Page 40 of The Murder Club

“Don’t tell my wife,” he pleaded. “She’s pregnant and on a health-food kick. I haven’t had real sugar in weeks.”

“Harsh,” Dom murmured.

“You have no idea.” Zac took a large bite, groaning in sugary bliss. “God, that’s good.” Two more bites and the doughnut was gone. Casting a regretful glance at the apple bear claw, Zac settled back in the cushions of the couch and studied Dom. “Now tell me why you’re really here.”

Dom set the box on the coffee table, meeting Zac’s steady gaze. “I liked Bailey when I was in Pike for Kaden’s wedding,” he admitted. “And honestly, I couldn’t get her out of my mind. There’s something about her . . .” He struggled to put his attraction toward Bailey into words. Nothing truly captured her essence.

“Decency?” Zac offered.

“There’s that,” Dom agreed, “but it’s much more. She captivated me from the moment we first spoke. I wanted to see if it could be something more than a temporary attraction.”

Zac narrowed his eyes. “She’s special to me.” Dom wasn’t offended by the warning. “I’m discovering that she’s special to a lot of people.”

“True.”

Before Dom could assure Zac that he had no intention of hurting Bailey, she reappeared from the kitchen.

“Here you go.” She handed Zac a mug of coffee before she perched on the couch next to him. “What’s happened?”

Zac took a sip before he answered the question. “Gage Warren was found dead this morning at the lumberyard.”

There was a stunned silence as both Dom and Bailey tried to process the abrupt announcement.

“Dead?” Bailey shook her head as if trying to clear it. “You’re sure?”

“Very sure.”

“What happened?”

“It looks like he was reaching for a box of shingles he had stored on a top shelf and accidentally fell off his ladder,” Zac said. “His skull was cracked by the impact.”

Bailey pressed a hand to her mouth. “Oh my God.”

Dom was less concerned with Gage’s unexpected death than the manner it had happened.

“You said it looked like he fell off his ladder. Is there a question about what happened?”

“We’ll do an autopsy.” Zac had on his cop face. “It’s possible he had a heart attack that caused him to fall. Or he might have been drunk.”

“Or he might have been pushed,” Dom suggested. Bailey gasped, but Zac merely nodded. He’d obviously had the same thought.

“Hopefully, the autopsy will give us some answers.”

“When did he die?” Bailey asked, her face pale as she clenched her hands together in her lap.

“He was found last night just after midnight by Anthony.”

“Who’s Anthony?” Dom demanded. Wasn’t there a theory that the person who found a dead body was often the murderer?

“He’s one of my deputies,” Zac explained. “He was on patrol last night when he drove by and noticed that the lights were on at the lumberyard and the front door was wide open. He wanted to make sure nothing was wrong. When he went inside he found Gage on the floor with the ladder next to him.”

So, not the killer then, Dom silently acknowledged. A shame.

“Did the deputy have any idea how long Gage was dead?”

“No, but we have a witness who saw Gage alive at five o’clock.”

“In between five and midnight. That’s a fairly small time frame.” Dom tried to think like a detective. It wasn’t the first time. Owning a pawnshop was more than determining the worth of an item, although that was obviously an important part of the job. He also needed background information on the customer to certify that the item hadn’t been stolen, and that it had the proper paperwork to prove it was authentic. A signet ring that had a trail of official documentation to prove it belonged to George Washington was worth a lot more than a ring that was found in an attic with a story from an aging grandma that it’d once belonged to a president. “Is there a security camera?”

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