Thirty-Two and a Half Complications
Page 47

The detective’s head jerked back to me. “Wait. Rose Gardner?”
I hesitated. “Yeah…”
His scowl deepened and he shook his head in disgust before returning his attention to the body.
I raised my eyebrows at Deputy Miller in dismay and whispered, “What did I do?”
“You helped get Chief Deputy Dimler arrested.”
“But he was on the take from Crocker!” I protested. “And he almost got the new chief deputy killed.”
Deputy Miller shrugged.
The detective hovered over the body. “Miller, are you planning to chit-chat all day or are you going to tell me about this case?” His booming voice burst through the stillness.
Most of the goats squealed and fainted, their bodies dropping like flies.
“What the Sam Hill…?” the detective shouted as he jumped several feet backward, tripping and very nearly falling on his butt. The goats that were still upright tumbled to their sides.
“Fainting goats, sir,” Miller said. When the detective shot him an odd look, he added, “My uncle has some.”
The detective scowled again and took notes as the deputy filled him in on what little information he had. Another car turned down the lane and I looked over my shoulder, my stomach dropping when I recognized it. It must have been Joe’s day off since he wasn’t driving his sheriff’s car. I was glad for the warning, but no amount of preparation would make me ready to face him after the disaster of the previous evening.
But Joe ignored me when he got out of his car, sporting a bruised cheek, and sauntered over to the detective. Muffy wasn’t having any of it. She yipped with excitement and jumped up on his legs, eager for acknowledgment. He knelt down and grabbed her face in his hands. “Not right now, Muff. I’ll play with you in a little bit, okay? Go back to your momma.”
Muffy’s head drooped and Joe rubbed behind her ears. “It’s okay, girl, I’ll come see you. I promise.”
She walked back to me, her tail between her legs. I picked her up and petted her, unnerved by her reaction to Joe. Poor Muffy. She didn’t understand how much had changed in a couple months. She only knew she missed Joe.
Damn him.
After he spent several minutes talking about the cause of death with the officers—probably multiple gunshot wounds to the chest—he finally meandered over to me, his face expressionless. He reminded me of the Joe McAllister I’d met the night of Momma’s murder, aloof and detached. It was better this way, so why did his chilly attitude bother me?
“Rose, why don’t we take a little walk?”
I set Muffy down on the gravel. “Okay.”
He led the way at least twenty feet down the road, out of earshot of the other two men. Muffy trotted along beside him, her tongue hanging out.
“Is it all right with you if I pet your dog?” he asked dryly.
“You know she loves you. It would hurt her if you didn’t. She doesn’t understand what’s wrong.”
He squatted and picked Muffy up, cradling her and rubbing her head. “You mean like how Ashley and Mikey wouldn’t understand why Joe lives next door and refused to play with them any more like he used to?”
I groaned. What a mess.
“How is it you stumbled upon the first dead body discovered in this area in the last five years?”
I twisted my mouth to the side. “That bad luck of mine?”
His eyes narrowed as he studied me. “Have you been doing some investigating of your own for the bank robbery case?”
Sure, Neely Kate had interrogated Toby Wheaton and I’d asked him a question too, but that didn’t mean we were actively investigating. Yet. Besides, that had nothing to do with how I’d discovered this body. I put my hand on my hips, trying to make my outrage believable. “I can’t believe you asked me that.”
His eyebrow lifted, but there was no hint of teasing. “And you still didn’t answer the question.”
“No, I’m not investigating. Happy now?” I made a face.
“Then how is it that you found a body? You. Out of all twenty-four thousand residents in Fenton County.”
“I don’t know, Joe,” I said getting irritated. “I haven’t been taking Muffy to job sites over the last week or two and she’s been cooped up. It’s a beautiful day, so I decided to take her on a long walk. Muffy led the way and I followed her.”
“And you just happened to stumble across a dead body? The body of the missing loan officer?”
“Good heavens. Will you let that go already?”
“No. I won’t let it go already. You have a penchant for trouble and what do you know?” He waved his hand back toward the body. “Here you are.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say, Joe. I took Muffy for a walk and this is where she went. Maybe you should interrogate her.”
Joe set Muffy on the ground, then took a step closer to me. We stood several feet apart, closer than was comfortable, but I wasn’t about to back down. Especially from him. “Rose, you’ve gotten lucky so far with your crazy antics—”
“Crazy antics!” I shouted, drawing the attention of the other two men.
“You are going to get yourself killed.” Joe’s voice broke and he swallowed, glancing at the country road before turning back to me. “I understand that you seem to stumble into these things, but just because you step in a dog pile doesn’t mean you have to roll around in it.”