Martha was called over to one of the booths, and it looked like she’d be tied up for a while, so I kept walking.
Detective Serrano was hanging out by the fire engine, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, and also licking at a cone.
“What kind of ice cream did you get?” I asked him.
“Coffee mocha.”
Of course. What had Sarah said about people looking like their dogs? Did they also resemble their ice cream choices?
He took another long, loving lick at the cone. Too bad Martha and Eleanor were missing this.
“By the way, I checked with my pals in New York,” he said. “They’re still waiting for the autopsy results on Fiona’s stepmother, but seems as though there’s nothing suspicious. It looks like she died of natural causes—a preexisting heart condition. Fiona’s father was a heart surgeon, and that’s how they met.”
“Thanks for letting me know.” Obviously the detective was one of those people who never took a day off.
“And speaking of autopsies, I’m also ordering a more in-depth review of the one for Jimmy Kratz. He had some kind of allergic reaction right before he died. Perhaps from the mold, pesticides, or other hazardous substances he came into contact with as he cleaned out houses.”
I appreciated how thorough this guy was. The fact that Jimmy’s head was completely bashed in would be reason enough for most people as the cause of death.
Serrano licked all the way around the top of his cone, swirling the ice cream into a sharp point. Martha would have been in the first aid booth by now. “I also noticed our boy Jimmy was snipped a couple of years back.”
“Snipped? You mean he had a vasectomy?” I gasped.
“Yup.”
I stared at him. “So he couldn’t possibly be the father of Carla’s baby? Oh, wow, that’s a huge relief!”
Serrano made a slight inclination with his head, and I turned to see Carla heading toward us, hand in hand with a tall guy that I assumed was the crazy boyfriend. They stopped to chat with the firefighters, and I could feel Serrano giving the guy the once-over just as I was doing. He didn’t look that homicidal to me. Freckle-faced, and possibly hot-tempered, but not crazy.
I moved closer and managed to maneuver Carla to one side and whisper the good news that her baby wasn’t Jimmy’s.
She nodded. “Yeah, once I calmed down, I did the math and I didn’t think it could be his. But thanks for letting me know for sure.”
Carla had on about a quarter of the makeup she usually wore. Like Reenie, she looked much healthier and prettier.
“My boyfriend’s actually really happy about the baby. He said it’s time for both of us to grow up.”
I gave her a quick hug. “I’m glad.”
Serrano had disappeared by this time, so I thought I’d go find Joe and see what he was up to. On the way, I passed a cow lift in demonstration and stopped to watch. It was an apparatus that rolls a cow that is down on the ground with post-calving paralysis or some other ailment onto a fabric sling, which was then attached with hooks to a front end loader to gently lift the animal.
The old farmer demonstrated how there was an open area for the udder to hang through, to reduce stress and pressure. “This here cow lift can lift up to twenty-two hundred pounds.”
My phone chimed with a text message. It was Sarah. Gone to Kratz farm to take more pix. Lite perfect now. Rain tmrw.
I sighed. I’d better tell Reenie that Sarah was over at her place. I didn’t want her to freak out again.
It was almost 3 p.m. We’d planned a brief ceremony at 3:30 p.m. to present Reenie with a symbolic check. The actual money would be donated once any fixed expenses for things like the insurance were deducted and the accounting finalized.
Cee Cee was still at the face-painting table. Reenie’s son was sitting in her lap and the little girl was wiping the table with a wet paper towel.
“Have you seen Reenie?” I asked.
“She asked me to watch these two for a bit.” Cee Cee smiled at them. “Said she was going home to change before the presentation, but she’d be back in half an hour.”
Oh, crap. That meant she’d bump into Sarah. I hoped she wasn’t as mad as when I stopped over unannounced.
Suddenly there was a commotion at the admissions booth, and I thought I heard someone screaming.
I ran, my feet flying across the grass of their own accord, and as I got closer, I saw Liz Gallagher weeping uncontrollably, surrounded by several of her friends.
“The cash box with the money is missing!” Eleanor’s face was white as she rushed up to me. “I asked Liz to watch it while I went to the bathroom. She got distracted when two of the kids started fighting, and when she looked back, it was gone. Jesus, Daisy. There was about twenty-five thousand dollars in that damn box.”