I didn't know what to say to that. I might have been standing with a serial sex offender, a kidnapper, a killer, and his biggest concern was getting stiffed for five hundred bucks of smuggled towels.
I disentangled myself from him when another dealer came by and they started talking business. I slipped away with a little wave and a promise that I was off in search of the meaning of my life.
A sociopath's stock-in-trade is his ability to read normal humans in order to see their vulnerabilities and take advantage of them. Many a corporate CEO hit the Fortune Five Hundred on those skills, many a con man lined his pockets. Many a serial killer found his victims…
Van Zandt wasn't smart, but he was cunning. It was with that cunning he had lured Irina's friend to Belgium to work for him. I wondered how he might have used that instinct on Erin, on Jill. I didn't like the way he had turned it on me when he'd said he didn't believe I was happy. I was supposed to be the carefree dilettante to him. I didn't like to think he could see anything else. I didn't like to think anyone could see inside me, because I was embarrassed by what little there was to see.
He was wrong about one thing, though. I had a goal. And if I found him in my crossshairs on my way to that goal, I was going to be all too happy to take him down.
I made my way back to Jade's barn on foot. Yellow tape blocked off the stalls from either end of the aisle. Despite the warning printed on the tape, Trey Hughes had crossed the line and was sitting in a chair with his feet up on a tack trunk, a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other.
He squinted and grinned. 'I know you!'
'Not really,' I reminded him. 'Are you part of the crime scene?'
'Honey, I'm a one-man walking crime scene. What's going on around here? It's like a goddam morgue.'
'Yes, well, that would be because of the murder.'
'But that was days ago,' he said.
'What was days ago?'
His thoughts were tripping over each other in his beer-soaked brain. 'I think I missed something.'
'I think I missed something if there was a murder here days ago. Who are you talking about? Erin?'
'Erin's dead?'
I ducked under the tape and took a seat across from him. 'Who's on first?'
'What?'
'What's on second.'
'I dunno.'
'Third base.'
Hughes threw his head back and laughed. 'God, I must be drunk.'
'How could you tell?' I asked dryly.
'You're a quick study. Ellie, right?'
'Close enough.'
He took a drag on his cigarette and flicked a chunk of ash onto the ground. I'm sure it never entered his head that he might start a fire in a tent full of horses. 'So, who died?' he asked.
'Jill.'
He sat up at that, sobering as much as he probably could. 'You're joking, right?'
'No. She's dead.'
'What'd she die of? Meanness or ugliness?'
'You're a kind soul.'
'Shit. You never had to be around her. Is she really dead?'
'Someone murdered her. Her body was found this morning over by barn forty.'
'Jesus H.,' he muttered, running the hand with the cigarette in it back through his hair. Despite his comments, he looked upset.
'So far, no one misses her,' I said. 'Poor thing. I heard she was hot for Don. Maybe he'll miss her.'
'I don't think so.' Hughes leaned his head back and closed his eyes. 'He'd have gotten rid of her a long time ago if he'd known it was that easy.'
'She was a problem?'
'She had a big mouth and a little brain.'
'Not a good combination in this business,' I said. 'I heard she was at The Players last night saying she knew something about Stellar.'
One bleary blue eye tried to focus on me. 'What could she know?'
I shrugged. 'What is there to know?'
'I don't know. I'm always the last to know.'
'Just as well, or you might end up like Jill.'
'Somebody killed her,' he said to himself. Leaning forward, he put out his cigarette on the toe of his boot and sat there with his head down and his hands dangling between his knees, as if he was waiting for a wave of nausea to pass.
'The cops are questioning Don,' I said. 'Do you think he could kill a person?'
I expected a quick denial. Instead, he was silent so long, I thought he might have gone into a catatonic state. Finally he said, 'People can do the goddamnedest things, Ellie. You just never know. You just never know.'
P aris Montgomery sat staring at him with her big brown eyes wide and bright. Not a deer in the headlights, Landry thought. The expression was more focus than fear. She had brushed her hair and put on lipstick while he'd been interviewing Jade.
'When did you last see Jill yesterday?' he asked.
'Around six. She was complaining about having to stay so late. She'd been dropping hints all day that she had big plans for the evening.'
'Did you ask her what those plans were?'
'No. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but I have to admit I didn't like the girl. She had a bad attitude and she lied all the time.'
'Lied about what?'
'Whatever. That she'd done a job she hadn't, that she knew people she didn't, that she'd trained with big- name people, that she had all these boyfriends-'
'Did she name names of these boyfriends?'
'I didn't want to hear about it. I knew it wasn't true,' she said. 'It was just creepy and pathetic. I was looking for someone to replace her, but it's hard to find good help once the season has started.'
'So, she left around six. Were you aware of anything going on between her and your boss?'
'Don? God, no. I mean, I know she had a crush on him, but that's as far as it went. Don had been after me to get rid of her. He didn't trust her. She was always flapping her mouth to anyone who would listen.'
'About what?'
She blinked the big eyes and tried to decide how much she should tell him. 'About everything that went on in our barn. For instance, if a horse was a little lame or-'
'Dead?' Landry suggested.
'This is a very gossipy business, Detective,' she said primly. 'Reputations can be made or lost on rumors. Discretion is an important quality in employees.'
'So if she was running around shooting her mouth off about the horse that died, that would probably piss you off.'
'Yes. Absolutely.'
'And Don?'
'He would have been furious. Stellar's death has been a nightmare for him. He didn't need his own employee adding fuel to the fire.' She stopped herself and frowned. 'I'm not saying he would have hurt her. I won't believe that. I just won't.'
'He doesn't have a temper?'
'Not like that. Don is very controlled, very professional. I respect him enormously.'
Landry leaned over his notes and rubbed at the tightness in his forehead. 'You didn't see Jill later last night?'
