1 Target of Death (3 page)

Next we were led through a sizable kitchen
with oak cabinets and a simple table that had only room for two. Once we were
in the bedroom, I was amazed at how spacious it was. The two full-sized beds
were covered with pink quilts and four pillows each, which made me more than a
little happy. In my opinion, the more pillows, the better. Perhaps that’s why I
didn’t mind so much being alone, but back home, I never felt alone with the
croaking of frogs lulling me to sleep. From the sound of traffic whipping by
now, I could see it would be much harder to sleep here. Luckily for me I had packed
my alarm clock with a feature where you could set it to play cricket or frog
sounds. You can’t take the Bayou out of me.

“I hope you girls like the room.”

“Of course, but please don’t be overly
concerned with what we like or don’t. We take a bit of getting used to. I don’t
mean to come off so harsh, but I’ve never been a woman to hold anything back,”
I said.

“Me, either. I’m not harboring any
fugitives, am I? I mean, I sure hope neither of you girls are a hardened
criminal, or—”

“We didn’t kill that man the cops found,
no. We just arrived and slipped into a ditch.”

“Funny thing was that Daniel Adams pulled
us out of the ditch,” Dixie added. “Do you know he had the nerve to suggest we
were responsible for the murder? If it hadn’t been for him, I doubt the cops
would have gone through our belongings like they did.”

“So they came up on you after—or
before—you were out of that ditch?”

“After,” I said. “Does it really matter?”

“Well, if I was the cops and found two
vehicles parked alongside the road, I’d want to search them, too. What else
would they have to go on?”

I wrinkled my brow. “How about footprints?”

“In the snow, dear? There might not have
been any. None to take an impression of, that is. I wonder if a hunter was in
the vicinity and possibly killed the victim by mistake.”

“I don’t believe it’s hunting season, or am
I wrong?”

Margarita crossed her eyes. “That doesn’t
matter to folks around here. Plus, there’s an archery competition soon, and at
this point, I imagine that anyone who plans to sign up for the competition
might be a suspect.”

That made sense. “I guess that’s a job for
the cops to find out.”

“Oh, and you’re going to trust them to find
out the truth or arrest you for the crime? You are outsiders,” she pointed out.

I never thought about it that way. “What’s
up your sleeve, Margarita?”

“Well, after you girls get your bags up here,
we can leave and do a little investigating of our own. Unless you’d rather wait
until the sheriff has you behind bars with some trumped up charge,” she
suggested.

“Don’t you have to stay here to watch over
the restaurant?”

“Oh, no. I have plenty of help here. My
cook, Jace Latourney, works in the back and my waitress, Candace Rigly, can handle
the front of the house. She’s not only young, but on the hyper side. It won’t
get crazy busy until the parade tomorrow. That’s when folks usually roll into
the town in large numbers.”

“Is that when the winter festival kicks
off?”

“Sure is, and I’ll set you up in the
kitchen tomorrow.” I gave her an odd look until she added, “You just have to
compete in the chili cook off. I’d hate it if Milton Pabis wins again this
year. He’s been trying to get me to sell for years.”

I had no idea why I cared if this Milton
won this year again or not, but I kept those thoughts to myself as Margarita
was willing to help us out, even though I had no flippin’ idea why or how that
sheriff could pin the recent murder on us.

A half hour later, Margarita had us trapped
in the back of her SUV. She had insisted that we stay out of sight, and once we
got to our destination, I knew why. She had pulled alongside the garage behind the
sheriff’s department.

Dixie and I exchanged perplexed looks. Had
the old lady planned to give us up to the law? My heart thumped against my
chest when a man hopped into the passenger’s seat up front. He popped a quick
look in back and just shook his head as he said, “Now, Margarita, I thought you
was coming alone. Who are they?”

“The one with the auburn hair is Louisiana
Sassy, the blonde is her friend, Dixie.”

He faced us again. “You have quite a
reputation, Miss Sassy.” He grinned.

I shifted nervously in my seat. After all,
at the moment I was clearly at a disadvantage. “So they tell me.”

“I’m Jeffrey Albright. I clean the
sheriff’s department.”

“Which is exactly why I called him, Tammy.
He’s my inside man, so to speak. You know, for when I need information about
what’s going on inside the department.”

Dixie giggled. “Oh, so this isn’t the first
time you’ve done this in—”

“I’m just a concerned citizen
,
is all,” Margarita interjected, her beady eyes meeting mine in the rearview
mirror.

I nudged Dixie to silence. She obviously
didn’t want Jeffrey to know we planned to play investigator. Jeffrey wouldn’t
stop grinning at me, and I hoped he wasn’t planning to be my next problem. I had
hardly come here to be bothered by some man. I had sworn off ever dating again.
Dixie, on the other hand, was all wide-eyed and sucking it up. After all, Jeffrey
wasn’t hard to look at, with blond hair and piercing blue eyes.

Jeffrey pulled a cigarette from his parka
jacket and lit it up. “So what gives, Margarita?”

“We were wondering who the dead guy in the
woods is.”

He faced Margarita. “They’re trying to find
next of kin before they’re releasing the name.”

“I didn’t ask you when they planned to
release the name, boy. I asked you who it was.”

Boy, she certainly played hardball.

“Oh, hell, why not. It was Clayton Percy.
His wife reported him missing late last night.”

I leaned forward. “Did she say why he was
out there?” I asked.

“I wasn’t privy to that information, but
word around town was the he might be seeing someone on the side.”

“Like who?” Margarita asked.

“Who knows, but I can’t imagine him meeting
someone way out in the woods, not with a snow storm coming.”

I gave the light snowfall a quick look. “This
doesn’t look like much of snowstorm to me.”

“Nope, but by tonight we’ll have six
inches.”

I grimaced at that. How on earth was I
gonna get in any practice time in that kind of snow?

“That really sucks. Dixie and I sure need
proper gear if we’re going to get that much snow.”

“Oh, and what did you expect it to be like
here in Northern Michigan?” Margarita asked.

“I hadn’t given it much thought.”

“She’s not a planner,” Dixie said with a
smile. “I could tell her that I told her so, but I don’t want to get into a
fight in your SUV.”

I glared at Dixie. What I really wanted to
do was give her a kick. Okay, so she wasn’t lying, but that didn’t mean she
needed to rub it in. I figured that out after we were pulled out of a ditch. I
was so unprepared, not for the contest, but to be stuck in the freezing cold in
the middle of nowhere. From the looks of it already, Bear Paw was in the middle
of nowhere land. The town was small to begin with from what I had seen thus
far, which made me wonder if we’d be able to find appropriate clothing.

Jeffrey put out his cigarette and hopped
out of the vehicle, warning us to not to tell anyone what he had told us.

Margarita made way for the main road and
pulled out, ignoring the blast of horns from a truck that nearly sideswiped us.
I held the handle over the door, or as we called them back home, the ‘oh-shit handles,’
holding on for dear life. “Oh, don’t worry girls. That truck wasn’t even that
close.”

“It looked too close for comfort to me.
Maybe you shouldn’t be driving,” I suggested.

“Humph, you sound just like the girl from
the Secretary of State’s office when I had my license renewed. From how she
acted, you’d have thought she believed nobody over the age of sixty should have
a license to drive.”

My lips formed a straight line. I’m not one
to judge someone’s ability to drive, but Margarita needs to be more careful,
especially with me in the vehicle. “Where are we off to now?”

“You girls need proper clothing or you’ll
never last ten minutes out in the elements.”

“You make it sound like we’re going to be
outside at some length.”

“Of course you are. Tomorrow there’s a
parade, chili cook off, and ice fishing.”

“All of that in one day?” Dixie asked.

“Don’t be such wimps. You’re in the north
now, girls, not spoiled in the Deep South.”

“Michigan isn’t shit next to Louisiana. You
don’t have to face down an alligator when you go out your backdoor like we do
everyday. You wouldn’t last one day in the heat, either.”

“No need to be testy, now. It’s not my
fault you girls didn’t come prepared.” She turned into the driveway of a hunting
store, Jacob’s.

We all got out, my shoes sinking beneath
the freshly fallen snow. I hugged the thin jacket close as we made our way
inside. As we stepped through the door, a bell overhead jingled and I about ran
straight into a grizzly bear, or at least a taxidermy version. “Since when do grizzly
bears live in Michigan?”

“They don’t, but the owner has decorated
the place with a variety of animals for atmosphere.”

The place had racks filled with camouflage
clothing and a glass counter displaying handguns inside, while shotguns and
rifles were on racks behind it. Taxidermy was the theme for sure, as stuffed
ducks and geese hung suspended from the ceiling. I swirled the clothing around
the racks looking for my size, but Dixie pointed out boots on a display rack
along the wall. She and I selected our sizes and tried them on, smiling when
they fit. I even found a pair that was solid brown instead of camouflage.

We carried the items up to the register
where Margarita stood, inspecting a pair of thermal socks. She smiled when she
saw us and showed us where the parka jackets were. Once we had the right sizes,
we wandered back to the register and waited while the man behind the counter rang
us up. I about fell over when he told us it all came to three hundred dollars.

“Highway robbery,” I spat, as I paid the
cashier. He merely took my money, ignoring my outburst, which was just fine
with me. That’s what I deserved. I had him cut off the price tags for us so we
could wear the boots and jackets out.

Once we were in the SUV, Margarita
suggested, “It might be a good time to question the widow.”

“But weren’t you just told not to tell
anyone you know who was murdered?”

“Yes, but how else are we going to move the
investigation forward?”

Dixie grimaced. “But what if the sheriff didn’t
tell the woman her husband is dead yet?”

“I’m sure he’s told her by now.”

I shook my head. “Wouldn’t it be a little
insensitive to go there now? It might be better to wait until tomorrow, don’t
you think?”

“I never saw you as a chicken, Sassy. You
seem the more ‘grab the bull by the horns’ type, or am I wrong?”

I glared at the back of Margarita’s gray
head. “What if she won’t talk to us? We’re strangers, remember.”

“No. You girls are strangers. She’s my
cousin.”

Margarita was one cold woman. “Were you
close to Clayton?”

“Not at all. Marilyn could have done so
much better. That man was no good from day one, but it wasn’t my place to interfere.”

I rested back against the seat and knew how
she felt. What woman hadn’t known a friend or relative who was married to a
good-for-nothing?

Margarita roared down the road, and a few
miles from town, she tore up a driveway that led through the woods. The
sheriff’s car passed our SUV and both Dixie and I ducked down in our seat,
hoping he hadn’t seen us.

The SUV came to a halt in front of a house and
we cautiously got out of the vehicle and made way for the front door. Margarita
knocked, and when the door was answered, a frail blonde fell into her arms,
sobbing uncontrollably.

“He’s gone, Margarita. His body was
discovered in the woods with an arrow through his—”

“Let’s get out of the cold, dear, and you
can tell us all about it.”

The blonde led us inside and we shucked our
footwear in the entryway that was already loaded with boots and shoes. When we
went through another door, we were instantly warmed by a fire roaring in the
stone fireplace. We were in a large room with a vaulted ceiling and furniture placed
along the walls, instead of near the fireplace, which is where I’d have
positioned it. I yanked off my jacket and told the woman how sorry I was about
her husband’s untimely death.

“Th-Thanks.”

Margarita made the introductions. “This is
Tammy and Dixie. They’re here for the winter festival.”

“I’m Marilyn Percy.”

I smiled sympathetically at Marilyn. “Again,
I’m sorry for your loss, but could we ask you a few questions?”

She sank into her leather couch. “Sure, but
I-I don’t know if I could be of much help.”

“How long has your husband been gone?”

“He left early yesterday morning, but when
he didn’t return for dinner last night, I called the sheriff right away.”

“Did they take his disappearance
seriously?”

“Not really. The sheriff insisted he’d
probably return soon, but that never happened.”

“Do you have an idea where he went?”

She shook her head. “I wish I knew.”

Dixie handed Marilyn another tissue as the
new widow began to wring the other one around her fingers.

“He must have told you he was going
somewhere,” Dixie said.

“All I know is that he left. His shotgun
was missing from the rack in the game room, so I assumed he might have gone
hunting, but it’s not even hunting season. At the time, I never gave it another
thought. Not until he never came home.”

I cocked a brow. “Oh, so you never saw him
leave, then?”

“No. Why is that important?”

“Well, are you sure nobody came to the
house early in the morning?”

“No, I sleep like the dead with my
medication, but his truck was gone.”

“Did the sheriff happen to say if they
found his truck?”

“No, he didn’t, but I suppose they’ll find
it eventually.”

I stared at Marilyn, trying to determine if
she was being truthful or not. She sure seemed upset, but if her husband was
really on the prowl, it was reasonable to assume she might have a very good
reason to want him dead. Back home, I knew more than a few women folk who’d off
their husbands in a hot minute if they strayed. Another reason to add to my
list of why I didn’t want to get married or entangled with a man.

“Is there anything else you remember from
that morning? Was anything out of place?” I asked.

Marilyn frowned. “I’m not sure what you
mean by that?”

“Marilyn, what Sassy means… oops, I mean,
Tammy, is did the house look like it usually did in the morning?”

Marilyn twitched her nose and said, “Well,
it was odd that the coffee wasn’t made. I mean, Clayton always made his own in
the morning before he headed out.”

“I see. Well, I suppose that’s hardly a
reason to think foul play was at hand, but I don’t know many people who would
head straight out without a few cups of coffee in the morning,” Margarita said
wistfully.

“Does your husband work in the morning?” I
asked.

“Yes, he’s a machinist at Hank’s Tool and
Die, but yesterday was Saturday and he was off.”

“And what does he usually do when he’s not
at work?” I asked.

She frowned. “He usually hangs out with his
friends, Barry Haskel and Marty Novak.”

“I take it from your frown that you don’t
much care for them?”

Her lips turned down. “Not at all. Neither
of those men do much besides hang out in the bar and drink at Miceli’s Corner.”

Margarita bit her balled up hand in
response. “Oh, my. That’s not good.” I shot Margarita a look until she added,
“It’s a nudie bar in Harrison, not far away.”

A smile split my face. “Really, this far
north of the equator? And here I thought that was frowned on in the north.”

Dixie chuckled. “Now, Tammy, it’s not like
this is the Bible belt like where you’re from.”

“Oh, but I thought the Big Easy had plenty
in the way of adult entertainment?” Margarita asked.