Leave Tomorrow Behind (Stella Crown Series)

by Clemens, Judy

  “Stella?”

  His voice made me tear up. “Hey.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “I don’t know. I just…wanted you to know what was going on.”

  “Thanks, Babe. Maybe I’ll go over there. See if I can help.”

  I figured that’s what he’d do, and it was the last thing I wanted, to put him even close to danger. But he was an adult, and he cared about people. I couldn’t hold out information from him just to keep him safe.

  “Be careful, okay?”

  “You know I will.”

  “I love you.”

  “You, too.”

  For once, Miranda didn’t make a gagging sound. Or even look like she wanted to. “How about Carla?” she said, instead.

  “Sure.”

  She called her, and let her know what was happening. Carla said she and Bryan would keep an eye out. Taylor was going to be watched over well, whichever way you looked at it.

  Traffic finally began moving once we reached Route 476, and before we knew it, we were only a couple miles from the fair. Daniella was sitting forward on the seat, looking out the front window, as if she could see her daughter from there. As soon as I pulled into the grassy lot, she shrieked at me to stop the car, and went bounding across toward the entrance.

  “Go with her,” I said.

  Miranda, for once, didn’t question me, and took off without a backward glance. I found the closest spot and pulled the car in. As I trotted toward the entrance, I called Nick. “Where are you?”

  “With Zach and Taylor, and about twenty cops. We’re in the home arts building.”

  “So she’s safe?”

  “She’s fine. And there’s been no sign of Gregg.”

  I stood inside the gate and looked around, like I might see him right there. “Okay. I’ll be there in a minute. I want to check a couple places first.” I began walking toward the calf barn, where I knew Gregg’s daughter Melody still had a stall.

  “I’ll join you.”

  “No, stay with Taylor.”

  “Stella, she’s got a couple dozen bodyguards. Plus Zach. He’s not going to let anything happen to her.”

  “Which worries me. He’s not equipped to be facing a killer.”

  “Neither are you.”

  “I’ve done it before.”

  “That doesn’t mean—”

  “I’m going to the calf barn. Meet me there.”

  He hung up, and I moved faster. The calf barn was empty when I got inside. A few kids just leaving, but that wasn’t surprising, since all of the animal judging events were over. There was really nothing left to do with the calves except make sure they were fed and watered before taking them home the next day, so the 4-H’ers were ready for a last night on the fairway, leading up to the fireworks display at dusk. I knew Zach and Taylor weren’t at Barnabas’ stall, and there was no sign of Randy or Laura, either, or even Austin. The place was deserted. Except…there was some movement over on the other side of the barn.

  I tried to see who it was, but whoever it was was kind of skulking around. It was weird. Like a shadow, or a really slow-moving slug person. Quietly and slowly, I made my way around the outside of the stalls to come up behind the slug person, in the row.

  It was Mrs. Gregg. She was standing all the way up now, and petting her daughter’s calf with her left hand. And she held something else in her right, that was shiny and long and…it was a syringe.

  I crept closer. What was she doing? Whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. Not with a shot in her hand. She was murmuring quietly to the calf, rubbing its ears, telling it that everything would be okay. That it would go quickly. And then she put the needle against the calf’s neck.

  I shot my hand out, knocking the syringe onto the wood chips. The calf balked, stepping back, right on the syringe, breaking the tube and spilling the solution into the ground. I grasped Mrs. Gregg’s wrist as she tried to squirm away. “What are you doing?”

  Her eyes were wild. “Nothing. I didn’t do anything.”

  “You were going to.”

  “Stella?” Nick hustled up the row.

  “Call Carla. Tell her we need her here right now.”

  He didn’t question me, but pulled out his phone and made the call.

  “I thought it was over,” I said to Mrs. Gregg.

  She sobbed once. “I did, too. I thought it was over, but he said no. He said we could use them all again. That it was important to the girls. To our family. I tried to tell him that he was the only one who wanted it, but he wouldn’t listen.” She looked up at me with wide doe eyes. “After that happened the other day with the lemon, it all became so clear. If the cows couldn’t compete, we could end all this.” She sobbed again, sinking toward me, rather than pulling away. “Everyone hates us here. They always have, but David doesn’t care. He says it’s good for the girls. Good for business. And I just…” She deflated, her wrist hanging loosely in my hand.

  “What were you giving to the calf?”

  “Just something calming. Something to make him sleep.”

  “Forever?”

  She gazed at the sweet little calf. “It wouldn’t have hurt. He would have just—” She dropped toward the ground, like she was demonstrating. I caught her and laid her over some straw bales. Her skin sagged, and gray touched the roots of her hair. Her clothes draped on her bony arms and legs, and her mouth hung slack. She looked…pathetic.

  Nick and I stared down at her.

  The 4-H fair criminal mastermind.

  Chapter Forty-five

  “Mrs. Gregg sent me the texts,” Carla said. “She said so, and they checked out the number. It was hers. She hadn’t even tried to disguise it. She had nothing against me, not really, but she wanted to make it seem like it was someone else making the animals sick. Someone who was out to get me, rather than someone who was out to get her. And all because that first night I told her she was imagining things when she’d called me about her animals. Well, I didn’t say it exactly in those words. I was more polite. But she figured, why not blame me, or someone connected to me?” She shook her head. “It’s not hard to get Acepromazine, that’s the sad part. She was going to shoot that calf so full of it, he’d never wake up. Sick.”

  I thought about Ace, and how it acted. I still hadn’t heard what had paralyzed and killed Rikki Raines, but I really didn’t think it was the same medicine. Ace would have put the calf to sleep, but it wouldn’t have choked it to death. It would have just…made everything stop working. Rikki had been smothered by whatever it had been. Paralyzed so her throat no longer allowed air through. Maybe not a huge distinction, but the only one I’d heard about so far.

  We sat on blankets in the grassy area of the grandstand track. We, along with all the other fair families, had free reign of the space. The public had to watch the fireworks from the grandstand, or the parking lot. I leaned back against Nick, nursing my tired foot, and Carla curled up with Bryan. Miranda occupied a corner of the blanket, pretending to ignore us all. We had a clear line of sight to Zach and Taylor, and their group. Taylor apparently hadn’t taken her mother’s warnings too well. “Mom, Mr. Gregg is not going to do anything to me. Nobody cares that much about this pageant. Geez. Will you chill?”

  So the adults had to make believe they were “chilling,” which we all actually were, since Gregg would have been called to deal with his wife, the wanna-be-calf-killer, and I couldn’t imagine he’d get away anytime soon, especially since he couldn’t exactly say, “I need to go to get rid of this girl who’s keeping me from a lot of money.” But then, there wasn’t that huge a rush. He could get rid of her in a much more private venue after the fair was over.

  Not exactly a comforting thought.

  Even with the very slim chance of Gregg trying anything at that particular time, people didn’t take a teenage girl’s safety lightly. Willard sat with Taylor and her friends, under the pretense of hanging out with Brady, and Daniella and Amy hung around, too. Several cops, i
ncluding Watts, hung around just in general, since, as Brady had mentioned all the way back on that first day, stupid stuff happens at the fair. The cops all knew Gregg by sight, of course, since he was a personal friend of the sheriff, so tension was rather low. They had no evidence that Gregg had harmed Rikki, and nothing tangible to show that he was out to get Taylor. Just the brains of us women who had put it all together, which the cops weren’t exactly keen on. Watts listened politely, then said she’d look into it. Great. That kind of enthusiasm inspires so much confidence.

  Speaking of brains, mine was tired. I looked forward to watching bright lights explode in the sky.

  Several girls I recognized from the pageant had come over to talk to Taylor, including the second runner-up, who had been so excited to place. She wore her banner proudly, and gave Taylor a big hug before skipping off with a guy her age who looked like a gentle, love-crazed linebacker. Cute. Summer hadn’t dropped by, thank goodness, and I hadn’t even gotten a glimpse of her, which made the evening much more pleasant.

  I would be glad when the show was over, and Taylor and her mom were home safe. Although I think the plan was for them to spend the night at Claire and Bobby’s, so they wouldn’t be alone.

  “How long till the fireworks start?” Nick asked.

  I snuggled up against him. “With any luck, before I fall asleep.”

  He squeezed me. “I don’t mind if you do. But seriously, how long?”

  “Well, it’s not dark yet. A half hour, maybe? Why?”

  “Can we move around a little bit? I’m feeling a bit tingly.”

  I sat up fast. “Are you having an episode?”

  “No. I’m okay. I think it’s just sitting on this hard ground. It’s pinching my nerves.” He smiled, and I almost believed him that he was okay.

  I stood up and gave him my hands to pull him up. “We’ll be back,” I told Carla and Bryan. “Save our spots.”

  We picked our way through the other people scattered throughout the grass, until we made it to the outer edge, and the racetrack, which was fairly clear, because who would want to sit on cinders?

  “Want to walk?” I asked him.

  In response, he took my hand and we headed counter-clockwise, taking our time, not moving fast. I kept my eyes open for Gregg, but he was nowhere to be seen, which was lucky for him. I was ready to take him down.

  Several times people called to us and we waved, but we kept going, not wanting to make small talk with folks we hadn’t seen for ages, or talk about the week’s adventures with those we had. It was nice just to walk and not have to think.

  Almost fifteen minutes later we made it back to our starting spot. I shook Nick’s hand. “Want to go again? It’s still light enough.”

  He slid his hand out of mine and stretched his arms above his head, causing several women in our vicinity to hyperventilate. I watched him, too, enjoying the view, and saw the exact moment something caught his eye.

  “What is it?” I turned, but didn’t see anything that stood out.

  “Isn’t that Summer’s mom?” He pointed, and I had to do that thing where I got eye level with his finger in order to pick her out of the crowd. She was standing far behind our group, her phone at her ear. I didn’t see Monster Daughter with her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t around somewhere, waiting to take over for Taylor, should something happen. Looking past Sherry Moss, I saw another familiar face, headed our way. Laura. I guess she hadn’t made it in time to come with the crowd. I saw the moment she noticed Taylor’s group, and angled her approach that way, although it was slow going through the crowded grass. My phone buzzed, and I checked it. A text from Willard.

  just heard med called botulinum toxin A. like botulism. more soon.

  I shared the text with Nick. “Weird, right? Food poisoning doesn’t paralyze you, does it?”

  “Actually, I think I’ve heard it can in severe cases. But food poisoning doesn’t paralyze you, and then shove you in a manure pile.”

  I hoped more answers were coming, because this wasn’t really helping.

  There was movement up at Zach and Taylor’s group, and Taylor stood, talking on her phone, then looking somewhere off to the side. I followed her gaze, but saw nothing that stuck out. Taylor was frowning, and searching the area, so I guessed she didn’t see what she was looking for, either. She took a step away from her group, and about five pairs of arms reached for her. She waved them off, saying something, probably, “Will you guys cut it out?” She waved at Zach, and he stood up. I watched for Claire’s reaction, but for once, she didn’t seem to notice. She was too busy talking to Randy. Hmm.

  Zach and Taylor picked their way through the crowd toward a stand selling peanuts and cotton candy. I looked back at Daniella, who seemed torn. Yes, her daughter was possibly in danger, but also yes, she was in a very public place, with all kinds of people watching out for her. And there was still no sign of Gregg, and a very low possibility he’d come anywhere close.

  I waved, catching Daniella’s eye, and indicated by pointing two fingers at my eyes that I would keep watch over Taylor. Daniella nodded her thanks.

  “Where are they going?” Nick said, watching as Zach and Taylor passed the stand. “I thought they were just hungry.”

  Hustling to catch up, we went to the food vendor, then looked past it. Taylor and Zach had disappeared into the crowd.

  “Where’d they go?” Nick said.

  Blood rushed from my head until I saw Taylor’s reddish hair, bobbing as she and Zach walked away from the grassy area. “There they are. Come on.”

  Nick followed me, but his attention was on his phone, where I spied that he was checking out the medicine Willard had just named. I grabbed his elbow and pulled him along with me, making sure he didn’t run into anything, or anybody. Taylor and Zach were moving ahead.

  “Nick, we need to keep moving if we’re going to stay with them.”

  “Sorry.” He walked faster, but kept his eyes on his phone.

  “Where are they going?” I muttered under my breath. I hoped they weren’t sneaking away to make out. That was not something I wanted to walk in on.

  We kept going, until it became clear they were headed for the calf barn. Great. Just where I wanted to go, after finding Mrs. Gregg almost murdering the calf. We stopped just outside the door, and I peered in, not wanting them to know I was watching.

  “See anything?” Nick asked.

  “Just calves.” I checked out the row where the Greggs’ calf was, since that was where I’d last seen someone skulking around, but all was quiet.

  “Laura?” Taylor’s voice sounded loud in the barn. “Where are you?”

  Laura? I wondered. Why would she be looking for her here? I’d just seen Laura over at the grandstands, headed for Taylor and her crowd.

  “She used her mom’s phone and said we should meet her here,” Taylor said to Zach. “She was afraid she couldn’t find us with all the people over there.”

  “Maybe she meant the dairy barn. I’ll go look.”

  “I’ll stay here in case she comes.”

  Zach came our way, and we jumped around the corner while he went between barns. I went right back to my spot once he was out of sight. Taylor stood in the middle of the empty barn, hands on her hips. “Laura?”

  “Oh, God,” Nick breathed. “Botulinum Toxin A.”

  My heart stopped at the look on his face. “What about it?”

  He held out his phone. “Commercially called Botox.”

  The name hung in the air between us. Botox. That cosmetic drug I’d thought about so many times that week, always in conjunction with two people. Summer. And her mother.

  “It’s used to paralyze parts of your body,” Nick said. “If your body is paralyzed, it can’t wrinkle. So if enough of it got injected into the right place, it could paralyze other parts of you, like…”

  Like Rikki Raines’ throat.

  I thought back to a few minutes ago. “Summer’s mom was just back at the fireworks. I sa
w her. She was talking on her phone. She couldn’t possibly be—”

  Sherry Moss crept out of the shadows at the side of the barn, right behind the stall where Taylor was standing. She stood still for a moment, then made a sudden move toward the girl, raising her arm.

  I burst into the barn. “Taylor! Run!”

  Taylor jumped and turned, causing Sherry to miss with whatever weapon she held in her hand. She stumbled against a stall, then spun to swing at Taylor again. I sprinted down the aisle and cannoned into the woman, knocking her to the dirt floor. Something sharp jabbed into my arm and I jerked away, then clutched Sherry’s wrist, banging her hand against the ground until the syringe in her fingers skittered away.