Rarities Unlimited 03 - Die in Plain Sight

Like Morley, Marten had been a close friend of the family for years, since before Three married Sandra Wheaten. There were rumors that Marten was Sandra’s lover before and after the marriage.”
    “There are always rumors,” Savoy muttered. “Jesus, you should hear some of the ones about Blissy.”
    Rory slid two folders toward Ian. “Reports on the unattended deaths of Benford Savoy the Third and Lewis Marten.”
    Ian flipped through. It didn’t take long. “The same blind two-year-old did the investigation on both of these. Not even dental records on the artist. Just ‘It was his house so it must be his charred bones inside it.’”
    “Nobody ever heard from Lewis Marten again,” Rory said dryly. “Adds some weight to the assumption, don’t you think?”
    Lacey kept reading from her notes. “Though still in her thirties, and fertile, his widow Sandra Wheaten Savoy never remarries. As before, Morley Forrest remains the faithful factotum in public and power behind the throne in private.”
    “Hard on the pride,” Ian said.
    “I’d imagine,” Lacey said. “But Morley had a plan. He was grooming his son, Ward, to marry the princess, Gem Savoy, despite the fact that the matriarch of the family was dead-set against it. Forrests were peasantstock, don’t you know. Fortunately, the old lady died just in time for the engagement to be announced. Another accident on the ranch did her in. Another Forrest investigated. Another Forrest benefited. Quelle shock.”
    Savoy looked at his watch. “I’ve got to get back to the hospital.”
    “Go whenever you like,” Ian said. “We’ll just keep talking to the sheriff, unless he’s going back to watch over the old man, too.”
    “I’m staying. I’d advise Savoy to sit down and stay.”
    Savoy gave him a hard look and sat down. Rory began searching through the files.
    “Here,” Rory said, handing another file to Ian. “Read it.”
    Ian looked at the sheriff/coroner’s report on the Forrest matriarch’s unattended death. “Broken neck. Odd.”
    “What’s odd?” Rory asked impatiently. “She was in her seventies and fell off her horse at a dead run.”
    “My great-uncle was the first deputy at the scene,” Ian said.
    Rory stopped rubbing his face and focused on Ian.
    “Carl says the tracks showed that after being thrown, Mrs. Forrest got to her hands and knees, and then stood and walked ten feet,” Ian said. “Tough to do with a broken neck. He also told me that it looked like the horse had been scared right out of its steel shoes by something jumping out of a bush.”
    “No tracks were mentioned in the report,” Rory said.
    “My great-uncle said the ground had been swept before anybody got there.”
    Rory’s eyes narrowed. “What did the sheriff say?”
    “Sheriff Forrest wasn’t impressed with the idea of someone spooking the horse and then finishing the job when the fall didn’t kill her.”
    “What?” Savoy jumped to his feet. “Are you suggesting that she was murdered ?”
    “The ranch worker who found her was so upset, according to the report,” Lacey continued, “that he went back to Mexico as soon as he talked to the sheriff about how he found the old lady with a broken neck. He didn’t talk to anybody else, apparently, not even his buddies. Just took his family and left. The sheriff didn’t see anything odd about that, either.”
    Rory sat still, listening. And thinking. “Is that all?”
    “A few days later,” Ian said, “Gem duly married Ward Forrest. Ahandful of timely deaths through the years had transformed Morley Forrest from factotum to father-in-law of the first family, and Ward Forrest from county sheriff to king of Moreno County.”
    “That’s absurd,” Savoy said curtly.
    “No,” Ian said, “what passed for police work in this county is absurd. Which brings us to Gem Savoy Forrest.”
    Another much thicker folder landed in front of Ian. He didn’t pick it up. He just looked at the sheriff. “Did you check the corpse for broken fingernails, flesh under the nails, bruise marks?”
    “Yes,” Rory said curtly. “We didn’t find anything except a suicide.”
    “She leave a note?”
    “No.”
    “Unusual.”
    Rory sighed and rubbed his face. “Ward probably found it and burned it before I got there. Look, Gem had just been dumped by her latest too-young lover. She put her hair up fancy, made up her face, turned on the outdoor spa to a hundred and four, and swallowed enough vodka and