Free Meanwhile, Back in Deadwood (Deadwood Humorous Mystery Book 6) by Ann Charles Page B

paper.
    Natalie shrugged. “There was a crack showing.”
    “Thank you.” Cooper jotted down a few words in his notebook. “Please continue where you left off with Sunday morning’s events.”
    Natalie cleared her throat and walked him through what had happened in the house and then out in the barn. All the while, Cooper kept his head down, taking notes.
    When Natalie finished, I spoke up, “You know what I wonder?”
    “This isn’t your interview, Parker.”
    “What do you wonder?” Natalie asked, peeking around the back of Harvey’s head. “Besides who was the better archenemy of Bugs Bunny: Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam?”
    “I told you Yosemite Sam was the bigger badass, hands down. His huge hats prove it.”
    “Plus his arsenal of cannons,” Harvey agreed.
    “I don’t know,” Natalie argued. “I still say those big hats hinted at insecurities due to a short-man complex. Elmer had more self-confidence.”
    “Jesus, you three.” Cooper squeezed his forehead. “Can we get back to Sunday’s events?”
    “Fine, Detective Party Pooper.” I clasped my hands together. “What I wonder is why there was no blood on the floor in the barn. Shouldn’t there be lots of blood if you cut off a face?”
    “There was the dried blood on the rag,” Natalie reminded me.
    “Yeah, but that wasn’t necessarily the dead guy’s blood.”
    “You think the killer might have cut himself while slicing off the face?”
    “Maybe, as ironic as that would be.” I looked at Cooper, who was watching me with unhappy eyebrows. “Did you find any drops or smears of blood in the barn?”
    His lips tightened. “That’s police business.”
    I didn’t let that stop me. I leaned forward, addressing my couch mates. “Did either of you notice dried blood on the dead guy’s clothes or in the safe?”
    Both shook their heads.
    I turned back to Cooper. “When you cut the face off someone who is already dead, there’d be no heartbeat to pump out blood, right?”
    “I’m here to ask the questions, not you.”
    “Why my barn?” Harvey tugged on his suspenders. “Why my safe?”
    Why his grandpappy’s gun? I chewed my lower lip, wondering how one thing led to the next.
    “Did you find blood anywhere else on Harvey’s property?” I asked Cooper, not expecting an answer.
    He didn’t disappoint. “That’s none of your business, Parker.” He shook his pen at me. “And don’t you go out there sniffing around either.”
    “Or what? Let me guess, you’ll arrest me.”
    “If you’re lucky.” Cooper aimed his pen at his uncle. “Your turn. Make sure you include anything that seemed off to you on Sunday morning.”
    “Ol’ Red was off his feed at breakfast.”
    “I meant anything having to do with the body at the ranch.”
    “That does have to do with the body. Ol’ Red is the one who found it in the barn. I’m guessin’ he sniffed out the raw meat lickety split because he hates that dog food you picked up for him. Can’t say I blame him, either.” Harvey snorted. “It’s full of too much healthy shit.”
    “If Red’s going to live in my house and do his business on my yard, he needs to eat dog food, not table scraps.”
    “Red fancies people food.”
    “He ate one of my motorcycle boots.”
    “That’s ‘cause he likes ya.”
    Harvey echoed my daughter’s reasoning for a chicken egg winding up in my boot. Personally, I didn’t think Red had a preference when it came to boots. The last one I’d seen him chewing had belonged to someone long dead who’d left part of his foot behind.
    “Red needs to be deputized if you ask me,” I said, poking at Cooper since he kept throwing that police business hogwash at us. “He could team up with you and really make headlines. I can already see the tagline for your billboard out on Interstate 90.” I looked up, pretending I was reading a billboard. “The Deadwood Duo: Digging Up Crime One Crook at a Time.”
    That lip curl was back. “Nobody asked you,