The training that went into teaching the horse to turn on his haunches by coming to a sliding stop from a full run, and doing a 180 turnaround immediately taking off the opposite direction, more like an elegant dancer than a thousand-pound animal, made Michaela’s adrenaline run at a rapid clip. There was no other high that could compare. To be able to control an amazing beast while at a high rate of speed and while doing such complicated maneuvers, with just slight touches of her legs, balancing shifts of her seat and soft movements from her hand, gave her the same kind of power that she often imagined was what it felt like for CEOs of huge corporations who went in and achieved the kill.
“Wow! Nice riding.”
Michaela slid Rocky to a stop and turned to see Detective Jude Davis standing at the side of the arena. She wiped the back of her right arm across her forehead, the reins still in her left hand. Heat rose to her face. She worked almost as hard as the horses she rode, and today she’d been so focused on what she was doing that the sweat matted the strands of her blonde hair to the sides of her face.
“Hey, Detective.” Rocky stomped his foot, impatient to get back to work. “Relax, boy.” She patted his neck. “Surprised to see you again so soon. How long have you been there?”
“Long enough to be impressed.”
Now she was definitely more than flushed. “Thanks. What can I do for you? Did you learn anything more about my uncle’s murder?”
He crossed his arms across his dark sports coat, which he wore over a crisp white oxford that wouldn’t stay too white if he hung around much longer. “No, sorry. We’re still checking into several leads.”
Michaela urged Rocky over to the side of the ring and dismounted. “Leads? What type of leads?”
He shook his head and his golden hair waved in the wind. “I can’t divulge that information; it’s an investigation.”
She patted Rocky on the neck. He was soaked in sweat. “Then why are you here?” She didn’t have time for small talk, and the way her stomach churned while watching Detective Davis’s lips move when he spoke made her uneasy. Men should not have sexy lips, at least not the one investigating her uncle’s murder. How could she even watch him speak, and then look into his blue eyes? Worse yet, how could she continue this way? Had grief driven her insane? It simply was not appropriate for her to think like this about Davis. Plus, she needed to keep in mind that his nice guy act, was just that—an act.
“Actually I wanted to stop by and see how you were doing.”
Sure. “Oh? I just saw you this morning at my mom’s, so not a lot has changed since then.” She looked down at the ground. “I’m doing okay, I suppose. I figured I better work my horses and try to maintain some semblance of normalcy around here.”
“I think that’s good. I mean, trying to get back to daily life.”
Michaela didn’t respond, confused as to why he was there. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. What did he want?
“Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked.
“I’m sure.” She wondered if she should mention anything about her dad and his gambling problem, and that maybe his problem had gotten so out of hand that someone sought retaliation by killing his brother. But almost instantly she had second thoughts. That was something she would trust Joe to follow up on, and she needed to see her father and ask him about it herself. “Well, I’ve got some more work to do.”
He nodded and seemed uncomfortable. “You were close with your uncle.”
“I told you that. Yes. He was like another father to me.”
“He never gave you a reason to be upset with him?”
Where was this going? Her uneasiness about him being there grew. “Of course not.”
“You didn’t have any recent arguments with him or discussions that might have caused tension?”
Her grip on Rocky’s reins tightened. “No. Why are you asking me this? You questioned me yesterday. I told you everything I could. Is there a problem?”
He shrugged. “Only doing my job. I . . . received some information that maybe you were upset with your uncle.”
“What?” she gasped. “Absolutely not. Who told you this?”
“I can’t divulge that. This is an ongoing investigation. I’ve explained that already.”
She shook her head. “Wait a minute. You’re asking me questions that don’t make a whole lot of sense, based on what I can only speculate is some type of twisted gossip. I’d like to know what it is exactly that you were told.”
“You told me yourself that your uncle had your ex-husband followed and that was how you found out about his affair.”
“That’s true.”
“Were you happy in your marriage?”
“What? No! How could I have been happy? My husband was screwing around. And, I know my mom told you the same thing this morning. Why all the questions about my marriage all of a sudden?”
“I have to investigate all possibilities. Prior to discovering his infidelity, were you happy?”
“Again, I have to ask you, what is this all about?”
“I’m trying to establish if ignorance was bliss in your situation. Maybe you had what you thought was the perfect life, and it was suddenly shattered when your uncle exposed the truth.”
She groaned. Oh, yeah, his nice-guy façade had definitely crumbled right in front of her. “You have got to be kidding me. Now I get it. You’ve concocted some type of theory, or someone has put it into your head that I was so distraught over Brad’s infidelity, that after I had time to let it all settle, I realized how much happier I was with the loser when I didn’t know he was getting it on with the rodeo queen. No, Detective, I was not happy in my marriage and I was not disillusioned, and I did not seek a vendetta against my uncle.”
He nodded, and she heard him sigh loudly. “This is rather a sensitive topic, but I have to ask.”
“Of course it’s sensitive.”
“No. Um, see, I understand that you and your husband were trying to have a baby.”
Whoa! She felt like the air had been sucked out of her. It took her a second to register where he might be going with this. She closed her eyes and shook her head. Narrowing her eyes at him, she said, “What does that have to do with who might have killed my uncle?”
“I have to look at every scenario, Ms. Bancroft.”
“Uh-huh. What scenario are you getting at, Detective?” Rocky pawed at the ground and stomped his foot again, feeling as agitated as she did. She would have liked to turn him around and allow him to kick the crap out of Davis at that moment. “Wait a minute.” She sat up straight on the horse. “You’re thinking that I wanted a child so badly that I would have put up with Brad’s bullshit. Aren’t you? And that my uncle took that away from me.” Davis didn’t say a word. “Sorry, Detective. I may have been a blind fool with my ex, but I am not a sucker, and another thing, I’m not desperate either. I may not be Miss Rodeo America.” She shook a finger at him. “But if I wanted a man to have a baby with, I think I could find one who wouldn’t cheat on me, thank you very much. Now, if you have nothing more to ask me, I’d appreciate it if you’d leave. In fact, even if you have anything else to ask, I don’t care. It’s time for you to go.”
“As I said, I’m simply doing my job.”
Wait a minute. Was he smiling at her? Was that a slight grin on his condescending, smug face? She could have sworn it was! “Right. Well, you’re not doing it too well, because I am the last person who would want to hurt my uncle. Goodbye, Detective.” Michaela turned away from him and got back up on Rocky. She trotted him over to the side of the arena, hot tears stinging her eyes. Asshole! When she turned Rocky back around, Davis was gone. She tried to regain focus and run Rocky back through his maneuvers, but found herself growing angrier. The horse sensed her tension, and responded in kind, tossing his head in the air and losing his direction. It was time to put him away, and get a grip.
She dismounted Rocky and led him down to the cross ties, where she took his tack of
f. Then she guided him to the wash rack, where she rinsed him off and brushed him down. She was still reeling from the detective’s comments, which felt like accusations.
She let Rocky dry off in the wash rack, while she went back into the tack room and retrieved his day sheet to keep the flies from bugging him and from getting himself too dirty if he rolled, which inevitably he would.
Michaela turned as she heard one of the mares whinny from her stall on the end, then the pounding of hooves from outside. She bolted out of the tack room to see Rocky loose and running free around the ranch. Dammit! He’d yanked himself free from his lead line on the wash rack. That wasn’t like him. What had gotten into him? But worse yet, he was taking off over the hill behind her place.
She ran into her office and grabbed the keys to her quad. Normally she wouldn’t go chasing after a loose horse on a four-wheeler, but he’d taken off and where he was headed and as fast as he was going, there was no way she’d catch him on foot.
She revved the engine, kicking up dust all around her as she raced over the embankment that separated her property from the dilapidated old dairy farm behind her ranch. She’d wanted to buy it few years back, in order to expand, but the money hadn’t been there. And now it was possible a developer was going to come in and build a mini-mall. Once Rocky made it past there, he’d hit the road and she couldn’t let that happen. Geesh! She’d had it up to there with chasing loose horses in the last day.
As she came over the hill she caught a glimpse of him. He was still running, but he looked to be slowing down, and he also looked to have a destination. He was running into the old barn.
Michaela slowed the quad down as she approached the building, not wanting to frighten him. She didn’t have anything to lure him with. She shut the quad off and slowly and as quietly as possible, entered the barn. Rafters lay strewn across the ground. It was difficult to see due to the haze of dust, kicked up by Rocky. Dust particles sparkled in the beams of light shining through the cracks of the old building, casting shadows around and causing Michaela to feel uneasy.
Rocky whinnied down toward the end of the barn. She looked around to see if there was anything she could use to catch him with. Another whinny. Michaela stopped. That didn’t sound like Rocky. Wait a minute. There were two horses at the end of the barn, and as she came closer she could see Rocky standing outside a makeshift stall, and inside was a mare. They were nuzzling each other and getting awfully cozy. Holy smokes! The horse Rocky was snuggling up to was a mare and she was obviously in season. But who did she belong to? Something was not right here. At all. First thing she’d have to do was get Rocky out of the old barn. Since someone was apparently using the old place to house the mare, they did have a bucket of feed to the side and a halter. She got a scoop together in an old coffee can someone had left inside the bag of grain, and after a few minutes of working at it, she had Rocky haltered and was leading him out of the barn with neither the mare nor Rocky too pleased about it.
“Oh brother, you wouldn’t even know what to do with her.” It took her almost thirty minutes to get him back over the hill and another thirty to clean him up, since he’d gotten himself filthy on his escapade.
When she was finished she went into the house and called for Camden.
“Hey honey, you’re a mess. You better get in a shower if we’re gonna head out tonight. I just got back from getting myself a stunner of an outfit. Went to The River over in Rancho Mirage today. I love it there. We should move there. Far more, you know, well-to-do. I had a mojito with lunch, too. Those are yummy. I’m thinking, instead of margis, I need to learn how to make mojitos. Wanna see my new outfit? I was just going to get my shower.” Camden came down the hallway toward Michaela, wearing nothing more than a hot pink silk bra and matching panties. Michaela eyed her. “What? I told you, I was getting in the shower when I heard you come in.”
“Get dressed. I need your help.”
Camden frowned but went back into her room and came back quickly in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. She followed Michaela out and got into the truck with her, who explained everything to her as they drove the back way around to the old dairy farm. “So, someone’s got a horse there? So what?” Camden asked. “Probably a temporary thing. Maybe whoever owns the place is letting a friend use it for their horse. I don’t know, but I also don’t see why you’re so weirded out about it.”
“You don’t find it strange that someone is keeping a mare all by herself in a worn-down deserted barn?”
“No. Not really. I’m sure it’s what I told you, basic. Someone needed a place to put their horse and they either own the barn or know someone who does. Do you know who owns the place?”
“No. I’ve heard all sorts of rumors from developers coming and building a minimall to condos, to even the city buying it and turning it into a horse park for kids. But I haven’t heard anything in awhile. Of course, I don’t keep much track on local current events.”
“I’m telling you, I think you should relax.”
Maybe Camden was right. It wasn’t a big deal. The big deal was that Rocky had gotten loose and acted like a maniac and it was the last thing she needed today. She pulled up next to the quad. “I’ll drive it home and meet you back there. I’m going to set her halter back and check on her. Make sure she didn’t try and bust herself out of here after lover boy paid a visit.”
“Okay.”
Michaela got out of the truck, carrying the halter she’d borrowed and walked back into the barn. This time all was quiet. No dust, no noises, and as she came toward the stall—no horse either. Nothing. No feed. No sign that a horse had been in this very spot an hour earlier. As she started to back out and get the hell out of there, something caught her attention. There on the ground not too far from where the horse had been kept was a pile of clothes and a sleeping bag. What in the world? Who had been staying here? She bent down to look over the pile. There was a small radio, a bag of chips and bananas, and a book. A children’s book. Interesting. The clothes were too large to belong to a child, yet the book, a copy of Peter Pan, appeared worn. It was obvious there was a guest here at the old farm, and whoever it was could be lurking nearby. It had to be the same person who had taken the mare out of here. Michaela knew she’d better get the hell out of this place.
She set the book down and quickly headed out of the barn, feeling spooked. She jumped on the quad, drove around the opposite side of where she’d been before and turned to head home the back way. That’s when she noticed a paper taped to the side of the barn, and even though her adrenaline was running from fear, she had to see what the paper read. It was a permit to build. And, it was issued to Tanner Developments. Michaela’s mouth dropped. Camden’s boyfriend owned the land.
SIXTEEN
MICHAELA WENT TO HER OFfiCE BEFORE GOING back to the house. She was shaken and she didn’t want Camden to clue in. She needed to pull herself together, before heading out for their night on the town.
She had to find out who the barnyard resident was at Tanner’s newly acquired piece of property and if he was aware that a pretty little mare had been holding down the fort. Who owned that horse? And where the hell was that person now? Michaela wanted to head back to the dairy farm and take another look around, but she wasn’t about to go there alone. That would be plain stupid. She’d already accomplished the stupid quota for the day. Who could she trust right now to go back over there with her? A frightening thought crossed her mind: She didn’t feel like she could really trust anyone at the moment. Everyone she cared for seemed to be hiding something from her.
“Michaela.”
She jumped, nearly coming out of her skin as she turned and saw Summer, Ethan’s ex-fiancé.
Summer was a pretty woman with cinnamon-colored hair, which she usually wore slicked back into a ponytail. Her eyes were an interesting green color, so light that they almost appeared clear. Each time Michaela saw her she was reminded of a Stepford wife. Her skin was dewy with the perfect amount of meticulously applied
makeup and she always looked as if she’d just stepped out of a Ralph Lauren catalog.
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