Death at the Trade Show: Target Practice Mysteries 3 (16 page)

“Oh, okay. I need to walk Moo a little then check in.”

She wrapped Mary in a hug, too. “Okay, but after that?”

I laughed at her enthusiasm. “Sure, we’ll come by.”

She waved and jogged in to the show while I walked Moo to the grass. “She’s so happy and super nice.”

“Wouldn’t you be if you just got engaged?”

I thought about Liam giving me a ring and saying he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me. “Totally. But it’s super inconvenient that Lex is not a suspect. I’m happy for her, but this ruins our idea of Lex as a suspect. Any chance Lex killed Cash earlier then got engaged?”

Mary pursed her mouth in thought. “We’ve been assuming the noise everyone heard was Cash hitting the ground, but maybe it was just a coincidence.” She tapped a finger to her mouth. “No, that wouldn’t work, ’cause Cash was in the pictures.”

“What? Where?” I followed Moo around as he did his business.

“The pictures of their engagement. Cash was in the background of a picture, leaving the bar. There was no time for Lex to go kill him. I’m glad. I would hate for Dre to be upset. She’s so nice and seems to really like us.”

“Well, that doesn’t happen every day. Which really is shocking, because we’re delightful.” Moo kicked blades of grass behind him with stiff legs, signaling he was done.

We stepped into the building and moved toward the entrance, when a voice rang out and Sarah ran up to us. “What is going on with your article? I’ve had no less than three people come up to me and insist that they see the article before we publish it.”

I hid a snicker while Mary calmed Sarah down. “Don’t worry. I have a rough draft right here.” She patted her messenger bag. “We need to go let people know that we’re here, but you can look it over later. You’re going to love it, and they’ll love it. I promise.”

We jogged into the exhibit hall, and I ignored Moo’s growls as we passed Karma. People were milling about with ropes and heavy equipment. I was lagging a few steps behind Mary. “I guess they are getting ready to move her. Moo will be happy.”

She nodded and continued racing through the crowd to the Westmound booth. When we arrived, we ran into Liam and Orion leaving.

“Glad you guys made it.” Liam leaned over slightly to pet Moo. “We have a couple more meetings, then all afternoon is free for the four of us to hit the show floor. Indy dropped this off for you.” He pulled a memory card out of his pocket and handed it to me. “He said he had to cancel lunch to work.”

“Thanks. We’ll see you later.”

Orion smiled at Mary, and her ears tinged pink. I waved good-bye then dragged Mary to the Westmound training center table that was still set up. “Put this in your computer. Maybe there’s something on here.”

Mary loaded it up. The footage started with a shot of Moose, Cold, Kandi, and Indy in front of the camera with the lights up. Mary clicked the volume off and hit the fast forward. Within a few seconds, people filled up the screen, with Indy disappearing behind the camera, and Kandi, Cold, and Moose moving down to the front of the stage. Mary sped it up a bit more. The three heads bopped and bounced but never left the screen. “Dang. I really wanted Moose or even Cold or Kandi to be a suspect.”

“I know, me, too.” We watched the rest of the clip, then Mary closed the computer. “So who killed Cash and how? Hannah is the only one left without an alibi. Cash was spending all their money on the show, but either she had help from someone we haven’t thought of, which we can’t prove, or she did it alone somehow, which we can’t prove either.”

Mary nodded and packed up her bag. “We’ll figure it out. Maybe something will happen while we walk around with the boys this afternoon.” She sighed and rested her face on her hand with a little smile.

“Let’s go see Dre and meet Lex now so we don’t have to stop later. Come on, Moo.” Mary located the booth on the map, and we headed off. I was energized after sleeping in and excited about the afternoon. “You know what, Mary? If we don’t catch the killer, I don’t think I care. This has been an awesome trip already.”

She smiled at me. “A very good trip.”

We approached the Lex’s Hunting Solutions booth and spotted Dre, her head towering over Lex. He was arranging some equipment as we walked over and introduced ourselves and shook hands.

Dre excitedly explained to Lex, “We all rode over on the bus this morning. I insisted they come meet you.” She looked down at Lex, her cheeks pink.

“I’m glad Dre didn’t have to ride over here alone. I hated leaving so early this morning, but I’m hoping to sell this stuff. We hadn’t planned on taking it home, so there’s no room in the truck. Any chance you need it?”

I chuckled. “I don’t even know what you’re trying to sell.”

“Let me show you.” He fell into a practiced sales pitch. “It’s my newest product to help everyone have an easy and enjoyable experience after your animal is down. It’s the Deer Load-n-Lift, but don’t be tricked by its name. It will lift and load animals of all sizes.” He moved over to a piece of equipment that looked vaguely like an oversize, sideless wagon. “You can tip the top to make it easy to lift the animal on it, then you turn this knob and pump the handle. The whole platform lifts to help you load the animal into a truck.”

A prickly feeling of unease went down my back. “This was in your room until this morning?”

“Yes. We sold it to Cash, but he had his accident before he could pick it up.”

I kneeled down and felt a bolt along the long side. Crouching down, I placed my hand on the floor, and right at elbow height was a bolt. As I leaned in close, there was green paint stuck to the bolt. I angled my head to see where there were dark-red spots on the axel underneath. I swallowed hard.

Lex laughed above me. “Nothing much interesting under there. Hey, Hannah, let me get you that check.”

I sat up to look at Hannah. “You killed Cash! And you did it alone.”

CHAPTER NINE

Hannah ran.

Moo barked and leaped after her, dragging me across the ground from where I had been.

Mary ran over to me. “She used the Deer Lift-n-Load to throw Cash over the wall?”

Moo circled on his leash while barking. I was thoroughly tangled as he bounded around. Mary offered me a hand to get up then took Moo’s leash so I could unwrap myself.

We ran after Hannah, dodging between people. Luckily there weren’t many short blond females at the show. Moo barked as we ran, and Hannah turned around. She ran into the back of Moose but caught herself and continued running.

She turned toward the entrance, and we were gaining on her, but right as we were turning the corner, the air was filled with screams, and a crash rocked the ground. We slowed down and surveyed the scene.

Karma had fallen over, and her outstretched foam hand pinned one of Hannah’s legs to the floor. Hannah was screaming, “Get it off me!”

As we approached, a man was saying to anyone that would listen, “She shoved me out of the way. I couldn’t hold on. She pushed me.”

Hannah spotted me, screamed, and jerked at her leg.

“You killed Cash,” I said. “You did it.” The crowd around her gasped and stared at me.

She burst into tears. “It wasn’t my fault. He attacked me, and I had to protect myself. I had to. I thought he was already dead. I had no choice.” She burrowed her face into her hands.

An officer stepped forward and told everyone to step away. Chaos had engulfed the crowd, and we moved back.

Moo sniffed the white yeti on the ground and lifted his leg on the foam foot of Karma.

Mary snorted. “I guess that Karma got her in the end, eh?”

***

Sitting at the airport the next day, I scratched Moo’s neck while Mary read an article titled “Killer Beauty Queen Caught at the OIT Show.”

Once the police were done questioning us, the rest of the show had been a blast. Sarah had loved the article, and after it was published, everyone mentioned loved us as well. We had spent ample time with Orion and Liam, checking out the show. We were stopped often by people that wanted to talk to one or both of them, but they always wrapped it up quickly. We had visited the two optics companies, Focal Optics and Crystal-Clear Optics, and gotten a bit more information.

I had met about a million people, and my heart was so full, I could barely stand it.

Mary folded up the paper and set it aside. “Well, that was interesting.”

“What did the newspaper say?”

“She had cashed out all their bank accounts the day after he died and had fake IDs in her car. But she’s claiming that it was self-defense. He attacked her when they went to Lex’s room to pick up their stuff, and she protected herself. After she hit him on the back of the head, she thought he was dead and that no one would ever believe her, so she used the Deer Lift-n-Load to get him high enough to push over the wall.”

“I don’t buy that.”

“I don’t think anyone does. Turns out she had two other husbands die mysteriously, and she disappeared right afterward, once when she was a beauty queen and another when she was a professional cheerleader. There are two other states that are ‘interested in talking to her.’” Mary put her fingers up to do air quotes, and I shook my head.

Orion and Liam wrangled the last of the luggage next to us. Orion took the seat on the other side of Mary, but Liam stood in front of me. “Di, can we talk?”

Immediately, my stomach dropped. I handed Mary Moo’s leash. Nothing good ever started that way. “Of course.” I stood up and followed him over to an empty corner. We sat in two chairs, but he didn’t look at me.

My stomach flipped in my belly, and I wanted to throw up. My mind raced with all the awful things he could tell me. “You’re freaking me out, Liam. What’s going on?”

He looked up at me. “I told you that I would help you set up your bow and do the training blog, but… I think I need to go back with Mom and Orion to Salt Lake.”

“Forever?”

“No, no, just for a month, maybe two. We’ve a lot of work to do after this show, and there’s a couple more coming up. I was supposed to be at the center in Wyoming until November, but I ended up staying longer.”

My breath caught in my throat, and I couldn’t look away from his eyes. “Why did you stay?”

Our knees were touching as we leaned together in the corner, and he laid a warm hand on my knee. “I had something I needed to do, but the rest of my work has fallen behind. If I go for a while, I can catch up and come back to the center soon.”

“Okay, is that all? You really scared me. I thought… I don’t know, but…” I stopped and left the rest unsaid.

“I can call, and if you have any questions about equipment or anything, let me know. Moo can come with me as well if you want.”

“No, Moo’s home is the center, and he’s staying with me. You can’t leave
and
take my dog with you. You really are coming back, right?” I felt devastated and overdramatic; it wouldn’t be that long, and I really didn’t have a claim on him.

“Definitely. Thanks for understanding.” He squeezed my knee, and we headed back to join Mary.

I sat next to her. “Liam’s going back to Salt Lake to get work done for a bit.”

Mary looked at him. “What about the tournament in a few weeks? It’s Di’s birthday and her first competition.”

He smiled at her. “I know. Orion offered to drive me out that weekend. We can both be there.”

“Oh.” Mary turned and smiled at Orion. “And the tournament in Vegas?”

Orion chuckled. “We will both be there. We’re always there anyways.”

“And”—Mary was on a roll—“that weekend is Valentine’s Day. You guys should take us out on a proper date. Reservations, flowers, the whole shebang.”

Liam put an arm around my shoulder. “Sounds like a plan, boss.”

I put a hand on Moo’s head and scratched behind his ears. We were both going to miss Liam terribly, but we had a tournament season to prepare for and a proper date to look forward to. Life was getting better all the time, and I couldn’t wait for Valentine’s Day.

I hope you enjoyed my second book. I would love to interact with you more. If you would like to learn more about me, join my mailing list, or discover my social media accounts, please check out my website.

http://nikkihaverstock.com/

Target Practice Mystery #4 to be released Feb 2016.

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Nikki Haverstock lives with her husband and dogs on a cattle ranch high in the Rocky Mountains.

Before escaping the city, Nikki taught collegiate archery for ten years. She has competed on and off for fifteen years in the USA Archery women’s recurve division.

Nikki has more college degrees than she has sense, and hopefully one day, she will put one to work.

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