Thirty-Two and a Half Complications (18 page)

“Again?” I shouted, my hands shaking as I dug my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed 911. “I found a body next to a field of goats that keep fallin’ over,” I said as soon as the operator answered.

“
Excuse me?
”

“I’m next to a field full of goats that keep tipping over on their sides and my dog just found a man in a ditch. I’m pretty sure he’s dead.”

“And where is this body located?” The bored tone in her voice suggested she wasn’t too impressed. How many dead bodies turned up in Fenton County?

“I’m at the farm just south of 27078 County Road 24.”

“Okay, ma’am,” she said in that same flat tone. “Now, are you sure he’s dead? Perhaps he just needs medical attention.”

I inched closer to Mr. Sullivan, as though he might reach out and grab me. He wore black dress pants with black loafers and a black wool coat. His open, blank stare was the only confirmation I needed. Along with his pale-blue skin. “No. I’m pretty sure he’s dead.”

“I already have a deputy on the way, ma’am,”

“Thank you,” I mumbled. To my surprise, I could already hear faint sirens.

A sheriff’s car turned down the road and stopped several feet before reaching me. I was relieved to recognize the deputy who climbed out of the car door.

“Deputy Miller!” I said. He’d been the officer who had watched over us the most at the farm during the Crocker mess. When Crocker’s men showed up at my property, Deputy Miller had pretended to be one of them. But it turned out that he’d been working with the state police as an informant the whole time. In fact, he’d been the one to keep Muffy safe until Mason and me were found. Muffy loved him and she was an excellent judge of character.

“Rose!” the dark-haired man called out as he approached. Muffy ran up to him and Deputy Miller squatted down to pet her. “Hey, girl! How you doin’? Did you miss me?”

Muffy answered by licking his hand and filling the air with a stench that would make paint peel. Deputy Miller stood, scrunching his nose and waving his hand in front of his face. “Muffy, we need to make you a police dog and send you into tense situations in lieu of tear gas.”

I was usually offended when someone insulted my little dog, but Deputy Miller was one of only a handful of people besides me who appreciated her scrappy appearance and thought she was cute. And besides, he had a point.

“I had a strange call reporting that someone had found a dead body here in a field full of dead goats.”

“That’s only half right.” I grimaced.

He stopped in his tracks. “There’s a small herd of goats eatin’ grass over there, so I’m guessing that’s the part that’s wrong.”

I pointed to the ditch behind me. “The goats came back to life, but the guy in the ditch still looks pretty dead. I’m pretty sure it’s Mr. Sullivan from the bank.”

He made a less-than-eager face. “Okay, let’s check this out.”

Muffy got excited and started to bark and run circles around the deputy.

Just then, the goats bleated and fell to the ground, the thuds filling the air.

“
Again
?” I shouted, turning to Deputy Miller while pointing to the field. “They keep tipping over!”

“They’re supposed to do that. They’re fainting goats.”

Why in tarnation would someone want a field full of fainting goats? “Well, they certainly live up to their name.”

He stood and inched closer to the ditch, leaning over the man’s body while I hung back on the road. “Yep, he’s dead all right. And you think it’s Mr. Sullivan? Do you know him?”

“Only from dealing with him at the bank.”

“How’d you find him?"

“
Muffy
found him. We were on a walk.”

He squatted next to the ditch, still examining the body. “I wonder how he got here. Do you think he knows your neighbor?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t met my neighbor yet.”

I expected some sort of rebuke, but the deputy seemed indifferent. “I’m gonna have to call a detective and the coroner.” His gazed lifted to mine. “And the chief deputy sheriff.”

I cringed. “Are you sure you have to call
him
?”

“He gave us very strict instructions to notify him in case you were involved in any messy situations.”

I put my hands on my hips. “You’re kidding me!”

“He was very adamant.”

“I’m
sure
he was.”

The deputy walked back to the patrol car and squatted to rub Muffy’s head while he made his calls. I held my own phone in my hand, racked with indecision. Everything in me wanted to call Mason, but after last night’s debacle in Jasper’s, I didn’t want to risk some sort of confrontation between him and Joe. I could handle Joe on my own, and didn’t want Mason to be any more upset than he’d been last night.

About ten minutes later, a car I didn’t recognize turned down the gravel road while I rested my backside on the hood of Deputy Miller’s cruiser talking with the officer.

I didn’t recognize the detective who got out of the car. A middle-aged man with thinning hair parted to the side, he walked up to Deputy Miller and me with a scowl on his face that looked somewhat permanent based on the deep grooves carved into his jowls.

“Where is it?” he barked.

Muffy hunkered down near my feet and released a low growl.

The detective didn’t look amused.

Deputy Miller bent down and gave Muffy another rub on the head, then stood and pointed to the ditch. “Ms. Gardner was out walking with her dog Muffy—”

The detective’s head jerked back to me. “Wait.
Rose
Gardner?”

I hesitated. “Yeah…”

His scowl deepened and he shook his head in disgust before returning his attention to the body.

I raised my eyebrows at Deputy Miller in dismay and whispered, “What did I do?”

“You helped get Chief Deputy Dimler arrested.”

“But he was on the take from Crocker!” I protested. “And he almost got the new chief deputy killed.”

Deputy Miller shrugged.

The detective hovered over the body. “Miller, are you planning to chit-chat all day or are you going to tell me about this case?” His booming voice burst through the stillness.

Most of the goats squealed and fainted, their bodies dropping like flies.

“
What the Sam Hill…?
” the detective shouted as he jumped several feet backward, tripping and very nearly falling on his butt. The goats that were still upright tumbled to their sides.

“Fainting goats, sir,” Miller said. When the detective shot him an odd look, he added, “My uncle has some.”

The detective scowled again and took notes as the deputy filled him in on what little information he had. Another car turned down the lane and I looked over my shoulder, my stomach dropping when I recognized it. It must have been Joe’s day off since he wasn’t driving his sheriff’s car. I was glad for the warning, but no amount of preparation would make me ready to face him after the disaster of the previous evening.

But Joe ignored me when he got out of his car, sporting a bruised cheek, and sauntered over to the detective. Muffy wasn’t having any of it. She yipped with excitement and jumped up on his legs, eager for acknowledgment. He knelt down and grabbed her face in his hands. “Not right now, Muff. I’ll play with you in a little bit, okay? Go back to your momma.”

Muffy’s head drooped and Joe rubbed behind her ears. “It’s okay, girl, I’ll come see you. I promise.”

She walked back to me, her tail between her legs. I picked her up and petted her, unnerved by her reaction to Joe. Poor Muffy. She didn’t understand how much had changed in a couple months. She only knew she missed Joe.

Damn him.

After he spent several minutes talking about the cause of death with the officers—probably multiple gunshot wounds to the chest—he finally meandered over to me, his face expressionless. He reminded me of the Joe McAllister I’d met the night of Momma’s murder, aloof and detached. It was better this way, so why did his chilly attitude bother me?

“Rose, why don’t we take a little walk?”

I set Muffy down on the gravel. “Okay.”

He led the way at least twenty feet down the road, out of earshot of the other two men. Muffy trotted along beside him, her tongue hanging out.

“Is it all right with you if I pet your dog?” he asked dryly.

“You know she loves you. It would hurt her if you didn’t. She doesn’t understand what’s wrong.”

He squatted and picked Muffy up, cradling her and rubbing her head. “You mean like how Ashley and Mikey wouldn’t understand why Joe lives next door and refused to play with them any more like he used to?”

I groaned. What a mess.

“How is it you stumbled upon the first dead body discovered in this area in the last five years?”

I twisted my mouth to the side. “That bad luck of mine?”

His eyes narrowed as he studied me. “Have you been doing some investigating of your own for the bank robbery case?”

Sure, Neely Kate had interrogated Toby Wheaton and I’d asked him a question too, but that didn’t mean we were actively investigating. Yet. Besides, that had nothing to do with how I’d discovered this body. I put my hand on my hips, trying to make my outrage believable. “I can’t believe you asked me that.”

His eyebrow lifted, but there was no hint of teasing. “And you still didn’t answer the question.”

“No, I’m not investigating. Happy now?” I made a face.

“Then how is it that you found a body?
You.
Out of all twenty-four thousand residents in Fenton County.”

“I don’t know, Joe,” I said getting irritated. “I haven’t been taking Muffy to job sites over the last week or two and she’s been cooped up. It’s a beautiful day, so I decided to take her on a long walk. Muffy led the way and I followed her.”

“And you just happened to stumble across a dead body? The body of the missing loan officer?”

“Good heavens. Will you let that go already?”

“No. I
won’t
let it go already. You have a penchant for trouble and what do you know?” He waved his hand back toward the body. “Here you are.”

“I don’t know what you want me to say, Joe. I took Muffy for a walk and this is where she went. Maybe you should interrogate her.”

Joe set Muffy on the ground, then took a step closer to me. We stood several feet apart, closer than was comfortable, but I wasn’t about to back down. Especially from him. “Rose, you’ve gotten lucky so far with your crazy antics—”

“Crazy antics!” I shouted, drawing the attention of the other two men.

“You are going to get yourself killed.” Joe’s voice broke and he swallowed, glancing at the country road before turning back to me. “I understand that you seem to stumble into these things, but just because you step in a dog pile doesn’t mean you have to roll around in it.”

My anger singed my ears. “Do you have a point, Chief Deputy Simmons? Because I’ve made it crystal clear that I had nothing to do with this.”

“What does Mason say about this?” He continued to study me, the bruise on his cheek a painful reminder that Mason was involved in all of this too.

“What do you care what he thinks?” I spat out.

He leaned closer, hatred in his eyes. “I don’t give a flying flip about Mason Deveraux, but I do give a flip that he’s putting your life in danger. Does he even try to stop you?”

I put my hands on my hips. “Unlike you, Mason sees me as a grown woman, perfectly capable of making my own decisions.”

“So he encourages you in your foolishness?”

I threw my hands up in the air. “What the hell are you talking about, Joe? I was minding my own business when the bank was robbed, just like I was minding my own business when Muffy found that poor man’s body. How in the world does that constitute Mason encouraging me to put myself in danger?”

His jaw locked. “Don’t you stand there and lie to me, Rose Anne Gardner. You’re the one who’s always busted my ass for keeping secrets and telling lies and you’re doing the exact same thing to me now.”

“
What are you talking about?
”

“I know you talked to Toby Wheaton in the bar last night.”

The blood in my face rushed to my toes.

His eyebrows lifted and a grin tipped up his mouth, but he didn’t look all that amused. “That’s right. I actually saw you and Neely Kate talking to him. Did you do it because I’d questioned him earlier in the day? What were you asking him?”

My outrage exploded in my chest. “You were spying on me?”

“Call it what you like. Someone has to keep track of you, and Mason’s obviously not doing the job. He was sitting on his ass in the next room.”

“How dare you!” I shouted, not caring that we now had the undivided attention of the two other law enforcement officials. “I don’t need a keeper, Joe McAllister! I need a man who’s going to love me for who I am without belittling my every move. Who’s going to respect my decisions and judgment and not make me feel like an idiot because I’m not doing things his way.”

“You are putting your life in
danger
. I don’t know how to get that fact into your thick head!” His voice rose, echoing around us. I hoped to high heaven Mason hadn’t heard him at the farm, half a mile away.

“Do you have any other questions, Deputy? Because I’m done discussing my personal life with you.”

“Goddammit!” He grunted, then he took a deep breath. “Get in my car now.”

My eyes widened. “Why?”

“I’m taking you in for questioning.”

My chest tightened and I had to force my words. “For what?”

“Whatever I feel like,
now get in the damn car
.”

I took a step backward. “No.”

His eyes hardened and he glanced at the two men who were standing twenty feet down the road, now openly gaping at us. “Don’t make me pull out my handcuffs.”

“You can’t handcuff me for no reason. You told me that yourself when Momma died.”

His jaw clenched and he forced out through his clenched teeth, “Try me.”

I was close to panicking. I’d obviously pushed Joe over an edge I hadn’t noticed and I had no doubt he’d arrest me just to prove he could. But I was also enraged. He was clearly using his power to pursue his own personal vendetta. He had no grounds for arresting me. Even if he thought I was investigating the robbery. But most of all, I was terrified of Mason’s reaction if Joe actually brought me in to the station. He’d be on Joe’s turf and I’d be locked up and unable to help him.