The Root of Murder Read online

  One pair belonged to Charley, J.J.’s “watch” rooster. Equal in size to a tom turkey, the territorial bird was nastier than the farm’s half a dozen mixed-breed dogs, who were napping in a patch of sun along a fence by the hen house.

  The pack noted Joshua’s arrival with lifted heads and perked ears. Once they determined that he wasn’t going to run over them with his SUV, they resumed snoozing.

  The rooster was a different story. Charley surveilled Joshua with unblinking eyes from his perch on top of the porch railing.

  The other pair of eyes belonged to Ollie, an orphaned lamb who Poppy had adopted the previous spring. The farm didn’t raise sheep, and no one had the heart to tell the hundred-pound farm animal that he wasn’t a lap dog. His head cocked, lamb watched Joshua from the front porch.

  Charley rose up onto his feet and let out a crow that sounded like a warning against trespassing.

  “I’m leaving already,” Joshua told him.

  As he pulled the SUV forward, he noticed that Poppy’s truck was parked in its usual spot in front of the barn. He wondered why she hadn’t checked to see who was visiting. That was when he noticed the two-horse trailer missing from its spot between the paddock and the hen house.

  Before Joshua could put two and two together, he saw J.J.’s truck traveling along the road leading to the farm’s main entrance. The full-sized dually-wheeled truck pulled the horse trailer behind it.

  “Don’t tell me,” Joshua muttered. “Poppy talked him into another horse.”

  As if to answer his question, Gulliver, Comanche, and three of J.J.’s mares galloped across the pasture. They stuck their noses up in the air to sniff out the newcomer.

  An Appaloosa, Gulliver was Poppy’s horse, a gelding. Like his freckled owner, he had spots all over his body. A mare, Comanche was a palomino who J.J.’s late partner had gifted to Izzy. Comanche had been rescued from a situation in which she had been badly neglected. The two outsiders living at a quarter horse farm were best buddies.

  In the adjacent pasture, Captain Blackbeard, the farm’s champion quarter horse stallion, followed the trailer with his nose up in the air. He snorted and shook his head is if to veto the newcomer’s application to the herd.

  Joshua parked his SUV next to the house and climbed out. As he had concluded, there was a horse in the trailer.

  J.J. parked the truck in front of the barn. Poppy jumped out of the passenger seat and hurried to the rear of the trailer.

  “What bloodline is this one from?” Joshua called to them while making his way across the barnyard.

  Ollie galloped ahead of him to greet J.J. when he slid out of the driver’s seat. His hair was disheveled, and he was unshaven. Dressed in his stained work coat and muddy boots, one would never have guessed that he had graduated top of his class from one of the best law schools in the country. “We have no idea.”

  As he drew nearer to the trailer, Joshua saw that the horse was a black and white paint. Nervous, she moved back and forth in the trailer. Uncertain of the horse’s temperament, he stood back to allow Poppy to direct them. “You bought a horse without knowing its bloodline?”

  “Red-blooded horses have a right to live, too.” Poppy unlatched the rear door of the trailer.

  “Ah, she’s a rescue,” Joshua said with a nod of his head.

  J.J. pulled the ramp from the trailer to the ground and secured it. “Someone called Poppy last night to tell her that this pregnant mare was at a slaughterhouse auction. She and her baby were going to be slaughtered. So she woke me up first thing this morning and we drove out there to buy her and bring her home.”

  “Slaughterhouse auction? Where—”

  “An hour and forty-five minutes away,” J.J. said. “We left before six this morning. Got there when they opened. Paid cash to save her.”

  “Cash?”

  From inside the trailer, Poppy smiled through the slats. “J.J. took all the money he had in the house and we prayed it’d be enough to rescue her.”

  J.J. rolled his eyes. “Poppy cried when she saw the place. If we had enough money, we would have crammed three more horses into the trailer, strapped one on the roof, and ridden with one in our lap to bring them home.”

  “Where there is love, there’s always room for one more,” Poppy called out.

  “Your mother used to say the same thing to me.” In a low voice, Joshua added, “Usually after telling me that she was pregnant.”

  J.J. uttered a low laugh, before turning serious. “It was sad. But we did save this one and her baby.”

  Poppy spoke softly to the horse while backing her out of the trailer.

  The black and white horse was filthy with mud and manure caked in her fur. While her pregnant tummy bulged, her ribs stuck out to show that she was malnourished. She hung her head and coughed. Joshua didn’t know much about horses, but he could see that she was not healthy. “What if she’s sick with something contagious?” He felt like a heel being more worried about the sick and pregnant horse making Izzy’s Comanche sick than her own well being.

  “We’ll keep her away from the other horses until she gets a clean bill of health.” Poppy handed the rope to J.J. “Rod is coming by this afternoon to give her a thorough checkup.”

  “We already know she’s going to need to be wormed,” J.J. said.

  “What’s her name?” Joshua asked J.J., who turned to Poppy.

  She stroked the mare’s face while murmuring softly to her. “Pilgrim.”

  “The horse in The Horse Whisperer,” Joshua said.

  “She’s a survivor, just like that horse.” She delivered a long lingering kiss to J.J. while taking the rope from him. She led the horse into the barn with Ollie galloping ahead of them as if to lead the way.

  “She has you wrapped around her pretty little finger,” Joshua whispered to him as they watched her walk away.

  “I know.” He shot Joshua a grin. “And I wouldn’t have it any other way.” He patted him on the back before trotting toward the house. “Want some coffee? I’ve only had two cups this morning and I haven’t eaten yet today.”

  Once they were inside the French country home, J.J. dumped the old coffee into the sink and refilled the pot with clean water. He waited until the coffee was brewing to shrug out of his coat and drape it across the back of a chair.

  Joshua took a seat at the table. “I just stopped by to ask about how your law practice is going.”

  “It’s not. I’ve defended a couple of DUIs. One B and E. An assault.” J.J. paused in taking two mugs out of the cupboard. “You drove all the way over here to ask me that?”

  “I wanted to check on Comanche,” Joshua lied. “You’re licensed in Pennsylvania. Have you taken any public defender cases over there?”

  Looking doubtful, J.J. set the mugs on the counter next to the coffeemaker. “I had one last year. That was the breaking and entering. I plea bargained that one. They caught him with all of the stuff in his house.”

  “You haven’t defended anyone charged with murder yet?”

  “You know I haven’t.” J.J. opened the refrigerator to peer inside in hopes of finding something quick and easy to eat.

  “Do you think you’re ready to take one on?”

  Holding the door open, J.J. slowly turned from the fridge to face him. “What murder—” Seeing his expression, he threw the door shut. “No! No way! Derek Ellison deserves to rot in jail!”

  “He has a right to the best defense possible,” Joshua said.

  “He stabbed one of my friends.”

  “He’s paid for that,” Joshua said. “The John Davis murder is a whole different case.”

  “He would have killed Bryan if Murphy hadn’t stopped him. Bryan has an ugly scar in his side because of that animal.”

  “That animal is a human being who’s been dealt a bad hand.” Joshua gestured toward the barn
. “Not unlike that horse that you just spent all morning driving across the state to save.”

  “That horse never stabbed anyone!”

  “You don’t know that. You know nothing about that horse. She could be carrying the Son of Sam as far as you know.”

  “You’ve lost your mind!” J.J. slammed his hand down on the counter between them. “Why do you keep defending Ellison?”

  “I can’t defend him. That’s why I’m asking you to.”

  “He’ll get a court-appointed attorney in Pennsylvania.”

  “Who will talk him into taking a plea, and then he’ll spend the rest of his life in jail.”

  “Where he belongs.” J.J. threw up his arms. “My whole life, you’ve preached about being man enough to take responsibility for our bad decisions. When you make a mistake, you don’t blame society. You don’t blame your mother or father. You admit you’re wrong, and you pay the price for your mistakes. But when it comes to Derek Ellison—it’s a whole different story. He trespassed onto school property and hid in the locker room to stab Bryan, and you accepted a plea bargain for four years. He was out in three and went on to kill John Davis, the father of another friend of mine! Now, you stand there and ask me to defend him? What is it with you?”

  “Everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” Joshua said in a steady tone. “That’s the foundation of a civilized society. It is up to the prosecution to prove Derek Ellison killed John Davis. Unless they can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he did kill John Davis, then he’s innocent. Except for his mother, this man has never had anyone willing to stand in his corner to defend him against anything. It’s been him against the world his whole life.” He shook his head. “You’ve never been alone, J.J. Not you, your brothers, or your sisters. You get up in the morning knowing that you have your entire family in your corner. If anything happens, we’ll all be there for you. Imagine what your life would have been like if you had to deal with what you’ve gone up against alone. Losing Suellen. Getting shot.”

  J.J. dropped his eyes to the floor, where Ollie was chewing on his shoe laces. The orphaned lamb had climbed through the doggie door to join them without either of them noticing.

  “Derek and you do have something in common,” Joshua said. “He loved Lindsay—just like you loved Suellen. When you lost Suellen, we were all here to help you go through it. When Derek lost Lindsay, the only one who was there for him was his mother. No other family. No friends. A lot of folks, myself included, kind of thought they had it coming because both of them were a couple of addicts.” He sighed. “And then society took his son away from him on top of all that.”

  “If you’re trying to make me feel sorry for the guy, I do,” J.J. said. “But the thing is, all of these things that have happened to him have been the result of his and Lindsay’s own bad choices.”

  “Derek didn’t start out as the man he is now,” Joshua said. “Abandoned by his father—rejected as a bad boy—I admit it—even by me. With everyone against him—no one to defend him. After a while, that type of adversity breaks a man.”

  “Would you have approved if Tracy had brought Derek home and wanted to marry him?”

  Joshua grit his teeth and slumped against the breakfast bar.

  J.J. laughed. “Where’s your compassion now?”

  Joshua’s eyes met his. “Derek doesn’t remember where he was at the time of the murder.”

  “Which means he has no alibi. He had the murder weapon.”

  “And you had Hawkeye in your locker.”

  J.J. stood up straight. Joshua’s statement cut him like a knife.

  “You remember Hawkeye, don’t you? Middle school. Oakland, California. The school mascot went missing from the display case. The principal was looking for it. When you opened your locker, it fell out and landed at his feet.”

  “I didn’t steal it,” J.J. said.

  “But you were in possession of it.” Joshua jabbed him in the chest. “As far as your principal was concerned, that was evidence enough to convict you—suspend you from school.”

  “The real thief saw someone coming and stuffed it in my locker,” J.J. said.

  “Who?”

  J.J. closed his mouth.

  Joshua shook a finger at him. “I’ve always suspected that you knew. But you refused to give him up and took the three-day suspension, because you didn’t have as much to lose as he did.”

  “Actually, I’d hoped the real thief would be man enough to come forward on his own and confess. He didn’t, and our friendship ended.”

  “Point is, you were wrongfully convicted because you looked guilty. You have a unique perspective that most of us don’t. You’ve been there.”

  J.J. lifted his eyes to meet Joshua’s. “What do you know that you aren’t telling me?”

  “It’s not what I know. It’s what the lead investigator on the case doesn’t know.”

  “I don’t have any cash.” J.J. let out a deep sigh. “Can you give me money for lunch?”

  Chapter Six

  “Why do you look so worried?” Tony asked Cameron when he arrived at the courthouse in Beaver, Pennsylvania, to find that she didn’t have the same confident expression as he had. “We got him. We caught him with the murder weapon in his hand. His fingerprints on it. No alibi.” With a chuckle, he watched the spectators flowing into the courtroom for the arraignment. “Not bad for my first murder case in homicide, huh?”

  Cameron extracted a folder from her briefcase. “Have you looked at the victim’s financials?”

  Tony shrugged his shoulders. “Just the usual stuff you’d expect to see in a vice president’s financials.”

  She took a printout from the folder and pointed to a line on it. “What do you see there?”

  Tony took the printout from her and read the line. “Davis withdrew ten thousand dollars from his personal savings account.”

  “On what day?”

  Tony looked at the statement again. “Friday.”

  “The day he was killed.”

  “So?” Tony said. “The guy made a hell of a lot of money. Ten thousand was like—”

  “He took it out in cash. That means he was walking around with ten thousand dollars in cash. Where is that money now?” Cameron stared at him while waiting for an answer. After receiving none, she said, “His wife made no mention about ten thousand dollars.”

  “Probably because it’s not missing. He must have given it to whoever he took it out for.”

  “When did he give it to them and for what?” Cameron shoved the folder back into her briefcase. “Did he give the money to them or did they take it—after killing him? Have you located Davis’s car yet?”

  “Ellison sold it and used the money to buy booze and drugs.”

  “We don’t have any proof of that. We haven’t found the primary crime scene, and we don’t know where Davis was living during the week while his wife thought he was in Seattle.”

  “Have you told the widow about her husband lying about his business trips?”

  “No.” She wagged a finger at him. “And I don’t want you telling her. I want to keep this under our hats. If she did know, then she may slip up and that’s when we’ll get her.”

  “Wait a minute,” Tony objected. “You can’t be thinking Ellison didn’t do this. He had the murder weapon.”

  “He’s a stoner,” Cameron said. “If Davis’s wife found out he was stepping out on her, then she had the motive, means, and opportunity to kill him and frame Ellison. Kill two birds with one stone. Gets rid of a cheating husband and gets rid of her grandson’s loser father.”

  “But—”

  “The only reason Sanders took the case is because she’s coming up for re-election and she wants to get a high-profile conviction under her belt. What’s more high-profile than a successful family man getting brutally murdered by his druggie son-in
-law. Ellison is a loser and Sanders expects the public defender to roll over and play dead.”

  “All the better for us. We get another animal off the streets.”

  “What if that animal didn’t do it? Then the real animal who killed Davis is still out there,” Cameron said in a low voice when she noticed a familiar face emerge from the top of the stairs. “I’ll see you inside.”

  With a roll of his eyes, Tony went into the courtroom to await the arraignment.

  J.J. looked embarrassed to be there when she stepped up to him.

  “What are you doing here?” She noticed his slacks and suitcoat worn over a sweater. His clean-shaven face said it all. “No.”

  “Dad asked. I called the public defender. He jumped at my offer to—”

  “You’ve never defended someone on a murder charge,” Cameron said in a low voice.

  “But I am a Thornton.” J.J. held the door open for her to go into the courtroom ahead of him.

  The arraignment was just a hearing for the court to read the charges, Derek to enter a plea, and for the prosecutor and defense attorney to argue about bail.

  Considering Derek Ellison’s living conditions, J.J. assumed and hoped the prosecutor would request bail be denied. His assumption was confirmed when he saw Derek stagger into the courtroom in shackles and drop into the chair next to him. His stench was enough to make J.J. gag.

  “Derek, I’m Joshua Thornton Junior, your court appointed counsel.”

  Derek lifted his head and looked up at him through eyes narrowed to slits. He uttered a loud groan.

  J.J. turned to look back at Cameron and Tony. The young detective was chuckling. A recovering alcoholic, Cameron was not.

  She moved over to take a seat in the gallery behind J.J. “He’s going through withdrawal,” she told him in a low voice.

  Derek threw his head back and wailed.

  “I thought he was in a holding cell for the last two days,” J.J. said.

  “Depending on what drugs he’s been taking, it’s probably still in his system,” she said. “He needs to go to the hospital. He needs detox.”