The Michaela Bancroft Mysteries 1-3

by Michele Scott

  "It doesn't quite fit with the picture of your ex."

  He frowned. "Not today, anyway. But she wasn't always so uptight. She was a wild one. Audrey had a calming influence on her. Always the peaceful one, you know."

  "I do. Audrey's nature was definitely gentle."

  "I look back on those years and I know that she was the one I should have married. If I had, she might be alive today, and I know we would have lasted."

  His words took her aback. She decided to take a chance: "You were in love with her, weren't you?"

  Hugh didn't hold back his tears any longer. "I always was. Always."

  "Did she know?"

  "Yes. She knew. She definitely knew. I asked her to marry me last week."

  FOURTEEN

  "WH-WHAT?" MICHAELA ASKED, SPUTTERING ON the question.

  Hugh nodded slowly, tears now streaming down his face. "I've made huge mistakes in my life, and letting Audrey slip through my fingers was the biggest. And now, she's gone."

  "But you're married. I mean, I guess, um…" Michaela's head spun over this revelation. "Okay, I'm sorry, I know this is none of my business, but I have to ask: Were you and Audrey having an affair?"

  "No. Audrey would never do that. Never. What we had was far more special than something as lurid as an affair. We had a connection. A real connection. We may not have ever had anything physical, but we did have an affair of the heart. In a sense, I suppose that's as bad. But I think it's worse for the two people who love each other not to figure it out than it is for the spouses. It's a travesty all the way around. I realized that last week after we had lunch, so I bought a ring and asked her to marry me."

  "Did she say yes?"

  "She did. And it was yesterday that I planned to tell Bridgette." He smiled, but his eyes betrayed his sadness.

  Something told Michaela she'd found the reason why Bridgette didn't think highly of Audrey. Somehow, Bridgette knew about Audrey, or at least the love Hugh felt for her. How could a woman not sense that type of thing?

  "And, now…now she's gone." He broke down.

  Michaela put her arms around him. "I am so sorry."

  He gently pulled away from her and wiped his face. "Please don't tell anyone. You're the only one who knows. I know what she meant to you and I had to tell someone. We were getting ready to tell everyone after I ended things between me and Bridgette. I wanted it to be as amicable as possible. I wasn't out to hurt anyone; I just didn't want to live a lie any longer. I've been doing it for years. And, even though she's gone and we won't ever be married, I have to divorce Bridgette. That's what I meant when I said that I needed to make changes. I also need to find out who murdered Audrey." The lines in his forehead creased deeply. "I'll kill whoever did this!" he exclaimed.

  Michaela wanted to ask him why, if he'd loved Audrey for all these years, had this revelation not dawned on him earlier, causing him to pursue Audrey sooner than later. But he was so upset that she decided not to say anything further about their relationship for now. The man was distraught and it didn't feel right to delve into his or Audrey's personal life any more than she already had.

  Hugh seemed to want to change the subject as he stopped in front of one of the horse's stalls. "Geyser. Good boy, he is. Audrey loved him. Wanted to take him to her place, but with the changes we were about to make that wouldn't have been necessary. She would have moved in here with me and sold her place in Indio." Geyser stuck his head out of the stall. Hugh patted the handsome dapple gray. "Hey, there." He looked back at Michaela. "Won a lot of races. And, he's sound."

  "Rare," she replied, referring to the horse's legs. Soundness in a horse signified that they weren't lame, which was hard to come by, especially in a retired racehorse. These were animals that for a time in their life went at full speed, with all one thousand pounds or more beating down on their fine legs. "How old is he?"

  "Eleven now. I've had him all his life, and he likes it here, but he's a real social guy. He'd love the attention that kids would shower on him."

  "I can see that," Michaela said and laughed as the gelding nudged her hand, wanting a pat.

  "But there are no kids around here, and when Audrey called me to ask if I might have a good horse for a kid, my first thought was Geyser. I have to tell you, he's not one I want to let go of. But when Audrey told me that he'd be for you, I knew he'd have a great home. Plus, she wanted you to have him."

  "You know how I feel about my animals. They come to stay."

  "That's a good thing. I don't know how profitable it is, but it's a good thing. You want to take him out, give him a go?"

  "Yeah."

  Hugh led Geyser from the stall. One of the grooms came by and offered to saddle him up. Hugh said that would be fine, and he finished showing Michaela around the barn.

  When Geyser was ready, she put him first through some basic paces and then challenged him some. He still had his get up and go, but was responsive and definitely good natured. He'd be perfect for what she had in mind. "I love him. How much do you want for him?"

  "He's yours."

  "What?"

  "Take him. My gift; but if you ever want to get rid of him, you bring him back here."

  "But why? Why would you give him to me?"

  "Because I know how much Audrey cared for you, and I want you to have him. And as I said, she wanted you to have him."

  "I can't do that."

  "Fine. Give me a dollar and we'll call it even." He smiled and it was warm, kind—just as Audrey had been.

  God, she wished they could have been together.

  "Please, Michaela. He's a good boy. He'll make the kids you're working with happy. I want you to have him."

  The kids. Joe's proposition of working with his daughter and more autistic kids crossed her mind. Geyser would be perfect for the children. Was she really thinking about accepting the position? Maybe so. As Hugh had told her, Audrey would have wanted her to enjoy her life, and the joy she got out of working with Genevieve was evident.

  She finally agreed. "I'll pick him up later this week, if that's okay. I need to get back home, check on things. And I don't have my trailer with me. Day after tomorrow work for you?"

  "Works great."

  "Good. But you have to promise me that you'll come out and visit. Watch him with the kids."

  "You can count on it. Like I said, I hate to see him go, but know he'll be in a good place. I will be out to see him. He'll be great with the kids. Won't you?" Hugh rubbed Geyser's face.

  Michaela hung his bridle back up in the tack room as Hugh put him back in his stall. Turning around, she bumped into a slightly built Mexican man. "Oh, excuse me. I didn't know anyone was there."

  "Is okay," he replied curtly.

  Hugh walked in. "Oh, I see you've met Enrique."

  "Sort of," Michaela replied and laughed. Enrique didn't smile. Jeez, lighten up.

  "Enrique Perez, this is Michaela Bancroft. Enrique is my jockey. The best around."

  "Thank you, sir."

  "It's true. Won the race on Chico yesterday."

  "Good horse. Nice to meet you, señorita." He warmed slightly.

  "You, too," she replied.

  "Señor, I need to leave a bit early. It's my brother. I have something to take care of with him."

  Hugh frowned. "Is he in trouble again?"

  "No, no. He promise me no more problems especially now that you give him a job. He real happy about it, and me, too. No problems at all, just need to go with him to an appointment."

  Hugh slapped Enrique on the back. As the jockey left the barn, they returned to the golf cart. "Man works so hard with these animals and he's got this brother—Juan—who has had some troubles with the law, but Enrique assures me the man is turning his life around. Sure hope so. I took a chance on him because of Enrique and hired him to take care of the mechanical stuff around here. So far so good. He does do a good job, but the jury is still out, if you know what I mean."

  "I know what you mean. Family can be difficult."


  "Yes, they can."

  "Before I head out, do you think your trainer might be back?"

  "Josh? I'm not sure. He may be with a horse on the exercise track. I know that he got a late start this morning. Why?"

  "I…have some technical stuff to ask him." She didn't know if Hugh was aware that Josh had brought Olivia home, that the girl and her mother had already had quite an argument that morning. She decided to find out if he knew the answer to the burning question. "Hey, did you ever locate Olivia last night?"

  "Yes. I sent Josh to pick her up. That idiot Steve Benz convinced her to go out with them."

  "Them?"

  "Him and his manager—Marshall Friedman. Don't trust either one of them as far as I can throw them. Friedman has been trying to get Olivia to sign with him and leave Audrey. Sure, the guy can boost her career, but I don't like it at all. The guy is a jerk."

  "Was she here then, last night?"

  "By the time I located her it was almost one in the morning. I told Josh to pick her up and take her to her mother's, who I figured would be worried sick to death about her. She's recently moved into her own apartment, but I knew with what had happened yesterday that Kathleen would've expected Olivia to come home."

  Michaela decided not to tell him that Olivia hadn't made it to Kathleen's until after seven that morning. Where she'd been with Josh for those six hours was a question. Her mind wandered—could the two of them have simply been comforting each other all night?

  Or did they have something to hide?

  FIFTEEN

  AFTER SAYING GOOD-BYE TO HUGH, MICHAELA found Josh down at the exercise track, dismounting a beautiful sorrel horse. She called to him. He waved at her. She walked up and the horse turned his head, taking curious note of the newcomer. "Gorgeous animal."

  "Chapman's Lightning. We call him Chappy around here. A lot of heart, but not so fast on the track. The lightning part of the name is kind of a joke. He'd rather be back in his stall finishing his breakfast. But they all need their exercise. Personally, I think Hugh should sell him and a few others. Racing is a money-making business, but Hugh has a philosophy: Horses come here to stay and if they leave, he knows where they're going. It's either on their way to heaven or to the barn of someone he knows and trusts."

  "Like Audrey."

  Josh nodded and looked down at the ground, digging his paddock boots in. "Like Audrey. Can't believe what happened. She was a nice woman and good with horses."

  "I know."

  "I thought coming out here this morning that maybe I'd be able to erase some of yesterday from my mind, but it's not possible."

  "For me either," Michaela replied.

  "I'm guessing you're here to look at some of Hugh's old guys. He mentioned to me that you had an interest in lesson horses."

  "I already had a look. I'll be picking up Geyser later this week. I wanted to talk to you before I left, though."

  "Ah. Geyser, huh? Good boy. He'll be great with kids. Look, I can figure out why you wanted to talk to me. I'm sorry about that scene this morning with Kathleen and Olivia. I wish you hadn't seen that. Kathleen is difficult to deal with." He shoved a hand into a pocket of his breeches and pulled out a can of chew.

  Michaela nodded. "She does come across as high-maintenance."

  "You don't know the half of it. She wasn't so bad when she was married to Hugh. But after the divorce she wigged out. I think Audrey was probably one of the last ones to stand by her. The rest of her friends disappeared. And, Olivia…well, this thing is going to be hard for her to deal with. I think she loved Audrey more than her own mother. Not that anyone would blame her for that." He fiddled with the can and then shoved it back into his pocket. "Trying to quit."

  "Kathleen does seem to keep a tight leash on Olivia."

  "You saw it for yourself. The woman is a total control freak. Olivia has no desire to sing. She wants to be a jockey."

  "And you've been letting her ride, haven't you?"

  Josh didn't answer her right away. Her stomach sank as his eyes narrowed at her question. "Kathleen put you up to this? Are you here to grill me about Olivia because that old bag sent you? She's sicker than I thought."

  Michaela shook her head. "No. That's not why I'm here. I'm trying to make some sense out of what happened to Audrey. There probably isn't any to be made, but I feel like I have to try. Olivia, Kathleen, and I were the last people to have any interaction with her before she died, and I thought that maybe Olivia said something to you about Audrey since you were with her last night. I already know that Hugh asked you to get her from Steve Benz's place around one this morning, and I also know that by the time she got home, it was after seven. I thought maybe you two would have talked."

  "I told Olivia about Audrey on the drive back from Beverly Hills. She lost it, which I expected. I took her home with me because she asked me to. Said that she didn't want to be alone and she couldn't deal with her mother yet. I comforted a distraught friend. That's it." His anger was obvious. He started to lead the horse away from her toward the barn.

  "Sorry, I didn't intend to upset you."

  He stopped. "What do you want? Really?"

  She sighed. "I want to know why Olivia went off with Benz in the first place. I want to know if she ever said anything to you about Audrey acting strange, especially lately."

  "Olivia was shanghaied last night by Steve Benz and his ass of a manager, Marshall Friedman."

  "How did that happen? I was with Olivia when she was getting ready to perform and he came by, hitting on her. She didn't seem interested in him." Michaela also recalled how rude Benz was to Audrey, who had tried keeping him away from her goddaughter.

  "She's not interested in him. You can probably thank Kathleen for Benz dropping by to bug Olivia."

  "What?"

  "Sure, she played all innocent this morning. The ever-concerned parent. I'll tell you what she is: She's one of those psycho stage mothers. Olivia is a grown woman and her mother wants to make a superstar out of her…forget what her daughter wants."

  That didn't make a lot of sense. Sure the control freak–psycho mother part sort of fit, but Kathleen's anger about Olivia's disappearance seemed real to her.

  Chappy stomped his foot and pawed at the ground. "I've got to get this saddle off of him."

  "Sure." Michaela followed him to the barn set up next to the track. This one was smaller than the other across the track and up the hill, where Hugh had taken her. It was obviously only used for the horses just after their exercise. Josh slid the horse's bridle off him and replaced it with a halter, securing both sides of it with cross ties to finish taking off his tack and get him over to the wash rack. As he scraped Chappy with a sweat scraper, she continued to probe. "Tell me how Olivia wound up with Benz and Friedman."

  "Olivia was angry."

  "About what?"

  "No, angry with me."

  "Why?"

  "I wouldn't let her exercise Chico that morning."

  "Does her dad know?"

  "No. She asked me not to tell. She's afraid her mom would find out."

  Michaela didn't tell him that Kathleen already knew. Those photos she'd found proved that much. She was afraid that if she revealed it to Josh, he'd go ballistic. Although he seemed like a nice guy, he'd also given her reason to believe he had a temper.

  "Olivia is a good kid, but she does like to get her way. How could she not, being the only child in this clan? She doesn't like to hear the word no."

  "From what I've heard so far, she does seem to have a problem saying it to her mother."

  He agreed. "I don't get it. Kathleen has a hold on her. And she had one on Audrey. As much as I know Audrey loved Olivia, and she knew what Olivia's real dream in life is, but she'd never say a word to Kathleen about it. She'd never tell her to back off or leave her alone and let Olivia live her own life. I could never get that."

  "It wasn't really Audrey's responsibility, do you think? To tell Kathleen to not interfere with her daughter?"


  "I do think she was responsible in some way. Audrey knew Olivia better than her mother does, and they were tight. Do I think she should have told Kathleen to back off her daughter? Yeah, I do. I also think that she shouldn't have been a partner in Olivia's career. But even Audrey, who could see how happy Olivia was when she rode on the track, came to me and asked me to try and dissuade Olivia—that her parents wouldn't be happy about our morning sessions."

  "Did Olivia exercise horses a lot?"

  He shrugged. "When she could get away from Mama's clutches. Audrey brought her here when she was in town. Kathleen trusted Audrey with Olivia and would have never guessed she was bringing her to the track to ride. Since Olivia moved into her own place last month after a battle with her mother, she's been showing up here more often."

  "You said that Olivia was angry with you yesterday, but what does that have to do with her going with Benz, and her mom setting it up?"

  He unhooked Chappy from the cross ties and walked him over to the wash rack, Michaela in tow. She turned on the hose while he led the horse onto the concrete slab, then took the hose from her, rinsing him down. Water sprayed onto Michaela. "Sorry," Josh said.

  "No biggie. I do it every day."

  "You train reiners, don't you?"

  "Yeah. It's a great sport."

  "Fun to watch, kind of like the dressage of the western discipline, but for me, there's nothing better than the track."

  "I can see that. For Olivia, too, obviously." Michaela was starting to wonder if Josh was deliberately trying to change the subject. "What do you think about this thing with Olivia and Benz?"

  He turned off the hose and threw it to the ground. "The dickhead got Olivia plowed, probably spiked her drink. I don't know, because she told me that she didn't have any more than two drinks before leaving the track with them. They took his limo up to Beverly Hills, where they had dinner. She says that Benz and Friedman harangued her, promising her the good life and telling her they could make her a star and she should sign on with Friedman as her manager."

  "Did she?"

  "Nope. It was about that time when I found her. Her dad tracked her down and sent me to get her. They even had a contract already drawn up, and like I said, I would not be surprised if Kathleen was behind the whole thing. It'd be just like her."