Chapter 3
3
“I ’d like to see the crime scene,” Nikki said to Conrad as soon as his brother left the two of them alone again.
“The area is taped off,” Conrad said, then shrugged. “If everyone’s gone, I don’t see a reason why we can’t take a look for ourselves. We’ve been warned to leave it alone in case the deputy wants to come back to examine the area more thoroughly.”
“Is there another reason besides the ax that you’re a suspect?” The question had to be asked.
“I got into an argument with your father.” His lips formed a thin line.
“What about?”
“He said using the racehorse ranch as a rescue would make Beaumont turn over in his grave. He said anything less than producing winners was a slap in the face to a business Beaumont had worked hard to build into a successful operation. He argued against us firing the current trainer, who, we believe, is not just disloyal but a disgrace.”
“Who are we talking about here? Who is this trainer?”
“Lukas Wayne,” Conrad muttered.
She shrugged. “Never heard of him, but that’s not a surprise since I don’t follow horseracing.”
“Apparently, Lukas has been cutting deals behind our backs ever since Beaumont’s death a couple of months ago,” Conrad said.
“Why would he do that?”
“That’s what I asked your father, who blew up at me and said the deals had to be honored,” Conrad said. “Said they were legitimate, and that we shouldn’t interfere with the trainer since we had zero interest in using the horses for what they were bred for.” He issued a sharp sigh. “I got worked up, which, unfortunately, was overheard by one of the ranch hands. Toby Whalen walked outside to see what all the commotion was about and heard me losing it.”
“Did you make any threats?”
“No,” he quickly stated. A fast, decisive answer usually meant someone was being honest. “I wouldn’t do that, and what would I have to gain?”
“You just found someone who would target you,” Nikki pointed out.
“Lukas was in cahoots with your father,” Conrad said. “It doesn’t seem logical that he would kill him and then set me up to blame. He wouldn’t want your father dead at all.”
She couldn’t argue Lukas wouldn’t necessarily want his ally to turn up dead. “Who figured out what was going on in the first place?”
“Beau,” Conrad said. “He’s been rolling his sleeves up, trying to learn the family business.”
Beau, the illegitimate son. “Why did he come to you with the information? Why not call a family meeting.”
“First of all, he wanted to have all his ducks in a row before he spoke to the family about any of this,” Conrad said. “The others haven’t exactly welcomed him with open arms. He figured he’d be digging a deeper hole if the trainer turned out to be legit and Beau was wrong about the sales.”
“Was there something in the books about it?” she asked. “A log of some kind?”
Conrad shook his head. “Beau heard it through the grapevine. Said he didn’t want to reveal his source until he was certain about everything.”
“Only you and Beau knew about this?”
“Until I saw your father coming in from a ride and waved him over,” Conrad said. She must have shot a confused look because he continued, “Your father kept his mare here on property. He used to ride with Beaumont. That’s generally how they discussed business.” He motioned away from the main house. “Out there.”
Nikki loved horses. Had she inherited the trait from her father?
Her mother was more into shopping and high-end restaurants than mucking stalls and taking walks in nature. Her parents’ marriage had been oil and water. The divorce had been gasoline on fire.
She mentally broke free from those heavy thoughts. “Sounds like my father.” Her gaze cut to Conrad. “What little I knew about the man.”
“Believe me when I tell you that I understand.”
He did. She could see comradery in the depths of his eyes—eyes that made her believe she could see into his soul.
Too little sleep during midterms last week had her waxing poetic. Nikki prided herself on being logical instead of emotional. Emotions were fine as long as they didn’t get in the way. She’d learned the hard way that letting them get away from her only led to heartache when she’d taken time off in between undergrad and law school to heal a broken heart. Turned out, all those warnings about not dating your professor had been true. Some older men dated younger women because they were na?ve, as she’d been.
Growing up sheltered and with daddy issues had primed her for an older, sophisticated man to swoop in and take advantage. She’d sworn off relationships after spending a month in bed, not wanting to open the curtains, let alone eat. It had been her stepfather who’d stood up for her. He’d defended her when her mother had been hard on her. He’d been everything she’d wished her biological father had been—and that was another reason she’d given serious consideration to the adult adoption when he’d brought it up despite Heath’s controlling nature. That, and the fact she’d barely known the other man.
Her stepfather might not be perfect, but he’d been there for her above and beyond the call of duty when she’d had no one else to stick up for her. Had he gone too far at times? Probably. But since her biological father hadn’t cared one way or another if someone hurt her, she gave her stepdad a lot of slack.
Being here in Saddle Junction was the closest she’d felt to Harrison Guidry, and he was gone. How messed up was that?
Nikki caught Conrad’s gaze. “I believe you do understand.” She pinched the bridge of her nose to stave off a headache trying to form between her eyes.
“Why are you here?” Conrad asked.
“Oh, right.” She suddenly realized how odd it must be for her to randomly show up. At least, it would be random in his eyes. “I’m on spring break from schoolandhave a decision to make. I didn’t think I could do it justice without a face-to-face meeting with my father.” She paused a beat, trying to gather her thoughts about their complicated relationship. “My stepfather would like to adopt me so I can legally become his daughter.”
“Did your father know about this?”
“No,” she admitted. “Which is why I was coming here today. I’d been hoping to spend time with him so I could get to know him better. He’s been absent in my life, and we haven’t talked much, especially in the last few years except for a recent fight.”
She figured Conrad could relate to those words.
He nodded.
“I don’t know what I was expecting,” she said.
“Maybe so, but I know what you were hoping for,” Conrad said. “An apology for starters for being a crappy parent.”
“That would have been a good place to begin.”
“Then you might’ve wanted some sense of why the man wanted you to be born in the first place,” he continued, striking a chord with those words.
“Yes.”
“And for him to say that he recognized the error of his ways and would like to rectify the situation,” he said, taking the words from her exact thoughts.
“That’s right.”
“But that’s the problem with searching for humanity in men like Beaumont and Harrison,” Conrad said, his gaze locking with hers, “they have none.”
She briefly closed her eyes. “And then, they’re gone.”
Conrad chewed the inside of his cheek. “But not before dragging a few of us down with them.”
Those words reassured her that he was innocent because you would have to be a complete psychopath to pull off the honesty in his eyes, along with the hint of sadness lingering there.
Conrad stirred a dangerous feeling inside her. She made a mental note to keep him at arm’s length during this investigation because he posed a serious risk to her objectivity.
The area behind the stack of wood where Conrad had been working a few short hours ago was taped off, as he’d expected. Staring out at the spot whereHarrison Guidry had been murdered, Conrad ran the events through his head. He’d been chopping wood when the lawyer had come in from a ride. The man most likely stabled his mare here so he could keep an eye on the situation. After a family vote to remove him lost by one vote, Beau being the holdout, Harrison had used every excuse in the book to stop by the ranch. He let his disdain for the changes be known.
After waving the lawyer over, the two had gotten into a heated argument. Conrad was normally the quiet one, but he stood up to bullies or others who couldn’t do it for themselves. Beaumont had called it a weakness. Harrison had been in a mood earlier today, a stark contrast to the fixed gaze and startled expression he’d worn in death.
The ranch hand had overheard the argument when he’d run back to the barn to grab the cell phone that had fallen out of his pocket and then admittedly went back to work with the horses in the exercise ring. The ring was far from the view of the woodpile area. The woodpile was at the farthest point, near the woods.
Anyone could have been waiting in the trees, biding their time until Harrison was alone. Conrad had walked off in a fury after the argument. Hell, during the quarrel. The stubborn lawyer had folded his arms over his chest and said he’d wait for Conrad to come to his senses. That had been the last time Conrad had seen the man alive.
Several minutes passed—maybe fifteen or more?—before Conrad had returned to the spot. Harrison Guidry’s truck was still parked in the lot beside the main house. The barn would have blocked anyone’s view from the house.
The trainer had been working in the barn office as well as going back and forth to the practice ring. The ranch hand had confirmed Lukas Wayne’s whereabouts. According to Travis, fifteen minutes wouldn’t have given Lukas enough time to murder Harrison and then change out of his own bloodied clothes. Unless, of course, Lukas had thrown the ax from a distance far enough to avoid blood splatter as had been the theory about Conrad since his clothes weren’t covered in blood either.
The first thing Conrad intended to do was dig into Lukas Wayne’s background to find out what his hobbies might be. Ax throwing, anyone? Not being one for paperwork, Conrad avoided going onto the computer or digging into the company books like the plague. It was time to roll his sleeves up. Since Lukas worked for the Sturgess family, they would have his personal information on file. Was he married? Did he have children? Did he work for other families, or was his contract with Beaumont exclusive?
Conrad might not know much about the horse racing business, but he knew trainers went where there were good horses to train. Did that mean they bounced around? Because that could give them a list of names to work with if they saw an operation going downhill. Since none of the Sturgess siblings, save for Beau, had wanted to take over the family business, Beaumont’s death could bring out the sharks.
Who would benefit from Harrison Guidry’s death?
“Mind if I ask what you’re thinking?” Nikki asked, her voice softer now. The minute she stepped close to him, he breathed in her clean floral scent. She was like wildflowers after a spring rain.
“Not at all.” He briefed her on how everything had gone down at the woodpile.
“Sounds like we need to dig around in Lukas Wayne’s background to see what comes up in the dirt.”
“Won’t your family be expecting you to come home once they find out what happened to your father?” he asked.
“My phone has been going off,” she admitted. “I’m not ready to leave.”
“These investigations can take time,” he said. “Didn’t you say you were on spring break?”
“I’m not going back to law school,” she said, her tone firm.
“Why not?”
Rather than answer, she walked toward the woods.
The time change meant they’d have an extra hour of sunlight, but darkness would descend soon enough.
Conrad caught up to Nikki halfway across the field.
“Did they bring out dogs?” she asked.
“No,” he said. “They would’ve had to borrow them from another county. There aren’t enough resources.”
“I’m surprised they aren’t still here searching for bloody clothing that had to have been stashed nearby,” she said as they walked a circle around the woodpile and then headed back.
Not fifteen feet away from the stack, she froze. He took note of where her gaze had landed on blood splatter on the yellow grass.
“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked, touching her elbow for reassurance.
“Not really,” she admitted before lifting her shirt over her nose. “I caught a whiff.”
He nodded. He’d already been to the site and was familiar with the sights and smells. Did anyone ever get used to the acrid smell of death? He couldn’t imagine so. Not even Vicks underneath his nose had made the smell go away after it had blasted him in the wind not long after the body had been found.
“What about fingerprints?” she asked, bracing herself with a hand on his arm.
“On the ax?”
She nodded.
“All I know is the handle was dusted, and mine are already in the system,” he said.
She whirled around on him. “You’ve been arrested before?”
He explained the situation, hoping she believed him. Her opinion of him meant something to him for reasons he didn’t want to examine.
“That’s not good,” she said.
“Travis said the same thing to me earlier.” Folks made up their minds in a matter of seconds, sometimes with very little information to back up their decisions.
It was a hard truth. He could conceivably go to jail for the rest of his life for a crime he didn’t commit.
Conrad’s cell phone buzzed in his pocket. He checked the screen. The message from Deputy Combs read: Stay where you are. I’ll be back to ask more questions.
Conrad knew exactly what this meant. Someone was coming to arrest him.
No way could he allow that to happen.
Running might make him appear guilty, but it was the only way to ensure he could find the real murderer.
“I have to go,” he said to Nikki.
She studied him.
“Then, I’m going with you.”