Sweet Somethings (Samantha Sweet Mysteries) (23 page)

“Beau?” she felt her voice crack a
little.

“Sam, I’m fine. We’re on a public
frequency so I have to keep this short.” Meaning, watch what you say. She could
hear helicopters in the background. “The fire has spread. I have to tell you
that we’re evacuating homes to the south and west of the Mulvane property. That
includes us, so you can’t come home. I’m here now, and I can grab valuables,
whatever I can fit into my cruiser.”

The news barely skimmed the edge
of her consciousness. Evacuate. That meant the house could very well burn to
the ground. Valuables—how did one decide?

She looked down at her left hand; her
wedding band and his mother’s garnet ring were safe.

“I’ve taken the horses to another
ranch, out of the danger zone,” he was saying, “and the dogs are already in the
cruiser.”

Her thoughts went to the carved
wooden box, the one irreplaceable artifact she’d ever owned in her life. She
didn’t want to mention it over the radio.

“My jewelry box— Is your safe fireproof?”
she asked. She couldn’t honestly remember whether she’d put the box back in
there or left it in its usual spot on the bathroom vanity, but she hoped he
would pick up the clue.

“It is,” he said, “but I’ll
retrieve your things. All the photos are on the computer, right? I’ve got that
already. Wait for me at your shop or at Kelly’s or at my office.”

Thank you. Thank you for being the guy I can rely on to think of
everything
.

“Beau? Stay safe. There’s nothing
in that house worth losing you.”

He broke radio protocol by saying
that he loved her, then she heard him cough and realized the smoke must be
terrible. She handed the mike back to Hernandez and blinked to conceal the
tears that pooled now in her eyes.

As much as Sam wanted to listen in
on the questioning of Kaycee Archer and Harvey Byron, she knew she couldn’t
focus enough to make sense of it. Beau would have his turn at them later
anyway. She said as much to Ray Hernandez as he followed the other cruiser
toward the police station.

“If you can drop me off at my
bakery, I’ll get my own vehicle,” she said.

It seemed a lifetime ago since
Beau had come by to get her and they had picked up tacos for lunch. In reality,
when she walked into the Sweet’s Sweets kitchen, it wasn’t even quitting time
yet.

“Sam, are you okay?” Becky said,
dropping her pastry bag on the worktable. “You look like you were mugged by a
ghost or something.”

Julio stared at her, nodding.
“Pretty white in the face.”

She stepped into their small
restroom and looked in the mirror. Her hair stuck out at odd angles—probably
because she’d repeatedly run her fingers through it during the radio
conversation with Beau—and she had to admit that every scrap of blusher and
lipstick she’d applied that morning was gone.

Becky peered around the edge of
the open door. “We heard about the fire. You can smell the smoke all over
town.”

Sam nodded. The haze and odor of
woodsmoke had lingered so many days now that she’d become used to it.

“It’s out there near your place,
isn’t it?”

Her head bobbed but she refused to
think about what might be going on at the moment.

“The radio says they have tanker
planes and helicopters on it. I’m sure the houses will be safe.” Becky squeezed
Sam’s hand as she said it.

Sam nodded again, squared her
shoulders and walked back into the kitchen, staring at her desk as if she
didn’t quite know what to do next. No matter how much she coached herself, she
could not get rid of an image of their beautiful log home in flames.

“Sam? Earth to Sam . . .” Becky
had apparently tried to get her attention more than once. “Look, you’re
exhausted and this whole fire situation isn’t helping.”

And she didn’t even know about the
confrontation only a little while ago over the vast Joffrey fortune.

“Why don’t I call Kelly next door
and she can take you to her place. Get some sleep. You’ll hear from Beau soon,
I know you will.”

“I can go over there by myself,”
Sam insisted. “I’ll pop in and tell her what I’m doing but there’s no point in
interrupting her work day.”

She put on as bright a smile as
she could manage.

Out in the alley, she paused near
her van. She could go to Kelly’s—to the home she’d lived in nearly thirty years
before meeting Beau—but she knew she would never sleep. There was no point in
pacing through the rooms or, worse yet, raiding the fridge of all the snack
foods she knew Kelly kept on hand. She stared at the hazy sky for several
minutes before getting into the vehicle.

It seemed to steer itself through
the streets, covering the few blocks to Beau’s office. The one place where she
would receive up-to-date news about the fire situation and the most likely
place Beau would come first when his duties were done. She found a street-side
parking spot and fed the meter all the change she could dig up.

The deputies in the squad room
greeted her in much the same way her own crew had—with the kind of sympathy
that only served to make her worry. At least, they informed her, no homes had
yet succumbed to the fire.

“I’d like to hang out in Beau’s
office if that’s okay,” she said to Rico. “To wait until he comes in.”

The deputy nodded and stepped
aside for her. “I’ll tap on the door if there’s any news. If you feel like you
want to stretch out awhile, the cell is empty right now.”

She smiled at his kindness but was
too tired to be cheerful.

Behind Beau’s solid door she set
her pack on his desk and started pulling things out. The legal documents and
news clippings she’d brought from Carinda’s apartment had become wrinkled and
she occupied her mind by smoothing and putting them into some sort of order that
Beau could comprehend when he got back to working the case.

She pulled out her phone,
surprised it hadn’t been ringing constantly as friends began hearing the news
of the fire. Anyone who knew the area would easily figure out that the blaze
was very near their home, and it would only be standard country courtesy for
people to offer to help with evacuation or to give them a place to sleep. When
she pressed the power button she discovered why—her battery power was in the
red zone. She rummaged a little further and came up with the charger cord and
plugged it in.

Within minutes it rang and she
discovered there were fifteen voicemail messages.

“Mom! Where have you been?”
Kelly’s voice held a frantic edge.

You wouldn’t believe
. “My battery went dead and I didn’t realize
it.”

“I was so worried—they’re saying
the fire is close to some ranch houses.”

“Beau’s handling it. I don’t know
any more than that.”

“But you’re safe?”

“We are. Look, I’ve had messages
from nearly everyone. I guess I better start calling them back.”

The situation lost impact with
each retelling and by the time Sam had recounted her afternoon to Rupert, Zoë,
Jen and Becky she felt less traumatized; now she was just plain tired. She
leaned forward in Beau’s chair and put her head on his desk for a minute.
Somehow the minute must have turned into a couple of hours; a sound grabbed her
attention and she raised her head.

Beau moved with the slowness of
exhaustion, but something in the set of his face told her that everything was
probably all right. The smell of smoke wafted off his clothing and when he
removed his Stetson, it was easy to see the grime on his face. She smiled at
the sight of him.

“Hey, baby,” she said, rising to
stroke the side of his face.

He pulled her close but a couple
of deep breaths later she coughed and had to retreat to arm’s length.

“How is it?”

“Fire’s well under control. Didn’t
get any structures on our place, but I was worried for the barn. For awhile
there, the wind was carrying the leading edge of the flames straight toward it.
Close to sundown it shifted and the tanker was able to drop enough slurry to
douse it. Our new corn is gone and I doubt the west alfalfa field will come
back. We’ll see.”

“Do you have Ranger and Nellie
with you?”

“Kelly has them. I went by your
shop first and when she came out she offered to take them in to Riki’s place
and give them baths. Said she would take them home with her tonight and bring
them back in the morning. You wouldn’t believe how smoky they smelled.”

Sam gave him a long gaze and
laughed.

“Uh, yeah, me too, I guess.”

“What about damage at the
neighbors?”

“Max Rodriguez’s place is all
right—he was upwind. Mulvane’s lost his barn and two sheds. His crops are
pretty well wiped out, but that’s more because of vehicles and trampling than
the fire. Pisses me off the way these ‘love the earth’ types often do such
stupid things in the name of protecting it. Don’t get me started.”

“Won’t they have to pay for the
damage?”

“Yeah, well, all I could do was
issue citations for having unlawful clearances around their campfires. There’ll
be fines, and I’m sure Mulvane will try to make them pay for his lost
buildings. That Moondoggie was stomping around, whining about how there’s fire
retardant all over their buses. I’ll be real surprised if he actually comes to
the courthouse and pays the fines.”

“So they haven’t left?”

He shook his head. “We took them
away from the campsite during the operations, for their safety, but they went
right back as soon as the area was cleared.”

He glanced through some message slips
on his desk and picked up the envelope Sam had left there.

“That’s evidence for your murder
case,” she said, belatedly remembering her own close call during the afternoon.
“Kaycee Archer and Harvey Byron showed up together. I think they were vying against
Carinda for the huge Julia Joffrey estate. Taos PD has them both in custody
now.”

“Sam . . . did you put yourself in
danger to get this?”

She waggled her hand back and
forth. “Not too much.”

His ocean blue eyes held her gaze
firmly.

“Well, maybe a little. I’d found
the documents and was about ready to get out of the apartment when they came
walking in. Things are starting to make sense, though. Kaycee kept trying to
find Carinda before the festival started, then there were a few times I spotted
Harvey and Kaycee talking. Silly me, I thought he had some kind of new romance
going on. Maybe that’s part of it.” She stood up. “Oh—not to mention that
Harvey would have had easy access to that knife. His booth was very near the
dais.”

“Okay. I guess that’ll be my job
tomorrow, questioning the two of them. Unless they gave confessions when the
cops showed up?”

“Unfortunately, no. By the time
you get there, I wouldn’t be surprised if they turn on each other. Harvey sure
wanted that money. I don’t know who charmed who or what started the two of them
working together, but I doubt he’s willing to let Kaycee send him to prison
over it.”

He reached for her hand. “I’m just
glad you’re safe. Let’s go home.”

The night air felt clear and cool
after the heat and smoke from recent days. In Beau’s cruiser, remnants of the
scent lingered and he immediately lowered all the windows as they began to move
through the quiet streets. At the first stoplight he turned and reached to the
floor behind Sam’s seat.

“Here. Something for you,” he
said, lifting her jewelry box and setting it in her lap.

Sam hugged the box to her chest,
immediately feeling its calming effects and absorbing the warmth it transmitted
into her arms. Her mood dipped, however, as she thought of Sarah Williams and
the funeral tomorrow.

Chapter
20

Sam coaxed Nellie and Ranger into
the backseat of her pickup truck. The dogs seemed a little unsure of the
surroundings—the parking lot of a convenience store where Sam and Kelly had
agreed to meet before Kelly headed to Puppy Chic for the day—but they were
typical canines, up for whatever adventure the moment presented. Beau had
driven to another ranch a few miles away where he’d left the horses overnight.
At last, their little family unit would be back home.

By the time Sam pulled through the
stone gateway and down the long drive to the log house, Beau was leading Old
Boy out of the horse trailer and through the gate into open pasture.

“Everything go okay?” Sam asked as
she walked over to him.

“Just fine once they got over the
idea that it might have been a trip to the vet.”

She laughed. “I think the dogs
felt the same way. Notice how they’re hanging close to the front door.”

“If you don’t need to get to the
bakery early, could you go through those documents with me? The ones you
brought home last night. I’m having Kaycee Archer and Harvey Byron transferred
to my office later this morning for questioning. It’s a little complicated
since the murder happened in the county, but they were arrested by the town
PD.”

“How about if I add a pancake
breakfast to the deal?”

“Give me thirty minutes. I want to
ride the fence line and make sure nothing along the east boundary was breached
in all the hoopla yesterday.”

By the time he came inside, Sam
had two plates of hotcakes warming in the oven plus a bowl of fresh fruit and
two flavors of syrup at the ready. While Beau washed his hands at the kitchen
sink and assured her the property seemed relatively unscathed, she set
everything on the table.

“So, what I found out is that
there were about a hundred billion reasons someone would want Carinda Carter
dead,” she said once they doused their pancakes with syrup and began eating. “I
didn’t get far enough into reading the will, before they walked in on me, to
know what Kaycee Archer’s position is among all those half-siblings and
cousins, but she seemed to think she would end up with a share that would
provide Harvey Byron with the money he needs to get himself out of debt and to
start a nationwide chain of ice cream shops. He made no secret that it had been
his lifelong dream. I’m still not sure when he and Kaycee hooked up, although
it does sort of explain her hanging around the fringes of the festival and his
long absences from his booth.”