"Jack heard the gunshot," I told them.
Susan and Andy exchanged a quick, puzzled glance, but then I saw realization hit them both at once.
"Tiger hearing," Andy said, his face grim. "Plus, with his background, he knows the sound of gunshots."
"Okay, Tess. Please stay here with Lizzie on crowd control. Andy, with me," Susan said, and she stepped inside the tent.
"Those tent flaps were closed when we were here earlier this evening," I said. "Maybe the killer touched them? Fingerprints?"
"Thanks, Tess," Andy said before he followed her inside. "I'm sorry you keep seeing dead bodies."
"You and me both," I said with one thousand percent sincerity.
Lizzie pulled out her phone and took several photos and a video of the crowd around the tent, being subtle but not trying to hide what she was doing.
"So we'll know who the potential witnesses are," she told me.
She and I had a few dicey moments trying to keep drunken, belligerent people from pushing their way closer to the tent, especially when the ringleader yelled that Deputy Underhill was a baby deputy, and I was just a pawnshop owner with no rights to keep anybody from seeing anything.
"The sheriff asked me to help, so that gave me the right," I yelled right back at him.
He blustered, but then his eyes suddenly widened, and he closed his mouth so fast he probably chipped a tooth.
"Jack's behind me, isn't he?"
Lizzie looked over her shoulder and then nodded.
In the sudden, spreading quiet, Jack cleared his throat. "Does anybody else want to yell at my wife?"
"Nope."
"Not a word."
"We're good."
Rooster Jenkins's voice boomed out. "Is it trouble, Tess? Anything I can do?"
"Actually, yes," I said, relieved. "We'd appreciate it if you'd help with crowd control, so Lizzie can … get to other official business."
"What official business is that?" Lizzie asked quietly.
I filled her in on the woman who'd run away and asked if she could try to sniff her out or something.
Lizzie gave me a strange look but shrugged. She slipped inside the tent when Rooster took her place and came back out thirty seconds later and raced off in the direction the woman had gone, without me even having to tell her. I mentally crossed my fingers.
Lauren and the new doctor walked up to us next.
"Hi, Tess. The sheriff called and asked me to report here and serve as a temporary coroner," Dr. Snow said. She looked nervous. "This isn't my field, so I'm not sure how much help I can be …"
Susan pushed the tent flap aside and jerked her thumb toward the interior. "I just need you to state officially that he's dead."
Dr. Snow walked to the entrance and froze, not taking another step. "Yes. He's dead. Oh, he's definitely dead," she said in a strained voice.
"Don't you have to check his pulse or something?" Rooster asked.
The doctor shook her head slowly back and forth. "There's, ah, not a pulse to check."
With that, she whirled around and stepped a few paces away from the tent, and Lauren put an arm around her shoulders and went with her.
