Dark Harmony: A Vivienne Taylor Horse Lover's Mystery (Fairmont Riding Academy Book 2)

by Michele Scott

  Rodrigo Lunes is reportedly on location in Buenos Aires for his new film, “Vineyard Secret”, and has been seen dining with the young starlet Johanna Franz. Seems there are plenty of secrets the family has been keeping.

  One can hope that for young Martina Lunes’s sake, the truth comes out quickly and as painlessly as possible.

  I crumple up the tabloid and throw it against the wall. A wave of sympathy for Martina washes over me. I immediately dial her number but she doesn’t answer. I text her and ten minutes, then more, tick past with no reply. I have no idea what to think, or do, for that matter, but I know that I have to do something.

  CHAPTER twenty-three

  This should be one of the happiest days of my life. I am that much closer to my dream. My horse and I are going to Lexington to compete and then will spend the summer in Virginia training at Liberty Farms. The tremendous possibilities that alone presents should be enough to keep me going. But all I can do is worry about Martina.

  It’s almost eleven at night, and there’s still no sign of her and she isn’t answering her phone. For hours, Tristan and Riley kept me company, but they finally had to go back to their room because we have a 10:30 p.m. curfew on school nights. They promise to call me if they hear anything.

  My big dilemma is that I don’t know if I should tell Kayla or Holden that Martina is MIA. If she’s just out blowing off steam, I’ll get her in trouble if I report that she’s off campus past curfew. She could be kicked off the Young Equestrians Team. Yet I just don’t like that she hasn’t answered my calls at all. I could call her mom, but I don’t even have her number.

  I sit down at the computer and decide that since I don’t know what to do, I can work on the paper I have due in equine health next week. I get a couple of pages done and decide that I need a diagram of the horse’s digestive system. I go to Google’s home page and type what I am looking for in the search engine. I find it and print it. Then I do what I do a lot—I get distracted and start surfing the web—and my first stop is to check the news for the day.

  That is when I see the headline: Celebrity Couple’s Teen Goes Missing. The story just went live two minutes ago. It includes a photo of Martina.

  As I am trying to wrap my brain around it, there is a loud knock at my door.

  I open it to see Kayla and Holden Fairmont, Martina’s mom, and two guys who I can immediately tell are detectives. I’ve watched my fair share of cop shows, and I have to say, the real-life versions look the same as the ones on TV.

  “Hi, Vivienne,” Holden says. “We are sorry to bother you, but we have some questions. I’d like to introduce Detectives Develin and Marsh.”

  “Hello,” I reply, trying to suppress the fear in my voice.

  “Vivienne,” says Martina’s mother in a calm voice. I’m struck by her long dark hair and beautiful olive complexion that makes her light-green eyes stand out—it’s obvious that she’s been crying. “Did you know Martina was gone?”

  “She wasn’t here when I got back from checking the board to see who qualified for the team. I was so excited to tell her we’ll be going together! But . . .” I walk into my room and bring back the tabloid. “This was here.” I hand it to her mom.

  “Oh no,” she says. “I was afraid of this.”

  “I tried calling but didn’t get an answer. I texted her, too.”

  “Why didn’t you come to us?” Kayla asks.

  I shrug. “I thought that she needed some space. I really thought she was okay and needed to go and be alone.”

  Her mother tosses up her hands.

  One of the cops, the one with so much dark hair on his head that I am trying to figure out if it’s real, says, “We believe that Martina has been abducted, and we need to ask you some questions in private.” He glances at Martina’s mother.

  My stomach drops. “I don’t understand,” I say. “Abducted?”

  “Vivienne isn’t a suspect, is she?” Kayla asks.

  “No,” the detective replies. “But she does live with her and may have information that she doesn’t even realize is helpful. But we need to speak with her alone.”

  I shake my head because I don’t like this at all and because I can’t believe what they are saying to me.

  “Since Vivienne is under eighteen, and she isn’t a suspect, I think we should be in here while you question her,” Holden says. “We are the school’s administrators.”

  Big Hair looks to the other guy, who is almost completely bald and tall and skinny, too. The bald guy nods his head, and I feel a little bit of relief. At least I can have some comforting faces around me during the ordeal.

  “What about me?” Martina’s mom asks.

  “I think you will need to wait outside, Ms. Martín.”

  “But this is my daughter we are talking about!”

  Baldy speaks in a quiet tone to her and then leads her out of my room.

  Big Hair turns to me and says, “Tell me what you know about Raul Torres.”

  “He’s a good guy. He’s a groom here and Martina’s boyfriend. Why? He didn’t take her. He wouldn’t do that. Where would they even go?”

  “He was with her, though, when she was taken,” the cop says. “He is the one who reported her missing.”

  “What?”

  “Yes. Do you know if she talks to any other guys off campus?” he asks.

  “No way. She’s totally into Raul. She’s got a tight-knit group of friends. Martina is a good girl. And I guarantee that Raul would never harm her.”

  The cop continues to grill me in this vein for an hour. He asks me what I know about her schedule. He asks me if she has issues with anyone on campus. He asks me what she’s told me about her family . . . and on . . . and on. By the time he’s finished with me, I feel like I have completely betrayed my friend. In front of Kayla and Holden, I have told the police things that Martina and I promised never to share with anyone else—like how she used to be jealous of her mom when she was thirteen. I had to tell. What else was I supposed to say when the actual question they asked me was, “Has Martina ever mentioned being jealous of her mother?”

  If I were the type to curse, I’d be swearing a blue streak right now. It’s after midnight before I finally get under the covers, and all I can think about is where my friend might be. Who has her? And is she okay?

  CHAPTER twenty-four

  I jolt awake at about 6:00 a.m., amazed that I was able to sleep at all. Eager to find out if there are any more stories about Martina, I start boiling water for a strong cup of tea and turn on my computer.

  Sure enough, there are fresh details. What I read online says that Martina was last seen on a surveillance camera just outside a bowling alley, where the footage showed her getting into a van. The video was too grainy to get a license plate, but the police had been able to determine that the girl was Martina and the van was silver.

  I’m surprised when I read that she had been inside the bowling alley with Raul initially, but left and got into the van when he’d gone up to the snack bar. The article stated that Raul said that Martina had been upset with her parents. The article then went on to say that The Hollywood Scene had printed a very sensational piece about the family with claims being made that Martina may have been adopted and never informed of the truth, and that both of Martina’s parents were involved in extramarital affairs.

  I feel really sick to my stomach reading all of this.

  The news is saying there is much speculation about what might have happened to Martina Lunes, and that it is widely believed that she knew the person who she left with in the van. In addition, the reports imply that she most likely ran away because she believed the derogatory information that was being spread about the family, and wanted to escape and clear her head. And maybe even make her parents suffer.

  That part I do not buy. For Martina to do something like that is
so out of character for her. Or is it? When I expressed my doubts about Raul in January, she’d gone bananas on me, and didn’t speak to me for almost a week. I would have never thought her capable of that, either. Maybe I am wrong in this case. But my gut says that I am not. I think I have to trust that.

  After my last class, I make it my mission to go find Raul. I know that I’m on limited time here because I have to be tacked up and in the arena in an hour. I know the implications of being late, especially with the championships approaching. I probably should let the police do the detecting. But I also know from being raised by someone who is analytical in the extreme that sometimes the experts miss the obvious. Since I am far from being an expert, I might be exactly the right person to try and find out more.

  Thankfully, it doesn’t take me long to locate Raul. He’s with Martina’s horse, giving him a bath. If he really did have nothing to do with her disappearance, then he’s probably going through something similar to me, probably worse. After all, he is the one who was with Martina when she was taken, and he’s her boyfriend.

  “Hey, Raul,” I say.

  He turns off the water spigot and the hose dies down. Jetson stands patiently in the wash rack. “Hi, Vivienne.” Raul glances at me while taking the scraper to Jetson and scraping off the excess water.

  “Giving a bath, I see.” I don’t know what I should say. I feel horribly awkward and can’t think of a worse type of situation to be in.

  “Yeah. I want him clean for when Martina comes back. I’ll be doing Harmony for you if you’d like. She’s on my schedule today.”

  “I have a lesson, so I’ll rinse her when I’m done.”

  He looks down. “Sorry. I should have gotten to her earlier. I’m not getting my work done as quickly as usual today.”

  “It’s fine. I understand. I really do.”

  He nods.

  Finally, I decide to address the elephant in the room head on. “Hey, I know you’ve probably been questioned to death, and I am sure talking to the police and Martina’s parents hasn’t been easy.”

  “No. It hasn’t. I had to face her mother. Her father is on his way back from the movie set in Buenos Aires. I’m scared he’s going to come see me, too. But I really don’t know what happened to her.”

  I frown as I recall the article and its insinuation that Mr. Lunes was unfaithful to his wife with the actress Johanna Franz. Is that gossip really what sent my friend over the edge and into some stranger’s car? I still am having a hard time understanding what Martina is thinking.

  “I had nothing to do with her going missing, Vivienne. I know a lot of people don’t believe that because here I am, the lowly groom, and she is who she is, but I really care for her and it’s driving me crazy not knowing what has happened to her. I’m just relieved that the Fairmonts believe me. I can’t lose this job. I am the sole provider for my family. My dad isn’t in the picture. My mom is severely diabetic and can’t work, and I have a little sister to care for.”

  “That is a lot to carry.”

  He looks away from me.

  “I admire what you’re doing for your family. And, I believe that you didn’t have anything to do with Martina being abducted.”

  “Thank you,” he replies.

  “I hate to ask you to talk more about Martina now that she’s gone, but I feel a little desperate and I want to do something. I’m kind of good at piecing puzzles together and obviously this is a big one. Can you tell me in detail what happened yesterday when she disappeared?”

  “You going all cop on us, huh?”

  “No. Maybe. Yes. I don’t know. I just want to help.”

  “I’m sorry,” he replies. “Sure. I can tell you, but I don’t know how it will help.” He unhooks Jetson from the cross-ties. “He’s due on the grass, if you want to walk and talk.”

  “Great.”

  We lead Martina’s horse out of the barn and make our way down to the pastures. “As you probably know, after Martina read that tabloid article, she called me,” Raul says. “She was upset.”

  “Right.”

  “I came and picked her up because she said she needed to get away. We talked and we drove.”

  “What did you talk about?”

  “What do you think?” he asked. “We talked about the article and if it was true. We talked about whether it was possible that her parents had been lying to her for all of this time, and if it did turn out to be true, how she should handle it.”

  “What did you tell her?”

  “I told her that no matter what, her parents love her. That they have acted like her true parents because they raised her. End of story. I told her that if they kept the truth from her maybe they did so because they’re so well known in Hollywood and around the world. Everyone knows who her family is. I tried to make her see why they might have done this. I also told her the most important thing she needed to do was visit with her mom and talk it out with her. I offered to drive her.”

  “She said that she needed to think, and then she said that she needed not to think. That she wanted to go and do something fun.”

  “That’s when you wound up at the bowling alley?” He looks a little surprised, and I feel very Nancy Drew that I have this piece of information.

  “Yeah. I like to bowl and I got Martina into it, and it’s what we do for fun.” He looks away as if embarrassed. We make it to the pasture gate. He opens it and lets Jetson off the lead and turns him loose. The horse runs and plays for a few minutes and then quickly does the obligatory roll on the fresh grass. Then he stands up and goes directly to do the other obligatory thing that horses do on grass—eat.

  “I like bowling, too,” I say. “My friends back home and I used to go all the time.” A quick memory flashes through my mind of Austen being his silly self and purposefully wearing bowling shoes three times bigger than his actual shoe size. I realize with a pang how much I’d always loved his sense of humor and the way he seemed to feel free from other people’s opinions. “Yeah. I have had some good times bowling.”

  “Cool.” He leans both arms on the pasture fence and stares out at Jetson. “I wish I knew what happened. I wish I could tell you why she left the alley but I can’t. It’s like I told the police, I asked her if she wanted something to drink or eat. She said that she wanted nachos and a Coke. I needed to use the restroom first and, after that, I went to the snack bar and ordered. I thought she was waiting. But as we all have heard by now, she wasn’t, she was leaving. I saw the footage from the surveillance camera outside the bowling alley that shows her getting into that silver van.”

  He’s clearly distraught and I reach out and pat his shoulder.

  “At least from what I’ve read, it doesn’t seem like she was pulled into the car against her will. It doesn’t look like she was threatened in any way. She just got in.”

  “Maybe the guy had a gun,” he replies.

  “Maybe, but I really don’t think Martina would just get into a van, even if a guy had a gun trained on her. She’s tough and smart.” I shake my head. “Maybe someone was threatening her mom, or her dad, and she wanted to find out more.”

  “I don’t think so. She isn’t five, and she wouldn’t fall for that.” He shakes his head hopelessly.

  “There is another possibility,” I say.

  “What?”

  “That the driver was someone she knew.”

  “Like who?” he asks. “You think another guy?”

  I shrug. “I don’t know. Has she ever mentioned any friends she had who didn’t go to Fairmont?”

  “No. I think she was pretty sheltered by her parents. She only ever mentioned you and the crew you hang out with.”

  I nod. “Right, well, to me, she only talks about you.”

  I’m glad that at least this brings a smile to his sad face.

  “I wonder, though, if maybe there is someone
we don’t know, a secret friend she has who she went to hang out with. So she could have some time to think.”

  “She was pretty much calmed down by the time I asked her if she wanted a Coke. She’d decided that talking to her mom was a decent idea. I can’t see her deciding to just take off. I can’t see her leaving me and going with someone else. At the least, given her mood, it seems like she would have told me.”

  “I agree, but when people feel desperate they do desperate things. Maybe she wasn’t as okay with all of it as you thought. Did she take any phone calls when you were out together?”

  “No. In fact, she turned off her phone because she didn’t want to take calls from her parents or anyone.”

  “She didn’t answer my texts. The whole situation is weird.” I look at my watch and see that if I don’t get a move on, I’ll be late for my lesson. “I’ve gotta run. Maybe we can grab a coffee tomorrow and see if we can’t come up with any other ideas. Call me, please, if you hear anything at all.”

  “Okay. Sounds good.” He looks miserable and kind of scared.

  “It’ll be okay. It will. She’ll come home.”

  He looks away and I say good-bye. He holds up a hand and tries to smile, but I know this is eating him up. We just have to find Martina.

  CHAPTER twenty-five

  Vivienne, come here, please.”

  It’s Christian and we have been having my jump lesson, which I will admit is not going so well. It has nothing to do with Harmony. My head is just not in the game. I know that. I am tense and I’m holding onto her face, meaning my contact on the reins is too heavy, and I know it. Yet she’s totally taking care of me and jumping regardless. I’ve dropped her one too many times in front of the fence. My timing is off, and all she is trying to do is make up for it and please me. I have begun to really understand this horse—almost as much as I understand my Dean boy back home, and I know that in time I will understand Harmony just as well as I do my gelding. What’s clear about my mare is that she wants to make me happy. She wants to please, and she has been trying to do this for the past forty minutes during this lesson, and I am completely letting her down.