Part 24 (1/2)
Paris stared. ”I don't know. Maybe. Oh, this is just too creepy for words.” ”Where's Don?” ”Off buying clothes. He has to show today.” ”I wouldn't count on that. He saw Jill last night. She came here and did this, and now she's dead. I think the cops are going to want to talk to him.”
Paris found her way to a director's chair with JADE embroidered on the seat back. ”Elle, this is just
horrible,” she said, sitting down, as if she suddenly didn't have the strength to stand. ”You don't thinkDon could have . . . ?” ”It doesn't matter what I think. I barely know the man. What do you think? Is he capable of something like that?”
She stared off into the middle distance. ”I want to say no. I've never seen him violent. He's always so incontrol . . .” ”I heard he'd been in trouble for killing horses for the insurance money.” ”Nothing was ever proven.” ”What about Stellar?” ”That was an accident.” ”Are you sure? What did the claims adjuster say?” She put her head in her hands for a moment, then smoothed them back over her golden hair. On her right hand she wore an antique emerald and diamond ring that looked to be worth a fortune.
”The company will look for any reason not to pay,” she said with disgust. ”Because Don's involved. It's fine for owners to pay thousands in premiums, but G.o.d forbid they actually file a claim.”
”But if it was an accident . . .”
”The adjuster called this morning and claimed the postmortem on Stellar turned up a sedative in the horse
's bloodstream. It's ridiculous, but if they can deny the claim, I know they will. Trey is going to be furious
when he hears.”
And there goes the million-dollar stable, I thought. Even if Hughes had wanted the horse dead, he didn't want to be caught involved with insurance fraud. He would blame Jade and fire him.
”Was there any reason the horse would have had anything in his system?” I asked.
Paris shook her head. ”No. We have the stuff around, of course. Rompun, acepromazine, Banamine- every stable has that stuff on hand. A horse colics, we give him Banamine. A horse is difficult having his
feet worked on by the farrier, we give him a little ace. It's no big deal. But there wasn't any reason forStellar to have anything in his system.” ”Do you think Jill might have known something about it?” I asked. ”I can't imagine what. She barely did her job. She certainly wouldn't have been here in the middle of the night when Stellar died.”
”She was last night,” I pointed out.
Paris looked to the end of the aisle as Jade came into the tent. ”Well. I guess we never really know the
people we work with, do we?”
Jade held shopping bags in both fists. Paris jumped out of the chair and went into the tack room with him
to break the news about Jill. I strained to hear, but couldn't make out more than the urgent tone and the
odd word, and Jade telling her to calm down.
I looked at Javier, who was still standing at the door of the stall waiting for instructions, and asked him in Spanish if this was a crazy business or what. More than you know, senora, he told me, then he took his pitchfork to a stall farther down the row.
Landry's car pulled up at the end of the tent. He had had to wait for the crime scene unit and the medicalexaminer's people to arrive at the dump site, and he had probably called in extra deputies to canva.s.s thegrounds, looking for anyone who might have seen Jill Morone the night before. He came in with anotherplainclothes cop at the same time Michael Berne stormed into the tent from the side, red-faced.
Berne stopped at the tack room door, sweeping the curtain back with one hand. ”You're through, Jade,”he said loudly, his voice full of excitement. ”I'm telling the cops what I saw last night. You can get awaywith a lot of things, but you're not getting away with murder.”
He seemed almost gleeful at the idea that someone had died.
”What do you think you saw, Michael?” Jade asked, annoyed. ”You saw me speaking with anemployee.” ”I saw you arguing with that girl, and now she's dead.” Landry and the other detective arrived to hear the last of Berne's declarations. Landry flashed his badge in Berne's face.
”Good,” Berne said. ”I definitely want to talk with you.”
”You can speak with Detective Weiss,” Landry said, moving past him into the tack room. ”Mr. Jade, I
need you to come with me.”
”Am I under arrest?” Jade asked calmly.
”No. Should you be?”
”He should have been a long time before now,” Berne said.
Landry ignored him. ”We believe an employee of yours has been found dead. I'd like you to come with
me to identify the body and answer some routine questions.”
”Ask him what he was doing with her at The Players last night,” Berne said.
”Ms. Montgomery, we'll need to speak with you as well,” Landry said. ”I think we'll all be more
comfortable at the Sheriff's Office.” ”I have a business to run,” Jade said. ”Don, for G.o.d's sake, the girl is dead,” Paris snapped. ”She may have been killed right here in our barn for all we know. You know she was here last night, busy ruining your wardrobe, and now-”
”What was she doing here last night?” Landry asked.
Jade said nothing. Paris got an oh s.h.i.+t look on her face and clamped her pretty mouth shut.
Landry stared at her. ”Ms. Montgomery?”
”Uh . . . well . . . someone came in late last night and vandalized some things. We a.s.sumed it was Jill because she knows the combination to the lock on the tack room door.”
Landry looked at Weiss, communicating something telepathically. Weiss went out to the car. Calling the CSU to come to Jade's stalls when they finished at the dumping site. Calling deputies to come secure the area until the CSU could get here.