Red Velvet Revenge (14 page)

“Let’s do this, then,” she said.

It wasn’t hard to find Ty’s trailer. It was big and black with flames shooting up the side, tricked out like it belonged to a rock star. Mel briefly wondered if her idea was a good one.

She shifted the box of cupcakes in her arms and knocked on the trailer door.

She could hear the sound of someone moving inside, and one of the men she recognized as having been around
Ty earlier poked his head out. The sound of Brad Paisley singing in the background about mud on the tires got louder when he opened the door.

“Can I help you?” the man asked.

He was big and built solid, and Mel felt Angie stiffen beside her as if she was readying herself for a fight.

“Is Ty around?” Mel asked. The man stared at her. She continued, “I brought him some cupcakes to make up for bumping into him earlier.”

The man looked her up and down, but Mel got the feeling he was taking her measure as a person, not undressing her with his eyes.

“You don’t have to do this, you know,” he said. “Ty was…Well, he wasn’t himself.”

Mel nodded, appreciating the man’s straight talk.

“All the same,” she said. “I don’t want there to be any trouble on account of me. Can you tell him I’m here?”

“I would, but he’s out. He took off with Shelby about a half hour ago,” the man said with a frown. “You could leave those with us, but I doubt there’d be any left when Ty got back.”

Mel smiled. This cowboy was okay.

“Any idea where he went?”

“Not for sure,” he said. “But they were headed in the direction of the bull pens, which are in the last outbuilding past the arena.”

“Thanks,” Mel said. She felt Angie relax beside her.

As they turned to leave, Angie made to head back toward the van, but Mel struck out for the field building, where they housed the bulls used for competition in the rodeo. She was
hoping to find Ty and Shelby together, as it would give her a good chance to make a cupcake peace offering to Ty and warn Shelby away from Oz.

“Oh, fine,” Angie muttered and turned to follow her.

Judging by the cheers coming from the arena, the barrel-riding competition was still going strong. This part of the rodeo looked deserted. Only the sound of the large animals stomping and snorting broke the quiet.

Angie opened the door to the large outbuilding, and Mel led the way in. The place reeked of musty straw and manure, and she wondered if bringing cupcakes into an area with large animals was a good idea.

A few lights illuminated the gloom, and Mel glanced around, hoping to spot Ty or Shelby before they saw her. She strolled farther across the concrete floor. No one appeared to be there.

“Hello?” she called out. There was no answer.

“Maybe they left already,” Angie said.

“Ty! Shelby!” Mel raised her voice.

A heavy hoof stomping on the floor was the only response.

“Mel, I think we need to call it,” Angie said. “Let’s go back to the trailer and leave the cupcakes with Ty’s guys. I’ll make sure they understand to save one for him.”

Mel had no doubt that Angie would put the fear into the grown men, but still, she had been hoping to talk to Ty to make sure everything was cool.

“Let me just double-check,” Mel said. She began to walk the length of the pens, feeling the long-lashed gaze of the bulls watching her progress down the aisle.

The door to the second-to-last pen was open, and she glanced in as she passed. The narrow toes of a pair of cowboy boots pointed up. She stopped.

Angie, who was right behind her, plowed into her back, making her drop her cupcakes.

“What the—” Angie began, but cut off with, “Oh!”

They had found Ty Stokes.

Fifteen

“Do you have your phone?” Mel asked. “Call Tate.”

Mel scrambled forward while Angie fumbled with her phone.

It was the blood that made her trip. It had a bitter, metallic smell that was even stronger than the pungent odor of manure. One glance told Mel that the straw surrounding Ty Stokes’s body was saturated with blood. His hat was in the corner of the pen, as if it had rolled off of his head and tried to hide. His body was slumped against the wooden wall as if all that was left of him were the remnants of a balloon that had been pricked by a pin. One glance at his chest, however, and Mel knew no pin had done this damage.

Several large holes were gouged into his chest through the fabric of his plaid shirt. The sight made bile rise up into the back of Mel’s throat. She didn’t know what to do. She
couldn’t even process what she was seeing. She could hear Angie’s voice in the background, but it was a dull murmur like the wind in the trees.

“Help is coming. Is he breathing?” Angie asked as she slipped her phone into her pocket and crept forward to the edge of the pen.

Mel looked at Ty’s chest. She saw no rise and fall, nothing to indicate the intake of breath. She had to get closer. She crept forward and reached for his wrist. Her fingers pressed against the spot where his pulse would be. There was nothing, not even the suggestion of blood flow.

“I don’t think so. I don’t feel a heartbeat,” Mel said. Her voice quavered. When she met Angie’s eyes, she saw the same horror that she felt reflected in their brown depths.

Angie spun around and shouted, “Help! Somebody help!”

Only the nervous shuffle of the large animals surrounding them could be heard.

“Hello?” someone called, and then they heard footsteps moving swiftly in their direction.

“Thank God,” Angie moaned. “We’re here. Over here.”

“What’s the trouble? What are you doing…” A man in a denim shirt appeared, but as he took in the sight before him his words seemed to lodge in his throat. He sucked in a breath at the sight of Ty and Mel on the ground. “I’m the veterinarian, Dr. Elway. What happened?”

Mel sagged with relief. “We don’t know. We just found him like this. I couldn’t find his pulse, and I’m not sure he’s breathing.”

The doctor hurried forward and began to examine Ty. He lowered Ty’s body so that he was flat on the ground. He
checked his vitals and put his head to his chest, disregarding the blood-soaked fabric. In only moments, he sat back on his heels and frowned.

“What happened?”

“Angie! Mel!”

A chorus of shouts sounded in the building, causing the bulls to shuffle restlessly.

Mel backed out of the pen, feeling guilty that she was relieved to put some distance between her and the gruesome scene before her.

Slim, Tammy, and Tate arrived. Mel glanced at Slim’s face. The horror that passed over his features as he took in the sight of Ty Stokes wrenched her heart, and she stumbled toward the comforting strength of Tate, who immediately looped an arm around both her and Angie.

“Is he…?” Tammy’s voice trailed off as if she just couldn’t make herself say the words.

“I’m afraid so,” Dr. Elway said.

“Was it the bull?” Slim asked. “What the hell was he doing in the bull’s pen? What could he have been thinking?”

“Shh, Slim. I know you’re upset,” Tammy soothed. “But we need to let Dr. Elway talk.”

Slim gulped in a big breath and nodded.

“I don’t know why he was in here,” Dr. Elway said. “All I know is that he bled to death, and if the bull did this to him, then we need to find that bull.”

“Excuse me, please. Let me through.”

Mel turned and saw the sheriff making his way toward them. She remembered seeing him at the diner the night of Slim’s shooting. He pushed past them to join the veterinarian
in the stall. He took one look at Ty and muttered, “Aw, hell.”

Tate pulled Angie and Mel away from the group by their elbows. When they were out of earshot, he asked, “What were you two thinking?”

Angie raised her hands in innocence. “Don’t look at me. I tried to talk her out of it.”

“Hey!” Mel frowned. “Way to throw me under the bus.”

“Beep, beep,” Angie said.

“Mel, honestly, when Angie called to tell me you’d found Ty Stokes’s body
because you were bringing him cupcakes
? After how nasty he was, I couldn’t believe it. I still can’t believe it! What were you thinking?” Tate looked mystified.

“I just wanted to see if I could smooth things over,” Mel said. “If I hadn’t plowed into him—”

“He would have found some other reason to go off on Slim,” Tate interrupted. “You really need to work on keeping healthy boundaries.”

Mel frowned at him. She opened her mouth to argue, but the sheriff was making his way over to them, and she forced herself to hold her words.

“Excuse me. I’m Sheriff Hadley Dolan,” he said. “Are you the two ladies who found him?”

Mel and Angie nodded. Mel shook his hand first and then Angie did.

“I’m Melanie Cooper, and these are my partners, Angie DeLaura and Tate Harper.”

“Slim tells me you have the cupcake van over in the food area.” The sheriff pushed back his wide-brimmed hat.

“That’s right,” Mel said. “I…uh…bumped into Mr.
Stokes earlier this evening, and he wanted some cupcakes, so my partner and I came looking for him. Unfortunately, we found him like this.”

Sheriff Dolan nodded. “Slim already told me about the altercation.”

“I was hoping the cupcakes would make things better,” Mel said. The sheriff gave her a wry glance. “My wife, Ruth, always says there is no trouble that a good slice of pie can’t ease.”

“Ruth from the diner is your wife,” Mel said.

The sheriff nodded.

“We had her coconut custard,” Angie said. “She’s got a gift.”

“She is a remarkable lady,” he agreed. Although his features remained staid, Mel could see the pride shine in his eyes. He took a small pad and pen out of the breast pocket of his tan uniform. “I have a few questions for you.”

“All right,” Mel and Angie answered together.

Tate stayed in between them as if to bolster them, and Mel was grateful for his solid warmth.

Sheriff Dolan asked them to repeat the events as they remembered them. Once they were finished, he made a few notes and then glanced up.

“Do you remember seeing anyone, anyone at all, in here when you came in?” he asked.

Mel and Angie glanced at each other while they tried to remember. Mel shook her head, and Angie did the same.

“It was eerily quiet,” Angie said.

“It was,” Mel agreed. “We almost didn’t go any farther, but the man at Ty’s trailer said that Ty and Shelby had left a half hour before and were headed this way.”

Sheriff Dolan gave her a sharp look. “Could you repeat that?”

Mel did, and he looked thoughtful.

“We didn’t see Shelby when we got here,” Mel said. For some reason, she felt as if she were ratting out Shelby, but that was ridiculous. She was just telling him what had been said to her.

She glanced past the sheriff to see Slim watching their conversation. He looked worried, and Mel felt like a complete heel.

Sheriff Dolan closed his pad. “Thanks. If you think of anything else, let me know.”

He fished two cards out of his pocket and gave one to Mel and one to Angie.

“I’m going to take these two back to the hotel,” Tate said. “It’s been a long day.”

“Should I…?” Mel gestured to the pile of cupcakes on the floor.

“We’ll take care of it,” Sheriff Dolan said. “After our crime scene techs are done.”

“Oh, okay,” Mel said. She felt bad leaving the mess, but it was out of her hands.

Mel wanted to talk to Slim before they left to apologize for mentioning Shelby’s name to the sheriff, but she had no idea how she would go about doing that. The sheriff was talking to Slim and Tammy now, so Mel let Tate lead her away.

When they stepped out of the field house and into the cool evening air, she sucked in a deep breath and tried to relax.

“Mel, you’re going to need to clean up,” Angie said.

She gestured to Mel’s jeans, and Mel glanced down. Her knees were saturated with a crimson stain, and she felt her head spin a little as she realized that she’d been kneeling in Ty’s blood.

“Oh,” she said.

“Are you all right?” Tate asked. He grabbed her elbow as if she might crumple like a paper bag under a heavy boot.

“No, not really,” Mel said. “I’m feeling kind of nauseous.”

“Come on,” Angie said, propping Mel up on the other side. “Let’s get moving. You’ll feel better if you’re in motion.”

Mel certainly hoped Angie was right, because at the moment she really just wanted to put her head down, except that would put her face in proximity to her knees, which would definitely make her puke. So, motion it was.

The rodeo had finished for the night, and people were headed toward the exit. Laughter and loud conversations fluttered across the night air like the bats swooping above them catching bugs.

Mel realized that the calmness of the crowd meant that no one yet knew what had happened. That Ty Stokes, rodeo star, was dead.

She lowered her head and plowed forward. She felt as if the crowd was closing in on her, and she was having a hard time catching her breath.

Angie and Tate, as if sensing that she was struggling to maintain control, kept pace with her, and it wasn’t until they’d reached the dirt road that led back to town that Mel slowed down.