Saddle Up for Murder

by Leigh Hearon

  Her opening gambit put an instant pall over her listeners and seemed to help sober them up. Everyone looked uneasily at each other. Finally, Lisa spoke.

  “We don’t know, Annie. She said when she moved in with you, she’d be leaving Pete for the last time. We can’t understand it ourselves. We thought you could help us.” The women all nodded in agreement.

  “Well, let’s start with what you know. Did Kim Williams tell you anything about Ashley’s death?” This was underhanded, she knew, but she had to know the extent of their knowledge.

  “You mean the cop who talked to all of us?” This came from a wisp of a woman with long, black hair. She hardly looked old enough to drive, let alone drink.

  “Yes, that’s Kim. I’ve known her for a long time. She helped me save the horses in that big barn fire a few months ago.” That got their attention and probably raised Kim a notch or two in their minds, Annie thought.

  “She was awesome,” said another in the group, whose name was Danielle, Annie recalled. “Really, really nice. Not what I thought a cop would be like at all.”

  Annie smiled. “There are a few nice cops in the department. Most of them are women.” This elicited a laugh, and the tension around the table eased perceptibly.

  “Well, Kim actually didn’t tell us a lot,” Danielle went on. “Mostly she wanted to know what we thought of Ashley’s . . . death. The last time we’d seen Ashley. How she was acting. You know, that kind of thing.”

  “When did you all last see Ashley?” Annie asked. She was curious.

  Another series of sidelong glances passed around the table.

  “Oh, come on,” Annie said, a trifle impatiently. “I don’t care what you were doing. I just want to know the truth. She was found on my ranch, you know. How do you suppose that makes me feel?”

  Annie recalled that where Ashley died was one of the questions posed to her at the memorial service. If she gave this tidbit up and inspired a tinge of pity, maybe she’d get new information in return.

  “Well, we didn’t exactly tell Kim this, but the truth is, we were celebrating Ashley’s future with her,” Lisa said. Danielle, who was seated next to Lisa, quietly began to cry.

  “Yeah, we were so happy for her. You know, new job, new home, new boyfriend, all that. Everything was going so good for her.” A woman with curly red hair offered this statement. For the life of her, Annie could not remember her name.

  “So, a party. What would have been wrong with telling Kim about that?”

  “We were drinking, smoking a bit of weed . . . that’s all,” the redhead went on, a bit defensively. She threw up her hands. “I don’t know. We just felt we should keep it private.”

  Keep it private. Dan and Kim had been right. These young women had no clue as to what might be helpful to a police investigation, and so they had erred on the side of protecting their friend. Of course, none of them knew that Ashley’s death was internally classified a homicide. As far as they knew, Ashley had decided for unknown reasons to hang herself later that night. Their fierce loyalty to their friend was commendable. Their judgment sucked.

  Annie took a sip of her G&T and tried again.

  “Where did Ashley go after the party? You must have known.”

  “She said she was going to stay with her new boyfriend,” Lisa said. “We joked around a little, and begged her to tell us who it was, but she just laughed and said we’d find out soon enough.”

  “Yeah, Ashley wanted to get married so bad,” added the woman Annie thought was Courtney. “You know, her childhood wasn’t all that great. I think she was in love with the idea that she could create a family of her own. A happy one, with her own children someday.”

  That made sense to Annie, although the chance of that ever happening, she knew, probably had been remote.

  “Where did her new boyfriend live?”

  “He lived someplace north of Port Chester, maybe around Shelby,” the redhead chimed in. “I don’t know. It’s only a guess. But I know he was going to pick her up at the bus stop and take her to his place. Ashley said it was really fancy, nothing like Pete’s dump.”

  “And she seemed happy?”

  Vigorous nods all around the table. Annie decided to move on to another topic.

  “How about Pete? How was he taking all of this?”

  Loud noises of disgust filled the air.

  “Oh, Pete,” Lisa said with disdain. “He was all broken up about it. Cried for days. Called all of us the week after she moved out, wanting to know where she was. ’Course, we never told him.”

  “He also wanted to know the new boyfriend’s name,” Danielle added. “We all did. But Ashley kept telling us she had to wait until the time was right.”

  Annie wondered why Ashley had refused to share this small piece of information. Maybe he was a member of the mafia. Or maybe he was just a married man.

  “Lisa, you told me that Ashley lived with you for a few days. You two must have had a lot of late-night talks. What was it about Pete that finally convinced Ashley to leave him and move in with me?” It pained Annie to perpetuate Ashley’s story, but there wasn’t much use in correcting it now.

  Lisa fidgeted a bit, then sucked down the rest of her drink. Annie knew it had to be at least her third, if not her fourth.

  “Pete sold drugs for a living,” she finally said. “He had a pretty big meth problem himself, and about a year ago he started selling on the side to support his habit. Ashley couldn’t stand that about him. She was the straightest chick among us.” Uneasy laughter floated around the table. Well, at least Annie’s intuitive belief that Ashley was relatively levelheaded had been right on.

  “You all must have known about the death of the woman Ashley had been caring for,” she said, carefully watching for their reactions.

  “Mrs. Carr!” Danielle sat up straight. She looked happy again. “Ashley loved Mrs. Carr. She said she was as close to her as she’d been to her own grandma. Her grandma died about five years ago, when Ashley was fifteen. She took it really hard.”

  “It must have been tough finding her body.”

  “It definitely shocked her,” Lisa said. “But, like, Ashley knew she was going to die sometime.”

  “Why didn’t she continue to work for Elder Home Care?”

  Lisa shrugged. “Said she needed a break. Said after a while taking care of old people was just too heavy on the soul.”

  That phrase again—the same one Ashley had used when they’d met. Annie could tell that the women were getting a bit antsy with all her questions. After all, they’d invited her to join them so they could meet her and learn about her exciting life as a horse trainer. Instead, here she was grilling them just about as resolutely as Kim had, Annie suspected. It was time to wrap things up and get back to being strictly social. And make sure everyone around the table had a safe ride home that night.

  “You guys really loved her, I can tell. And I can’t tell you how bad I feel that Ashley’s life didn’t work out the way she’d planned. I was ready to welcome her to my ranch, and looked forward to getting to know her better. But there’s one thing I don’t get. How did Ashley know to look me up? I mean, she said I’d given a talk to your horse group years ago, but honestly I didn’t think anyone remembered me, or thought that I needed help.”

  The women looked at each other, as if doing so would help them recall how Ashley had found Annie’s name.

  “It was a friend of hers, someone we’d never met,” said the woman Annie was now nearly positive was named Courtney. “Someone who knew you and thought Ashley would be the perfect person to help you on your ranch. Ashley said you seriously needed an extra hand.”

  “Really?” No one had approached Annie with this observation before. They wouldn’t dare.

  “What was her name?” asked the red-haired girl, tapping her brightly colored nails on the table.

  “It was a flower.”

  “No, not a flower. More like an herb.”

  “Something you put in a s
achet.”

  “It’s on the tip of my tongue. La–La—Lavender! That’s it, Lavender!”

  Annie grabbed the arm of a passing waitress. “Another gin and tonic, please.”

  CHAPTER 16

  SUNDAY, MAY 15

  The only thing that stopped Annie from confronting Lavender on her way out of town the next morning was just a wee bit of a hangover and the surprising amount of time it had taken to make sure she was perfectly coiffed and dressed for her first ever Skype meeting. But it didn’t stop her from cursing her half sister as she drove past Martha Sanderson’s quaint home.

  “Damn you, Lavender! You meet a woman for the first time and the first thing out of your mouth is how much I need help. How dare you? If anyone needs help, it’s you. But you’ll never acknowledge that. Oh, no. It’s just everyone else’s life you have to fix.”

  The inquisitive whines of Wolf and Sasha from the back cab, where they were resting in their crates, made her realize that they thought their mistress was referring to something they’d done. She spent the rest of the trip singing doggie songs to them and telling them they were the most wonderful dogs in the world. Both Wolf and Sasha frequently joined in on the chorus.

  Wolf had been to Travis Latham’s house many times on previous visits, but this was Sasha’s first meeting with Travis, and Annie had high hopes for the encounter. Travis had suffered a stroke several years ago, which left him fully intact mentally but with a distinct limp and reduced gait. He refused to put in a handicapped rail or alter his home in any way that his children and doctor strongly suggested, and instead made the laborious trip up and down the eight steps to his front door every day to retrieve his mail.

  “Everyone says my walking will improve with physical therapy,” he’d once grumbled to Annie. “Well, this is my physical therapy. Take it or leave it.”

  It made sense to her. When she’d first met Travis, he needed two crutches to ambulate throughout his home and garden. Now he needed only a cane.

  But he had drawn the line at having a dog, and Travis had owned big, active retrievers all his life up until his stroke. Annie had started training Sasha as a companion animal; she hoped that Travis would bond with the Belgian and it would be a match made in heaven. Annie was well aware of the high exercise needs of the breed, but Travis had several grandchildren and a large fenced-in yard, so there would be ways to accommodate Sasha’s need to romp and explore. The pup already had displayed such a warm, loving nature that Annie felt certain that she would happily adapt to the role of being Travis’s right-hand dog.

  She turned right onto Chesapeake Road as if she were a homing pigeon and cheerfully ignored the NO TRESPASSING signs that had caused her some unease on her first visit here. Travis had left his gate open—it was steel, six feet high, and an excellent barrier to unwanted persons. Today, however, it was wide open, and Annie could see rows and rows of colorful annuals lining the wraparound porch. She wondered if Travis had been able to plant any of the flowers himself this spring or if his daughter-in-law, who was good-hearted but a bit too protective, in Annie’s view, had insisted on doing the job.

  Annie was the first board member to arrive. Bounding up the steps, dogs in tow, she reached the door just as Travis was opening it. He looked the epitome of a country gentleman, Annie thought as she gave him a quick hug. His attire certainly fit the part—baggy corduroy pants, a crisp tartan shirt, and an elegant vest with the gold fob to a handheld watch draping from one pocket. But it was Travis’s face that truly showed his character. His craggy features displayed a sureness that could not be toppled by the fiercest adversary. Yet when he smiled, as he did now, he showed himself as someone who still intended to enjoy life to the fullest, even as he struggled with his infirmaries. She wondered how she ever could have considered him a suspect in Hilda Colbert’s death. Then again, she recalled, once she’d met him, all suspicion had vanished.

  Holding her at arm’s length, Travis turned his steely gray eyes upon her and nodded approvingly.

  “You look good, Annie. Life must be treating you well.”

  Aside from a murder on my property and a meddling half sister, it’s been swell.

  “It is, Travis. You look great, too. May the dogs come in?”

  “Of course, of course.” Travis gestured with his cane, and Wolf and Sasha trotted in, tongues out, inquisitive as always.

  “Sasha, come.” The Belgian really didn’t want to—there was a new, huge house to explore—but Annie’s weeks of training had paid off. Sasha walked obediently to Annie’s side, sat, and looked expectantly up at her.

  “I’m impressed.” Travis’s words were sincere.

  “Wait until you see what comes next. Sasha, shake hands.”

  Sasha raised her right paw and extended it forward a few inches.

  “Travis, meet Sasha. Sasha, meet Travis.”

  Travis pulled a nearby chair toward him and gingerly sat down. He slowly leaned over and gently took Sasha’s paw into his fingers.

  “Delighted to make your acquaintance.”

  Travis spoke seriously, as if he were addressing an important personage. Sasha gazed back at him, her brown eyes glued to his. Annie was pretty sure it was love at first sight. Then Sasha gave a loud bark.

  “Sasha! What do we say about indoor voices?” Drat the dog. She knew better than to bark inside a home.

  “Why, she’s simply answering me,” said Travis. “Let the girl speak her mind. I’m pretty sure she was saying she was pleased to meet me, too.”

  Now Annie was sure it was true love.

  * * *

  The rest of the board—Dan and Tony—arrived within the next fifteen minutes. This gave Annie time to brew a pot of tea, set out tea cookies, and sneak a few dog biscuits that Travis now kept on hand for canine guests. Over the past two months, Annie had gotten into the habit of stopping by the Latham residence whenever she made a Costco run in Shelby. By now, she and Travis were comfortable friends, and Annie navigated his kitchen as competently as she did her own.

  She brought out the tray of cookies and set them on Travis’s mahogany dining table, a massive piece of furniture that could comfortably seat ten people. Pads, pens, and a printed agenda were placed as four individual settings on the north side. Travis’s large-screen display sat a few feet away, attached to a MacBook Air that was discretely in one corner.

  “It looks very official,” she said approvingly.

  “Thank you, Annie,” replied Travis. “I haven’t held a formal dinner in here since the Thanksgiving before my wife died. It’s good to feel that it’s being used again.”

  Marcus was due to call in at two o’clock sharp, so by 1:55 everyone was seated and poised to begin. Annie ran a discrete hand through her hair, and Tony kicked her under the table. She kicked him back.

  The phone rang and everyone started. Then the screen was filled with Marcus’s face. He was seated behind a desk in a big leather chair, but instead of his usual Armani suit, he was wearing a polo shirt that once again, Annie noted, showed off his extremely hairy and sexy chest. He looked exactly as when she’d last seen him, now two and a half months ago, she thought. Then she noticed a long scar that traversed the left side of his neck and ended in front. The original gash had long since healed, but the remnants were shocking. The scar looked long and wide enough to have sliced Marcus’s neck off, or at least slashed his carotid artery and jugular vein. She almost gasped, but realized that her reaction, this time, could be seen and just not heard. She tried very hard not to look as upset as she felt.

  Tony, bless his heart, came to her rescue.

  “Marcus, good to see you,” he said in a hearty voice. “That’s quite the battle scar you’re wearing.”

  Marcus gave a broad smile back. “I show it off when I’m feeling my oats. Today happens to be one of those days.”

  “Glad to hear you’re back to being your old self,” Travis added. “Because we need all the brain power we can muster today. We’ve got a lot to get through.”


  “I’m ready whenever you are, Mr. Chairman. I’ve got the agenda you e-mailed right in front of me.”

  Travis turned on a tape recorder next to him and immediately took the floor.

  “We’re calling our first board meeting to order on Sunday, May fifteenth, at exactly 2:01 PM. I can’t tell you how delighted I am to see all of you, proof that our plans are truly under way.

  “First, let’s review where we are right now. As you know, Gil Houseman, my attorney, has established a Washington nonprofit corporation on our behalf, which is registered as Alex’s Place. You’re all now officially members of the board.”

  Everyone around the table smiled broadly. Travis next explained that he was currently talking to Seattle architects to get bids for the new construction.

  “But there’s really not much they can do until we all decide exactly what the footprint will look like,” he continued. “I’d like that to be our main topic of discussion today.”

  Annie felt a surge of excitement rising within her. She was thrilled at being part of designing the ranch of her dreams. Everything that she had constructed on her property had been done right, of course, but staying within budget had always been foremost on her mind. With Travis’s operation, no such hindrances existed. She tuned back into the meeting. Travis was again speaking.

  “But first, we do have to address one important piece of business, and that involves the subject of money. Marcus, you own the property outright, I understand; the title is free and clear. You’ve agreed in theory to sell it to me at fair market value. As you know, I’ve asked you to present your offer at this board meeting so we can settle this point once and for all and move forward. I’m prepared to meet any reasonable offer without quibbling.”

  Annie fingered Ronald Carr’s business card in the pocket of her blazer. She wondered if she should suggest his help.