Chapter 9

"What's going on, Leah?" Jo asked.

"Mr. Kilwin put me on leave. He said it was temporary, hopefully only for a day or two."

"He was on your side last night when we talked to him. Has he changed his mind and now he thinks you're responsible?"

"No. One of the other employees told him they weren't comfortable working with me considering my background and the fact Barr died not long after I started working there."

Jo's mind whirled. It was clear what was happening. Someone had taken Barr out and was using Leah as the scapegoat. It was the perfect setup. Leah arriving and Barr writing her up. Leah was alone when Barr was murdered.

It wasn't fair, and Jo could feel an anger build. Leah had worked so hard to get to this point. She deserved, had earned her second chance. Whoever was behind the man's death needed to be caught. "How can I help?"

"I…Dave…Mr. Kilwin said I could stay here, although I'm not feeling welcome at this point."

"We need to regroup." Jo briefly closed her eyes. "Where are you right now?"

"In my room. None of the others will talk to me. I can hear them whispering behind my back. They think I killed Mr. Barr."

"Let's do this." Jo walked into the kitchen. "I'm going to swing by and pick you up. You can spend the night here. We're going to go over everything you know about Barr and the other workers."

"I don't…want to drag you into my mess."

"You're not. I'm volunteering. This is wrong. So very wrong, and we're going to figure out who is trying to set you up. Pack your bags. I'm on my way."

"Thanks, Jo." Leah's voice cracked. "I want this so badly," she whispered.

"I know you do and you deserve this second chance." Jo ended the call, snatched her keys off the hook and ran out the door.

Within minutes, she was in Dave's driveway and sent Leah a quick text that she was there.

Jo almost burst into tears when Leah trudged past her headlights, her shoulders slumped and a look of defeat on her face.

"Thanks for coming to get me."

"You're welcome. Don't worry. We're going to sort this out," Jo vowed. "Did you let Dave know you were spending the night at my place?"

"I did. I can tell he feels bad about it, but I also see his point. He can't afford to have his workers walk out on him because of me."

Back at the farm, Leah and Jo headed to the kitchen. Nash arrived for his evening porch chat and Jo briefly filled him in on the recent developments.

"I'm with you. It's clear someone got rid of Barr and is planning on having Leah take the fall for it," Nash said. "We need to come up with a list of people who may have had an axe to grind and go from there."

"That's exactly what I was thinking. The sooner the better, while the details are fresh in Leah's mind." Jo ran to her office, grabbed a yellow pad, and settled in at the table. "You mentioned before you overheard someone call Barr a jerk."

"It was during lunch my first day. Buzz called him a jerk. Jase, Dave's nephew, was there when he said it, along with Sandi, who works in the office."

Jo began writing:

Jase. Dave's nephew.

Buzz. Employee. Called Shane Barr a jerk.

Sandi. Works in office.

"What are the names of some of the other employees at the farm?" Nash asked. "I think I remember a guy named Art."

"Art works the fields. He's in charge of the tractors and big equipment," Leah said.

"Is he also in charge of the seeds and planting?" Jo asked.

Leah thought about it. "Yeah. I guess he would be. There's also a guy named Joel. He works in the milking parlor."

"Did Barr give a reason why he thought you were the one who ruined the bag of seeds?" Nash asked.

"No." Leah shook her head. "I guess because I was the only one working out in the fields and garden area when it happened."

"What about Art? Was he working yesterday?"

"Yes. He seems like a nice guy."

"Did he get along with Barr?" Jo asked.

"It's hard to tell. I basically said ‘hello' to him, just like Joel."

"How many employees work at Dave's farm?"

"Me, Sandi, Buzz, Jase, Art, Joel and I guess it would have been Shane Barr."

"Seven, not including Dave," Nash said.

"So, out of those seven people, we know at least three who didn't care for Shane Barr," Jo said.

"Yep."

Jo tapped the top of the notepad with her pen. "Dave even admitted his staff had complained about Barr, but he didn't want to get rid of him because he got the job done. I wonder what sort of issues they were having with the guy."

"I'm sure the cops are questioning Dave and getting that information," Nash said. "Which means Leah isn't the only one they're taking a closer look at."

Leah leaned her head back and closed her eyes. "But none of them were recently written up and risked losing their job. I was."

"True." Jo grew quiet as she studied what they had so far. "I feel like I might be missing something, some important clue."

"It's been a long day." Nash patted Leah's arm. "Why don't we get some rest and tackle this again in the morning?"

Leah shoved her chair back and stood. "I guess I'll camp out in my old room."

Jo stopped her. "The Ladeaux twins have moved in. Your old room is already occupied, which means you get to stay here with me."

"You found two new residents?"

"So much has happened. I forgot to mention it to you. They got here this morning. You'll meet them at breakfast. Their names are Carli and Courtney Ladeaux." Jo led Leah upstairs to one of the empty bedrooms and helped her get settled.

She returned to the kitchen to find Nash holding Jo's notes, a concerned look etched on his face. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Leah is in trouble. Someone at Kilwin's farm killed the guy and is making it look like she was the one behind it," Nash said.

"She has a motive and no alibi. No one was with her around the time Barr died. Leah has the history. It would be so easy to pin his death on her. If she goes back to prison with a murder rap, she'll never see the light of day again," Jo said.

"If we stand back and wait to see what happens, something tells me the outcome for Leah is going to be grim," Nash said. "I think…"

"Think what?" Jo prompted.

"Leah is going to have to go back over there. We need someone on the inside to do some digging around. Her leaving is playing right into the killer's hands."

"I hadn't thought about it that way. With Leah not there to defend herself, it would be easy to lay the groundwork and point fingers at her," Jo said. "Although there's a killer on the loose, which makes me more than a little nervous. I'll let her decide what she wants to do, but will at least throw out an offer for her to stay here until this is over."

Nash placed a light kiss on Jo's cheek. "We'll put our heads together in the morning and come up with a plan."

"Thanks. Leah's going to need all the help she can get."

*****

Jo was up early the next morning, her first thoughts about Leah's future and Barr's death. Delta and Gary arrived a short time later.

Delta's sharp eye noticed the jacket hanging on the hook near the door. "Is that Leah's jacket?"

"Yeah. She spent the night."

"Leah is here?"

"She called me after you left for the day. Dave put her on temporary leave."

"I have to admit, I'm not surprised."

"Not by choice," Jo said. "It appears some of the others no longer felt safe with Leah around, although Dave told her she could stay, just that she couldn't work."

Delta placed her hands on her hips, her brows drawing together. "What a bunch of hogwash. Someone over there is trying to set our poor Leah up."

"I agree. Unfortunately, I think Leah staying here won't help."

"Because whoever it is will keep working the angle that she's behind Barr's death and if she's not there to defend herself, it will be a slam dunk case."

"Precisely. On the one hand, I think our best move is to get her back over there to snoop around," Jo said. "On the other, I worry about her safety."

"I wonder if Dave has someone in mind. Maybe it's time to chitchat with him," Delta said.

"If anyone can help us, my guess is it will be Dave. But how are we going to get him to talk?"

"Food."

"Food?"

"I need something fast and fabulous." Delta tapped her lip. "Dave loves my cinnamon caramel coffee cake. I'm gonna whip up a batch, run it over there, and do a little intel while I'm at it."

"I'll go with you," Jo said. "We can take Leah back over there and hit Dave up while we're at it."

With a plan in place, Delta began working on breakfast and the coffee cake while Jo ran upstairs to check on her houseguest.

She found Leah standing at the window, staring out. Her bed was neatly made. In fact, it looked as if she hadn't even slept in it.

Jo gave the door a light rap, her heart nearly breaking when Leah whirled around and she noticed the dark circles under her eyes. "How are you this morning?"

"Okay. I did a lot of thinking last night."

"And?"

"I want to go back."

"To Dave's farm."

"Yeah. Someone who works there or went over there killed Shane Barr. The writing is on the wall. Someone is trying to make it look like I did it."

"I believe you could be right, but I'm worried about your safety."

"I've been around the block a time or two and around criminals for more years than I can count. This wasn't a random killing. Mr. Barr was targeted for a reason, and I don't think I'm in any danger," Leah said. "If I stay here and hide out, it's going to make me look even more guilty."

"It might."

"If I go back there, I can do some snooping around and maybe figure out who took him out. The only problem is, I have no idea where to start."

"Raylene."

"Raylene." Leah's eyes lit. "You're right. She knows a lot about this kind of stuff. Maybe she can give me some pointers."

"Delta is whipping up a caramel coffee cake for Dave. While she does that, let's run next door and pick Raylene's brain." Jo flung an arm across Leah's shoulders and gave her a quick hug. "We can do this. We'll get to the bottom of what happened to Shane Barr."

It took a few minutes to track Raylene down. They found her in the common area, feeding Curtis and chatting with the new residents. Or at least one of them.

"Hey, Jo." Raylene's jaw dropped as she watched Leah follow Jo into the living room. "Leah."

"Hey, Raylene."

Raylene waited until Jo finished introducing Leah to the new residents. "Did Dave Kilwin fire you?"

"No. I'm on temporary leave."

"I'm sorry to hear that." Raylene finished filling Curtis's food dish and rinsed her hands in the sink. "What are you going to do?"

"Fight," Leah said. "I'm innocent. I need to go back there and start doing some digging around."

"Which is where you come in," Jo explained. "Leah is looking for some pointers on how to go about it."

"You came to the right place," Raylene said.

"Carli and I can see you need privacy." Courtney sprang from the chair. "We'll head back to our rooms and start getting ready for breakfast."

Carli tucked the notepad Jo had given her under her arm.

The women excused themselves, and Jo waited until the door closed behind them. "How is it going with our new residents?"

Raylene tipped her hand back and forth. "So-so. I don't get the whole thing about why Carli won't talk. She can hear what you say and understands what's being said. It's weird."

"Has she been using the flip pad I gave her to answer and ask questions?"

"Yeah. She seemed interested in my bounty hunting background. I mean really interested," Raylene said. "She wanted to know how I got started, what kind of people I tracked down, how much it paid."

"Interesting," Jo murmured. "What about Courtney?"

"She had very little to say. While Carli did all the writing and asking questions, Courtney was quiet."

"I found the opposite to be true. Courtney talks while Carli is quiet."

"They seem excited about being here and mentioned what they hoped to do once they finished their rehabilitation."

Jo clasped her hands. "They're already making plans for their future?"

Raylene nodded. "I got the impression they've spent a lot of time talking about it."

"What do they want to do?"

"Sell real estate."

"Sell real estate?" Jo rubbed her chin. "Become real estate agents?"

"Yeah. I never would've guessed."

"Me either. I'm not sure how their incarceration will affect the chances of them getting real estate licenses."

"At least they have goals," Leah said. "Knowing what you want to do is half the battle."

"Like you, who always knew you wanted to work on a farm," Jo said.

"I love it. I love getting my hands dirty, watching things grow and knowing I helped. Until I got here, I didn"t know it was my passion."

"And we're going to make sure you continue working toward your goal," Jo vowed. "One day, you're going to have your very own farm, Leah. I feel it in my bones."

"But first, I have to figure out what happened to Mr. Barr."

Raylene darted to the computer station, grabbed a blank sheet of paper from the printer tray, along with a pen, and joined Jo and Leah at the table.

"Back in the day, I called this my ‘Blindside Game Plan.'" Raylene wrote the name at the top. "It's a three-prong, targeted plan to efficiently and expeditiously figure out where our missing jump-bail-and-disappear suspects were hiding."

As Raylene outlined how she thought Leah might best figure out who murdered Shane, a small seed of hope sprang up in Jo.

If Leah could pull it off, they might be able to figure out who hated Barr enough to kill him.