His pucker grew, and she had to fight back a laugh. He was obviously a clean freak, and he was torn between handling the eggs again and running in the other direction.
“I can do it if you don’t want to,” she offered.
He shook his head hard and firmed his brow in determination. “No. I got it.”
The thought of having a guy around who put her needs first as he’d been doing brought a trickle of joy and she forced it away. The last thing she needed was to be beholden to this man.
“FYI,” he added. “Jake just texted me with an update on the shooting victims. Two are in stable condition and should be released soon.”
“And the other one?”
He frowned. “In surgery. He lost a lot of blood and is in critical condition.”
“Then he needs our prayers more than ever,” she replied softly, vowing to redouble her efforts to pray on his behalf. “Will Deputy Marsh keep you updated if anything changes?”
Archer nodded. “And as soon as I know anything I’ll make sure you know, too.” He lifted the basket. “I’ll get these done so I can help you with something else.”
She stepped away to find a quiet spot to pray, but turned back to check on him. Oddly enough, she was proud that he was able to clean and carton the eggs. A simple task for sure, but he’d done something he detested. Something for her and Birdie. A pure, selfless act. Sure, it was only boxing up eggs, but outside of the guys on the FRS today, no man had really put himself in an uncomfortable position for her, and she was touched that he continued to do so.
His generosity temporarily erased the bad day, allowing her to breeze through her tasks. Unfortunately, once the carnival was in full swing, Detective Carothers cut across the grass, ending her good mood. Archer hurried over to join him. They held a heated conversation, before they stepped up to her.
“Detective Carothers felt he needed to talk to you tonight,” Archer announced, his lips thinning in disapproval.
“My lieutenant insisted,” Carothers said. “We still need to look for accomplices and document the incident.”
“Accomplices?” She watched him for a moment. “You think because we were once part of the same group that I helped him, don’t you?”
Carothers leveled his gaze at her. “Did you?”
“I may know Delmar from Oregon Free, but I am not friends with him and would never help him or anyone else shoot innocent people, much less willingly wear a bomb vest.”
“Then why don’t we find someplace quiet and away from the crowd so you can tell me why you were at the mall today?”
“Good idea,” she huffed. “I’d like to get this cleared up once and for all. Follow me.” Emily led the way to a long picnic table down by their guest cottage. It sat in the middle of a gazebo covered with fragrant honeysuckle and was lit with sparkling white Christmas tree lights. She took a seat on the nearest bench.
Carothers sat across from her. Archer leaned a broad shoulder on an upright and crossed his ankles. On the surface, he looked relaxed and carefree, but she could see frustration lingering in his eyes. He was just as unhappy about Carothers’s untimely visit as she was.
Carothers flipped open his notebook. “Now, why were you at the mall?”
“As I put in my statement, a simple shopping trip,” she replied. “We needed soap for our guest bathrooms. We’ve recently made a name for ourselves as an all-natural inn and the mall is the only place close by that sells the soap we use.”
“So you didn’t know Delmar Withrow was going to be there?”
“No. Like I said, we’re not friends or anything, so how would I know that?”
“In fact, from your statement, it sounds like he hates you.”
She sighed. “I knew he blamed me for his sister’s death. That word spread around town fast, but the Oregon Free group kicked him out for his violent behavior, so I haven’t seen him since then. And before you ask, I didn’t know that the incidents that happened here weren’t accidents.”
“Why don’t you tell us more about them,” Archer said, earning a raised eyebrow from Carothers.
She swiveled to look up at him. “First, we had this large cast iron pot rack above the island in the kitchen. I was making sandwiches on the island one day when my phone rang. It was on the table so I stepped away to answer it. Just as I did, the rack fell. If I hadn’t moved, it would have hit me.” A shudder racked her body, but she ignored it. “In case you haven’t noticed, this place is in desperate need of repairs so we thought it was just one of the many items that needed to be fixed. Now Delmar claims he was behind it.”
“Not sure how he could know that it would hit you,” Carothers stated.
“True. It could have fallen at any time, but I’m the only one who cooks here so if it did hit anyone, it would be me.”
“And it would look like an accident if Delmar rigged it the right way,” Archer added.
“I’d like to see it.”
“I already checked it out,” Archer informed the detective. “The handyman repaired the holes and put in new bolts. There’s nothing to see there.”
“And the other incident?” Carothers asked.
She swung her attention back to him. “A few weeks later, I was in the garden just over the hill. I bent down to harvest a head of lettuce when an arrow flew over me, then lodged in a tree. If I hadn’t bent over...” She let her words fall off because she couldn’t say aloud that she now believed the incident was on purpose.
“And you said you called this in and it was determined that someone was hunting out of season and took off,” Archer added.
She nodded, but didn’t look at him. “But now it also looks like Delmar’s handiwork.” She shook her head. “This is all so unbelievable. I’m a corporate accountant. Or at least I was until I came back to help Birdie with the B and B. I sat in a cubicle. Ran numbers. Hardly a job where someone might try to use a bow and arrow to kill me.”
“Do you remember the date and time of these incidents?” Carothers asked.
“No,” she replied. “But the police report will have it for the arrow, right?”
“Right,” Archer said, then looked at Carothers. “If Withrow really is behind this, then we’ll need to see if he’s bow hunted in the past and if he has an alibi for that day.”
There was that we thing again. Was he really going to stay beyond today?
Carothers puffed up his chest and eyed Archer. “I’ll be doing just that. Since hunting licenses don’t fall under our jurisdiction it might take some time to get my hands on them, but I’ll start by asking Withrow about it and look for hunting equipment when we search his home.”
“We need to remember it could also be the person or persons that Delmar hinted at helping him,” Archer offered.
Carothers swung his laser focus back to her. “Any idea who might help Withrow?”
“I honestly don’t know very much about Delmar, but from what I do know, I’d guess the most likely person is Stan Fannon. He was engaged to Delmar’s sister Cindy and he was at the bridge the day she died. I saw him at an Oregon Free meeting after that and he clearly blames me, too.”
“He help plan the bombing?” Archer asked.
She shrugged. “He claimed that he was only there for the peaceful protest and no charges were filed against him. That’s why he wasn’t kicked out of the Oregon Free group.”
“Obviously the group believed him. Do you?”