She sighed. “Aaron wanted me to. He asked if I’d reached anyone. I told him no, that I’d gotten voice mail. He asked if I’d go check in on Drew and Sydney, tell them he was feeling just fine and that he planned to be in the next morning. I was supposed to say we’d have a powwow so we could work on saving the Horse Farm. Not much hope of that now, huh?” she asked, and started to weep again.
When Frank rose, he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Someone’s going to take you home right now. Or would you prefer to go to the hospital? They can fix you up with something that’ll help you sleep.”
Sandra sniffled. “Home,” she said. She looked tearfully at Frank. “Yeah, I know. I run the Horse Farm. Where we work with substance abusers. But I have a stash of sedatives at home for when I need them. I...occasionally have problems sleeping. Don’t worry. I never abuse them. I know better than that.”
Frank nodded. “Fine. Shall we go?”
As Frank rose to open the door for Sandra, Dustin felt his phone vibrate. He reached for it.
Both Olivia and Jimmy Callahan watched him.
“Sorry,” he murmured. He glanced down at his phone and immediately saw a text message from Malachi.
“It’s your cousin,” he told Olivia. “I’m going to have him and the others meet us at your house.”
She nodded in agreement.
Callahan stepped aside as Frank came in. “Okay, I questioned her like you wanted, but I’m not sure where that got us. Unless it’s a massive conspiracy and both Sydney and Drew are in on it, Sandra can’t have had anything to do with this. What she says is true. She dropped Aaron off and drove to the Horse Farm. He died before she ever got back to the house.” He exhaled with frustration. “So. I questioned a grieving woman in tears. To what end?”
“I’m not sure yet, Frank. It might have proven that she had an accomplice,” Dustin said. “Someone could have been in that house—waiting for Aaron. Someone who knew when to be there, because Sandra had told that person when he was leaving the hospital and heading home. And she did make sure that both Drew and Sydney saw her.”
“You’re going to have to come up with a hell of a lot more than that.”
“I know,” Dustin assured him. “Can you make sure Dr. Wilson calls me when he’s doing the autopsy?”
“He’ll be on it this afternoon. I talked to him about thirty minutes ago.”
“Thanks. I’ll go over to the morgue in about an hour.”
“You should catch him right in the middle of it,” Frank said. “He only had one other body—an old-timer who keeled over eating his oatmeal. He’ll be getting on to this one pretty fast.”
Frank turned to Olivia. “Did you see Sandra when you got up yesterday morning at the campsite?”
“I practically collided with her when I burst out of the tent at the sound of the scream,” Olivia said.
“Did you see her?” Frank asked Dustin.
“No. We’d been up during the night,” Dustin said. “I woke up and found Aaron on his way to the women’s tent. He was worried because he didn’t see Mariah—who’d gone to the stream for water. When Mariah came back, half the campers were awake and Sandra was annoyed. She just wanted to get back to sleep. I stayed out by the campfire for a while, waiting to see if anyone got up again. I went back into my tent, and I heard Aaron stirring, but then Mariah screamed and I went chasing after her.”
“Sandra was outside when I came out of the tent,” Olivia said. “But Dustin didn’t see her when he ran ahead, a few minutes before I stepped out.”
“But she could have come out of the tent just before you did?” Frank asked.
“It’s possible, yes,” Olivia agreed.
“Sorry to interrupt, but we’ve got to get moving,” Dustin said. “I do want to be there for that autopsy, and we’ve got friends coming to Olivia’s.”
“You’re going to make sure I get to know your friends, right?” Frank’s question wasn’t really a question.
“You bet,” Dustin promised.
Frank nodded. “Stay in close contact.”
“We will.”
Jimmy Callahan opened the door for them, tipping his hat. “Liv, take care of yourself,” he said quietly.
As they left the station and drove to Olivia’s house, Dustin noted that she still looked shell-shocked. He wished he could do something to ease the pain and confusion she must be feeling—and he knew it was only going to get worse once she got over the sense of numbness. It protected her, to some extent, from the full reality of her losses. Still, her whole world had to be reeling.
When they pulled into the yard, she let out a yelp of joy, leaping out of the car before he’d turned off the motor.