“Could you translate that to the non-metric system for the American?”
“I don’t know the conversion,” he said.
“How could you not know the conversion if you went to school in Minnesota?”
He shrugged. “My teachers thought it was charming, and I wasn’t one much for paying attention in math class.”
“Wow,” she said.
“Why is the burden on me? The rest of the world uses the metric system. You should have learned the conversion to fit in with the remainder of earth’s population.” He took off his rucksack and tossed it to the ground.
“Hiking makes you cranky.”
“Not really,” he said. “I simply enjoy a good debate.” He sat and crossed his legs. Lacy followed suit, mimicking his position.
“Now are you going to tell me why we’re here?” he asked.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because if I’m wrong and this turns out to be nothing, then I’ll look like the world’s biggest idiot."
“And if you’re right?”
“If I’m right, then I have no idea what will happen next. Oh, I almost forgot.” She reached into her bag and pulled out the container of ground beef she had brought. She jogged a couple dozen feet away and set the container on the ground. There was still enough fading light that she didn’t have to use the night-vision equipment yet, but she set it out and laid it in her lap anyway.
“You weren’t kidding about hunting something,” Michael said.
“I really wasn’t.”
“We have time to kill. Why don’t you tell me the story of the man in the hospital? Were you high school sweethearts?”
Lacy laughed and shook her head. “About as far from it as you can get. Cindy was his high school sweetheart.”
“Our Cindy?”
“Yours maybe.”
“Oh, you’ve quite the jealous streak, haven’t you?”
Lacy crossed her arms and refused to answer.
“I see. Continue. You weren’t high school sweethearts. He and Cindy were. What happened between them?”
“She’s a year older. She went off to college, and they drifted apart.”
“Now she’s back.”
“Yes, she is,” Lacy said. The jealousy was burbling inside her again like a bad case of food poisoning. She didn’t want to be jealous—it was a terrible feeling. But she couldn’t seem to help herself, especially when she had no idea what the situation was between them.
“If it’s any consolation, I can tell you that the man is barmy for you. Anyone can see that. Though I’ve noticed him talking to Cindy a time or two, I never would have guessed at any connection between them.”
“That does make me feel better,” Lacy said. “Thank you. What about you? No significant lady in your life? No Irish lass pining away across the ocean?”
He shook his head and stared hard at the ground beef. Lacy had the feeling she had trod on something painful so she backed off. They sat in silence for a while as night fell. She put the goggles over her head and everything was instantly bright again, in a ghoulishly green sort of way.
“There was someone,” he said after about ten minutes of silence.
“Someone what?” Lacy asked. She had already lost the thread of the conversation.
“There was a woman. In Minnesota.”
“What happened?” She turned to look at him and caught sight of his profile. Like her, he was pale. So pale he almost glowed. Unlike her, he had freckles on his nose and cheeks.
“She died.”
“Oh,” Lacy said. “I’m so sorry.”
He shrugged. “That’s life, you know?”
Lacy didn’t respond, but she knew the flip statement was cover for a whole lot of pain. There was another long stretch of silence. Lacy felt no need to fill it, and neither did Michael. Previously she would have said he was an extrovert because he always seemed chatty and friendly, but now she began to wonder if he was actually more introverted than he let on. Either that or his mind was on his lost love.
“Lacy, I have to tell you something,” he said.
Lacy turned to look at him again. This time he was looking at her. The whites of his eyes glowed eerily in her headgear. “The woman, my friend, she was murdered. The police think I did it. I was their only suspect. That’s why I came here as soon as I could. I wanted to get away and start over. I had to get away before they arrested me.”
He stared at her while she let the information sink in. “Did you do it?”
“No. I swear to you I never touched her. We had a tumultuous relationship, but I would never have hurt her.”
“Do you know who killed her?”
Slowly, he shook his head. “I wish I did, but it’s probably better that I don’t. If I knew who killed her, I think I might kill them.”
Lacy felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cool night air. Michael looked toward the beef again and then slowly reached out and grabbed her arm. She followed the line of his gaze and saw a huge female lion devouring the beef. They sat mesmerized and petrified while the lion ate. When she was finished, she glanced at them with narrow-eyed curiosity, and then turned and sauntered away.
“Did that really just happen?” Michael asked.
“Yes it did. You brought your phone, right?”
He nodded.
“Take it out, call 911, and report the lion. Make sure and say we have proof for certain that it was a lion. And give them a fake name.”
“Why am I calling?” he asked as he pulled out his phone and dialed with shaking fingers.
“Because if they know it’s me calling, they’ll know something is up. I’m, uh, sort of well-known there for various reasons.”
He nodded and pressed the phone to his ear. Lacy listened while he did as she had instructed. He gave their location and waited until the dispatcher pinpointed them using the cell phone’s GPS. Then he hung up and pulled the can of pepper spray from her bag.
“You knew there was a lion here, didn’t you?”
“I thought there was a strong possibility,” Lacy said.
“And you thought you could defeat it with pepper spray?”
“No, of course not. I thought the lion would eat the meat and leave us alone.”
“Then what is the pepper spray for?”
“The pepper spray is for them,” Lacy said. She pointed over his head, but of course without the aid of the goggles, he couldn’t see the line of approaching men. “Lie flat; we have a better chance of avoiding the bullets that way.” Lacy directed.
“What? What bullets?” he hissed, but the words were cut off when she put her hand on his head and pressed it flat into the dirt. A few minutes later, the shooting started. All around them, men were talking, yelling, and shooting. Snippets of conversation floated around them.
“There, over there, is that her?” one of the men asked. Lacy felt a moment of panic before she realized they were talking about the lion and not her.
“She’s gone again. Where does she go?”
And then it was over. The men trudged around for a while, looking, and then disappeared as quickly as they had come. Lacy waited until they had a good head start, and then she stood.
“Where are you going?” Michael whispered.
“I’m going to follow them,” she said.
“You are the battiest woman I’ve ever met, you know that?” he said. He stood and began walking after her.
“Then don’t come with me. Go back the way we came and take the car home. I’ll be there in a while. Probably.” She hadn’t thought through this part of the plan as carefully. There was always the chance that they might kill her. She didn’t think they would, but she wasn’t certain.
“Daft,” Michael muttered, but he kept walking. They caught up with the group of men and skulked silently behind them. Lacy couldn’t recognize any of them from so far away, even with the goggles, but she had a good idea of who they were.
They emerged fro
m the woods behind Pearl’s house, and that’s when Lacy noticed there was a clear-cut path. She removed the goggles and stashed them in her bag. The men bypassed Pearl’s house, hugging the woods as they walked through back yards. A quarter mile later, they emerged in the ritziest and most exclusive neighborhood in town, the same one where Joe had urged Lacy to buy a house. Michael and Lacy hung back as the group of men walked into a house and closed the door.
“Now what?” Michael asked.
“I’m going in,” Lacy said.
“You can’t do that. Shouldn’t we call the authorities?”
“Wouldn’t do any good,” Lacy said. “They’re already here.” She took a breath and plucked up her courage. She was going to need to pretend to be brave, much braver than she felt. “Look, Michael, this doesn’t concern you. I appreciate your coming with me tonight, but you should leave. Things are about to get complicated and deep. You don’t want or need to be any part of this.”
“I’m staying,” Michael said.
“But…” Lacy started, but he talked over her.
“I’m staying,” he repeated. “Do what you need to do, but know that I’m just outside and willing to come to your rescue if needs be.”
Lacy nodded. Later, there would be time to say thank you. For now she was merely intent on making it back out alive. She walked to the door and knocked. A maid answered, and that was when Lacy realized she had no idea whose house it was.
“Hello, may I speak to the man of the house, please?” she asked.
“I’m sorry, we don’t accept solicitors,” the maid said. She started to close the door, but Lacy stuck her hands in.
“I’m not a solicitor. Please tell him Lacy Steele is here; I think he’ll want to see me.”
“The gentleman is busy with guests,” the maid said.
“I’m pretty sure the guests will want to see me, too.” Just to be sure, she decided to send the woman with a message. “Tell them it’s about the lion.”
“Yes’m,” the woman said. She fell short of curtsying, and Lacy felt vaguely disappointed by the lack. She returned a minute later, and this time she quickly opened the door and moved aside so Lacy could enter. They bustled down the hallway to a large drawing room. She opened the door, plopped Lacy through, and closed the door again. Lacy saw Detective Arroyo, the mayor—who was already sweating and fanning himself—and Judge Kronk. Since she was most familiar with the detective, he must have been elected to take the lead.
“Lacy,” he said, his voice oozing sympathy. “What’s this about? I thought for certain you would be at the hospital with Jason.”
“I was for a while, but then I decided to be where I could do the most good.”
“Here in the judge’s house?” Detective Arroyo said. Of course, she should have known the fancy house would be his. He had been a lawyer before he became a judge, and the mayor and detective didn’t make that much.
“Actually, I was in the woods just now.”
That gave them pause. It was a few seconds before the detective recovered. “Yes? How odd. It must have been very dark there.”
His meaning was implied—she hadn’t seen a thing. She smiled as she reached in her pack and pulled out the goggles. “It was. Thankfully I had these. Amazing what you can see with the barest amount of light. Animals, people, weapons.”
“It’s time for you to get to the point,” the judge said.
“The point is that a man was murdered. Another man was shot, and I have personally been shot at twice now. What do all these things have in common? They all took place in the woods, the same woods from which this group of armed men just emerged. Doesn’t that seem like quite a coincidence?”
“Yes,” the judge said. “But that’s exactly what it is—a coincidence, and a circumstantial one at that. Proof, that’s what’s lacking here.”
“Correct, sir.”
“Jason’s shooting was an unfortunate accident. Anyone might have done it,” the detective said. “And as for the murder, we have a suspect in custody. You yourself said she was guilty.”
“I thought it must be her because she was the only one with a motive. But then Jason was shot, and that’s when it hit me—there was no motive. There were two unfortunate but highly preventable accidents, neither of which needed a motive. Jonah Merleputter was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and so was Jason when he came to investigate shots being fired in the woods.”
“As the judge said, Lacy, this is a very interesting theory, but the proof is lacking.”
“There is proof,” Lacy said. “Proof in the form of a female lion who is at this very moment patting her belly full of beef and trying to figure out where her next meal is coming from. You see, there have been a lot of lion sightings around here lately.”
“Lion sightings that all turned out to be nothing at all,” the detective pointed out.
“Lion sightings that were explained by coincidental sightings of native animals. Who is going to believe they actually saw a lion when another animal was nearby to blame? And then I remembered that Jason told me that Arroyo was taking all the lion sighting calls. He thought you were doing it to be nice, but you were really doing it to cover your own behind. So how does it work? You get a call about a lion sighting, and you go out and start shooting anything that moves?” No one answered, but she didn’t expect them to own up to everything she was saying. No wonder the poor lion kept escaping. Between them they had fired enough rounds to start a war, and yet they missed the lion every time.
“Today I spent a long time on the phone making some calls to hunting preserves that provide wild animals for hunters with expensive tastes. It turns out that an anonymous someone in this area ordered a lion three weeks ago. Obviously I don’t think you meant to unleash a lion on the town, but something went wrong and it escaped. Since then, you’ve been trying desperately to kill it. Only you killed a man and wounded an officer instead.”
“Again an amusing theory, my dear, but your lack of proof is astounding,” the judge said.
“And your overabundance of condescension is equally astounding. I found the person who sold the lion.”
“You said it was an anonymous purchase.”
“With enough money, nothing remains anonymous,” Lacy said. “You all think you’re special because you have money and power. You believe you’re impervious to the rules, that you make the rules. But guess what? You’re not the only people in this town with money and power. And if I have to, I will spend every dime I have to prove your guilt and Pearl Merleputter’s innocence. I will bring in every forensic expert in the country to dispel the notion that it was her bullet that killed her husband. I will hire a team of expert fortune hunters and have them retrieve every single shell and casing in the tri-county area until I prove which one of you was the shooter. And then I’ll figure out how much money it takes to make the anonymous lion buyer not so anonymous anymore. Oh, and did I mention my friends in the press? I know an editor at a certain New York paper who would have a field day with one small town’s local power corruption. Can you imagine how the picture of that lion is going to play when I finally have her captured? I’ve never thought a Pulitzer was within my grasp, but who knows?”
The mayor tugged at his collar and chugged a glass of ice water. The detective and judge were much cooler. “Hypothetically speaking, it seems unwise for a lone woman to walk into a group of armed men and begin issuing threats,” the judge said. He shifted slightly, revealing the gun lying beside him.
Lacy felt a moment of panic, but then she remembered the maid. They couldn’t shoot her in the house while the maid was there, and the woman would remember letting her in. And then there was Michael waiting outside. “Good thing I didn’t come alone,” she said. She smiled, but inside she was quavering. Maybe it was her imagination, but she sensed their collective disappointment about not being able to dispose of her immediately. There was another minute of silence before the detective spoke.
“What do you want?”
>
“I want Pearl Merleputter free, and I want whoever is responsible to pay for her husband’s murder. I want the lion caught humanely with no more illegal shooting. And I want the masterminding plotting to stop.”
“You don’t want much, do you?” the mayor asked. His tone was somewhere between sarcastic and petrified.
“I want justice,” Lacy said.
“Seems to me you’re only pretending to care about this Pearl woman. Why don’t you admit that this is really about Jason?” Arroyo asked.
“I’m angry that Pearl has been dragged into this mess. But I’m livid that Jason has been harmed. And if he or anyone that I care about is ever harmed again, I will personally see to it that this little club is blown wide open and exposed for the cesspool it is.”
4 Arch Enemy of Murder Page 20
