Black Stallion's Shadow

by Steven Farley

  “Who’s that?” Alec asked Mike.

  “Andre, the trainer who’ll be handling the stag for today’s shoot.” Mike smiled. “Andre used to train animals for the circus. He doesn’t communicate. He dominates.”

  “How’s he get along with Wes?”

  “How do you think?”

  Alec could imagine the clash of egos between the two trainers. “Not too well, I suspect.”

  “They’ve managed to work together before, barely. In this business, all the trainers have to draw from the same well.”

  Andre finished his inspection of the chute and extensions. With a grunt of approval, he hopped into his Caddy, backed the trailer up to the holding-pen gate and barked an order to his helpers. They opened the trailer door. A stag with an imposing rack of horns rushed out of the trailer and darted around the pen.

  Alec watched the stag lower his head and shake his horns. “That stag looks fractious enough.”

  “You should have seen the bear Andre brought over last year. Ha! That animal wasn’t tamed, much less trained. Andre’s animals respect the whip and that’s about it.”

  “Isn’t it going to be dangerous bringing Rex and the stag together? What if they start fighting for real?”

  Mike kept his eyes on the stag. “They won’t. We’ve done this before. Those two are more scared of each other than anything else. We’re going to have to hook them up and pull them together with cables.”

  “How’s that?”

  “See that clump of grass in the center of the corral? That’s camouflaging a couple of pulleys anchored to a railroad tie we buried in the center of the corral. Our cable will run from Rex’s harness through one of the pulleys. By pulling on the other end of the cable, we can stand off to the side and drag Rex into position. Andre’s people will do the same—the stag will be hooked up to their cable from the opposite side.”

  “Won’t you see the cables?”

  Mike shook his head. “No. They’re so fine the cameras will barely pick them up, especially when they’re drawn tight. The trick is keeping the cameras at a distance and playing with the focus. If the cameraman does it right, the cables will disappear completely on screen.”

  Wes called his wranglers over for a quick conference. Then he sent Mike and the others to man their end of the cable at a spot along the fence halfway across the corral. Andre’s assistants mirrored their actions from the other side. Two camera crews took up vantage points along the edge of the fence. It looked as if shooting was about to begin.

  Wes brought Rex in from the pasture and positioned him across the corral from the stag’s chute. Only after looking carefully could Alec see the harness Rex wore. It crisscrossed the Morgan’s chest and had been dyed to match the color of his coat. The effect rendered it practically invisible.

  Rex began acting skittish. Wes waved a lash whip high in the air off camera to get his attention and keep him focused. In the far corner, Andre had the stag in the narrow wooden chute. His arms were locked around the stag’s neck. He used his massive bulk to keep the animal still. Wes ordered Julio to stand by to cut Rex’s cable in case of an emergency. On their side of the corral, one of Andre’s helpers also stood ready with a pair of long-handled wire cutters.

  “Tell me when you’re all set!” the director shouted to Wes and Andre.

  The answers came back fast. “Go ahead.” “Let’s do it.”

  Frank gave the go-ahead signal to the trainers. The fine cables were clipped onto the harnesses.

  “Action!” cried the director.

  Hand over hand, the cable crews began to pull their ends of the two cables. The wires drew taut.

  Frank signaled the cameramen. “Roll tape!”

  Rex and the stag slowly drew toward the center of the corral. Shrill whistles and grunts filled the air. The Morgan reeled back on his hind legs as the stag bounced stiffly toward him. The closer they were pulled to each other, the more they struggled against the invisible cables. Their every move was shadowed by the two camera crews.

  If Alec hadn’t known about the cables, he would have thought the animal performers actually were facing off to do battle. In reality, they just wanted to get away from each other. The only fighting going on was against the cables holding them.

  Over and over again, the cable crews pulled Rex and the stag into position. The two animals never came closer than fifteen feet apart. It all looked terrific to Alec, but Frank wasn’t satisfied. The director wanted more footage and kept retaking the scene. Every few takes the camera crew tried another shooting angle. As much time was spent adjusting the cameras and lighting between shots as on the actual filming.

  Across the corral Alec could see Marty Fisher pacing back and forth, watching everything from the sidelines. Frank wanted to keep taping. Marty looked at Wes and tapped his wrist, signaling the trainer to hold up. Alec looked at his own watch. Almost an hour had passed since they started shooting.

  “Break time!” Wes called out.

  “What!” cried Frank.

  Without saying anything, Wes looked in the direction of Marty. Frank glowered at Marty. “Come on, Marty. Just one more run-through. We’re almost done.”

  “Sorry, Frank. You know the rules. These animals need a rest.”

  The crew broke up. The camera operators huddled together with Frank. Most of the others headed to the snack table for coffee. Wes and Andre unhitched the animals from their cables.

  Suddenly there was the thunder of a loud motor from the direction of Sagebrush. Someone over at the development was starting up a bulldozer.

  Panicked by the noise, the stag broke away from Andre. He bolted across the corral. Crewmen scattered. Someone knocked over a light stand. In one seemingly effortless leap, the stag sailed over the corral fence and disappeared into the trees. Andre cursed loudly and ran after him. His assistants joined in the chase.

  In the confusion, Rex pulled free of Wes. Like the stag, he charged the fence and cleared the top rail. Only Rex didn’t run off. Once outside the fence, the big Morgan shrilled with rage. He turned his fury on the first person he could find, Marty Fisher.

  “Whoa!” Marty shouted. Rex didn’t respond except to flatten his ears and show his teeth. The Morgan plunged past Marty like a charging bull. He slid to a stop and whirled to face Marty again. The humane man could do nothing but stand his ground. He was in a fix and knew it. “Taylor!” he cried. “Get this animal of yours away from me.”

  Wes, Mike and the other wranglers jogged over. “Hang on, Mr. Fisher!” Julio shouted. Rex moved in on Marty again, slowly this time. He must have read the fear in Marty’s eyes. The oversized Morgan was toying with the humane man, almost like a cat playing with a trapped mouse. Rex edged closer, backing Marty up against a tree.

  “Easy, boy. Easy now,” Marty stammered. Rex snorted and stamped his hooves. Before he could charge again, Marty scrambled up the trunk of the tree. Rex began circling the tree trunk as Marty clung desperately to the lower branches.

  When the wranglers finally arrived, Mike managed to get a lead line on Rex. Wes called up to Marty. “How’d you get Rex so riled up, Marty? I guess no one told him who you are.”

  “Very funny, Taylor.”

  “Come on down, now. We have work to do. We can’t spend all day climbing around in trees like you.”

  “Easy now, Rex. Atta boy,” Mike soothed the Morgan as he led him away.

  Wes turned and looked up at the treed humane man. “Coast is clear, Marty.”

  Marty unglued himself from the tree and slid down to the ground, landing with a thump and a groan. Dusting himself off, the humane man turned his anger on Wes. “What have you done to that poor creature, anyway?”

  “Done to him?”

  “He’s vicious. A perfect example of what happens to an abused animal.”

  Wes laughed. “That’s just his nature, Marty. Rex has been about as well treated as anyone could ask for. I know the man who bred him.”

  Marty kept up his tirade about
abused animals, but some of the righteousness left his voice. Alec thought he sounded like his pride was hurt more than anything.

  Frank came up behind Wes, his temper seething. “Every day, Taylor! Every day something goes wrong with these animals of yours.”

  “Me! Talk to Andre about that crazy buck of his. Talk to the idiot who cranked up that dozer when we were still working.” Nose to nose, hands on their hips, Wes and Frank went at each other like an umpire and an outraged manager.

  When Ellie appeared, Wes broke off his argument with Frank and shifted his anger to her. “Ellie! What’s the matter with you! Didn’t you give Rotasky our shooting schedule for this morning? I thought we had an agreement with those people!”

  Ellie’s voice was calm and clear. “We do. I sent our schedule over last week. He promised me they wouldn’t use any heavy machinery while we were shooting at the ranch.”

  “You did, huh? So what happened?”

  “Don’t ask me. Jim went over to talk with the driver just now. Maybe Rotasky figures all bets are off, since you pulled that gun on him the other day.”

  Wes grumbled something and turned back to argue with Frank some more. The director threw his cap to the ground and started pulling at his hair. His voice rose. “I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care! I’ve wasted too much time already. Set up for the next shot. We’ll shoot without sound if we have to.”

  The wranglers brought the horses in from their pasture for the next scene. Just as things seemed to be calming down, Jim came running toward them shouting, “Wes! Wes! You’ve gotta come quick!”

  “Settle down, Jim.”

  “It’s Sagebrush! That dozer of theirs just crossed our property line. They knocked over Sinbad’s grave marker and …”

  “What the…! Didn’t the fool driver see the fence?”

  “He ran right over it. Said he was just following the markers left by the survey team.”

  Frank looked up to heaven in a plea for help. “Great. Another crisis. Why would I expect anything else?”

  Wes ignored him and looked around for Mike. “Mike! Get over here!” Mike left the horses with Patrick and Julio and came hobbling up. Wes handed Mike his lash whip. “Think you can take over for me here?”

  “Sure, boss. No problem. Don’t worry about a thing.”

  Wes turned to Frank. “I’ll be right back, Frank. Mike can work the horses in the next scene. He knows what to do.”

  Before Frank could answer, Wes hustled off to his truck. Mike smiled, as if glad to have a chance to prove himself on his own. Alec and Ellie looked at each other a moment and then ran after Wes.

  CHAPTER 16

  Risky Business

  As Wes opened the truck door, Ellie slid onto the passenger seat from the other side. Alec jumped in beside her. Wes’s face twisted angrily, but his voice only sounded weary. “Where do you two think you’re going?”

  Ellie shrugged innocently. “I want to hear Rotasky explain this. Anyway, we have to keep an eye on you.”

  “Okay, but just listen. No mouthing off.”

  Rotasky’s office, actually one wing of a model home, was in a peaceful corner of Sagebrush Village. A row of tall oaks stood shoulder to shoulder at one end of the lawn; a flock of doves bustled around the piles of dead leaves raked neatly under the trees.

  Rotasky’s overgrown driver answered the doorbell with a snarl. “Yeah?”

  “Where’s the boss?”

  “Not here.” Wes leaned in and tried to look around the doorman, who blocked the entrance with his body. Wes tried to push past.

  “That’s okay, Bobby,” called a voice from inside. “Let Mr. Taylor and his granddaughter in.”

  Alec hesitated. “Maybe I’ll just wait out here.” Ellie tugged on Alec’s arm and pulled him along.

  Rotasky sat at his desk in one corner of a sparsely furnished room. The synthetic smell of new carpet hung in the air. A scale model of Sagebrush was displayed prominently inside a glass case set on a table in the middle of the floor.

  Rotasky flashed an insincere smile. “Something we can do for you, Mr. Taylor?” The driver moved behind Rotasky and stared at them menacingly.

  Wes got right to the point. “I thought you agreed to have your bulldozers work around our shooting schedule.”

  “That’s true. I believe … well, let’s just see.” Opening a drawer, the little man consulted a sheet of paper. “According to the schedule you gave us, you weren’t supposed to be shooting at the ranch today.”

  Wes looked at Ellie accusingly. “Didn’t you tell him we pushed everything back a day after the fire?”

  Ellie’s cheeks colored red with embarrassment. “Sorry, Pops. I guess I forgot.”

  Rotasky cleared his throat to get their attention. “Now, if there’s nothing else …”

  “As a matter of fact, there is one little thing,” said Wes.“What’s the big idea of sending your bulldozer onto my land?”

  “Your land? What are you talking about?”

  “That dozer has been pushing up against the property line for days. Just now it crossed over, ran down our fence and a grave marker.”

  Rotasky returned Wes’s accusations with a look of surprise. The bodyguard shifted his legs as Wes stepped closer and leaned over the desk.

  Wes’s voice hardened. “We have a situation here, Rotasky. I want to know what you’re going to do about it.”

  Rotasky straightened his shoulders and sat back. His voice became formal and lawyerly. “Any incursions upon your property were entirely accidental, I can assure you.”

  Ellie couldn’t keep quiet any longer. “Accidental, huh? Just like the generator fire and the wagon crash? Come on, Rotasky. We know you’re behind what’s been going on at the ranch.”

  Wes stepped in front of her. “Be quiet, Ellie.”

  Rotasky’s mouth hung open as he tried to digest what Ellie had said. Then he shook his head with faint bewilderment. Muttering under his breath, he looked at his watch pointedly. “Someone obviously moved the survey markers around the area where the bulldozer was working. Vandals, probably. As for these accusations …” Rotasky glanced at his bodyguard. “Bobby, will you please escort Ms. Taylor and her friend outside? Mr. Taylor and I would like to speak privately for a moment.” Bobby moved toward them slightly.

  Wes eyed Rotasky warily and then turned to Ellie and Alec. “It’s okay. Go ahead. I’ll be out in a minute.” Alec took Ellie by the arm and walked her to the door. Bobby followed to make sure they didn’t get lost on the way.

  Five minutes later Wes came outside again and waved Alec and Ellie back to the truck. Ellie waited for Wes to say something. He didn’t speak until they had turned out onto the canyon road. “What do you think you’re doing, accusing Rotasky like that?”

  “Why are you defending him now?”

  Wes sighed as he turned onto the ranch driveway. “Rotasky’s our neighbor. We have to live together.”

  “Oh, really? You’re the one who pulled the shotgun on the guy.”

  “That was a stupid thing to do and we both know it.”

  “So what’s the story, Pops?”

  “The story is, we came to an agreement.”

  “I thought so.”

  “If we forget about the fence and grave marker, Rotasky has promised to forget his complaints about us.”

  “That’s all?”

  “What do you want, blood?”

  “I don’t know how Rotasky’s doing it, but—”

  Wes cut her short. “Two words, Ellie. Prove it. No matter what you think, there just isn’t any hard evidence linking Rotasky with the accidents on Drover Days.” Ellie fumed angrily but didn’t speak. She must have known Wes was right.

  Wes pulled the truck to a stop and went to see if Mike was having any problems with the horses. Alec walked Ellie back to the office. “Well, what do you think now?” she asked him.

  “I really don’t know, Ellie.”

  “Rotasky must be paying off someone on the c
rew. He just has to be.”

  “Like who?”

  “I’ve been thinking some more about Julio. All this trouble started just around the time he signed on here.” Even as she said this, she didn’t sound very sure of herself.

  Alec shrugged. “You know him better than I do.”

  “I still say Rotasky knows more than he’s saying.”

  Alec shook his head. “Last night I might have agreed with you.”

  “Last night? What about today?”

  “Now I’m not so sure. I’m no mind reader, but Rotasky looked genuinely surprised when you accused him.”

  “So what was Rotasky up to with that bulldozer?”

  “Whatever it is, I don’t think he’s directing some conspiracy against the ranch or Drover Days. What happened was probably a mistake, like he said.”

  “That’s it?”

  “That’s it, Ellie. Running over a fence with a bulldozer isn’t sabotage. The people we want would never go in for such a blatant attack. That’s not how they operate.”

  Alec spent the next hour feeding and grooming the Black. He enjoyed the familiar routine almost as much as the Black did. When he finally put away the rub rag, the stallion’s coat shone like new velvet.

  After lunch, the crew went back to work filming another scene for Drover Days. Alec had seen enough TV work for one day. He took the Black out for a ride, passing Sagebrush and continuing on the road toward town. By the time he returned to Taylor’s, afternoon shadows were streaking the driveway. Alec brought the Black to the edge of the shadow. As he had yesterday, the stallion refused to cross the line between dark and light with Alec in the saddle.

  Alec saw Wes walking toward him. The old trainer waved him over. “Henry called when you were out. He said he found tickets home for you and the Black on Friday.”

  “Great.”

  “Any luck with your horse?”

  “It’s the same deal. By himself, he doesn’t seem to mind the shadows much at all anymore. With me up, though, he’s worse than ever.”