Page 45 of It's a Wonderful Knife
I grabbed a sledgehammer that was leaning against the wall and forced myself toward the small back room. The hairs on my neck stiffened as I neared the dark room. It was possible whoever had killed Santiago was still hiding inside this shed. I stopped at the threshold of the back room, feeling horribly vulnerable without my gun. The only positive was the knowledge that the killer’s weapon was firmly planted in Santiago’s chest.
Sucking in a breath, I tensed all my muscles for battle and stepped into the small room. There was no movement, and I didn’t sense anyone’s presence. Still, I walked the area, just to be sure. Relieved no one was lurking, I left the room and returned to Max.
He stood over the body, raking a hand through his hair. “We need to call someone. I mean, he’s dead, but still… we need to call someone.” He glanced at me, his face pale and stricken.
I swallowed hard, a difficult task considering how bone dry my mouth was. “Yes. Let’s get back to the main house and call the local authorities.”
“Do we just leave him here?”
I let out a shaky breath, trying to get myself in the right headspace. I might have been on vacation five seconds ago, but that was over now. I needed to think like a cop and act like a cop because we had a murderer on the loose. “Yeah, we’ll leave him here for now.” I glanced around, but there were no chains or padlocks to use to secure the door. “I’m not comfortable leaving you here alone to watch over the body, and I need to personally talk to the authorities.”
He shivered. “Yeah, I don’t want to stay here alone.”
“Let’s go.” I took a step, and my feet crunched on the plastic and glass strewn all over the floor. I frowned. “This debris looks like broken phones, right?”
Max studied the ground. “Yes.”
“Why would there be broken phones in here?” I murmured as a sick feeling washed through me.
Max gritted his teeth. “I can only think of one reason, and it’s not a good one.”
“What the hell is going on around here?” I headed to the door, checking carefully before I stepped outside. I waved for him to follow me, and I slammed the door shut behind us. It was still pouring. I guess Mother Nature had no sympathy for our plight.
“Santiago left the house a few hours ago, and that’s obviously when he was killed.” Max scanned the muddy ground as he walked. “Who else left the house around that time?”
“Lots of people. Between the farmhands and the guests coming and going, the murderer could be anyone.”
“God.”
“Did Amelia go with Santiago when he left?”
“I don’t know.”
I sighed. “Yeah, me neither. I don’t think Gianna left the house, did she?”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t watching her. She could have. Maybe she lured Santiago to that shed promising sex and she killed him in a rage?”
I grimaced. “She’d have had blood spatter on her clothing. She was wearing the same thing all day. I didn’t notice any blood.”
“True. But she’d have been wearing a coat in this weather.”
“Yes. That’s a good point.” I tried to picture Gianna stabbing Santiago to death. It was possible. She was a tall, fit woman. She taught yoga, so she’d have good upper-body and core strength. Stabbing a grown man fatally through the chest wasn’t an easy thing to accomplish. Did she even seem the type? That I wasn’t sure of.
“Amelia was so angry yesterday, I wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d killed both Gianna and Santiago. But she asked us to look for him. Would she do that if she was the killer?”
“Maybe to throw us off?” She’d seemed sincerely worried though. Not that people couldn’t put on a show when they really wanted to.
“She’d have to be extremely calculating to pull this off.”
“I agree.” A gust of wind caused my umbrella to turn inside out. “What the hell?” I gritted my teeth.
Max grabbed my arm and pulled me under his umbrella. “Jesus Christ, how far away is this damn house?”
With our arms linked, we continued onward. We were batted around a lot by the wind but eventually reached the main house. Stumbling up the front steps, I tried to think how I should word things with Mona and Ezra. I didn’t want to panic them, but this was a serious situation. We had a lot of people on the grounds, and with the river the way it was, we couldn’t get out, and the authorities most likely couldn’t get in.
Things were complicated. I had no ideawhySantiago had been murdered. The obvious first thought was the little love triangle he’d gotten involved in had gotten him killed. But that wasn’t for sure. You couldn’t approach a murder investigation with your mind already made up.
For all I knew, we had a homicidal maniac running around the farm. Maybe it was that homeless person Amelia had seen. Or maybe Amelia hadn’t seen anyone, and that had all been part of her plan to murder Santiago. I literally had no idea what was going on. I only knew I had a murder victim who deserved justice.
