then I was looking down at my phone when someone screamed. I looked up, and she was lying there, and people were starting to gather round."
"So, you didn't see anyone suspicious?"
Jenni bit her lip, and I could tell she was trying to run the memory back through her mind.
"No. But there were tons of people milling around. Surely somebody saw something."
"I'm sure they did. We'll just need to wait for the police to get here, and I'm sure they'll work to figure this out."
Sheriff Blackford was going to have his hands full considering this was the second murder in two weeks, all happening at Adams Creek Farms, which made me wonder if it was all related to the Fall Harvest Festival. It made me think that this might not be the best activity for our sleepy community.
"Speak of the devil, Presley," she said and jerked her head toward the door where I saw Sheriff Blackford and a couple of his deputies walking in, followed by the EMTs with a stretcher and all their gear. They were jogging toward us as the crowd started to make way for them. But apparently, it wasn't fast enough.
"Move back, folks, move back," Sheriff Blackford called out in a loud booming tone, motioning with his hands for people on both sides to get out of the way. As the EMTs rushed over to Josie's body, I was able to get a better look as people cleared away. The object I thought earlier was a knife was actually pruning shears. And I could see they had bright pink handles. Before I could look for any more clues, Sheriff Blackford approached me. Two of the deputies stood on either side of the body, while the EMTs kept people away. I saw Scott burst through the door and run over to us. He barely gave Josie’s body a glance, which I found odd, and came right up to Sheriff Blackford.
"What happened? What happened?" he asked frantically.
"I need you to calm down, please, sir. Let's step away from the crowd while they do their job," Sheriff Blackford said and led Scott a few feet away from the body.
I was left standing there with Katy, Wendy, and Jenni. Jenni was still crying, but not as hysterically as before.
"Who would want to kill Josie?" she finally let out a tearful cry.
"It seems like it would have to be someone here who didn't want her to win, don't you think?" I said.
"Well, I guess that could be anyone," Jenni said. "Oh my gosh," she exclaimed. "What if someone thinks I killed her?"
"No one is going to think that, Jenni," Katy said, trying to soothe her.
"Yes, they will. I'm the one who got in a fight with her yesterday and accused her of sabotaging my flowers," she cried out, and the tears started coming harder.
"Just because you had an argument doesn't mean you would have killed her. We know that, and the sheriff will too," I said, trying to reassure her.
It didn't work so well, as the tears kept coming. I looked over at Katy, as she was usually much better than me at these things, but she just raised her eyebrows. I was searching for something to say when I saw the young man who had been with Jenni behind her table walking up. His head was bobbing to a beat, and I noticed earbuds in his ears. He saw me and gave me a slight smile before his gaze traveled forward and he saw Josie lying there, the EMTs working on her. He stopped suddenly. His eyes widened in shock.
"Excuse me," I said, looking at Jenni, Wendy, and Katy, and then walked over to the young man.
His voice trembling, he said, "Is she… Is she dead?"
Technically, I wasn't certain, since I wasn't over there checking her pulse, but by the amount of blood on the floor, it was likely. Though I wasn't going to say that to him. "I don't know, but rest assured the town has great medical help, and they will do everything they can," I said. "I saw you with her earlier."
He nodded. "I'm her assistant."
"So, you're close?"
"You could say that."
I started to ask if he knew who might want to have killed her when I saw Sheriff Blackford walking our way with Scott trailing him. He reached us and looked at the young man.
"Are you Hayden Haynes?" he said.
I realized I hadn't even asked the kid his name, but Scott must have known it and told Sheriff Blackford.
The kid nodded.
"I need to talk to you, and then you, Mrs. Sands. Don't go anywhere," he said in his gruff tone. He walked back a few feet away from the group with Hayden. Scott stood there with us, his face ashen, and I could see his hands were shaking.
"I can't believe this happened a second time. We're ruined. Ruined," he said, his voice rising.
"Scott, no one is going to blame you for this," I said, trying to be positive. Though I really didn't think anyone would.
"It's just the last straw. I'm ruined," he said and stormed off.
Jenni, Wendy, and Katy had joined me by this point.
"Do you know what he meant by that?" I asked Jenni and saw her hesitate. "Was this what you were arguing about yesterday?"
It took a second, but she finally answered, "Yes."
I waited a minute for her to continue, and when she didn't, I prompted her. "What is going on, Jenni?"
"Scott paid Josie to come here."
"What? Why?"
"He thought there would be a big draw, and it would make the event attract more people, which in turn means more money—if someone of her caliber was here."
"I guess I can understand that from a business standpoint. But why would that ruin him? It's not like he bribed a judge or anything. Don't tell me he bribed the judge!"
"I would like to say no, but I think he got himself in too deep. Josie was pressuring him to make sure she won. She said she couldn't come to some podunk contest and not be the winner, no matter what he paid her."
"Where would he even come up with that kind of money?" I asked, and Jenni averted her eyes. "Jenni, what do you know?"
"He swore me to secrecy, and I've worked here for years. I hate betraying his trust."
"If you tell us, maybe we can help."
Doubt and uncertainty flitted through her face. This time I stayed silent.
"He took money out of the business account, and he did it without telling anyone."
"Well, that's not good. I don't know how he thought he would hide that."
"Me neither. What made things worse is Susan found out and threatened to go public. He would have lost his job at the very least."
"How did Susan find out?" I asked.
"She's on the Board of Directors for Adams Creek Farm, our nonprofit, and she happens to be the one in charge of accounting. She saw the money he had paid Josie, and they had a huge argument about it."
"You don't think he…" I trailed off.
She looked at me and started to say something when Sheriff Blackford came up.
"It's your turn, Presley," he said and led me away. But my mind was whirling from what I had just found out.