by Ellen Riggs
“Well done, girly,” she said. “Pigs are much harder to herd than sheep. And your tuxedoed companion did a fine job, too.”
“One of us is clean,” I said. “He shirked his duty.”
My brother unbuttoned his uniform, then stripped off his T-shirt and tossed it to me. I used it to mop my face and when my eyes cleared a little, I noticed Jilly eyeing Asher’s six-pack. I suspected it wouldn’t be long before he was invited in for the breakfast tasting menu. The way she cooked, he’d be down to a five-pack in no time.
“Gwen, thank you so much,” I said. “You’re a lifesaver.”
“My pleasure, truly,” she said, doffing her cap. I noticed it had a black sheep on its crest above the brim.
“If you’ll excuse me, I’m going in to take a shower,” I said.
“Not just yet,” said a voice behind me. I turned to see Kellan Harper coming out of the barn. “May I have a word, Ms. Galloway?”
Chapter Ten
“Of course, Chief Harper,” I said. “There’s nothing I’d enjoy more than being interrogated by you as I asphyxiate from my own stench.” I covered my mouth with a stinky hand. “Forgive me. The death references slip out like hiccoughs.”
He shook his head as he led me into the barn. “I know this probably isn’t a good time to talk—”
“It certainly isn’t.” The fact that he looked impeccable in his uniform made it all the worse. “Let’s see how chatty you are after you’ve been rolled in a swamp by a pig and almost squished into the primordial ooze.”
“That’s never going to happen,” he said. “Because I normally avoid farms. They give me hives.”
“Then why did you come back to Clover Grove?” I asked. “It is a rural community.”
He waved his hand as if a horsefly was bothering him. I suspected I was the real annoyance. “I called you in here to talk about the case.”
“Well, I assumed it wasn’t to exchange egg recipes, although I can definitely hook you up.”
Stopping beside Florence’s stall, he gave me a glare. That quickly dissolved into a smirk, which he tried to replace with a serious, professional expression. Then the cycle started all over.
“Ivy,” he began, “I wanted to—”
His own involuntary smirk cut him off and he literally turned his back to stare at Florence while he regained his composure.
Keats circled between us with his tail going up and down like a pump handle. He didn’t know what to make of the situation at all.
“Chief Harper,” I said, with all the dignity I could muster. “Perhaps we could have this discussion another day. You seem distracted.”
His shoulders shook. “It’s just the… the smell. It’s really quite pungent. More like sewage than manure. I’m sorry. I really am.”
“Not as sorry as I am to be living in it. Chief, I really would prefer to speak after I’ve had five showers.”
“No.” He raised his hand. “I’ve got it under control. I think if we just stand a bit apart, I’d be able to focus.”
“Of course. The more distance the better. How about I jump in with the alpaca and shout from there?”
“That’s really not necessary.”
“I have a safety mask, if you’d like. That might keep out the worst of it.”
“No, really. I can stand it.”
Just what every woman wants to hear from a handsome man. Someone who once found her attractive. “Well, I can’t for much longer. So please… get on with your questions.”
Turning, he took a few deep breaths through his mouth without looking at me. Finally, he regained his composure and literally sighed with relief. It probably took a toll on his pride to lose it like that, which was a tiny bit of comfort given the assault on my own pride.
Keats settled in the space between us, with his back to me. I wasn’t sure if he was protecting me or protecting his own nose. He had been careful to stay just out of reach since I left the swamp.
“You said you’d drop by the station yesterday,” he said. “I was expecting you.”
“I texted you the information you wanted about my alibi. There wasn’t much else to say yesterday.”
“But there’s more to say today?” he said, catching the nuance.
“I’m not sure. Possibly.”
“Then I guess it’s a lucky thing that Asher made me come along for the pig party.”
I turned Asher’s T-shirt inside out and rubbed it over my face and hair. It wasn’t much use now that the muck was drying.
“What exactly did you want to talk about?” I asked.
He stared around the barn, either to avoid looking at me, or to scan for clues. “Simple. I want to know everything you know about Lloyd’s death.”
Years of interviewing had taught me that “everything” was a broad term. It was better to offer only exactly what was requested. “I told you what happened. That I had words with Lloyd about Keats and refused to accept the ticket. He left the ticket in the mailbox and drove off. Then I drove into town to do errands. I stopped at Myrtle’s, and I already told you what I learned there.”
“Tell me again,” he said, getting out his notepad. “You might remember something else this time.”
He probably wanted to see if I’d trip over any of the details on second telling. “Well, for starters, Lloyd’s wife said her years with Lloyd were miserable and she was happy to be splitting. Margie Hodgson said she hated Lloyd with a passion for seizing her dog with a noose and dragging him off in front of her. But she’s not alone in that, apparently. Meanwhile, Mandy McCain denied being involved with Lloyd despite his telling me they were an item.” I twisted my hair into a ponytail, and it stayed in place, anchored by mud. “I assume you’ll interview all of them and don’t need my help to flush out the details.”
“I can do my own flushing,” he agreed, with a twitch of his lip. “So then what happened?”
“After that I went curtain shopping with Daisy, which was torture for me, but she likes that sort of thing. I was glad to escape to the feed store. Then I picked up some groceries and went to the vet to grab tick meds for Keats. By then, I was pretty desperate for a walk in the hills, so I hit the Marquis Trail at around five. The light was still good. That’s when we ran into Mabel Halliday, whose name I texted you, and her dog Sparkles. We chatted for a while about Clover Grove.”
“While the dogs played together?” he asked.
“Keats doesn’t really play. He’s a serious dog most of the time.” I looked down at him now and he was proving my words by solemnly staring at Kellan. “Did you speak to her and confirm my whereabouts?” I asked.
He nodded. “She said you met in the hills and talked for a while, yes.”
I heaved a sigh. “Thank goodness. I hope the news of my innocence gets around as fast as news of my guilt probably did.”
Leaning against Florence’s stall, he finally met my eyes. “I get the sense you’re not telling me everything. Did you speak to anyone else about the case?”
“Pretty much everyone I come across wants to talk about it. The young fellow I interviewed, Joel, he said he’d heard a farmer shot at Lloyd once. And Gwen, who was so masterful with the pig just now, said someone actually did shoot Lloyd in the leg and left him with a limp.”
“And…? There’s more. I can tell. Spit it out.”
I leaned against the empty sheep pen and sighed. “Well, I ran into Nadine in town near Mabel’s store. We had a little chat.”
He rolled his eyes. “You couldn’t just offer that up?”
“You’re not offering much up, Kellan.”
“I’m the Chief of Police. That’s not my role.”
“Well, I’m the one whose farm and future are in peril. Someone released that pig today, you know. Hacked her pen open with a crowbar.”
He started taking notes again. “You see, this is the kind of information you’re supposed to share freely.”
“I would have. It just happened.”
“Well, it sounds
more like a prank, and Runaway Farm has been targeted before. But I’ll get Asher to check it out.”
Pulling out his phone, he called Asher and told him to look around the pig pen and all the pastures.
“A loose pig is a loose cannon,” I told him.
He leaned against the mare’s stall again and ran his fingers through his hair. “Can we go back to your discussion with Nadine?”
“Have you interrogated her? Seems like she has a motive to me. She couldn’t get Lloyd to finalize the divorce.”
“We’ve had a preliminary chat, and we’ll talk more. I know she was resentful over the breakup.”
“It was more than the usual resentment. Lloyd wouldn’t let her get a dog because he wanted to keep up appearances.”
“I’m sure a dog can be a point of contention but—”
“A dog can be a dealbreaker. Especially when Lloyd was a hypocrite. Apparently he’d bring home rare animals he seized sometimes.”
“She told you that?”
I decided to drop a few hints but not disclose the entire truth. If I told him that I’d been inside Lloyd’s house, he’d probably make it more difficult for me to poke around, and I was determined to keep poking around until he resolved the case.
“Other people told me that there was one rule for citizens and another rule for Lloyd. Nadine is upset that Lloyd was stalling on finalizing their settlement. He didn’t have the cash to buy her out. I really think you need to push Nadine as hard as you’re pushing me. There’s more to her story, I’m sure of it.”
Kellan ran his other hand over his hair this time. Florence took issue with the flapping around her head and grabbed his sleeve. “Hey! Do you mind?” he said.
“Speak softly,” I said, walking over. “She’s blind. Your flapping scared her.”
Now he was trapped in close proximity to me as I freed his sleeve, and he made a little retching sound. When I’d sweet-talked Flo into letting go, he backed away and said, “How about we walk outside?”
“Sounds good to me.” Keats took the lead, and I followed him out the back door of the barn, past the big old red tractor that Charlie used to move things around.
Kellan walked ahead of me toward the goat pasture, shaking his head at their antics. They were a bunch of clowns, and hard to resist.
“Do you have any other suspects?” I asked, as we moved on to the sheep, who were so intent on their grazing they paid us no mind.
“No comment,” Kellan said. “Now that I know you’re a loose cannon like your pig, I’m going to be very careful what I say.”
“As much as I enjoy being compared to my pig, I resent that, Kellan. I’ve given you some good information today.”
“Not freely,” he said. “And you shouldn’t be chatting with people like Nadine, anyway.”
“It’s a small town. I’m going to run into people and make small talk.”
We stopped near the cows and I introduced him to Clara and Heidi. He nodded hello, and kept a respectful distance.
“There’s a big difference between chitchat about the weather, and a deep discussion about a failed marriage,” he said. “Not to mention what you’re still not telling me.”
“It’s nothing she won’t share herself when you question her longer. I don’t want to betray her confidence.”
“Oh, Ivy,” he said, exasperated. “I’m going to give you just enough rope to hang yourself. But I’m asking you seriously to watch your step. We don’t know what we’re dealing with. Maybe vandalizing your pigpen was a message to tell you to back off.”
I folded my arms over the fence enclosing the cow pasture. “I’d better set up security cameras. These animals are my responsibility and I care about them.”
“That’s a good idea, but I’m sure it will be fine if you just stand down.” He moved on to the pasture with the alpaca and two llamas. “You shouldn’t be getting anywhere near this investigation anyway.”
“I’m just trying to help move things along. Every day this crime is unsolved is a day that my reputation is getting more tarnished.”
“It’s moving along in a measured way, just as it’s supposed to. There’s a reason we do things the way we do. If you blunder around shooting off questions you could fall on your face in the mud.”
“Very funny.”
He turned and leaned against the fence, crossing his arms as he surveyed the land and the barn. “Who else would have had access to the barn at the right time to ambush Lloyd?”
“Anyone really. It’s not locked. Charlie left early that day and I was on call for bedding down the animals later. When I was gone, anyone could have come by.” Goosebumps rose on my arms and the dried mud cracked. “That’s what freaks me out. It sounds like Lloyd just waltzed out here like he owned the place and found someone lying in wait.”
“Or they happened to show up at the same time,” he said. “We don’t know anything more than that he expired around five p.m., most likely from strangulation. The autopsy report will be in tomorrow.”
“Either way, it’s scary. It was outside in broad daylight.” I wrapped my arms around myself, clutching Asher’s bedraggled T-shirt like a teddy bear. What I really wanted was to hug Keats, but it wasn’t the time.
“You’re not alone, Ivy,” he said, and his voice softened. For the first time he sounded like the guy I used to know in high school. Only that guy could meet my eyes. “It sounds like your friend is staying till you get on your feet. And Asher is out here a lot.”
“All the time,” I said. “Because he has a crush.”
Kellan’s eyebrows went up. “On Jilly?”
I laughed and pointed to the fluffy, big-eyed animal who’d come up behind him. “On the alpaca. Alvina mourned terribly after the previous owner left. She’d bonded closely with Hannah’s husband, Nick. Luckily, Asher is starting to fill the void in her furry heart. They dance together.”
He stepped back from the fence, shaking his head. “I don’t think I want to know this about my officer. And I don’t want the rest of the town to know, either. It’s hard to take a cop seriously who dances with alpacas.”
Looking him up and down, I said, “You used to be more fun.”
He returned the glance. “And you used to be clean. Times change.” He was about to close his notepad. “Anything else you want to tell me?”
“Nope. How about you? Anything else?”
“Actually, yes.” He closed the notepad and smiled. “Your neighbor, Edna Evans, called the station to complain. Apparently the vegetables your pig ate were meant to get her through winter. If she starves to death in the cold months, she says it’s on you.”
Chapter Eleven
I showered several times before driving over to visit Edna Evans that afternoon but I knew I still stank of swamp. Keats was keeping his distance, whereas normally he was a tuxedoed shadow I couldn’t shake. Since the night I’d saved him, we’d grown inseparable. If I had continued in my corporate career, both of us would have developed severe separation anxiety.
Edna’s face creased in a frown when she opened the door and it deepened when she saw the dog beside me on the porch. “I don’t like dogs in the house,” she said. “You can leave him in the truck if you want to come in.”
“It’s a bit warm for that,” I said. “We won’t stay long, Mrs. Evans. I just came to apologize. And deliver a pie.”
“Miss Evans,” she corrected, staring at me over her reading glasses as if to assess whether I was joking.
“Miss. I’m sorry, I forgot.” Her pressed white frock, now yellowed from age, looked like a nurse’s uniform and may well have been. For decades she’d worked for Doc Grainer, the town’s only physician, and routinely visited the school to hammer vaccinations into our arms with barely suppressed glee.
Sighing, she stood back to let me pass with Keats. “People think a pie excuses everything in Clover Grove,” she said, inspecting the perfect specimen I placed in her hands. “Peach. Out of season. Why even bother? There’s no fl
avour at all.” She leaned in for a closer look, her gray curls almost dusting the surface. “Pastry looks good, though. Gwen’s been working on her execution.”
“Gwen?” The heat of shame started a slow crawl up from my midriff.
“Oh, Ivy, I’ve been around the block a time or two. You’re regifting a pie, and I’d know Gwen Quinn’s style anywhere.”
“I’m sorry. It was a lame ploy. There’s nothing I’d love more than to bake my own pies right now, but there simply isn’t time.”
“Not when you’re chasing your animals all over the county,” she said, pursing her lips as she led me into the living room. It was just as I expected, with floral pastel fabric covering overstuffed furniture. The old oak end tables were polished to a high gleam. Only the fully-drawn, heavy curtains surprised me. I’d pictured her standing guard all day long watching for incursions.
“I feel terrible about Wilma,” I said.
“Wilma?”
“My pig. Someone vandalized her pen and she found her way to your carrots.”
Edna eased herself into a bulky recliner and kicked back. “Why would someone do that? A loose sow can be dangerous.”
“So I discovered when she nearly squished me in the swamp on your side of the trail.”
Edna covered her mouth but a snuffle of laughter escaped. “I’ll have that filled in. What a terrible way to go.”
“Indeed. And I can assure you that finding a dead body on your property is a terrible shock.”
Her smirk faded and her hand dropped into her lap and found the other one. “Lloyd Boyce, yes. I figured someone would catch up to him eventually, but still.”
“Catch up to him? What do you mean?”
“That man was as crooked as they come and I’m sure you know that. There must be talk in your family.”
I perched on an ottoman without waiting for her invitation to sit down. “Asher doesn’t talk about his work. If Lloyd was crooked, he never said so. They were friends in school.”
“Oh, I know,” Edna said. “I had to chase those boys down to vaccinate them.” Her eyes lost focus. “I had some speed in those days. Most kids didn’t just offer up their arms freely. You were a meek one, Ivy.”
