“Ah. Good point.” He pulled out cards and handed one to each of us. “In case you ever need help. Is it true that the center is opening up spots for compound shooters to train at the facility?”
Mary nodded. “Yep, they just approved two recurve OSAs, Tiger and Minx, and one weekend gal, Mouse. Jess is planning on opening up the compound applications sometime soon.”
“I have a few shooters that might be interested. Since I’m helping you out, you can put in a good word for them. I’ll let you know when they apply.”
I wasn’t convinced that listening to him brag for what felt like a century really qualified us as owing him anything, but I nodded back. After pulling a card from my pocket, I passed it over. “This is Jess’s card; she will be making the final decision. So I heard you worked with Cash on his hunting show.”
Moose grunted and crossed his arms. “I used to. I brought him into this industry and took care of him, and how does he repay me? By screwing me over.” He grumbled and muttered obscenities under his breath.
“Oh no. What happened?” Mary looked up from her drawing of a cartoon dog.
“He’s just a tool and unappreciative—” He cut himself off and looked away with a frown.
It surprised me that he seemed genuinely wounded. Maybe all that bluster hid some insecurity. “Did you know Hannah at all?”
His eyes brightened, then he smoothed his face of any emotion. “Yes, I knew her as well. I always told Cash that she should be on the show. It helps to have some eye candy around.”
“Why didn’t Cash do that?”
“He tried, but she refused. No idea why. She was a beauty queen, Miss Kentucky or Carolina or something, and a professional cheerleader, but she insisted she was too shy to be on TV. I tried to convince her to do it, but I never could. She was a bit weird sometimes.”
Mary leaned forward a bit. “How so?”
“She refused to have anything about her online or in the show. And she wasn’t a fan of the show. She seemed okay with it when they began but less so right around the time I stopped working with them. Hey, Panther!” The last bit he yelled out, causing Moo to leap to his feet. “Glad I could help you both with this article, but I need to go talk to someone.”
He ran over and fell into step next to a guy while we left the booth the opposite way.
Mary walked on the opposite side of Moo. “Keep an eye out for Vinny. I don’t know if that was all that helpful a talk with Moose.”
“And now he thinks we owe him a favor. That’s just great. But we can’t eliminate him from the suspect list.”
Mary turned right at the end of the row and craned her head around, looking each way, before continuing. “If he’s the murderer, it would be convenient. We’d never have to pay back this imaginary favor.”
“He’s huge. He could have picked up Cash single handed and dropped him onto the floor below. Plus, he likes Hannah. Maybe he killed Cash to get to Hannah. Or they’re having an affair, and he did it for her.”
“True. Do you think he did it?”
I darted around a man in camo standing in the aisle. “I’m not convinced. Nothing he said really stuck out as a great motive and murderous anger. Over there.” I pointed several booths over. “Is that Jillian?”
“Yes, perfect.” Mary raced off, with me on her heels.
Jillian and Vinny were talking quickly in a booth, pointing at tree stands. They pointed at one then the other. Jillian lifted one and shook her head before placing it down.
As we approached, Jillian looked up and smiled. “Again? How many questions do you have?”
“Actually, we were hoping to talk to your videographer, Vinny.” Mary smiled back.
“Oh… we’re pretty busy right—”
Vinny cut her off. “No problem. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
Mary escorted Vinny out of the exhibit hall and back to the food court. From this distance, booths were just barely visible. Once we were all settled in, she asked him about his job.
“I do everything related to filming, not just handling the camera. I have to make sure the sound is right, we’ve all the shots we need and that they’re good enough, then I edit together the episode and get the finished episodes to the network. I help Jack and Jillian with each segment, and I’m also another set of eyes to evaluate creative decisions.”
Mary took notes. “How long have you worked with them?”
“This will be our third season working together. Jack’s brother used to do my job, but his production company was growing, and it was getting harder and harder to pick up and leave for all of hunting season. I had met Jack and Jillian on a few different occasions, and when they said they were looking for a new camera guy, we talked about it and gave it a shot.”
“Who did you work for before Jack and Jillian?”
Vinny shrugged. “I’ve been doing this for fifteen—no, sixteen years. I’ve worked with and for a lot of people on a lot of projects.”
Mary tapped her pen on her notebook a few times. The silence stretched out. “Isn’t it true that you worked for Hunting with Cash before leaving under mysterious circumstances?”
Vinny rocked back in his chair. “What the…? I thought this was an article. Is this some kinda exposé?”
I chuckled and tried to lessen his panic. “This part isn’t for the article. We’re trying to figure out what the deal was with Cash. There was something fishy going on, and we thought you might know. No one has details; we’ve tried talking to Loggin, Jillian, Tony, basically everyone, but no one can tell us what really happened.”
He looked at me with narrowed eyes then back at Mary. “You work for Westmound, right? You swear this isn’t going in the article?”
Mary shoved the notebook in her bag and waved her hand across her chest. “I cross my heart. This isn’t for the article.”
“Fine, but if you repeat this, I will deny it up and down. Cash always wanted to cut corners and was a little too slick for my taste. I was already looking around for a new job while editing the last season we did together. We had done the normal season of public-land hunts, then we had filmed a fancy guided hunt on private land. He said it was just for his own records, then he said maybe it would be bonus footage, or he would try to do a special episode. The story kept changing. But when I started editing, he had this idea to start mixing footage for ‘a better, more engaging episode.’ That was the final straw. We’d been butting heads all season, so I left.”
“What happened after that?” Mary leaned forward on her chair.
“I don’t know. I didn’t watch the season or want to. I just slid out of thescene, and most people forgot I ever worked with him. And I prefer it that way.”
Maybe Vinny wanted to shut up Cash permanently. “When did you guys get to the OIT Show?”
“First thing this morning. We left at two a.m. and drove straight through to make that meeting with Liam and Orion,” Vinny said it matter-of-factly with no hesitation. He looked around and spied Jack and Jillian and waved them over. “I don’t want to say anything in front of them. They’re of the ‘speak no evil’ variety and hate gossip.”
Jillian held up her index finger to indicate they would be there in a second, and she and her husband finished talking to a salesman at the booth. This was our only chance to talk to someone who knew Cash and seemed willing to talk. “What’s Hannah like?”
“Oh, she’s a flirt. I heard she was some cheerleading beauty queen, but I found it kinda gross the way she would bat her eyes at sponsors to get more free product. She never did it to me, though, so I was thankful for that. I’ve been happily married for twelve years. She always wanted to be the center of attention but would claim she was camera shy whenever we wanted to take her picture. ”
Jack and Jillian were exchanging cards with the salesman.
I pushed ahead. “What about Moose?”
He rolled his eyes. “That dude’s ego is enormous. Hannah had him wrapped around her finger, but then he had some fight
with Cash about something stupid—a hunt they were planning or a sponsorship that Cash didn’t think was worth it—and Moose stormed off.”
“And Lex?” At the booth, Jack was shaking hands and turning toward us.
“Who?”
“Bald guy, has some booth with hunting products.” The words tumbled out of my mouth.
“Oh yeah. He wasn’t involved with Cash when I worked with them. We all done here?”
Jack and Jillian joined us.
Mary turned to them. “Hey guys, we got everything we need for the article. I hear you had an early morning.”
Jillian narrowed her eyes, but Jack chuckled. “Yes, we did. Left at two ten a.m. exactly. I can’t wait to crash at the hotel tonight.”
“Thanks again for chatting with us. We’ll see you around.”
They left, and Mary pulled her notebook out with a sigh. “This article is going to need to make everyone look really good to make up for how annoyed they are with us.”
“That’s up to you, my friend. I work with computers for a reason.” I clasped my hands on my stomach and extended my legs, rolling my ankles one at a time, then stifled a yawn. “So Vinny, Jillian, and Jack are off our list of suspects?”
“I guess,” said Mary. “I mean, we can’t prove that they didn’t fake their alibi ahead of time. But I am putting Moose back on the list. Maybe he was pining away for Hannah and wanted us to interview him just to throw us off.”
“Or they were having an affair for years. But at least we have confirmation of what we suspected. Cash was definitely editing footage to make his show look better. But I’m not sure what it means beyond him being a massive liar and spending a ton of money to do it. Who do you want to interview next?”
“Ideally, I should talk to Hannah. She’s suspect number one, but I’m not even sure how we could approach her. The article angle won’t work, and after you almost ripped her throat out for touching Liam, I doubt we could try the ‘concerned friend’ approach.”
I cleared my throat. “Sorry about that.” I stared off into the distance at the people starting to stream out of the exhibit hall. “What time is it?”
“The show closes for the day in fifteen minutes.” Mary followed my glance then gasped. “Look, there’s Hannah.”
Hannah was exiting the exhibit hall, clinging to Lex’s arm. They moved out the front doors and headed toward a line of buses that shuttled people back to the hotels in the evening. I turned to Mary. “Well, well, well. Interesting.”
***
Sitting in our suite back at the hotel, I was so tired I couldn’t imagine how I was going to get off the couch and go to dinner. I had sat down after I showered and changed and hadn’t moved since.
Liam came into the room, rubbing a hand through his hair and sending up a fine spray of water. He sat next to me, a subtle scent of soap and spices wafting over. “You look beat. Do you want to stay in tonight?”
“Oh, I don’t want to ruin everyone’s plans…” I didn’t want to go, but shouldn’t I at least attempt to be a good sport?
“No worries. We can order in or something. If Orion and Mary want to go with John and Mom, they can. They don’t really need us.”
“Did I hear my name?” Mary exited our room. She was combing her thick, wet black hair.
I flopped my feet onto the coffee table and slid down farther on the couch. “We were discussing the idea of staying in tonight, but I don’t want to ruin everyone’s plans.”
“If we stay in, I can start that article for Sarah. Is, uh”—she cleared her throat, and a pink flush rose in her cheeks—“Orion going?”
Orion popped his head out of the bedroom. “Going where?”
Liam stretched his hands overhead. “The three of us are debating staying in and having room service instead of going out.”
“Count me in on that.” Orion disappeared back into his room.
Mary went over to the small table and pulled out her computer and notebook. Within a minute, she was tapping away at the computer.
Moo crawled up on the couch next to me, his head on my lap. He had already eaten and would be thrilled with the idea of staying in. Liam grabbed the TV remote off the coffee table. After flipping through the stations, he settled on a show about huge fish. “I never see this show at home, but I swear every time I travel there’s a marathon running.”
***
After several more episodes of the fish show and the food had arrived, I was still exhausted but content. Elizabeth had gone to dinner with John, but the rest of us had stayed in and ordered room service. Moo was asleep in my lap. Orion had pulled over a chair and exchanged quips with Liam about the show. Mary had typed away at the table, occasionally asking me for clarifications when her notes got too messy. I was tempted to nap but didn’t want to miss a single second of the easy joking in the room. I was pleased in a way that I hadn’t felt in… ever? I couldn’t think of a time when I had been so at ease.
Mary closed the lid on her laptop. “First draft is done. I’ll give it a look over before I submit it. Are you still watching that show about fish in the Amazon?”
Orion peeled his eyes off the screen. “Nah, that was the last episode. Now he’s fishing for killer sting rays. Pull up a chair and learn about the evil that lurks beneath.”
Mary giggled and started to drag her chair over then stopped. “Oh drat! Di and I were supposed to do some investigating tonight.”
I waved a hand at her. “Don’t worry about it. I bet Sherlock and Watson took time off after a long day. Sit. Enjoy the show.”
“Didn’t Sherlock take cocaine or something?” Mary pulled her chair over next to Orion.
“I think that is out of the cards for us. Television shall be our drug. What is it, Moo?” He had woken up and was pawing at my leg. “Do you need to go outside?” Moo sprang from my lap and raced to the door. “I guess that answers that.”
Mary reluctantly stood up. “I’ll go with you.”
Liam stood. “No, no, you just finished working. I’ll go with Di.” He grabbed his coat and clipped the leash onto Moo’s harness while I grabbed my shoes and jacket.
Mary sat down. “So what is this show about?” she asked Orion.
Liam, Moo, and I slipped out the door. “Thanks for going with me to walk Moo.”
“He’s my dog.” He gave me a smile as we waited for the elevator.
“Only technically. I consider Moo my dog.” I hitched my chin defiantly.
“How about if he’s our dog? How was your day?”
As we rode down in the elevator and took Moo outside, I gave him a summary of our day, including the investigation. He listened and nodded at the right times and gave me every ounce of his attention. We walked in laps around the ground floor until I had shared every bit of information and Moo was dragging behind us. The police tape was gone from the crime scene, and I would have never guessed a man had died here two nights ago.
“What do you have left to investigate?” Liam asked.
“I’m not really sure. I really think Hannah did it, but we don’t know how or if she did it alone.”
We had turned the corner by the bar and headed for the front desk again when a voice called out. “Hey, guys.” The words were slurred and drawn out.
I turned and spotted Kandi wobbling out of the bar toward us. I nodded at her. “Hey, Kandi, how are you doing?”
She was thinner than last time I saw her. The ribs above her breasts created deep ripples like a washboard from her collar bone down. Her makeup wasn’t as heavy as before but was far sloppier. Her eyeliner was uneven, one cat’s eye going up while the other went down, and it was smeared on the left side. Foundation made orangey lines in the wrinkles of her neck. Clumps of black mascara were in the inside corners of her eyes. Her hands twitched and moved with a life of their own as she rambled.
“I’m doing just great. Ha-ha. But I would be better if Liam let me buy back Kandi-Covered products. You should do that, Liam, or Westmound, or whoever makes t
hat decision. What do you think? That’d be great, huh?”
It all came out in one breath, the words tumbling out as one long word without pauses between them. She stopped to empty her sloshing glass all at once before continuing, “Hey, you guys should grab a drink with us. We’re hanging out and having a great time, and you could have a drink or buy me one, and we can discuss selling me Kandi-Covered. Wouldn’t that be fun?” She grabbed Liam’s hand and pulled. When he didn’t move, she slipped and stumbled back a couple of steps.
I moved in closer to Liam and tried to distract Kandi. “Sorry, Kandi. We have to get up early, plus we have Moo with us.”
“Moo! Hi buddy.” She leaned over and shoved her hand into his face before I could stop her. Moo danced out of her reach behind us.
Her behavior made me uneasy, but perhaps she had some information for us. “Hey, did you hear about Cash dying? Poor Hannah.”
Kandi stood up quickly and took a stumbling step to the left. “I did! Can you believe it? Cold worked with them and told me all about it. Cash was so in debt, he spent all of his money from selling his business on the show, which is totally the opposite of how it was supposed to work. You’re supposed to make money, not lose it. I heard that Cash got a huge loan to cover the upcoming season and get a better timeslot. I thought that was hilarious. Cash had no cash.”
She laughed at her own joke while my brain caught up with what my ear heard. She was talking so quickly. “I wish we had been here to see it. I’ve never seen a dead body, but we were at the concert. Cold filmed it, and I helped. We’re going to start doing all the stuff together, and I’ll be on screen and be the face of archery, and it’s going to be awesome. I’ll be at all your tournaments. I can cheer you on. Woohoo! Hey, are you sure you don’t want a drink? I’m so thirsty.”
She turned and tottered off to the bar, her ankles bending and twisting. It was surprising that she didn’t tip over.
“Whoa,” Liam said next to me.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “That was like a tornado. She appeared and disappeared so quickly, I barely caught my breath.”
Death at the Trade Show: Target Practice Mysteries 3 Page 10
