Page 87 of Frost and Venom

The six women met at Shabina’s house because it was just easier to keep under tight security. Rainier had his men patrolling outside while he and Wilder stayed in the security room. Rush had agreed to allow Raine to join them, mostly because he could easily make her comfortable at Shabina’s.

“I’ve been really studying this situation with all the mysterious deaths,” Harlow greeted, not waiting to introduce the topic she couldn’t get out of her head. She sank into her favorite chair. Shabina had the best furniture. The absolute top-of-the-line luxury chairs. Once seated, Harlow never wanted to get up. Well, the exception would be when it came time to eat Shabina’s delicious food. “I’m totally convinced someone is behind the deaths, that they aren’t random.”

The other women murmured their assent. Even Shabina. “I’ve come over to the dark side,” Shabina announced. “I didn’t want to, because that means someone in our town is killing our friends once again. Knightly is magical, but for some reason, along with the wonderful magic, it also attracts the complete opposite.”

Stella waved her hand in the air. “I don’t want to think about it happening all over again, but I keep having those weird nightmares.”

“I enhanced the video and screenshots of the man in the hoodie creeping around Guadalupe’s house,” Raine said. “If you look very closely, when he’s crouched down right there”—she froze the screen, turning it so all of them could see—“he’s definitely releasing something into Guadalupe’s flower bed.”

They passed the laptop around, each of them studying the screen, trying to make out what the man was dropping into the raised bed where pansies and tulips grew.

“It’s a spider,” Harlow said as the small arachnid was caught in the light for a brief second. “He’s releasing a spider.”

“She’s right,” Vienna acknowledged. “That’s a spider. A very shiny one.”

Shabina leaned close to the screen. “That’s just creepy. A black widow? It isn’t a recluse. Why would he dump a spider into Guadalupe’s flowers?”

“If that spider has the very toxic venom that is killing people,” Stella said, “it would explain why my dreams are so disconnected. He isn’t doing the actual killing. His little pet spider is.”

Harlow sat back in her chair as Vienna passed the laptop back to Raine. “Did you find any connection between the four people who aren’t from here? I mean, other than that they all ate at the Sunrise Café and the Blue Heron Bakery?”

“Actually, yes. I reviewed the security footage from the Blue Heron Bakery,” Raine said. “All four had a very unpleasant encounter with Bale Landry. He hit on Tammy Dailly, and she turned him down. He got ugly and followed her out to the parking lot. They appeared to argue, and then he punched the side of her car.”

“Bale did?” Shabina said. “Why am I not surprised? He has such a foul temper when it comes to women.”

“Malone Armstrong confronted him in the parking lot when Bale was yelling at Tammy,” Raine said. “They nearly came to blows. Malone went inside to get coffee, and Bale went over to his truck and keyed it. Or at least he appeared to.”

“You think he put spiders in both vehicles,” Vienna said, shock in her voice. “It’s inconceivable even for him.”

“It fits,” Raine said.

“What about the two brothers? What happened with them?” Zahra asked.

Harlow noted that she didn’t sound in the least surprised that Bale may have been the one to put deadly spiders in an enemy’s flower bed or vehicle. It was diabolical and also cowardly. Bale was both. Zahra knew that firsthand. He’d despised her because she’d been born in another country. It didn’t matter that she had gotten her citizenship.

“He had a run-in with them almost immediately after he had the confrontation with Armstrong,” Raine said. “Ray bumped into him accidentally and spilled his coffee. He apologized and offered to buy Bale a cup of coffee. Bale hit Ray and Doug jumped him. They were asked to leave. Bale was furious. He argued with Leon, the owner, but he was told to leave.”

“Did you catch him on surveillance near their car?” Stella asked.

“No, but it follows that if he’s the one planting venomous spiders and he did in Tammy and Armstrong’s vehicles, then he did in the Camello brothers’ car as well.”

“Widows don’t kill like that,” Vienna pointed out.

Harlow took a deep breath. “They aren’t black widows.” No one responded, so she continued. “I think my photograph, Frost and Venom, was the target at the Grill. I believe I inadvertently took pictures of the killer’s spider nests. Those rocks and the small tree branches scattered on the ground in front of the barn. The evidence was right there on Alek Donovan’s wall. The killer had to get rid of it someway, so he threw paint over all the artwork surrounding it so undue attention wouldn’t be drawn to my work.”

“Oh no. If you’re right, we put Guadalupe directly in his sights when we asked her to look into the property to see if we could buy it,” Stella said.

“Exactly,” Harlow agreed. “Unfortunately, I think the spiders are Sydney funnel-web spiders. The males, when looking for mates, which they would be this time of year, are at peak venom and extremely aggressive. Their bite is powerful and can even penetrate shoe leather. They have distinctive bites. Dogs get very sick but don’t die from the bites.”

Every head was shaking, even Raine’s, although she didn’t look convinced that Harlow was wrong.

Harlow took a sip of water and forced herself to continue. She had known her theory wasn’t going to be well received. She didn’t blame anyone. The Sydney funnel-web spider was one of the deadliest spiders in the world and supposedly only found in Australia.

“There are actually three different species of the Sydney funnel-web spider,” she went on. She figured she might as well just tell them what she was thinking and why. “Bale spent a great deal of time in Australia. He lived there for an entire summer. There’s a program where volunteers help milk the spiders. They produce lifesaving antivenom. Bale very well could have helped with that program.”

“That’s true, that he did spend time in Australia,” Raine agreed. “He actually spent a great deal of time in Australia with his mother. It shocked me that she had been born in Chile. Bale and his father despised foreigners, especially women, so much that it didn’t occur to me that all of this hatred was about his mother.”

“I thought he loved her,” Stella admitted. “But now that I think about it, neither Bale nor his father spoke about her.”