The Hayley Argent Mysteries, Books 1 - 4 Page 17

  “James must have suspected something if he took the phone,” Hayley deduced and Shaun nodded.

  “The question is… when did the phone go missing? If James got all of the evidence he needed before the murder, well that gives him an excellent motive to kill his brother. Dominic owns this company and employs James to work for him. You can imagine that must rub after a time and then he finds out that Dominic has stolen his fiancé as well… the one thing he had over his brother! It could be enough to drive someone to kill.”

  “He hasn’t confronted her yet,” Hayley observed, remembering the way he’d flinched from Jenny’s touch.

  Shaun shook his head. “The less we get involved with that, the better. Both of them have a strong motive to have murdered Dominic, although I still can’t make sense of everything that was in the room at the time of his death. Who was he planning on sharing that drink with?” Shaun looked gloomily off into the distance. "And to think, there’s only once more day until our campers return home and I still feel as though I’m missing something huge.”

  “How about we talk through it? I’m not doing anything tonight,” Hayley said and then bit her tongue, hard. Had she really just asked the Inspector out on a date? She kept looking straight ahead, sensing his scrutiny.

  “That would actually be really helpful! How about we grab some food? I’ve been on the run all day,” he said, equally carefully. Hayley found her lips were lifting upwards as she finally couldn’t help but look back at the Inspector who'd grown on her so quickly.

  “I know an amazing pizza place,” she said but was interrupted by the arrival of one of the uniformed police.

  “We found this caught in a stream. It looks like someone threw it there,” the officer said, lifting up an evidence bag which concealed a bottle of orange liquid. There was a faded label that read ‘Saturday’ on it.

  “It looks like one of Dominic’s cleanse drinks. Get it back to HQ and see if there are any prints, as soon as you can,” Shaun said and the officer nodded.

  Shaun and Hayley walked back towards the stables in silence for a bit, both of them mulling over the events of the day.

  Shaun paused next to his car, keys jangling in his hand. “You know, the more I find out about Dominic Marks, the more I’m surprised that he was only murdered twice in one night.” He shook his head. “Still on for pizza and a case deconstruct later?” He asked and Hayley gave him a smile and a nod. “Excellent. There's nothing like murder for giving you a good appetite!”

  ***

  Hayley wandered back through the stables after Shaun had gone, her mind swimming. One thing that came back to bother her was Ferra’s Falcon. She’d been back to see him in his stable since they'd returned from the woods and she’d been surprised to find that he was quieter. He’d even not tried to bite her when she’d reached out and let him come to her.

  Perhaps she’d finally made a breakthrough, but she couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn’t because of anything she'd done. What kind of horse psychologist are you if you can’t get to the bottom of this? Hayley mentally chided, feeling as much of a failure as she had when she’d left the Hawley-Jones stables. Had she lost her touch?

  “Hey, how’s everything been going?” She looked up to see Miles walking towards her, his usual easy grin on his face.

  “As well as can be expected, given the circumstances. I assume you heard that Dominic Marks was murdered twice? Although I can’t say I’m too surprised, the more I learn about him,” she said and filled him on the day’s discoveries, the progress of the colts and fillies, and the way Ferra’s Falcon had flummoxed her by changing his ways again.

  “You’ll figure it out, you always do,” Miles said, patting her fondly on the arm. They walked a little way through the stables before coming to a halt by one of the fields. Hayley leant on the fence and looked out across the grass in the twilight, as blown away by the peace and beauty of it all as she had been the first time she’d worked for Miles.

  “You remember my first job here,” she said, her mind slipping backwards.

  “I do. It would be pretty hard to forget you and you came in here with all of these ideas about a horse that no one thought was anything other than a problem. People were laughing at the owner of the best bred, but worst tempered thoroughbreds in history. My client thought he was going to be kicked out of the stables and lose the horse, as it slowly became more unrideable, but you figured it out. You realised it was all because of the sunlight reflecting down into the stables off that awful satellite dish of my father’s that was causing him to constantly spook and be in a state of panic. And then there was that business with the colts and fillies who couldn’t be broken in…” Miles smiled at the memories. “I knew right then that you were the person I wanted to be in business with. There’s no one like you, Hayley,” he said, stretching out his hand and placing it on top of hers.

  Hayley looked down at the hand and up at Miles, feeling as though a bucket of ice water had been thrown over her.

  Miles misread her shock. “I’ve wanted to tell you for ages. You’re amazing Hayley, you really are, and I was wondering if you wanted to be more than just my business partner?” He smiled hopefully but all Hayley felt was sick as butterflies fluttered in her stomach.

  “Miles, I don’t... I can’t… I thought you wanted me here because I’m good at my job,” she said, feeling as though someone had punched her in the stomach. It wasn’t that Miles was unattractive, she’d just learnt the hard way that it wasn’t a good idea to mix business with pleasure - especially when the business in question essentially entirely belonged to the man she was working with.

  Miles' expression morphed into hurt. “I do! Did you not hear everything I said? I think you’re brilliant and when you came back here I finally realised… I’m in love with you.”

  Hayley looked into Miles’ eyes and realised he was serious. “Miles… I don’t know what to say to that. It’s a lovely compliment, please don’t get me wrong.” She sighed sadly. “I’m not even sure whether I’m doing the right thing in my life at the moment, let alone anything more.” She felt her thoughts jump to Inspector Rouen and the warm, fuzzy feeling she got when she was around him. She looked back at Miles, his handsome face and foppish hair and the way he was enthusiastic about every new idea. He was a wonderful man, but so far, she had never felt any spark between them. She hadn't even entertained the idea that they might be more than business associates and friends, but Miles had just thrown her a curveball. She blinked as a little thought popped into her head and whispered ‘what if?’ All of her thoughts about not being good enough at her job returned in full force as she asked herself if everything she thought she’d worked to earn had been handed to her because of these feelings Miles had clearly been harbouring for so long, without her having a clue.

  It was surely yet another sign that she was off her game!

  “I need to think,” she told him and then strode away into the dusk, leaving her business partner standing alone by the field.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  A Dirty trick

  “You're early!” Hayley said when she caught Shaun striding through the stables half an hour before their agreed meeting time. Hayley hadn’t even changed yet, deciding that she would give Ferra's Falcon one more chance to reveal his secrets to her and to try and clear her head from the information overload Miles had given her. So far, the horse had been more pleasant that evening and had quieted down from the madness she'd seen earlier. As tempted as she was to conclude that he was simply a bad-tempered, overpriced dud, she couldn't shake the feeling that his behaviour was un-horselike. Not even the highest strung horses were this amped up all the time and then just as suddenly changed again.

  Still, it was something to keep her mind off the fact she was currently lodging in the house of a man who had just admitted his love for her - a love she was unable to return.

  “I am early! I have to make a quick trip up to the woods, I’m afraid. We analysed the bottle and Lou
Marsden’s fingerprints were all over it.”

  Hayley raised her eyebrows, grateful for the distraction. “I knew she was hiding something.”

  Shaun nodded emphatically. “Yes, well, we're still waiting on the analysis of what exactly that bottle contains, but who knows? We could even be looking at a third attempt on Dominic Mark’s life.”

  The atmosphere around the camp fire in the woods was subdued when they arrived. Lauren had been released on bail and had returned to the group that evening, but she’d immediately gone to bed, probably feeling that she was unable to face her former colleagues. Lou was doing her best to brighten the spirits but with her only audience being Jenny, James, and event organiser, Tara, she was only getting on people’s nerves.

  “Ms Marsden, a word please," Shaun said and all of the forced joy drained from the woman’s dour face.

  “We found a bottle with your fingerprints on it,” Shaun said. “It looked like one of Dominic’s.”

  Lou sat down on a log and put her head in her hands.

  “I’m sorry… I panicked. I know how it looks, but it’s not what you think! I didn’t kill Dominic, he was already dead when I found him.” Shaun inclined his head for her to go on and Lou wrung her hands together. “I thought… I thought after he got the proceedings through, he’d finally understand that I meant it. He'd change his ways, but then he yelled at me for being useless and not making sure he’d packed his charger in the first place. When he arrived it was worse, he and Tara had an argument and then he was simply foul on the way back to the camp. I’m afraid I decided to play a little joke.” She sighed. “I sometimes have stomach problems and always carry a laxative with me to sort it out. I wanted to make Dominic suffer, just a little bit, so I took one of his cleanse drinks and spiked it, intending on returning it later that night when he was asleep.” She looked up at them. “That’s all you’ll find in it, I swear. I went to put it back when I was sure everyone was asleep. I knew that Dominic was a light sleeper so when the fridge door banged shut I was so sure I’d been caught. I walked closer to his bed and could just make out all of that blood in the light that came from the light outside. I took my bottle back and rushed outside, knowing it would look bad if anyone found me in there. I walked a little way away and threw the bottle down the hill as hard as I could but it was so muddy outside and when I was almost back at my tent, I tripped and fell.” She looked appealingly at them. “I am sorry for not telling you the truth, I just… know how it looks," she finished.

  Shaun rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Thank you, Ms Marsden,” was all he said before nodding to Hayley that they could go now.

  “I think that’s finally the truth,” Hayley said as they walked back down the track towards the stables.

  Shaun nodded slowly. “Yes, she’d have been way more panicked if it was something really nasty in that bottle.” He pulled a face. “Well, nastier than what Dominic Marks was willingly drinking anyway. Unfortunately, that doesn’t bring us much closer to solving this case. It just confirms what I first thought - Lou Marsden doesn’t have the guts to kill anyone.”

  They reached the cars and Hayley suddenly remembered she hadn't changed. Shaun waited for her to rush into the main house, throw on some clothes and then come back out, not feeling as ‘datey’ as she might have liked.

  “A good talk is probably just what you need. Take a step back and look at everything,” she said to Shaun when she reappeared by his car.

  He frowned down at Dominic Marks’ phone. “Yes, oh, er, absolutely,” he said, distracted again.

  ***

  “I’ll have a Hawaiian please,” Shaun said to the waitress when they were seated in the small, but well cared for, Italian restaurant. “Some people have a real thing against pineapple on pizza, but I’m a fan,” he confided. Hayley ordered for herself and then they sat back to wait, both with their minds back on the case.

  “I just don’t know what I’m missing,” Shaun said, frustration leaking into his voice. “I’ve analysed this phone and the only outgoing calls were made on the night Dominic arrived to a place called the Nuffington Private Clinic. I looked into it and the clinic had actually closed when he called, so he didn’t get through. They have no record of Dominic being their patient, so without knowing what to ask for, they won’t share anything else with me.” He sighed. “Client confidentiality and all that.”

  “How about we go back to the start? Dominic Marks arrived late, because his flight was delayed, right?” Hayley sipped the blueberry smoothie she’d ordered.

  “Yes, he was jumping from one education opportunity to another. The one he was attending in America was a big conference on horse breeding. It’s mostly in place to put together breeders and buyers, but they do also have talks throughout the day. Dominic must have gone to one of them, as he had branded notes from the event in his room.”

  Hayley frowned, remembering the sheet of paper she'd caught a glimpse of. Something was starting to whir into place in her mind. “So, he lands, finds his phone is out of battery and loses it with his secretary. For some reason, he needs to use his phone and the only call he made was to the clinic who had already closed.”

  Their food arrived and they both took a moment to dive into the crisp-crusted pizzas, with their generous toppings. Hayley nearly sighed with happiness as she realised the consequences of being on the run all day without eating. She looked across at Shaun and wondered if this was how it always was for him. If so, it was a miracle he wasn't wasting away.

  “I don’t know about you, but my mind is telling me to stop thinking about the damn case. How about we talk about something else? Like you, I’d like to know more about the things you’ve seen in the past. You’ve told me how you became a horse psychologist, but I’d love to hear your stories,” Shaun said, already halfway through his pizza.

  “Well, I think I already said that every case is rather like a mystery," Hayley began and it wasn’t long before she found herself telling Shaun all about Hadrian and then Starling’s Summer. By the time they’d finished dessert, she thought his eyebrows may have been raised so many times, they were stuck that way.

  “After all that, it sounds like you’re more of a detective than I am,” Shaun commented a sideways smile on his face.

  Hayley brushed away the compliment. “More like I have a knack for sticking my nose where it doesn’t belong. How about you? Any great cases you’ve worked on? Or if that’s all confidential, what about hobbies?” She asked, wondering if it was too insincere. Hayley was finding herself becoming rather flustered as every word that came out of her mouth seemed to matter. She was discovering that she liked Shaun more with each passing moment, but despite not discussing it further, the murder case still hung over them like a cloud and while Hayley wanted Shaun to be able to prove to his superiors that he was good enough to handle a case like this without support, she also knew that as soon as he caught the killer, he’d leave.

  It just didn’t seem fair.

  “Hobbies… let’s see… I like to keep a souvenir from every crime scene. Usually a piece of human hair from the victim, or something like that," he said with a completely straight face. Hayley felt her mouth drop open and there was silence for a beat before he laughed. “Good heavens, could you imagine? I’d have been locked up long ago,” he reassured her. “I’m nowhere near that exciting. My favourite things to do include long walks in the countryside and sitting down with a good book - preferably a mystery of some sort. That’s probably the reason I worked so hard to join the police. I always fancied myself in the role of Sherlock Holmes. Unfortunately, I don’t possess his knack for observation. I have no doubt he’d have nailed the villain of our current case in the very first chapter.” He shook his head. "I think I’m more of an Inspector Clouseau, really.”

  Hayley snorted into the dregs of her smoothie.

  "Better that than a recreational drug user who, at least according to the latest BBC adaptation, kept body parts in his fridge.” She frowned. “Although, I
suppose the original Sherlock wouldn’t have had a fridge to put them in. Perhaps a pantry of body parts?”

  “When you put it like that, crime scene souvenirs don’t sound so bad,” Shaun observed.

  CHAPTER SIX

  A Second Confession

  Hayley looked down at the text message Shaun had just sent her, which contained a photograph of the sheet of paper that had been found in Dominic’s room. While the paper had the letterhead of the conference he’d attended, the notes were handwritten and apparently nonsensical. Hayley chewed her lip as she looked at the chart with various letters grouped together. Now she had a copy of it, she was beginning to think the idea she’d had last night might just be right.

  “This could be the key to everything,” she said to herself as she walked through the stables to where Ferra’s Falcon's stable was. The other stable workers had already tacked up the other young horses who had made big steps towards being fully broken in, but Falcon was no closer than when he started out. As soon as he saw Hayley, his ears flattened against his skull and he backed away into the stable, jumping from side to side. The weekend at the Onyx and Argent was supposed to calm him down but he was wilder than he’d ever been.

  “I thought you were getting better,” she said to the horse who continued to dance, his nostrils flaring in alarm. Hayley shook her head, unable to feel anything but a failure for not being able to help the horse.