Different Paths (15 page)

Chapter Twenty-six

“It all started with Carla.”

Nick sat across from me, feet resting on the front of my desk, laptop balanced on his lap. He looked up. “Huh?”

“These attacks. Carla began it all. But
why
? People don’t usually get mad at Carla. I mean, how can you be mad at someone like her?”

“Because she picked the wrong boyfriend?”

I ignored him. “And if they don’t want a woman taking care of their animals they can just ask for one of the guys. It’s not hard. There are two men who do the same work she does.”

“Well, maybe she’s thought about it more by now.”

He was right. I picked up the phone and called her house, miraculously getting her and not her watchdog. And I didn’t mean Concord.

“People that were mad at me?” She sounded unsure.

“If the attack wasn’t random. If it was somebody that was upset with you for some reason.”

“I can’t think of anybody.”

“No one who lost a lot of animals recently, or a really valuable one?”

She was quiet for a bit while she thought. “I had to put down a horse a few weeks ago. A pretty high-priced stud. But he was getting old, and the owner is the one that said he thought it was time to give the poor thing the rest he deserved. And a whole litter of pigs died last week, but it was because the mother accidentally suffocated them. I don’t think the farmer blamed me.”

“What about folks that might resent your being a woman vet?”

“You’re thinking this because of the other attacks.”

“Right.”

“I’ve been trying to come up with something about that, actually, and see if I could think of anybody. But if they don’t like me they just ask for Bruce or Tim.”

Exactly. “Everything okay over there?”

“Sure.”

“Bryan’s treating you well?”

“Very.”

Another idea struck me. “What’s Bryan’s last name? I don’t think you ever told me.”

“Really?”

But then, maybe she had, and I just didn’t remember.

“It’s Walker. Bryan Walker. Why?”

“Just wondered.”

It did sound familiar. I guess I’d just blanked it out.

“If you think of anybody else who might’ve had it in for you, let me know.”

“I’ll try. But it just doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know. Talk to you later.”

I hung up and immediately swiveled to my computer and typed in “Bryan Walker” on the search line at Ask.com.

Nick glanced up from his laptop. “What are you doing?”

“Googling Bryan.”

“But you’re using Ask.com. Can you still call it Googling?”

I stuck my tongue out at him and he grinned. “May I ask why you’re doing this?”

“Why do you think? To get the dirt on him.”

“Okay. But what if there isn’t any?”

“Don’t worry. There will be.”

But there wasn’t. I found “Bryan Walker” in all sorts of guises: Game creator, baseball fan, Kentucky lawyer, Amazon reviewer, doctor, and deceased. Even as a player for the New York Rangers and a disgusting YouTube video made while he was drunk and sitting on a toilet. I must say I was relieved when that wasn’t the same guy. For a brief moment I thought I had found him under a listing for North Wales, a town close to mine, but it turned out it was talking about North Wales as in Europe, and the guy was a professional tennis court cleaner. Not our guy.

Finally, a mention under Montgomery County Community College. A member of the class of ’95, and then a blurb of him being on the basketball team at North Penn High School, 1992-93 season.

Nothing else.

“Well, crap.”

Nick looked up again. “No luck?”

I grunted, and deleted his name from the search line. I typed in gender + attacks + Pennsylvania + the last two months and the year. Nothing. I substituted “female” for gender, and then “woman.” Both of them got a few hits, but nothing new. Some things that had happened in other parts of the state, too far away for me to consider, and then the things we already knew about.

I swiveled back around to face Nick. “Nothing before Carla. And hardly anything after. It just seems so weird that Carla would’ve started it all.”

Nick was looking thoughtful.

“What?” I asked.

“What if…I know it sounds backward, but what if she
wasn’t
the start of it?”

“But there’s nothing before her attack.”

“But what if something else was the catalyst. She’s just the first thing that happened. Or at least that we know about.”

“Okay. Let’s look at everything else. Katherine, Dr. Peterson, Club Atlas, and now the truck line. They all happened
after
Carla.”

“But…when did Dr. Peterson’s father announce his retirement?”

“You mean—”

“This could be something that’s been brewing a long time.”

“All right.” I turned back to the computer and looked up Dr. James Peterson. And there it was. The announcement of his retirement. Two months before.

“Too long ago,” I said. “If that was the catalyst, why wait till now to act on it?”

“Maybe somebody didn’t need a doctor till now. And when they went in they couldn’t have him.”

I nodded, thinking.

“And,” Nick continued, “when did Katherine get the job at Kulpsville?”

I tried to remember. “She said they came down for interviews during the past year. I don’t know for sure when it was decided, but it had to be at least a few months ago. But they didn’t move here until last week sometime.”

I glanced at the calendar, then got up and went to the door. “Lucy?”

Something banged far down the barn, and I walked out to the parlor. “Luce?”

But it was Zach and Randy, sorting through some old wood. Mostly old fencing and stall boards.

Zach acknowledged my presence with a jerk of his chin, but Randy didn’t look up at all.

“What are you guys doin’?”

Zach stood and hitched up his jeans. “Looking for some cool-looking boards to make signs.”

Signs. “What kind of signs?”

“You know. For the fair. That have our calves’ names on ’em and stuff. People usually use cardboard, or just paper, but we thought wood would be neat. We could paint ’em.”

“That’d be nice.” I mentally took inventory of the farm’s castoffs. “Have you guys checked out the feed barn? I’m pretty sure there’s some old wooden barn siding out there. You could use whatever of that you want.”

Now Randy looked up, but at Zach, not me.

Zach brightened. At least as much as a cool teen-ager will allow himself. “I’d forgotten about that. Thanks. Come on, Randy.”

I watched them go, then called after them. “Zach! Know where Lucy is?”

He shook his head, then stopped. “I think she might be in the house.”

The house?

I limped up the sidewalk, moving faster than I’d been able to since stupid Wendy, and stopped inside the door of the house. It smelled great.

“Luce?”

“In the kitchen!”

I went in and stood, taking in the smell, watching Lucy stirring something. “What are you making?”

“Lunch. Lenny and Tess are going to come join us.” She looked up from the stove. “You didn’t make plans, did you?”

“Huh-uh.” I walked over and took a peek into the pan. “Ribs?”

“Just browning them. I’ll put them in the oven and cook them for another hour or so before lunch.”

“Wow.”

She went back to stirring. “So, did you need something?”

“What? Oh, yeah. Do you know exactly when the Hershbergers moved in?”

She clicked her tongue while she thought. “A week ago. At least, that’s when Lenny went over to help unload the truck.”

I must’ve looked surprised, because she said, “Ma called him.”

Ah.

She was still looking at me. “Why?”

“Just wondered. Thanks.”

“But—”

“Can’t wait for lunch!”

Back in the office, I relayed the information to Nick. “So they came only a day before Carla was attacked. Doesn’t seem like enough time to get anybody so worked up they’d go after a completely different person. So what does that mean?”

He shook his head. “I have no idea.”

“I remember Katherine saying their family—or at least she and Alan—went to church. She didn’t preach, because she wasn’t actually starting work until Monday, but they decided to go, anyway. So people would’ve seen her.”

I paced behind Nick, and he craned his neck to see me. “There’s no sense to any of this.”

“Nope. None.”

My stomach growled, and Nick grinned.

“Can’t blame me,” I said. “You should smell the kitchen.”

“Lunch ready?”

“No, she said at least another hour.”

“So what should we do?”

I stopped pacing. “Talk to the one person we haven’t yet.”

“Who’s that?”

“Babs.”

“Babs?”

“The lady at Club Atlas.”

“Oh. Sure.”

I leaned over and closed his laptop. “So let’s go, before I walk back into the kitchen and demand lunch now.”

He laughed. “Someone’s feeling better.”

“Yeah.” I pulled him up from his chair and landed a kiss on his mouth. “So you’d better watch out.”

He put his arms around me and squeezed. “I don’t know, I’m feeling pretty good myself.”

I put my arms around his neck and returned his hug.

A throat cleared. “Uh, Stella?” Zach stood in the doorway, averting his eyes.

I leaned back from Nick, but didn’t let go. “Yeah?”

“We found these.” He held up a piece of an old barn door, and Randy, standing behind him, had some wooden shingles.

“Great. They’re all yours.”

“Really?”

“Sure.”

“Thanks.”

I looked at Randy, expecting some thanks from him, but he turned and disappeared from the doorway. I frowned. He might be disenchanted with women—at least the teen-age variety—but this woman was going to have to teach him some manners soon if he didn’t shape up.

“So shall we?” Nick said, letting me go.

I shook off my irritation with Randy and went outside with Nick.

Chapter Twenty-seven

Club Atlas was busy when we arrived. We waited, hanging back, while the lady—Babs, I figured—dealt with some walk-ins. Two big-haired ladies with brightly-colored Spandex outfits and clean, white tennies. I wondered if Missy, Abe’s
fiancée
, belonged to a club. I had to think she did.

When the wonder twins went on their way toward the treadmills Babs welcomed us with a smile. Her clothes, while fashionable, were more practical. Black warm-up pants, with a red Club Atlas polo shirt. Couldn’t see the shoes, but I’d bet they were high quality. Her arms were toned, her biceps filling out the shirt’s short sleeves, and her face glowed with health. I made a mental note never to get her mad at me.

“Can I help you?” Her expression said she didn’t think we were there for a work-out, but she wasn’t discounting it altogether. “Physical therapy, perhaps?”

I was wondering how she could possibly know about Nick’s illness when I realized they were both looking at me.

“Oh, my foot? Just broken. It’ll be fine.”

Amusement sparked in her eyes. “All right. Looking at a membership?”

I glanced at Nick, but he was obviously waiting for me. What the hell was I supposed to say? That she didn’t know me from Eve but I wanted to know about yesterday morning?

“I know you don’t know me from Eve, but I was wondering if you would tell us about yesterday morning.”

Her eyebrows rose, and she looked sideways, as if to make sure the heavy lifters were close by.

“We’re friends of Carla Beaumont,” I added.

Her face cleared. “Carla? Oh, poor thing. She’s had a bad week.”

“Yeah.”

“At least she has that nice man to take care of her.”

I took a moment to swallow some bile and Nick’s elbow gently poked my back.

“Uh, that’s right,” I said. “You know Bryan?”

“Sure. He comes in here a lot.”

“Really? But he’s a stick.”

She laughed. “Not everybody’s a power lifter. He runs. And runs and runs and runs.”

Huh.

“Anyway, we’re trying to help out Carla. She can’t think of who might’ve attacked her, and we were thinking there might be a connection with what happened to you.”

Her nose wrinkled. “I can’t see how.”

So I explained.

She took her time considering it, and her expression turned more anxious once it all clicked. “I guess it makes sense.”

“So, is there anything you can tell us? He didn’t leave you any…sign, or anything, did he?”

“Sign?”

“Like something saying you shouldn’t be here because you’re a woman.”

She shook her head. “No. He didn’t leave anything.”

“Did he
say
anything?”

“Nope. I saw him—”

“Where?”

She looked at me. “Come on.” She came out from behind the desk and walked us out the front door. “See that Miata? That’s mine. I always park there, under the light, since it’s dark when I come in. He was standing over there.” She pointed to the side of the building. “You can’t tell now, but there’s a shadow at that corner, cast by the security light. The only reason I noticed him was because he moved.” She shivered.

“So what did you do?”

“Grabbed my car keys so they stuck out between my fingers and said, ‘Hello.’”

“He didn’t answer?”

“Didn’t have time. Just then two cars pulled in, and it was a few of my regular guys. Their headlights caught him, and he took off. A couple of them tried to run him down, but they’re lifters, not runners.” She smiled. “Now if
Bryan
would’ve been here…”

Yeah, whatever. “Did you see what he looked like?”

“Just a generic shape. A big one. He wasn’t in the light, except for that short time in the headlights, and all I noticed was him putting his arms over his face. And light hair, I think.”

An image of David, Katherine’s brother-in-law, flashed through my mind. But that was hardly fair. There were lots of big guys around a gym, and a good percentage of them would have light hair.

“Clothes?”

She studied me. “You really need to know all this?”

I shrugged.

“Athletic clothes. Warm-ups, shoes. A ball cap. Can’t tell you anything specific.”

A ball cap. Carla’s attacker had a ball cap.

“The lifters had no idea who it was?”

“Nope.”

I looked at Nick, wondering if he had anything else to ask. He didn’t.

“Well, thanks,” I said.

“Sure. If you think of anything else, give me a call. I’d love to find out who it was so I wouldn’t have to worry in the mornings.”

“You’re not coming alone anymore, are you?”

“Nope. I worked it out with the guys, and they arranged their schedules so one of them always shows up at the same time.”

“Nice.”

“Yeah. They are.”

She was headed back toward the door when I remembered. “Carla says she got a free pass from a new client. You hand those out a lot?”

“Actually, we do. To everybody who comes in looking, folks new to town, those deciding if they want to switch gyms. You two want some?”

I was just saying no when Nick said yes. Babs jogged inside and came back with two passes. One for each of us. Oh, joy.

“Great,” Nick said, after she’d gone back inside. “Now we can come work out together.

“Yeah,” I said. “Fantastic.”

Nick grinned and put both passes in his wallet.