Page 13 of Exposure of Murder

It was the largest cat she’d ever seen—twenty pounds, at least. A tabby mix. Its fur was a combination of stripes and patches of brown, and the cat was full-grown.

The vet told her it wasn’t unusual for people to drop off cats at farms. Their mentality was, with all those animals, what was one more? They were mistaken, but the sad fact was the shelters were full.

“Damn,” Jane cursed under her breath. Another mouth to feed. People’s ability to abandon animals saddened her, but it was preferable to the alternative. The cat was now purring in Bucky’s arms. “Let’s put it in a carrier and bring it to the vet’s office.”

A wisp of wind encircled her ankle as Clover, another drop-off, tried to sniff the recent addition. Her little pink nose twitched. Jane thought she was what they called a tuxedo cat,black-and-white. The wind rustled gently through the open barn doors, carrying the sweet scent of hay and the more pungent odor of manure.

Bucky returned with the cat carrier and placed it on the ground so Clover could get acquainted with the newcomer.

“It’s a male,” he said. “Well, it’ll be good to have another cat to keep the mice away.”

Clover was a great mouser. However, even with all the feed in barrels, there were still droppings on the floor and in the hayloft where mice—or rats, which Jane didn’t want to think about—could get into. There were too many rodents for one cat.

Jane never had animals growing up. Her brother was allergic. She learned the hard way that cats loved to play with their prey that one time Clover dropped a live snake by her feet. And wasn’t that fun. Clover just cocked her head as Jane screamed and jumped.

Cats didn’t necessarily eat what they caught, so she mentally added another bag of cat food to her list, plus the cost of neutering and vaccinating the new cat.

She had no worries about how the cats would stay warm in the barn. Clover had a spiffy insulated cat house in the hayloft she could escape to when she needed to.

Clarence built it to look like a cottage with a front porch. A front porch! For a cat! He surprised her with it after Clover arrived and after Jane decided to keep her. He believed Clover was a working member of the family and needed to be comfortable. Jane laughed. Who was she to deny an employee perks, even if it was a cat?

She thought about how generous and talented Clarence was and how lucky she was to find him and Bucky. A big plus was neither talked much.

Bucky did his work and did it well, but Jane was still curious about his life.

She assumed he had a room or apartment somewhere but didn’t know where, although it was none of her business.

Other than he was a good worker, she knew nothing about him. Not who his friends were, where he grew up, how he came to live in Beaver Creek—nothing.

Despite Savannah’s ability to make even the most reserved person talk, she couldn’t even get any information from him.

In fact, Savannah questioned Jane about why she hired Bucky if she knew nothing about him.

Jane told her she just had a soft spot for people down on their luck, especially since Mike had a rough childhood. He’d confided in her that a teacher had taken an interest in him in high school, and it made all the difference in his life.

Savannah laughed and told her Bucky could be a serial killer and then what?

What indeed? Jane wasn’t going there.

“Oh, before I forget,” Bucky interrupted her thoughts again. “I think someone’s been rifling through the supplies.”

Jane’s stomach clenched. Not again. “Did they take anything?”

She hoped not. Nothing had happened since the broken window incident a couple of weeks ago, and Jane prayed it was just kids, like the sheriff suggested. However, farm supplies were expensive. Kids or not, she couldn’t let it go. That meant another call to Sheriff “Hates Me A Lot” McQueeney. Then she shook her head. It wasn’t helpful to keep giving Sheriff McQueeney nicknames. He was just doing his job, even if he was surly and short with her.

“I didn’t see anything missing.” Bucky thought for a moment. “It was more like the barrels and supplies were moved around. Not sure what they were looking for. Then, when I left yesterday, I noticed someone running out of the barn and into the woods.

Jane’s pulse quickened. “Did you see who it was?”

He shook his head. “It was too dark.”

A sense of foreboding washed over Jane. “We need to figure out who’s snooping before something happens.” She looked around the barn. There was no place to hide anything. Perhaps in the hayloft, but the person hadn’t been up there. What could they be looking for? Jane hoped it didn’t bring trouble or danger to her.

Nine

Ethan paid for his lunch at the Harvest Moon Diner and strolled toward the sheriff’s department, saying hello to a couple of residents.

He felt good—his stomach was full. No one bothered him at lunch, which surprised him since that hadn’t happened in a while, plus the town had been quiet.

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