I had been trying to think of a more polite, subtle way to ask. I didn’t want to put Rayna on the spot, in case there was something she didn’t want to share with strangers. Charles wasn’t one to beat around the bush.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Rayna wasn’t a very good liar.
“She looks a lot like Bucky. I wondered if maybe she was related.” Charles didn’t back off. He saw the lie for what it was.
“You’re nuts.” She looked toward her dead husband’s body. “So, my husband is really dead?”
“I’m sorry, Rayna, he is.” Cortnie stepped in close to her.
Rayna started to shake. I mean really shake.
Charles did a very un-Charles like thing. He put his arm around Rayna and walked her over to the barn, which was the nearest place to sit. We all followed along with him. He sat her down on the carved wooden bench outside by the mechanical walker, and sat beside her.
“What was Bucky doing today?”
Rayna took a couple of deep breaths before answering. “Getting our horse, Mojo, ready for the auction tomorrow.”
Cortnie and I listened. We knew the details, but let Charles ask the questions, because it was going to be interesting to hear Rayna’s side of the story.
“I don’t know much about horses, but why auction him? Why not just sell him?” Charles had his best concerned friend persona going.
“We’re dissolving a business deal. An LLC. My husband and I decided we no longer wanted to be in business with the woman we owned Mojo with. Because Mojo was owned by the LLC, we had to purchase her portion of the horse from her.”
Cortnie and I looked at each other. Rayna took a few seconds to breathe and regain control.
“The woman we partnered with was completely unreasonable. She wanted a crazy amount of money for her percentage of the ownership of the horse. She refused to come to terms.”
Charles rubbed Rayna’s back. I wondered if Anthony’s suicide had turned a side of Charles I’d never seen. “Okay, how much was she asking?”
“Three hundred thousand dollars,” Rayna said the words slowly.
Charles choked, incredulous. “For a horse?”
So much for the compassionate Charles.
Rayna looked at him. Stunned. “This isn’t just any horse.”
“What was the other person’s ownership? You said they owned a percentage?”
“Twenty percent.”
“But that would make his full price one point five million,” Charles croaked. “That’s ridiculous.”
“That’s the point. He’s one in a million, but I don’t think he’s worth a million dollars. He’s a gelding, for Christ’s sake.” Rayna seemed a bit agitated, but her mind was off her husband.
I asked, “Do the circumstances change at all if Bucky is dead?”
Rayna looked at the ground and shook her head. “I don’t think so, but I’m sure the judge will postpone the auction.” She looked up. “To tell you the truth, I really don’t know. Bucky took care of all the business stuff.” A tear rolled down her cheek.
Interesting. What then? A change in terms or an appeal? Could there even be an appeal? Who wins with Bucky dead?
“I’m sorry to ask you so many questions, but we need to know who would do this to Bucky. Were the two of you having any problems in your marriage?”
She looked at me and smiled. “Are you married?”
I shook my head. “I used to be, but no longer.”
“Well, then you know as well as anyone, marriage isn’t easy. Try being married to a rodeo cowboy and a politician wrapped into one. There have been trying moments, but we’ve made it through. Twenty-five years. You don’t just give up on twenty-five years of hard work.” The corners of her mouth turned up in a weak smile.
She didn’t say twenty-five years of marriage, or twenty-five years with the man you love; she said, “Hard work.” I found that strange. I knew that any marriage was work, and to make it last it required effort on both parts, but “hard work?” Really? If it’s that hard, is it really worth it? Not that it should all come easy, but there’s a point where being married may not be worth it. I wondered if Rayna had maybe reached that point.
“Anything recent that’s come between you?” I asked.
She looked toward the road, then back up to the house before answering. “Nothing I can think of.”
“Not even this auction?” Cortnie asked.
“Surprisingly, no.” Then she looked at me and asked, “You said you were here to talk to Bucky. What were you here to talk to him about anyway?”
I looked at Charles before I answered. The truth was the only way forward. “Skinner Mathis hired us.”
Rayna sat ramrod straight. “Skinner?”
“Apparently, he and Bucky have some bad blood, and Bucky used Skinner’s credit to purchase a fancy trailer. Skinner mentioned a civil suit. He hired us to clear his credit, and to find evidence for criminal charges. Then we’re told Bucky took Skinner’s trophy saddle, saying it was his, and had Skinner arrested for theft.”
Rayna wiped tears from her eyes, and her face got red. “Whoa, go back to the trailer. That was all worked out. That’s what Bucky told me. It was an honest mistake, and Skinner even said it had been worked out, and that he could use the trailer, so it wasn’t a big deal. He was going to pay for the trailer and keep it himself.”
I raised my brows. “Really? That’s what Skinner told you?”
“I didn’t talk to Skinner directly about it. Bucky said they’d come to an agreement.” Now she scraped the dirt with the toe of her boot.
“Do you see Skinner much?”
Again, she looked at the road. “Not much lately.” Looking back at me, she said, “What did you say about a trophy saddle?”
“Skinner said Bucky had him arrested for stealing his team roping trophy saddle,” Cortnie said.
Rayna laughed. “That’s ridiculous. What on earth would Skinner steal a saddle from Bucky for? Skinner and Bucky both have plenty of saddles.”
“Can we go up to the tack room and take a look?”
Rayna stared at the stables. “I’d think the murder of my husband is more important than a damn saddle at the moment, don’t you?”
Snap! But maybe the two went hand in hand.
“What if there’s a possibility the saddle is part of the reason Bucky’s dead?”
Rayna’s laugh held so much mirth, it scared me. “Bucky had more enemies than friends. Politics and bad business deals will do that. But he’s your man, you know. He was everyone’s man. Only to be everyone’s man, you gotta piss a lot of people off. I could give you a list of people with a lot better reasons to kill Bucky. But if I was honest, I’d tell you that Skinner Mathis was here today.”
“Really?” Nick’s voice behind me made me jump.
Great, just great, our client went from being a simple credit fraud case to a possible murderer. This was too much. I wasn’t doing this again. It was time to grab my phone and have a heart to heart with Skinner, give him back his money, less my expenses and time so far, and be done with this.
“Let’s go,” I said to Cortnie. “If Skinner is now a suspect in Bucky’s murder, this is more than we signed on for.”
Rayna said, “What do you mean?”
“We were here to see if Skinner’s trophy saddle was here, and then talk to Bucky. We wanted to get his side of things before we started working on clearing up Skinner’s credit, and figuring out where to start on the evidence for the criminal case.”
Rayna stood. “Are you kidding me? Please, this is nothing new. They’ve been at each other’s throats for years.” She looked to Nick. “How did he die?”
“He was hit in the headseveral times. We won’t know the actual cause of death until the M.E. does the examination.” His voice soothing, but matter of fact.
“What do I do now? We’re supposed to auction my horse tomorrow, and I’m not sure how this affects things. I can’t be worried about the h
orse when I need to know who killed my husband. I can’t handle all of this at once. I don’t want to handle any of this.” She put her head in her hands and rubbed her face.
I heard a door slam, and looked up the hill. When I did, I saw a stunning young lady in her early twenties, standing on the deck outside the house, looking down toward the barn.
She looked like a younger, taller version of Rayna. A bean pole with legs up to there, and almost no figure to speak of. I’d guess a size zero, maybe size one if I was being generous. Her waist length wet hair could have been brown or black, but it was hard to tell.
She wore cutoff shorts and a spaghetti strap shirt, both in a dark color I couldn’t make out, and when she spotted her mom, she came running down the hill to the barn. She had weathered, blue cowboy boots on her feet.
As she ran across the road to the barn, she said in a raspy voice, “Mom, what’s going on?”
Rayna stood, grasped the girl around the waist, and hugged her tight. “Honey, your dad is dead.” Then Rayna began to shake and sob as she buried her face in the girl’s wet hair.
The young woman stood quietly, holding Rayna, rubbing her back and saying, “It’s okay, it’s going to be okay. What happened? Take a deep breath, and tell me what happened.”
She held onto Rayna for a few more minutes while we all looked on, staring stupidly. Finally, Rayna let go and stood at arm’s length. “Your daddy’s been murdered, little girl. Somebody killed Bucky.”
Tears welled up in the girl’s eyes, but she didn’t show the emotion Rayna showed. She sniffed, then said, “Mama, I need you to tell me what happened, and who all of these people are.”
Stoicly, Rayna explained the best she could, then I stepped in.
“I’m Mimi Capurro. I’m working for Skinner Mathis.”
Before I could say anything more, she looked at her mom and said, “Skinner is involved in this?”
Rayna touched her arm. “Now, Galynn, before you go getting all worked up, it’s not like you think. These people were here to talk to your daddy. They’re working for Skinner, trying to clear some things up for him. When they went to look for daddy, they found him…” she sniffed, then choked, “dead.”
Galynn looked at me. “So, you had nothing to do with this? Did you talk to my daddy before he died?”
I shook my head.
“I can’t believe this. I was just with him.” She looked around. “Where is he?”
Nick stepped forward. “I’m Detective Christianson, Homicide, Salinas Police Department. I’ve examined your father. The crime scene people will take over now and process the scene. We’ll start our investigation. We found your father down at the arena. Is there anything you can tell us about today?”
“I’m Galynn Cox, Bucky and Rayna’s daughter. I’m their only child. I was down at the barn and arena helping my dad with the horses this morning. We were getting Mojo ready for the auction, but as long as people were coming out, we made sure they could see the other horses too, and that everyone was groomed and clipped, you know, looking good for the sale, just in case people might be interested in another horse.”
Nick nodded.
We listened.
“Dad said he wanted to get everything cleaned up, and set up the announcer’s booth for tomorrow, so I left him to it and came inside to take a shower.” She looked up toward the house.
“Did you see anyone with your dad when you were headed to the house?”
Galynn wrinkled her brow. “No, when I left him, there wasn’t anyone else looking at Mojo. As far as I knew, we were finished showing him for the morning. Dad didn’t say anything about showing him to anyone else, at least, not until tomorrow, about an hour before the auction.”
She thought for a moment. “Well, wait, he might have been waiting for the vet to come out. I don't remember if he was coming yesterday or today for the vet check.”
“Vet check?” Nick asked.
“People would want to make sure Mojo was sound before they paid a king’s ransom for him, so Dad said he’d have the vet check done, so people would know he wasn’t lame. The vet bill would then be paid out of the sale price.” She seemed to be scanning the files in her brain for information.
“Is that normal?” I asked.
“When a buyer purchases a horse, they usually pay for the vet check, but in an auction situation, I’m not really sure.” Galynn stood tall, holding her distraught mom as she spoke.
“Did your dad seem distracted today, or say anything about someone having a beef with him? Was he afraid for his life?”
Galynn laughed, but it held no joy. “That was always Daddy’s joke. He’d say he was better off if he’d have been a bull rider. The bulls were safer than being a politician.” Then she smiled. It was a smile full of memories. “But I think he loved the game almost as much as a rodeo. The thrill of victory.”
The smile faded fast. She hugged her mom.
“We will need to take a look in the house at some point, so will you be home all day?” Nick asked.
Rayna jumped away from her daughter. “Why do you need to go in the house? Bucky was killed at the arena.”
“Yes, ma’am, but we need to gather evidence, and there may be pertinent evidence in the house,” Nick said.
His voice belied his patience at this point.
Galynn said, “I think you may need a warrant for that.”
Nick’s eyes widened. “Are you shitting me?”
We all looked at Nick.
“Don’t you want to know who killed your husband?” Charles asked.
Rayna, her body stiff, said, “Of course I do, but I don't see what good going through our house would do. No one has been in our house today but Galynn, Bucky and me.”
“I’ll get the warrant.” Nick said, as he walked away.
I never understood how people processed grief. If it had been my husband, I’d have let the cops in my house that very moment, even held the door open and made coffee. Did the ladies have something to hide? I found that impossible. They were both genuinely upset, and from their actions, I could tell they loved him.
I saw Gabe walking up toward the barn as Nick walked down the hill. They stopped to chat with one another, then Gabe turned around and they both headed back to the crime scene.
I took a chance and asked, “Can we look in the tack room, so we can tell Skinner we did our part, and be done with our investigation?”
Not looking up, she said, “The door’s unlocked. Only you won’t find anything in there, but my trophy saddle, and the one I use to ride Mojo.”
“Why’s that?” Charles asked.
“Bucky’s sold nearly everything but the horses to fund his campaign.” She looked up. “He was desperate to win this seat for some reason. He put everything we have on the line, everything except the ranch, because I refused to sign papers for a second mortgage.”
Under my breath, I said, “Don’t be so sure.”
She said, “Excuse me?”
Charles spoke before I could respond. “We’ll just check the tack room, and be on our way, so the detectives can do their jobs and find out who killed your husband. I’m sorry for your loss, Rayna.” He touched her shoulder, then walked past her, and we all headed up the hill to the stables and the tack room.
I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. “And if you don’t want to look guilty as hell, you may not want to put the detectives through the hassle of having to get a warrant. I can’t believe you wouldn’t want them to have access to everything in order to find the killer.”
“You’re right,” Galynn said. “It’s just the grief and shock talking. They need to have access to everything. Maybe even the trailer and his vehicles, too.”
Clearer minds prevail. I smiled.
“Would you like me to walk you back to the house?” Charles offered.
“No, we’ll be okay.” Galynn had her arm around her mom’s waist now. “I’ll take her inside, and get her some water and a sedative.”
“I�
��m not taking anything. You aren’t going to drug me,” Rayna protested. “And I can walk on my own.”
Rayna pushed away from her daughter and walked up the hill.
“I’m sorry, this is all a bit overwhelming.” Galynn followed after her mom.
“So sorry for your loss.” It was pathetic, but I didn’t know what else to say.
Galynn turned around and gave me a weak smile.
I really wanted to go home. I didn’t want to walk through the dirt and straw, not to mention the manure, with my shoes. Even Cortnie took the time to put her shoes back on, not wanting to be barefooted anymore. Charles stopped halfway.
“I’ll go back and get the car. I have no idea what you’re looking for anyway, and I really only like the smell of leather if it’s furniture, a nice car, or… um, I won’t even go there.” He turned and hightailed it to my Land Rover.
“Nice. Way to be a real man,” I called after him. I wanted to say more, but in light of the recent murder, I thought better of yelling.
Cortnie had made her way to the doors of the tack room, and I had to catch up.
“You know Galynn?”
“Not really. She’s a little younger than me, maybe twenty-two or so. But she’s beautiful, isn’t she?” Cortnie said.
“Fresh out of the shower, not a drop of makeup, and flawless skin. I think I hate her.” And I didn’t even know her.
“Hard to hate her though, she seems nice. And so caring with her mom. She’s a world class barrel racer, I just don’t know her personally. She and Rayna are well known on the rodeo circuit. They travel together.”
“Just her and Rayna?” I asked. “What about Bucky?”
“I’m pretty sure with his supervisor’s job, Bucky can’t be on the road like he used to. I mean, going for the gold is a full-time job. I’d bet Rayna and Galynn are away from home more than they are here.”
She opened the door, which slid along a railing, and revealed a rather stark room. It must have once been full, because there were racks for at least a dozen saddles, but now there were only two. Beautifully carved half circles of wood lined a short wall, and I counted about two dozen in all, but only three had anything hanging from them.
Electile Dysfunction (Gotcha Detective Agency Mystery Book 6) Page 6
