The Michaela Bancroft Mysteries 1-3 (42 page)

It was coming from the tack room.

Michaela walked into the tack room and the words
slipped out at the spectacle she saw. "Oh, my God."

Camden immediately started buttoning her shirt.
Dwayne pulled his shirt back over his head. He turned crimson. "Oh, oh. I'm
sorry. We uh, well, we uh…"

Michaela held up a hand. "That's okay. I
think I know what you were doing." She turned and started to walk away.

"Wait, Michaela. Stop," Camden called
out. "You were going to find out one way or another. We planned to tell
you."

"What in the hell is going on?" Michaela
asked.

"We're in love," Camden said, beaming.
"And I'm moving in with Dwayne. Look." She held out her left hand; on
it she wore a ring with a small diamond.

"Is that what I think it is?"

Camden jumped up. Dwayne put his arm around her.
"Cammy girl and I, we be gonna get married, island style, you know. We
thinking a wedding on the big island. My home and all."

"It'll be beautiful," Camden gushed.
"And, we're going to have a margarita bar, doesn't that sound great? And
you have to be my maid of honor!"

"Cammy girl?" Oh boy, these two were
intimate. "That's great. A real wedding, huh?" That would be a first
for Camden, whose first three marriages were by elopement. She could not
believe what she was hearing. Her friend and employee were not only getting it
on together, they were getting married! "So, tell me, how long have you two
been keeping this from me?"

Michaela looked at Dwayne. He smiled. "You
know, it be like three or four months."

"Three or four months! Jeez, I must be
blind."

"No. We were just good at hiding it,"
Camden said.

"We are in love. I feel it in my heart. Never
met no one like my Cammy girl."

"Oh, I'm sure of that. I suppose that's what
the riding lessons are all about. I figured you were dating someone new and
didn't want to tell me because I'm always lecturing you on your poor choice in
men, but I can't think of a bad thing to say about this guy." She pointed
at Dwayne.

No, actually in this situation it was Dwayne who
Michaela might have to worry about. Camden could be a heartbreaker when she
wanted, and the last thing Michaela needed was a heartbroken horse trainer. Not
to mention she wouldn't want to lose Dwayne. He was the best, and if it didn't
work out between him and Camden he could very well quit his job. She cringed at
the thought, but when she eyed the two of them, she could honestly say that
she'd never seen Camden look at anyone the way she was looking at Dwayne, and
vice versa. Maybe it was true love, and they'd gotten away with it right under
her nose. She started to laugh.

"You aren't mad?" Dwayne asked.

"No, I'm not mad. I'm not your mother. You
two are weird. Why would you think I'd be mad? I love you both. I want you to
be happy and if you're happy together, I think it's great. A little strange,
but great."

"I certainly never expected it," Camden
said.

"You. What about me?" Dwayne laughed.

"Why don't you come have margaritas with us?
We'll celebrate and make wedding plans."

"I've got to get the horses fed, so I'll take
a rain check. Go back to what you were doing, but maybe take it over to
Dwayne's—or can I now call it your place, too?"

"Not officially. We'll go the traditional
route and I'll move in after the wedding. I mean if it's okay with you, considering
it is your property."

"I may have to raise the rent, you
know."

"You do that," Camden said.

"If it were anyone else but you, I
would."

"Come on, honey, let's go to your place. Our
place." Camden took Dwayne's hand.

"Have fun," Michaela yelled after them.

She watched them walk away hand in hand. She shook
her head. Compatibility. Who knew those two would wind up together? Strange
combination. Michaela prayed that it would work between them. She'd wondered
how Summer and Ethan would work out, too. They didn't exactly seem compatible,
but she was no one to judge. They were expecting their first child, and
Michaela could not believe that she would be taking Jude with her to the baby
shower. That thought reminded her that she needed to call Hudson Drake. She'd
thank him for the roses but explain to him that Saturday was out. Maybe she
could meet him for lunch when she went to Los Angeles tomorrow to pick up Geyser.
No. That wasn't a good idea. Well, she would have to give him back the key.
"Ugh," she said aloud as she went back to taking care of the horses.
Now that was something she could do, do it well, and have it all make
sense—take care of the animals.

Humans made no sense, while animals made perfect
sense.

As she finished feeding and started back to the
house, a horrible realization hit her. She could not believe that she hadn't
thought of it earlier. Oh no.
Francisco.
Audrey's ranch hand. Had he
heard what happened to Audrey? She knew how much Audrey thought of the man. He
needed to be told.

Instead of going into the house, she got into her
truck and drove to Audrey's place.

As she pulled in to the ranch, everything seemed
quiet, until she got out of the truck and heard whinnies from the barn. She
walked over to the stalls, which looked like they'd recently had a fresh coat
of paint applied. The horses grew further agitated seeing her. She quickly
realized that they hadn't been fed. She looked at her watch. It was past seven.
Where was Francisco? She tossed them each a flake of hay, not knowing what else
Audrey fed them. She walked over to the house and used the spare key that
Audrey had given her to the back door. She stopped. There were voices.
"Francisco?" she called out. She realized that the voices were coming
from a TV upstairs. The guest room. Maybe Francisco had dozed off watching a
show earlier. She'd better wake him and let him know about Audrey. Plans would
have to be made for the animals. "Francisco?" she called out again as
she climbed the stairs.

The door to the guest room was cracked. Francisco
appeared to be asleep on the bed. "Francisco? Hello?" She went into
the room, irritated that he hadn't woken up and bummed that he hadn't been
taking care of the animals the way he was supposed to. "Francisco,"
she said, this time louder. She stepped toward the bed.
Paint. Next to the
bed. Different color from the barn. Red paint, not beige.
Michaela touched
Francisco's shoulder.
Cold. Really cold.
She shook it and realized, as
his body turned and he stared blankly up at her, with dried blood on his chest,
that he was dead. She backed out of the room and ran down the stairs, nearly
stumbling at the bottom. As she picked herself up, someone reached out for her and
she screamed.

MICHAELA FELL BACK ONTO THE BOTTOM STAIR,
terrified. She picked herself up, still screaming. "Michaela? It's me.
It's me!"

"Olivia!" she yelled. "What the
hell are you doing here?"

Olivia took a step back. "I…I came here to feel
close to Audrey. I wanted to get away from my mom, too. I thought it would help
me feel better."

Michaela grabbed her arm. "We have to get out
of here now!"

"What?" Olivia shook her head.
"What is wrong with you?"

She tugged on the girl's arm. "Come on. We
have to call the police!"

"You're scaring me."

Michaela stopped, looked at her and said,
"There is a dead man upstairs. I think he's been murdered and we have to
get out of this house and call the police."

"Oh shit!"

They ran outside. "Get in," Michaela
told Olivia as they approached her truck.

"You think that the killer is still
here?" Olivia asked.

"I don't know what to think." Michaela
grabbed her purse from the floorboard, retrieved her cell phone, and dialed
911.

The operator asked her some questions and told her
to stay put and on the line as the police were dispatched to the ranch. In a
matter of minutes the sheriffs' cars started pulling in.

Michaela and Olivia got out of the truck as men
and women in uniform quickly swarmed the place. Two deputies approached them.
One was a young, pretty woman, her dark hair pulled back, brown eyes trained on
them. The man next to her was older and stocky with a graying mustache. He
looked as serious as the woman did.

"I'm Deputy Garcia," the woman said.
"This is Deputy McDaniels. We're going to take your statements. We have officers
securing the grounds."

Michaela introduced herself, then Olivia, who
fidgeted nervously. The police had a way of amplifying an unnerving situation,
but Michaela couldn't help wonder if there was more to Olivia's reaction than
the situation at hand. Had she really come out to Audrey's ranch to
feel
close to her?

Garcia asked Michaela to come with her so she
could take her statement. McDaniels stayed with Olivia. After half an hour of
going over her story twice, Garcia looked up from her notes. Something caught
her eye because her demeanor changed almost abruptly from questioning,
hard-line cop to…mmm, what was that…womanly? Michaela turned around to see Jude
approaching.
Oh no.

"Detective Davis, this is Ms. Bancroft,"
Garcia said.

"Yes. I know, we've met." Jude crossed
his arms.

Garcia looked from one to the other, then stepped
aside. "Okay, well, I just finished taking her statement—"

Jude cut her off. "Thank you, Deputy. I'll
take it from here."

"Of course." Garcia stepped away.

Wait a minute. She batted her eyelashes. No she
did not. Oh yeah. Yeah, she did. Michaela stood up straighter. What was that
all about?

Jude lowered his voice. "What is going on,
Michaela? What are you doing here?"

She sighed. "It's not what you think."

"Oh, you don't know what I'm thinking."

"Okay, well you better not be thinking that I
had anything to do with Francisco's death, murder, whatever."

"He was murdered, all right. A gunshot
through the chest."

Michaela winced. "Oh no. He was a good guy.
Audrey cared about him."

"Speaking of…you did not tell me that you
knew Audrey Pratt."

"No, I guess I didn't. I know a lot of
people."

"Michaela, I was just at your place earlier
today. Why didn't you tell me about your friend being killed? I've only
received sketchy details at this point, but what were you thinking?"

"Huh? What was I thinking? I don't know,
Jude. You didn't give me a lot of time to think. If I remember right, you kind
of took my breath away." She glanced behind him and noticed Garcia eyeing
them. The deputy quickly went back to jotting something down in her notepad.

Jude blushed. "Took your breath away?"

"Jude!"

"Davis, need you in the house," one of
the detectives called. "Looks like one of the rooms has been torn apart.
May have been a robbery gone bad."

Michaela didn't buy that theory. It all seemed way
too coincidental that Audrey had been killed the day before.
Someone had
been looking for something.

"We're not done with this. I know you. I know
how you think, and I don't want you getting mixed up in this investigation. I
don't want you hurt. Please."

She didn't comment.

"Davis!"

"I'm coming," he yelled back to the
other detective. "I mean it, Michaela. We're not finished."

"Can I go now?"

He shook a finger at her. "Garcia, you finished
with your statement?"

"Yes, sir."

He nodded and looked back at Michaela. "I'll
see you later."

She found Olivia, who had just finished with
McDaniels. "Oh my God, I was like totally bombarded by that cop. I told
him like five hundred times that I just got here. I didn't even know there was
anyone dead."

"Would you like to go have a cup of coffee or
a bite to eat?" Michaela asked. She wasn't sure she felt like eating but
she didn't feel like being alone either, and she had some questions she wanted
to ask the girl.

Olivia looked down at her watch. "Uh, sure,
okay. But I don't have a lot of time."

"Didn't you just drive a couple of hours to
be around Audrey's things, her house?"

"Yeah. I did. But a friend just called me and
wants to get together tonight, so I figured if I can't stay here, I might as
well head back."

"It's almost nine."

"Right." She shrugged and didn't offer
up any other answers. "So, coffee? Where?"

Michaela told her to follow her to the coffee hut
she liked—The Honeybear. Once seated with a cup of decaf and Olivia fidgeting
in front of her with some kind of fancy specialty coffee, she couldn't help
herself any longer. She set her cup down and leaned in. "I'm kind of
confused, Olivia. Maybe you can help me here. You drove out here to feel close
to Audrey?"

"That's what I told you. Look, it may sound
crazy to you. I know that cop was thinking I was full of crap, but I'm
not." Tears filled her eyes. "I wanted to be here. I thought maybe if
I drove out to her place that I'd feel close to her, like she was still
here."

Michaela softened at the sight of Olivia crying.
Maybe she was simply hurting over the loss of Audrey and was telling the truth.
"Are you okay?"

"I don't know. No. Not really. My mom told me
about Halliday, and with Audrey being killed…" She sobbed. "I can't
believe it. I loved her so much and she would know what to do right now. I
don't know what to do. I want everyone to leave me alone."

"To do about what, Olivia?"

"That stupid Callahan guy is leaving me
messages on my voice mail."

"Frederick Callahan?"

"Yep."

"The guy who runs that men's magazine
Pleasures
?"
Michaela recalled Callahan standing next to Bridgette Bowen, over Audrey's
body. The thought caused a shiver to snake down her back.