C h a p t e r4

  I quickly came to realise that Todd Baker was not just a reserved man but he was bad tempered and kept getting into fits of anger over minor matters.

  He and Leslie were always quarreling about something, mainly because he kept on telling her to be quiet so he could think straight.

  He was also always quarrelling with Sammy Nickel who thought he knew best about everything.

  I watched them all in turn as we sat around the camp fire on two huge logs facing one another, after pitching our tents for the night.

  Eddy came to sit beside me and he seemed to have something on his mind, which I had already guessed at.

  "So, what's on your mind?" I asked, just so he didn't know I was thinking of what I'd seen earlier.

  He looked at me sideways with a grin playing at the corners of his mouth, "I know what you were thinking earlier, but it's not what you think. Jamie and I have become close these passed few days' as we were preparing for this trip."

  "And how is it not what I think?"

  "You looked as if you thought it was a sudden attraction on my part."

  "She is only sixteen."

  "I know that, but we just kinda clicked. Does age matter anyway?"

  "I think you forget we had this thing going."

  "Yeah, but you know as well as I that it wasn't going anywhere."

  "Yeah, but still, you must admit it was kind of a shock," I looked across at Sheriff Mali thinking of shock revelations. He was talking to Lewis so I was quite safe doing so.

  "I know, I'm sorry."

  "It's alright. There's no hard feelings. Just watch out for Leslie."

  He rollled hise eyes, "I know, she is the problem."

  "I think you'll have to wait a few years before things can get serious."

  "I had realised that. Don't worry, I have everything under control."

  "I hope so."

  "Oh, you are just impossible, Mr Baker!" Leslie Anderson suddenly broke into our conversation from across the fire.

  "Speaking of Leslie," I said under my breath.

  "I'm impossible! I'm not the one who keeps up this constant squawking!" Todd cried back.

  "I only asked a simple question!"

  "Not simple enough though, was it? Simple would be two or three words, but that's impossible for you, isn't it, Leslie?"

  "Do Todd and Leslie know each other?" I asked Eddy.

  "I believe they were married once, so Jamie told me."

  "That explains why they're constantly bickering. Hey, is Jamie Todd's daughter?"

  "No, he isn't. They were divorced before Jamie came along."

  "That explains why thier tempers are always fraught."

  "Todd is a difficult man."

  "So I've noticed."

  Leslie stormed away and Todd muttered something about finding firewood before going off in the opposite direction.

  "Well, this is a good start," I said smiling.

  We retired to our tents early that night as it would be a long trek in the morning to our next camp.

  ∞∞∞

  I was awoken with a start in the morning by someone jostling me in my sleeping bag. I opened my eyes and Eddy was standing over me.

  "Eddy, what's up?" I asked, sitting up and stretching my arms behind my back.

  "Get dressed quick! Todd Baker is dead."

  "Dead? What happened?" I asked in shock.

  "He was found this morning by Lewis. He was in his tent wrapped up in his sleeping bag. It looks like murder. Hurry up!"

  Eddy left me to get dressed and I got to it as quickly as I could, yawning all the while.

  As I slipped out of my tent, all the group had gathered around Todd's tent and Sheriff Mali was shouting orders at them.

  "Bryony!" Jamie cried, hugging me tightly when I'd joined the group.

  "It's alright," I said soothingly.

  Mali looked up when he heard Jamie say my name and he and I exchanged a look which reminded me of my suspicions when we arrived.

  "Bryony! I want a word!" He shouted, separating himself from the crowd.

  "Jamie, go to Eddy for a minute," I said.

  She obeyed and nestled in his arms, no one seemed to notice as they were all still in shock over Todd's death.

  "What is it, Sheriff?" I asked, walking over to him.

  He took me by the arm and turned so that we were facing away from the others.

  "This is your doing, it's got to be!"

  "How is it my doing? I didn't kill him!"

  "No, but you may as well have done."

  "I don't know how you work that out."

  "You're always poking your nose in in this town and you're not even from here. You're an outsider and you cause trouble wherever you go."

  "Oh, you want to make this personal, do you? Okay, I can't rule out that it's not your fault on the same grounds. You always turn up like a bad penny yourself! No one is too pleased to have you around, no matter how important you may think you are."

  "Really? That's interesting. Do you think I care anyway?"

  "No, I don't!"

  "I really can't rule you out, you know? You're not working for the police."

  "You can't be serious, Sheriff. You know I'm no murderer."

  "You were asking about the victim yesterday."

  "I'm gonna go back to the others, I'm wasting my time here."

  "I have to caution you, Bryony."

  "Spare me, please."

  "Remember anything you say.."

  "Will be given in evidence and used against me," I interrupted. "I know the score, thanks."

  I walked away from him, struggling to keep my composure. What a fun trip this had turned out to be!

  C h a p t e r5

  "It seems I'm a suspect like everyone else," I said, an hour later as me and Eddy prepared breakfast in one of the tents.

  "Really?" Eddy said.

  "Yeah, according to Sheriff Mali."

  "How come?" He asked, pouring coffee into cups.

  "I asked about Todd Baker and Bret Wainwright before Todd was killed."

  "That's risky," he said, sarcastically. "What about them?"

  I lowered my voice and said, "Bret has been watching Todd since he got here, and at Lulu's diner the night of the banquet."

  "Maybe you should question him?"

  "Well, I can think we can rule out Lewis, whether he found the body or not."

  "I think so."

  "How are they getting on?"

  "Mali and Lewis?"

  I nodded.

  "I left them still examining the body and the crime scene. It'll take longer as we are waiting for forensics to turn up."

  "Of course. I'd better take these. They'll all be starving."

  I picked up the tray of coffee's and took them out to the hungry team sitting either side of the left over embers from last nights fire.

  I took my coffee and settled down beside Bret who was sitting with his head in his hands.

  "I'm Bryony, by the way. It's Bret, isn't it?"

  He turned and looked at me, "Yeah, that's right."

  "It's a terrible shock all this, isn't it?"

  "I suppose." He sounded uninterested.

  "How well did you know Todd?"

  "Not that well."

  "Not that well, but you did know him before you came here?"

  "Sort of, I suppose you could say I knew of him. What is this anyway? You're not the police."

  "Oh, I'm just curious. There's not much else to do out here."

  "I suppose not."

  I had got his trust, which was a good start.

  "You're from Illinois, aren't you?"

  "Yes."

  "How did you hear about this expedition?"

  "It was advertised in my local newspaper. I recognised Todd's name as he had been to Illinois before on a similiar mission."

  "I see, and that is why you decided to go for it, because Todd was on it?"

  Bret shrugged his shoulders, "I knew he was a good guide, one of the best in the world. He'd got a reputation."

  "Had you met him before you came on this expedition?"

  "No."

  "You're certain?"

  "I am, but I can tell you don't believe me."

  "I never said that."

  "You were thinking it though."

  "If that's what you want to believe. I can't stop you."

  "No."

  "Did you see Todd last night at all?"

  "Not since he went to get firewood."

  "Not this morning?"

  "No, not this morning."

  I noted that his answers were given quickly, with no hesitation. Were they practiced?

  Eddy came over and took me aside.

  "The forensics have just turned up, so that'll be another hour or so, see what they can uncover. They know the cause of death, however. It was blunt force trauma, no doubt about it. He was hit on the back of the head with an object, which has been found buried in the sand by the body," he explained, looking over his shoulder nervously to check the Sheriff wasn't watching them.

  "And the object was?"

  "Some kind of Egyptian statue. I think it's genuine."

  "Egyptian. Goes with the theme."

  "Yes, I think it looks planned."

  "It could well have been. Thanks for the update."

  When I was left alone again, I thought over what Eddy had said. Something about the mention of Egypt rung a bell with me. There was something I had seen on an earlier occasion that had a connection with Egypt and then it had gone, vanished into thin air.

  But what was it? I couldn't quite remember and it would bug me for a long time!

  ∞∞∞

  As the day wore on we were all getting itchy feet to move on. We should have been at our next camp hours ago and with a guide that was still alive!

  Instead we were endlessly waiting for police questioning. At least I had a little investigating of my own to do and could pass the time this way.

  Leslie Anderson had just got louder and her moaning more intense, so that everyone had to try and drown her out.

  I noticed Jamie sitting alone at the other end of the camp with folded arms as if for comfort and I went to join her.

  "Mind if I sit here?" I asked, standing over her.

  She looked up sheepishly and shrugged, "if you want to."

  I sat down beside her, leaving a small gap between us so as not to appear to crowd her out. We sat in silence for a while before I asked her some tactful questions.

  "I have just heard something that has surprised me a great deal. I hadn't realised until just now that your mom used to be married to Todd Baker."

  "Why does that surprise you? There aren't many men in Sunshine Bluff that my mom hasn't been married to," she said peevishly.

  Her attitude surprised me as I thought we were friends, but I persevered.

  "I take it she didn't have much to do with him after the divorce?"

  "Nah, this trip has proved why that was a good idea."

  "I see what you mean. So you didn't know him that well?"

  "Not really. I knew him as much as anyone in Sunshine Bluff. Most of it's hearsay anyway, isn't it?" She sounded depressed, which I couldn't understand as she didn't really know him.

  "That's how small town's are."

  "I know, don't you just hate them?"

  "Oh, I don't know. It's growing on me. I grew up in New York, you see?"

  Jamie's eyes widened in excitement.

  "Really? I would love to go to New York!"

  "You wouldn't if you'd lived there all your life."

  Jamie giggled, almost forgetting what had just happened and becoming a normal teenager again.

  "It's funny, isn't it? You want to live in a small town, having been brought up in a city and I want to go and live in the city. I think you and I should have traded places at birth," she said.

  "Hm. We would have felt differently had our circumstances been reversed."

  "I suppose we might. No one ever gets what they want."

  "Not often. Look at Todd Baker."

  Jamie looked at me curiously and her face had fallen into that serious expression again.

  "What do you mean?" She asked.

  "I may have imagined it but last night I thought Todd seemed to be having some regrets about divorcing your mom."

  "What? You're not serious?"

  "I am. That accounts for the argument they had last night. He had said she was always putting her foot in it, or words to that affect. Saying too much."

  "Are you saying my mom said too much? That's what led to the divorce?"

  I nodded.

  "Too much about what? Is the question."

  "You think she knew something about his past?"

  "Well, did she?"

  "You're sounding as if you imagine mom killed Todd."

  "I'm not accusing anyone. I just want to know the facts."

  Jamie jumped to her feet.

  "Well, you're wrong! My mom's a loud mouth. But she would never kill anyone. She couldn't!"

  Before I could open my mouth to reply to this she had disappeared into the desert.

  How did she know her mom couldn't have killed Todd? Because she killed him herself?

  C h a p t e r6

  "Sheriff, how long is this going to take? I just wanna go home," moaned Leslie Anderson, when Mali returned to camp that evening.

  "A few days' more. Does anyone want to carry on?" He asked.

  He was waiting for a show of hands but nobody moved.

  "I'm sure you can manage a few more days' here until everyone has been questioned."

  Lewis came across to where I was sitting alone at one end of the fire and sat beside me.

  "A nightmare all this, isn't it?" He said.

  "Tell me about it. I'm getting impatient to go home now."

  "I think Mali wants to keep everyone here so he can keep an eye on them."

  "I think it's a little more sinister than that. He just likes to make people squirm," I replied, shivering.

  "You really don't have a very glood opinion of him, do you?"

  I wrinkled my nose.

  "I should have thought that was obvious. It as gotten worse since he told me I'm a suspect. He actually cautioned me."

  "You can hardly pick fault at him for that. Come on, everyone's a suspect here. He can hardly make you an exception."

  "Are you a suspect?"

  He chuckled.

  "You never give up, do you?" He asked.

  "Not often."

  "Seriously though, Bryony. Al Mali is not as bad a guy as you think."

  "You can't have heard about deputy Williams then."

  "Oh, I knew deputy Williams. We worked for Mali at the same time. I was just an ordinary officer then."

  "Were you there when he was killed?"

  He nodded sadly.

  "I was. It was a tragedy alright."

  "A tragedy of Mali's making. He sent him to his death and then he doesn't even have the guts to admit his part in it."

  "Who told you that?" Lewis asked, sounding shocked.

  "Eddy did."

  "Eddy knows nothing about it! He wasn't even there! And neither do you!"

  "That isn't what happened?"

  "No! It was nothing to do with Mali, he just covered it up."

  "Covered it up?"

  Lewis sighed.

  "It was another officer's fault, a young tike, he ignored Sheriff's orders and Williams was with him. Mali didn't want him to get into trouble and have a ruined career, so he said it was just an accident and they went there on his orders."

  "Then why did Eddy say it was Mali's fault?"

  "Because that's what everyone believed as he was telling everyone it was on his orders they were there at all."

  "But really he was protecting the young officer's reputation?" I asked, admiringly.

  "That's right. So you see, he isn't so bad."

  "He still throws his weight about though, as this trip is proving."

  "Sometimes that's necessary. We Sheriff's have to stick together on this."

  "How about when he tells me to stop poking my nose in?"

  "He does have a point. He's told me all about you and your little sleuthing business," he jibed.

  "It is not a business!"

  "Then what do you do for work?"

  "I run a couple of newspapers. Sunshine Bluff News and the New Yorker gazette."

  "That fits."

  "What do you mean by that?"

  "Nothing, you just look like a columnist."

  "I was a columnist. I now own my own business."

  "So, how come you're a private detective?"

  "I'm not. I just solve crimes occasionally."

  "So, what are your deductions about this one?"

  "I think there are four possible suspects. I think Leslie and Jamie Anderson are hiding something between them. What can you tell me about Sammy Nickel?"

  "Well, I told you he had been sent down a number of times and then moved out to Chicago to escape the police."

  "So, already he has a dodgy character reference before he even stepped foot in the desert. What crimes was he sent down for?"

  "Theft mainly."

  "Hey! I've just remembered you said he had a thing about Egypt!" I cried, realising why my mind had stuck on the thought of Todd being killed with an Egyptian statue.

  "Yeah, he stole something from an Egyptian exhibition once."

  "Like the statue used to kill Todd?"

  "I suppose it was."

  "I'm going to have a little talk with Sammy now."

  "Be careful, Bryony."

  "You're coming with me."

  "I can't. Mali will be furious!"

  "Come on, you will be good back-up. I'm only trying to help."

  I finally persuaded him, even though I literally had to drag him across the camp to do so.

  C h a p t e r7

  Sammy Nickel did not take too kindly to being questioned and it seemed everyone who at first had seemed so easy going were actually turning out to be difficult.

  It gave them a sense of of guilt, making it hard to tell who was lying. One of them was, that was for sure.

  "If you want to question someone try Jamie. She has a strong motive for wanting Todd out of the way," Sammy told us.

  He was sitting on the sand with one of his legs stretched out before him and the other one was bent upwards on which he rested an elbow. His long blonde hair shimmered in the sunlight.

 

1 2 3 4