Death at the Summit (13 page)

Mary stuck a finger in her mouth and fake-gagged. I held back a laugh as Tiger continued.

“Cool, cool, sounds like you’re doing great. Can you believe there was a murder today?”

“I could’ve told you that someone was going to kill that old geezer off eventually. He pissed everyone off. I didn’t work with him ’cause he was cheaper than a two-dollar hooker. You know who I think did it? Loggin. When I’m filming, sometimes the guys forget I’m there, and I get all sorts of stuff recorded. I like to keep it in my back pocket for a rainy day. Loggin has been whining all season about some money he’s owed.”

“I don’t know Loggin. What’s he like?”

A sound of a body shifting around in a seat was audible before Cold answered, “He’s some hot-shot college athlete that had an injury, knee or ankle or something. He follows the rules and is a regular Boy Scout.” His tone sounded disappointed. I could imagine a snarl on his face.

“Do Boy Scouts commit lots of murders?” Tiger joked.

“Anyone could commit a murder. It’s not so hard.”

The hairs on my arm raised, and I scooted in close to Mary. I was regretting this conversation. Was Tiger in danger?

“Oh, ya, of course.” Tiger didn’t sound convinced. “What about Kandi?”

“She could have killed him or not. Anyone could have killed him— you, that uptight computer chick, M.C., anyone.”

“You?”

“What motive do I have? I’m just here filming. No idea how I got caught up in this whole thing.”

“I heard that you and Kandi have a thing going on. Maybe you wanted her to yourself?”

“Oh, is that getting around? I’m not surprised she’s bragging about it. Let me tell you though, if you’re getting the milk for free while some other dude is paying for the cow’s upkeep, do you off the owner? Of course not.” His laughter was loud and long.

I leaned closer to Mary and whispered, “Cold and Kandi deserve each other.”

She nodded back and petted Moo. His formidable tail started wagging against the floor with heavy whomps. I grabbed it as soon as possible and held my breath.

“Did you hear something?” Cold asked.

“Probably just the pipes.” Tiger’s voice was a tight and high. He quickly changed the topic. “Why do you think someone killed Mac?”

“Why do you care? It was probably sex or money. Hey, it’s been great catching up, but I am ready to go. I’m gonna find that cop and see about getting out of here.”

Mary clenched my arm. “What do we do now?”

I hadn’t really thought about how we could get out. We couldn’t see him, and there was no way to tell when the coast was clear. If he started to exit and saw us here, then he would know we’d been listening.

Brian rounded the corner, saw us sitting up against the wall, and rolled his eyes. He gestured us to one side. “Cold, if you are ready, I can interview you.”

As Cold came into sight, Brian moved to his far side, constantly talking to Cold, keeping his attention pointed away from us before stepping into the hallway and out of sight.

I let out the breath I was holding and stood up, dusting myself off. “That was close.”

Brian’s voice in the hallway was raised in a shout. “Just go down to the corner and wait for me there.” He stuck his head back into the cafeteria. “That’s the opposite of staying out of trouble. When I am done talking to Cold, I want to talk to both of you. Got that?”

We nodded and he disappeared back down one of the hallways.

“Geez, of course he would catch us.”

Tiger ran a hand through his hair. “When he started to leave, I freaked out a little bit. I don’t trust him, and I’m not sure what he would do if he caught you.”

“Hi, guys.”

I whipped around to see Kandi had joined us. “Hi, Kandi,” I said, but she was looking past me at Tiger.

“I was hoping to grab some food from the kitchen, but with a murderer running around, I am too scared to be alone. Tiger, could you come with me?” She crossed her arms and rubbed her hands down them, pushing her cleavage to dangerous heights.

Tiger’s eyes were lowered and locked on target. “Of course, Kandi, I wasn’t doing anything anyways.”

“So much for having Tiger help us.” I said to Mary after they went into the cafeteria.

“That’s fine. We only have one person left on the list: Loggin.”

“Did I hear my name?”

I turned around and Loggin had snuck up on us. “Yes, I was wondering how you got your name. We were about to sit down. Did you want to join us?” I gestured to the empty room.

Loggin took two huge strides, placed a hand on the half wall, and bounded over it. “Love to.”

Mary and I took the long way around to join him.

“My name’s an accident. When I started competing, I would make tons of posts about my training schedule like ‘Logging in at the range’ or ‘Logging in at the weight room.’ No one warned me that people were obsessed with nicknames, and next thing I knew…” He shrugged and pulled up another chair to prop up his legs.

I couldn’t help but notice an attitude change from earlier today. “You sure are chipper. Did you get everything worked out?”

“Pretty much. Few more details to iron out, but I’m confident it will get taken care of.”

“I think after the way you snapped at us this morning, we deserve an explanation.” I tried to keep my voice light and teasing with a big smile on my face as I said it.

“Sure, why not? Little over a year ago, I met Mac from MacSights, and we started talking about being a sponsored shooter with a contingency plan.”

I interrupted. “What’s contingency?”

“They agree to pay you if you get a certain placement or better at tournaments on their list. It’s a pretty standard setup between pro archers and their sponsors. It’s a rare archer that gets paid just to be on staff. MacSights is a big company that does really well, so I figured they would be solid. We hammered out a great plan. It wasn’t that great if I did okay, but if I placed in the top three, it paid very well. So I trained hard. First tournament of the season, in Vegas, I won. That’s a huge pay-out. I get these gigantic novelty checks from my sponsors, including MacSights, but when I get home, the check from MacSights bounces. It’s like six months’ rent.”

“Ouch, did you find out what happened?”

“I call Mac first thing. I thought he was being honest when he said that he had no clue how that happened. He said he would take care of it. I figure that he’s legit. I decide that I’ll do the entire 3D schedule and every other tournament I can, which is a big commitment, but with the Vegas money, I should be able to swing it. I quit my job so I could train and travel. I had my entire budget worked out, but it was based on getting that Vegas money from MacSights.”

“Oh oh, I think I see where this is going.” I chewed on a fingernail.

“Ya, it seems obvious in hindsight but I have a good excuse. The next tournament I placed and got a much smaller check from MacSights, and that one went through, so I figured they would be good on their word. They sent the big check again a couple months later, and it bounced again. Mac made excuses again, but all the smaller checks I was getting were legit. But without the money, I had to give up my apartment. I just couldn’t get the ends to meet, and I was halfway across the country competing. Do you know how embarrassing it is to move back in with your parents? All my stuff is sitting in their garage right now while I work this out.”

“Hey, me, too. My circumstances are a bit different, but most of my stuff is sitting in their garage in Texas right now while I work here and finalize my divorce.”

He reached across the table and offered up his hand for a fist bump. “You know this sucks. I got three bounced checks, and my bank was starting to look at me sideways. Then Mac starts dodging my phone calls. I’m still trying to practice full time, compete, and get my life back home squared away. I couldn’t even afford to fly home to move out of my apartment; my brothers had to do it for me. Do you know how much I owe them? I’ll be stuck helping them move until the day I die.”

“That sucks. Did you ever get an explanation from Mac?”

“I don’t know what happened, except that one day, like a month ago, I call, and Mac says that they were bought out by Westmound and it was no longer his responsibility. He tries to claim that it was an unrecoverable debt and I should write it off on my taxes.”

“Whoa, is that how it works?” Something didn’t seem right about that.

“No idea, probably not, but he blocked my number. The secretary wouldn’t put me through, and I couldn’t afford an attorney. I tried getting ahold of Westmound, but they couldn’t do a lot to help me yet since MacSights was in the process of being purchased. I didn’t want to talk about it too much because I didn’t want to get a reputation of bad-mouthing sponsors. But when I heard about this event, I figured I could drive over and crash it. If I could just talk to someone high up, I could get them to listen.”

“And?”

“And it totally worked. No thanks to Mac.”

“You’re still pretty mad at him. Did you see him today?”

Loggin chuckled. He wadded up a napkin from the dispenser and bounced it between his hands. “I know what you’re getting at, and no, I didn’t kill him. That wouldn’t get me the money he owes me, and that was my goal. I’ll tell you who I think did it—M.C. or Kandi. He was a crook so they were probably crooks, too.” He swatted the napkin hard, and it sailed over two tables and landed neatly in a lone coffee cup.

He leaped out of his chair, arms held high. “Did you see that? That was awesome.” He did a quick little dance that reminded me of a football player after a touchdown.

I couldn’t help but laugh. Mary giggled, as well. He was a fun guy when he wasn’t sulking around.

He finished his dance and turned back to us. “So, I still need to apologize to the little red-head, you heard my story so now you owe me.” He turned a smile on us that probably got him whatever he wanted.

“Okay, come on. She’s down the hallway. Come on, Moo.”

We got up to leave, and Loggin played with Moo, asking questions about him. Moo seemed very fond of Loggin, and that was probably a better indicator of his character than anything Loggin could have said.

As we passed the conference room, Liam called out my name. With a huge smile, I told Mary and Loggin on go on without me while I ducked into the conference room.

“Hey, I have barely seen you all day. How are you holding up?” I asked Liam as I pulled a chair out across from him. A noise from out in the hall brought my head up, but it didn’t happen again, and I focused on Liam.

“Pretty well.”

He seemed a bit more distant than normal, which was saying something because he was quiet in the best of times. I cast around for something to discuss. “So you and Orion are good friends? Did you meet when he started working at Westmound?”

“No, we were college roommates.”

“Oh, random chance?”

“A little bit. We were on the same floor my freshman year. He’s a year older. There was a big group of us that liked to go jog, hike, or play sports together, and second semester, we took an elective together. Beginning Film, I think it was called, and we did a group project together. Basically everyone bailed but us.”

“What kind of project was it?”

“Short film. There were two girl parts. At one point, I complained about having to wear a dress, and Orion said, ‘If it’s good enough for Eddie Murphy and Robin Williams, then you can suck it up.’” Liam chuckled at the memory. Whatever had been weighing him down was disappearing.

“How did it go?”

“It was pretty awful but good enough to pass. But more than anything, we realized that we had each other’s back.”

“And he got a job at Westmound after he graduated?”

Liam nodded. “In spring of my junior year, my dad died suddenly. Grandpa had passed away like six months earlier, and Mom was already overloaded with that. She wasn’t sleeping or eating. I thought she was going to die of a broken heart. I never went back to school.”

I nodded along, and he continued.

“Orion packed up our apartment with all my stuff I left behind and drove it to my mom’s house in Salt Lake and basically moved in.”

“How did he end up working at Westmound?”

“Mom told him that if he wanted to start at the bottom and work his way up, that was an option. She obviously had a ton of respect for him. Few people want to start at the bottom, but Orion was thrilled to. That is what I did, as well. We have done almost every job at Westmound. Assembling equipment, sales, marketing,
et cetera
. Trust me, Orion has his current job because he earned it.”

He was quiet for a second, staring off into space before he stood. “I need to go.”

As he got up to leave, I realized he might be able to solve a mystery. “Liam, when Westmound bought MacSights, did you do a financial audit?”

“Of course we did, and it’s interesting. If you want to take I look, I’ll send it over. Hey, M.C., you need something?” Liam was looking beyond me.

I twisted around to look at the conference room entrance to see M.C. leaning in the door.

“Just wondering where the bathrooms are?” he asked with a strained smile.