A Vintage Murder (9 page)

“It’s a crime? I thought it was a snakebite,” Warre said, eyebrows raised.

“No, no. I don’t think we have a crime here. I need a CSE because this is a well-known person and also a woman.” He lowered his voice. “I want you to videotape my examination and I want a CSE here to take stills, because I don’t want any allegations that I had a prurient interest when I disrobe a famous actress. Now do it.”

“Oh.” Warre nodded and hurried off.

“Not the brightest guy around. He got his position through MERIT.”

“MERIT?” Nikki asked.

“Yes. Kind of a joke around the department—mates elevated regardless of intelligence or talent. We have quite a bit of cronyism, nepotism, that type of thing. Warre’s father is a retired superior who got him the job through a buddy who is now in Adelaide working as an investigator. It’s somewhat corrupt. The reason I’m having the video camera go in with me is to prove I’ve done everything I need to do. I’ll swab for DNA at the snakebite, see if we can’t locate how the beastie got in there. Oh damn, why didn’t I ask? Do we know if the snake is still in there?”

“No,” Liam said. “Sucker slithered away and no one around here was going after him, except for Andy Burrow. The producer is saying that it’s his snake.”

Detective Von Doussa brought his hands to his jaw. “Andy Burrow is here?”

“Yes. He’s handling the animals on the set. One happens to be a brown snake, and the producer, Kane Ferriss, insists that it was Andy’s snake. Andy says there’s no way, and he’s gone to make sure that the snake is still secure.”

Von Doussa took out a small notepad and scribbled something. He looked up to see another car pulling in. “There’s my CSE guy. Must’ve been nearby. Let’s get this done. Can’t leave the body for long. I need to get ahold of the pathologist at the state coroner’s office, but I’ll have to investigate first.”

The third man joined them—redheaded with a red-head’s complexion of freckles and pale skin. He nodded a curt hello to everyone and a moment later followed Von Doussa and Warre into the RV. Nikki still had no idea what to make of all this.

Liam sighed. “My friends, I have to apologize. Nothing ever happens here. Really. It doesn’t. Jack is one of two detectives here in the Barossa and we simply don’t get much crime.”

“But everyone is saying it’s not a crime. That it was a snakebite. You do get those, don’t you?” Nikki asked.

“Yes, of course. Brown snakes are common here. Enough so that a short jaunt down the road you’ll find the antivenom store. I only said ‘crime’ because, well . . .” He paused. “You know, I’m not sure why I said that. I suppose it’s because Jack called in all of his people to make sure he handles it appropriately. You know he’s right, it is all about covering your arse these days. The thing is, he doesn’t want anyone around town calling him an oaf or anything. For instance, say the pathologist were to call him next week and tell him she actually died from a drug overdose. He’d be the fool then.”

“Is that possible?” Nikki asked. “Everyone insists it was the snakebite.”

“Anything is possible. It could be she died from something else, I suppose, although doubtful. But say the snake bit her only an hour ago. Then she could feasibly still be alive and therefore he has to be sure that the bite is indeed the cause of death.”

“What would it be like, dying from a snakebite?”

“Not like what you think, unless she realized she’d been bitten, and if that was the case, we would’ve all known about it. I’m sure she would’ve come unglued and screamed like a banshee. But if you’re not aware, a brown snake can bite you and it may only feel as if you brushed up against something. What happens is that a person looks down to see what they’ve brushed against and, lo and behold, it’s a snake. They panic, the poison courses through them and if they don’t get the antivenom, they get very sick over the course of a few hours and die. The victim will ache, go into shock, become dizzy and confused, and nauseous. However, what likely happened here is she slept through it. We had a bit of a rough night after the party. Hannah, Lucy, and one of the crew crashed Grace’s car. They’d all been drinking. Everyone was okay, but we had a time of it. Grace hashed it out with the three of them. I had to calm her down. And now this. With . . . everything else that’s going on.” He looked at Derek, and something in his eyes made Nikki think that he’d said something he hadn’t meant to. Derek appeared to understand what he was talking about.

Derek patted his shoulder. “If you need anything at all from us, please let me know.”

Derek took Nikki’s hand. She stood there surveying the scene, with a nagging feeling that, although everyone kept insisting this was an accident, it was anything but. It may be true that the Barossa rarely had murders occur in its quaint valley, but Hollywood definitely had its share, and she had a feeling that Hollywood had come to the Barossa in more ways than one.

Detective Von Doussa and his crew had exited the RV. Nikki now saw him nodding and talking into a cell phone. He flipped it shut and approached them. “My job is finished here for now. I called the pathologist, who said he’s fine with my findings. Warre is calling the funeral director. We’ve bagged her, so once they show up she can be moved.”

“You say that you’re okay with your findings. What are they?” Nikki asked.

“She died from the bite of a brown snake. Of course, we took DNA swabs. I mean, DNA is so useful these days, we might as well use the technology. I would like to take DNA from Andy Burrow’s snake just to rule out that it was not his snake.”

Nikki didn’t say her next thought out loud, but if he planned to talk with Andy to be certain that it wasn’t his snake, then he was not ruling out the possibility that Andy or someone could have planted it there. This was going to be interesting. And where was Andy anyway? He’d sure been gone a long time.

“What if his snake isn’t in the terrarium, as he insists?” Nikki asked.

“Yes, well, I suppose I’ll attend to that if that’s the case. I will have to ask how the snake did get out.” He nodded.

Nikki faced Von Doussa. “Can I ask you something?”

“Surely.”

“Even if death by a snakebite isn’t super uncommon, how would the snake get into the RV?”

“Oh, they are wily creatures. And we will be looking into that further.”

Derek shot Nikki another one of his looks. “I told you. There’s a reasonable explanation.”

“But was Lucy in bed? I mean, do you think the snake bit her while she was asleep?”

The detective pondered her question. “Well, I would say that would be likely, as her head was resting on the pillow and the covers were pulled up. Yes, she was in bed.”

Nikki nodded. “Isn’t it peculiar? I mean, Lucy was asleep in her bed, the snake somehow got into a locked RV, made its way into her bed, bit her, and there you have it.”

No one said anything for a moment. The detective finally chuckled. “Yes, that is what I would say. If I had to guess, I think the snake somehow got inside the RV when the door was open. Once inside, he probably fell asleep. The girl came in, went to bed. Maybe he’d gone to sleep in her bed. He sensed some warm blood and took a bite out of her and . . . there
you
have it. I understand your aunt being a detective might make the way we conduct our investigations of interest to you, but are you sure there’s nothing more to it, Miss Sands?”

Derek started to say something, but she cut him off. “I think it’s kind of strange is all. I have to wonder if someone didn’t plant that snake in Lucy’s bed with the intent of the snake biting her, killing her, and having it look the way you theorized, that it was all an accident.”

Von Doussa appeared to be amused. He then clapped his hand on Derek’s shoulder and pointed at her. “You’ve got yourself a sheila with some spunk now, don’t you?” He laughed and shook his head. “Miss, do you know something that I don’t? Because this is good stuff.”

“She’s a regular sleuth,” Derek grumbled, squeezing her hand with the obvious intention to get her to shut up.

Fat chance. Nikki had gut instincts and no matter what the detective thought, this whole thing stank big-time.

Before she had a chance to continue her inquisition, Andy Burrow finally appeared. He looked distraught, his eyes bulging, his face ashen. “It was my snake. He’s gone. I’ve been searching the property, looking all over for him and he’s gone. And, I tell you, I would bet my life and soul on it that I locked all the terrariums and cages last night. I’m conscientious about that. In fact, you can ask Hannah.”

Liam looked at Andy. “My daughter?”

Andy nodded. “Yes, your daughter. It’s nothing sinister. She was upset after last night and she’d mentioned to me that she wanted to study zoology at the university. I asked if she’d like to come down and help me make sure the animals were safe for the night. She’ll tell you that they were all there, locked up.”

Detective Von Doussa eyed Andy. A wave of discomfort overtook the group. It did seem kind of strange that Hannah would go out to check on Andy’s creatures before going to bed, especially considering the circumstances of the evening, but Andy came across as a decent guy. He was well known and respected in his field. Derek idolized him.

“What time was that?” Von Doussa asked.

“Late, about midnight. I always make a late-night check and ran into Hannah out on a walk.”

Von Doussa jotted all of this information down on a notepad.

“Not only that,” Andy continued, “but there’s a problem with my suit. The one I wear when I handle the snakes and crocs is on a different peg than usual. You know the suits I’m talking about.” He nodded his head at Derek. “They were switched. I’m very specific on where things go, and that suit I let you wear yesterday is the one I let others wear. They were switched. I know it.”

“Did you have anything to drink last night?” Von Doussa asked.

“Sure. I had some wine.”

“Maybe after a glass of wine or two you thought you put the suit in one place and then set it somewhere else,” Liam said.

“No. I have routines that I follow. And I am sure it was moved.”

The detective raised his eyebrows and glanced at Nikki, then back at Andy. “If this is true, we need to bag that suit,” he said to the cop standing near Andy.

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, I’d say that it is possible your spunky little lady here just might not be so crazy after all.” He winked at Derek. “Come on, let’s have a look at where this snake is supposed to be. The rest of you need to wait around here, in case we need to ask any more questions.” He tromped off with the other policeman.

Derek looked at Nikki and shook his head. She smiled back at him and gave him a shrug of the shoulders. “Sorry.”

“Not this time. You will not get involved this time. Right?”

“Right,” she agreed, but she also had her fingers crossed behind her back. Come on, she was Nikki Sands, and she wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to get involved in what looked to be one helluva mystery.

There was nothing left for them to do after the police went to work trying to figure out if what had happened to Lucy Swanson was a crime or not. Nikki felt in her gut that it was, and as much as she wanted answers to quench her own curiosity, she knew that Derek was right. This time,
if
it was murder, she really should mind her own business. Keep practicing that new mantra—
It’s none of my business.
Sure. Everyone who knew her, had to know that Nikki would never simply mind her own business, no matter how many times she tried to affirm this.

Liam suggested that they all go up to the house, where Grace was preparing lunch. In the golf cart, Liam chattered on about what had happened. “This won’t be good for Grace. She’s still so upset about last night with Hannah and all.”

“Are you sure she wants us for lunch? We can always go into town and then come back if the police need us,” Derek said. “I can’t imagine that they would. None of us were even here when Lucy died. In fact, I’ve been thinking that maybe we should postpone some of our business for a while until things settle down, like I said before. Until
everything
settles down.”