Chapter Nine #2
“She wasn’t easy,” Harlow admitted. “But I liked her.” She found herself smiling as a memory came to her. “She once told me how this town came to be called Knightly.”
“That’s always been somewhat of a mystery.”
“Most of those on the town council prefer not to repeat the story of the most courageous rooster in the Gentry coop. He was a notorious ladies’ man.
Hens, even from neighboring ranches, would try to get to him.
He defended his hens fiercely, fighting off even the larger predators.
Weasels, foxes, skunks, even raccoons, you name it, he managed to fight them off and stay alive.
In those days, apparently, a good rooster was worth his weight in gold, and Knightly was considered a premier rooster. ”
“You’re telling me this town was named after a rooster?”
“Some of the streets in town are named after roosters. That’s also why there were so many roosters carved into wood on storefronts. You can clearly see them in the old town photographs.”
“The Gentry family had a lot of pull to get the town named after their rooster.” There was amusement in Alek’s voice. “With a name like Knightly, I thought the town was named after some Knight in medieval times.”
“Old Man Gentry, according to Giselle, loved his rooster. He did a full knighting ceremony in front of his grandchildren at a party one time and dubbed the rooster Sir Knightly. He got a huge kick out of it, and the name stuck. As the rooster grew in size, and he was apparently quite large, his reputation grew as well. In any case, when the rooster died, he was old for a rooster, and he went out fighting. He saved his hens from foxes, but he was torn up. They couldn’t save him.
That’s when Gentry wanted to honor him and was able to persuade the committee to name the town after him. ”
“What was the original name?”
“I don’t think they had an official name at that time.
They were mostly ranches and a few stores.
The committee was considering names. Some of the founding families wanted the town named after them.
Certainly not a rooster, although it probably saved a lot of arguing and bad feelings if one family name had been chosen over another. ”
“Does Stella know this story? I ask because she’s good at marketing and she could put a huge spin on this, use it for great publicity.”
“I think our town council tries to hide the truth. They didn’t like Giselle ever bringing it up, which she did whenever she was annoyed with them. I think it was a veiled threat to tell the world our beloved town is named after a rooster.”
Alek sobered instantly. “That would make some people dislike her for sure.”
Harlow saw where he was going with his simple statement. It was true. There were one or two people on the committee who valued their status and would feel they would be the laughingstock of the Sierra if it came out that Knightly was named after a rooster.
“If I knew you were close with Giselle, then others did as well,” Alek continued. “And now Helen’s gone, under mysterious circumstances. You were as close to Helen as she’d let anyone get.”
Strangely, she wanted the comfort of Wilder.
He was her first thought, and that bothered her.
She’d always faced every crisis on her own or with her friends.
Was she actually considering that Alek might be onto something?
It seemed far-fetched, but Stella was having her serial killer dreams. That might line up with Alek’s theory.
“I would hate to think someone was killing people because of me.” The thought made her sick. She had enough guilt simply because she hadn’t been able to persuade anyone in authority to take a good, hard look at her father. He’d destroyed a lot of lives, and no one had believed her.
Alek took the photograph she held out to him. “I didn’t think what my speculation would sound like, Harlow. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“No, I think we all should be considering every possibility. Just know that if I’m the connection, I consider you a friend. You’d be on the list.” That worried her, and it should worry him as well.
“As would the girls in your circle. I haven’t seen Raine at all lately. What’s going on there?”
“We were climbing together, and she was bitten by a rattlesnake. She came off the boulder and landed on her bad leg. Rush operated, and they’ve got her in Rainier’s medical facility. They took her there by helicopter. It was close, and they were set up for orthopedic surgery.”
“That poor girl. She just can’t catch a break with that leg. I thought she was doing so much better.” Alek tucked the package under his arm and turned toward the door. “Please tell her everyone’s thinking of her and sending good vibes.”
“I’ll do that. Enjoy the photo.”
Harlow saw him out and then carefully locked the studio door after him.
She wanted a little alone time to think about Alek’s idea.
She never would have entertained such a thing had it not been for the fact that they’d had more than one serial killer in or around Knightly, and one had been a close friend.
Now someone, outside her circle of close friends, had considered the same theory. That felt—ominous.
If it were a serial killer, how would they make the deaths look like random accidents? Were they injecting venom into the victims after they disabled them? It could be done, but it seemed as if the ME should be able to find evidence of that on at least one of the victims.
After contemplating for some time, Harlow came to the conclusion that the fatalities weren’t really connected in any way.
She had to go back to the idea that something venomous had killed all three of the deceased.
Something new. Possibly a new species. It seemed highly unlikely, but not entirely out of the realm of possibility.
They weren’t that far from a semisecret government facility. Military. Were they conducting experiments there? Had something escaped? Or was it some biochemical product that got away from them? Those seemed much more likely possibilities.
The girls were getting together with Raine that evening.
It would be a good topic to discuss. Raine would have something to occupy her brain.
She needed stimulation, whether her doctors wanted her to have it or not.
At least Rainier, despite the lockdown, had agreed that they could visit Raine.
It was a huge concession, and Harlow knew it was due to Shabina’s persuasion.
Harlow liked that Rainier gave in to Shabina when something was important to her.
She hoped Wilder would be similar and not want to dictate every little thing between them.
If he did, a relationship between them simply wouldn’t work out.
On that thought, she immediately shut down the line of negative self-sabotage.
She was determined to try with Wilder, and coming up with hurdles that hadn’t even presented themselves was no way to start a relationship.
More determined than ever, she locked up her studio and took her dog for a short run before returning home to get ready for girls’ night at the medical facility with Raine.
—
“I could get used to a helicopter being at my beck and call,” Zahra announced, and flopped down into one of the extremely comfortable chairs their hospital didn’t have in the patients’ rooms.
“You just liked the pilot,” Vienna said. “I noticed he invited you up front with him and not any of the rest of us.”
“I expressed interest,” Zahra explained.
“You flirted and cast that magnetic magic spell you have that no one else has,” Stella corrected. “Don’t deny it—you know you can get anything you want from a man just by batting your eyelashes and doing your adorable little pout.”
Zahra demonstrated her technique on all of them. That produced a round of laughter, although Raine didn’t exactly laugh.
“And why don’t we have these kinds of chairs in our hospital for our patients’ families?” Vienna demanded.
Zahra waved her hand languidly, dismissing the idea. “Why would we want to encourage the families of patients to stick around? They’re nothing but trouble.”
Harlow had to agree just a little bit with her. Sometimes the family was much more difficult than the patient. She leaned over the bed to brush a kiss on Raine’s cheek. “We’ve missed you terribly. We actually were coming up with a plan to break you out of here.”
“It wasn’t a very good plan,” Shabina said. “I think we’re not very good at being criminals.”
“Speak for yourself,” Stella reprimanded. “I’m more than capable of being a great criminal mastermind. Well…unless Sam is interrogating me. Then I spill my guts instantly. It’s rather pathetic.”
Zahra let out an exaggerated groan and covered her ears, singing la-la-la. When she stopped, she glared at Stella. “You’re not allowed to even mention Sam’s name. You get that goofy, dreamy, smarmy look on your face, and we all run the risk of throwing up.”
A little giggle escaped from Raine, and Harlow wanted to hug Zahra.
She was always so droll with her humor. Making Raine laugh when she was so pale and haunted-looking seemed an impossible feat, yet Zahra had managed it.
Zahra and Stella were the best of friends.
Stella would gladly be teased to get a smile out of Raine.
Stella rolled her eyes. “All I said was when it comes to being a master criminal, I’m totally all over it. Unless…”
“Stop!” Zahra said, sitting up straight and glaring at Stella.
“Raine,” Vienna cut in, interrupting the running commentary between Stella and Zahra. “How are you feeling?”
Harlow put aside her friendship and studied Raine as she would a patient. She did look better than the last time she’d visited. A little stronger and definitely less stressed.