What We Found (26 page)

“I want to help search. This investigation was my idea.”

“And you were helping—as lookout.”

He rolled his eyes. “You were trying to keep me out of here. I told you, I’m not a little kid. I can help for real.”

What was this sudden obsession with how old he was? Then his gaze went past me and he straightened, a strange look on his face. I glanced back to see Nascha behind me. Oh Lord—was my little brother really trying to impress my grown-up friend?

Nascha and Ricky said at the same time, “I think I found something.”

I looked from one to the other. Nascha nodded at Ricky. “You first.”

“Okay. You see how these other tables are open underneath, with storage for pots and bags of soil and things? Well, in this row, the bottom is covered with these pieces of plastic, but it looks like you can take them off.”

Nascha and I joined him. He was right; most of the long tables had open storage underneath, but the row of tables set against this far wall had the undersides blocked off with thin panels of three-by-six-foot plastic. “See, it’s just hanging on these hooks,” Ricky said. “There’s an extension cord going under the bottom, that’s why I noticed.”

I helped him lift the panel away, and we crouched to look underneath the table. “More plants,” I said.

Nascha reached past me and flipped a switch on a grow light mounted to the underside of the table. The long tube flickered on, lighting up the lush plants in hydroponic containers. Something about the long, serrated leaves made me pause. “Wait a minute.”

“Not just any plants,” Nascha said. She leaned under the table to look down the length of the row. “Jay is growing a very nice crop of marijuana.”

I sat back on my heels. “Of course! He works with plants. He smokes pot. It makes sense that he’d grow his own, and if he’s used to managing a greenhouse, why wouldn’t he grow marijuana for sale? No wonder he didn’t want to attract any attention from the police.”

Nascha nodded. “That’s what I suspected from his records. I finally remembered something about tomatoes. That’s a code word growers use for pot, I think because the plants have similar requirements. Jay has been running a huge operation right here, where he can order lights and soil and fertilizer without anyone suspecting anything.” She stood and brushed her hands on her slacks. “His assistant must be involved as well.”

I rose, still trying to wrap my brain around what we’d discovered. My phone vibrated in my pocket and I jumped. I fumbled for it. “It’s Eslinda! Hello?”

“They’re leaving, hurry!”

I almost dropped the phone. “They’re coming!” Ricky grabbed the plastic cover and pushed it against the table. Nascha ran for the office door with her keys jingling.

“They’re already down the hall,” Eslinda hissed. “They’re using the side door. They’ll be out on the lawn in a second!”

“Okay, bye.” I shoved the phone back in my pocket and helped Ricky attach the cover. Once the men were out on the lawn, they’d have a decent view of the greenhouse. “Hurry.” I pushed Ricky toward the door.

Nascha was already there. She opened the door a crack and peered out. “Too late. They’ll see us if we leave.”

My head spun. I wasn’t ready to confront Jay yet, and who knew what the two men would do if they realized we’d discovered their secret. We didn’t have time to call the police and explain things before being discovered. And there was no other exit.

“Hide,” Nascha said. We scrambled away from the door and hid in the farthest row, near the marijuana.

My heart thumped as I tried to control my breathing so they wouldn’t hear the rasping. The seconds ticked away slowly and my thighs started to burn from crouching. Maybe they weren’t coming back after all. It was nearly five; maybe they’d head home for the day. Or maybe they were standing outside, having a smoke. Maybe they were almost at the door, and if we went to check they’d open it in our faces.

My calves felt uncomfortably stretched. I needed to shift into another position, especially if we’d be stuck for a while. Ricky was on his hands and knees. Nascha sat cross-legged, which looked more comfortable. I shifted my weight back.

The door creaked open. I sat down hard and bit back a grunt that was fortunately covered by Jay’s voice. “… why they can’t just send an e-mail. Let’s shut down and get out of here.”

Through the gaps between boxes, pots, and bags stored under the tables, I saw his legs turn toward the office. The other set of legs went in the opposite direction, toward the big racks of equipment. I knew from the previous time I’d snuck in that someone back there wouldn’t have a clear view of the room or the door. But could we get out before either of them came back?

If we waited, they might leave without ever seeing us. Or they might check the whole room before leaving. I glanced back and saw switches on the wall behind us, probably for lights or water systems. Jay had said, “shut down.”

I gestured Ricky toward the door. He nodded, his face pale and oddly tinged in the greenish light, and started crawling.

My hands came down on loose dirt and stray woodchips. The cement floor was painful under my knees. My shoes dragged across the floor with a faint scraping sound.

I shifted into a crouch and shuffled forward, bent over, right behind Ricky. I could barely hear Nascha’s soft breathing behind us.

As we passed between the last rows, I glanced to the right and saw Rodrigo, turned away from us and half hidden among the equipment racks. My heart jumped and I wanted to leap forward, but with Ricky right in front of me I could only keep waddling. A second later Ricky was at the door. Escape was in reach.

I heard a door close to our left and then the sound of a handle turning as someone checked to be sure the door was locked. Ricky glanced back at me with huge eyes, one hand resting on our exit. To our right I heard the shuffle of feet on cement. Nascha crowded close behind me.

I waved Ricky forward. He pushed past the door on hands and knees. I shoved through after him and tried to haul him up with me as I stood. Nascha squeezed out behind us, and before the door swung shut we were running.

“Left!” Nascha gasped as we neared the corner of the greenhouse. I glanced back as we swung around it and thought I saw the greenhouse door opening, though I couldn’t be sure from that brief, blurred glimpse. Nascha pointed at a door in the back of the resort. She sorted through her keys as we cut across the lawn at an angle. I looked back as she unlocked the door and thought I saw a shadow through the translucent plastic panes on the corner of the greenhouse. Then we tumbled through the door and pulled it shut behind us.

We paused, gasping. I’d never used this door before so it took me a few seconds to recognize the hallway that led past the employee break room and then connected to the hall with our offices. “That was close,” Nascha said.

“I don’t think they saw us.”

Sweat beaded Ricky’s flushed face, but he grinned. “That was great!”

I leaned against the door, waiting for the trembling to stop, and shook my head. “I don’t agree with your idea of fun. But at least we did find something. I can’t believe he would run that operation from here!”

Nascha pushed her hair back from her face. “It’s crazy, but smart, too. What place is better than this? We live in the mountains, with snow in winter and not enough rain in summer, so he can’t simply pick a remote spot in the wilderness. He has everything he needs here, and he doesn’t have to keep the pot in his house. Even now, it will be hard to prove he’s the one responsible. No one will believe he didn’t know about it, but a good lawyer could make the case for circumstantial evidence.”

I sighed. “Well, at least it should keep him distracted for a while.”

“You’re right. But Audra, let me report this. You’ve attracted enough attention, and enough trouble from Jay’s father.”

“I won’t argue with that, but Mr. Preppard will be after you if you get his son in trouble.”

She shrugged. “I do excellent work and I have friends here. And if I do lose this job, it’s not the end of the world. I can go somewhere else. You want to stay here with your family.”

I looked at Ricky. “All right. But you know the police will ask how you found this. It’s hard to explain without telling everything. I learned that when I tried to report the body and leave Jay out of it.”

“I won’t lie, and no doubt they’ll want to talk to you. But we can try to keep your part quiet around here. I’ll make sure the police understand why that’s important.”

“Thank you.”

Nascha tried to brush the dirt off her backside. “So what, if anything, does this have to do with Bethany Moore’s death?”

I thought a moment and then let out a long sigh. “Probably nothing,” I admitted. “If Jay had killed her, he surely wouldn’t lead me to her body when he had this to hide. But I guess the police can decide for sure. They have a good excuse to investigate him now. Maybe they’ll find something to tie him to Bethany.”

The police might try to tie the two cases together. That would be easy and neat. But I found it hard to believe Jay had anything to do with the murder. That meant the killer was still out there, walking free.

The next morning, the rumors were all about Jay. Neither he nor his father showed up to work. A police officer was stationed at the greenhouse. The media moved in, but security guards tried to keep the cameras contained in the parking lot. With Mr. Preppard absent, Eslinda took over as spokesperson, expressing shock and dismay that such a thing could happen on resort property, laying the blame on a rogue employee—because of course such a thing would never be tolerated by management—and vowing complete cooperation with the police.

When things finally settled down, she came into my office and collapsed in the guest chair. “I know you wanted to stop Jay, but really? Turning the resort into a circus is a bit extreme.”

I winced. “I’m sorry. We had no idea we’d find—”

She waved me to silence. “Not your fault. It might have been nice to handle this quietly—fire Jay and Rodrigo, remove the evidence, pretend nothing happened—but that would make us all accessories to a crime.” She sighed. “They want to know if this had anything to do with the murder.”

I looked down at the paper on my desk, where I’d been absently drawing curlicues in the margin. “What did you say?”

She sat up straight, opened her eyes wide, and somehow managed to look young and a bit silly. “I put on my best innocent look and said
I
didn’t see any connection.” She slumped down again and closed her eyes.

“I’m sorry I got you and the resort involved in this. I’m sorry it’s making us all look bad.”

She didn’t open her eyes. “Oh well. You can’t buy publicity like this. That’s what I’m telling the directors.” She settled deeper in the chair and yawned. “Maybe we can set up a crime tour package. Could be good business.”

“I think I want to be like you when I grow up.”

She gave a sly smile. “Oh honey, you can wish.” She sat up and clapped her hands. “Back to work. What have I missed?”

I glanced at my notes. “The caterers are worked up because they don’t know if they’ll have access to salad greens and herbs from the greenhouse. I told them to make other arrangements for the rest of this week.”

“Good.”

“At least it doesn’t matter for the big game hunt event, because we have the outside vendors.”

“Not like that crowd would be eating organic greens and fresh herbs anyway.” Eslinda sighed. “I wish that wasn’t this weekend. All those macho men in fatigues, guns, the idea of violence—it’s bad timing. I wish we had something nice and sophisticated, like a wine tasting, or a family-friendly day of magicians and jugglers.”

“I’m not crazy about hunting anyway.” Okay, technically I’d been hunting with Kyle, but that was different. “But at least they won’t actually be hunting during the event.”

“No, just playing with guns.”

The hunting season wouldn’t start until August, with a brief window for bears, and then it picked up in October for elk hunting. The resort set up packages on the Reservation with Native guides and provided lodging, meals, and transportation. They even had people to pack out the meat, dress it, and mail it to the hunters’ homes.

With limited hunting licenses available for the big animals, and the deadline for applications coming up soon, the “big game hunt” event that Saturday was more of a fair, with displays, safety training, talks by the guides, and carnival-style games for the kids. Still, I could see what Eslinda meant about bad timing. The big game hunts had a high profit margin, but they were a small part of our business, and given the resort’s recent association with drugs and murder, any suggestion of violence might hurt the reputation.

“I don’t see what we can do about it,” I said.

“No. Except make it as family-friendly as possible. Promote the games for kids and encourage women to participate as well, so we can’t be accused of encouraging male violence. Invite any women you know. How about your mother?”

“That could be interesting.”

My phone beeped, signaling an incoming text. I glanced at it and saw a message from Kyle. “Baby falcon born this morning. Come see after work? Bring Ricky.”

I smiled. A baby falcon had to be adorable. I looked across at Eslinda. “Hey, I have an idea. I know this really neat lady who keeps falcons and hawks. Maybe she’d bring one of them to the event and talk about it. She could focus on how the falconers are helping preserve wild lands and how they saved the peregrine from extinction.”

“Hmm, play up the conservation angle. And it’s a woman? That could help balance out the testosterone.” She stood. “See if she’ll do it.”

“I’ll talk to her after work.” As Eslinda left, I started texting Kyle. Of course I wanted to see the baby, and Ricky would be thrilled. Bringing him meant this wouldn’t turn into a real date, but it was nice that Kyle wasn’t solely focused on getting me alone. I could ask Nancy about Saturday. She’d make a better spokesperson for falconry than Kyle under these circumstances, but maybe he’d come as well. And maybe afterward we could spend some time alone together.