Death on the Range: Target Practice Mysteries 1 (10 page)

“Could be; she has those freaky eyes.” We looked at each other and made our eyes as big as possible then giggled as we collected our stuff again to go find Owley, which turned out to be a short search, as Minx, Owley and Tiger were in the long range across the hall.

Minx and Tiger were shooting at seventy meters, their arrows arcing through the air, and the twin thumps of the arrows impacting the target mats carried through the air of the quiet range. We gave them a head nod of acknowledgement and passed them to go to the far wall, which Owley was sitting against. A computer was in her lap, and she was hugging a wall outlet at least twenty yards from where Tiger and Minx were shooting. I kept Moo close to me since he wasn’t technically allowed on any of the ranges.

Mary slid down the wall next to Owley and asked, “Whatcha watching?”

I sat opposite them and crossed my legs, fidgeting on the hard floor.

Owley stared at the screen, never making eye contact with either of us. “The match between Honey and me at the Summer Games.”

Mary and I exchanged a quick glance. That is what Minx said Owley was doing hours earlier. “Again?”

Owley barely nodded her head. “The video is almost an hour. I had to watch it to be sure.”

Mary gently put her hand on Owley’s left hand. “Are you okay? To be sure of what?”

Owley pulled her eyes off the screen and looked at Mary. “She did it on purpose. She was coughing on purpose when I was at full draw. Look.”

I scooted up to Owley’s other side and looked at the screen. She had a tiny Post-it with time stamps written on it. She scrolled to one of them and pressed Play.

The footage showed Owley, and behind her, Honey. Right as Owley drew up and hit her anchor, string snugly touching the corner of her chin and tip of her nose, Honey coughed behind her hand.

“See? She did that every time I got to full draw. Every time. I only let down half of the time, so I didn’t realize at the time. She said she had a cold, but with the crowds cheering, coaches, the wind, I guess I just…” She trailed off and stared at the screen.

My heart twisted in my chest for her. Her high-pitched voice was empty and tiny, like a child who lost her favorite toy. “When did you figure it out?” Even as I hurt for her, I wondered if it was motive for murder.

“Today. I’ve known I had an issue with letting down for a while. There was a world event a few years ago with such awful wind that we had to wear weighted backpacks to keep from tipping over. I let down a lot. It got to my head. I was working with my coach and a sport psych person. I’m pretty much over it now.”

Mary nodded along with Owley, so she continued.

“Yesterday, Bruce pulled me aside to make sure I knew about the letting-down issue. He was very kind about it, but it bothered me ’cause I thought that no one else noticed. This morning, I decided to check the last time Bruce could’ve seen me shoot, and it became obvious.”

“Hey guys, you about ready to head over to the Honey celebration thing?” Minx was walking over.

Tiger trotted past her and ruffled Owley’s hair. “What’s going on, kiddos?”

Owley looked at him and smiled briefly. “Honey was awful.” She slammed shut her computer, got up, and wiped off her butt. “I’m gonna go put this in my room. Wait for me here.”

Tiger and Minx sat down. Moo commando-crawled over to them. Tiger scratched behind Moo’s ears. “Cool Batman shirt. Why is Honey awful? Besides the obvious, of course.”

Mary looked at Tiger, and the words tumbled out of her mouth. “She just figured out that Honey had played mind games to win their match at the Summer Games. I’m not sure if she knew, but Honey somehow knew exactly what she needed to shoot to go against Owley.”

Minx had been giving Moo a scratch behind the head. “That’s what that was all about. She wanted to sandbag, of course. She gave us all phones and said we should each partner up and share the scores live. She was really insistent. So the guys watched us, and we watched them. I never really looked at the scores at the time. Did you know?” Minx had turned to look at Tiger.

“Oh that, yeah. Honey told me what the deal was later. She thought she was so smart, but the whole situation was kinda weak.”

Minx rolled her eyes. “Don’t act like you weren’t Team Honey. Owley and I saw you two going at it like rabbits yesterday morning. We went to your room before the seminar started and saw you two through the window. Geez, you could at least close the blinds.”

“You’re just jealous.” Tiger made kissy noises at Minx.

“Jealous? I’m gonna need therapy. Your big bare butt will haunt my nightmares.”

This did not jive with what Tiger had said earlier. “You told me that you two weren’t really a couple, that it was just for TV.”

Tiger looked back at me. “That’s true. She came over to talk about the TV stuff, and I suggested we had better practice being a couple. One thing led to another…”

Minx chuckled. “You’re such a dog.”

“You have wounded me, my lady. I’m a gentleman.”

“Oh yeah, such a gentleman that the night before the Men’s Team Event your teammates were going door to door looking for you. Who were you with?” Minx waggled her eyebrows at him.

Tiger looked down his nose at her. “A gentleman never kisses and tells. And I don’t know why you’re being such a pain in the butt. Are you still pissed about the Toxosports sponsorship?”

I jerked my head to Tiger. “Toxosports?”

Tiger poked Minx in the arm. “Didn’t mention that, did you? Toxosports was looking at one of the US female archers to be the new face of the company. Minx was a shoo-in until Honey found out and scooped it out from underneath her.”

Minx smacked him with the back of her hand. “It wasn’t that big of a deal.”

Tiger stuck a finger at her. “Tsk, tsk. You shouldn’t lie. Honey told me all about it. It was a pretty sweet deal. She also told me that she had gotten the deal once she talked about her TV show and her ample charity work.”

Minx crossed her arms over her chest. “By charity work, I assume you mean having sex with you, ’cause that’s as close as she ever got to helping the unfortunate.”

“She got a local soup kitchen to write a glowing letter about her after she made a sizable donation.”

“So like everything in life, she bought it.” Minx took an elastic band out of her pocket and pulled her hair back into a pony tail. “It’s okay, there’ll be other sponsors.”

There would be a lot more sponsors for Minx with Honey dead. One thing was bothering me, and it had nothing to do with the case. Glaring at Tiger, I asked, “How could you stand to be around Honey if you knew all this?”

He held up his hands defensively. “Hey, hey, I have enough troubles on the men’s side of the field. I don’t have time to borrow trouble from the ladies.”

Minx shook her head. “You wouldn’t know this, Princess, but Tiger has had a crush on Honey forever. She told me that she could always count on him to be there when she needed him. And when she didn’t…” She reached out to pat him on the shoulder, but he shrugged her hand off.

“I like a pushy girl who knows what she wants, but it wasn’t a crush. I’m not twelve.”

“Mary. Di.” Our names bounced around the large room as Jess yelled from the doorway. “Get over here right now.”

We got up to join her. She grabbed my arm and marched up to my office, passing Owley in the hallway.

Jess hissed in my ear. “Door. Open it now.”

I unlocked the door and stepped inside. “How can I help you, Jess?”

“What are you two doing? Bruce practically had a nervous breakdown in my office. We’re already in the middle of a crisis, and you plan this Celebration of Life thing? Somehow I had to get liquor for it, ’cause Tiger said that we have to toast her. I had to do that after trying to assure Elizabeth that everything would be okay, but she ended up patting my back while I cried. I could just kill both of you. If you do one more thing to mess things up, I swear I will shoot you both out of a cannon. You got it?” Jess stared at us, chest heaving.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said. Mary was gripping my arm for dear life and nodding.

Jess looked at us and let out a deep sigh. “I’m just… this has been a long day, and I don’t want any more excitement. The police are mostly gone except a guy in his car out front. I told him that he could stay inside, but he said he should stay in the car. I walked by, and he was playing games on his phone. As soon as this thing is over tonight, I want you both to go to your room and not leave until I tell you to, got it?”

We nodded, and she stormed out of the room. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding until then. “Wow, she’s mad.”

“Like Commissioner Gordon mad. We’ll need to be sneakier. We have a few minutes; let’s talk about what we know so far.” Mary laid out the tablet and notebook, adding a few more notes.

“Sneakier? If we sneak at all, Jess will kill us.”

Mary ignored me.

“I don’t think this is a good idea anymore. It wasn’t a great idea to begin with, but it isn’t getting any better.”

Mary snapped the lid on her pen and leaned back in her seat. “This is what we have so far. No one has a solid alibi. Jess is pissed that Honey died here so that is the opposite of a motive. Bruce was being blackmailed by Honey and thought she was going to ruin his career. Honey played head games with Owley at the Summer Games and took away her chance at a medal.”

“But Owley said she didn’t know until today,” I pointed out.

“According to her. Someone is lying. Someone knows more than they are saying—unless you want to revisit the idea of the crazed stranger?” I shook my head; she was right. “Next up is Minx. She never liked Honey, and Honey took the Toxosports sponsorship. Minx could really use the money. Tiger had this thing with Honey; it’s usually the lover. Then there’s Liam——no motive, but he was in the building.”

“He said he didn’t do it, but that doesn’t mean much. And you and I don’t have any motive, right?” Mary looked at her notebook and shook her head no. “Is there anything in the memoir that we haven’t covered?”

“Nah.” She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes over until they landed on me. “My money’s on Owley. She’s weird.”

“You’re so obsessed with weird. Then I’ll take Bruce. He could have killed us in his office. My second choice is Minx. She’s aggressive.”

Mary snickered. “She reminds me of you. I’ll take Tiger, even though he is far too cute to have killed her. And Jess, she was so mad that I really think she could have killed us.”

“I guess that leaves Liam for me. You have Owley, Tiger, and Jess. I have Bruce, Minx, and Liam. Whoever is wrong has to clean the middle room of our unit for a month.”

I got up. We were already late for the celebration of Honey’s life.

Mary grabbed her tablet and notebook. “What about us? I’ll take you and you take me?”

“If you killed Honey,” I told her, “I’ll take a new roommate.”

CHAPTER SEVEN

We spent a few minutes going to the bathroom, checking our hair, and generally avoiding the Celebration of Life. I was the one who “planned” it, even if that was accidental. By the time we arrived, people were pretty tipsy. Empty beer cans lay on their sides like fallen soldiers. I had never enjoyed beer. There was a large pitcher of orange juice. I poured a glass and pulled a long sip before I realized that it was primarily vodka.

“Good gracious, no one light a match.”

Mary took a sniff of her own glass then handed it to me and instead swiped a bottle of water off the table.

“You don’t drink?”

She shrugged. “Sometimes. Maybe some wine with my family, but not much. I’m an easy puker.”

“Good choice, then.”

The room was mostly empty, with just the seven of us there. Owley and Tiger were at a table, quietly talking and drinking. Jess and Bruce shared another booth and were not even looking at each other while they took long drinks of their beers. Minx had a glass of the vodka with a hint of orange juice.

Minx waved her glass at us. “Glad you ladies could join the party you planned. You wanna get started so we can get back to drinking away this awful day?”

I looked around for Liam. I had thought he would be here. “Shouldn’t we wait for Liam?”

Jess called over from her seat. “No, you just missed him. He said to start without him, but he’ll be back soon.”

I cleared my throat and didn’t have a clue what to say. I hadn’t planned a speech and wasn’t sure if I could wing one. “Death is sad, and Honey’s is no less so. We are sad.”

That was awful. I looked around, and my eyes landed on Tiger. He had nice things to say about Honey. “Tiger, would you like to say a few words?”

Tiger looked at me, and I instantly regretted my choice. His eyes were glazed and unfocused. He set down his beer with the slow but jerky manner of a man losing control of his limbs. His tongue stuck out between his teeth as he carefully scooted out of the booth. It took an eternity. How drunk was he?

He looked around the room then grabbed the booth’s back to steady himself. “Honey. Honey was… Honey was an awful person who deserved to die. Cheers, everyone.” He reached for the drink he had set down but hit it with the back of his hand, knocking it over and spilling a small puddle of beer on the table. Owley giggled and wiped up the mess. Her giggles took on a life of their own, and she couldn’t stop. Tiger started laughing too, and shortly they were howling with laughter, clutching their stomachs.