A Hoe Lot of Trouble by Heather Webber Read Free Book Online Page A

million so a shopping mall could be built for the new suburbanites. Although the Sandowskis didn't own nearly as much land, the asking price would still be up there, considering its prime location.
    "About three million dollars," she said solemnly, "and because it's their home. Sandowski's Farm has been in Tim's father's family for nearly one hundred and fifty years. It's Tim's heritage. There's no way they would have sold, not for any amount. And they shouldn't. If every farmer sold out to make way for new office plazas, think of all the valuable resources that would be lost." Her almost-white eyebrows dipped as she frowned. "It just makes me sick to think of all that beautiful farmland paved over."
    "So you think someone took to using terror tactics to get them to leave?"
    She nodded. "The list of people who want them out is endless. All the residents of Vista View; developers who would give their eyeteeth for the land that would bracket the new road; and Congressman Chanson had visited them himself to plead his case."
    "You think a congressman would kill sheep?"
    "I think he would do a lot of things to get what he wants."
    I crossed my arms, suddenly cold. "Kevin said something about shots fired this morning. What was that about?"
    "Jumper, Tim's mom's cocker spaniel. He lost a leg to a bullet, but he'll be okay."
    My eyes widened in shock. "Why didn't you tell the police?"
    "Tim and I went to the police when the sheep were poisoned. They made a report and told us it was probably teenage misfits. We went back when the death threats arrived. Again, they did nothing." She took a deep breath. "You haven't heard the worst of it yet."
    I leaned forward, intrigued by her expression. It was a mix of sadness, of anger. "What?"
    "Nina, someone killed Joe."

Four

    For crying out loud, I'd forgotten again! What kind of person was I? So wrapped up in the story of the sheep and land, I'd forgotten that Farmer Joe had been murdered. I gasped. "My God. You don't think a congressman . . ."
    She cut me off before I could finish the thought. "As you know, Joe had cancer."
    I nodded. It had been why she and Tim had moved back down to the Cincinnati area from Columbus a few months back, buying an old run-down Victorian near the city.
    "It was end-stage, but he wouldn't let it keep him down. He was so very weak, but still wanted to run the farm as best he could." She paused, then continued, her voice shaky as she said, "When Tim's mom found him out by the foot of his tractor in the middle of the cornfield, it looked like his heart had just given out. He was already gone by the time the paramedics arrived. They took him straight to the mortuary."
    "But that doesn't make sense if it was murder—the medical examiner would have been called in."
    Sarcasm oozed from her lips. "Apparently they didn't know."
    "But how—"
    She interrupted. "That night . . ." Her gaze dropped to her hands, where it studied her short, trimmed nails. "Tim's mom couldn't bear to leave the mortuary. So Tim and I went back to the farm, took care of the animals. When Tim went out to move the tractor back into the barn, he noticed there was a nearly empty thermos of coffee in the cab."
    The enormity of her statement didn't escape me. Besides me, Joe was the only other person I knew who didn't drink coffee.
    "Since Joe hated coffee, there's no way he would have drunk it . . . unless someone forced him."
    "Maybe it was Mrs. Sandowski's?"
    "It wasn't; we asked her about it. Finding the coffee made us suspicious enough to turn it over to the police immediately. We also had a few drops of the contents analyzed." She sighed. "We found out a few days later that it was laced with cyanide."
    "Well, that proves something, doesn't it?" I said.
    "To us." Bridget ran her finger along a scratch in the tabletop. "But not to the police."
    "Why not?"
    "They're waiting for the contents to be verified by their own lab—the one we used wasn't certified, so the analysis is virtually