I gaped at the phone in Jill’s hand while my deputy friend shot me a wry grin that told me she knew this announcement was coming, likely had been warned by the man I loved a moment before he told his employee to put him on speakerphone and make me the center of unhappy attention.
Thing was, the instant he made his announcement, the fury on Olivia’s face flashed to relief and, without missing a beat, she stuck her hand out to me and shook my limp and unresponsive one while she pumped away at my arm like I’d been waiting my whole life for this accolade.
“Welcome to the team, Fiona,” she said, nodding abruptly like she’d only then made up her mind about me and hadn’t cajoled, canoodled and conspired her way into my sort of if not completely good graces time and time again. “I’m sure with your talent and expertise this horrible incident will be behind us in short order.”
Geoffrey’s unhappy expression spoke volumes, but he didn’t argue or speak, choosing instead to back down with a narrowing of his eyes for Olivia and a short nod for me. Obviously there was some kind of power play ongoing between the two of them, something I wasn’t privy to, and might never uncover the truth of at this rate. The fact my fiancé chose to ruffle the kind of feathers that put Olivia’s support in my wheelhouse all over again did little to elevate my mood, though I doubted my mood was at the top of Crew’s list. Then again, knowing him as well as I did, maybe how I was feeling was exactly where his brain settled.
Olivia gestured at the phone still perched in Jill’s hand as if Crew could see her. “You’ll be returning, Sheriff Turner, in short order, I assume?”
“I’m tied up for the moment,” he said. “But I shouldn’t be much longer.” Now I wanted to know where he’d went and why, seeing as the distraction of the wedding’s siren call was over with. Because it was all about me, thank you. “In the meantime, if I could talk to my deputies, please. In private.”
Olivia grunted like he’d handed her a sour candy when she was expecting sugar, taking a moment to lean into me, her pale painted lips near my ear. “You’re on, Fee,” she whispered. “But, it’s the last time I can protect you.” She actually sounded exasperated. “For heaven’s sake, would you stop finding dead bodies!” She turned then and strode off, back toward the car, Geoffrey sparing one last look for me before joining the mayor, with a rather pointed stare for Robert on his way past.
My cousin didn’t join us when Jill closed ranks with me, the phone between us, Crew’s voice carrying more than I’d like despite the fact Robert seemed to take zero interest in what the sheriff was saying.
“Crew,” I said, keeping my voice down, “we need to talk. There’s more I haven’t said.”
“Later,” he answered. “When I’m back in Reading. For now, follow Jill’s lead and Fee.” He sounded pained, under strain. “Are you okay?”
Sigh. “I’m fine,” I said, hating how ordinary this felt. A woman was dead, after all, someone I’d just met, who had stood next to me, breathing and arguing and very much alive not so long ago. Where was my compassion? And my curiosity? “Can I ask what you were thinking just now?”
I didn’t have to see the man I loved to know he was eye rolling and likely suppressing a huge sigh. “You’ve proven in the past you’re just going to investigate anyway,” he said. “And have made yourself useful.” Wow, a bit begrudging even for him. “Besides, at least this way I know where you are and what you are doing so I can keep an eye on you.” The fact I’d had my life threatened and came close to death about as many times as I’d stumbled on an already dead body was likely right at the top of his mind, so fair enough. “Just stick close to Jill and follow her advice. Okay?”
Grunt. “I already have a few angles to investigate.” I raised my eyebrows at Jill who shrugged.
“Deputy Wagner, please take the lead.” Was Crew saying that for Robert’s benefit? He sounded pretty official, and while I wasn’t surprised—come on, she was the real deputy after all, since I had zero illusions about my position being in name only and applied for reasons I’m sure Crew was going to share with me before long. “I’ll be back in town shortly. I want a full report when I arrive.”
“Yes, sir, Sheriff.” Jill took him off speaker, raising the phone to her ear. I heard Crew’s voice again, thin and distant before she nodded and hung up, sliding the slim cell into her back pocket and then grinning at me suddenly like this whole scenario ticked her funny bone as nothing else ever had. “Finally,” she said, voice barely above a whisper. “Welcome to the team officially, Fee.”
I watched the sedan pull away, the music over, knowing Olivia and Geoffrey missed the wedding because of me and doing my very best not to feel smug about it. While the mayor was clearly dealing with Patterson issues of her own, she’d been invited, hadn’t she?
Nope, not bitter or anything.
“I hope you don’t think this actually means you’re welcome in this investigation, Fanny.” Leave it to Robert to assume anything he said was important or valuable. I crossed my arms over my chest and glared as he bellied up to the conversation, hauling at the sagging belt loops of the jeans he wore as the lower half of his uniform, snuffling before spitting off to one side in a revolting show of just how classless he really was. If anything embodied Robert Carlisle’s disgusting insides it was the glob of phlegm that came so unpoetically into the light, a vile reminder his outsides weren’t much better.
Just. Gross.
“Deputy Carlisle,” Jill spoke up before I had the chance to tell Robert where to shove all the crap I had to give up the teensy weensy crack of his nonexistent butt. “You mentioned earlier you thought you saw an intruder, that you were investigating just that possibility when Fee called in the body?”
Robert looked like she’d handed him something that smelled worse than the horse manure I’d been sitting in. “So?”
Jill shrugged, all casual and nonchalant despite the fact I knew her far better than Robert, apparently, because I had to fight a grin to keep from snorting my delight at what was coming. “Since Sheriff Turner told me to take lead, I’m going to need you to finish your search and then write up a report based on that investigation. So we have all the avenues covered.”
He glanced at me, still not getting the fact she was effectively sending him on a wild goose chase. Because either he a) lied about the search so she wouldn’t know why he’d been in the barn’s proximity or b) didn’t want to admit he’d figured out I was the intruder he’d gone looking for and suspected I’d overheard his clandestine conversation. Regardless, he stammered around a comment while Jill turned her back on him.
“Now, Deputy Carlisle,” she said, waving him off over one shoulder. “Deputy Fleming, shall we begin the interviews?”
Robert’s flat, furious expression showed the darkness I’d become accustomed to when he felt truly and completely wronged. It scared me the first time and, if I was going to be honest, still sent shivers down my spine. That level of utter black, that depth of vibrating rage, told me one thing about my cousin—that I’d underestimated him for a long time and continued to, at least to a point. In those moments when the truth of his soul showed through, Robert allowed me to see he was capable of literally anything under the right set of pressures.
I was surprised when he didn’t argue with Jill, instead turning and stalking off, shoulders bent, face a mask, kicking at the gravel at his feet. Petulance aside, there was something truly hideous about him that told me I had to start taking him seriously, if only so I had an early warning system if he decided to finally snap.
I turned to Jill to bring her in on what I was thinking when we were interrupted by, to my surprise, the unhappy and uncomfortable Sarah Shard. She nodded to Jill who nodded back, while giving over her attention to me. I hated recalling the fight not so long ago as I reached out and grasped her hand a moment before letting Sarah go. So weird to feel attached to her still, to think of Pamela at a time like this when, if I was going to be honest with myself, the most likely suspect stood right in front of me.
That was, if Melina was murdered. Dr. Aberstock had, as yet, to confirm. So why then wasn’t I thinking a body buried in straw in an empty stall had died of natural causes? Cynicism aside, I had little doubt the woman had been killed. Why remained to be uncovered.
“Thank you for defending me earlier.” I tucked my hands into my back pockets to keep myself from reaching out to Sarah again. “I appreciate you trying to have my back.”
Sarah’s unhappiness faded a bit as she hugged herself, forced a tiny smile. “You’re Aunt Pam’s friend,” she said. “It feels like I know you, Fee. She speaks so highly of you, all the time.”
“Even now?” I flinched a bit, glanced at Jill who remained silent, watchful, unjudging.
Sarah looked confused. “I don’t know what you mean. Did you two have a fight?” She sighed then. “I talked to her this morning and she mentioned you.”
Huh. “Your aunt hasn’t spoken to me in ages,” I said. “She’s been avoiding me.” Why was I dragging Sarah into this? And so much for deputy duties. But Jill didn’t alter my line of questioning or try to intervene so I let Sarah answer.
“Honestly,” the young rider said, voice dropping, “you’re not the only one. It’s like pulling teeth trying to get Aunt Pam to talk these days.” She glanced over her shoulder at Robert, then back to me. “Is something going on?”
So she didn’t know anything either. Craptastic. Rather than dig further into a line of questions that did nothing to serve the dead woman and only made me crazy, I grasped my need to know about things that had nothing to do with Sarah and pulled out the regularly scheduled playbook. “Sarah, I have to ask—”
My inquiry into her relationship with the victim had to wait, however. At least, until the furious intrusion of the violently verbal Violet Perry crashed our little question and answer. She grasped Sarah’s arm, spun her around, tiny face dark red with rage as she jabbed a finger at the young woman I already thought of as a friend.
“Why haven’t you arrested her?” Violet’s shriek of accusation echoed back from the surrounding stables as if the whole place agreed with her. “Sarah killed Melina!”
***