Paws For Death

by Susan Union

  “I’m sure she’s fine. I’ll bet you’ll hear from her by the time we finish this ride.”

  Luke’s words helped, though she knew he was just saying it to make her feel better.

  They rode north on the dirt road leading away from the barn. Shane trotted out in front, nose to the ground as he led the way. They hadn’t made it thirty yards when Manuel yelled something after them. Randi couldn’t understand, but whatever it was brought a grin to Luke’s face.

  Randi looked over her shoulder but Luke’s groom had already shut the door and gone back inside the barn. “What was that about?”

  Luke didn’t look perturbed, so Manuel likely hadn’t mentioned the squabble between her and Barbra. If not that, then what?

  Luke rode a few steps before he answered. “Nothing.”

  Grrr. Soon as possible she was signing up for that stupid Spanish class.

  Luke cleared his throat. “I could have sworn Barbra’s car was going the other way as I was coming home. Caught a quick glimpse anyway. Emphasis on quick. Looked like she was trying to break the sound barrier.”

  Randi fiddled with her reins, thinking of the message she was supposed to deliver. She wasn’t Barbra’s secretary, and even if the woman didn’t belong to triple A, she had half a dozen ranch hands who could change her damn tire in their sleep. What did she need Luke for?

  Then again, however satisfying it might be, if she didn’t tell Luke what she’d said, she was no better than Barbra. “She came by the barn looking for you.”

  They rode side-by-side, hooves clip-clopping along with a reassuring cadence.

  Luke’s eyes were hidden beneath the shadow from the brim of his baseball cap. “What’d she want?”

  “For you to fix a flat on her trailer. Apparently you’re the only one in town with the appropriate skill set.”

  “You don’t like her much, do you?”

  Randi shifted in the saddle. Oro pranced in place, tossing her neck and twisting sideways. “She tried to kill my dog. Bitsy stole a piece of hoof from Shane’s mouth and he wasn’t in a sharing mood. He wouldn’t have done anything to the little pipsqueak, he was just letting her know taking without asking wasn’t cool, and Barbra tried to bean him with a shovel.”

  “Come on, Barbra wouldn’t have hurt Shane.”

  “You weren’t there. You didn’t see the murderous gleam in her eye. She seems like the type who acts first, thinks later.” Randi was hardly innocent.

  “What if the situation were reversed, say Bitsy was the bigger dog and was going after Shane. What would you do?”

  It didn’t take long to figure that one out. “Bitsy’d have a flat head.”

  Luke laughed, long and hard.

  Randi twined her fingers through Oro’s mane. If she ever summoned the guts to stick her toe in Luke’s pond, she had to make sure Barbra wasn’t already swimming in it. There was nothing that made you want to curl up and die quicker than watching your man hang all over somebody else. “I think Barbra would like to be more than your customer.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know what I mean.”

  Luke took off his cap and ran his fingers through his hair. “Ridgemark is the clinic’s biggest client. Barbra’s not so bad.”

  No matter how often he said it, she wasn’t buying. “I don’t think she’s your type.”

  “No?” Luke slapped the cap back on. “What is my type?”

  Oro kicked out, tossing her neck and arching her back. Randi was too busy trying to keep her under control to answer. Good thing.

  “Women.” Luke clucked to Buster and the big horse swished his thick tail and trotted out. “You all sure are funny,” he said over his shoulder.

  Oro didn’t like Buster taking the lead. She grabbed the bit between her teeth and jigged sideways. Underneath Randi’s thighs, the mare was fixing to explode. “This one’s got a bug up her butt today.”

  Luke swiveled in the saddle, his face a mixture of amusement and mild concern. “Let go of her face. Fighting will only make it worse.”

  She took his word for it and loosened the reins. Oro surged forward, but after meeting no resistance from the bit, she stretched her neck out and relaxed into a slow jog.

  Luke looked down at them from Buster and smiled. “I learned the hard way, fighting with a female will get you nowhere fast. Got to always be one step ahead.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Yep.”

  “You do have a way with the women, at least the ones with four legs.”

  Luke smiled. “I’m not bad.”

  “You’re too modest.”

  “Bragging doesn’t impress the ladies.”

  “You learn that from experience too?”

  “Yep.”

  “Okay…since you’ve got women all figured out, can you crawl into my mother’s brain and tell me where she is and what she’s up to?”

  “Oh, no.” Luke shook his head. “I’m not that good. Call that cop you made friends with.”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” She started telling Luke the story of what transpired in the sheriff’s station.

  They crossed the remainder of Luke’s horse pasture, went out the back gate and forded a streambed, leading them to the well-maintained trails of Rancho del Zorro. A split rail fence lined with trees and cushioned with at least six inches of mulch bordered the pathway. With the fog rolling in over low hills, they could have been riding in a scene from a Tuscan movie set.

  Luke took the lead. “Keep talking. I’m listening.”

  Oro sprang into a trot to keep pace with Buster’s larger stride, but the mare still didn’t seem happy, swishing her tail and shaking her neck like something was seriously bothering her. Maybe she’d settle down when they turned the corner and the barn was no longer in view. “Halfway through the conversation at the sheriff’s station, Joe dropped a bomb.”

  Luke twisted around again. “What’d he say?”

  “Steve Copeland went to the cops. Told them there was a woman jealous over his relationship with Gina and that this same woman was involved in Gina’s murder.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me. A triangle?”

  “Yep. I originally assumed he meant Mel, though I didn’t think she was into men.”

  “That wasn’t who he was talking about.”

  “No. He was talking about my mother.”

  “Wow.” Luke shook his head. “That is a bomb. Your mother may be a lot of things, but she’s not going to murder her best friend over some guy.”

  “My sentiments exactly.”

  “You think she slept with Copeland?”

  “I’d like to think she wouldn’t stoop that low.”

  “Then she probably didn’t.”

  “I hope not, but my mother can drop one life like a hot potato and leave it for another like the previous one never existed. I never could truly forgive her after she left my dad. She deserted both of us, is what she did, but I miss her, Luke. I don’t want to lose her.”

  “If something drastic happened, you’d know.”

  “You mean if she were dead?”

  “Basically, yes.” Luke’s voice was low and soothing. His vet voice. The one he used to deliver bad news to his clients. “Or if she had a serious injury. Try not to worry. I know it’s hard, but we’ll find her, I promise you.”

  They rounded the corner, the hill leveled out and the valley expanded in front of them. Oro felt as tight as a drum, ready to blow at the slightest provocation. Her behavior was extreme today, even for being in heat. They rode without conversation until Randi couldn’t stand the silence anymore. “I can’t picture my mother and Steve Copeland, you know, together. I mean, she’s my mother. It gives me the creeps to think of her with anyone, period. A younger guy’s even worse. Although lately that’s her modus operandi.”

  “Your mother’s a beautiful woman.”

  “You should have seen her before she went to the dogs.”

  “I did, remem
ber?”

  “Oh yeah. The visit I seemed to have blocked out.”

  “She’s still a head turner, underneath those sweat suits and tennis shoes.”

  “What’s wrong with that? What do you think my wardrobe is?”

  Luke smiled. “Boots and jeans that fit just right.”

  She busied herself with watching for Shane roaming the brush for bunnies. Felt like she was sitting too close to a campfire.

  Luke reached behind the saddle and put a hand on Buster’s rump. “Tell me what you know about Mel.”

  “She’s pissed. Gina dumped her, maybe for Steve Copeland, and Gina got full custody of Zoom. Crazy, isn’t it?” Truth was, if anyone tried to take Shane away, she’d have no problem serving up a lemonade with anti-freeze float.

  “What does the brother think?”

  “Andrew? He and Valerie don’t like Mel. Andrew basically came out and said Gina would still be straight if it weren’t for ‘that witch.’ Mel’s not real fond of the two of them either. She calls them leeches.”

  Luke reined Buster to a stop under the shade of an oak tree. Randi pulled Oro up next to him. The two horses sniffed each other, blowing air and posturing a bit. From the branches canopied over the trail, crows screeched and flapped their great black wings. An unseen a rooster called to the setting sun, and a low-flying plane dipped behind a hill.

  “I have to find my mother.”

  “The dog trial ends late Sunday, right? Take tomorrow off. Look for her. Go hang out with those agility people at the fairgrounds and get to know them. See if you can’t find out what’s really going on over there.”

  “What makes you think they’ll open up to me? They’re a pretty tight group. One of them is a murderer, remember?”

  “Flash that smile of yours, Randi. Nobody on this earth is immune.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Luke gathered Buster’s reins. “Want to pick up the pace when the trail levels out?”

  “Sure.” The promise of the wind in her hair and the trees passing by in a blur might provide the illusion she could outrun her problems.

  “Think Oro will behave herself?”

  “We’ll be fine.”

  They rode to where the trail doubled in width, long and flat as far as the eye could see. Luke tugged his cap lower. “You go first. I’ll bring up the rear. Holler at me if she gets out of hand.”

  Randi squeezed Oro with her calves. The mare hardly needed urging but, instead of leaping forward in response to leg pressure, she took three leaping strides then squealed and jumped high into the air, twisting her body so hard her back cracked beneath the saddle. Randi went up and up and kept on going. Time slowed. The rocks, the trees and the hills in the distance froze. The reins were in her hands, but the seat of the saddle was visible, where a second ago her butt had been. Then the horse beneath her was gone and there was only dirt, dotted with cacti and a large pointed rock, coming at her fast.

  She slammed into the stone. Air gusted from her body and she rolled beneath a thicket of cactus clutching her chest. Couldn’t breathe. Stared at blue sky. The thunder of diminishing hoofbeats filled the empty space where the oxygen had been. She’d had the wind knocked out of her before—wasn’t a feeling you got used to. She was at the bottom of a swimming pool, staring at the surface above, lungs bursting while a madman held her feet.

  At the moment she felt positive she was going to die, the air came back in a rush. She spat grains of riverbed sand from her lips. Shane dashed around the other side of the rock and licked her hand. His wet, cold nose snuffed against her cheek.

  She closed her eyes. Needed to rest a moment. Oro’s hooves thudded the ground, growing closer and vibrating the earth. Kira was forever boasting of the mare’s loyalty, but this was ridiculous. Even in Disney movies, horses didn’t come back after dumping you on the trail, which made sense when Randi realized the hoofbeats she heard weren’t Oro’s returning to make sure she was okay, they were Buster’s.

  Luke swung out of the saddle. He let one rein drop and Buster stood ground-tied. Her boss was by her side on his knees in no time flat. “Are you all right?”

  “I think so.”

  “Can you sit up?”

  “I think so,” she repeated.

  “You scared the crap out of me.” He scooted next to her and propped her head with his hand. “I’m going to check your pupils.” He pried her eyelids wide. She did her best not to blink, or to cry. She should have listened to the voice in her head and worn a helmet.

  “Any bleeding? Anything feel broken?”

  “Just my pride. I haven’t been dumped like that since I was thirteen and went cross-country jumping on a green colt trying to impress some boy.”

  “Did it work?”

  “Hardly. He rarely spoke to me before I got dumped, and definitely not after.”

  “He was a fool.” Luke held eye contact.

  She grew hot all of a sudden, and dizzy. Needed water.

  “Can you lean against the rock? I believe you have cactus spines in your cheek.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  “Are you going to take them out?”

  “I am.”

  She pushed herself up on her elbows and drew her head back. “With what? Pliers?”

  “Hopefully my fingers, unless the spines are too small or in too deep. Can you feel them?”

  “No.” She rubbed a hand along her jawline and winced. “Now I can. They’re like cat whiskers.”

  Luke’s hands were warm and his fingers tender as they traversed her face.

  It was hard to breathe again. Damn her mother and all the kooky things she said, but she had to admit, Luke did smell good, like oiled leather and toasted pecans.

  “I’m going to try not to hurt you.”

  “I know.” The cactus in her cheek would be hard pressed to compete with her throbbing shoulder. She reached her hand around and felt the back of her shirt, sure when she pulled her fingers away they’d be covered in blood. They weren’t. Kind of disappointing considering how much pain she was in.

  “Did you hurt your back?”

  “Shoulder. It’ll be okay.”

  “Hold still.” Luke pulled out the spines one by one and tossed them on the dirt. “Seven of them. Lucky number.”

  “I hardly felt that. If I weren’t such a horse lover, I’d say your talents are wasted on animals.”

  Luke twisted the cuff around his wrist and rocked on his heels. “What happened? Something leap out of the bushes and scare the horse?”

  “I have no idea. I put my leg on her and she bolted. Not even ran away so much—more like she went straight up like a rocket. One second I was in the saddle, the next, I wasn’t.”

  “So it happened when you pressed your leg on her? Not before? You sure?”

  “Yeah, I’m sure. Why?” She rubbed her head. It was starting to feel fuzzy. Neck strain? Brain bounce? Was there such a thing? She put a hand on the ground to steady herself. “I don’t feel so good. Kinda like I might puke.”

  “Don’t get up yet. Just relax. Stay put.” Luke got to his feet. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Okay.” How funny. Like I’m going somewhere?

  Oro was partaking in a snack of dried weeds when Luke picked the reins off the ground, looped them over his arm and loosened the cinch.

  Still woozy, she set her eyes on the horizon where, in the distance, the sun perched above the water. A perfect orangish-yellow sphere, the bottom edge barely touching. She looked back. Oro’s saddle was off. Luke inspected the pad. He didn’t look happy. Randi struggled to sit up taller. “What is it?”

  Luke made his way to the rock and opened his palm. Inside were two round spiky gum tree seedpods, ping-pong ball sized. The kind she rolled beneath her feet when she and her mother were on the porch swing. A dime a dozen around here.

  “Where’d you get those?”

  “Under the saddle pad. Opposite sides about two-thirds of the way back.”

&
nbsp; “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No.”

  “Well…that explains Oro’s rotten behavior. Teach me not to check the pad before I saddle up.”

  Luke crossed his arms. “Manuel cleans the tack every night.”

  “I know.” She ached all over, her thinking muddled.

  “Including the pads.”

  Luke was trying to make a point, but her mind was drawing blanks. Same feeling she got as a kid when somebody tried to explain one of those horrid train station math problems to her.

  “He brushes off any dirt and dried sweat. These seedpods were pressed in there good. Manuel would have seen them. He’s very thorough. One might be accidental, an oversight. Two, no way.”

  Randi spit out the word to get it off her tongue. “Barbra.”

  “What?”

  “It was either her or Manuel, and it wasn’t Manuel.”

  Luke shook his head. “My barn is open. Could have been anyone. There’s no gate on the driveway. Never had the need. Maybe I should reconsider.”

  “Barbra was there, that’s all I know. She went in the tack room.”

  “That’s hardly proof.”

  “She doesn’t like me. Or my dog.”

  “Randi, you’ve been poking around in Gina’s death. This isn’t about someone not liking you, it’s about someone sending you a warning.”

  ****

  The village of Rancho del Zorro at night was a peaceful place. San Diego County’s wealthiest suburb eschewed trendy clubs, leaving the glitz and glitter of nightlife to the Gaslamp Quarter, downtown, or to La Jolla, Rancho del Zorro’s showier neighbor to the south.

  Randi shuffled down the sidewalk, Shane at her side. She should have been home resting, per Luke’s orders, but she was too angry to lie in bed. Angry at Luke for not believing her about Barbra, angry at Barbra for being Barbra and getting her bucked off, angry at Gina for dying and most of all, angry at her mother for leaving when she needed her most. To add insult to injury, every time she started to whine about her sad state of affairs, she heard her mother’s voice telling her to buck up.

  She’d called all the hospitals in San Diego County. No record of a Lee Ann Sterling being admitted anywhere. Airlines were a dead end. They refused to give out any information, and her mother’s best friend, the only one she might disclose her whereabouts to, was dead. Like Luke said, nothing left to do but assume her mother was safe unless she heard otherwise.