Leave Tomorrow Behind (Stella Crown Series) (9 page)

Chapter Fourteen

Nick insisted on driving home. There was no talking him out of it. By the time we got there, I was exhausted from staying awake, and he was so pale I was sure he was going to pass out.

Queenie stayed holed up wherever she was, sacked out, I was sure, since it was closing in on three a.m. Nick and I stumbled up the walk and into the living room. I opened the door to the stairs.

“Nick!”

I jerked back, knocking Nick to the side. He caught himself on a chair, and I caught myself on him.

Miranda sat in the dark by the window. She stood up and crossed the room. When she reached us, she poked his chest. “Where have you been? I’ve been calling and texting and—”

He grabbed her hand and held it. “Miranda, please.”

“I know you’re mad at me, but that doesn’t mean you should go off who knows where and do…whatever.”

“We weren’t…” He sighed. “Miranda, can this wait till tomorrow?”

“I have a right to know—”

I took a breath, but Nick shut me up with his eyes. Fine. If he wanted to deal with her, he was more than welcome. I stepped into the stairwell, and shut the door behind me. But I stayed at the bottom of the stairs. If she was going to give him a hard time I was going to be there to stop her, whether he wanted me to or not.

“Miranda,” he said, his voice muffled but understandable. “I’m thirty years old. I believe I can go where I want.”

“With her.”

“Yes, with her. She’s the one I go places with now.”

“As if she cares as much as I do. Look at you. You’re a mess. You should’ve been to bed hours ago. But no, she kept you out doing whoever knows what—”

“Miranda.”

“I’ve told you over and over that she doesn’t really care about you as a person—”

“Miranda, stop.”

“But—”

“Quiet.”

I could hear her intake of breath, it was so loud.

“This has been a terrible night,” Nick said. “I don’t want to talk about it now. I want to go to bed. I am exhausted and worn out and I’m going to fall over if you don’t let me go.”

“But…what’s wrong? What happened? Did you have an episode?”

“It wasn’t me.”

“Stella? Something happened to her? She looked fine.” Said as if she were disappointed I hadn’t dropped dead.

“I’m going to bed now.”

“Nick…”

“If you want to know, watch the news.”

“Why can’t you just—”

“Goodnight, Miranda. I suggest you get some sleep, too. You look like hell.”

I barked a laugh, then slapped my hand over my mouth. Whoops.

I didn’t wait for the door to open before I ran up the stairs.

Chapter Fifteen

I got through milking on autopilot. Nick had slept right through the alarm, and I’d let him go. He needed the rest. I figured I could take a nap later if I needed to.

I was taking that nap at the kitchen table when someone knocked on the door. I jerked my head up, causing a kink in my neck. Had I really heard something? Yup. There it was again.

I opened the door, rubbing my neck, ready to yell at whatever salesman was showing up that early. By God, if it was one of Miranda’s florists or caterers or dressmakers I was going to—

“Willard?” My own local detective stood on the doorstep.

“Stella. You okay?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

He blinked slowly, his hands in his pockets.

“You’re not going away, are you?”

He didn’t move.

“Fine. Come on in.”

He ducked under the door and followed me to the kitchen, where my cereal had congealed into milky mush. I dumped it into the sink. “I don’t make coffee. You dying?”

“I had some already. Thanks.”

I poured myself a new bowl of cereal and held up the box of Corn Chex. Willard shook his head and took a seat at the table. When I’d joined him, he said, “Late night.”

“You know about it?”

“Some. Want to tell me?”

Surprisingly, I did. I went through the entire ordeal, from hearing the screams to stalking out of the building and telling off the reporters, although I kept that part short and vague. I ended with, “So what’s with that detective? Watts? She have a stick up her ass?”

Willard chuckled. “Guess you could say that. She’s young, about your age, probably, maybe younger. How old are you again?”

He’d been at my birthday party, so I figured he was just being annoying. “However old she is, she was a jerk. It’s no wonder she didn’t have a clue what I’d been telling the other cops all evening—none of them probably want to talk to her. What’s her deal? She get dropped on her head at birth?”

He leaned back, the chair creaking under his bulk. “Worse. Dad made detective even younger than she did. Now he’s sheriff.”

“Sheriff? How come I didn’t know that?”

“I don’t know. You don’t watch the news?”

“No, I mean our Sheriff is Schrock.”

“Ah, right. His name is Schrock. Hers is Watts.”

“She’s married.”

“Actually, no. Her folks were never married, and her mom gave her her own surname when she was born.”

“So she never really knew her dad.”

“No, she did. She just never liked him.”

“And now is working for him.”

“It’s a strange world.”

I drank the last of the milk out of my bowl. “Anyway, why are we talking about her?”

“You brought her up. Said she was a jerk.”

“Right.” I sat back. “So what do you know about last night?”

“That I can tell you?”

“No, that you can dangle in front of my nose and be a butt with.”

He laughed. “Probably not a lot more than you already know.”

“I don’t know anything, except Rikki Raines is dead. I don’t even know what killed her.” He didn’t respond to my hint, so I had to prod him. “Do you know?”

“Not yet. There was nothing obvious.”

Which meant no broken neck, or stab wound, or anything else done in a sudden, violent strike. “When they know, will you be able to find out?”

“Most likely.”

I rubbed my forehead, in case that might help ease my ferocious headache.

Willard leaned forward, elbows on the table. “Stella. I was wondering something.”

I waggled my free hand in a “go ahead” gesture without stopping the rubbing.

“What were you doing on YouTube this morning?”

That stopped the rubbing. “What?”

“There you were, right on my computer screen, threatening innocent reporters and cameramen.”

“Innocent?”

“Yeah, you’re right. That’s pushing it a bit far. But still…” He raised his eyebrows.

Dammit, I should’ve done more than threaten those people. “I told you. I was trying to help someone.”

“Daniella Troth.”

“You know her?”

“The sheriff’s office does, after last night. She hadn’t been on their radar before, but now…”

“They’re suspicious of her because I stopped the reporters from harassing her?”

“Who’s getting harassed?” Nick stepped up behind me and began kneading my shoulders. God, I loved that man.

“No one.” Willard half stood and stuck out his hand. “Good to see you, Nick.”

“Likewise.” Nick took a brief break in my neck rub to shake Willard’s hand, then resumed when I pointed at my shoulders.

Willard sat back down. “I was just telling Stella here that she’s a YouTube star.”

“Hmpf.” My shoulders stiffened.

“The altercation with the reporters last night?” Nick didn’t sound surprised.

“Stupid reporters,” I mumbled.

Nick squeezed my shoulder, then kept rubbing. A moan rose in my throat, but I remembered just in time that Willard was sitting three feet away, so I kept myself appropriate.

“It wasn’t actually the reporters who posted the video,” Willard said. “It was a Rikki Raines fan waiting outside the building.”

“I thought the cops had chased them all away.”

“Yeah, well, you know how that goes. The comments for the video are mostly in support of you, by the way, trashing reporters in general. You even got an interview request and a marriage proposal.”

Nick stopped massaging my shoulders again. “Do I need to be worried?”

I patted his hand. “Nah. You’re still my first choice. Now keep rubbing.”

“Yes, ma’am. So,” he said to Willard, “you’re here to continue questioning us? Because Detective Watts didn’t seem finished. At least not the way she was fingering her handcuffs as Stella spirited me away.”

“Daddy issues,” I said. “I’ll explain later.”

Willard laughed. “No, I really did just want to check in. After seeing that YouTube video I wanted to make sure you were all right.”

“Very kind of you,” Nick said.

I was curious. “How’d you find that YouTube video, anyway? Willard, were you surfing?”

“No.” His mouth twitched. “Your favorite police officer saw it and told me about it.”

“What favorite—Do you mean Meadows?” An officer in Willard’s department who’d rubbed me the wrong way since the day I met him when he didn’t believe I was having a life-or-death situation on my farm. He’d sort of redeemed himself later on, but he was still a jerk. “What was he doing looking me up on YouTube?”

“He wasn’t looking you up. He was looking up Rikki Raines, and anything that might shed light on her murder.”

“On YouTube?”

“People post all kinds of things. You never know what you might find.”

“Even if you’re Meadows.”

“Yes, even then. Anyway, he ran across that video from last night. He, um, was quite…impressed.”

“I’m sure.” I held up a hand. “We were talking about something before Nick came in. What was it?”

“Harassment,” Nick said.

“Right. Daniella. Reporters. Willard said the cops suspected her.”

“No, I didn’t. I said she was on their radar now.”

“How come?”

“Because she knew Rikki Raines. Very well, I guess. Not sure why.”

The side door opened, and Lucy came in. She froze in the doorway. “What happened? What did I miss? Why didn’t you call me?”

“Relax, Luce, everything’s fine. Well, not fine. I mean, it’s fine here, it’s just not…” My brain stopped working.

“Detective?” she said. “Why are you here?”

“Hello, Lucy.” He got up again to shake hands. “Everything here at the farm is going along as smoothly as always, as far as I know.”

She cocked an eyebrow.

“Right,” Willard said. “That might not be all that reassuring. But really, I’m here about something else entirely. Sorry to frighten you.”

She relaxed, but narrowed her eyes at me. “You look terrible.”

“Thanks.”

“Nick, you look terrible, too.”

“Terrible twos,” I snickered, then closed my eyes. I really was losing it.

“Have a seat,” Nick said. “We’ll tell you everything.”

I let Nick do the explaining this time. Who knew what would come out of my mouth if I kept talking? Besides, his voice was very soothing.

Some time later, I woke up with a jerk. Someone had placed a pillow under my head, so at least I wasn’t sleeping in my cereal bowl. Voices drifted in from the living room. I stumbled over to find the other three looking up at Miranda, who had just slammed the stairwell door, which, of course, had woken me up.

“What’s going on?” she said, far too loudly. “Why are all these people in here?”

I groaned, and dropped onto the sofa next to Nick, letting my head fall onto my hands.

Nick patted my back. “Shall I fill her in?” He launched into a quick explanation of the night’s events. The story was becoming stale. I’d heard it—and told it—too many times. Almost like it was a movie, instead of real life.

But maybe that was because my head was filled with fuzz.

Miranda’s face grew redder and redder as Nick talked, until I thought she was going to explode like a tomato thrown against a country mailbox. Not that I’ve ever seen that. Or done that.

“Seriously?” she shrieked, interrupting him. “
Seriously
?”

Nick frowned. “What? Are you a Rikki Raines fan? Or…” he looked closely at her. “Not one?”

“No, I’m…she…this summer…him…” She pointed at Willard.

“Me?” Willard said.

“Yes! Can Stella not go two months without a cop checking into her activities?”

“I’m not here as a cop. I’m here as a friend.”

“See?” I said to Nick. “Told you I had friends.”

“Augh!” Miranda spun around and marched into the kitchen.

Good riddance.

“So what does this mean for today?” Lucy said. “Do you have to go somewhere? Are you actually involved?”

“Not involved,” I said, “except for having found the body.”

“And annoyed the detective,” Nick said.

“And the press,” Willard added.

“So, no.” I held up my hands. “I have nothing to do with it.”

My kitchen phone rang, and Nick smirked. “What do you want to bet that phone call is going to make you a liar?”

I slugged him—gently—and went to answer the phone. “What?” I said into the receiver.

“Stella?” It was Zach, and his voice was about an octave higher than it should have been.

“What’s wrong?”

“Melody Gregg’s calf is sick, and they’re threatening to quarantine the entire barn.”