Deadly Heritage: a horse mystery: a horse mystery

by Toni Leland

  “Mama?”

  Kellie's dismal thoughts evaporated as her nine-year-old daughter stepped into the office.

  “Hey, Sara Baby, what are you up to?”

  The little girl's green eyes sparkled and a rosy flush covered her freckled cheeks. “I'm gonna work Juicy on the lunge line. Can you come and watch?”

  “Sure, give me a sec.”

  Kellie closed the scheduling calendar, and Sara reached across the desk to pick up the snapshot.

  “Where'd this come from?” She peered at the image, then giggled. “Your hair was really short!”

  “It sure was-hey, are you coming to the show with me on Saturday?”

  Sara laid the picture back on the desk and rolled her eyes. “Oh, duh!”

  Kellie laughed, emotion crowding into her heart as they moved out into the barn aisle.

  Sara fell into step beside her mother. “Why does Dancer's stall stink so awful?”

  “He has a bad infection, honey.”

  Sara stopped mid-step, her eyes suddenly big and glistening with fear. “Is he gonna die?”

  Kellie's dread bubbled up, clamoring for release, but she pushed it away. “Doc Browning's taking good care of him. We just have to hope he gets well soon.”

  Sara nodded solemnly, then opened a stall door and stepped inside to put a halter on a flashy sorrel and white pinto. After setting the horse up in crossties, she deftly applied splint boots, and gave the horse a quick once-over with a brush. Kellie's own childhood memories freshened as she followed Sara and her horse out into the sunshine.

  “When I was your age, I spent every possible waking hour with horses. I dreamed about them at night, and drew pictures of them during school.” She chuckled. “Your granddad was pretty worried about my one-track mind.”

  “Did your brothers like horses too?”

  “Only my older brother-your Uncle Randy.”

  “What about Uncle Cliff and Uncle Clarke?”

  Frick and Frack. The twins' attitude about horses had always been a sore spot.

  “They taunted me constantly about my obsession. Horses were nothing more than work animals to those two. When I turned twelve, Randy started letting me ride with him. We spent hours on horseback, playing rodeo and practicing our roping skills on fence posts. He was fantastic. He advanced to High School Rodeo and won all the titles.”

  Sara stopped walking and looked up with sympathy. “Do you miss him?”

  Well-remembered sorrow moved into Kellie's heart. “Yes, I do. Very much.”

  She turned to gaze toward the rambling ranch house where they'd all grown up. The memories seemed like only yesterday. While her brothers and school chums had abandoned the sticks for the excitement of the world outside ranch life, she had settled in, knowing she belonged right where she'd come into the world. The painful memories deepened-the choice had cost her dearly.

  In her peripheral vision, a county patrol car turned into the lane and she closed her eyes. Please let that be anyone but Ed.

  ~ ~

  Kellie waited inside the barn, trying to calm her jumping pulse by listening to the background sounds. A country beat thrummed from a radio, someone laughed, a tractor rumbled outside. A silhouette appeared in the doorway, then Ed Campbell stepped into the light. His long legs quickly closed the distance between them, and breath-stopping thuds hammered through her chest.

  He tipped his brown Stetson and offered a large tanned hand. “How are you, Kellie?”

  His steely gray eyes glinted like mica at the bottom of a mountain stream, and his firm grip sent a familiar stutter through her heartbeat.

  Unable to deal with the rush of memories, she looked away. “Not good. Two of my horses have come up seriously lame.”

  His tone rang with surprise. “Sounds like Doctor Browning could help more than I can. Why'd you call us?”

  “Come down to the office and I'll fill you in.”

  She headed across the aisle, intensely aware of his nearness.

  He stopped for a moment in front of the awards display. “Looks like the Suttons are doing pretty well for themselves.”

  Spiraling into the magic of his strong baritone, Kellie caught her breath at the burst of excitement coursing through her. A flashback rushed into her head. After all these years, could he deny his own history here?

  He eased into one of the chairs beside her desk, and she focused on the way his crisp uniform shirt hugged the contours of his chest and shoulders.

  He leaned forward, elbows on knees, a serious expression sharpening his chiseled features. “Okay, what's the deal here?”

  Unfamiliar indecision grabbed her. Had she called the authorities too soon? What if...no, it was the right thing to do. Still horrified at what she was about to say, she swallowed hard.

  “Hyde says...he thinks someone purposely injected something into my horses' feet.”

  Ed straightened up in the chair, his eyebrows coming together. “Why does he think that?”

  “Both horses have identical symptoms in the same foot, and the most recently injured horse has a round puncture wound, like it was made by a needle. Swelling and infection haven't camouflaged it yet.”

  Ed reached into his shirt pocket and removed a small brown notebook, then looked up. “Could be an insect bite.”

  She looked away from his impersonal expression. “Hyde collected tissue and blood samples, and took them over to the university lab, but we won't know anything until tomorrow.”

  “Assuming this is a deliberate attack, do you have any idea who might want to cause some trouble?”

  Disbelief snapped Kellie's somber mood. “Trouble? Ed, you don't seem to understand-this is disastrous! My horses could die from whatever's in their systems!”

  He looked startled at the outburst, and apology surged into her thoughts. She rose and headed toward the door. “I'll show you what I'm talking about.”

  A minute later, Ed took a quick step back from Dancer's stall door. “Holy cow, what's that smell?”

  “Rotting dead flesh.”

  Her throat constricted to the point where she couldn't say anything more, and tears threatened behind her lids, intensifying her feelings of helplessness. Worse, Ed's nearness made her long to erase the past, step into his arms, let him make everything right again-the way it used to be.

  His tone was grim. “I'll get a deputy on it right away.”

  His boots echoed on the concrete barn floor, then faded, leaving Kellie with a familiar sense of loss. She gazed at Dancer for a moment, then turned away, squaring her shoulders with resolve.

  “Roy?” Her voice resonated through the cavernous building. “You in here?”

  A lid slammed shut on a grain bin in the feed room, and a grizzled old man stepped into the aisle. Kellie walked swiftly toward him, gathering her thoughts.

  “Get the staff together in my office in fifteen minutes.”

  He nodded and moved toward the barn door, and Kellie began to compose what she would say to her employees.

  Shortly, six men and three women crowded into the office, their faces forming a collage of curiosity and apprehension.

  “It appears we've had an intruder in the barn-Dancer and Boots have been viciously attacked.”

  A collective gasp echoed in the small room, but no one spoke.

  “I want each one of you to think back over the past week. Tell me if you saw anything unusual, no matter how insignificant it might seem.”

  A newly hired stall cleaner spoke up. “I found a half-smoked cigarette by the door to your office one morning.” The young woman glanced around nervously. “I didn't say nothing, 'cause I didn't want to get anyone in trouble...me being new here an' all.”

  Kellie narrowed her eyes, controlling her annoyance. She'd remind everyone later about smoking in the barn.

  “What did you do with it?”

  The girl's voice wavered. “I threw it in the manure pile.”

  “Okay, we'll discuss that later. Someone from the sheriff's of
fice will be coming around. Please cooperate so we can catch whoever did this horrible thing.”

  “Are the horses going to be okay?”

  “Yes.”

  Her voice sounded hollow, but maybe if she said it enough times, it would be so.

  ~ ~

  Water pounded the top of Kellie's head and streamed down her body, encasing her in a cocoon of heat. She inhaled deeply, letting the steam filter through her lungs to cleanse away the dust of the day while she focused on a glob of soap bubbles sliding down the tiles. Today had been the longest day of her life and, as usual, she'd handled it on her own. But this time, her aloneness held a sharper edge. Seeing Ed had severed an emotional artery, spilling the past into the present with painful force. He hadn't even seemed glad to see her. Polite, but distant. She closed her eyes tightly, denying the painful admission of youthful error.

  Stepping out onto the soft bath mat, she shivered as the change in temperature prickled over her body. Ed's handsome face materialized again, and another flood of memories washed over her. She swiped the condensation from the mirror, then leaned on the sink and stared at her forlorn expression.

  “You can't do this to yourself.”

  An hour later, she leaned back in the porch swing and nibbled a piece of cheese as Frank approached the front steps.

  She brushed a crumb off her lap. “Have you been to see the horses yet?”

  His boots thumped on the old planks, then he dropped into a wicker chair. “Nope.”

  An angry retort teetered on her tongue, stayed only by the chime of her cell phone and the appearance of Hyde's number on the screen.

  “Kellie, the Anderson horse has the same puncture wound as your horses. Same foot, same symptoms. We're up against a real sick-o.”

  “I've already talked to Sheriff Campbell, but you should give him a call too. And please let me know the minute you hear from the lab.”

  She closed the phone, instantly aware of Frank's frown.

  He crossed his arms. “Now what's going on?”

  “Hyde hasn't figured out the cause, but he found a similar puncture wound on the neighbor's horse. The injuries were intentional.”

  Frank snorted. “Jesus, Kellie, you have one hell of an imagination!” His eyes narrowed and a nasty smile curled his thin lips. “Or maybe you were just looking for a chance to reconnect with ol' Ed.”

  She rose from the swing and stalked toward the front door. “Go to hell, Frank.”

  “Guess you shoulda married him instead of me.”

  Chapter 2

  The chilly dawn air raised a flush of goose bumps over Kellie's bare arms as she walked briskly toward the barn, wrestling again with Frank's cruel words. Yes, she should have married Ed, but youthful ignorance entertains the fantasy that there'll always be plenty of time. She'd thought she could make choices on her own terms, manage pride and passion as she controlled everything else, only to lose the one thing she'd ever really wanted.

  Stopping inside the door, she inhaled deeply, letting the unique aroma of horses and hay salve her inner turmoil. Horses were in her blood, had been from her earliest childhood, and nothing had ever affected her the way these magnificent animals did.

  Her step faltered as she neared Dancer's stall. The horrible odor drenched her with apprehension, but the stallion's deep nickered greeting filled her heart with hope.

  She opened the door, then closed her eyes for a second. “Oh my God.”

  The big horse leaned heavily against the wall, holding his left foot above the bedding. Kellie forced herself to look at the gauze-wrapped hoof. A dark yellow patch stained the bandage, and a bright red center formed a bull's-eye. The ankle had swollen to twice its normal size, and the distention encompassed the foreleg to the knee. The antibiotics weren't working.

  Dancer let out a heavy sigh, and sympathy seared Kellie's heart. The horse was exhausted from keeping the weight off his foot, knowing instinctively that, if he lay down, he'd never be able to get back on his feet.

  Her despair fed her sense of helplessness. Hyde wasn't due for another thirty minutes. Would he find a solution before Dancer ran out of time?

  ~ ~

  Ed Campbell doodled along the edge of the desk mat while he listened to the soft-spoken man on the cell phone. Several thoughts vied for attention, the strongest being how good Kellie Sutton looked-even better than his memories. A prick of disappointment quickly popped the warm feeling. She hadn't acted happy to see him, in fact, had never made more than brief eye contact during their conversation. He scratched an X over the heart he'd just drawn. Who was he kidding? The past was just that, and she'd moved on without looking back. Coming home to Guthrie had been a mistake.

  The voice on the phone sharpened. “Campbell! Did you hear me?”

  Ed straightened in the chair, pressing the small white phone closer. “Sorry, say again.”

  “The subjects have accelerated their activity. It's time to move into phase two. Everything from here on out is strictly dark-including discussions with the commissioners. Make something up if you have to, but report only to me.” The man paused, then his tone changed. “You having any problems down there?”

  “No, there's some town stuff going on, but I have it covered.”

  The phone screen faded and Ed scowled. Kellie Sutton's problems were not going to screw this up-not after all these years.

  “Morning, Chief.” Deputy Danielle White's husky voice preceded her voluptuous six-foot body into the office. She flashed a wide smile and leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb. “Got time for breakfast?”

  Ed slipped the cell phone into his pocket and shook his head. “Can't, I have a ton of paperwork, and a new situation is brewing out at Rocking S. They've had some mysterious attacks on the horses. I want either you or Jimmy to go out there this morning and start asking questions.”

  Danielle's smile disappeared and she gazed at him for a moment, then nodded and left the room. He exhaled slowly, wondering again why he'd thought accepting this assignment had been a good idea.

  ~ ~

  A creamy yellow foal pranced around the stall, swishing her sassy little white tail, her bright eyes glowing with curiosity about her new world. Kellie leaned on the door and offered a hand. The tiny filly came forward to sniff the fingers, then snorted and tossed her head.

  Hyde's soft voice resonated in the quiet morning air. “Born in the full moon. My grandmother would say that brings good temperament.”

  Kellie cast a sidelong glance at her friend's serene expression. “Oh, puh-leez! Temperament comes from genes, not planetary positioning. All Dancer's babies are like this.”

  Hyde's expression darkened, and Kellie hastened to soften her retort. “But I'm sure the timing helped.”

  The filly uttered a throaty nicker and moved nearer the stall door to peer up at Hyde. She bobbed her head as though a silent message had passed between them, then squealed and pivoted on her hind legs to dive beneath her dam's belly.

  “She has come at the right time, to fill the void.”

  His words hung on the warm air, and Kellie whirled to face him. “What void? What do you mean?”

  “My grandmother would say, 'For every death, a birth'.”

  The breath froze in Kellie's lungs. Whose death? Not Dancer! She began to shake her head, trying to break the paralysis that kept her from speaking.

  Hyde slipped an arm around her shoulders and squeezed. “The guy at the lab called. The culture didn't grow staph. He tried a couple of different tests, but got no identifiable results. I asked him to send some of the sample over to the state forensic pathology lab. Maybe they can tell us something.” He released her and stepped back, shaking his head. “I can't fight what I don't know.”

  Kellie almost choked on the tightness in her throat. “What do we do in the meantime?”

  “One of my colleagues suggested hyperbaric oxygen therapy after we clean out the dead tissue. The treatment is relatively new and I don't know much about it, but apparently i
t is highly effective for speeding new tissue growth and healing. It's also quite expensive.” He paused a little too long before continuing. “The real danger here is laminitis. Dancer's good leg is beginning to swell from the excess weight he's putting on it. I brought along some special heel pads that should relieve the strain. It might give us some time.”

  “Anything. Just do it.”

  She watched him leave the barn, then turned her attention back to the newest addition to the herd. With a full tummy, the foal now rested in the straw with her eyes closed.

  “Hey, new baby!”

  Kellie spun around at Frank's voice close behind her. For a moment, she was happy to see him, wanted someone to soothe her pain and hold her close. The impulse passed immediately, and she stepped aside while he inspected the new arrival.

  Years of playing high school and college football had built muscular shoulders and a thick neck, but more years of beer and cigarettes had allowed those muscles to go soft. In the beginning, she'd thought he was sexy, but that notion had disappeared quickly the first few times they made love. Frank's sex drive was strong, but basic-every man for himself, as they say. Kellie's salvation on that front had been her pregnancy. With the announcement, her new husband's libido had veered in other directions, leaving her to savor, undisturbed, her impending motherhood.

  Frank straightened up and faced her, his eyes without emotion, his unshaven jaw tightening. “Okay, show me the horses you think were vandalized.”

  His patent disbelief sent a flush of anger up Kellie's neck. “I can't believe you haven't been to see them yet.”

  His patronizing stare reminded her that fighting with him was unproductive. He always managed to maneuver her into a position that made her feel ineffectual. Without a word, he turned and strode down the aisle toward Dancer's stall.

  A moment later, he grimaced. “Jee-zus! What a stink!” His eyebrows formed a dark line. “Is Boots this bad?”

  “Not yet, but he will be if Doc Browning can't identify the cause of the infection.”

  Frank stepped into the stallion's stall, talking in a low voice. “Hey, big guy, how ya doin'?”