A Sporting Murder Read online

  “Then I think it’s perfect.” I wondered how easy it would be to come out here some night and paint pants on them. I looked at Madeleine and saw a tiny smile lift one corner of her mouth. Childish, yes, but making fun of the man would send him into a rage. I had seen enough of him to know he wouldn’t take our joke well. I nodded and Madeleine winked at me.

  At David’s ranch, we found he was out with a client and hadn’t returned yet, but he’d told his foreman Dudley Thomas to take us on a tour in one of the swamp buggies. David would join up with us when he finished with the client.

  “The boss told me to steer clear of the west side of the ranch near Reed’s property. He let me know about your encounter on the water yesterday. That guy is a real bad one, and that goes double for his foreman. From what David said, it was the foreman who was on the boat with him. Big guy, bigger than Reed, looks real harmless with his twinkling blue eyes and all those freckles, but he’s mean as a bull alligator in mating season. He has an appetite for settling arguments with his fists. Or so I hear.” Dudley maneuvered the big-wheeled buggy into a swampy area and out again with ease. “We’ll stop and take a walk over toward that field. No one’s around here right now, and if we’re real quiet we might sneak up on some quail nesting out there.”

  This was the first time I’d met Dudley, but he seemed like a knowledgeable fellow, intelligent and friendly. Dudley was short and wiry, his face deeply lined with wrinkles from years in the sun. When he smiled, dimples formed and the cleft in his chin became more pronounced. David’s old foreman had retired and Dudley had taken his place only weeks ago.

  Alex and I had jumped down from the buggy, and Dudley, seeing the concern on Madeleine’s face, helped her off the behemoth. With those huge tires, the distance to the ground must have looked like jumping off a precipice to tiny Madeleine.

  Dudley held up his finger. “Okay, let’s move quietly and ….”

  A thunderous bang sliced the silence followed by another.

  “That’s from a large caliber weapon,” said Alex.

  Dudley’s face darkened. “Yep. And that’s something we don’t use on this ranch.”

  Chapter 4

  “I think I’d better go see what’s up with that shot. I’ll run you folks back to the office.” Dudley’s expression was grim.

  “I’ll come with you after you’ve dropped Madeleine and Eve,” Alex said.

  Dudley hesitated a moment, then agreed. We all reboarded the swamp buggy.

  We hadn’t gone but half a mile when we heard another vehicle behind us. A Jeep with the ranch’s logo on the side pulled up beside us. David was driving.

  “David, are you all right?” Madeleine leaned out of her seat and reached for him. He grabbed her hand and gave a quick nod.

  “One of you got a cellphone on you? Mine’s dead.”

  Alex handed his over to David.

  “We heard a shot. Did you?” asked Dudley.

  David nodded. “Yup.” Into his cell, he said, “I’ve got an emergency on the Cypress Plantation. Someone’s been shot.” He listened for a moment on the cell, then said, “I believe he’s dead.” He ended the call.

  Dudley frowned and said, “This is the first accident we’ve had on this ranch since your father started running it twenty years ago. What happened? I’m not accusing you of anything, boss, just saying what’s true.”

  Sure, Dudley, but now’s not the time, I thought to myself.

  David drew Dudley away from us and spoke under his breath. I couldn’t catch his words.

  “I’m just glad it wasn’t David.” Madeleine chewed on her thumbnail. “I wonder who got shot.”

  Blake Reed, I thought for a moment, but I knew I was just wishing and the wish was unkind. Well, nobody ever accused me of having generous thoughts about those I didn’t like.

  “I need to get back there.” David started up the Jeep. “Dudley, you can bring the authorities out there. You know where it is—in the west section, near that big bog.”

  “You mean on the border with Reed’s place? I thought you told me not to go near there, boss.”

  Gee, Dudley, could you lay off the nagging?

  “I know, I know.” David sounded impatient. Were good old Dudley’s reminders getting to him, too? “Now I wish I hadn’t gone over there with Mr. Jackson, but we caught sight of a wild pig and Jackson got curious. He’s from up north, and he’d never seen one before, so I thought, why not show him? I told him we didn’t have the weapons to hunt it, and we’d have to be careful, but he was determined, so we trailed the pig through the field. When we hit denser brush, we got out of the Jeep and circled around the bog area. I took the lead, and I thought Jackson was right behind me, but when I turned around to signal him that we’d lost the pig, he wasn’t there. That’s when I heard the shots. I found him face down near the bog and …. Look, I’ve got to get back there.”

  I realized there was something David wasn’t telling us.

  “And what else?” asked Alex.

  “There was a dead oryx not twenty yards from him.”

  “What’s that?” asked Madeleine.

  “An exotic from Africa, sometimes brought onto hunting ranches for specialty hunting. They’re large and gray, with two long, straight horns.” David shifted the Jeep into gear.

  “I’m coming with you,” said Alex.

  “I don’t want anybody near there.”

  “Look,” Alex said, “you just found a guy dead on your ranch. I think it would be better if I drove you back there. That’s quite a shock and the authorities might—”

  I interrupted. “My detective friend here is saying the authorities will be suspicious. Alex wants to be sure you don’t say what you shouldn’t.”

  What I didn’t say was that Alex wanted to make certain David didn’t contaminate the scene any more than he had already. David could also use a witness when he returned to the scene. He guessed what Alex and I were thinking.

  “I wouldn’t kill my own client.” David’s tone was angry and his face flushed.

  “No, of course not, honey, but they’re right. It’s best to be cautious.” Smiling, Madeleine reached out to touch David’s cheek. I guess that was all the encouragement he needed because he agreed. Leave it to my pal Madeleine to take suspicion and make it sound as good as a Sunday picnic.

  Alex climbed into the Jeep, and I jumped into the back. For a moment David didn’t notice he was now carrying more than a lone passenger, but Alex called me on my maneuver.

  “Get out of here, Eve.”

  I crossed my arms over my chest. “Make me.”

  “You are so childish—”

  David turned to look at me. “From what Madeleine told me, she’s a pretty damn good little sleuth. I can use all the help I can get—one PI and one businesswoman with attitude.”

  “Exactly,” I said.

  “And one load of trouble.” Alex shook his head.

  “I am not.” Not everyone thought that. Just Alex and Madeleine and …. I knew my friend Frida, a Sabal Bay homicide detective, would probably be assigned to the case. She would consider me trouble with a double barreled T. Yes, she would.

  When we arrived at the spot, I could see the body of a man lying near a swampy area and the carcass of a large, gray and buff colored animal with long horns nearby.

  “You wait here,” Alex said. I assumed he meant for David to wait in the Jeep, so I followed Alex over to the body.

  “Ugh.” I wasn’t crazy about viewing dead bodies, although in the past I had seen several.

  “God, Eve, you’re worse than Velcro. Get back in the Jeep.”

  “But I want to help.”

  “That’s what I mean. Help by getting back in the Jeep.”

  I crossed my arms again and stuck out my lower lip, but Alex didn’t notice. He focused on the body.

  “Did you touch him?” he asked David.

  “I had to find out if he was dead. Or if I could help him in some way.”

  I walked away f
rom the body and stopped at the dead animal. I’d never seen such long horns. What a shame. It was a beautiful beast. I took a few more steps toward the water.

  “Eve, what are you doing now?”

  “Nothing.” That wasn’t true. I was looking at the edge of the bog, churned up with animal tracks. “I think that pig you were chasing was here. The shore is all torn up and muddy, and there’s junk all over here.”

  “You’re about to step onto Reed’s property. I’d stay out of there,” David said.

  “Are you using this swamp as a dump?” I was shocked that David would be so careless of the environment.

  “No. Why?”

  “There are cans, plastic containers, and other junk here. I ….” I stepped on a hard object that rolled under my foot. I began to slip and reached out to catch myself as I fell. My hand touched the other end of the object that I’d stepped on. I pulled it out of the muck and took a good look at it. A rifle. Oh, oh. Frida would have my head. Messing with the crime scene.

  “What were you thinking, Eve? You handled what will probably turn out to be the murder weapon. And, you, Alex. You let her just trample over the area.”

  “Sorry, Detective, but I thought Eve had gotten back in the Jeep.”

  “Because you told her to? When has she ever followed anyone’s orders?” My friend Frida, almost as tall as I am, has sparkling brown eyes and dark hair. She has to be the most attractive police authority in rural Florida and one of the most competent, too.

  Frida was steamed. I knew she would be and with good cause. I knew better than to compromise the scene, but sometimes I get carried away.

  “I was trying to get away from the dead body,” I said. “That’s all. How did I know I’d find the weapon in the muck over there?”

  Frida wasn’t listening.

  Her partner, Linc Tooney, newly appointed to the position of detective, stood over the rifle where I had dropped it—leaving prints, of course.

  “I should just arrest all three of you.” Frida strode back and forth near the Jeep and the swamp buggy that Dudley had used to lead her and Linc to the scene. The Sabal Bay Police SUV stood behind them and behind it, the crime scene technicians had arrived driving the department’s van. Muttering to herself, Frida walked around all the vehicles. Finally she said, “I’m going to let these guys and Detective Tooney finish up here while all of you come with me back to headquarters.”

  She got in her SUV and was about to back up when she rolled down her window and yelled, “Where’s Madeleine?”

  “At the ranch’s office,” I replied.

  “I guess I should be grateful for that.” Frida drove off. I could see her head moving from side to side. She was still talking to herself. Suddenly she stopped the vehicle, then turned it around and drove back to us.

  “One more thing.”

  I thought I knew what was coming. And I was right.

  “Yes?” I used my most innocent tone of voice.

  “Don’t even think about bringing in any more friends to help on this case. I’ve got this. Understand? I’m on top of it.”

  “You don’t have anything to worry about. I can’t see any reason for asking my connections to help out. You’ve got it. But in case you find you need ….”

  The window went up, and she drove off again.

  Now why would she think I’d ask my old buddy the mob boss Nappi Napolitani to help out? Why would I do that? Just because I’d done it twice before ….

  Dudley came up to me. “Your friend wasn’t happy being left at the ranch.”

  “I know.”

  Madeleine would be furious, and since David was her boyfriend and Alex mine, the only person she could hold responsible for excluding her from the excitement was me. What are friends for?

  Before we could leave, I saw another Jeep approach from the west. Tooney ran up to it and waved his arms. “That’s far enough. Back off.”

  It was Blake Reed who jumped out of the Jeep. “That’s my oryx. Who shot it?”

  I wondered at someone who could drive up to a crime scene, see a human corpse, and remark only on the dead animal lying nearby. The guy was a piece of work.

  “What’s with you, David? Stealing my exotics for your clients?” Reed asked.

  “The client’s dead,” I said. “Probably the oryx shot him then committed suicide. Isn’t that how you figure it?”

  “You’ve got a smart mouth on you, don’t you?” Reed said.

  Yes, I do. “And you know nothing about this, I suppose?” I was once again stepping on Frida’s territory, but the man so infuriated me that I couldn’t help myself. “I think you should arrest him,” I said.

  Tooney arched one eyebrow in curiosity.

  “He tried to kill Madeleine yesterday. He tried to kill all of us,” I told Tooney.

  Reed laughed. “It was a mistake. Miss Appel, isn’t it? Eve Appel. I told you that.” He looked around the area. “Someone’s been dumping junk. It’s not on my land, but I’d think you’d take better care of your property, David, old fellow.”

  “Okay, now this is getting more interesting. Why don’t you accompany us down to the station, Mr. Reed?” Linc said.

  “Are you arresting me?” asked Reed.

  “Not now, but I could arrange that if what Ms. Appel says is true, about you trying to kill them.”

  “I’ll be glad to talk with you at the station, but I want my lawyer with me. So, if you’ll excuse me, I have business to attend to.” Before he got back into his jeep, he glared at David. “I’ll send you the bill on my oryx. It’ll be pricey.”

  Back at the station, after calming an angry and worried Madeleine, I explained to Frida what had happened out at the boat yesterday.

  “It could have been a mistake,” said Frida.

  I could tell from her dubious tone that she doubted it. “You’ve had run-ins with our Mr. Reed before, I gather?”

  “Yes, I have,” she said.

  I tapped my foot and waited. I was dying to hear what she had to say.

  “I’ve had complaints that he abuses the Guatemalans he employs. And not from them. They don’t like to make waves with the law. I heard it from some of the Anglos that work at his ranch. He’s—”

  “A mean SOB,” I finished for her.

  “I can’t prove anything. By the time I get any names of the men he’s mistreated, they’re gone—off to some other work, I guess. You know how these farm workers move around, going where the jobs are. I haven’t been able to track down a single one of them.” Frida sounded frustrated.

  “I’ll need your fingerprints, Eve,” Frida said. “They’ll be on the rifle. Linc will take them.”

  Linc led me off to another room, but not before I heard David say, “I’m sure this involved Reed in some way.”

  While Frida interviewed David, Alex, Madeleine and I hung out near the station’s coffee machine. An hour later, David emerged from the interview room, looking worn and exhausted.

  “Not only is a man dead, but he died on my property. This won’t help my business.”

  “Did you know the client well?” asked Alex.

  “No. He simply showed up this afternoon saying someone had recommended my ranch. I didn’t have any other clients scheduled today, so I took him out. I wish I hadn’t let him talk me into tracking that pig. You know, I think he was bored with looking for quail. He gave me the impression that he was after something more exciting.”

  “Like an oryx?” I asked.

  “Maybe,” David said. “I can’t think why he thought my place would provide him with that kind of game.”

  “So who recommended your place to him?” asked Alex.

  “It could have been Reed,” I said.

  “Why would he do that and lose a client?” asked Alex.

  “He recommends David to the client, follows them out to the area, then shoots the guy and the animal and conveniently shows up back at the spot when the cops arrive.”

  “You really don’t like this guy, do yo
u?” Alex smiled. “I don’t either, but why shoot someone just to make trouble? That’s a stretch.”

  “Was it a stretch to believe he purposely dumped chum into the water to attract sharks? You know that was intentional.” I tossed my empty coffee cup into the trash and stood up. “I don’t care if you don’t agree with me, but there is something seriously twisted about that man.”

  “And you are the judge of who is seriously twisted? With all your crime fighting experience.” Alex winked at me to take the edge off his assessment of my lowly status as an amateur snoop.

  “I agree with her,” said Madeleine. “I think she knows plenty about bad guys.”

  David pulled himself out of the chair he’d sunk into. “I have to agree. Reed Blake has been a thorn in my side since he bought the adjoining ranch two years ago. That was about the time Dad turned our place over to me to run full-time. I think Reed doesn’t like the competition. We’ve been in the business for years, and we’ve got a good reputation. We do mostly birds, but we also offer hunts for wild pigs. They’re growing in numbers around here, and they’re pretty destructive. They churn up waterholes like the one you saw today. But we don’t do exotics, and we never will. I only want indigenous species for hunting.”

  “So you and Reed really aren’t competitors, are you?” asked Alex.

  “No, but I think Reed wants everything. He’d like to buy me out.”

  “What makes you think so?” asked Alex.

  David didn’t answer but started toward the door. “Let’s get something to eat. And drink. Mostly drink. We can stop off at the Burnt Biscuit. It’s Monday, and they have their rib special.”

  Alex and Madeleine indicated they weren’t too hungry, but I’m always up for a rack of ribs. Besides, we’d just grabbed a few small sandwiches for lunch. “Let’s go. I’m starved.”

  “I don’t understand how you stay so skinny and eat so much,” said Madeleine.

  “I’ve got a runaway metabolism.”

  “This could be my last meal before Frida arrests me,” said David.

  “Now why would she do that? You didn’t kill the guy,” I said.