Maggie and the Hidden Homicide by Barbara Cool Lee

Author:Barbara Cool Lee [Lee, Barbara Cool]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pajaro Bay Publishing

Chapter Fourteen

The next morning, Maggie pulled her little purple Honda Fit into the dusty parking area at the Kirby farm.

"I don't get why we're here," Reese said.

"I brought you because I need you to translate, if any of the people I want to talk to don't speak English."

"But why do you want to do this at all?" Reese grumbled.

They got out of the car. Maggie unfastened Jasper from his harness in the back seat and he jumped out, looking around and sniffing.

He pulled her over to one particular spot and snuffled his nose on the ground, basking in the scent.

"Santa Maria barbecue, I know," she told him. "That's where the grill was standing."

"What's he doing?" Reese asked.

"I've got a better question," someone said. "What are you doing?"

She turned around.

"Mr. Kirby," Maggie said, pulling Jasper away from the tantalizing scents. She reached out her free hand to shake Kirby's.

He took her hand, reluctantly, and then quickly pulled away. His face was drawn, and he looked like he hadn't slept since the barbecue.

"I'm so sorry," she said to him. "So very sorry about your son."

Reese came up and shook his hand, too. "We both are. It was a tragedy."

Kirby nodded. He seemed unable to speak for a moment, but then cleared his throat and asked again, "what are you doing here?"

Reese turned to Maggie with a raised eyebrow.

"I wanted to give you my condolences, of course," she said. "But also, I wanted to talk to the workers we met before."

"Most of them are gone," Kirby said. "But the ones still here are clearing that field." He waved vaguely off to their left.

"Gone?" Maggie asked, wondering if he had fired them.

"They ran, of course. As soon as they saw the police. If the police couldn't find them, I don't see how you can. Why do you want to talk to them, anyway?"

"I don't know," Maggie said, feeling the man's pain wash over her, making her doubt herself. "To get some answers, I guess. See if I can learn anything about Taiyari. About where she might be or what might have happened."

She had expected him to respond with anger at the mention of the girl who had supposedly murdered his son, but he didn't. He just looked overwhelmed with grief and loss.

"I don't know what good it will do," he said. "The police have been over every inch of the place. It just… there's no sense to any of it."

"It is senseless," Maggie agreed. "I guess that's part of why I wanted to talk to the people who knew Ethan and Taiyari. To try to understand."

Mr. Kirby broke down then, though he tried to cover it with gruffness. "Then do that. I don't care. It doesn't matter anymore. Nothing matters."

He walked away, and they watched him head down the dirt road. In the far distance was the farm house. Maggie hadn't paid much attention to it at the barbecue, as it had been mostly hidden by the darkness then. Now she saw it was a plain, utilitarian place, probably as old as the Kirby farm.

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