Page 21 of A Dead End Fourth of July (Tiger’s Eye Mysteries #14)

Tess

There was a small crowd of tipsy revelers not too far from the tent. They gave us startled looks as we ran past them but didn't follow us. On the left side of the tent, I glimpsed another person running, though. A woman with long, dark hair.

She was running away from the tent.

Which looked awfully suspicious.

"Jack!"

"I see her, but we need to check on Cletus first." He shoved through the closed tent flaps and skidded to a stop, causing me to run into him.

"Hey," I panted. I really needed to up my cardio game. "A little warning next time?"

"Tess. Call Susan and Andy," Jack said, his voice grim.

"Is Cletus okay?" I tried to peer over his shoulder, but he was blocking me from going inside or even seeing what—or who—was in there.

"Cletus will never be okay again."

And with those six words, my knees went out from under me, and my vision went gray.

Because my oh-so-recent vision had already come true.

Jack put his arms around me and pulled me close. "I'm so sorry, Tess. I wasn't thinking about how that would make you feel. I'm so sorry. Do you need to sit down?"

I leaned against him for a long moment and then shook my head. "No. I need to help."

He touched his forehead to mine. "You're one of the bravest people I've ever met, Tess Callahan-Shepherd."

"Right back at you," I murmured, and then I took a deep breath and started making calls.

First, Susan and Andy. After a moment's internal debate, Uncle Mike and Aunt Ruby.

I didn't want them to see this either, but she was the mayor, and this was her job.

I wouldn't presume to shield her from that.

Aunt Ruby might appear delicate, but she had a cast-iron backbone.

"You should go after that woman," I said, but Jack shook his head.

"She's long gone by now, and I need to stay here and preserve the crime scene. Somebody must have seen her. Susan and Andy will track her down."

"Or Lizzie!" Deputy Lizzie Underhill, our newest member of the sheriff's office, was a werewolf with a killer nose. Unlike tigers, who had no particularly intense sense of smell, as Jack told people when they expected him to play bloodhound, wolves had amazing olfactory abilities.

"Great idea."

I texted Lizzie, since both Andy and Susan had found it difficult to hear me over the noise of the crowd.

Within minutes, all three of Dead End's finest converged on the tent.

Unfortunately, a lot of Dead End residents followed them, because there was no way to hide the fact that something major must have happened when all of our sheriff's office personnel ran in the same direction.

"Jack heard the gunshot," I told them.

Susan and Andy exchanged a quick, puzzled glance, but then I saw realization hit them both at once.

"Tiger hearing," Andy said, his face grim. "Plus, with his background, he knows the sound of gunshots."

"Okay, Tess. Please stay here with Lizzie on crowd control. Andy, with me," Susan said, and she stepped inside the tent.

"Those tent flaps were closed when we were here earlier this evening," I said. "Maybe the killer touched them? Fingerprints?"

"Thanks, Tess," Andy said before he followed her inside. "I'm sorry you keep seeing dead bodies."

"You and me both," I said with one thousand percent sincerity.

Lizzie pulled out her phone and took several photos and a video of the crowd around the tent, being subtle but not trying to hide what she was doing.

"So we'll know who the potential witnesses are," she told me.

She and I had a few dicey moments trying to keep drunken, belligerent people from pushing their way closer to the tent, especially when the ringleader yelled that Deputy Underhill was a baby deputy, and I was just a pawnshop owner with no rights to keep anybody from seeing anything.

"The sheriff asked me to help, so that gave me the right," I yelled right back at him.

He blustered, but then his eyes suddenly widened, and he closed his mouth so fast he probably chipped a tooth.

"Jack's behind me, isn't he?"

Lizzie looked over her shoulder and then nodded.

In the sudden, spreading quiet, Jack cleared his throat. "Does anybody else want to yell at my wife?"

"Nope."

"Not a word."

"We're good."

Rooster Jenkins's voice boomed out. "Is it trouble, Tess? Anything I can do?"

"Actually, yes," I said, relieved. "We'd appreciate it if you'd help with crowd control, so Lizzie can … get to other official business."

"What official business is that?" Lizzie asked quietly.

I filled her in on the woman who'd run away and asked if she could try to sniff her out or something.

Lizzie gave me a strange look but shrugged. She slipped inside the tent when Rooster took her place and came back out thirty seconds later and raced off in the direction the woman had gone, without me even having to tell her. I mentally crossed my fingers.

Lauren and the new doctor walked up to us next.

"Hi, Tess. The sheriff called and asked me to report here and serve as a temporary coroner," Dr. Snow said. She looked nervous. "This isn't my field, so I'm not sure how much help I can be …"

Susan pushed the tent flap aside and jerked her thumb toward the interior. "I just need you to state officially that he's dead."

Dr. Snow walked to the entrance and froze, not taking another step. "Yes. He's dead. Oh, he's definitely dead," she said in a strained voice.

"Don't you have to check his pulse or something?" Rooster asked.

The doctor shook her head slowly back and forth. "There's, ah, not a pulse to check."

With that, she whirled around and stepped a few paces away from the tent, and Lauren put an arm around her shoulders and went with her.

I sighed. "I'm guessing she won't want to take the job now."

"The job?"

"I'll tell you later, Rooster. There's Uncle Mike and Aunt Ruby."

Just as my aunt and uncle arrived, Susan and Jack stepped out of the tent, leaving Andy to guard the scene. I told them about what I'd asked Lizzie to do.

Susan nodded. "She filled me in."

Uncle Mike glanced inside the tent, and then he put his arm around Aunt Ruby's waist. "It's really bad, honey. Nobody expects the mayor to be a sheriff or a coroner. You don't have to look at this."

She took a shaky breath and then squared her shoulders. "I know. But it is my job to protect this town and the people in it. I failed this time."

With that, she walked over and took a quick look inside the tent. She slowly turned back to us, and I only realized she was hanging on by a thread because I knew her so very well.

Her face and voice were calm when she addressed the crowd. "All right, folks. I'll tell you the truth, because you deserve to know. Cletus McKee is dead."

A lot of gasps and murmured speculation ensued.

"Somebody shot him."

More, louder, reactions, and a few people started running.

"I'd like to ask you all to proceed home in an orderly fashion.

We have no evidence or sign that this was anything other than an isolated incident, but we're taking no chances.

Let's implement a voluntary curfew tonight.

" She made a show of glancing at her watch.

"Now. But I'd ask you to please stick around if you think you may have witnessed something—anything—that could help our sheriff's department to find out who did this. "

With that, most people streamed out of there with varying degrees of haste.

I put a hand on Aunt Ruby's arm. "I'm not sure where you got the strength to be so calm in a terrible crisis, but you are very good at this."

Her lips quirked at the edges. "Raising you was great practice."

"Glad to help," I said dryly.

Lizzie returned just then, panting a little. "I followed the scent all the way to the edge of town, but then it vanished. I'm pretty sure the suspect hopped into her car and drove off."

"Not the best news," Susan said.

"But what we expected," Jack said.

The doctor, who'd regained her equilibrium, raised her hand. "Ah, do you need me to stay? I can stick around until the real coroner arrives."

"That would be helpful, Dr. Snow," Aunt Ruby said, extending her hand. "I'm sorry I had to rush out of your interview like that. An emergency arose."

Dr. Snow shook her hand but raised an eyebrow. "I'm thinking there are a lot of emergencies in Dead End. Not quite the sleepy little town I thought it was, is it?"

"I hope that doesn’t make you change your mind about the job, but we should discuss that later." Aunt Ruby looked at me. "Tess, you and Jack don't need to stay."

"Where's Shelley?"

"We sent her to spend the night with Eleanor," Uncle Mike said.

"Actually, Mayor Callahan, you and Mike don't need to stay either. We're going to wait for the coroner and talk to the witnesses," Susan said.

"And maybe somebody should find Bubba and Lola McKee," I said slowly. I told them about what Jack and I had interrupted earlier.

"I'd say round up all the McKees involved in the fight at Tess's store," Jack said. "There's definitely a motive there. Maybe fists weren't enough, so somebody went home and got a gun."

"I hate to say it, but you should talk to Skeeter Hatfield, too," I said. "After that scene at the diner …"

"I agree. We'll round up all the suspects, toss them in cells, and figure this out," Susan said with a tiger-worthy growl beneath her words.

The doctor timidly raised a hand again.

"You don't have to raise your hand, Dr. Snow," Aunt Ruby said kindly. "What is it?"

Dr. Snow pointed with a slightly unsteady finger. "I don't mean to be alarmist, but that's a vampire. And he's headed straight for us."