Give First Place to Murder Read Free Page A

thought irrelevantly.
    No one else said anything, so finally I pointed at the closed feed room door. “He’s in there.”
    “ And you found him.” Dan was addressing me. It wasn’t exactly a question and his tone wasn’t entirely acid free.
    “ You don’t have to sound like I did it on purpose,” I told him, stung. “Not having seen that would have been fine with me.”
    “ Did you touch anything?” The expression on Dan’s face was as frosty as his tone.
    “ The door when I went in. And the horse blanket thing. If I’d known there was a body in there, I would have been more careful.” What was the matter with him? I’d had a terrible morning and had been counting on Dan, but all I was getting was this brusque official behavior. Where was my friend, where was my comfort, where was my rock?
    By now, two other black and whites had arrived, spilling uniformed officers into the barn aisle. A fire truck pulled slowly toward us, the paramedics right behind them. An unmarked car, with our town’s only two plain-clothes officers, stopped behind Dan’s.
    “ Ricker,” Dan turned toward one of the men, “start taping this place off. Get all these people out of here. Is there someplace you can all go? Out of our way?”
    This was addressed to all of us, but Susannah, still ashen faced, answered. “There are some deck chairs up there, at the end of the barn aisle.”
    “ Good. Go there, all of you, and stay there. I’ll be up to talk to you. Soon. Gary?” Dan motioned to one of the uniformed officers, “Let’s take a look.”
    He eased the door open without touching the handle and slid in. Gary, smooth faced and eager, tugged at his gun belt, smiled shyly at me, and followed.
    All the rest of our group obediently trooped down toward the deck chairs, but I hung back. It didn’t take long to get a reaction.
    “ Jesus Christ,” came Dan’s voice, uncharacteristically awed.
    Gary said nothing. He appeared at the door, his hand over his mouth, his eyes wild. I pointed down the barn aisle toward the bathrooms, and he ran off.
    Dan followed him out, looking a little whiter and a lot less angry. “You saw that?” he asked.
    I nodded.
    “ Not very pretty,” he said, with the first trace of humanity I’d heard since he arrived. “Who was he?”
    “ Some kid who worked for Bryce Ellis, Irma’s horse trainer. I think his name was Rusty.”
    “ Rusty what?”
    “ No idea. Ask Susannah. Or Irma.” I could be brusque too.
    Dan looked down at me for a moment. “Let’s do that,” he said.
    We walked back to the group without speaking. Irma sat in one of the deck chairs, Susannah stood beside her. Pat had pulled her chair a little way back toward the barn, out of the way and in the shade. Chovalo was nowhere to be seen.
    Dan didn’t glance at Susannah or Pat, but addressed Irma gently. “The boy in there, he worked for your trainer, Bryce Ellis?’
    “ I guess so,” Irma answered. Her face had a gray tinge and her wrinkled hand shook a little. “He only started this morning. Bryce hadn’t told me he’d hired him. How did he...why would someone...are you sure it’s Rusty?”
    “ All things we’re trying to find out. Now, if you will stay right here, I’ll be back to talk to you soon. All of you. Right here.” Dan had been polite to Irma, but that vanished as he pointed to the one remaining empty deck chair while glaring meaningfully at me. I dropped into it, he turned on his heel and strode back down the barn aisle.
    “ What’s the matter with him?” Pat asked.
    I shrugged. I had an idea, but wasn’t sure I wanted to talk about it.
    “ What’s going on?” Bryce had returned, a short, chunky girl hanging on his arm. “Why are all these police cars here? And that ambulance. Is someone hurt?”
    “ Someone’s murdered your friend Rusty.” Susannah told him grimly.
    “ Murdered!” Bryce exclaimed. “What do you mean, murdered!” He had handed the girl his show whip and started to remove his