In the Paths of Righteousness (Psalm 23 Mysteries)

  “But the cowboys weren’t in the bunkhouse with us,” Cindy pointed out.

  “Aaron was, though, and he went home straight away,” Jeremiah said. “It’s possible whoever was in charge pulled him out after he missed his target. Or, it’s possible he is the one in charge and he removed himself to avoid suspicion.”

  “Is it possible one of the cowboys snuck into the bunkhouse and killed Martin?” Traci asked.

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” Jeremiah said, “but then I remembered how loudly the door to the cabin squeaked. They couldn’t have gotten in that way without waking someone up I think.”

  “Maybe they woke up Martin,” Cindy said darkly.

  “I think there was a window in the bathroom. Someone might have come in through there,” Traci said.

  “And they could have left the same way,” Jeremiah finished.

  “Okay, again we really have no way of narrowing our suspect pool down,” Cindy said irritated.

  “And we can’t prove that what happened to your saddle was anything more than an accident,” Jeremiah pointed out. “If it wasn’t, that would seem to incriminate one of the cowboys since it was their job to saddle the horses, but truly in all the chaos of getting started, anyone could have tampered with that saddle.”

  Cindy was beginning to think this mystery was the toughest they’d ever faced despite the fact that on the surface they had very few possible suspects. She sighed and craned her neck again to look over at Mark and Zack. They were on the ground now, clearly examining something, but her view was still obscured.

  “So really that leaves us with Roddy and Tex. The only possible people who were out of eyesight of everyone else who might have had a shot at Roddy were Tex and Curly.”

  “And Jeremiah, he went out looking for him,” Traci pointed out.

  “Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Jeremiah said, a dusting of sarcasm in his voice.

  Traci shrugged even though Jeremiah couldn’t see the gesture from where he was in the wagon.

  “Hank also helped search. It’s possible Roddy was lost or injured at that point which was why he hadn’t yet returned to the wagon.”

  “Okay, so we’re all agreed that it had to be Tex, Curly, Jeremiah or Hank who killed Roddy, right?” Traci asked.

  “Unless it was the steer or the other cattle,” Cindy said.

  “Or Aaron or someone else who has been following us,” Jeremiah interjected.

  Traci groaned. “This detective stuff is harder than it looks.”

  Cindy laughed grimly. “It is at that. Okay, let’s take a look at Tex. Who had access to him after he left the camp?

  “Noone, he was headed away from camp, the cattle, everything,” Traci said.

  “Immediately after he left Zack and Curly saddled up to go check on the cattle,” Jeremiah said. “It’s possible that one of them actually rode out and headed Tex off.”

  “But we know that Tex’s horse was faster than Curly’s,” Cindy protested.

  “Not if Curly was running his horse out flat to catch him and Tex was going at a reasonable pace,” Traci said.

  “But this could bring Zack also back under suspicion, especially if Roddy’s death was an accident,” Cindy said.

  “You’re both forgetting one thing,” Jeremiah said.

  “What?” Cindy and Traci asked in unison.

  “Anyone could have killed Tex, if he circled back and was waiting to meet with someone.”

  “Two killers?” Cindy asked in a whisper.

  “It’s happened before,” Jeremiah said.

  “It would explain a lot,” Traci replied.

  “That’s it, I definitely have a headache,” Cindy said, pressing her fingertips into her forehead.

  “I’m pretty sure I’m getting one, too,” Traci said. “How do we prove any of this?”

  “We wait, we watch. Sooner or later the killer will slip up,” Cindy said. “I mean, just think about how jittery we all are. The killer has to be a thousand times more so wondering if they’re going to get caught and knowing they still haven’t accomplished their goal of killing Kyle.”

  “If that truly was their goal,” Jeremiah pointed out. “For all we know they wanted Brent and Roddy dead for some reason and Kyle is a red herring.”

  “If that’s true, Kyle could even be a suspect,” Traci said, her voice strained sounding.

  Cindy rolled her eyes. “My brother might be a lot of things, but he’s not a killer.”

  “Honestly, I’m not sure we can rule out the possibility,” Traci said. “I mean, the two of you aren’t close, you don’t really speak, how do you know what kind of person he’s become since you were kids?”

  The thought chilled Cindy to the bone. She didn’t want to even contemplate it as a possibility. “But even if he did want them both dead for some reason, why kill them now? It’s sabotaging his own show.”

  “Or giving it stellar ratings for when it does finally air because of all the tragedy surrounding it,” Jeremiah suggested.

  “No, I refuse to believe my brother is that psycho and that shallow,” she said. “That just doesn’t make sense to me.”

  A moment later she saw Mark stand up and get back on his horse. He trotted over toward them and she realized she was holding her breath as she waited to hear the news. When he reached them, his face was grim.

  “Traci said you found Roddy’s body,” Cindy said.

  “What’s left of it. There was barely enough to recognize.”

  She cringed at the thought and tried not to let her imagination run wild picturing the scene.

  “I need to get a tarp so we can wrap up the remains and take them with us,” he said.

  “I’ll get it,” Cindy said, turning and pushing through the canvas into the back of the wagon.

  She stopped in surprise. Jeremiah was standing up, his hands completely unbound. He looked at her and lifted a finger in front of his lips to indicate that she should be quiet.

  She nodded slowly.

  He turned to rummage in a pile of things, and then produced a tarp which he handed her. She bit back the urge to say “thank you” as she turned and headed back to the front of the wagon.

  Once there she handed the tarp to Mark who had difficulty angling his horse closer. The animal skittered, sidestepping quite a few times and Mark started muttering under his breath. He finally got close enough to grab the tarp from her and she sat back down on the bench.

  “Could you tell if he was killed by someone or just gored or trampled to death?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “No, and to be honest, I’m not sure anyone’s going to be able to figure that out with certainty. Like I said, it’s a real mess. You ladies should stay here until we get it cleaned up.”

  “How are the others holding up?” Traci asked quietly.

  Mark shrugged. “About as well as can be expected, some better than others.”

  “Do any of them look guilty?” Cindy asked, cutting to the chase.

  “At this point everyone looks guilty to me,” Mark said rolling his eyes. “This whole thing is a complete mess.”

  Cindy noted that he didn’t instantly revert to blaming Jeremiah. That had to be a good thing, but she refrained from pointing it out.

  “Maybe you should send everyone who’s not helping you over this way,” Traci suggested. “That way they’re not in the way and we can talk to them and see if we can draw any conclusions,” Traci said.

  “Seems like a good idea,” Mark agreed. “I’ll send them over pronto.”

  And despite all the death and craziness Cindy watched as Traci smiled.

  “What?” Mark asked, obviously noticing his wife’s expression.

  “You’re starting to sound like a cowboy,” she said, and even Cindy could hear the admiration in her voice.

  She glanced at Mark and couldn’t tell if he was pleased or dismayed. He spun his horse, kicked him into motion and rode quickly back to the others. Cindy bit her lip. He had clearly b
een showing off for Traci. It was nice to see the two of them flirting with each other despite the years of marriage and the horror that they found themselves enmeshed in.

  “He really is so handsome,” Traci said softly.

  “His riding’s getting a lot better,” Cindy said.

  “I noticed.”

  Mark reached the group and they watched as he handed the tarp down to Zack. He then started gesturing back toward the wagon and after a few seconds the film crew trotted their horses toward them. They all looked weary and a bit shell shocked.

  Liz in particular was riding strangely, kind of flopping around in the saddle.

  “Is she okay?” Cindy asked.

  “She certainly doesn’t look okay,” Traci noted.

  They both watched as the riders approached. Cindy tried hard to study their faces. Kyle, in particular, looked sort of hollow while a couple of the others looked numb. She couldn’t read Wayne’s expression at all. She turned her attention back to Liz.

  The woman was riding even worse, sagging forward a bit over the saddle. “I think something is seriously wrong with her,” Cindy said, alarmed.

  “I think you’re right,” Traci said, voice tight.

  A moment later Traci exclaimed, “Look, her eyes are closed!”

  They were.

  Seconds later Liz’s horse stopped a few feet shy of the others. Liz swayed for a moment in the saddle.

  “Liz, are you okay?” Cindy shouted.

  A moment later Liz tumbled to the ground.

  17

  Traci screamed and Cindy jumped down from the wagon before she even knew what she was doing. She raced to Liz’s side. Liz’s horse shied away at Cindy’s approach and Kyle caught its bridle as it tried to run past him.

  Cindy hit her knees and the first thing she noticed was that Liz was breathing.

  “She’s alive!” she shouted up at Traci.

  She stared back down at Liz, not knowing what else she could do for her. She was afraid to even lift her head off the ground in case she’d injured her neck or back in the fall.

  “Get Zack,” she said, looking up, trying not to think about how this was so similar to when Brent had collapsed. She heard someone shouting for the doctor and she just kept watching Liz’s face, searching for the slightest sign of movement.

  Suddenly, the woman’s eyelashes flickered and a moment later she opened her eyes and looked up at Cindy with a bewildered expression. “What happened?” she asked.

  “You fell off your horse. It looked like you lost consciousness first,” Cindy explained. “Are you in pain?”

  “No, not really. I mean I feel a little sore.”

  “I don’t doubt it, you hit the ground pretty hard.”

  “We were coming back over to the wagon and I felt a little dizzy and lightheaded and that’s the last thing I remember,” Liz said. “I get low blood sugar sometimes. I brought a package of juice boxes with me just in case. They should be in a cooler somewhere in the wagon.”

  “I’ll go get one,” Cindy said, scrambling to her feet just as Zack arrived, face pale.

  She could swear she heard him mutter something under his breath about things being worse than they had been in the army. She had a hard time believing that, but she didn’t comment as she turned to the wagon. She climbed up into the back and Jeremiah regarded her with raised brows.

  “Liz fainted. It looks like her blood sugar might have crashed.”

  “Could also be stress. She was the one who screamed when the body was found, yes?”

  “That’s right,” Cindy said. “Where’s the cooler?”

  Jeremiah pointed and Cindy opened it. She pushed aside several packets of frozen meat and found a package of juice boxes just like Liz had said. One of them was already missing. Cindy wondered if Liz had already had an attack on the trip as she grabbed another one of the boxes and moved the meat back into position.

  She scrambled back down from the wagon and headed back over to Liz. Zack was checking her over and she handed the juice box to him. He helped Liz sit up and she began to drink a minute later.

  “She’ll be fine in a few minutes,” Zack reassured everyone present.

  All around heads bobbed up and down. People were beyond words, they were too tired, too shocked.

  Cindy went back and rejoined Traci next to the wagon. The other woman was rubbing her arms repetitively and her eyes were still wide.

  “You okay?” Cindy asked.

  “Yeah, it’s just a lot, you know?”

  Cindy understood all too well. She was just grateful this latest incident had nothing to do with foul play.

  Mark’s nerves and patience were both wearing thin. He was at the point that he wanted to arrest the entire camera crew and the cowboys and throw them in the back of the wagon. If he had thought he, Jeremiah, Cindy and Traci could successfully transport all of them to Righteousness in that manner he would do it in a heartbeat. It wasn’t practical, though. That would be three days of guarding people, at least one of whom would be growing increasingly desperate. Then there was the matter of even figuring out where they were headed. If one or both of the cowboys did turn out to be involved they couldn’t be trusted to send them on the quickest path or even the correct one.

  No, as much as he didn’t like it they were just going to have to stick to the plan and wait things out, hoping the killer would trip themselves up. If nothing happened in the next day, though, he was thinking they were going to have to do something to force the issue. He wasn’t sure how long they could survive on the trail without someone else falling victim. He and Jeremiah were going to have to have a talk later. He needed to talk with Traci and Cindy, too. Between the four of them they should be able to figure this out.

  The more Jeremiah thought about it the more suspicious he became of Norman. Norman was the most unassuming of their seven suspects and he had come late to the party. Neither of those, though, ruled him out. He had arrived awfully quickly and conveniently on the scene to take over for the dead Martin. This was supposed to be Norman’s show, his baby. Instead of getting to host, he wasn’t even allowed to be the cinematographer on the show. Killing Martin allowed him to take over that position and gain a place on the crew. In his twisted mind he probably thought that killing Kyle would allow him to move into the position of host that should have been his.

  If Norman believed Kyle had stolen his show that could cause enough hatred to be reason enough to murder him. If Norman thought getting Kyle out of the way would allow him to get his show back, that could also be reason enough to murder him. What better way of throwing suspicion off himself than by supposedly not even being there during the first murder?

  He might not even have been, that was the beauty of it. He could have paid Tex to do it for him. Then he could have later killed Tex either because he didn’t want someone else around who knew the truth or because Tex tried to blackmail him. It was a good plan. Who knew if it would have worked if he had managed to kill Kyle either with the saddle or the poison and it had been attributed to an accident. It would have become the ill-fated show on which two people died. That kind of thing could certainly drive ratings from curiosity seekers.

  Roddy could have easily overheard something from Norman or Tex necessitating that one of them kill him. That is, if it hadn’t been an accident, which Jeremiah very much doubted.

  He would have to discuss his theory with Mark. Norman was the logical killer. He had the strongest motive and, hypothetically, the most to gain. Maybe working together they could set a trap for Norman.

  It really was the most logical explanation. He could tell that Wayne hated Kyle, but he didn’t think the man would resort to premeditated murder. Kill Kyle in a fistfight in the heat of the moment maybe, but plan it out, Jeremiah didn’t think so. Junior wasn’t likely to try something like that on his own. With his personality he was far more likely to be an accomplice than a mastermind. There was a slim chance Junior was working for Norman, but Jeremiah’s money was on
Tex as the accomplice.

  Zack and Hank he had pretty much ruled out. He had a hard time believing either of them was involved. Liz and Curly were both a bit more unknown, but he couldn’t see any real motivation for either of them in either killing Kyle or shutting down the production. Besides, Curly had seemed genuinely distraught over the death of his friend.

  With it settled in his mind all he had to do now was wait for an opportunity to speak to Mark alone. He hoped the detective would check in with him before they got started back on the trail. Twenty minutes later, though, it looked like that was not to be as he could hear Cindy and Zack taking their seats back at the front of the wagon again. Jeremiah sighed. Trapping Norman was just going to have to wait.

  They were back on the trail and Zack was sitting next to Cindy again. Cindy was surprised at first that Liz had declined to ride on the wagon, but had chalked it up to not wanting to be too close to either the dead bodies or Jeremiah.

  They had gone nearly half an hour in silence when Zack finally spoke. “You know, it’s the craziest thing, but I keep waiting for the next emergency,” he said. “I can feel the muscles in my legs all bunched up like I’m just waiting to leap down from the wagon again.”

  “It’s not crazy,” Cindy reassured him. “I know exactly how you feel. Whenever I’m in the middle of something like this I feel the same way, like I’m just waiting to figure out which way to jump.”

  “That’s it exactly! I don’t know how some people live their lives this way.”

  “Like cops?” she asked.

  “Yeah, and outlaws, too.”

  “Outlaws?”

  “Yeah, my great-great grandfather and his cousin were outlaws in the old west, they robbed banks and trains, that sort of thing. They actually had a hideout not that far from here.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, you see that mountain right over there with the sheer side facing us?” he asked, pointing off to the right and ahead of them slightly.