Forged (Gail McCarthy Mystery) by Laura Crum Read Free Book Online

you'll think about it?"
    "Yes. I promise."
    "Good. I'll save the ring until you decide." Blue pulled me towards him and gave me a long kiss.
    "Maybe," I said, when we broke apart, "we should just skip straight to the honeymoon."
    "Those sleeping bags look awfully good," he agreed.
    I kissed him one more time and began to unbutton my shirt.
    Blue grinned. "I can't wait to see what you look like by lamplight," he said.

SEVEN
    I arrived home the following afternoon to a reality check of truly dismal proportions. Crime scene tape still swathed my barnyard, Detective Johnson had left three messages on my answering machine, and Gunner was lame. Despite the EZ Boot and the soft ground, the trip had really been too much for him.
    "Damn." I watched my good horse limp off across his corral and wanted to kick myself. "I should have got the shoe back on him right away."
    "Why don't you call the shoer now while I feed," Blue suggested.
    "All right." I headed back up to the house, mentally composing what I would say to Tommie Harper. It wasn't exactly a typical request. Please finish the shoeing job your competition started. And Tommie was a very forthright person. I'd just have to see what she made of it.
    Tommie laughed. "So Dominic managed to get shot in the middle of shoeing your horse?"
    "Is that what people are saying?"
    "That's what I heard."
    "Well," I said feebly. "Would you mind putting the last shoe on? It's the foot the horse has got navicular in, actually, and he's already sore."
    "No problem."
    "I've been using an egg bar shoe with a wedge pad," I added.
    "No problem," she said again. "I'll be there tomorrow evening when I'm done with my appointments. Say, five-thirty."
      "Great," I said. "I appreciate it." I hung up the phone noting that Tommie had quite distinctly failed to say that she was sorry about Dominic. Of course, it was no secret that she'd detested the man.
    On the thought, I dialed another number.
    "Hello." Jeri Ward's crisp tone was unmistakable.
    "Jeri, it's Gail McCarthy. Are you busy?"
    "No. I'm home, I'm off duty, I'm not even on call. How are you doing?"
    "Fine, more or less. I was just wondering what the story was on Dominic."
    "It's a strange one. And your part is the strangest. Old Dominic's last words."
    "I know," I said. "But that's what he said. I heard him."
    "Well," Jeri said. There was a long silence. Then, "Most of my info is just hearsay that's going around the department, since Matt Johnson doesn't exactly confide in me. In fact, he doesn't speak to me unless he has to. We don't get along. But I have heard that he may be pursuing the line that Dominic was murdered and that either Dominic or you is covering up for the murderer."
    "Why does he think that Dominic was murdered?"
    "Crime scene investigators found some discrepancies in the position of the gun, the spent shell casing, and the gunpowder residue. It seems unlikely that the gun was in Dominic's hand when it was fired."
    "Oh," I said.
    "The gun did belong to him, though. Along with a good two dozen others."
    "What?"
    "That's right." Jeri sounded amused. "Apparently he was a gun collector. Pistols. That's what his girlfriend said. Do you know her?"
    "Barbara. Yeah. She's a team roper; I'm also her vet."
    "She said he kept a loaded gun in the glove compartment of his truck. She also said that everyone who knew him well knew that."
    "I didn't," I said.
    "I take it you didn't know him well."
    "True enough," I agreed.
    "Neither did I." Jeri sighed. "From what I could tell, he was a right bastard."
    "A good shoer, though." I hesitated. "Am I a suspect?" I asked her.
    "Hard to say what Matt's thinking," she answered crisply. "But you don't have any obvious motive. If you'd been involved with Dominic or if you stood to gain in any way by his death, that would be different."
    "Who does?"
    "Gain? The way I heard it was that his not inconsiderable estate and a hefty life insurance policy were made out to Dominic Castillo Jr., Sophia Castillo, and