Read Online A Bobwhite Killing by Jan Dunlap - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Jan Dunlap
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can be.”
Right.
Heck, if she’d planned to kill the guy, she could have just fed him to Nigel and saved herself a bunch of time, if not gas money. As someone who does a lot of driving to go birding, I certainly appreciate the price of gas and the dent it can put in my budget—it’s not like gas coupons grow on trees in Minnesota. The way the media was already painting Kami, though, she sounded less like an economizing driver and more like a serial killer on a shooting spree. True, I didn’t know Kami, but I did know Jack, and I couldn’t see him being involved with a woman who had a problem with violence.
For that matter, I couldn’t see him involved with anyone but his wife. Especially when that wife was Shana.
But I was no sheriff either, and since the two men were on Kami’s property shortly before their murders, that was enough of a link for Sheriff Paulsen to question Kami about both deaths. Obviously, I had a lot to learn about investigating murders because, from my perspective, the sheriff was making quite an assumption that the two deaths were linked to Kami. I mean, for all the sheriff knew, maybe Billy had taken off to spend the morning birding alone after doing his spying gig for Shana, and he’d just had the rotten bad luck to accidentally walk into a random bullet.
Happens all the time, right?
Not.
Which meant the deaths were linked. But whether Kami was the connection was still hard for me to swallow. Even Shana, who suspected that Jack and Kami were having an affair, immediately thought that Jack’s death had something to do with the work he’d been doing with eco-communities. She told us all that Jack had made enemies.
Although, to be one hundred percent accurate, her first comment was that she had killed him.
At the time I’d chalked it up to hysteria, but now that I recalled her exact words, I felt a ripple of unease slide up my spine.
Shana had said, “It’s all my fault.”
All?
What was Shana not telling us?
Chapter Eleven
“Bob!”
I turned my head to see Renee and Mac Ackerman, two members of our birding group, walk into the lobby. Since we were all going to be having dinner together at the A&W across the street, they plopped down on the sofa next to my armchair and began to tell me what I’d missed when Shana and I had slipped out the hotel window to escape the media circus.
“That Chuck O’Keefe sure hates Shana,” Renee reported. “He kept yelling at the sheriff, saying that Shana was a manipulative schemer, and that he wasn’t fooled by her innocent grieving widow act. He said she had more irons in the fire than anyone knew about, and he wasn’t about to let her take OK Industries away from Jack’s real family.”
“OK Industries?”
“O’Keefe Industries, Bob,” Mac clarified for me. “It’s the family empire. They’ve got interests in just about every business in the state. Mills, real estate, grocery stores, banking.”
“Jack O’Keefe came a long way from his humble origins, that’s for sure,” Renee added. “I told the reporters that when Jack was in high school, all the girls were in love with him.” A distinct red blush colored her cheeks. “Including me.”
Mac threw his arm around his smiling wife and hugged her close. “That was a long time ago.”
“Yes, it was,” Renee agreed, wiping away a tear that had crept into her eyes when she’d said Jack’s name. “But it doesn’t make it any easier to see someone you know … dead.”
She sniffed and turned away to dig into her purse for a tissue.
“Yeah, if it hadn’t been for that Ben Graham, I don’t think the sheriff would have ever gotten Chuck to calm down, let alone leave the hotel. I guess he’s an old pal of Jack’s, and he’s known Chuck since he was a baby,” Mac continued. “Anyway, as soon as he told the reporters about Jack and Kami Marsden having an affair, they could have cared less about Chuck, I think. I guess a sex scandal beats an outraged
Right.
Heck, if she’d planned to kill the guy, she could have just fed him to Nigel and saved herself a bunch of time, if not gas money. As someone who does a lot of driving to go birding, I certainly appreciate the price of gas and the dent it can put in my budget—it’s not like gas coupons grow on trees in Minnesota. The way the media was already painting Kami, though, she sounded less like an economizing driver and more like a serial killer on a shooting spree. True, I didn’t know Kami, but I did know Jack, and I couldn’t see him being involved with a woman who had a problem with violence.
For that matter, I couldn’t see him involved with anyone but his wife. Especially when that wife was Shana.
But I was no sheriff either, and since the two men were on Kami’s property shortly before their murders, that was enough of a link for Sheriff Paulsen to question Kami about both deaths. Obviously, I had a lot to learn about investigating murders because, from my perspective, the sheriff was making quite an assumption that the two deaths were linked to Kami. I mean, for all the sheriff knew, maybe Billy had taken off to spend the morning birding alone after doing his spying gig for Shana, and he’d just had the rotten bad luck to accidentally walk into a random bullet.
Happens all the time, right?
Not.
Which meant the deaths were linked. But whether Kami was the connection was still hard for me to swallow. Even Shana, who suspected that Jack and Kami were having an affair, immediately thought that Jack’s death had something to do with the work he’d been doing with eco-communities. She told us all that Jack had made enemies.
Although, to be one hundred percent accurate, her first comment was that she had killed him.
At the time I’d chalked it up to hysteria, but now that I recalled her exact words, I felt a ripple of unease slide up my spine.
Shana had said, “It’s all my fault.”
All?
What was Shana not telling us?
Chapter Eleven
“Bob!”
I turned my head to see Renee and Mac Ackerman, two members of our birding group, walk into the lobby. Since we were all going to be having dinner together at the A&W across the street, they plopped down on the sofa next to my armchair and began to tell me what I’d missed when Shana and I had slipped out the hotel window to escape the media circus.
“That Chuck O’Keefe sure hates Shana,” Renee reported. “He kept yelling at the sheriff, saying that Shana was a manipulative schemer, and that he wasn’t fooled by her innocent grieving widow act. He said she had more irons in the fire than anyone knew about, and he wasn’t about to let her take OK Industries away from Jack’s real family.”
“OK Industries?”
“O’Keefe Industries, Bob,” Mac clarified for me. “It’s the family empire. They’ve got interests in just about every business in the state. Mills, real estate, grocery stores, banking.”
“Jack O’Keefe came a long way from his humble origins, that’s for sure,” Renee added. “I told the reporters that when Jack was in high school, all the girls were in love with him.” A distinct red blush colored her cheeks. “Including me.”
Mac threw his arm around his smiling wife and hugged her close. “That was a long time ago.”
“Yes, it was,” Renee agreed, wiping away a tear that had crept into her eyes when she’d said Jack’s name. “But it doesn’t make it any easier to see someone you know … dead.”
She sniffed and turned away to dig into her purse for a tissue.
“Yeah, if it hadn’t been for that Ben Graham, I don’t think the sheriff would have ever gotten Chuck to calm down, let alone leave the hotel. I guess he’s an old pal of Jack’s, and he’s known Chuck since he was a baby,” Mac continued. “Anyway, as soon as he told the reporters about Jack and Kami Marsden having an affair, they could have cared less about Chuck, I think. I guess a sex scandal beats an outraged
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