He shook my hand. I held his longer than necessary.
“All quiet on the western front?” I asked.
“Boring.”
“Boring is good, though, right?”
“Yeah. In this case, I guess so.”
I let the pitchfork slip from my hand. We both bent to retrieve it, and I made sure my shoulder brushed his and my hair tickled his cheek. “Thanks,” I said.
He smiled. “No problem.”
“Well, have a nice day.”
He hesitated, looked disappointed, said, “Yeah. You too.”
I let him get two stalls down. “Hey, Brian?”
He came right on back like a good boy. I hate myself sometimes.
“Have you known Dex a long time?” I asked.
“We went to the academy together.”
“So, you’re a mounted policeman?”
“Nah, I tried but didn’t make it.”
“But you ride, right?”
“Don’t get much chance.”
Five minutes later, I had Brian wedged into a western saddle atop Honey. He’d made a half-hearted protest, but was easily convinced this was a great idea for such a beautiful day. Honey looked bored, which was just how I wanted her, although that was her permanent expression. I hopped on Gaston, and we were off, Noire trotting alongside.
We chatted about the ball game. The Cardinals had won, and it appeared Brian’s mission in life was to eat hotdogs, drink beer, and attend games for free. Dex was paying for this gig with first-base-line tickets. Brian and Honey were well matched.
He sat like a sack of potatoes with his feet shoved home in the stirrups and his heels up. Honey plodded along, head low and eyes half-closed, nabbing every blade of grass that tickled her nose.
I took us straight south. About half an hour later I found what looked like a large hay field. A tractor-wide path wound around the perimeter. Grass nearly reached the horse’s bellies. Perfect.
I’d let Gaston ease a few lengths ahead of Honey and twisted to look at Brian. “This would be a great place to go a little faster. You up for it?”
“Not too fast,” he said. “I haven’t done this for a while.”
“Just hold the horn. She’s real easy. Ready?”
He nodded, and I urged Gaston into trot. Then, canter. Noire streaked ahead. Honey jogged a few steps and Brian bounced hard. She managed two strides of canter before petering out and stopping altogether. The last I saw of them, she had her head buried in a lush stand of orchard grass, ignoring Brian’s weak attempts to get her attention.
At the far end of the field, a rusted woven wire fence prevented me from riding into the woods. I rode along until I found a spot where a tree bent the wire to the ground, and Gaston hopped over like a good horse.
Now what, Wastrel? I waited, but my muse was mute, so I forged ahead. I guess it was too much to expect that he might find a way to communicate with me when I was awake.
I gave Gaston his head, and he walked on, deftly stepping over logs and around underbrush as if he had a destination in mind. I ducked low branches and kept my eyes open for anything unusual.
Nothing looked familiar, but the dream had been so frantic, I’d hardly had time to seek out landmarks. I worked in a semi-organized fashion, letting Gaston choose the particulars once I pointed him in a general direction. Where the footing allowed, I pushed him to trot, knowing that Brian would get suspicious if I stayed away too long. In the meantime, I tried to think of a plausible excuse for when I did return. I could blame it on my dog, say she took off after a deer.
After about fifteen minutes, we nearly fell into a disturbed patch of earth. I hopped down and kicked aside leaves and twigs. Leaves and twigs like in the dream. Noire came over and sniffed around, then sat. There must not be anything here, I thought, or she’d show more interest.
I knelt and brushed at the shallow layer of forest debris. Beneath it was loose dirt and rocks. I swept more leaves to the side. The freshly-turned area was a couple of feet wide by several feet long. I pushed my hand as deep as I could and separated the soil, glad to have remembered my gloves. And came up with a handful of bones.
My stomach did a flip and my breathing came hard. They could be finger bones, but it was impossible to know what they came from without a skull. I dug around, found more. I stared for a long moment, trying to decide what this could mean, what I should do. I stared for so long, I began to feel dizzy. Gaston nibbled on the back of my shirt, found my bra strap and snapped it. I elbowed him away. Men.
I grabbed what I thought was a rib bone and stood.
Something rained through the trees. Then, a loud boom shook the air and Noire took off. Gaston nearly jumped over me. I still had the reins, and he dragged me over a stump.
“Whoa!”
He snorted and flicked his ears but stood. I shoved the bone in the back of my breeches and mounted. More debris came out of the sky. I brushed whatever it was off my leg. Pellets. Another boom, this one closer.
Shit. Were we being shot at?
I didn’t wait to get my feet in the stirrups. I kicked him and bent all the way down, my head next to his neck, and pointed him at Noire’s tail.
He didn’t need any encouragement. He wove through the trees at a fast canter without panicking, and I swore that if we made it home, I’d be sure to tell Malcolm what a great field hunter his horse would be.
One more boom chased us, this one muffled, farther behind. Up ahead, I heard Brian calling my name. He’d gotten Honey to the edge of the field. He must have heard the shots.
“I’m coming,” I yelled. Whoever was shooting might hear that, too, and realize we weren’t alone.
A second later, we burst into the field, and nearly crashed into Brian and Honey. I grabbed her bridle and dragged them with us at trot until we were over a slight rise and out of sight of the woods.
That was close. I checked Gaston for blood, but there wasn’t any. I felt along my back to make sure I hadn’t lost the rib bone. Still there.
“What the hell were you doing?” Brian asked. “Was that gunfire? You trespass on somebody else’s land?”
I thanked the gods or Dex, or whoever was responsible for leaving Brian in the dark.
“Guess so,” I said when I caught my breath. “Sorry about that.” I laid my hand over my chest. “Goodness. Gaston just took off.” I made a zooming gesture with my arm for emphasis. “I don’t know what got into him. Took me a while to stop him.” Huge, helpless smile.
“Thought you were some kind of big-shot horse-show rider back in New York.”
“Yeah, really.” I forced out a laugh. “Me, too.”
- 37 -
Dex was waiting for us back at the barn, hands on hips, looking, as Renee would say, fit to bust. He took Honey’s reins and told Brian to go home, he’d talk to him later. Brian slunk away without a backward glance. If he’d had a tail, it would have been between his chubby legs. Dex pointed to two other guys who hustled forward and took the horses into the barn. Made me wonder what Dex had on them to make them ask “How high?” when he said, “Jump!”
“You,” he said to me. “Come.”
After a moment’s resentful hesitation, I followed him to the main house. He said nothing more, but the rigidity of his neck spoke loudly enough. I was in trouble. The relief I’d felt at escaping the shooter wilted.
“Brian’s not at fault here,” I said. “I talked him into—”
He made a sharp “stop” motion with his hand. I didn’t like the pissed-off version of Dex One, but I should have been prepared. I suppose I deserved a dressing down.
We walked up the front steps and went in the house.
“Sit,” he said, pointing at a chair. “I have bad news.”
I went cold. “Is Malcolm—?” He glared at me until my rear end found the seat, and the bone jabbed me. I pulled it out and laid it on the table.
“What the hell is that?” he demanded.
“What’s the bad news?” I asked.
“You know Malcolm went to see his father, right?”
“Yes.” I held my breath.
“He found him. Dead.”
I gasped. “Dead?” I tried to take it in, but my brain was on strike against bad news. “How?”
“Hard to say. He had a heart condition. Cardiac arrest, maybe. No obvious signs. No forced entry. But…he had a bruise on his head.”
My hand went to my own. The bump was gone, but it was still tender to the touch.
“Yes,” Dex said. “Malcolm said it looked like yours.”
“And Sandy’s.”
He nodded and tapped the bone. “Tell me about this. You weren’t out joy riding this morning. You had a purpose. And Malcolm said you had prior knowledge of the situation with his father.”
My heel started bouncing. The rare, nervous habit only showed up when I was very tired or very tense, or, as in this case, both. I’d roll my right foot onto the ball and bounce the heel without touching the floor. It made my whole leg jounce like somebody giving a kid a horsy ride.
“I had a dream,” I said. I imagined him mentally rolling his eyes, but outwardly, he was unmoving, listening intently. “Several dreams, actually, that included a white dog with a bone.”
His eyebrows went up.
I pressed my knee down. “Dogs always have bones, right?” I said. “I didn’t think much of it. Never seen this dog before. But then, I had another dream with bones in the woods at the south end of Winterlight.”
He started to speak, and I held up my hand. “Don’t ask me how I knew where to look. I just knew. The most recent dream was very vivid.”
“Malcolm told me.”
“It left me with a bad feeling, and when I asked him if he knew anyone with a white dog…”
“He called his father, got no answer, and decided to check on him.”
“Poor Malcolm,” I said. I thought I was having a bad week.
Dex shrugged. “They weren’t close.”
“They couldn’t have been if Malcolm senior was more interested in selling the farm for money than finding a way for his son to have it.”
So, he was alone. At least I had Penny.
“He found a bone in his father’s house. Not unlike this one, by the way he described it.”
“Oh.” What else could I say? Of course he did.
“Anything else you’d like to tell me?”
I shook my head. I’d convinced myself the gunshots were coincidental. Someone taking target practice. Or…
“Is it a hunting season right now?”
“Turkey, why?”
See? Perfect explanation. “I heard shots when I was in the woods. Just curious.” Not that Gaston and I looked like turkeys.
“Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t Brian say anything?”
“You shouldn’t have sent him home so quick.”
He gave me a disgusted look and picked up the bone. “I’ll make sure the medical examiner gets this. Just in case.”
He stood and went to the phone. Guess I was dismissed.
I went back to work thinking I’d done what I could. I’d interpreted and responded to Wastrel’s messages. If more came to me in the future, I’d take them seriously. But I hoped there would be no more nocturnal visits. I’d be glad to return to my dreamless nights.
I hugged Noire and took care of Cali. I couldn’t risk her overdoing it, so I hooked her to the lunge line and let her trot in the riding ring, but kept the line short and the pace slow. She wanted more, needed speed, but still favored the injured leg. I took her in, bathed her, and walked her dry in the sun.
She nuzzled my neck and gave me several big, sloppy horse kisses. I looked forward to getting on her again.
It felt good to feel normal for a little while, to be in the routine. All the other horses needed attention, too. I would immerse myself in the work. But no amount of work prevented my thoughts from drifting to Malcolm, imagining him finding his father dead. And the little dog gnawing a strange bone. And Malcolm senior with a bruise on his head like someone with a ring on his hand had hit him before he died.
What would JJ want with Malcolm senior? Perhaps the better question was, what did Malcolm senior have that JJ wanted? The farm. Good lord. The farm would be Malcolm’s now. Unless Malcolm senior had a will that said something different. He couldn’t have left it to someone else, could he? In my dream, there’d been something important to find on the desk. I tried to remember. Could it have been the will? I needed to talk to Malcolm. Later. He probably had enough on his mind right now. Whether or not they were close, finding his father dead would be a blow.
Within an hour, Dex asked me to come into the tack room. We sat with the beat-up coffee table between us, and he drew a map of the farm. I showed him where I’d found the bones.
“That’s very close to the southern edge of the property and the river,” he said. “There are lots of smaller pieces of land down there that share that property line. Hunting and fishing shacks all over the place.”
“Let’s ride down there. I’ll show you—”
“Malcolm wants you to stay put, and I’m going to see to it you do.”
Oh, so the alpha male had surfaced again. “When will he be back?”
“Don’t know at this point. He’ll probably stay in town tonight.”
“How is he?”
Dex leaned back, clasped his hands behind his head, and scrutinized me with his peat-moss eyes. I crossed my arms and looked away, feigning indifference.
“Dex Two will be there as soon as he can, and Doreen is with him.”
My pretended indifference vanished. “Doreen?”
“She’s an old friend.”
Of course, Malcolm had a life before I came along. A good-looking, nice guy like him was bound to have lots of old friends. But Dex was deliberately provoking me. “I’m glad to know he’s not alone.”
“You’re full of shit.”
I took my turn assessing him, decided on the truth. “I guess it’s no secret I like Malcolm. If Doreen truly is an old friend, then I’m happy she’s there for him. That’s exactly what he needs right now.” The comfort of the familiar. I could relate.
His eyes narrowed. “You’re right. Better than Brooke.”
“How’d they hook up, anyway?”
“At work. She had an internship, but I’m sure it was an excuse to play hooky from mommy and daddy for the summer.”
“Mommy and daddy were mean to little Brooke?”
“Brooke’s a spoiled brat. Daddy has deep pockets. Owns a big construction company. Mommy and Brooke spend daddy’s money.”
“Did you do a background check on her?”
“Not at the time, no. She was young and cute and seemed harmless. She loved the farm and, supposedly, Malcolm.”
“You don’t believe it.”
“She only cared about pissing off her parents.”
It was none of my business, but I asked anyway. “Did he love her?”
Dex exhaled noisily. “She got pregnant. She was scared. Her parents would kill her, she said. So, Malcolm married her.”
“Did he think she loved him?”
“He tell you about his friend who was killed when he was in college?”
“Yes. It was very hard on him, I could tell.”
“It was right after that all this happened with Brooke.”
“Oh, I see.” Malcolm had been vulnerable, needed someone to take care of, a woman he could save.
“She lost the baby a month into the marriage.”
“You think she was ever really pregnant?”
“Nope.”
“But they must have been having sex, right, or he wouldn’t have thought he had to marry her?”
Dex shifted. The conversation had gone somewhere that made him uncomfortable. “I guess he’d tell you himself if you asked him. He said they did it once before they married. After a party. In the car. She jumped him.”
“Oh, and he couldn’t fight her off?”
>
“Sometimes the little head thinks for the big head.”
I laughed and wondered that I still could. “That’s a good one.”
Dex stood and walked to the window. “He thought they’d learn to love each other. She thought they’d live in the city, and she’d be a socialite. She liked being a member of the foxhunting club. They have a white-tie ball once a year. Lots of St. Louis bigwigs are members. But she never took to riding, and she hated the farm.”
“Wait, you said she loved it. You think she only said that to snag him? And faked being pregnant to clinch the deal?”
“Exactly. And now I do background checks on anyone who gets within ten feet of him.”
“And Nicky?”
“Sweet kid.”
He said nothing else. He wasn’t going to tell me about Nicky. Which meant there was something to tell, or something he suspected.
“He loves her,” he said, and rose. “Now, even if you aren’t full of it, you look like shit.”
“Gee, you sure know how to make a girl feel better.”
“Just go upstairs and get some rest. I’ll keep on eye on things.”
These guys were fond of telling me what to do, but I had to admit, I didn’t mind someone watching out for me a little for a change.
“What about—?” I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling.
“I’m the only one left. Brian’s useless. I should’ve known you’d charm him without breaking a sweat. I didn’t realize you were so devious, or I would have put him in the woods and someone savvy in here. The others are either at their posts, on the way into the city with that bone, or down at the south end seeing what they can find. It’s just you and me, kid.”
Devious? Me? I had nothing on Brooke. Which made me wonder what else she was capable of. But Dex was right. I was beat, and a nap sounded like a good idea. I started for the door, turned back.
“You’d rather be in the city with him, wouldn’t you? He could use your keen eye and experience in his father’s house, not to mention your friendship. I’ll bet you’re just itching to get in there and snoop around.”
“Don’t try to con me, Miss Parker. I don’t know what you did to Brian, but it won’t fly with Dexter Hamill. However, if you ever want to consider a new career—”
Candace Carrabus - Dreamhorse 01 - On the Buckle Page 24