Read Online The Murder of a Queen Bee by Meera Lester - Free Book Online Page A

pulled back into a ponytail added up to a shabby appearance. Suddenly, it dawned on her who the man might be. He fit the description Fiona had given her of the man who’d assaulted her when she’d been out looking for herbs.
    Abby tapped the number on her cell to speed-dial Kat. “I need a favor, Kat. Could you run the plates on a silver pickup? The man driving it is the same one, I believe, who accosted Fiona back in February. And he just ran me off the road.”
    â€œAre you all right?”
    â€œYes, I am.”
    â€œHow can you be sure it’s the same guy?”
    â€œI can’t. Not positively. My gut tells me it is.”
    â€œSo this is where I ask you if you recall our chat outside the feed store about how I could lose my job if Chief Bob Allen finds out I’m involving you in this investigation.”
    â€œI wouldn’t ask, but that idiot drives like he’s high on something. He’s a danger on the road, and he frightened the daylights out of Fiona.”
    â€œDid she call the cops?”
    â€œWell . . . no.”
    â€œSo, you know as well as I do that scaring someone isn’t illegal. If Fiona had feared for life and limb, she would have dialed nine-one-one. Any sane person would. But, as you’ve pointed out, she didn’t. So what are you not telling me?”
    Abby hesitated, swallowed hard. Fiona had asked Abby not to reveal anything about her encounter with the man, for fear of being arrested herself. But what did it matter now? Fiona was gone. “Here’s the deal, Kat. I kept quiet about it because Fiona asked me to. She was trespassing on the man’s property when he attacked her. When she wrestled free of him, she used his pickax, hitting him hard, I guess. Fearing for her life, she ran away. He might have been lying on the ground, unconscious and bleeding, but she couldn’t know whether he would die or get up and give chase. And she never went back there again.”
    â€œAnd how do you know she was telling the truth?”
    â€œI can sense when someone is lying. Fiona trembled when she explained to me what had happened. The way she was shaking, it was like the cells of her body remembered.”
    A beat passed before Kat said, “You’d better tell me the full story, and don’t leave out anything.”
    Abby inhaled a deep breath and let it go. “February is mustard season. In late winter, you see how the mountain meadows and vineyards turn bright yellow.”
    â€œYeah, yeah. Hot-air balloon rides and all that . . . Tell me something I don’t know.”
    â€œSo . . . in late February, Fiona went exploring on Doc Danbury’s property, looking for wild mustard. There’s also a forty-acre parcel that shares a boundary with the doc’s land at the back, right?”
    â€œUh-huh.”
    â€œSo, the doc told Fiona about the caretaker’s cabin but assured her that no one lived back there anymore, so she felt safe searching alone for wild herbs. She’d gone pretty far when she wandered upon the creek and figured she’d also look for mushrooms and native herbs along its shady banks. She heard a twig snap. She said she spun around and was shocked to see a man watching her. He stood about six feet tall, had salt-and-pepper hair and a scruffy beard, and was dressed in a blue flannel shirt and stained jeans. She noticed one of his work boots had been wrapped in duct tape. He carried a pickax.”
    â€œHold on,” Kat said. “Was he working back there? Clearing the creek, building something?”
    â€œFiona didn’t say, but she told me she wasn’t afraid, at least not at first,” said Abby. “They talked a bit, and then he became aggressive. He dropped the ax, lunged at her, and tried to drag her toward his cabin. She screamed and fought, and they fell. She threw dirt in his eyes and wrenched herself free.” Abby caught her breath and swallowed hard, realizing how