Part 24 (2/2)

Berne pointed at Jade. ”I saw him fighting with the dead girl last night at The Players.”

Landry held up a hand. ”You'll get your turn, sir.”

Perturbed by Landry's lack of interest in him, Berne stepped back out of the stall and turned to me. ”They were in the bar together,” he said loudly. ”She was dressed like a hooker.”

He looked back into the tack stall.

”You're not getting out of this noose, Jade. I heard that girl say she knew about Stellar. You killed her to shut her up.”

”That's completely ridiculous. I did nothing of the sort.”

”Let's go, Mr. Jade,” Landry said. ”The medical examiner's people are going to want to move the body.”

”You don't want me to look at her here, do you?” Jade said. ”I won't be the centerpiece of a sideshow.”

Bad for business. Don Jade seen peering at his dead groom.

”We can meet them at the morgue.”

”Can't we do this later? After I've finished my day?”

”Mr. Jade, a girl is dead. Murdered. I think that's a little more serious than your average day's work,” Landry said. ”You'll come with us now, voluntarily or not. How do you think it would be for your reputation to be seen in handcuffs?”

Jade heaved a big put-upon sigh. ”Paris, call the clients and let them know what's going on. I don't want them hearing the news from unreliable sources,” he said, glaring at Michael Berne. ”Then stop at the show office and scratch our rides for the day.”

”Scratch them for the rest of his life,” Berne said with a sneer. ”And I couldn't be happier.”

I watched them walk out of the tent: Landry, Jade, and Paris Montgomery; Michael Berne bringing up the rear, mouth flapping. I thought about what Berne had said. I had punched his b.u.t.tons the day before, suggesting he might have killed Stellar himself in order to ruin Jade. But maybe there was something to it. To Berne's way of thinking, Jade had robbed him of a dream life when he'd taken Trey Hughes away from him. What would it have been worth to get that dream back, to get revenge? The life of an animal? The life of a human? Jealousy can be a powerful motivator.

Stellar had had a sedative in his system when he died. Like Paris had said: those kinds of drugs were in every tack room on the grounds-Berne's included, no doubt.

The horse had died of electrocution-the method of choice among equine a.s.sa.s.sins, because it left no obvious signs and mimicked death by colic, a common and sometimes fatal illness in horses. The murder was easily accomplished by one person with a couple of wires and a power source. Done correctly, it was difficult to prove the death was anything other than natural.

If the rumors about his past were true, Jade certainly knew that. But having a sedative show up in the postmortem was a big red flag, and Jade knew that as well. If he had killed the horse, he never would have put anything in the animal's system that would show up in the tox screen.

For that matter, if Jade had killed Stellar, why wouldn't he have claimed the horse died of colic? Why wouldn't he have simply said he didn't know what happened? Why the story about the accidental electrocution? There must have been some kind of evidence. Too bad the person who had found the horse dead was no longer around to tell us what that evidence might have been.

”I heard her say she knew about Stellar.”

Berne had said it to further implicate Jade, but if Berne had killed the horse and Jill Morone knew and had been about to tell Jade . . . Motive.

Berne had seen the girl at The Players. He could have seen her leave. He could have followed her here . .

. Opportunity.

I sank back into the chair Paris had occupied and wondered how Erin Seabright's kidnapping figured

into any of this.

”This is some glamorous business you're involved with,” Landry muttered as he came back. ”A girl gets murdered, and all these people can think about is the inconvenience of it all.”

”Take a good look at Berne,” I said quietly as he stopped beside me. ”If the girl's death is connected tothe horse's death, he could be as much a suspect as Jade. He lost a big opportunity when the ownermoved his horses to Jade's care.”

”All right. You can explain that to me later. I don't even know these people ten minutes and I can believe

they might be capable of anything. What about the Belgian guy?” ”Haven't seen him, but he's sure to turn up. There might be some blood in this stall,” I said, tipping myhead in that direction. ”You'll want to give the CSU a heads-up.”

He nodded. ”Okay. I'm running Jade in for questioning. Weiss has Berne. The techno-geeks and mylieutenant are at the Seabrights' hooking up the phones.”

”I hope to G.o.d it isn't too late.” An uneasy feeling crept down my right side, then Van Zandt came into focus in my peripheral vision. Ididn't know how long he'd been standing there.

”Really, I don't know anything, Detective,” I said. ”I knew the girl by sight, that was all.” I turned towardVan Zandt. ”Z., did you see Jill last night?” He looked like he had a sour stomach and a bad disposition. ”Jill who?” ”Jill. The groom. Don's groom.” ”Why would I see her?” he snapped irritably. ”He should fire her. She's good for nothing.” ”She's dead,” Landry said.

Van Zandt looked perturbed. ”Dead? How is she dead?”

”That's for the medical examiner to find out. My job is to find out why she's dead and who killed her.

Did you see her last night?”

”I don't pay attention to grooms,” Van Zandt said with disdain, and went into the tack room.

”Sir, I have to ask you not to touch anything,” Landry said.

Van Zandt had the mini-fridge open. He closed the door and gave Landry an imperious look. ”And who

are you to ask anything of me?” ”Detective Landry. Sheriff's Office. Who are you?” ”Tomas Van Zandt.” ”And what's your connection to Don Jade?” ”We are business a.s.sociates.” ”And you don't know anything about this girl Jill? Except that she was good for nothing.” ”No.” The deputies came in then to secure the scene, and herded us out of the tent into the blinding sun. Landry got in his car with Jade and drove away.

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