by Kathi Daley
“It appears that he drove his car off the road. He hit a ditch, rolled, and hit a tree. He was killed on impact.”
“Oh, no.” I gasped. “I’m so sorry. When did it happen?”
“Last night, but the accident wasn’t reported until this morning when the car was discovered. According to the coroner, Bill had been dead for eight to twelve hours by then.”
I placed a hand on my chest. “Do you have any idea what happened to cause him to crash?”
“Not really. I suppose he could have swerved to avoid hitting a deer. There are a lot of them out along the old highway. Or he might have received a text and looked down at his phone, which caused him to swerve. He might have fallen asleep, or he may simply have lost focus.”
“Do you suspect intoxication?”
“I’m not sure,” Cass answered. “It seems possible, but I’m waiting for lab results.”
I felt really bad. Bill was a nice guy. I didn’t know him well, but from what I knew, he was one of the good guys. As far as I knew, he was single. I’d heard that he’d been married during the five years he’d lived out of the area following high school graduation, but apparently, he’d divorced the woman he’d married before he’d returned to Foxtail Lake.
At some point in the past, Naomi, who knew Bill much better than I did, had mentioned that Bill had gone through a complicated phase in his life during the five years he’d lived in LA. Apparently, once he returned to Colorado, he’d gotten his life together, and the two of them had been close ever since. She’d mentioned that they sometimes went out to dinner, and I knew that he volunteered at the shelter.
“Do you need to go back to work?” I asked Cass.
“No. I’ve done what I can to notify those who need to be notified, so I’m off for the night. The coroner is going to take a closer look at the body just to make sure there isn’t anything more to learn about the collision, but at this point, I have nothing to suggest that the accident was anything other than a horrible mishap, so a formal investigation isn’t really warranted.”
I wrapped my arms around Cass. “I’m so sorry. I know that you and Bill were friends.”
Cass hugged me back. “We were. Not super close, but we’d been friends since we were kids. He did change somewhat while he was away after graduation.”
“Naomi had mentioned that as well. She said something about his making a mess of his life, but then pulling it together once he returned to Foxtail Lake.”
He nodded. “Sounds about right. I think that whatever went on with his ex-wife had something to do with the fact that he seemed angry and withdrawn when he first returned, but once he settled in, he seemed to find the way back to his old self.”
Naomi showed up shortly before we planned to end the play session. It was obvious she’d been crying as her eyes were red and her cheeks flushed. She headed straight toward Cass.
“So tell me what you know,” she said after stepping into his arms for a hug.
“I told you everything on the phone,” he responded as she stepped away from him. “I really don’t know anything else at this point.”
“Bill was a good guy. A careful driver and he didn’t drink. I do understand that even good guys can lose focus and have accidents, but it just seems so unlike him. Are you sure he wasn’t run off the road?”
Cass put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye. “I don’t know how the accident occurred, but there is no evidence to suggest that another vehicle was involved. The coroner is taking a closer look at the body, and I’m having the car gone over in the event there was tampering or simply faulty equipment involved in the accident, but at this point, I have no reason to believe that anything occurred other than driver error.”
She dipped her head. “I’m having such a hard time with this. Bill was just here yesterday. He’s been doing the advanced training class with a couple large labs, and he’s actually spent quite a bit of time at the shelter as of late.”
“Do you know what time he left?” Cass asked.
She shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. I wasn’t here when he left, but he usually wraps up around five. He normally works with Nick Southerland, but Nick has been out of town on business for the past few weeks, so he’s been working with Hyldie Jefferson. I guess you can ask her if she was still here when Bill left. I should have suggested that you speak to her when you called and informed me about Bill’s death, but I didn’t think of it at the time.”
“I’ll call her,” Cass said. “I’d like to know if Bill mentioned where he was heading when he left here. The one thing that strikes me as odd about the whole thing is that Bill was on the old highway, a good twenty miles from home.”
“The old highway?” Naomi asked.
Cass nodded.
“But no one other than hunters and hikers trying to access forest service land uses that road since the new highway was built,” Naomi pointed out. “Although…” she added after she’d had a chance to think things over, “there are a few farms out on that road. The Hanson place for one. Jamison Hanson has lived on the property alone since his son moved to Denver. I have no reason to believe that Jamison and Bill were friends, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to talk to him.” She paused to think about it. “The Farthington Farm has been deserted ever since Sam Farthington passed away, but there are a couple smaller properties just past the Farthington Farm. The Landow property between the Timberlake Farm and the Cofield Horse Ranch was sold, and new folks have moved in. They’ve completely renovated the property, and of course, there’s the Pendelton place near where the old highway merges with the new one. I suppose it might be a good idea to chat with some of the folks who live out there if you find a reason to suspect foul play.” Naomi hugged Cass once again. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything, and you let me know if you find any answers.”
“I will,” Cass promised. “We might not know much of anything until Monday with it being the weekend and all, but if I hear anything, I’ll call you.”
After Naomi headed back to the house, Cass and I discussed where we should have dinner. We decided to keep it simple and just grab a pizza. I felt like things had been strange between Cass and me ever since we’d toyed with the idea of moving our relationship to the next level this past spring but then hadn’t. I wanted to talk to him about it, but I could see that now wasn’t the time for such a serious discussion, so once the pizza was ordered, I began filling him in on my new assignment and the challenge I’d have cramming all my responsibilities into my life.
Chapter 5
Saturday
Gracie and I showed up at the Harvest Festival early the following morning. The barn didn’t open until four o’clock in the afternoon, but there were a lot of other activities taking place as the first of two October themed events got underway. While the town didn’t always have two completely separate events, this year, the Harvest Festival took place in mid-October while the Halloween Festival took place closer to Halloween. The haunted barn ran for two weeks, which allowed for locals and visitors alike to take the tour more than once if they so desired. I thought about bringing Paisley to help me with the event, but she was spending the weekend with her friend, Anna.
After meeting with Hope and getting our assignments for the day, Gracie headed toward the tent that had been set up in the park where the bakeoff, quilting show, and chili cookoff, were being held, while I was directed to the kiddie carnival where I was assigned to the ticket booth, which was much better than being assigned to one of the games. I knew Cass planned to work security for the event even though he was normally off on the weekends, but during dinner the previous evening, he’d suggested that the two of us get together for a meal after he got off. Maybe after that, we’d stroll along Main Street to view the festively decorated windows the local merchants had created in fall and Halloween themes.
“Please tell me you’re here to work the ticket booth with me,” Ida Cunningham, who owned the local inn, with her sister, Maude, said after I ar
rived at the little booth that had been temporarily erected in the park.
“I am. I’ll be here until two when I’m supposed to head over to the pumpkin toss.” I glanced at the long line that led from the booth all the way back to the parking area. “Have you been here alone since opening?”
“I have. Wilma Goodwin was supposed to work with me, but I guess she had to go down to Cass’s office to speak with him about Bill’s accident. Hope’s been trying to find someone to take her place, but apparently, there are quite a few volunteers out with that flu that has been going around.”
I knew Wilma Goodwin worked at the post office. “Do you know why Cass wanted to talk to Wilma?” I asked as I opened the second ticket window, and began counting out the requested number of tickets.
“I’m not sure. I just know that Wilma called Hope early this morning and told her she’d be late, but she still hoped to make it after her interview.” Ida thanked the customer she’d been helping, and greeted the next woman in line. She then returned her attention back to our conversation as she took the money and began counting tickets. “Of course, Wilma lives across the street from Bill’s house, so I suppose Cass might have wanted to ask her about something she may have seen, or perhaps he wanted some sort of information relating to Bill’s habits.” Ida paused as the next customer approached the window. “I know it appears that Bill’s death was simply a horrible accident, but Cass is being thorough, which I think we all appreciate.”
“It does sound as if the vehicle simply swerved off the road, but it’s odd that Bill was all the way out on the old highway so late at night. I can’t imagine what he might have been doing out there unless he had been visiting someone and was on his way home.”
“I’m sure Cass will look into Bill’s reason to be out there so late in the evening. He might have been returning from dropping someone off, or I suppose he might have had something on his mind and decided to go for a drive,” Ida suggested. “The old highway is a good road to take if you just want to get out and think something through. There’s never any traffic to contend with.”
I supposed Ida had a point. If Bill had simply been going out for a drive with no destination in mind, the old highway would actually have been a good choice.
“Having said that,” Ida smiled at the woman she’d just handed twenty tickets to, “it does seem to me that Cass might believe there is at least a small possibility there’s more going on than a simple accident.”
“You think so?” I asked as I handed tickets to the woman I’d been helping.
“Mary Louise stopped by to buy tickets for her grandchildren,” Ida continued. “She mentioned that Cass had called and spoken to her about things, so I know he’s doing some digging around.”
“Cass spoke to Mary Louise because he heard that she’d seen Bill Thursday evening while she was out with her husband at that new steakhouse at the lake,” Josie Newsome, who’d been standing in line to buy tickets, informed us.
“Bill was at the steakhouse before his accident?” I asked after the woman Ida was helping stepped away, and Josie stepped forward.
She nodded. “According to Mary Louise, who I ran into when I stopped for brownies, she’d seen Bill dining with two people Thursday evening. A woman she described as having dark red hair and a man she described as having dark brown hair. Both were dressed to the nines, which seemed a bit overdone for Foxtail Lake even if they were dining in the only steakhouse in the area.”
“Did she say anything else?” I asked as I handed the man with two blond-haired children a roll of tickets and then smiled at the group of teenagers next in line.
“Not really. She was working the bake sale, and there was already a long line, so we couldn’t chat long. I guess you can ask Cass about it.”
“I guess I might do that.”
“You know,” Ida said after Josie completed her purchase and stepped away, “Darcy Rosenthal works out at that steakhouse. She might have seen Bill with the flashy couple as well. She’s working the pumpkin toss with you at two,” she informed me. “I suppose you might have a chance to chat with her while you work the event. Not that she necessarily noticed anything, but it is beginning to sound as if the couple with Bill at the restaurant might be the last people to have seen him alive. If the accident wasn’t an accident as Cass seems to think, maybe the red-haired woman and dark-haired man might know something about what was going on in Bill’s life on the night he died.”
By the time I made it to the pumpkin toss after completing a four-hour shift at the ticket booth, Darcy was already there. Running this fast-paced event left a lot less time for chatting than working the ticket booth, so I wasn’t sure I’d even have a chance to talk to the woman who told me that she needed to leave no later than four so she had time to go home and get ready for her shift at the restaurant. I supposed that if I didn’t have a chance to talk to her, I could simply mention to Cass that she might be someone worth chatting with if he hadn’t already. This was, after all, his investigation and not mine, but it seemed that anytime something interesting was going on in town, I was always smack dab in the middle of things.
As it turned out, Darcy and I were both relieved from pumpkin toss duty at the same time, so I decided to walk Darcy to her car before heading over to check in with Hope.
“That was crazy,” I laughed as we headed toward the parking area.
“The pumpkin toss is a fast-moving event,” she agreed. “I’m glad they only schedule two-hour shifts. It’s exhausting.”
“Do you have to work at the restaurant tonight?” I asked.
She nodded. “From six until close. Saturdays are always busy, but with the folks from the movie here, we’ve been even busier than usual.”
“Movie?” I asked. “I thought the film crew and cast were arriving Monday.”
“That’s what I heard as well, but some of the movie folks are here now. I saw Robert Harrison, who I guess is now going by Harrison Roberts, at the restaurant Thursday with Bill Fuller and a redheaded woman whose name I can’t remember offhand.”
I raised a brow. “So Bill was having dinner with Robert? I’d heard Bill was at the steakhouse Thursday, but I didn’t realize it was Robert he was dining with.”
She nodded. “Bill introduced me to the couple he was with when I went to the table to take their order. He said that he and Harrison were friends from way back. It was then that I realized that the total babe Bill introduced as Harrison, was actually Robert, from high school. Talk about an ultimate makeover. He still has those piercing blue eyes, but if it wasn’t for the fact that Harrison was with Bill, I would never have recognized him.”
“And the woman they were with — the one with the red hair. Did she seem to be with the cast as well?” I asked.
“I think so. I guess neither man actually said one way or the other, but I did get the impression that Harrison and this woman were together, and that they had met Bill at the restaurant to discuss something.”
“Did you overhear any of their conversation?” I asked as we neared the parking area.
“No. Not really. I can say that while the group seemed to be having a friendly discussion in the beginning, the exchange became a lot more intense as time went on. By the time the group left, I could sense a lot of tension.”
“And what time was that?”
“I guess they showed up at the restaurant around eight o’clock. They sat and talked until around ten. I don’t know the exact time since I wasn’t paying all that much attention, but they were there for a while.”
“Were they drinking?”
“Harrison and the redhead were. Bill was a recovering alcoholic, so he never drank. He came into the steakhouse often enough that I knew to bring him a non-alcoholic drink served in a glass normally used to serve alcohol when he was dining with others. I guess he didn’t like to make a big deal out of the fact he didn’t drink. In fact, everyone who works a regular shift knew that when Bill said to bring him his normal, he meant a gin and to
nic minus the gin.”
I’d chatted with Cass earlier this morning, and he’d confirmed that he’d received the tox screen, and Bill hadn’t had drugs or alcohol in his system when the accident occurred, so that much was consistent.
Once Darcy pulled away, I headed back to the crowd to find Hope. Cass and I planned to meet up in less than an hour, so I hoped she was done with me for the day. With the exception of the haunted barn, the other Harvest Festival activities were to be wrapped up by five o’clock, so I was fairly sure she wouldn’t reassign me. By the time I managed to find Hope in the crowd, Cass had arrived, and the two were chatting.
“How did the pumpkin toss go?” Hope asked.
“Everything went perfectly,” I answered. “It was exhausting, but Darcy and I really had a good time.”
“Did Valerie show up to do the closing shift?”
“She did,” I confirmed. “She had her boyfriend with her, so I think they’ll be fine.” I looked toward Cass. “You’re early, but I think I’m done here.” I glanced at Hope for confirmation.
Hope smiled. “Yes, you are finished for the day, and again, thank you so much. Are you still on for a shift at the haunted barn tomorrow?”
“I am,” I confirmed. “You had me scheduled in the ticket booth from four to ten. Is that still what you need?”
She nodded. “That would be perfect.”
Hope put her hand on Cass’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “I need to go and check on some of the others, but if you hear anything, call me.”
“I will.”
“Bill Fuller?” I asked as Hope walked away. I assumed that was what they’d been discussing before I arrived.
He nodded. “Hope had heard about Bill and wanted to fill me in on a rumor she’d heard.”
“Rumor?”
Cass took my hand in his and started walking toward the parking area where we’d both left our cars. “As you might expect, everyone in town has been talking about Bill’s death and whether or not the accident really was caused by a misjudgment on his part or something more.”
