Hounds, Harvest, and Homicide Read online

  “I wasn’t tracking his every move.”

  “I wasn’t either.” I thought about what else I’d heard that night. “And before that I saw he and Cindy Truelson in a very tense discussion. Plus, remember how she told me she was going to present another option to the council on Monday? She said something about being able to get George to put out the money for it. Maybe that was what they were talking about.”

  “Make sure you tell that to the police.”

  That didn’t need to be said. “I know.”

  He stood. “I’m going to see how long this will take. The weather’s really bad, and if they don’t let us leave soon, we won’t be going anywhere.”

  I dug my phone out of the crate full of puppy supplies I’d brought and checked the weather app. Max was right. The slushy mix outside was getting worse. The severe weather alert said we’d already gotten over and inch of snow and they expected another two before morning. I walked over to the wall of windows to get a closer look. Paramedics wrapped in warm jackets stood near the ambulance. When one moved away, I caught a glimpse of Stacy Halstead inside, a big blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

  It had been an hour since she ran down the catwalk screaming, and we still didn’t know anything.

  I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Lieutenant Justin Johns walked over to the ambulance and talk to the paramedics. He turned toward Stacy and talked to her briefly before heading to the community center’s entrance.

  I met him at the door. “Justin.”

  An officer guarding the door pushed me to the side. “Ma’am, you need to stay away from the door.”

  “Officer, I don’t even have on a jacket. I have no intention of leaving.”

  Justin smirked. “It’s okay. I know her.” He gave me a hug. “I knew you’d be here.”

  “I brought puppies. Hayden must have told you.”

  Justin and Hayden were high school and some of college sweethearts. Sam and I always thought they’d get married, but they parted ways their junior year of college. They’d stayed friends, and recently, seemed to be heading back to something more than that. I kept my nose out of it as much as possible, which wasn’t easy for me. I really wanted them together.

  “No, she didn’t.”

  “Then how did you know I’d be here?”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “I didn’t find George’s body.” Since I’d found a murder victim in the past, I assumed that’s what he’d meant.

  He flicked his eyebrows up toward his hairline and tilted his head slightly. “Good to know, but you and Sam always attended these kinds of things, so I just figured you’d be here.”

  “Oh.”

  He laughed.

  “So, what’s going on? Are they doing to let us leave soon? The weather’s getting worse from what I read on my phone.”

  “It is, and that’s why I’m here. The city’s closed down three roads that intersect with Buford. Half these people won’t make it home.” He sighed. “Including you.”

  “That’s not good. I didn’t feed the dogs before I left.” I didn’t worry about Bandit and Allie going outside. Just the week before I’d had an electronic doggie door installed on the back door because it exhausted me to get up every three minutes to let them in and out. And they never did it at the same time. I’d let one out, then sit, and the other one would want out. One Saturday I kept track, and I’d opened the door thirty-two times. No wonder my Fitbit tracked me at over 20,000 steps a day.

  “Can you call a neighbor to feed them?”

  “Yes, I think so.” I pulled him closer. “I heard George and Turner Shaw arguing, and I also saw George in a tense conversation with Cindy Truelson. You should have your people interview them.”

  He gave me a toothy grin. “Yes, Detective Sherlock. I’ll make sure that happens.”

  I elbowed him. “I’m just trying to help.”

  Justin’s smile turned serious. “What did you hear?”

  I told him. “And I heard Turner tell someone I don’t know that George offered the mayor money to approve the expansion.”

  “A bribe?”

  “He called it a pay to play thing, and he said George wanted to give his company the job, but only if he made some kind of cuts in the quality of the work. I got the impression the cuts were where the money would come from to pay the mayor and whoever else approved the expansion.”

  “But it was already voted down.”

  “Yes, but George thought he could get another vote. He even put pressure on the mayor in his speech tonight.”

  He pulled a small spiral note pad from his jacket pocket and jotted a few things down. “You don’t know who Shaw said that to?”

  “No.”

  “Think you could point him out?”

  I surveyed the room. A few people stood in groups chatting, but most everyone had taken seats at tables where they sat on their phones. I spotted the man at a table up front. “Him, in the tux.”

  Justin rolled his eyes. “Every man here’s wearing a tux.”

  “I mean that one.” I counted the tables from the side of the catwalk. “Two tables to the left. He’s the only man facing toward the other tables.”

  “Got it. I’ll get someone to interview him.”

  “Okay.”

  “So, Cindy didn’t say anything confrontational? Nothing made you think she was angry with Watson?”

  “No, the opposite in fact. She said she thought she could get him to fund a new building. She’d decided she was going to bring it up at the next council meeting. And I saw her talking with Watson. I couldn’t hear them, but it didn’t look like either of them were happy.”

  “Maybe she’d presented the idea and he said no?”

  “That’s what I think.”

  As he wrote on the pad, he said, “Anything else?”

  “There’s one more thing.”

  He lifted his eyes to me. “Go ahead.”

  “Max.”

  He raised an eyebrow.

  “Max voted against the expansion, and George made it clear, in front of me, he wasn’t happy about that. And Justin, Max was in the kitchen before Stacy found George’s body. He went back there to get me a plate of food he said.”

  Justin scanned the crowd, and then made eye contact with me. “Keep all of that to yourself, please.”

  “You don’t want me to say it in my interview?”

  “No, I mean, yes. Say it in the interview, but don’t discuss it with anyone here. Not even Max.”

  I cringed.

  “You already told him.”

  “The stuff about Turner and Cindy, yes. He’s my friend.”

  “He’s also a murder suspect.” He called out to another officer. “You know where Bruno is?”

  “Is Detective Bruno handling this?” I asked.

  “He’s a homicide detective.”

  “Good. He knows me.”

  “Missy, stay out of this, okay?”

  “But I helped with Traci Fielding, and you just said Max is a suspect. Max didn’t do this, Justin. He’s Max. You know him.”

  His eyes softened. “Just stay out of it, please. I’ve got to go.” He took off in a hurry and left me standing there determined to prove Max innocent.

  Max stood next to the mayor. I tugged on his arm. “Can we talk?”

  He whipped around and his eyes crinkled when they met mine. “Sure.”

  I grabbed his suit sleeve and pulled him away from the crowd. “Justin’s here.”

  “Good.”

  I rubbed my hands together and let out a breath. “And he thinks you’re a suspect in George’s death.”

  He tilted his head. “A suspect? What?”

  I sighed again. “I kind of told him about the discussion between you and George and how you went back into the kitchen.” I bit my lip. “But I told him about Turner Shaw and Cindy Truelson too, so that’s good, right?”

  He swallowed. “Missy, do you think I had something to do with George’s death?” />
  I shook my head several times. “No, no. Of course not. He just asked me what I knew, and I told him you didn’t do it, Max.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  Worry lines formed around his eyes as he blew out a long breath. “It’s okay. When I’m interviewed, it’ll clear everything up.” He put his hands on my shoulders. “Don’t worry about it. You did the right thing.”

  “I didn’t mean to throw you under the bus like that.”

  “You didn’t. It would have come out in my interview anyway.”

  He had a point.

  Chief Wellington stepped up to the microphone on the catwalk and tapped it. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got some pretty bad weather outside. The mayor and I had a discussion, and for your safety, it looks like you’ll be spending the night here.”

  The crowd objected with groans and complaints.

  He tapped on the microphone again. “Several roads connecting to Buford are closed. Even if we let you leave, most of you couldn’t get off the main road. Not tonight. The city’s working cleaning up the snow and ice, but they can’t do much until the sleet stops, and that won’t be for a few hours. Thank you.” He jumped off the catwalk without answering the questions coming at him.

  Max sighed. “This ought to be fun.”

  “Justin already told me we probably weren’t going anywhere.” I glanced at the women in the room and felt bad for them. There was no way they’d be comfortable enough to relax in their formal dresses. “At least I’m not wearing hose and heels.”

  “Ditto.”

  I laughed.

  Justin and Detective Bruno walked over.

  “Max,” Justin said. “Got a minute?”

  “Yup.”

  I followed the three men toward the back of the room.

  Justin turned around. “Missy.”

  “What?”

  “You can’t come with.”

  “I know that.” I pointed toward a group of people. “I’m going over there.”

  Justin grinned. “Right.”

  Turner Shaw was in that crowd, so I did head straight for it, even though I would have preferred to listen in on Max’s interview. But if Turner had something to say, I definitely wanted to hear it. His frustration with George could have easily escalated after their discussion, and I hoped he was the police’s number one suspect, because he was mine.

  Mary stopped me on the way. “Hey, do you want to keep the puppies where they are or move them to a smaller room? I spoke to a police officer and he said if we wanted to move them it would be okay.”

  I snuck a peek at the puppies, who were still sleeping soundly in their crates. “I don’t think we should wake them, but let’s keep an eye on them. They’ll need to potty when they wake up so maybe we can move them then.”

  “We’re not bringing them outside for that are we?”

  It was unlikely they’d do anything in the sleet, and I didn’t want Mary or I getting sick. “No, I don’t think so. They can go on the turf. They’ve already done that anyway.”

  She rubbed her arms and bobbed her head up and down.

  “You okay?”

  “It’s just crazy, what’s happening. I’ve never been involved with a murder before.”

  “First of all, you’re not involved with a murder. You’re just at the place where a man died, and we don’t even know yet if it was murder. He could have had a heart attack or something.”

  “You haven’t heard?”

  “Heard what?”

  “Someone stabbed him in the back.”

  I wandered through the room gathering bits and pieces of information along the way. Sam knew me better than I knew myself. I was a snoop, but given the circumstances—our friend a possible suspect—I knew he would want me to find out what I could.

  I found Beth Lennon sitting at a table by herself with her head down and her shoulders tucked toward her chest. I felt awful for her. What a way to experience a fundraising event for a young woman’s first time. I placed my hand on her shoulder. “You okay?”

  She twisted her fingers together, separated them, and then sat on her hands. “I always want to come to these kinds of things, but now that I’m here, I remember I don’t like being around groups of people, especially when I don’t know anyone and someone’s been killed.” She took a deep breath and exhaled. “But I’m fine. It’s fine.”

  I sat next to her and patted her on the knee. “Can I get you anything? Maybe a glass of water?”

  “No, really, I’m fine. I’d just like to get out of here.”

  “You heard what the chief said. It looks like we’re here for the night.”

  “I’m from up north, I could drive in this blindfolded.”

  “We don’t have the resources to take care of our roads like they do up there. It’s a lot harder to drive on them than you think.”

  She glanced around, her eyes narrowed. “We’re not under arrest. They can’t force us to stay.”

  “Have they interviewed you yet?”

  She shook her head. “And I don’t know anything anyway. Not really.”

  “You were behind the curtain in the other room. You didn’t see anything, maybe hear someone arguing or something?”

  “I was in the kitchen. They found George in the room with the extra tables and chairs. We were using it as an overflow area.” She tucked her left leg under her knee. “I mean, everyone from that side of the event room used the back hall as a cut through, so yeah, I saw people, but I wasn’t really paying attention.”

  “I understand.” Beth was upset, and the last thing I wanted to do was push her to talk about what happened and stress her out before she decided to leave and drive home against the police’s recommendation. “You sure I can’t get you anything?”

  She shook her head. “No, really, I’m fine.”

  I stood. “All right, but if that changes, you just let me know, okay?”

  I scanned the room for Stacy Halstead. I wanted to find out why she was in the overflow room and not glued to Cindy’s side. I passed the puppies and felt a tingle in my heart seeing their fuzzy little bodies curled up together in sweet slumber. Sunny’s little paw twitched and I imagined her chasing her littermates in a dream. If only I could sleep like a puppy. Cindy sat at a table with her legs up on a chair. She’d taken her stilettos off and set them on the table.

  I had to force myself to not put the shoes on the floor where they belonged. I put on my sensitive face, the one Sam always said made me look like I needed to use the bathroom. “You poor thing, I bet your feet are killing you,” I said pulling up a chair next to her.

  “I am exhausted. I’ve been up since four thirty this morning.” She flipped her phone over on the table. “It’s almost midnight. If I don’t get some sleep, I’ll never make it to my early morning yoga class, and I have two meetings in the morning, too.” She leaned her head back and sighed. “Not that any of the roads will be open for any of that anyway. It looks like Snowmaggedon two out there.”

  I wanted to roll my eyes at her overly dramatic exasperation, but that wasn’t the way to get information out of her. “I’m sure we’ll be released soon.”

  “We’d better.” She moved her feet to the ground and leaned toward me. “I am not at all comfortable being in a confined space with a murderer. Who knows who’s next on his list?”

  “What makes you think someone might be next?”

  “There’s a lot of money tied up in the women’s shelter.” She gave my casual attire a once over that included a snarky upper lip snarl. “If you weren’t so caught up in your little dog thing, you’d know that.”

  “You think this is about money?”

  “Oh, sweet Missy, it’s always about money.”

  Sam always said that. “But George has done great things for the shelter. Why would his money be a bad thing?”

  “You don’t really understand politics, do you? George Watson didn’t care about the shelter. He cared about c
ontrolling what happens in this town. Money talks, Missy. You should know that. You forked out a bunch of it to get that shelter program started.”

  I didn’t like what she implied. “I donated the money, and I run the program. That’s entirely different than George just throwing cash at a women’s shelter and talking about how great he is.”

  She smirked at me. “Exactly. George wanted a new shelter manager, and he got her. He wanted the building repaired, a better HVAC system, put in by a company he recommended of course, and he got that too, and those are just a few things George Watson’s money bought. Much like your money bought that little outdoor park and all that dog training.”

  I cringed. She had a point, but it was a small one. “Wouldn’t repairs and things go out to bid because it’s a non-profit?”

  She pressed her lips together and breathed out heavily from her nose. “Yes, which is my point. His recommended vendors always got the work.” She tilted her chin up. He padded someone’s pockets to make that happen. Money equals power, even in a small suburb outside of the big A-T-L.”

  She alluded to the same thing Turner Shaw had earlier. Money talked, and it talked in suburban Atlanta too.

  “Did you approach him about a new building?”

  “I didn’t have the chance.”

  “Cindy, I saw you with him after we talked and neither of you looked happy.”

  She slipped her stilettos back on, not bothering to look at me while she spoke. “Contrary to his support of the shelter, George Watson hated women, which is probably why his daughter took off with that loser Bobby Hall in the first place. I can’t imagine what it would be like having a woman hater for a father. And if you must know, we weren’t arguing about the shelter. We weren’t arguing about anything. He was just being a typical condescending jerk.”

  They sounded like twins.

  “You really don’t like the man, do you?”

  She finally looked at me and narrowed her eyes. “No, I didn’t. But I didn’t hate him enough to kill him either.”

  “Well, someone did.”

  “Obviously.”

  “Why was Stacy in the overflow room?”

  “I’m sorry?”

  “The overflow room. That’s where she found George. Why was she there?”