Seed No Evil by Kate Collins Page B

groundwork in case we’d heard anything?
    Rafe appeared with a tray bearing our drinks. He didn’t normally deliver drinks when Gert was around, but by the way he was smiling at Emma, I knew why he’d made an exception.
    â€œI’ve got a beer for Marco, nothing for Abby, and a peach margarita”—he set it in front of Emma with a flourish—“for the beautiful lady here.”
    â€œOh, thank you,” she said with gusto, twinkling up at him. She turned her head to look at Marco, then back at Rafe. “You
have
to be brothers.”
    â€œI’m the handsome younger model,” Rafe said, balancing the tray on one finger. “Rafe Salvare,” he said, holding out the other hand. The tray clattered to the floor. He ignored it and Marco’s scowl, but beamed at Emma’s giggle, as if that had been his intention all along.
    â€œEmma Hardy,” she said. “Nice to meet you.”
    Marco finally caught Rafe’s eye and gave him a slight frown.
    â€œNice to meet you, too, Emma,” Rafe said. “If you need anything, just give a wave. I run the bar.” He gave me a wink, Marco a nod, and then sauntered off.
    Emma looked at me and mouthed, “He’s so cute!” Then she took a sip of her margarita and glanced over at Rafe, who was already chatting with a customer and pouring a beer. “Is he single?”
    â€œHe sure is,” I said.
    â€œWhat we’re interested in knowing,” Marco said, getting us back to the topic, “is what kind of relationship Bev had with the board of directors.”
    â€œBy the board,” Emma said, still with her cheery demeanor, “I’m assuming you mean Dayton Blaine.”
    â€œWhy?” Marco asked.
    â€œBecause Dayton controls the board. Whatever Dayton says, the board does. They sit quietly, nodding their heads at her, during most of the meetings—when they’re not dozing off, that is.”
    â€œHow do you know this?” Marco asked.
    â€œI attend board meetings. I see it all the time. All. The. Time.” Emma smiled. I wondered if she could keep her eyes from twinkling.
    â€œThen I’ll work under the presumption that the board is represented by Dayton Blaine,” Marco said, while I wrote it down. “Did Bev and Dayton usually agree on PAR business?”
    â€œWhen I first started working for PAR, they did. But that changed about three months ago. Dayton was getting flack from the newspapers about the conditions at the animal shelter and didn’t like her name connected with the
abominable shelter business,
as she put it. And she placed the blame squarely at Bev’s feet.”
    â€œWhat was Bev’s reaction?”
    â€œShe didn’t like it at all. She was used to everything going her way.” Emma leaned forward to say quietly, “Bev was a control freak, if you want to know the truth. But she knew the shelter was in bad shape, so she started going there after she finished at the PAR office for the day. Personally, I think it was all for show.”
    â€œLet’s go back to the board meetings,” Marco said. “How did the other members of the board react when Dayton criticized Bev?”
    â€œI think they were very glad Dayton was dealing with the situation, because no one liked going up against Bev. Very few of them spoke at the meetings anyway, and if one of them did, it was just to back up Dayton.
    â€œLast month, with no explanation given, Bev ran the meeting, not Dayton. Honestly, Dayton sat through the meeting acting uninterested in what was going on. In fact, she seemed withdrawn. I don’t know. Maybe she was ill. In any event, she said only one thing that evening, and that was at the social hour afterward. She thought the no-kill policy needed to change.”
    â€œDid she give a reason?” I asked.
    â€œFinances,” Emma said with a shrug. “And that was only after someone questioned her. But