“But what?”
“There was a lot more blood. I figured he’d moved and started bleeding, but then Sheriff Carter found the rabbit.”
Charlotte blinked at Mina. “The rabbit?”
“Kimber’s rabbit doorstop. It was at the top of the servant’s stairwell.”
“That’s different from the main stairs?”
Mina nodded. “It climbs from the kitchen to across the hall from Kimber’s room. They found the iron rabbit in there, covered with Kimber’s blood and my fingerprints.” Mina practically yelped the last two words and grabbed for more tissues.
“Was it always in the stairwell?”
“No. That’s just it. It’s a doorstop, so it sat in front of his door.”
“Do you know how your fingerprints got on it?”
“Yes. I’ve moved it every day for the last twenty years. My fingerprints should be all over it.”
“So they think someone hit him with the rabbit?”
“Yes. Twice.”
“They said twice?”
“The autopsy apparently says he fell, and then someone hit him with the rabbit. They think it could have been me. They think I saw my chance to finish him off and then hid the rabbit in the stairwell until I could get rid of it later, I guess.”
“But you never did get rid of it.”
Mina’s eyes bulged. “I didn’t know it was there. I didn’t do it!”
“No, I’m sorry. I understand that. I mean, if your plan had been to get rid of it, you never did. They found the rabbit a day later.”
Mina nodded, looking hopeful. “You’re right. I see what you’re saying. If I wanted to hide it, why would I have left it there for Carter to find? That’s a good point.”
“Exactly.”
Mina’s countenance crashed once more. “But that means someone else did it and the girls were the only other people in the house. Lyndsey had left.”
“And they only found your fingerprints.”
Mina nodded. “But not on the ears.”
“What’s that mean?”
“The ears were clean.”
“Do you ever pick it up by the ears when you move it?”
Mina nodded. “Sure. Probably most of the time.”
“So someone cleaned their own prints off the ears.”
Mina sucked in a breath and put her hand on Charlotte’s. “Another good point. You’re really good at this.”
Charlotte tried not to smile. “And you’re sure the damage from the rabbit wasn’t already there when you checked on him the first time?”
Mina winced, her voice dropping to a whisper. “It really looked worse when I went back upstairs. There was new splatter on the wall. I didn’t really think about it at the time but…I do think something happened after.”
“And you’re worried that means the girls might have done it?”
“Yes. But…they can be brats but they’d never kill someone.” Mina sobbed and wiped at her nose with the wad of tissue clenched in her fist. “I don’t want to go to jail to protect them. Does that make me a terrible person?”
“No. I know you can’t believe they’d do it, but can you think of any reason the girls might want to kill Mr. Miller?”
Mina shrugged. “He was a very difficult man. Cold. Distant. He wasn’t much of a father to any of the girls, but we’d all reached a sort of living arrangement—” Mina’s face began to redden and Charlotte could see she was choking up. She blew her nose. “I’m sorry. This is all just so awful.”
There was a clank and Charlotte looked up to see the deputy there, his key in the jail lock.
“You’re free to go,” he said.
Mina looked up. “Me?”
“You and the girls. The sheriff actually had one of the other deputies take them home a while ago. He’s decided not to hold you either, pending further investigation, but I wouldn’t go leaving the country.”
Mina frowned. “Where would I go?”
The deputy opened the door and shrugged. “I dunno. Mexico?”
Charlotte blinked at the guard. Did he give all the prisoners ideas where to run?
Mina looked at Charlotte.
“Can you give me a ride home?”
Chapter Nineteen
“No one’s here.”
Mina opened the door and stepped out of Charlotte’s Volvo. The cars Charlotte usually saw parked in the large stone driveway were missing.
“Who owns which cars?” asked Charlotte.
“The estate owns the older black Jeep. We all use it. Lyndsey has an old Miata she keeps over by the barn. The Toyota is mine. The girls borrow it sometimes.”
“What about other people on the farm?”
“There are landscapers who come a couple times a week.”
“Were they here the day you found Mr. Miller?”
Mina paused as she mounted the stairs to the porch and squinched her forehead until a little ball of flesh appeared between her puffy eyes. “No. They have a pretty big truck and I would have seen it when I called out for Lyndsey.”
“Anyone else?”
“There’s the stable boy.”
“I thought Lyndsey took care of the horses?”
“She does, but he comes to pick out the stalls and does the dirtier work. He might have been here. He might be here now. He comes on a bike and parks it in the garage.”
“Bike or motorcycle?”
“Regular bike. He’s eighteen. He’s a neighbor’s kid from down the road. He’s been working here since he was a kid. His name is Todd. Todd Schafer.”
Charlotte pulled her phone from her pocket as they entered the kitchen and opened her notes app. “And the name of the landscaping company?”
“EarthShavers.”
Charlotte looked up. “EarthShavers? Are you sure?”
Mina waved her hand in the air next to her head. “EarthShapers. Sorry. Shavers doesn’t make much sense, does it. I’m losing my mind.” They walked into the kitchen and Mina sat at the kitchen table. “I need to get a shower. I have prison all over me.”
“You have jail all over you. Very different thing,” mumbled Charlotte.
Mina gasped a sudden sob and Charlotte realized what she’d
