“Are you okay?”
“All in a day’s work, Margie.”
“I’ve seen mounted police,” Marge said. “You’re the first mounted detective so far as I know.”
“That’s me—a real trendsetter.” Decker finished his coffee. “The whole thing happened … what? Six hours ago?” He shook his head. “Surreal. Anyway, did Lilah tell you anything?”
Marge said, “I couldn’t get much out of her with Freddy staring over my shoulder. And when she did speak, her voice had that eerie calm that victims often have. Disbelief. She also kept asking where you were, Pete.” She licked her fingers. “She wanted to know if you were all right. Do you have a tissue or a napkin? I got mustard on my hands.”
Decker opened his desk, took out a short-order arrest form and handed it to her. “Did you tell her I was fine?”
Marge wiped her fingers on the stiff paper. “Sure. But it was more than just a query. She wanted you. She tolerated my presence but wasn’t happy about it. And then when I started asking her nuts-and-bolts questions, she spaced out.”
“Maybe Freddy had her sedated.”
Marge shook her head. “I asked Freddy if he’d given her anything. The doctor became offended. Freddy doesn’t believe in sedatives, tranquilizers, muscle relaxants, or anything else that artificially knocks out the body and/or mind. When I left, he was preparing a ginseng and gingerroot bath to soothe Lilah’s nerves. Then they were going to meditate.” Marge brushed hair away from her eyes. “Sounds rather peaceful, actually.”
“Did Lilah have any idea who might have tampered with the horse?”
“Only that if we found the men who stole her father’s memoirs, we’d find the demons who were plaguing her. Why are those damn memoirs so important to her?”
“It’s her father’s legacy to her. She’s placed inordinate importance on them, conveniently forgetting that there was also a million dollars of ice stowed in the safe.”
“But it does look like someone’s out to get her.”
Decker sipped coffee. “Maybe not get her, only scare her.”
“For what reason?”
“So she won’t testify against him—or them.”
“She knows who did it?”
“I said from the start this looks like an inside job.”
“An inside mill jewel heist with a rape to boot,” Marge said. “Stringers are gonna love it. The good captain, however, won’t be too pleased.”
“I’m hoping to solve the damn thing before it gets into the blotters. Look how far we’ve come in two days.”
“How far have we come, Pete?”
Decker thought about that and frowned. He took out his notebook. “Let’s start at the path of least resistance.”
Marge laughed. “Let’s.”
“Carl Totes,” Decker said. “I’ve been racking my brain over him. He, more than anyone, had access to the horses. And he had means and experience to dope the animals up. But what would be the motivation? He adores Lilah and has nothing to gain if she died.”
“Maybe someone was paying him to do dirty work.”
“Totes as a hit man?”
“Okay, maybe the idea was to scare Lilah, not kill her, just like you said. Maybe someone was paying him to do … to pull off a little practical joke. Pete, look at the way Totes lives. Could be he wants more out of life than sleeping in a stable.”
Decker said, “Nah, I think he likes living that way. Simple, uncluttered—like his mind.”
“Anyone can be bought.”
“You’re right,” Decker said. “But you have to use the right currency.”
“Maybe they’re buying Totes with a woman, Pete.”
Decker thought about that. “Okay. Name me a woman.”
Marge paused. “Kelley Ness?”
“What hat did you pull her out of?”
“Farfetched,” Marge admitted.
“Stratospheric,” Decker said.
Marge said, “There’s something odd about her, Pete. It’s not that she wasn’t cooperative, just that … it’s her relationship with her brother. I observed them together when they weren’t looking. They meet quite a bit—minutes at a time only, but there’s an intimacy. Whispering to each other, touching each other. Nothing sexual, a hand on a shoulder, a pat on the back, but …”
“Incest?”
“I’ve thought about it. Or maybe she’s just one of those baby sisters who adores her big brother. I don’t trust Mike a bit. He has something up his proverbial sleeve. I could see him putting Kelley up to something.”
Decker said, “I don’t see Totes being lured by Kelley Ness but let’s assume he was. Marge, Totes is knowledgeable about horses. If he were trying to scare Lilah using Apollo, he’d know better than to give the horse PCP. Totes would know it was a tranquilizer.”
“So that’s perfect, Peter,” Marge said. “He was trying to scare Lilah, not kill her.”
“What scare? Most likely, the horse would just keel over and go to sleep. It would be a little strange, but not terrifying.”
“But it would send a message. ‘You saw who stole the jewels. Keep it zipped or the next time the horse won’t wake up.’”
“Okay … okay, you have a point.” Decker doodled in his notebook. “Totes is looking pretty damn good. So someone put Totes up to spooking Lilah. Who?”
“I like Ness. I also like Kingston Merritt,” Marge said. “I just got back the prelim paper on both him and John Reed. Freddy Brecht hasn’t come in yet. Both Reed and Merritt are solvent, but Merritt doesn’t have a lot of room for play. He’s only got about five grand in savings. Not much for an OB-GYN earning three hundred fifty a year.”
“No, it isn’t.”
Marge said, “Well, his bread is going somewhere.”
“You see Merritt working directly with a guy like Carl Totes?”
Marge paused. “Maybe he used an intermediary.”
“I don’t know …” Decker exhaled forcibly. “Call it a gut feeling, but I just don’t see Totes … fuck my gut feeling. Let’s see if we can find any paper on Totes. Any sudden influx of cash.”
Marge said, “I’ll keep digging. God, what a mess. We got Totes, Merritt, Ness—”
“You know Ness dropped by the place today. Said he came by to pick veggies, that he had done it before. He was awfully curious about what happened. He claimed he was at the spa all morning. Now the spa and the ranch are five minutes apart?”
“About.”
“Conceivably, he could have come down and dusted the horse’s fodder and slipped away unnoticed.”
“Totes was around—”
“Suppose Totes was in the corral working out one of the horses. Ness could have been in and out in five minutes. That would give him access and means for the crime.”
Marge said, “And talk about motivation, as in money. Ness is definitely buyable. When I talked to him, he frothed at the mouth at the thought of owning a spa like VALCAN.”
Decker asked, “Maybe Kingston Merritt was paying Ness and not Totes to drug the horse. Could