Кэти Дэйли - The Magic Of Halloween Night

“It appears that he drove his car off the road. He hit a ditch, rolled, and hit a tree. He was killed on impact.”

“Oh, no.” I gasped. “I’m so sorry. When did it happen?”

“Last night, but the accident wasn’t reported until this morning when the car was discovered. According to the coroner, Bill had been dead for eight to twelve hours by then.”

I placed a hand on my chest. “Do you have any idea what happened to cause him to crash?”

“Not really. I suppose he could have swerved to avoid hitting a deer. There are a lot of them out along the old highway. Or he might have received a text and looked down at his phone, which caused him to swerve. He might have fallen asleep, or he may simply have lost focus.”

“Do you suspect intoxication?”

“I’m not sure,” Cass answered. “It seems possible, but I’m waiting for lab results.”

I felt really bad. Bill was a nice guy. I didn’t know him well, but from what I knew, he was one of the good guys. As far as I knew, he was single. I’d heard that he’d been married during the five years he’d lived out of the area following high school graduation, but apparently, he’d divorced the woman he’d married before he’d returned to Foxtail Lake.

At some point in the past, Naomi, who knew Bill much better than I did, had mentioned that Bill had gone through a complicated phase in his life during the five years he’d lived in LA. Apparently, once he returned to Colorado, he’d gotten his life together, and the two of them had been close ever since. She’d mentioned that they sometimes went out to dinner, and I knew that he volunteered at the shelter.

“Do you need to go back to work?” I asked Cass.

“No. I’ve done what I can to notify those who need to be notified, so I’m off for the night. The coroner is going to take a closer look at the body just to make sure there isn’t anything more to learn about the collision, but at this point, I have nothing to suggest that the accident was anything other than a horrible mishap, so a formal investigation isn’t really warranted.”

I wrapped my arms around Cass. “I’m so sorry. I know that you and Bill were friends.”

Cass hugged me back. “We were. Not super close, but we’d been friends since we were kids. He did change somewhat while he was away after graduation.”

“Naomi had mentioned that as well. She said something about his making a mess of his life, but then pulling it together once he returned to Foxtail Lake.”

He nodded. “Sounds about right. I think that whatever went on with his ex-wife had something to do with the fact that he seemed angry and withdrawn when he first returned, but once he settled in, he seemed to find the way back to his old self.”

Naomi showed up shortly before we planned to end the play session. It was obvious she’d been crying as her eyes were red and her cheeks flushed. She headed straight toward Cass.

“So tell me what you know,” she said after stepping into his arms for a hug.

“I told you everything on the phone,” he responded as she stepped away from him. “I really don’t know anything else at this point.”

“Bill was a good guy. A careful driver and he didn’t drink. I do understand that even good guys can lose focus and have accidents, but it just seems so unlike him. Are you sure he wasn’t run off the road?”

Cass put his hands on her shoulders and looked her in the eye. “I don’t know how the accident occurred, but there is no evidence to suggest that another vehicle was involved. The coroner is taking a closer look at the body, and I’m having the car gone over in the event there was tampering or simply faulty equipment involved in the accident, but at this point, I have no reason to believe that anything occurred other than driver error.”

She dipped her head. “I’m having such a hard time with this. Bill was just here yesterday. He’s been doing the advanced training class with a couple large labs, and he’s actually spent quite a bit of time at the shelter as of late.”

“Do you know what time he left?” Cass asked.

She shrugged. “I don’t know exactly. I wasn’t here when he left, but he usually wraps up around five. He normally works with Nick Southerland, but Nick has been out of town on business for the past few weeks, so he’s been working with Hyldie Jefferson. I guess you can ask her if she was still here when Bill left. I should have suggested that you speak to her when you called and informed me about Bill’s death, but I didn’t think of it at the time.”

“I’ll call her,” Cass said. “I’d like to know if Bill mentioned where he was heading when he left here. The one thing that strikes me as odd about the whole thing is that Bill was on the old highway, a good twenty miles from home.”

“The old highway?” Naomi asked.

Cass nodded.

“But no one other than hunters and hikers trying to access forest service land uses that road since the new highway was built,” Naomi pointed out. “Although…” she added after she’d had a chance to think things over, “there are a few farms out on that road. The Hanson place for one. Jamison Hanson has lived on the property alone since his son moved to Denver. I have no reason to believe that Jamison and Bill were friends, but I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to talk to him.” She paused to think about it. “The Farthington Farm has been deserted ever since Sam Farthington passed away, but there are a couple smaller properties just past the Farthington Farm. The Landow property between the Timberlake Farm and the Cofield Horse Ranch was sold, and new folks have moved in. They’ve completely renovated the property, and of course, there’s the Pendelton place near where the old highway merges with the new one. I suppose it might be a good idea to chat with some of the folks who live out there if you find a reason to suspect foul play.” Naomi hugged Cass once again. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything, and you let me know if you find any answers.”

“I will,” Cass promised. “We might not know much of anything until Monday with it being the weekend and all, but if I hear anything, I’ll call you.”

After Naomi headed back to the house, Cass and I discussed where we should have dinner. We decided to keep it simple and just grab a pizza. I felt like things had been strange between Cass and me ever since we’d toyed with the idea of moving our relationship to the next level this past spring but then hadn’t. I wanted to talk to him about it, but I could see that now wasn’t the time for such a serious discussion, so once the pizza was ordered, I began filling him in on my new assignment and the challenge I’d have cramming all my responsibilities into my life.

Chapter 5

Saturday

Gracie and I showed up at the Harvest Festival early the following morning. The barn didn’t open until four o’clock in the afternoon, but there were a lot of other activities taking place as the first of two October themed events got underway. While the town didn’t always have two completely separate events, this year, the Harvest Festival took place in mid-October while the Halloween Festival took place closer to Halloween. The haunted barn ran for two weeks, which allowed for locals and visitors alike to take the tour more than once if they so desired. I thought about bringing Paisley to help me with the event, but she was spending the weekend with her friend, Anna.

After meeting with Hope and getting our assignments for the day, Gracie headed toward the tent that had been set up in the park where the bakeoff, quilting show, and chili cookoff, were being held, while I was directed to the kiddie carnival where I was assigned to the ticket booth, which was much better than being assigned to one of the games. I knew Cass planned to work security for the event even though he was normally off on the weekends, but during dinner the previous evening, he’d suggested that the two of us get together for a meal after he got off. Maybe after that, we’d stroll along Main Street to view the festively decorated windows the local merchants had created in fall and Halloween themes.