In the Paths of Righteousness (Psalm 23 Mysteries) (17 page)

“We wait, we watch. Sooner or later the killer will slip up,” Cindy said. “I mean, just think about how jittery we all are. The killer has to be a thousand times more so wondering if they’re going to get caught and knowing they still haven’t accomplished their goal of killing Kyle.”

“If that truly was their goal,” Jeremiah pointed out. “For all we know they wanted Brent and Roddy dead for some reason and Kyle is a red herring.”

“If that’s true, Kyle could even be a suspect,” Traci said, her voice strained sounding.

Cindy rolled her eyes. “My brother might be a lot of things, but he’s not a killer.”

“Honestly, I’m not sure we can rule out the possibility,” Traci said. “I mean, the two of you aren’t close, you don’t really speak, how do you know what kind of person he’s become since you were kids?”

The thought chilled Cindy to the bone. She didn’t want to even contemplate it as a possibility. “But even if he did want them both dead for some reason, why kill them now? It’s sabotaging his own show.”

“Or giving it stellar ratings for when it does finally air because of all the tragedy surrounding it,” Jeremiah suggested.

“No, I refuse to believe my brother is that psycho and that shallow,” she said. “That just doesn’t make sense to me.”

A moment later she saw Mark stand up and get back on his horse. He trotted over toward them and she realized she was holding her breath as she waited to hear the news. When he reached them, his face was grim.

“Traci said you found Roddy’s body,” Cindy said.

“What’s left of it. There was barely enough to recognize.”

She cringed at the thought and tried not to let her imagination run wild picturing the scene.

“I need to get a tarp so we can wrap up the remains and take them with us,” he said.

“I’ll get it,” Cindy said, turning and pushing through the canvas into the back of the wagon.

She stopped in surprise. Jeremiah was standing up, his hands completely unbound. He looked at her and lifted a finger in front of his lips to indicate that she should be quiet.

She nodded slowly.

He turned to rummage in a pile of things, and then produced a tarp which he handed her. She bit back the urge to say “thank you” as she turned and headed back to the front of the wagon.

Once there she handed the tarp to Mark who had difficulty angling his horse closer. The animal skittered, sidestepping quite a few times and Mark started muttering under his breath. He finally got close enough to grab the tarp from her and she sat back down on the bench.

“Could you tell if he was killed by someone or just gored or trampled to death?” she asked.

He shook his head. “No, and to be honest, I’m not sure anyone’s going to be able to figure that out with certainty. Like I said, it’s a real mess. You ladies should stay here until we get it cleaned up.”

“How are the others holding up?” Traci asked quietly.

Mark shrugged. “About as well as can be expected, some better than others.”

“Do any of them look guilty?” Cindy asked, cutting to the chase.

“At this point everyone looks guilty to me,” Mark said rolling his eyes. “This whole thing is a complete mess.”

Cindy noted that he didn’t instantly revert to blaming Jeremiah. That had to be a good thing, but she refrained from pointing it out.

“Maybe you should send everyone who’s not helping you over this way,” Traci suggested. “That way they’re not in the way and we can talk to them and see if we can draw any conclusions,” Traci said.

“Seems like a good idea,” Mark agreed. “I’ll send them over pronto.”

And despite all the death and craziness Cindy watched as Traci smiled.

“What?” Mark asked, obviously noticing his wife’s expression.

“You’re starting to sound like a cowboy,” she said, and even Cindy could hear the admiration in her voice.

She glanced at Mark and couldn’t tell if he was pleased or dismayed. He spun his horse, kicked him into motion and rode quickly back to the others. Cindy bit her lip. He had clearly been showing off for Traci. It was nice to see the two of them flirting with each other despite the years of marriage and the horror that they found themselves enmeshed in.

“He really is so handsome,” Traci said softly.

“His riding’s getting a lot better,” Cindy said.

“I noticed.”

Mark reached the group and they watched as he handed the tarp down to Zack. He then started gesturing back toward the wagon and after a few seconds the film crew trotted their horses toward them. They all looked weary and a bit shell shocked.

Liz in particular was riding strangely, kind of flopping around in the saddle.

“Is she okay?” Cindy asked.

“She certainly doesn’t look okay,” Traci noted.

They both watched as the riders approached. Cindy tried hard to study their faces. Kyle, in particular, looked sort of hollow while a couple of the others looked numb. She couldn’t read Wayne’s expression at all. She turned her attention back to Liz.

The woman was riding even worse, sagging forward a bit over the saddle. “I think something is seriously wrong with her,” Cindy said, alarmed.

“I think you’re right,” Traci said, voice tight.

A moment later Traci exclaimed, “Look, her eyes are closed!”

They were.

Seconds later Liz’s horse stopped a few feet shy of the others. Liz swayed for a moment in the saddle.

“Liz, are you okay?” Cindy shouted.

A moment later Liz tumbled to the ground.

Traci screamed and Cindy jumped down from the wagon before she even knew what she was doing. She raced to Liz’s side. Liz’s horse shied away at Cindy’s approach and Kyle caught its bridle as it tried to run past him.

Cindy hit her knees and the first thing she noticed was that Liz was breathing.

“She’s alive!” she shouted up at Traci.

She stared back down at Liz, not knowing what else she could do for her. She was afraid to even lift her head off the ground in case she’d injured her neck or back in the fall.

“Get Zack,” she said, looking up, trying not to think about how this was so similar to when Brent had collapsed. She heard someone shouting for the doctor and she just kept watching Liz’s face, searching for the slightest sign of movement.

Suddenly, the woman’s eyelashes flickered and a moment later she opened her eyes and looked up at Cindy with a bewildered expression. “What happened?” she asked.

“You fell off your horse. It looked like you lost consciousness first,” Cindy explained. “Are you in pain?”

“No, not really. I mean I feel a little sore.”

“I don’t doubt it, you hit the ground pretty hard.”

“We were coming back over to the wagon and I felt a little dizzy and lightheaded and that’s the last thing I remember,” Liz said. “I get low blood sugar sometimes. I
brought a package of juice boxes with me just in case. They should be in a cooler somewhere in the wagon.”

“I’ll go get one,” Cindy said, scrambling to her feet just as Zack arrived, face pale.

She could swear she heard him mutter something under his breath about things being worse than they had been in the army. She had a hard time believing that, but she didn’t comment as she turned to the wagon. She climbed up into the back and Jeremiah regarded her with raised brows.

“Liz fainted. It looks like her blood sugar might have crashed.”

“Could also be stress. She was the one who screamed when the body was found, yes?”

“That’s right,” Cindy said. “Where’s the cooler?”

Jeremiah pointed and Cindy opened it. She pushed aside several packets of frozen meat and found a package of juice boxes just like Liz had said. One of them was already missing. Cindy wondered if Liz had already had an attack on the trip as she grabbed another one of the boxes and moved the meat back into position.

She scrambled back down from the wagon and headed back over to Liz. Zack was checking her over and she handed the juice box to him. He helped Liz sit up and she began to drink a minute later.

“She’ll be fine in a few minutes,” Zack reassured everyone present.

All around heads bobbed up and down. People were beyond words, they were too tired, too shocked.

Cindy went back and rejoined Traci next to the wagon. The other woman was rubbing her arms repetitively and her eyes were still wide.

“You okay?” Cindy asked.

“Yeah, it’s just a lot, you know?”

Cindy understood all too well. She was just grateful this latest incident had nothing to do with foul play.

Mark’s nerves and patience were both wearing thin. He was at the point that he wanted to arrest the entire camera crew and the cowboys and throw them in the back of the wagon. If he had thought he, Jeremiah, Cindy and Traci could successfully transport all of them to Righteousness in that manner he would do it in a heartbeat. It wasn’t practical, though. That would be three days of guarding people, at least one of whom would be growing increasingly desperate. Then there was the matter of even figuring out where they were headed. If one or both of the cowboys did turn out to be involved they couldn’t be trusted to send them on the quickest path or even the correct one.

No, as much as he didn’t like it they were just going to have to stick to the plan and wait things out, hoping the killer would trip themselves up. If nothing happened in the next day, though, he was thinking they were going to have to do something to force the issue. He wasn’t sure how long they could survive on the trail without someone else falling victim. He and Jeremiah were going to have to have a talk later. He needed to talk with Traci and Cindy, too. Between the four of them they should be able to figure this out.

The more Jeremiah thought about it the more suspicious he became of Norman. Norman was the most unassuming of their seven suspects and he had come late to the party. Neither of those, though, ruled him out. He had arrived awfully quickly and conveniently on the scene to take over for the dead Martin. This was supposed to be Norman’s show, his baby. Instead of getting to host, he wasn’t even allowed to be the cinematographer on the show. Killing Martin allowed him to take over that position and gain a place on the crew. In his twisted mind he probably thought that killing Kyle would allow him to move into the position of host that should have been his.

If Norman believed Kyle had stolen his show that could cause enough hatred to be reason enough to murder him. If Norman thought getting Kyle out of the way would allow him to get his show back, that could also be reason enough to murder him. What better way of throwing suspicion off himself than by supposedly not even being there during the first murder?

He might not even have been, that was the beauty of it. He could have paid Tex to do it for him. Then he could have later killed Tex either because he didn’t want someone else around who knew the truth or because Tex tried to blackmail him. It was a good plan. Who knew if it would have worked if he had managed to kill Kyle either with the saddle or the poison and it had been attributed to an accident. It would have become the ill-fated show on which two people died. That kind of thing could certainly drive ratings from curiosity seekers.

Roddy could have easily overheard something from Norman or Tex necessitating that one of them kill him. That is, if it hadn’t been an accident, which Jeremiah very much doubted.

He would have to discuss his theory with Mark. Norman was the logical killer. He had the strongest motive and, hypothetically, the most to gain. Maybe working together they could set a trap for Norman.

It really was the most logical explanation. He could tell that Wayne hated Kyle, but he didn’t think the man would resort to premeditated murder. Kill Kyle in a fistfight in the heat of the moment maybe, but plan it out, Jeremiah didn’t think so. Junior wasn’t likely to try something like that on his own. With his personality he was far more likely to be an accomplice than a mastermind. There was a slim chance Junior was working for Norman, but Jeremiah’s money was on Tex as the accomplice.

Zack and Hank he had pretty much ruled out. He had a hard time believing either of them was involved. Liz and Curly were both a bit more unknown, but he couldn’t see any real motivation for either of them in either killing Kyle or shutting down the production. Besides, Curly had seemed genuinely distraught over the death of his friend.

With it settled in his mind all he had to do now was wait for an opportunity to speak to Mark alone. He hoped the detective would check in with him before they got started back on the trail. Twenty minutes later, though, it looked like that was not to be as he could hear Cindy and Zack taking their seats back at the front of the wagon again. Jeremiah sighed. Trapping Norman was just going to have to wait.

They were back on the trail and Zack was sitting next to Cindy again. Cindy was surprised at first that Liz had declined to ride on the wagon, but had chalked it up to not wanting to be too close to either the dead bodies or Jeremiah.

They had gone nearly half an hour in silence when Zack finally spoke. “You know, it’s the craziest thing, but I keep waiting for the next emergency,” he said. “I can feel the muscles in my legs all bunched up like I’m just waiting to leap down from the wagon again.”

“It’s not crazy,” Cindy reassured him. “I know exactly how you feel. Whenever I’m in the middle of something like this I feel the same way, like I’m just waiting to figure out which way to jump.”

“That’s it exactly! I don’t know how some people live their lives this way.”

“Like cops?” she asked.

“Yeah, and outlaws, too.”

“Outlaws?”

“Yeah, my great-great grandfather and his cousin were outlaws in the old west, they robbed banks and trains, that sort of thing. They actually had a hideout not that far from here.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, you see that mountain right over there with the sheer side facing us?” he asked, pointing off to the right and ahead of them slightly.

“Yeah.”

“There’s a cave at the base of it just around the side. It goes in for about a hundred feet, angles off to the right, and then dumps you into a little hidden valley. There’s still an old rundown cabin even. It’s actually ingenious, most people never think to go far enough into the cave to find the valley.”

“That’s cool. How do you know it’s there?”

“I’ve been a few times. The first time was when I was little. My grandfather took me.”

“Does the land belong to your family?”

“No, they all moved out to northern California before my great grandfather was born, founded a nice little town.”

“That’s amazing. I don’t even know my great-grandfather’s first name let alone anything about where he lived or what he did for a living.”

He shrugged. “Being connected to your past can be either a blessing or a curse.”

That was certainly the way she felt about her own personal past sometimes, although it generally felt like more of a curse than a blessing.

After another few minutes Zack got back on his horse and left the team in her hands. She felt trepidation, but also a great deal of pride that he trusted her to drive the horses.

After a nerve-wracking couple of minutes she finally relaxed. She looked around, taking in the scenery. The mountain that hid the entrance to the secret outlaw hideout didn’t seem to be that far away, but she wondered how close they’d get to it by the time they stopped for the night. She kind of wished she could actually see it.

From old west outlaws her mind drifted to modern day killers. She found herself running through the lists of suspects repeatedly, trying to view them from all different angles, trying to decide who had motive and opportunity and the willingness to carry out their plan. It would, of course, be ironic if it was Zack and what he’d said about the past being a curse or a blessing would carry extra weight.

She couldn’t believe it was him, though. It just didn’t fit with everything she’d seen of him so far. She finally ruled him out and let her mind continue working on the rest of the list.

After another hour she came to the conclusion that it had to be Norman. Norman could have easily been using Tex as an accomplice or Tex could have also been a helpless victim who stumbled onto the truth. Either way she was willing to bet Norman was involved.

When they stopped she’d share her thoughts with both Jeremiah and Mark. Hopefully one or both of them were thinking along the same lines as she was. Until then there was nothing to do really but just try to enjoy the moment.

Something she wasn’t particularly good at.

Because of their late start they pushed on through lunch and when they stopped three hours later it was none too soon as far as Cindy was concerned. Her arms were aching from holding the reins and managing the team. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as she had feared, but it was still exhausting work. After tying up the reins she stood and stretched and then climbed through into the back of the wagon.

“Food, finally. I think we’ll be camping here tonight, too,” she told Jeremiah.

“So I figured.”

She did a double take as she realized that his hands were bound again. Nobody had been in the back of the wagon, though, except her. She met his eyes and he winked. He didn’t want anyone to know he could free himself. She took a breath and nodded, indicating that she could play along.

“I think Norman did it,” she whispered.

He nodded. “I came to the same conclusion.”

“I keep feeling like there’s something important I’m missing, though.”

He frowned and shook his head. Apparently he wasn’t feeling the same way. She sighed and turned to her work.

She grabbed some canned food and a pot and headed outside, grateful to see that Hank was already starting a cookfire.

“Thanks,” she said as she walked up. Her and Jeremiah’s certainty that Norman was the killer was already making her feel more relaxed toward the others. She just prayed they were right.

“We’re stopping for the night,” Mark said as he walked up a few minutes later. “Everyone’s beyond exhausted and it makes no sense to eat and then clean up only to spend another hour or so on the trail before we have to stop and settle in before nightfall.”

“Makes sense to me,” she said. “Personally I’m ready to crash.”

“Not before you finish dinner, please,” he said with a groan.

She glanced around to see if anyone else could hear them before lowering her voice. “Jeremiah and I both think Norman is behind all this.”

“You do, huh?” Mark asked, face inscrutable. “Well, I think I’m just going to go have a talk with Jeremiah. Let him out to walk around for a few minutes.”

“I’m sure he’d appreciate that,” Cindy said, trying not to betray what she knew about the fact that he could do that anytime he wanted.