by Ellen Riggs
My gasp was loud enough to startle Keats. “You’d never!”
“Try me,” he said. “If you get into one more dangerous exploit without informing me, that dog is mine.”
Tears filled my eyes. “That’s a terrible thing to say.”
“Then say what I need to hear.”
Leaning down, I wrapped one arm around Keats. “I will keep you posted on everything even remotely related to the case until this killer is caught.”
Chapter Twenty
“I don’t know what I ever saw in him, Keats,” I said, as we wandered through the meadow beyond the barn later that day. “Back in school he was a good guy. A really good guy. All the girls wanted him, you know. I was surprised he even noticed me.”
I hurled a stick for Keats and he ran after it. His energy was only at 30 or 40 percent, however, which meant he had things on his mind, too. Thinking back, I realized he’d never been truly playful since we arrived here. It was one worry after the next for both of us. Retrieving the stick, he dropped it out of reach with a sheepish wag to let me know he appreciated my efforts but he wasn’t interested in games.
“Got it, buddy,” I said. “Then I’ll just continue musing if you don’t mind.”
His tail came up and he offered his peculiar mumbled response.
“I’ll take that as a yes, my poet. Feel free to chime in as you see fit.” We passed the spot where Keats had found Lloyd and a shudder ran through me. No matter how often I walked in the fields—and I hoped it would be daily in the coming years—I’d never forget the sight of those boots pointing toward a sunset sky on an evening just like this one.
“So, as I was saying, Kellan Harper has turned into a jerk. Everyone changes over 15 years, and I’m no exception, obviously. But the guy I liked back then would never have threatened any dog, let alone my dog. It’s inexcusable.”
Keats mumbled agreement and nudged my hand.
“He said he loved me, you know. I didn’t take it too seriously. Guys blurt those things out.” I looked down and Keats was giving me the blue-eyed stare. “Yes, if you must know, I said it back.” I shook my head and grinned. “Don’t ask me if I meant it. I probably did at the time, but you can’t hold me to something I said at 18.”
He turned to add his brown eye—the compassionate one—to the gaze. I sighed and then continued. “Thanks, my friend. It’s hard seeing how he feels about me now. He thinks I’m a crazy wild card with no common sense at all. Me… the one who was the epitome of logic, until you came along.”
Panting anxiously, he gave a low moan that seemed to end with a question mark.
“Never,” I said. “Not for one second do I regret what happened when I rescued you. I’d do it again tomorrow, and the next day and every day after that. Of course, by then there wouldn’t be much brain power left in me. But I’d do what I could.”
His mouth relaxed into a sloppy smile and his tail fanned, the white tip almost glowing in the gorgeous waning sun.
“It’ll all be fine, Keats, I’m sure of it. We just need to keep on plodding forward.” We had plodded forward—farther than I’d been before on foot. I’d covered the property a few times on an ATV with Charlie but it felt different on my own. There were coyotes and foxes around, and maybe a murderer, too. That’s why I had the pepper spray and even a jackknife in my fanny pack. But it was time to turn back. It would be nearly dark when we reached the house.
The back of my neck prickled and the hairs rose on my arm. I looked down and saw Keats was on alert, too. His ruff was up and his ears forward. Long nose rising, he sniffed the air. A few more paces and his nose came down to the grass. Then he circled in front of me, drawing in snorting gusts. He’d found some kind of trail that was far more interesting than rabbit.
“Keats, wait,” I said. “It’s almost dusk. We can come back tomorrow and sniff around.”
He hesitated and then took another few steps forward. He rarely disobeyed, and I liked to think that when he did, it was for a good reason.
“Okay, just a little further. But I’m calling Jilly so that if something happens, she’s aware.”
There was a clatter of pots against stainless steel when Jilly picked up.
“Hey. Where are you?” She put the phone on speaker and continued washing up from yet another culinary experiment. “Dinner’s ready. You are going to love my chicken with tomato and basil. It’s a winner, and luckily, just as good reheated when you show up.”
My stomach grumbled at the thought of it. “We’ll be back soon. Keats is tracking a scent and I got a little spooked.”
“Out in the fields where Lloyd died? Is that a surprise? Come home and start again in the morning.”
“It’s going to rain and he’ll lose the trail. He really wants to get the job done now.”
Jilly sighed. “Which is exactly what you promised Kellan not to do, correct?”
“Can we not talk about him right now? I’m still traumatized over what he said.”
“But not traumatized enough to stay safe in the house.”
“When I’m upset I walk. If we happen to stumble on a clue, I’m sure that jerk will give us a pass when I share it with him. I doubt he meant it, anyway. He’s just trying to scare me.”
“Poor man doesn’t know how hard it is to scare you these days.”
I laughed. “True that. I was a shrinking violet in high school. If Asher hadn’t brought Kellan home to shoot hoops all the time we wouldn’t have met. Daisy had me under such close watch I’d never had so much as a date. And really, we didn’t have a proper date till prom. We just started hanging out when Asher got distracted. Which was often, as you can imagine.”
“Finally, I get the story.” The banging of pots and pans ended as she gave me her full attention. She was as distractible as Asher in her own way, but a whiff of romance gave her laser focus. “A slow, organic growth that bloomed by prom.”
“Pretty much, yeah. Back then, he wanted to be a lawyer. Neither one of us came from money so we had to grab the scholarships on offer. He went to UCLA for football, and I went north, as you know.” I pulled a small bright flashlight out of my fanny pack and shone it after Keats. “Long distance never works.”
“You came home at Thanksgiving and he’d heard you were seeing someone else.”
“Yeah. Unbeknownst to me, Asher asked another guy to keep an eye on me at college. We were just pals, but the guy caught feelings and lied to Kellan that I shared them.”
“And he wouldn’t listen to reason?”
I shook my head then realized she couldn’t hear me. “No. Maybe it confirmed his worst fears. I figured it would work itself out during the summer when we came home. But he didn’t come home. He got a job there and stayed.” I shone the light around and caught sight of Keats far ahead. “That was that.”
“Till now,” Jilly said. “You’ve got a second chance. He doesn’t seem happy single.”
“I’m not giving him a second chance after threatening my dog.”
“He’s trying to keep both of you safe, that’s all. Can you blame him? The sun is almost down and you’re walking around in a field where you found a big hole this week.”
“It’s okay, we’re there,” I said.
“Where’s ‘there’?”
“Not sure yet, but Keats is pointing. Do you know he has the best traits of all breeds? Tracking, retrieving, pointing, herding. The only thing he hates is water.”
“Can we rave over Keats later? Figure out what he’s found and come home, Ivy. You might not be scared, but I am.”
Keats held one white forepaw up and close to his chest. His long nose was aimed at what first appeared to be a small pile of rocks almost surrounded by scrub brush. As I got closer, I saw the rocks circled corroding bricks in the shape of a circle. Old, mossy boards lay overtop.
“Oh wow,” I said. “It looks like an old well.”
“Stay back,” Jilly said. “‘Old’ means dangerous and ‘well’ means deep hole. And water.”
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“The boards covering it are rotting, but it looks like one of them has been moved recently. Keats certainly thinks so.”
The dog kept sniffing around the base, moving out in concentric circles. Finally he stopped and the paw rose again. I stooped and aimed the flashlight.
“What is it?” Jilly’s voice was high and tight.
“A footprint. A bit bigger than mine, but not much. A woman found this old well recently.”
“What would someone want with your old well?”
“Seems like a perfect place for a murder weapon to me,” I answered. “I’ll get Charlie to drag it tomorrow.”
“And you’ll tell Kellan, right?”
“I most certainly will, Jilly. You can count on that.”
There was such conviction in my voice that she didn’t bother to press me for a timeframe.
“Come home right now,” she said. “Or I’ll call him myself.”
“I’m on my way. I’ll stick to the trail and talk to you all the way back. Meanwhile, you can heat up some of that basil chicken. Although I’ve got to admit my enthusiasm for chicken has faded a bit since I got my own flock of hens.”
“This new simple life is rife with conflict, isn’t it?” she said. “It’s a good thing we know how to compartmentalize.”
“That’s one skill we brought over from corporate life,” I said. “Glad I got something out of it.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Jilly had arrived in Clover Grove with a small suitcase. Despite how busy we’d been, she’d managed to check out the shops around town and discover a few finds, including a black dress that said both “classy night out” and “funeral.” I’d given away most of my corporate wardrobe before leaving Boston, but luckily I kept one charcoal lightweight wool jacket and pants. The second I put them on I felt sucked into my past life. On the bright side, I wasn’t likely to stand out in the crowd at Lloyd Boyce’s funeral, or rather, “celebration of life.” I’d been of two minds whether to go or not, but it seemed like people might talk more if I avoided it. As much as I hated that gossip had become a factor in my life now, I’d have to pay attention to it until my inn was established.
“You okay?” Jilly asked as we walked up the stairs and into the vestibule of the only funeral home in town. Most people still opted for churches in Clover Grove, and there were plenty of those. I assumed Nadine wanted to keep the event low profile, given the circumstances.
“Yeah, sure. I just miss Keats.” Turning, I added, “No offence. You know how glad I am you’re here. It’s just that crowds still make me anxious.”
“It’s the suit making you anxious,” she said. “You should have dropped it down the well after you dragged it.”
I laughed. “Thank god Charlie was well enough to ride out and take care of it. I didn’t want Gwen to know.”
“I thought you trusted Gwen. She’s been great with the animals.”
“That she has. But she is a woman with bigger feet than mine. I checked that this morning, before I gave her the day off.”
It hadn’t taken Charlie too long to pull up my sheep hook from the well, but he’d worked long and hard to make sure there was nothing else down there. Whatever else had helped dispatch Lloyd wasn’t to be found.
“How would Gwen know about the old well?” Jilly asked. “Even Charlie hadn’t noticed it before, and he’s been all over the farm countless times.”
“I don’t know. As for Nadine, it seems unlikely she’d be traipsing out in my fields looking for an old well to hide a sheep hook. Here I was so certain she was guilty. It’s possible she had an accomplice, I suppose. Like her handsome yogi.”
“You’re going to check her feet today, right?”
“Like Prince Charming searching for a murderous Cinderella. We’re looking for a size nine in a sensible boot.”
Jilly’s inner antennae suddenly triggered. “What did Kellan have to say about all this?”
“Not much,” I said. “Yet. I’m sure he’ll send the hook to the lab, but I imagine the water will have destroyed anything useful.”
Her green eyes bored into me. “You didn’t talk to him, did you?”
“I left him a voicemail. He wasn’t in when I dropped off the evidence.”
“Ivy!”
“I just didn’t want another lecture so soon after the last. I looped him in like I promised. Don’t I deserve a nice, quiet funeral today? My nerves are shot.”
She pursed her lips and looked around. “It looks like it will be quiet, all right. There’s hardly anyone here. I figured people would be curious.”
“Me too. When I was a kid, no one would miss a funeral unless they were violently ill. It’s a social occasion in a small town. Plus… free sandwiches.”
Jilly laughed and the funeral director, who was standing solemnly beside the guest book on its oak pedestal, glowered at us.
I gave him an apologetic smile and led Jilly over to sign the book. My arm was outstretched when a perfectly manicured hand landed on my sleeve.
“Nadine,” I said, summoning a sympathetic smile. “How are you holding up?”
Her eyes were narrow and her lips formed a thin line. She was wearing a simple black wool dress, which set off the white glass pendant hanging on a fine silver chain. My eyes widened at the sight of the necklace and she tipped her head.
“Surprised, Ivy?” she said. “I understand you’re behind Chief Harper’s recent visit. His fourth, I might add, each time with some new questions that seem to have emerged from your nosiness and speculation.”
“Now, now,” Jilly said. “What a tough day this is, Nadine. It’s no wonder you’re upset.”
Nadine turned her dark gaze on Jilly. “You’re no better than she is. I heard you flirted with Hayden. All he could talk about was your amazing flexibility. Best crow pose he’s ever seen, he said.”
“My mom got me into yoga young, that’s all,” Jilly said. “Decades of practice.”
Nadine brought two fingers up so that I’d meet her eyes. “What are you looking at?”
“Your shoes,” I said. “I’m sorry, I know it’s the wrong time, but that’s a gorgeous pair of alligator pumps.”
“Reptiles are good for something,” she said. “Now, let’s talk about how Chief Harper came to doubt the security footage. He’s seized Hayden’s laptop.” Her eyes darted wildly around the room as if looking for an escape. “There’s private information on there.”
“Even if you and Hayden have been a thing for a long time—since before your breakup with Lloyd, for example—you’d inherit everything, right?”
“What’s left of it,” she said. “He stalled and stalled, and I let him because I felt so guilty.” Her eyes dropped to the somber charcoal carpet, about the color of my suit. “Now I’ll look like the bad guy when we were on the rocks long before I met Hayden.”
“That’s all you need to say if word ever gets out. Which it won’t from us, or Chief Harper, certainly.”
“I loved Lloyd once, you know,” she said. “We had a good couple of years before he took the dogcatcher job. That’s when things went downhill.”
“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” I said. “He was moving on, too, I think.”
Her eyes sharpened. “He was? With whom?”
“It’s all a blur now,” I said, as Jilly pulled me away. “So much has happened since then.”
We sat on the uncomfortable chairs in the last row. They were clearly designed to keep people upright and aware of the significance of the occasion. Over the next 15 minutes, a few familiar faces filed in: Gwen Quinn, Brian Letsky, the Scorpion and a dozen more I didn’t recognize. It still left plenty of empty seats.
Just as the funeral director moved to the front of the room, Asher arrived and slipped into our row to sit beside Jilly. There was a little frisson of energy and I realized with a start that the interest wasn’t one-sided. I stared at the back of Jilly’s head as she turned to my brother. Could two highly distractible people focus lon
g enough to get something off the ground? The thought of it made me anxious. I loved them dearly, and if things went south, one or both of them would be unhappy. But I’d never stand in their way.
I pushed the thought aside and spent the next few minutes studying the small group as best I could from behind. Brian and the Scorpion sat on opposite sides of the room looking equally subdued. Neither showed signs of guilt or discomfort, however. In fact, both pulled out their phones to play games while they waited for the service to begin.
Gwen sat alone. She’d given me a curt nod of greeting when she came in and then turned away. Although I’d only given her the day off, when she saw Charlie’s truck roll in she must have figured her days as farmhand were numbered. She was right, too. It made my stomach clench to think of her clocking in for duty at the farm and then using her shift to find a good place to stash the murder weapon. Maybe she’d dug the hole first and then found the well. But unless Kellan had more to go on, there was no way to tie her to the crime other than a footprint.
I barely heard a word of the service, which was mercifully short. My mind was spinning with questions. Could a woman have strangled Lloyd without help? Or was there a man involved? There was no question a woman had been near the well, likely to dump evidence, but that didn’t mean she was working alone. It seemed unlikely that Nadine could have found the old well, but Gwen had time and opportunity, with me being gone so much. She may even have moved it out of the hole to the cleansing waters of the old well.
Jilly must have noticed me shifting uncomfortably, because she patted my leg and whispered, “Calm down, Ivy. The way you’re squirming, you look guilty. Or at least worried about Daisy looking guilty.” She tipped her head and I saw my sister had crept into the back row on the other side of the room.
I gave Daisy a little smile, proud of her for showing up. It must have been difficult, even though Nadine probably had no idea about her tryst with Lloyd, and the twins.
When the service ended, I left Jilly and Asher with Daisy and went into the reception area. As expected, the few guests had descended on the refreshments like vultures. Brian and the Scorpion were plowing through sandwiches like woodchippers and didn’t even notice me. My suit clearly retained some of its magical powers of disguise.
