Linda Crowder - Jake and Emma 02 - Main Street Murder (5 page)

“Did I tell you how amazing you look tonight?” asked Jake after they’d crossed the busy street and were walking toward the arena gates.

Emma blushed.  “That never gets old either,” she told him.  They handed their tickets to the volunteer at the gate, who tore them in half and handed their portion back to them. 

“Have a great night,” he said.  They worked their way through the happy crowd, stopping here and there to say hello to friends on the way to their seats.  Jake liked to sit on the aisle, the better to accommodate his long legs so when they reached their row, the couple stood on the steps chatting with other rodeo-goers until the seats began to fill.

Emma left Jake talking with one of his former rancher clients and
worked her way through the crowd to the bottom row where Kristy and Cheri sat.  She perched on the cement ledge in front of their seats and asked if Kristy if she was looking forward to her first rodeo.

Kristy smiled, “I sure am.  I can’t believe I’ve lived in Casper this long and I’ve never
gone to Summer Solstice.  I had no idea what I was missing.”

“It is a great crowd,” agreed Emma.  “And the riders are top-notch.”

“They’re getting into form for Frontier Days,” agreed Cheri.  When both ladies looked at her with surprise, the banker explained that many of the riders in Casper would be competing to earn their way into the bigger event. 

“I never knew that,” said Emma.  “I thought the Solstice attracted
mostly college riders.”

Cheri shook her head.  “It’s a professional rodeo with a cash purse,” she explained.  “Nothing like Frontier Days of course, but enough to make it worthwhile for riders who are
working to get established.”

“Impressive,” said Kristy.
  “I didn’t know you knew so much about rodeo.”

Cheri laughed.  “You can’t live in Wyoming for 20 years and not
learn about rodeo.”

“Absolutely,” agreed Emma.  “I asked Jake so many questions at the first rodeo he took me to that the man in front of us kept turning around and glaring at me.”

The women laughed.  “Well I didn’t want to be accused of being a tenderfoot,” said Cheri.  “Besides, the bank is one of the Solstice’s Gold Buckle Sponsors so I’ve been treated to a non-stop diet of rodeo trivia for years.  I had to learn in self-defense!”

The announcer’s voice came over the loudspeaker urging patrons to take their seats and Emma excused herself to return to Jake.  The rodeo started with a parade of riders,
introducing each entrant - rider and horse - to the cheering crowd.

Barrel R
acing was the first event and Emma found herself caught up in the excitement.  She shouted encouragement at the local riders and gasped when one rider’s horse nearly lost footing coming around the outside barrel then stood with the crowd when horse and rider righted themselves and finished the event in surprisingly good time.

Mutton
Busting was an event that never lost its charm for Emma.  In it, very young children simulated bronc busting by riding on the back of a sheep.  Some small riders stayed on their sheep for the requisite eight seconds but many tumbled good naturedly into the dirt.

Jake’s favorite event was
Bull Riding, something that frightened Emma. She watched rider after rider being bucked off and nearly trampled if not for the courage and daring of the rodeo clowns.  Bull Riding closed the opening half of the night’s competition.

The competitors took a break while the Summer Solstice Rodeo Queen and her Court entertained the crowd with precision riding.  Emma marveled at the seemingly effortless communication between horse and rider as the young women completed their routine.

She was caught up in the excitement of Team Roping, which followed the Queen’s presentation, when the action was brought to an abrupt halt by a frantic scream.  Jake, Emma and the crowd around them turned toward the sound to see a woman urgently waving her arms at a volunteer usher.

“Call 9-1-1!” she screamed.  “There’s a woman b
leeding to death in the ladies room.”  The crowd rumbled with anxious voices while two white-shirted paramedics, always on hand at rodeos, hurriedly followed the woman.  A few minutes later a man and a woman with a stretcher made their way through the crowd while the volunteer security crew held back the crowd.

“Kristy!” gasped Emma, as she saw her friend emerge from the restroom, following the ambulance crew with the victim on their stretcher.  Her face was pale
and there was blood on her hands and shirt.  Looking grim, she followed the stretcher out the gate toward what Emma knew would be the waiting ambulance.

Emma
turned to Jake, gripping his arm so she wouldn’t be knocked over by the crowd, which after holding its collective breath during the crisis was now pushing in panic toward the exits. Jake put his arm around Emma and they stood on the steps like stones in a river, letting the crowd surge around them.

Emma listened while one siren signaled the departure of the ambulance then sirens in the distance heralded the approaching police.  “I don’t know where people think they’re going,” Jake said to Emma, putting his mouth to her ear to be heard over the
frightened crowd.  “The police are going to want to get names of everyone here and they’ll want to talk to anyone who may have seen the victim.”

“Do you really think they’ll stop people from leaving?” asked Emma.  She looked around at the people streaming toward the exits and didn’t envy the job of any police officer who
had to hold back that tide.

“They’ll have to,” said Jake.  “At least until they
find out if there were any witnesses to the incident.”

“Wouldn’t they assume any witnesses would voluntarily stay?”

Jake nodded.  “The witnesses usually do, but the perpetrator? Not likely.  If they can get ID’s for everyone here, they can run them to see if there are any names that jump out as being persons of interest.”

“That’s crazy,” said Emma.  “There must be thousands of people here tonight.  It would be like looking for one grain of sand in the desert.”

“Tedious, I agree, and not as likely to produce results as those crime shows on TV,”  Jake paused as he watched a belligerent man push another man out of his way.  A volunteer wearing a yellow “Security” vest intervened.  “You watch, they’ll block the exits to the parking lots and take names before anyone gets to go home tonight.”

Jake was right and it was
well past midnight when he and Emma finally saw the lights of home.  Jake unlocked the door for his wife then went to the barn to check on the dogs, as he did every evening.  Charlie and Casper barked a welcome as they heard him approach.

Emma walked into the quiet house to find two cats sleeping on separate levels of the kitty tower.  A quick scan of t
he room revealed nothing broken, tipped over or shoved onto the floor so she concluded Peachy must have kept Sparki out of trouble as requested.

She was slipping out of her cowgirl outfit and into a loose nightshirt when her cell phone started to ring.  Emma saw Kristy’s picture come up and grabbed the phone.  Sitting on the edge of the bed, she answered, “Kristy?  Oh my gosh, what happened?  Are you ok?”

“Yes, I’m fine,” came her friend’s tired voice.  “Can you come pick me up?  I left my car at the rodeo grounds when I rode with Cheri in the ambulance.”

“Cheri?” gasped Emma.  “It was Cheri who was hurt?”

“Yes,” replied Kristy.  “They rushed her into surgery when we got here.”

“How is she?”  Emma looked up as Jake came into the bedroom, his eyes asking the question.  Emma put her phone on speaker.  “Honey, Jake’s here too.  I’m putting you on speaker.  It was Cheri in the
ladies room, Jake.” 

“Oh my God,” was all Jake could say, dropping onto the bed next to Emma.

“She came through the operation just fine,” came Kristy’s voice from the phone Emma held between them.  “The doctor is ‘cautiously optimistic’ about her prognosis.”

“
Oh Kristy, I’m so sorry,” said Emma.  “You sound exhausted.  Let us come pick you up and you can tell us about it when you’ve had some sleep.”

“Sleep would be good,” agreed Kristy, “though I don’t know how I’m going to get any for awhile.”

“Don’t think another thing about it right now,” suggested Emma.  “Whatever needs to be said or thought or done can wait for tomorrow.”

“We’re on our way,” Jake broke in, “we’ll pick you up
at the north entrance.”

“
Stay inside with the security guard until we get there,” added Emma.  Kristy agreed and Emma dressed quickly, passing up the cowgirl clothing for more practical jeans and a t-shirt.

When she was ready, the couple went out to the car and started the drive back into town.  It was ten miles of dirt road before they reached the highway and five miles from there to the hospital.  Neither spoke on the way, each lost in their own thoughts.

When Jake pulled up outside the designated entrance, Kristy came out and got into the back seat.  As Jake pulled away from the hospital, she slumped into her seat and thanked them for coming out in the middle of the night to pick her up.

“Of course we came,” said Emma, twisting in her seat to see her friend.  “I’m glad you called us.”

Kristy sighed and closed her eyes.  “It was just horrible,” she said at last.  “Cheri told me she needed to use the ladies room so when the Queen’s Court came out, we dashed up to see if we could get back before the team roping.”

“Did you see what happened?” asked Emma.

“No,” said Kristy, her voice shaking.  “I left before Cheri and went to get something to drink.  When I got back, she wasn’t in our seats so I went up to find her.”

Kristy’s voice trailed off.  The car was silent for a mile or two, with only the sound of the engine and the sparse
late night traffic.  “I found her laying on the floor in the ladies room, blood pouring out of her stomach.”

Kristy started to cry.  “I screamed for help and ran to her.  I tried to stop the bleeding.”  Kristy looked at her hands, almost invisible in the dark car, remembering the blood that had seeped between her fingers no matter how hard she pressed.

“It’s ok,” said Emma softly.  “You did great.  You saved Cheri’s life.”

Kristy took a ragged breath and brushed the tears from her eyes.  “I hope so,” was all she said.

Jake offered to drive Kristy’s car for her while Emma drove home with Kristy.  “Why don’t you stay with us tonight?” Emma asked her.  “You shouldn’t be alone right now.”

Kristy accepted their offer and moved to the front seat as Emma slipped into the driver’s seat and Jake took Kristy’s keys to let himself into her Chevy.  His knees hit the steering wheel and he quickly
located the lever and moved the seat as far back as it would go.  He pulled out of the parking lot and Emma fell in behind him for the long drive home.

Reaching the house, Emma showed Kristy the guest room and put out fresh towels for her.  Kristy thanked her and dropped onto the bed, falling asleep before she could even take off her shoes.  Softy, Emma slipped Kristy’s shoes off her feet and laid them by the
bed. 

Her heart ached at the sight of blood staining the arms of Kristi’s shirt and she said a quick prayer for Cheri.  Then Emma
took an afghan that always laid across the foot of the bed and gently covered her sleeping friend.  She switched off the light at the door, quietly closing it behind her.

“Sleep well,” she whispered.

7

Emma was making coffee when Kristy came into the kitchen the next morning.  She was freshly showered, wearing a blue bathrobe that Emma kept in the guest bath, but her eyes were red and her face was puffy.

“I should be making the coffee,” said Kristy.

“Don’t be silly,” said Emma.  “We’re not at work, you’re my guest.”

“A guest who makes much better coffee than you do,” Kristy said.  Emma laughed and relinquished the coffee pot to her friend.

“You have a point there,” she said.  Kristy scooped coffee into the filter and ran water for the pot while Emma pulled cereal boxes out of the pantry.  “You look exhausted.”

“I feel exhausted,” agreed Kristy.  She sighed and closed her eyes.  “I just kept thinking about finding Cheri.   All night long, every time I fell asleep I dreamed about it and whenever I woke up she was all I could see.”

Emma put her arm around Kristy’s shoulder.  “You saved her life,” she told her friend.  “Thank God you went to look for her when you did.”

“That was part of what kept me awake last night, thinking what if I’d just sat down and watched the rodeo?  What if I hadn’t gone looking for her?”  Kristy’s shoulder started to shake and Emma gently turned her around and hugged her.

“But you did, honey.  That’s all that matters.  It’s out of our hands now.”  The two women stood like that, one comforting the other, until the quiet was broken by the ringing of the phone.  Emma moved to answer it while Kristy went back to making coffee and poured herself a bowl of cereal.

Kristy was sitting at the breakfast bar, munching cereal and reading the paper, her coffee cup beside her when Emma returned.  “That was Jake,” said Emma, reaching into the cupboard for a bowl and pouring cereal for herself.

“I wondered where he disappeared to,” said Kristy.

“He had to go to court,” Emma explained.  “One of his kids was busted for possession last night and Jake had to go to the arraignment this morning.”  Kristy nodded.  Many Casper businesses worked limited hours during Solstice Week - Emma’s included, since she found few of her clients wanted to schedule appointments with the rodeo in town.  The courts were open for business as usual though and defendants were entitled to a speedy arraignment.

“He called to let me know he’s going to be longer than he expected,” Emma went on.  “There are quite a few cases ahead of his.”

Kristy laughed, “I bet there are!  Rodeo week always gives people an excuse to get drunk.”  Emma nodded.  The Solstice crowd was rowdy but for the most part sober since the arena limited how many drinks a patron could buy.  Still, there were always those outside of the arena who took advantage of the police attention being diverted to the Solstice.

“So since Jake is going to be busy all morning,” Emma continued, “I was thinking we could run by your place and so you can change clothes then we could go to the hospital to see how Cheri’s doing.”

“That’s a great idea,” agreed Kristy.  “I like this bathrobe but I don’t think it would go over too well at Casper Medical Center.”  Both women laughed, then Kristy sighed again.  “And I would really love to have you with me when I see Cheri again.”

Their plans made, the women finished their breakfast.  Emma stacked their dishes in the dishwasher while Kristy disappeared into the guest room to change back into the clothing she’d worn the night before.

Half an hour later, Emma stood in Kristy’s living room, looking out at Casper Mountain while Kristy changed.  “I think I’m just going to throw this out,” she said holding up her blood-stained shirt for Emma to see.

“I don’t know,” said Emma.  “I think we might be able to get that stain to come out if we worked on it enough.”

Kristy let her arms drop, examining the offending blouse.  “Maybe.  But as I was running the water to put it to soak I thought, do I really want to wear this again?”  She looked up at her friend.  “I don’t think I do.” 

She quickly crossed the room and opened the antique metal door to the trash chute.  Stuffing the blouse into the chute Kristy let the door clang shut behind it.  “I don’t think I would ever have been able to enjoy wearing that shirt again.”

“I don’t blame you,” said Emma.  They took the elevator to the underground parking lot where they’d left Kristy’s car.  On-site parking was a treasure downtown so Kristy hadn’t balked at paying a little extra to have a reserved space with her condo.

Tucking the car into the garage at the hospital, Emma followed Kristy as she walked into the Intensive Care ward where she had left Cheri the night before.  Stopping to check in with the nurse on duty, they found that Cheri was in stable but serious condition. 

They found their friend in a bright room, her bed in the center, angled to face an observation room where a doctor sat staring up at a wall of monitors.  He came out to speak with Emma and Kristy when they walked into the room.

“She is holding her own,” he assured them when they asked about their friend’s condition.  “She lost a lot of blood so she’s pretty weak right now.  Our big concern is that she may develop an infection from the knife the perforating the bowel when she was stabbed.”

Emma winced.  It was the first time she’d heard how Cheri had been injured.  Kristy had said she found Cheri in a pool of blood but Emma had just assumed Cheri had been shot.  Of course not, she realized, because everyone would have heard a shot, even over the rodeo noise.

“Is she going to be ok?” asked Kristy.  The doctor said it was too soon to say for certain that Cheri was out of the woods but as long as there was no infection, she should recover.

“Is she sleeping?” asked Emma, “Or….” her voice trailed off.

“She’s in a medically induced sleep right now,” replied the doctor.  “But we’ll be easing up on the medication in a day or two.  We just want to be sure all of her energy is directed at healing right now.”

             
The ladies thanked the doctor, who went back to the monitors.  He made some notes in the computer and moved to the next patient.  Emma and Kristy stood on either side of Cheri’s bed, each woman holding a hand, then they joined hands with each other over the bed and said a heartfelt prayer for their friend.

“It occurs to me,” said Emma, “that Cheri may not have been the intended victim.”

Jake put down the chopsticks he was struggling with and looked at his wife across the table.  After they left Cheri, Kristy had dropped Emma off at Jake’s office.  Since Emma had no clients scheduled that day, the two women had taken the day off.  Kristy said she was going to try to take a nap to make up for not sleeping much the night before.

Emma had let herself into Jake’s office and was using her cell phone to check her voice mail and return client calls when he came in from court.  Hearing the door open, Emma looked up from her calendar as she waited for the client on the line to decide what time next Thursday would work for her appointment.

It didn’t matter how many years they’d been married, the sight of Jake in his “monkey suit” always brought a smile to her face.  He was the only man she knew who looked equally at home in a three piece suit arguing a case before a judge and in dusty jeans and a t-shirt moving rocks to build the back yard pond Emma had always wanted for a water garden.

The appointment with her client set, Emma tapped “end call” on her cell phone and slid it into her purse.  “I am not dressed well enough to be seen with you, counselor,” she joked as he bent to kiss her. 

“I’ll overlook it this time,” he bantered.  Emma was wearing an old yellow sundress that every fall went into her “discard” pile only to be fished out and packed away “just for one more year.”  Instead of her watch, she wore a wide silver bracelet she’d bought in Santa Fe and as they left the office Emma popped on a colorful straw hat she found on their last vacation in Mexico.  To Jake, she looked like the Goddess of Summer.

Now sitting in their favorite Chinese food restaurant, Emma deftly manipulating her chopsticks, Jake was taken aback by her abrupt change in conversation.  “What makes you think that?” he asked.  “I assume you’re talking about the two men you overheard at the parade.”

“Yes, of course,” said Emma.  “Cheri was sitting with Kristy on the float but she couldn’t have been who they were talking about because she wouldn’t have had any connection with Shipton.”

“That you know of,” responded Jake.  He gave up on his chopsticks as he always did and resorted to using his fork.  “She may have known him.”

Emma shook her head.  “No, I don’t think so.  I think if she did, she would have mentioned something to Kristy about it at the time.  His picture was in the paper, you remember?”  Jake nodded.  “I don’t remember Kristy ever telling me that anyone had spoken with her about Shipton.”

“It’s possible she had some connection to him that she didn’t want to advertise.”  Jake held up his had to stop Emma’s protest.  “I know, you like Cheri.  I do too but everybody has secrets.  Just because she didn’t talk about a connection doesn’t mean there wasn’t one.”

“By that logic,” said Emma, who appreciated Jake’s logical mind even when it clashed with her more emotional approach to life, “you could say maybe Kristy knew more about Shipton than she is telling me.”

“You could say that, but you know Kristy much better than you know Cheri.  It would be harder for Kristy to hide something from you.”

“There is something she’s hiding from me,” said Emma.  Jake looked at her in surprise.  “Well, she isn’t exactly hiding it but  when she first started working for me, she came to me as part of a program that helps displaced women find jobs.  Her case worker told me that she was fleeing domestic violence, but that’s all she told me and Kristy’s never told me anything about it.”

“I can’t believe you’ve never asked,” said Jake.  “You ask total strangers all kinds of personal questions.”

“Those are my clients,” Emma protested.  “I ask what I need to in order to help them.”

Jake laughed.  “I wasn’t talking about your clients.  I was talking about people we meet on vacation, people who sit next to us at the movies, people who make the mistake of getting into an elevator with us!”  Emma colored.  “You are the nosiest person I know.  How can you not have asked Kristy about her past?”

“Because it wouldn’t have been fair,” said Emma.  “I’m her boss, even if we are friends now, we didn’t know each other from Adam then.  I told her if she ever felt she wanted or needed to talk about her past, I would be there to listen.  I left it up to her.  She hasn’t ever talked about it.”

Emma frowned.  “She hasn’t talked much at all about her past, come to think about it.  We talk all the time but it’s always about what’s going on now, what our plans are for the future.”

“So I suppose we’ll keep her on the list of possible intended victims,” said Jake.

“She was anyway,” agreed Emma.  “But I guess you’re right about keeping Cheri on the list too.  If there is so much I don’t know about someone I know as well as I know Kristy, there could be all kinds of things I don’t know about Cheri.”

They ate in companionable silence for a few minutes then Jake asked her, “Are we certain that the attack on Cheri is connected to the men at the parade?”

Emma tilted her head and looked at him in thought.  Jake stifled a laugh since the movement and expression on Emma’s face were a virtual carbon copy to one of Sparky’s favorite gestures.  He’d heard people begin to resemble their pets and wondered if he had unconsciously copied any of Casper or Charlie’s behaviors.

“I know you’re always saying how many coincidences there are,” said Emma thoughtfully.  “But I really do think they have to be connected.  Whether Kristy or Cheri was the target, they were together at the parade when two men mention the name of a man who has been murdered and point out a woman that needs to be ‘taken care of.’   Then they were together again at the rodeo when one of them was attacked.  Things like that don’t just happen in Casper, Jake.”

“Except that you’re overlooking something,” said Jake almost reluctantly.  “These two men you heard would have a hard time going unseen in and out of a women’s restroom at a crowded rodeo in order to attack Cheri.”

“Kristy said there wasn’t anyone else in the ladies room when she found Cheri,” mused Emma.  “I suppose they could have been watching her, waiting for an opportunity to strike.  When they realized she was in the restroom alone, they could have moved in and out very quickly.”