Page 40 of Dairy and Deadly

“Yeah, that would be bad.” She chuckled. “Obviously, I still have a lot to learn about dairy farming.” He parked, and she pushed open her door and hopped to the ground.

The custom steel building rising in front of them was a far cry from the old-fashioned white church she’d pictured in her head. The earth-tone walls and stacked stone accents were cozy and inviting. A matching brown steel cross rose above the covered entrance.

“It’s a new building.” Clint gestured at it as they walked closer. “Only completed about a month ago. We started off meeting in somebody’s basement.”

“This is a big upgrade.” She couldn’t help wondering how such a small congregation had amassed the funds to purchase property and construct a new building so soon.

“We have a few pretty big patrons,” Clint bragged. “One of them is a billionaire. A full-time philanthropist who’s married to one of the docs at the medical center.”

“Whew! Can you even imagine having that kind of money?” She sure couldn’t.

“Who cares?” He reached around her to open the door to the church and ushered her gallantly inside ahead of him. “We’re already living the dream, helping Johnny run his dairy farm. Speaking of Johnny…” He pointed jovially across the crowded entry foyer. “There he is!”

Her heart flip-flopped uncomfortably at the sight of him perched on a stool next to Caro. They were seated at a long coffee bar.

Clint slid a hand under her elbow and guided her in their direction. “Hope you two saved some coffee for us.”

Johnny had his Stetson resting on the bar in front of him. He twisted around and gave Clint’s hand beneath her arm a hard look.

Clint took his time dropping his hand to his side.

Johnny vacated his stool and waved Ashley onto it. “We saved enough for you.” He grimaced at his brother-in-law. “No promises for him.”

Caro looked down her nose at Ashley. “Did y’all come straight from your morning chores?” Her meaning was obvious. She thought Ashley was underdressed, and maybe she was in comparison to her long wheat-colored corduroy dress. A pair of boots with an intricately tailored design of wildflowers peeked out from the hem.

“We did.” Clint lifted his arm and pretended to blow his stench in her direction. “Got that good clean farm boy perfume on.”

She hitched the long skirt of her dress further away from him, making him chuckle.

He edged between her and Ashley’s stools, propping his elbows on the counter between them. “On the way here, I educated our favorite city girl on the rapid cooling process of dairy milk.”

Johnny parked himself on the other side of Ashley’s stool. “Sounds like you bored her to tears.”

Caro grew as still as a statue. She surveyed Ashley in puzzlement, like she’d grown a pair of antennae or something. “Why would you even care?” Though her tone was withering, it was clear to Ashley that she was very much interested in her answer.

Ashley forced a chuckle and dodged the question. “I told him it would be more exciting if they dropped dry ice into the vats.” She wondered what connection the woman had, if any, to the big pharma company that might’ve had a reason for wanting to end Mr. Clark’s life. Was The Black Widow more of a murder-for-hire contractor? It would certainly explain her history of moving around so frequently.

Johnny didn’t look amused by Ashley’s attempt at humor. “You do realize it would blow the roof off my barn?”

“I do now.” She made a face at him. “Clint already set me straight on that. It was still acoolidea. Pun intended.”

Johnny waved a finger at her. “Icesee what you did there!”

“Knock it off,” Clint shot back with a twinkle in his eyes. “There’ssnowjoking in church.”

“Wrong.” Johnny gave him a challenging look. “They let you through the front door, didn’t they?”

Clint guffawed. “Why do you think I brought Ashley with me? She was my ticket in the door.”

Both Johnny and Caro gave him sour looks.

Since Caro was already disgruntled, Ashley needled her some more about the lawsuit that had never made it to court. “All joking aside, I’m trying to sponge up everything I can about dairy farming. I read something not too long ago about an experimental chemical being injected into raw milk to accelerate the cooling process.”

Caro’s expression grew marbled.

Gotcha!Ashley’s gut told her that this wasn’t the first time the woman had heard about the experimental cooling process. It was yet another reason to believe she’d been involved in Mr. Clark’s untimely death.

“Never heard of it,” Johnny intoned flatly. He waved two fingers at the barista and ordered both her and Clint a cup of coffee. Then he dropped several one-dollar bills into the tip jar.

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