Cheyenne couldn’t help but smile. “I’m sorry to be such a bother, but I feel fine.” She heard Patches whinny again, and she jerked her head around toward the sound. “What’s happening to my horse?”
Joe turned and glanced in the direction of the sound. “Don’t worry. The wranglers are getting him up now. Looks like he’s heading back to the stalls. Trace is going with them, too. I’m sure he’ll let you know how your horse is as soon as he knows anything. Now just relax and let me finish checking you out.”
For the next few minutes as Joe performed his examination, she felt as if they were doing a replay of her earlier accident. When he’d finished, he sat back on his heels and smiled. “Everything looks good so far. But we’ll know for sure after we get you to the hospital.”
“The hospital?” she cried. “I can’t go to the hospital. I need to see about Patches.”
She tried to push up again, but Joe put his hand on her shoulder to restrain her. “I can’t let you do that, Miss Cassidy. I don’t think you have any severe injuries, but I have to let a doctor exam you.”
Cheyenne shook her head. “No. I have to see about my horse.”
“We’ll take care of Patches,” a deep voice beside her rumbled.
She looked up at Bill Johnson, the show’s owner and Trace’s father, staring down at her. “Really, Mr. Johnson, I feel fine,” she said.
His gaze raked her face. “That may be, but I need to make sure. I insist that all our performers are checked out after an accident. Besides, if your father was here, he’d tell you the same thing.”
The mention of her father brought tears to her eyes. He and Mr. Johnson had become good friends when Trace was on her father’s college rodeo team.
She bit down on her lip and nodded. “You’re right.”
“I insist, too,” a familiar voice said as someone clasped her hand. She looked up into Gwen’s smiling face. Dean stood behind her with a sobbing Maggie in his arms, and suddenly she didn’t feel alone. Dean and Gwen were here, and her new friend Luke Conrad had been the first one to reach her. Then there was Joe, who’d taken care of her twice today, and Trace Johnson, who’d been her friend for years, was looking after Patches.
“I’m very lucky to have people who care,” she said.
The next thing she knew the other EMT arrived with a gurney, and he and Joe lifted her carefully onto it. When she was settled on it, she turned her head and stared at Maggie, who was still sobbing with her head buried on her father’s shoulder.
“Maggie,” she said. “Please don’t cry. I’m okay.”
Maggie lifted her head and stared at Cheyenne. A big tear slid out of the corner of her eye and down her cheek. “I told you not to do that trick. It scared me. I thought you were going to die.”
She reached toward Maggie, and Dean held his daughter down so Cheyenne could grasp her hand. “I’m okay. Now you quit crying and go on home. I’ll see you as soon as I get there.”
Maggie scrunched her eyebrows and she gave a little hiccup. “Do you promise?”
“I promise. I’ll see you and Bingo as soon as I get there.”
Gwen, who stood next to the gurney, nodded. “I think Maggie does need to go home. I’ll take her, and Dean can drive your truck. He can pick you up at the hospital and bring you home.”
“I’ll be glad to do that,” Luke said. “If Dean will drive Maggie’s truck home, I can bring Cheyenne when the doctor releases her.”
“You’ll go to the hospital with me?” Cheyenne asked.
Luke grinned. “I’ve reported one accident you’ve been in today. I may as well do this one, too.”
Cheyenne laughed as Joe finished tucking a blanket around her. As they started across the arena to a waiting ambulance, the announcer’s voice boomed out on the intercom. “Ladies and gentlemen, Cheyenne appears to have no injuries, but she’s being taken to the hospital as a precaution. Let’s send her off with a big Smoky Mountain round of applause with our best wishes.”
A roar went up from the crowd, and Cheyenne waved from the gurney as she was lifted into the back of the ambulance. Luke climbed inside and bent over her while Joe was getting her settled. He smiled again, and for the first time she noticed a little dimple in his right cheek. “I’ll come to the hospital as soon as I know how Patches is,” he said. “In the meantime Joe will take good care of you.”
A chuckle rumbled from Joe’s throat. “Of course I will. Miss Cassidy is fast becoming one of my favorite patients.”
Cheyenne looked from Luke to Joe and fought back the tears that threatened to slip from her eyes. “You’ve both been great to me today, and I appreciate it. I dreaded moving here, but I’m beginning to be glad I did.”
Luke smiled, and his eyes softened. “We’re glad you did, too.” Then he cleared his throat and backed away. “I’ll see you at the hospital.”
“Would you mind doing me a favor?” she asked.
“Sure. What do you need?”
“My coat with my wallet in the pocket is hanging in Bill’s office. Would you get it and bring it to the hospital? I’ll need my insurance cards.”
“No problem. I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks, Luke. See you there,” Cheyenne said as Joe closed the back door.
As the ambulance began to move, Cheyenne lay there thinking about what had happened in the arena tonight. She couldn’t understand it. In all the years she and Patches had been performing that trick, they’d never had an accident. Until tonight.
She raised her hand to her forehead and rubbed it. It all seemed like a blur. Everything had been going well, then suddenly she and Patches were falling.
Had she done something wrong that caused them to fall? Was she the reason her horse was hurt? He was her best friend, the only thing she had left from her old life, and she couldn’t live with herself if she had made a mistake that caused him to be injured. Her chest tightened at the thought, and she bit down on her lip.
Not another one. She closed her eyes, but the words flashed in her mind like a blinking sign.
She tried to shut the words from her mind, but as usual they refused to go away. She’d tried over and over to ignore them, but it was no use. They were a constant reminder of the secret that had tormented her for the past year. The guilt she already carried was difficult to live with, but she didn’t think she could bear to add Patches to the list of her victims, too.
* * *
Luke stood in the parking lot of the Wild West show and watched the ambulance head down the street on its way to the hospital. When he couldn’t see the taillights any longer, he turned and walked back to the area behind the arena where the horses and equipment for the show were kept.
In true showmanship, the performance was proceeding as planned, and he walked past a line of horses and riders who were prepared to ride through the arena’s entrance as soon as they were introduced. He’d been in this behind-the-scenes barn area many times, and he knew where the vet would be examining Patches.
He strode down the alleyway between stalls until he arrived at the exam room at the back of the barn. Dean stood outside looking in, and Luke stopped next to him. Inside the room Dr. Sherman, the local veterinarian and the one who took care of all the show animals for the Johnsons, was bent over studying Patches’s legs. Bill and Trace Johnson stood behind him, watching. “What does Doc say about Cheyenne’s horse?” Luke asked.
“Nothing yet,” Dean said. “He’s still checking him out. He should be through in a few minutes.”
They stood there in silence as they watched the veterinarian working with the horse, and then Luke turned to Dean. “I haven’t figured out yet how that accident could have happened. Everything seemed to be going so well, and then all of a sudden it fell to pieces.”
Dean nodded. “I know. I’ve been thinking about it, too. I’
ve watched Cheyenne train with Patches ever since she’s been here, and I know how careful she is. She never takes a reckless chance, and she makes sure her equipment is in good shape before using it.”
Luke glanced around and spotted the tack that Cheyenne had used draped over a saddle stand in the corner of the exam room. He turned to Dean. “Have you looked at her equipment to see if it malfunctioned?”
Dean shook his head. “No, I thought you might want to do that. One of the cowboys who led Patches in here took the saddle off and left it over there.”
“Well, let’s take a look at it,” Luke said.
Trace and Bill both turned to stare as Luke and Dean walked into the room and stopped at the saddle stand. “What are you doing?” Bill asked.
“Just want to examine Cheyenne’s equipment,” Luke answered.
Bill nodded. “I was going to do that myself, but go ahead. See if you can find out what might have caused the horse to fall.”
Luke picked up the bridle and examined the headstall, bit, chin strap and reins.
“These all look good,” he said after a few minutes.
“What about the brow band and the nose strap?” Dean asked.
“They’re okay, too,” Luke answered. “Maybe it was the breast collar. If something happened that made it slip, it could have caused the saddle to shift.” He picked it up and searched every inch of it, but it appeared in good shape. “Nope, not the breast collar.”
Dean exhaled a long breath. “Then maybe it was the cinch. If the girth under Patches’s belly had torn, that would have caused the saddle to slip.” He picked up the band that holds the saddle on the horse’s back and examined it, then shook his head. “It looks good, too.”
Luke took a step back and let his gaze drift over the tack. “There has to be something.”
Dean pushed the cowboy hat he wore back on his head, propped his hands on his hips and exhaled a deep breath. “But what?”
Luke shook his head. “I don’t know, but... Wait a minute. There’s one thing we haven’t examined yet. The drag strap. Maybe something happened with it. All the tricks had gone off without a hitch until she started the suicide drag.”
“Good idea.” Dean pointed to the white leather strap that was still buckled to the right side of the saddle. “Take it off so you can look at it up close.”
Luke bent over the saddle stand and was about to unbuckle the strap when he stopped and stared at it. When he didn’t say anything, Dean stepped closer and peered over his shoulder. “What is it?”
Luke pointed to the strap’s buckle. “Look at the holes that the buckle’s prong fits through.”
Dean looked at it a moment. “What do you see?”
“The prong is in the first hole of the strap, but the leather between it and the third hole is torn. It looks like maybe the prong had originally been placed in the third hole, but it slipped up two holes, loosening the strap.”
“I haven’t had much experience with trick riding. What are you saying?”
Luke pursed his lips and stared at the drag strap for a moment before he spoke. “I’m saying the strap was no longer adjusted to her height, which means her foot would have slid up the horse’s side because of the shortened distance. So as her right leg moved farther up Patches’s body, she couldn’t bring herself back up into the saddle, and she dropped closer to the ground. Once that happened her knee wasn’t lined up with the saddle horn anymore, and Patches was thrown off balance. That’s what brought him down.”
Dean leaned closer and stared at the strap. “Luke, that doesn’t look like a tear. If it had torn, the line left would show evidence of it having ripped, but this is smooth. Like it’s been cut with a knife. Do you think someone did this on purpose?”
Luke nodded. “That’s exactly what I think. But who would want to do something like that?”
“Do what?” Trace Johnson asked from behind.
“Sabotage Cheyenne’s equipment so she would have an accident,” Luke said.
Trace’s mouth dropped open, and he looked from Luke to Dean as if he couldn’t believe what he’d heard. “You can’t be serious. Cheyenne hasn’t been here long, but everybody really likes her. And we don’t allow anybody back in the stall area except our employees.”
Luke nodded. “I know. That’s why this doesn’t make any sense, but the fact is that this strap was tampered with sometime before the performance.” A sudden thought popped into his head, and he turned toward Dean. “Did Cheyenne tell you about our encounter in the parking lot at the Smoky Mountain Christmas Store this afternoon?”
“She did.”
“And about the statement she gave me?”
“Yes. We already knew her story, and she was still very upset when she got home. I tried to discourage her from riding tonight, but it was no use. She was determined to do it.”
“I know,” Luke said. “Even though the paramedics didn’t think she was hurt, she was knocked quite a distance when I hit her with my car.”
Trace’s eyes grew even larger. “You hit her with your car today? She didn’t say a thing to me or to Dad about it.”
Luke rubbed his chin and stared at the drag strap. “It happened in front of that Christmas store at the mall. It was an accident, but what happened tonight wasn’t. Somebody cut that drag strap, and she was almost killed. When a trick rider’s foot is in a drag strap, they’re stuck there. I don’t know how she managed to get her foot out of it, but she did, and it saved her life. If she hadn’t been thrown clear of the horse, he would have come down on top of her.”
Trace looked at him as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “You’re saying that someone deliberately did that to hurt her?”
Luke glanced back down at the strap. “More like somebody wanted to kill her.”
Trace raked his hand through his hair and frowned. “I can’t believe one of our employees would do something like this. What do we need to do, Luke?”
Luke took a deep breath. “Well, I’ll need to question the wranglers working back here and see if anyone remembers seeing somebody hanging around Cheyenne’s horse. Since they’re all working, that can wait until later. Right now I think we need to find out how Patches is, then I’ll go to the hospital to see about Cheyenne.”
Trace let out a deep breath. “Well, we’d appreciate it if you’d keep this as quiet as possible. We can’t afford to let word get out that our show’s performers aren’t safe. It could cause us a lot of problems.”
Luke was about to respond, when a loud whinny sounded. All three of them turned around to see the veterinarian running his hands down Patches’s left leg. “There, there, boy,” the vet said. “I’m not trying to hurt you.”
After a few moments he stood and stepped back from the horse, but continued to stare at the leg. Dean walked over to him. “What’s the problem, Doc?”
Dr. Sherman took a deep breath and shook his head. “I can’t be sure until I do an ultrasound, but I think we have a suspensory ligament injury,” he said.
Luke and Trace joined the group standing around the horse, and Luke let his gaze move up Patches’s left leg. “I’ve heard of that happening,” he said. “The suspensory ligament is the one that extends from just below the knee down to the ankle and helps support the horse’s weight, isn’t it?”
The doctor nodded. “That’s right. I think the tear in the ligament may be in one of its branches. The leg is warm, is sensitive to touch, and there’s some swelling beginning to appear. Like I said, I’ll know for sure once I do an ultrasound at my clinic.”
“Cheyenne is going to be upset about this,” Dean said. “What’s the treatment, and what’s the prognosis for an injury like this?”
“Well, of course I’ll prescribe some anti-inflammatory drugs, but he’ll also need cold therapy several times a day. That will include
icing or hosing down, and then there will be stall rest. As the ligament starts to heal, he’ll need some hand-walking every day for therapy. Then depending on how severe the injury, we may be able to ease him back into being ridden after several months.”
“Several months?” Trace exclaimed. “You mean Cheyenne won’t be able to work for a while?”
“Not unless she has another horse.” The vet glanced at Dean. “Why don’t we load him in Cheyenne’s trailer and take him to my clinic? He can stay there tonight, and if all goes well, you can take him back to your ranch tomorrow.”
Trace nodded. “Okay, Doc.”
Luke and Dean stood in silence as the veterinarian walked back to Patches and began to wrap the injured leg with a bandage. After a minute Luke looked at Dean. “I’ll go to the hospital and check on Cheyenne if you’ll see that Patches gets settled for the night.”
“Okay. I’ll drive Cheyenne’s truck home. Are you sure you don’t mind bringing her? I can go by the hospital and get her if you have something else to do.”
Luke shook his head. “No, I want to make sure she’s all right and fill her in on Patches.”
Bill Johnson shook his head as he stared at the horse. “I’ve had this show for years, and we’ve had a few accidents along the way. But never anything like this where foul play was suspected.”
Trace laid his hand on his dad’s shoulder. “Don’t get upset. Luke will get to the bottom of this.” He glanced at Luke. “I’m sure you’ll file a report about this. What do you intend to say?”
Luke took a deep breath. “At this point I’m calling what happened tonight a suspicious accident, and I’m going to question Cheyenne to see if she remembers anything out of the ordinary happening in the backstage area before the show started.”
Stalking Season Page 5