High in Trial (14 page)

“We’re with Mountain Wilderness Search and Rescue,” I explained wearily. “Western
North Carolina.”

He pursed his lips in a way that was meant to indicate he was impressed. “So what
are you doing down this way?”

“There’s a dog show.”

He glanced around at all the dogs and uneasy-looking handlers gathered both inside
and outside the taped barrier. “No kidding? My wife has a poodle. She always talked
about showing it.”

“This isn’t that kind of dog show.”

I glanced down at Cisco, who’d grown bored with all the standing around and was lying
at my feet. Miles had wanted to take him back to the room, particularly at the height
of all the excitement and confusion, but he clearly didn’t understand how it was with
us. My hand was melded to the leash now. Without the warmth of Cisco’s body heat against
my foot, I would’ve felt like a part of me was missing. And I wasn’t the only one.
None of the women who gathered around with such anxious, disbelieving looks on their
faces had seen fit to leave their dogs in the car. When you’re scared, you want your
best friend with you. That’s just the way it is.

Miles said, “Someone called Raine’s room last night trying to get her to come to the
front desk. You’ll find a complaint on record with the night manager. It looks as
though someone was trying to lure women from their rooms in the middle of the night.”

Of course, in the horror of the moment, the whole story of the call in the night,
as well as the story of the man who’d tried to sneak into the building under Sarah’s
key card, had come tumbling out. The white line that appeared around Miles’s lips
when I finished telling it was still visible.

I repeated the story of the incident now to the detective, who took it down dutifully.
When I finished, he said, “Yes, I have a statement already from a Sarah Lissick about
the man who tried to get into the building. Her description was fairly general, but
it was something to go on at least.”

I swallowed hard. “Marcie wasn’t at dinner when we were talking about it. We all agreed
to walk our dogs in the courtyard last night, but Marcie didn’t know.”

The detective said, “Thank you, Ms. Stockton. I think we have everything we need now.
We have your cell phone number if we have any more questions.”

“What about her boyfriend?” Miles said. “Neil…”

He glanced at me questioningly, and I supplied, “Neil Kellog.”

“He seemed pretty upset when he was arguing with her yesterday,” Miles said, “and
more than capable of violence. I heard him threaten her. Someone should talk to him.”

“He’s on our list,” the detective assured him.

I said, “They were arguing about the dog, Bryte. Neil wanted to take her home, but
yesterday afternoon when Marcie came back to the hotel, she had Bryte with her. And
there was a man with her too. I don’t know who he was.”

The detective was taking notes again, but I was concerned with more immediate matters.
“Someone needs to get the dogs home. Does anyone know who’s supposed to be in charge
of the dogs?”

A member of the hotel staff had unlocked Marcie’s room at the request of the police,
and poor Bryte was finally freed. Who knew how long she’d been locked in there alone,
barking for help? I volunteered to put both dogs in my SUV until someone made a decision
about what to do with them.

The medical examiner said the cause of death was most likely strangulation, although
the bruises and lacerations on her body suggested she’d been badly beaten first. I
hadn’t heard her give a time of death, but it wasn’t hard to figure out. Marcie had
been wearing the same clothes she’d worn yesterday, so it was probable she’d been
lying out in the woods all night. Of course, she might have gotten up this morning
and put on the same outfit just as I had done, but I had a different theory. At dinner
she’d mentioned Flame had an upset stomach. She must have taken her out sometime last
night, and she’d never come back. When the assailant grabbed Marcie, she would have
dropped the leash, and Flame got away. The poor dog spent the entire night running
in hopeless terror, looking for help, until she’d spotted Cisco and me this morning.
And even then, we hadn’t understood what she’d been trying to tell us. Or at least
I hadn’t.

When I travel, I keep an emergency contact form for my dogs right next to the emergency
contact information on myself, so whoever is in charge of taking care of me will know
who to call to come get my dogs. Maude would drive any distance for my dogs, and so
would Buck if it came to that, so those are the numbers I list, along with specific
instructions that my dogs are not to be taken to an animal shelter and a promise to
pay any boarding or vet fees that accrue. Why doesn’t everyone do that? And why doesn’t
the premium form for every dog event require you to give specific instructions for
the disposition of your dog in case you’re incapacitated?

My mind was wandering, and I almost missed the detective’s question.

The detective said, “Can you describe him?”

I blinked, surprised to feel the hot wetness in my eyes. “Who?”

Miles squeezed my shoulder reassuringly and pressed another paper cup of coffee into
my hand. I said, “Oh. The man. He was tall, light-haired. Broad-shouldered. I didn’t
see his face. I got the impression they were close. Marcie seemed upset and he comforted
her. I thought he might be staying here with her, but I guess not.”

“Had you ever seen him before?”

“No. But I’d never seen Marcie before yesterday, either. Someone who knows her could
probably identify him.”

“But he wasn’t with her when you saw her at dinner last night?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t think it was my place to ask about him. Like I said, I
didn’t know her that well.”

The detective said, “Thank you for your help, Ms. Stockton.” He handed me a business
card. “We’ll be in touch if we need anything more.”

I said, “If I were you, I’d check the emergency rooms for dog bite cases.”

He looked puzzled and I explained, “If she was walking her dog when she was abducted,
the man probably had to fight off Flame. Her dog. Border collies can be nervous. They
have a reputation for biting first and apologizing later when they’re threatened.”
I shrugged. “Just an idea.”

He nodded thoughtfully. “Not a bad one. I’ll put someone on it.”

He moved away and Cisco stood and stretched, ready now to get on with his day. Miles
kept his hand on my back as we left the cordoned-off area, lifting the tape for Cisco
and me to duck under. “Why don’t you give Cisco some breakfast and get your things
packed?” he said. “I’ll settle the bill.”

It’s funny how the mind works. I wasn’t
really
planning to go to the fairgrounds and run jumpers-with-weaves today as though finding
a fellow competitor murdered in the woods was just a minor interruption to my schedule,
but for some reason I hadn’t considered not going, either. I certainly hadn’t planned
to just pack up and go home.

“Do you mean—check out?”

“You certainly don’t intend to stay here.” It wasn’t a question. “In fact, I’d be
very surprised if any of the guests do once they know what happened.” He slipped his
arm around my waist in a brief hug. “Tell you what. We’ll drive down to the beach,
get an ocean-front suite, take Cisco for a run—they allow dogs on the beach until
May—and I know this great place for dinner right on the waterfront. Mel’s flight doesn’t
get in until eight tomorrow night, so we still have most of the weekend.”

I said, “I don’t want to go to the beach.”

His hand slid away from my waist. “Well, you’re not staying here.”

It didn’t matter how right he was; there’s something about being told what I will
and will not do that has always set my teeth on edge. “I’m a grown woman. I can stay
wherever I want to.”

Those gorgeous gray eyes of his can be as hard as flint when the circumstances dictate.
I felt chilled just looking at them. “Do you remember when you were talking earlier
about having important things to fight about? This is one of them.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Miles.” I turned on my heel, and he grabbed my arm. Cisco
barked once, sharply. Had Flame barked like that last night when a stranger grabbed
Marcie in the dark?

I pulled my arm away from Miles and dropped my hand quickly to Cisco’s head. My sweet
dog looked embarrassed to have let his nerves, which had to be as edgy as mine, get
away with him. “It’s okay, boy.”

Cisco shook himself, grinned, and by way of apology, raised himself on his back paws
and placed his front paws on Miles’s torso. Miles obligingly rubbed his shoulders,
but his eyes were unsmiling on mine. “Talk some sense into her, will you, fellow?”

Cisco bounced all four paws on the ground and looked up at me with anxious eyes,
possibly hoping I would remember his breakfast, possibly sensing, in the way dogs
have, the discord between the two humans who were responsible for his care and hoping
for nothing more than peace. I could have used a little peace myself at that moment.

Miles said, making an obvious effort to moderate his tone, “Okay, how about this?
Let’s get Cisco situated and then talk about it over breakfast.”

“I can’t eat anything. I’m going to throw up.”

A faint smile traced the corners of his lips. “You’re not going to throw up. You’re
my hero.”

I tried to smile back and couldn’t manage it.

Miles said, very quietly, “She was wearing your sweatshirt, Raine. When I looked at
her… it could have been you. If you had listened to that jerk on the phone last night,
if you had left your room…”

I felt my throat clutch. “I would never leave my room in the middle of the night.”

“Are you kidding me?” The anger was back. “You do it all the time. You’ve done it
twice since I’ve been here!”

“But I always have Cisco—”

I broke off at the flare of infuriated exasperation in his eyes, because I knew what
he was thinking: Marcie had Flame, too. Just like the rest of us, she felt safe with
her dog.

I shifted my gaze away, embarrassed and defensive and deeply uncomfortable. “Do what
you have to,” I mumbled. “I have Marcie’s dogs in my car. I need to make arrangements
for them.”

“Does that mean you’re leaving with me?”

Strong emotion, especially when I don’t understand it, often makes me say stupid things.
I snapped back, “I didn’t come here with you, did I?”

A woman’s voice spoke behind me. “Excuse me, ma’am?”

Someone touched my shoulder lightly and I spun around. “What?”

I found myself looking at a well-groomed and perfectly made-up young woman with a
microphone in her hand. Behind her was a much less well-groomed young man in baggy
jeans and a tee shirt with a camera mounted to his shoulder. She said pleasantly.
“Carolina Mays from WCGA News.
”  She pronounced it Caro
leen
a. “
Are you the person who found the victim?”

As I might have mentioned, I’m used to being interviewed, and so is Cisco. I said,
“That’s right.”

“Do you mind talking with us about it, Ms.…”

“Stockton,” I supplied. “Raine Stockton.”

Cisco sat beautifully at my side and I saw the camera guy lower his shot to focus
on my dog. That was good. At this hour of the morning, I was no competition for Cisco
in a beauty contest.

The reporter said, “I understand you were walking your dog when you came upon the
body in the woods.”

I sighed and began the story again. “No. My dog is a trained search dog…”

The interview took five or six minutes and included several close-ups of Cisco’s intelligent
golden face, which I knew would be reduced to ten seconds on the noon news. When the
reporter and cameraman moved off in search of other interviewees, I turned back to
Miles, but he was gone.

*    *    *

It probably shouldn’t have surprised me that Ginny and Aggie were a veritable font
of information for the police, and Sarah, of course, was interviewed extensively about
the incident with the man who tried to follow her into the building. I waited until
Aggie was in between interviews and waved her over.

“How are you holding up?” she insisted, squeezing my arm. “What an awful thing. I
can’t believe we were almost out of the parking lot when we saw the ambulance. We
wouldn’t have known what happened until we got back tonight! And then it would be
too late to find another hotel. Someone needs to tell the people who’ve already gone
to the fairgrounds. I texted the trial secretary, but I haven’t heard anything back.
I can’t imagine anyone will feel safe here tonight. I know Ginny and I are going straight
home after the competition today. No ribbon is worth this. Are you okay? I’d have
nightmares for the rest of my life.”

I said, “Do you know what Marcie would want us to do with the dogs? Does she have
any relatives or anyone who would come get them?”

Aggie frowned. “Oh, dear. Well, there’s Neil, of course. He is the co-owner of the
dogs.”

We looked at each other, but there really was no need to say it. Nonetheless, Aggie
did, albeit in a much lower tone. “Of course, since he’s probably going to end up
in jail…”