Death at the Summit

by Nikki Haverstock

I leaned over and waggled one of her feet. “You know what? You’re right.” I was lucky to have her in my life. She was determined and organized but still fun. She kept me in line and had been the roommate I never knew I’d needed in my life. “Did you write down everyone from the video? Is the dynamic duo ready to ride again?” Last time we investigated, we’d had a running joke about being Batman and Robin.

  Minx knocked on the open doorway, with Tiger at her side, a plate of cookies in her hand.

  “This time, we get to help investigate,” Minx said.

  They came in and pulled up chairs. Moo trotted over to accept ear scratches from each.

  Minx knocked Mary’s feet off the desk and placed the cookies on the corner of my desk. Mary reached out and grabbed a tree-shaped cookie before replying, “Tiger can investigate; he’s the only one of us that never showed up in the footage at all.”

  He ruffled the side of Moo’s neck with his knuckles. “I was busy. Orion’s speech about women in the industry motivated me to talk to some people about an idea that I’ve had for a long time. If I get chosen to train here, I want to start a program where local women can come and learn all about firearms and archery in a female-only environment. I was talking to some companies to see if I could get their backing for the idea.”

  Minx snorted. “Whatever, you just wanted to flirt with women.”

  Tiger snapped back, “Treating women like intelligent peers and wanting to date them are not mutually exclusive ideas. I was raised by a single mother and have three younger sisters. Women are every bit as capable of doing things that I do, but when I was a kid and we went places, we were treated differently. We all shot guns and bows growing up. When I asked people how things worked, they would explain in detail, but when my sisters asked, they would be told not to worry about that stuff. I don’t know why people think it is such a radical idea that women are people, too.”

  We all sat in silence for a moment. He had given his little speech with more than a bit of frustration. I admitted to thinking of him as only a flirt, but I realized that he had actually never been demeaning or dismissive of me.

  Mary was looking at him with a huge smile. “That’s a great idea. You want to teach?”

  “Nah, that would kinda defeat the purpose. I want to have women teach the course, but I could do all the boring administrative stuff behind the scenes. Maybe if I’m lucky, though, they’ll let me join the ladies for a meal or two. Show them what a gentleman I am.” He waggled his eyebrows at her.

  I laughed. “You’re a complicated man, Tiger.”

  “All the best are.” He reached over and broke a corner off a cookie. Flinging it into the air, he caught it in his mouth then ate it with a smug smile.

  “Now that Tiger has enlightened us on his social ideology, can we gather up the gang and focus on clearing my name?” Notes of anxiety and weariness edged Minx’s comment.

  Mary grabbed two more cookies from the plate with a smile. “The Scooby gang to the rescue.”

  Minx fluffed her head. “That’s perfect. We already have a Great Dane and one pretty redhead.”

  “You’re not a real redhead,” I said.

  “You think Daphne was? And we both have a good-looking but kinda dumb guy.”

  Tiger laughed. “My specialty.”

  “We have an annoying know-it-all,” Minx continued.

  Minx and Tiger looked at me.

  “Hey,” I said, “Velma’s not a know-it-all; she’s the smart one. Does that mean that Mary is supposed to be Shaggy, the pot-head?”

  We turned to look at Mary, whose mouth was full of cookies, and Moo who was snuffling the crumbs off the ground around her. She raised her hand to stop the allegation. “He’s not a pot-head,” Mary said. “It’s a children’s show for goodness’s sakes. He is just a lovable guy that likes to eat. I think y’all are underestimating his brilliance. Come here, Moo. I’ll grab you a Scooby snack.”

  She got up and reached into the desk drawer where I kept treats for Moo. She gave him one and shoved the rest of the handful into her pocket.

  I had to tease Minx a little. “I don’t remember Daphne as being such a scrapper. Did I miss the episode where she threw down?”

  “Oh geez, do we have to discuss that? I’m having a bad month, okay?”

  Mary broke up some of her third cookie and offered it to Minx. “What’s going on?”

  I had been meaning to her ask about the comment she’d made at the coaches’ course many weeks ago. “I was surprised that you’re here at all. I thought you said that you weren’t going to apply to be an OSA because you didn’t want to be in the Middle-of-Nowhere, Wyoming?” I added.

  “Things change. Can we focus on who killed Mac right now and save my therapy session for another time?” Minx sulked.

  Indy and Mouse were at the door to my office. She was clinging to his side, and he had an arm protectively around one shoulder.

  “Hey, guys, can you believe there was a murder, so whack.” Indy put a backpack on the ground and leaned up against the doorway.

  Mouse scooted in closer to him. “I can’t believe this is happening. I wanted to leave right away, but it’s snowing so hard out there. But Indy’ll protect me, won’t you?” She batted her eyelashes up at him and giggled. She didn’t look particularly scared, but what did I know?

  “Yeah, it’s a real shock. What are you guys going to do? You should probably stay out of Brian’s way while he investigates.”

  “Ya, ya, ya, I know.” Indy flipped his hair out of his face. “I told Mouse that I could teach her how to play this awesome video game; she would be a great healer. I was hoping you would let her use your computer. I got my laptop from my room.”

  I wasn’t crazy about the idea of them hanging out in my office.

  Mouse looked around. “What are you guys going to do?”

  Dragging Indy around might be a bit conspicuous when I throttled him for annoying me. “You can use my office. Let me just get everything set for you to use. Tiger, Minx, we’ll meet you at the Christmas tree.”

  I set to logging off my computer with admin privileges and logging back in as a guest so Indy could use the Internet. To break the awkward silence, I explained what I was doing, to which he would reply, “Ya, ya, ya, I know.” Each time he said it, my jaw clenched a bit tighter.

  I created a throw-away password for him to use and started writing it down. “In order to log use this pass—”

  Indy cut me off. “Ya, ya, ya, I know.”

  I stopped writing midway through the word and took a slow, deep breath. I needed to address this issue, but I needed to do it correctly. I tried to call up my most patient tone. “Indy, please stop saying you know everything. I’m doing you a favor. You can just say okay or thank you.”

  “Ya, ya, ya, totally, thank you.”

  I rolled my eyes, but I couldn’t complain when he was willing to listen. “You’re welcome.” I finished writing out the password. Grabbing Moo, I took off his harness and leash then tucked them into the desk. Moo shook his head then all the way down to his tail. His tail snapped back and forth, catching Indy twice on the thigh then once right in his crotch. Indy doubled over with a yip.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  Indy had his eyes squeezed shut, and in a high voice, he said, “Ya, ya, ya, I’m fine.”

  I tried my best not to chuckle as I headed for the door. “Please try to be respectful of my office, and if you need anything, please come get me.”

  Moo bounded into the hallway, dancing and hopping away then back to Mary and me as we walked. He would smash into us then bounce off in a different direction.

  Mary pulled a small treat nugget from her pocket. “Do you wanna Scooby snack?”

  Moo bounded over and sat in front of her. It was the one trick he knew, and whenever he wanted something, he would sit over and over until he got it. She offered it to him, and he carefully picked it out of her hand then enthusiastically scarfed it down.

  “I though
t you were going to kill Indy. I could hear your teeth grinding from across the room.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Please tell me that he isn’t an OSA candidate. I might lose my mind if I had to work with him daily.”

  “I don’t think he is. I think he’s here because of his dad.”

  We were slowly walking down the hallway in no real rush. “Who’s his dad?”

  “Cold,” Mary said with a snicker.

  “So the annoying apple didn’t fall far from the obnoxious tree.”

  Mary snorted. When I had met Cold, Indy wasn’t around, and he left before Indy returned. I tried to remember if I had missed any clues. He had said that Minx and Kandi had both dated his dad, as had M.C.

  As we passed the conference room, I ducked in and signaled for Mary to follow me for a quick private conversation. “Do you know the deal with Minx, Kandi, Mac, and Cold? Some sorta weird love square?”

  “No, I don’t, but Kandi, Minx, and Cold are all suspects, so we need to find out what happened.” She pulled the list from her pocket. Another death, another list from Mary.

  “The people on the list were Kandi, Minx, and Cold—like I said. Plus, Orion, M.C., Loggin, and Bucky.”

  “Who’s Bucky?” I had met everyone else on the list, most of them this morning.

  “I vaguely know him. He started Bucky Sights; they only make compound sights. You know, the ones with all the pins, like they use in bow hunting?”

  “Uh, not really. So where do we start on this investigation? We have done this before, so we should be awesome at it this time.” I leaned over to stare at the list.

  “I don’t know. Last time, I knew everyone, at least vaguely. This time, I have only met half the people in passing. I know Minx, but beyond that…”

  I nodded. I had been gung ho to start but felt at an impasse before we even started. “What do you think about Tiger and Minx helping to investigate?”

  Mary pulled a sour face then wiped it clean like a blank slate. “I don’t know. I like them, but Minx has been moody and snappy since she arrived. Tiger is so smart and dashing, but this is kinda our thing.”

  “Isn’t she always like that?” So far Minx and I had had a rough go at it. She was either fighting with me or teasing me; I found neither particularly fun.

  Mary rolled her eyes at me. “No, she’s not like this. I don’t know why you two don’t get along, other than you’re too much alike.”

  I started to object, but Mary held up her hand. “Minx is a smart aleck that has a joke for every situation and isn’t afraid to say it like it is. Sound like anyone?”

  “My jokes are funny,” I muttered under my breath before continuing. “Why don’t we talk to Minx about what is going on first, then we can bring cookies to the rest of the suspects. See if anyone volunteers any info and go from there?”

  Mary stuffed the list into her pocket. “Better than nothing.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  Walking down the hallway to the dining room, where the Christmas tree was set up, I picked up a random dog toy on the floor. I tossed it for Moo, and he bounded ahead to grab it then raced back. The cafeteria was off limits to Moo, but the dining room was separate. It was used as a casual hang-out area for the center, and the tables had been arranged around a large Christmas tree.

  The Christmas tree was real, as evidenced by the pile of needles that where vacuumed up a few times a day by the janitorial staff. The tree was covered in an assortment of ornaments from shiny, plastic balls to expensive custom ornaments to handmade paper ornaments made by Mary and me. For the past month, when we weren’t working or shooting, we’d been crafting. There were bows, guns, and Great Danes covering the tree.

  The center had traded names of those who wanted to exchange gifts, and the wrapped boxes sat under the tree. Mary and I had made little gift bags for the employees together. Until my divorce was final and the assets were broken up, I was living on my meager salary.

  The air was filled with the quiet sound of Christmas songs, which had replaced the local station’s selection of pop and country music. The scent of cinnamon caught my nose from a basket of pinecones covered in glitter sitting on a small table in the entrance.

  Tiger and Minx were sitting near the tree, but Orion and Liam were across the room. I gave Tiger and Minx the just-one-second sign then went over to say hi to Orion and Liam.

  “Hey, how are you guys?”

  Orion chuckled. “Oh great. Who doesn’t want to be a suspect in a murder?”

  “Oh, it’s not so bad. Don’t tell Brian, but Mary and I will figure it out.” I gave Orion a friendly pat on the shoulder then pulled out a chair to sit in.

  “I forget that you have been through this before.” Orion sat back in his chair.

  Liam looked at me and stood abruptly. “I’m going to check on Mom.”

  As he walked away abruptly, I asked Orion, “Is he okay? He has seemed… off all day.”

  Orion stared after Liam with a distracted look on his face. “Ya, he’s fine. He’s probably just worried about the murder.” He continued to stare after Liam before shaking his head and turning back to me. He flashed me a brilliant smile, and I was struck by how handsome he was. Then a wash of unease came over me. I cast my eyes back to Liam then squirmed in my seat as I tamped down any thoughts about Orion’s looks.

  Mary sat down in Liam’s vacant chair. “He seems about the same as always to me.”

  Maybe Mary was right, though something felt different to me. “Is there anything I can do for you? We can unlock the weight room if you want to burn off some energy.”

  Orion looked down at his outfit. “I wish I could. What I really want to do is work, but not much chance at that. Practically everyone is back at the hotel.”

  I waved my hand at Tiger, and when he saw me, I signaled him to come over. “I might be able to help you. Tiger was telling us earlier that your speech this morning inspired him.”

  Tiger joined us and shook Orion’s hand.

  “Tiger, you should tell Orion your idea about a women-only class at the center.”

  Mary and I excused ourselves as Tiger started explaining his idea to Orion. We went over to Minx, who was sitting in a chair with her head in her hands.

  Mary pulled up a chair next to her and patted her on the back. “What’s going on?”

  Minx shook her head, and through her hands, she mumbled, “I don’t want to be here anymore.”

  My heart broke for her a little bit. “How about we get you some hot cider?”

  She nodded. I called for Moo, who was on the far side of the room, trying to dig a potato chip from under some furniture.

  Grabbing Minx’s elbow, I led her into the cafeteria. It was empty, which was good because Moo was not allowed in there. He took it upon himself to check the entire floor for crumbs, a task that could have taken him all day. The workers must have been released earlier because of all the snow warnings. I made up several cups of cider and brought them over to a table where Mary was sitting next to Minx.

  I took a small sip of the cider and decided it was still too hot. I cupped my hands around the warmth. “What’s going on, Minx?” She started to protest, and I held up a hand. “I know you don’t want to discuss it, but you seem to know all the suspects better than us. You dated Mac and Cold.”

  She choked on her cider. “I did not date Mac. That’s a lie. Who said that? If it was Kandi, I’ll kill her.”

  “It wasn’t Kandi. I haven’t even met her. Do you want to tell us what did happen?”

  Minx flopped back in her seat. “Fine. This was a long time ago. I met Cold at the Vegas tournament.”

  “What Vegas tournament?” This was the second time that I had heard about it today.

  Mary swirled her cider with a cinnamon stick. “Every year, around Valentine’s Day, there’s a three-day tournament in Las Vegas. Everyone just calls it ‘the Vegas tournament.’ I think it’s the biggest in the world. It definitely has the biggest payout in America. People come from all
over the world, and in America, anyone who’s anyone attends. Normally, the 3D archers stick to their tournaments shooting foam animals, and the field archers do their field tournaments while we do ours. There’s some crossover between the types, mostly between 3D and field archers and a tiny bit between field and the target archery we do. But everyone goes to Vegas. It’s in a casino off the Strip. Plus, all the companies attend, so the average person can see the new equipment lines and pick up supplies directly from the suppliers. We’ll have to go in February.”

  Minx seemed eager to get back to her story. “So I met Cold there one year, and we kinda flirted all year online or in text messages. Saw each other once or twice. He wasn’t doing his video work then; he was competing in 3D. The next year at the tournament, he swept me off my feet. Told me how great I was and took me on this super-fancy date in the nicest restaurant.”

  “So you did date Cold?” He seemed like such a jerk.

  She waved a hand at me. “He used to be much cuter, but really it was only that one official date. The next day, we were hanging out in the afternoon at the casino, and we ran into Kandi. That was it. When Cold and Kandi made eye contact, he stopped talking mid-sentence and said he would be right back. I guess they hooked back up that very night. Someone said they had dated years before.”

  “How long ago was this?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. Six years, eight years, something like that.”

  It had to have been a bummer and been embarrassing but if Minx was holding a grudge over that, it was petty. “So you hate Kandi ’cause she stole your boyfriend?”

  “That was just the first of many things: snide remarks here or making the point to correct me in public. Her best friend competed against me, and we had a few dustups. And she didn’t date Cold for long. She turned around and married Mac like a year or two later.”

  “Why does she hate you?”

  “That wasn’t my fault!”

  “Jinkies! What happened?”

  “A couple years ago, MacSights was considering an expansion into recurve sights. Mac and I started talking about recurve sights over the Internet and he suggested I come out, take a tour of the factory, give my input, et cetera.”