Free Murder at the Big T Lodge: A Liz Lucas Cozy Mystery by Dianne Harman Page A

at
the lake.
    “I will in a minute, but
I’m trying to understand exactly what goes on when you hunt quail. Was it kind
of like the duck hunt this morning?”
    “Not at all. The quail are
in a totally different type of terrain. We went to some open fields where Jack
grows feed for his cattle. It was pretty much stubble. Anyway there were two
hunters assigned to an area I’d say was about a couple of acres in size. There
was a guide who gave the dog we were using, a German shorthair pointer by the
name of Baron, instructions. The dog would run back and forth in front of us
looking for quail. When the dog scented the smell of the quail he would stop
and freeze, pointing his nose at the location where the quail were hidden from
sight in the grass. We would slowly and carefully walk to the spot where the
quail were hiding. When we got close to them they’d become nervous and would
flush and attempt to fly away. That’s when we had an opportunity to shoot them.
    “When one or both of us
shot a bird, the dog would run and bring it back to us. I know it doesn’t sound
like I did much, but I walked more today than I’ve walked in a long time, and
I’m really tired. Now what about your day?”
    For the next hour Liz
relayed everything that had happened from the time Roger had left, including
her conversation with Chef Jackson, and ending with the conversation she had
just overheard in the forest. “Roger, do you have any idea who the man I saw in
the forest might be?”
    “I’m pretty sure it was
Mickey Roberts. Did he have silver hair and a big barrel chest?”
    “Yes. The man I saw was a
big man with a barrel chest, and I have to say his hair was beautiful. A lot of
women my age pay their hairdresser big bucks to have hair that color. I wonder
if he dyes it.”
    “The thought never
occurred to me. Jack introduced me to him today at lunch, saying we were both
from California, so we should probably get to know each other. I talked to him
for a while. He’s a California State Senator from Los Angeles, and he’s been in
politics most of his life. He started out on a local school board and worked
his way up from there. Jack told me he wouldn’t be surprised if he became the
governor of California someday.”
    “Well, based on what I
heard, that certainly seems to be uppermost in his mind. Do you know anything
else about him?”
    “No, as I said, I’d never
heard of him, but other than Milt and my friend Bob, I pretty much steer clear
of politics. I will say that from what I’ve seen of politicians, they often
feel that the laws other people have to live by don’t apply to them. Remember Richard
Nixon? Maybe this is one of those cases, or then again, maybe Milt’s death was
simply because it was his time. I’ll be curious what Sean finds out about the
contents of the bottle you sent him. I do wish I’d been a fly on the wall and
seen the expression on the clerk’s face when you told her you wanted to FedEx a
bottle of juice. She’ll probably be telling people about that for months to
come,” he said laughing.
    “Roger, this is hardly a
laughing matter, and I think you’re being a bit insensitive. Anyway, do you
have any objections to me emailing Sean and seeing what he can find out about
the senator?”
    “None at all,” Roger said.
“While you’re at it you might as well ask him to take a look at Amanda and
Emilio DeLuise, as well as the chef’s assistant, Cassie. If the chef has
suspicions, maybe there’s something to it. I think we’ve talked enough about
today’s events, and I need to get dressed. Don’t want to be late for dinner if
breakfast and lunch were any indication of what we can expect from the chef.”
    “Well,” Liz said standing
up and walking into the bathroom, “If you like warm pecan pie with vanilla bean
ice cream and molasses bourbon sauce, I think you’ll be happy with tonight’s
dinner. I’ll email Sean after dinner. Give me five minutes to get ready.”

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