Susan Schreyer - Death By a Dark Horse

How he got wind of that I'll never know.

"No," I said, then pressed my courage into service once again and turned to Paul. "It was the other one."

Delores refused to ride in the ambulance to the hospital, so Paul drove her. Eric, after another lingering kiss from Juliet, took Delores's car back to Copper Creek.

Shortly after nine we all sat down at the dining room table in my aunt and uncle's house. It felt like midnight. Aunt Vi had a large tureen of soup on the table and hot bread just out of the oven.

"I knew Greg had to be involved all along," Delores asserted. Despite the cast on her arm, her appearance had improved considerably. So had mine, once I'd washed and put on fresh clothes.

"How could you have known that?" Aunt Vi asked, ladling another bowl of minestrone soup and passing it.

"It makes sense -"

"Ha." Juliet snorted.

"She must have pushed Frederick past his limit," Delores said. "When we got that description from the big fellow at the Broken Axle, I knew it was Greg and I really believed he killed Valerie." She turned her attention back to her soup.

"I think I was so stunned at how the description fit Jonathan that I didn't think it through." I wasn't particularly proud of my assumption, but there was no point denying it. My blunder would come out sooner or later.

Paul stopped eating – as if swallowing was suddenly an issue.

"What's the Broken Axle?" He asked, flicking at a bread crumb near his plate.

"The local biker bar," Juliet said.

"A biker bar," he repeated, and casually crushed the crumb. "You went to a biker bar. Why?"

"To follow up on Miguel's lead, of course," I said. Hadn't he been paying attention? Oh yeah – the sulking in his office thing.

"A lead. At a biker bar." He nodded slightly to himself then turned to Delores. "You knew about this and just let her go?"

"I didn't see you here trying to stop her. Don't get your tail in a knot. Miguel and I went along." She tried to ladle more soup into her bowl. Uncle Henry got up and took over.

Paul's lips disappeared into a resolute line and his gaze moved slowly from his aunt to finally rest on me. I waited for a comment, but he just stared. I gave up and explained what we'd learned about Lee from the really big guy with tattoos who mooched our beer.

Paul and Eric looked at each other. "John," they both said with a kind of sign afterwards.

"You actually know that fellow?" Uncle Henry asked.

"Everyone knows John," Eric said.

Paul closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. "Why did you go to Valerie's this morning?"

"I went to talk to Greg," Delores said, taking a bite of bread. "I knew he'd be there, from what he said at the funeral, and I thought there was a good chance I could talk him into turning himself in."

Juliet laughed. "We can all see how well that turned out."

"It was worth a try," she said. "I was fairly certain it was an accident and he didn't know what to do. Unfortunately, I hadn't figured in the business angle. He started hollering about how it didn't matter if he killed Valerie or not, if he was connected with her death it would ruin him financially. Then he shoved me down the basement stairs."

"He was already ruined," I said. "I caught on to his Ponzi scheme. I just didn't connect it with Valerie. I was going to report him to the feds next week."

Paul leaned a forearm on the table and addressed Delores. "Why didn't you tell me what you were planning? I've known Greg for a long time. I could have told you your approach wouldn't work." Delores's frown didn't stop him – he leaned back and tossed his napkin on the table. "When I got out of the Army and went to college, I kept running into him. He beat up a friend of mine over a couple of dollars the guy owed him and the school kicked him out, even though my buddy refused to press charges. Not only that, I was the one who broke up the fight, and Greg tried to tell them I started it. He's a liar and a cheat. Always has been."

"Thanks for the heads up," Delores said, trying to butter another piece of bread with one hand. "Maybe I could have been spared the broken arm."

"And you could have kept me informed as to what was going on, Delores. I hoped we were rid of him once the medical examiner determined Blackie didn't kill Valerie. I hoped that was the only reason he was being a problem."

"Was Lee dead when you arrived?" I asked Delores. My voice sounded high and a little frantic to my ears, but hey, somebody needed to break up the spitting and hissing contest the two of them seemed intent on. A half growl, half exhale came from Paul's direction. I didn't look.

"No," Delores said, and tossed a cool look at Paul. "He arrived midafternoon. I couldn't hear everything they said, but it sounded like Lee was trying to get more money out of Greg-"

"That would have pissed him off," Juliet interrupted, looking entertained.

Delores raised an eyebrow at her. "That's a pretty accurate assessment, since he shot him over the issue."

I stepped in again to deflect Delores's crankiness. "How did Sarah end up in the basement with you?"

"When Greg shot Lee, I heard her start screaming. I don't know if she actually saw him do it, but she told me she didn't. She said she was upstairs in a bedroom when it happened. Greg told her he had to leave and her job was to keep an eye on me."

"In the basement?" Juliet laughed. "What an idiot!"

"The poor girl was totally cowed," I said, hoping Juliet took it as a reprimand.

"If you'd spent the entire afternoon cooped up with that sniveling child I doubt you'd have a drop of sympathy left for her," Delores said. "Greg knew how unstable she was. I'm sure he figured the basement was his best bet to keep her under control."

"I expect he didn't count on you girls showing up looking for Delores," Aunt Vi interjected in a hurry. "Speaking of which, how did you boys know to go to Valerie's?"

"We didn't, we were out of options," Eric said, raising both hands. "When Juliet didn't show up at the soccer field tonight, Paul and I check places where she might be. We'd already been to Thea's house when you called and told us Blackie was going crazy, so we knew neither of them were there. We switched to trying to find Thea because of Blackie, but I had a feeling Juliet was with her. Valerie's was the last place we tried. We were getting pretty desperate at that point, what with you calling every five minutes."

"I'd like you to know," Aunt Vi said, "that the minute Thea was all right, Blackie settled down."

"You mean he stopped all his carrying on before we got there?" Eric asked.

"Precisely." Aunt Vi nodded, self-satisfied.

"I guess we should have followed the ambulance when we saw it," Paul said. "I'll know better next time." He looked pointedly at me.

"There won't be a next time," Aunt Vi said, copying Paul's stern expression

I should have laughed, but it wasn't happening.

"How are we going to test the 'psychic horse theory' then?" Juliet asked.

"We're not," Uncle Henry said, "I, for one, am unwilling to put that theory to the test any more. I'm quite happy to let it rest."

"It was a good thing I went looking for you this afternoon, Thea. You would have been in worse trouble without me. When Delores still didn't show up after all that time I knew something was wrong. I knew it wouldn't take her so long to decide whether to buy a horse or not. But I can honestly say, it never occurred to me my sister and my boss would start playing detective." She crossed her arms and sighed at the ceiling. "If you two hadn't gone mucking around in things-"

"Greg would be long gone and Frederick Parsons would have gotten away with murder," I finished.

"You don't know that for certain. The police would have caught him. Anyway. I'm surprised at my responsible, mature sister stirring up so much drama."