Horse Sense (Dunbarton Mysteries Book 2)

by Valerie Tate

  “And it wasn’t,” Alex said dispiritedly. “All this does is confirm that Jon was selling semen illegally,”

  Chris shook his head. “It does more than that. It gives us another suspect in his death.”

  “And,” Alicia broke in, “another suspect in who poisoned Daisy and tried to ride over me the other night. We thought it was Jon or Marci trying to warn us off but what if it was our mystery women. She had just as much reason to want us to stop investigating.”

  “And a very good motive for killing Jon.”

  “But why would she kill Dean?” Alex wondered.

  “Why would anyone kill Dean?” Alicia countered, exasperated at their lack of progress in that respect. “Perhaps he saw something he shouldn’t have.”

  Alex’s face lit up with excitement. “Like her mare being bred! If he saw an unscheduled breeding he mightn’t have thought anything of it at the time but with all of the fuss about the missing Danzig semen he could have put two and two together.”

  “And our mystery woman wouldn’t want that information in the wrong hands,” Chris said bitterly, his face grim. “Two deaths to protect her identity. She obviously has an extremely elevated opinion of her reputation.” Alicia slipped her arm around him. His face relaxed and he dropped a kiss onto the crown of her head. “So the question is,” he went on, “what do we do with this? We still have no way of discovering who this mystery woman is.”

  It was Alex who had the answer. “We may have a way. I think it’s time I used the Dressage Queen Grapevine.” Seeing their stunned faces, she giggled. “You’ve seen what a small world the dressage community is. Whoever our mystery woman is, she is a member and we can get to her through the grapevine. She knows that you saw her there. What if we let it be known that you found some evidence to her identity that she accidentally left behind and that we are going to pass it along to the police? She would want to stop us and just might return as the masked rider to try.” She sat back smiling, waiting for the accolades.

  Alicia didn’t disappoint. “Brilliant! How do you go about activating this grapevine?”

  “It’s all just a matter of knowing who to start with. In this case, Pat Middleton. She knows everyone and loves to talk. I’ll call her in the morning. It will be all over town by evening.”

  “And if and when she does act, we’ll be waiting for her.”

  “We’ll all be waiting for her,” Jake said, and Chris nodded in agreement.

  Detective Parker arrived with the lark the next morning, catching even Alex in her robe.

  “Tell me it wasn’t you,” he said without bothering with the social niceties.

  “What wasn’t us?” Alicia asked, trying unsuccessfully to avoid the obvious conclusion.

  “Tell me it wasn’t you who broke into King Valley Breeding last night and ransacked the office.” The little veins in his temples were engorged and pulsating. Chris noticed and worried about stroke.

  “It wasn’t us,” he said. “Yes, we were there,” he admitted, quickly going on in the face of even greater pulsating, “ but we surprised the person who ransacked the office. She took off when she saw us, after throwing a knife I might add,” as if the knife somehow negated their own trespass.

  Parker struggled with varying emotions – a deep desire to haul them all down to the station and throw the book at them and curiosity to know what else they had learned in their nocturnal prowling. Curiosity won.

  “Okay, tell me what you’ve learned,” he said with a resigned sigh.

  Chris filled him in, including their theories and surmises but omitting the part about their plan to catch the woman, feeling certain that Parker would put a stop to it.

  “Okay. I appreciate the information. We’ll go over the place and see if we can find anything to tell us who the woman is. But let me make myself perfectly clear.” Parker’s face had darkened to an alarming colour. “This is the last time I turn a blind eye. The next time you put so much as a toe across the line, I’ll throw the book at you. I have let you off so far because you’ve managed to fumble and bumble your way into finding some useful information. But no more. Understood?!”

  They nodded humbly, grateful for another reprieve. Alicia silently objected to ‘fumble and bumble’ but Chris’s restraining hand on her shoulder warned her not to voice those objections.

  Chapter 28

  The grapevine lived up to its reputation. By evening, Alex was receiving excited phone calls from her friends asking if it was true that she knew who had purchased the semen and trying to inveigle the information out of her.

  The four had spent the afternoon debating courses of action. Since they didn’t know in what guise to expect her – arsonist, masked rider or cat burglar – they had finally decided to present three lines of defence, or attack, depending on one’s point of view. Peter and Robbie would continue to patrol the hay barn. Chris and Jake were to stake out the main barn and stable yard while Alicia and Alex camped out in the house.

  The night was clear and moonlight flooded the yard, creating alternately pools of light and black shadows, a perfect night for both the hunter and the hunted. Jake lounged inside the dark doorway of the barn, the homey sounds of munching hay at odds with his air of watchfulness while Chris, standing in the shadow of a giant Pine, worried about two women alone in the house.

  Inside the darkened house, crouched behind the couch, after an initial almost electric excitement, the waiting had created a lethargy that threatened to drift into sleep. Alicia was fighting to keep her eyes open when she heard it - the faintest whisper of a step that set her heart pounding and drove away all thoughts of sleep. A tiny glimmer of light swept soundlessly across the floor followed by a figure all in black. She had come. Despite having been sure that she would, the surprising success of their plan rendered them momentarily immobile. But only momentarily.

  In the yard, Chris saw the lights in the house go on. It was their signal. It meant she was there, a woman who, if they were correct, had killed not once but twice. Fear rose up and clutched him by the throat. His only thought was for Alicia.

  “Jake! She’s in the house!”

  And then he ran.

  The figure crossing the room didn’t know what she was looking for, only that she would know it when she saw it - whatever she had left behind in the chaos at King Valley. The meagre light from her penlight had reached the desk in the corner when she heard a sound – a sound like the hissing of a snake. It was the last thing she heard before feeling herself flying through the air to land in a heap on the carpet. The lights went on and in the glare she saw the person she would have given anything to avoid.

  Alex, on the other hand, was completely absorbed in what she had just seen Alicia do.

  “That was amazing! Chris had said you were good but I had no idea. Just amazing!”

  Alicia was almost as amazed as Alex. It was the first time she had ever used her skill on a real-life adversary. And it had actually worked!

  The moment of elation passed and it came to them that they were looking at the person who had started everything, and possibly someone who had killed twice to avoid detection.

  “Take off the balaclava,” Alex ordered.

  Slowly, reluctantly, the mystery woman did as she was told, and was a mystery no longer.

  Chapter 29

  “Shawna Talbot!” Alex was stunned. She hadn’t known who to expect, just that it wouldn’t have been her.

  It took Alicia a few seconds to recognize the willowy blonde whose acidic comments had left such a bad taste in her mouth at the show in Palgrave.

  The first words out of her mouth weren’t what they might have expected. “I’m going to sue you! Or have you charged with assault!” She sat up slowly, assessing the damage. “You could have killed me!”

  Alicia started to sputter in outrage but Alex didn’t rise to the bait. She could finally ask the question that had haunted her. “Why, Shawna? You can afford to breed to any stallion you want. Why go to such lengths,
ruin so many lives, to have this one?”

  The woman on the floor met her gaze defiantly. “Because I wanted this one and I couldn’t have it.” As simple as that. Like a child who has never learned the meaning of ‘no’.

  Alex stared with shocked disgust. “You bought stolen property and then killed two people because you couldn’t have something you wanted?!”

  It was Shawna’s turn to be shocked. “What do you mean, ‘killed two people’? I didn’t kill anyone. Yes, I persuaded Jon to switch the semen so that I could buy it, but I didn’t kill him, or anybody else.”

  As Alicia and Alex were digesting this comment, Chris and Jake rushed into the room.

  “We saw the lights go on. Are you all right?” Then, seeing the woman on the floor, Chris realized it wasn’t Alicia who needed his concern. He hugged her fiercely, all the same.

  “She’s admitted to buying the semen but says she didn’t kill Jon or Dean.”

  “Of course I didn’t. I’m not a murderer.”

  “No, you’re just a thief!” The venom in Alex’s voice brought them all up short. “Even if you didn’t kill Jon or Dean, what you did lead to their deaths, so you are responsible. Did you ever think about what you were doing? About how others were affected by what you did? Did you ever think of anyone but yourself?”

  “Nonsense. In the long run nobody got hurt. They all got their foals. It may have cost them a little more but in the end it all worked out for everyone. You have a nice foal, by all accounts, and if you want that Danzig off-spring I’m sure you can arrange another breeding. What reason would I have for killing Jon? As for Dean, I never met him. Jon did the insemination after hours. If someone decided to kill Jon and Dean over that, it is nothing to do with me.”

  “Well, the police might disagree with you. It’s late, but I’m afraid we’re going to have to take Detective Parker from his home once more.” Chris made the call.

  “And I suppose you didn’t try to ride over me on your horse, either.” Alicia added. The other woman just shook her head, bewildered. “Where is the Danzig foal?” Alicia asked, wondering why Alex hadn’t.

  “There isn’t one. After all that, my mare didn’t catch. It was all for nothing.”

  Alicia looked at the woman who still lay on the floor and thought that even if she had the foal, it would still have been nothing when compared to the tragedy that it had caused.

  Alex didn’t appear to hear the question or the answer. Clearly, her mind was elsewhere. “Faith didn’t.” she said, seemingly out of nowhere.

  “Who?”

  “Faith Dennis. She said they all got their foals. Faith didn’t get hers and it broke her heart.” Seeing the others looking confused, she explained. “You remember. You met her at the show. “She was with Pat and Sherri.” Chris didn’t think he would ever forget Pat. “Fortyish. Tall, slim with rather faded strawberry blond hair. It’s short and curly. She runs her fingers through it when she’s excited. She has a kind face. Her eyes crinkle when she smiles and she’s always smiling or rather, she used to be, before. She reminds me of Greer Garson in Mrs. Miniver, but without the British accent.”

  Having met so many people at the show, Alicia had only a vague memory of her but asked, “What happened to her foal?”

  “It’s a really sad story. What she said about nobody getting hurt made me remember.

  “Faith was married. They had no children so she and her husband were especially close. They did everything together. Then, he had a fatal heart attack. He died instantly. Faith saw him fall but by the time she got to him he was gone. She was devastated, overwhelmed with grief. Her horse became her salvation. She had to be looked after. Faith put all her time and energy into her. She said she rode out of that long dark tunnel of grief on the back of her horse. Then, two years ago she sent her mare to King Valley for breeding to Sandro Hit. She was so excited. She told everyone about it. But the mare didn’t take and then she was killed in an accident before she could be bred back. Faith’s heart was broken for a second time.”

  The others were silent as Alex finished her tale but something she had said triggered a memory for Alicia. “Did you say Sandro Hit?” she asked thoughtfully.

  “Yes.”

  Alicia hesitated then said, “It was a Sandro Hit yearling that was missing from Marci’s barn.”

  Alex paled visibly. “You aren’t suggesting that it was Faith who killed Jon?”

  As much as she hated upsetting her friend, that was exactly what she was suggesting. “She would have been contacted by the police. They called everyone who was on record as having bred a mare there and they would have told her about the DNA results on Marci’s youngsters. She could have gone to take ‘her’ horse and killed Jon when he caught her at it.”

  “She’s one of the nicest people I know. I would hate to think it was her.”

  “We could just go and find out if she has a yearling in her barn. If not, we forget about it.”

  “I just can’t believe it was her.” Alex sighed and then, feeling like Judas, added, “She has a little, fifteen acre farm not far from here. I can tell you how to get there. I’ll wait here for Detective Parker.”

  Chapter 30

  They could see lights on in the barn when they drove in so they went straight there. Faith Dennis was in one of the stalls with the yearling, gently picking up each of his feet and using a metal pick to clean each hoof, all the while speaking to him reassuringly. “What a good boy you are! Just the best boy in the world!” The love in her voice brought tears to Alicia’s eyes. She so wanted to be wrong about this but she knew she wasn’t.

  The yearling saw them and whickered causing Faith to look up. She stood up slowly and put her arms protectively around the baby.

  “I knew you’d figure it out. I shouldn’t have taken him but I had to. Isn’t he the most beautiful thing you have ever seen?” Faith ran her hands down his neck and back. “He’s just perfect!” she added, almost in awe then sighed and straightened up. “Are you here to arrest me?”

  Chris shook his head. “No, we’re not the police. We’re friends of Alex Craig. We met at Palgrave. I’m Chris Mallory and this is my wife, Alicia. Alex asked us to help her find out what happened to her missing straw. We’d been investigating that when we heard about the vet’s death. When we saw the empty stall, we suspected that you had the yearling. The police will figure it out as well, I’m afraid. It’s only a matter of time.”

  “I knew if I left him behind, no one would suspect me. It was stupid but I just couldn’t . I had to have him! He should have been mine!” she said fiercely. “I’d paid for the breeding. It was very expensive. I had to cash in some retirement investments to pay for it. He’s by Sandro Hit, one of the best dressage stallions in the world today. It was my dream and they stole it!” The sad eyes were suddenly filled with rage. “Two years ago I took my mare to them for breeding. She was the joy of my life. I couldn’t afford to buy a young horse of her quality so I bought the older schoolmaster. She was wonderful! We had many happy years. She taught me so much. I adored her but she was getting on so I decided to breed her. She had had a foal before when she was younger so I didn’t think it would be risky for her. I would never have wanted to take a chance like that. But then she didn’t take, on any of the 3 straws. They would have sent more straws but it was getting so late in the summer, I decided to wait until the next year to try again. We went back to showing. One weekend, on the way home from a competition, there was a terrible trailering accident and my beautiful girl was killed. A car coming the other direction suddenly veered in front of the trailer to make a U turn. The trailer flipped. I was following along behind in my car and I saw it happen. The driver survived but my beautiful girl was so badly hurt she had to be put down right there. She died in my arms! I had lost both her and my dream. There would be no breeding and no foal for me.” She broke down completely then, crying bitterly. Alicia put her arm around her and handed her a tissue. No one said a word, just let her cry it out. Final
ly, Faith took a shuddering breath and continued the story.

  “Then it came out about the frauds that man and his witch of a wife were committing and I learned what had happened to the straws of semen that I had purchased. Not only had they stolen my dream of a foal out of my mare, they had, in effect, killed my beautiful girl because if she had been in foal, she would have been here, safely at home, and not on that road to die. They had stolen my dream and I could never get it back. I had lost everything because of them! So I decided to take something back. I went at night to the farm and parked my trailer on the road. Then I went in to get my yearling. They had put the forms with the DNA results on the stalls so that they could identify the babies. He was easy to find.

  “I loved him the moment I saw him, even if he wasn’t out of my girl. He was so gentle and kind and he looked like his sire. He should have been mine! I’d paid for him! I could save at least part of my dream. I put on his little halter and was just leading him out of the barn when he came in!” She couldn’t bring herself to say his name.

  “He asked me what I thought I was doing. Told me I was stealing his property! I said he was my property and I was taking him home with me. That’s when he grabbed me and tried to make me let go of the lead shank. All of the thrashing around scared the colt and he lunged forward and knocked that man into the wall. I heard a thunk as his head hit a brass bridle holder and then he collapsed on the floor. I checked for a pulse and there wasn’t one. I was so scared! All I could think of was to get away before anyone found me there.

  “I brought my boy home and put him in his stall. I’m going to call him Sand-Dollar.” She gently brushed the little white spot on his forehead that looked uncannily like a sand-dollar. “I heard on the radio that the body had been found, killed from hitting his head on that bridle holder, and every moment since I’ve been expecting that sooner or later someone would figure it out and come and arrest me.”