“Her boyfriend, Shay Hall, I don’t know what his exact position was, but he had twenty years’ experience with the National Guard. I met him in Kentucky when she was there to clean up her life. She’s the one that told me about this job. If you stick around, you’ll learn that Faith and I work well together, she’s like my little sister, or an annoying younger cousin.” He grinned when Myrna snorted a laugh.
“This isn’t any of my business, but was there ever anything between the two of you?”
“Not what you’re thinking, it was always work-related, she’s the jockey, I’m the trainer.” He looked at her with a grin. “The jockey is the person on the back of the horse that rides around the track. She tells me how the horse feels, if it’s pulling this way or that, or if it’s running sluggish. We work as a team to try to improve the horse’s run time.”
“Oh.” She nodded her answer and looked around as they followed the golf cart toward a set of three buildings, around the back, and when the man named Ducky stopped, two people, a man and woman came out from the back of the middle barn,and the man directed Pedro to back the trailer up to the open door the woman stood beside.
Myrna and Pedro exited their respective sides of his truck, and went to the back, where the woman stood.
“Hi, I’m Lorissa Gibson, I’m a vet, and a farrier. This is Tom Stolls, he’s also a vet, and we’re dating.” She smiled at them, then looked up when several people arrived on foot around the side of the barn. She turned to them with a smile. “This is Erin Riceman, Naomi Alcot, and Cole Mercury.” They all shook hands, and Erin walked right up to Myrna and held out her left hand to shake.
“Welcome, when Jim called me, I put my people into action. As I heard Faith tell you, every one of the people, both men and women, who were armed when you arrived are former military. I can get into it later, but you are safe here. Your horse will be too.” She looked between Pedro and Myrna, then introduced herself to Pedro. “I’m Erin Riceman.”
“Pedro Alvarez.”
“Welcome, what can you tell me about the horses?” Tom asked as he and Cole started to unlock the back of the horse trailer.
“My ex-boyfriend’s brother stole Sally from my small plot of land when I was in the hospital.” She pointed to her face, and Pedro felt proud when she lifted her face with no shame for the bruises. “Randy, the ex, did this to me, and put me in the hospital forsix days. When I got out, I went home and found Sally missing. What neither of those assholes know is that I had cameras installed.” She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a flash drive. She handed it to Jim. “I don’t know if you can do anything, because it’s not your jurisdiction.” She shook her head at her cousin. “We can talk later, but that’s why I didn’t contact you when Randy put me in the hospital. Legally, you couldn’t do anything.”
“Is that why you’re here now? Because you are in my jurisdiction now.”
“Yes, and you are the only family I have left.”
“You also have us,” Erin said. “How long was Sally missing?”
“Definitely the six days I was in the hospital, and one of the nurses drove me home. When I found Sally missing, and checked the camera feed, I grabbed my important papers, took my cash I have been hiding from Randy, and went to find Sally.” She looked over at Jim with a shake of her head. “I’ll tell you everything once I know Sally’s safe.” She turned toward the two vets and Erin. “I was in the hospital for six days and it took me another five to get to Gus’s house. Once I was on the outskirts of his property, it took me another four days to get to Sally.” She wrinkled her nose as she turned to the Sheriff. “Gus is a live-off-the-grid type of person. He is extremely paranoid that the government is coming after him, and his land is booby trapped.When Randy was drunk, or extremely buzzed, he would brag about some of the things they did to set those traps.” She tapped the side of her head. “I remembered. Anyway, it was fifteen days before I found Sally, and I rode her away from Gus’s property. We rode for seven days, or rather nights. We stayed hidden during the daylight. Sally picked up a stone, and I’d been leading her for two days before Pedro found us. That’s when I called Jim. Now we’re here.”
“Did Sally get enough food and water after you freed her?” Tom asked.
“I tried to let her eat the grass alongside the road. We stuck to back roads, and we found a pond for her to drink out of. I know she’s in bad shape. She wasn’t like this before she was stolen, trust me on that. I love Sally and treated her like my own child. I would never abuse any animal. I just hope those two assholes didn’t drug her or harm her in any way.”
“We’ll run all types of tests. Plan on her being in quarantine for two or three weeks.” He turned to Pedro. “And your horse?”
Pedro looked around, held up his hand, and went to his truck. He brought the papers back with them, and handed them to Cole. Everyone frowned by that action, but no one said a word when Cole read the papers and jerked his head toward Pedro. He passed the papers to Naomi, and they both looked at him in shock.
“Are you shitting us?” Naomi demanded as she shook the papers at Pedro.
“No.” He looked at them, then Tom, he wouldn’t look at Faith. “When Faith told me about this job at New Double, I talked with you and Cole. I told you I had a horse that I wanted to bring with me.”
“Yes. Is this that horse?” Naomi shook the papers at him.
“Yes, however, when I told you about him, I hadn’t made the sale final yet. It took me a year to find him after I returned from Spain, after my parents passed. When I finally found him, I was in negotiations for six months. The day I left Kentucky I paid for him, got the bill of sale, loaded him in the trailer, and came here.” He rubbed the back of his neck and sighed heavily. “He’s in rough shape, he was beaten, he has scars, and he’s lost a lot of weight. I couldn’t leave him, I knew he would get a new lease on life if I brought him with me.”
“Why are you two so upset?” Erin asked in confusion as she pointed to the papers in Naomi’s hand.
Instead of answering, she told Tom to open the door. They led Sally out of the trailer first, and she was led into the barn. Tom went into the trailer, moved the partition to the side, and led the other horse out. As soon as all four legs were on the ground, Faith let out a small cry of anguish.
“Cocoa,” she whispered, and the horse lifted his head and stared at her. Faith immediately went tohim and stuck her hand out to the abused horse. It took the horse about thirty seconds to lay his chest over her shoulder. With tears streaming down her face, she turned to everyone watching them.
“This is Chocolate Champion. I rode him in his first Triple Crown win.” She turned to Erin. “This is Champ’s grandfather.”
“Damn, is that why you’re shocked at the paperwork?” Erin asked.
“Yes,” Naomi said, and passed it over. “From the looks of him right now, he’ll never race again, but if he’s still a stallion, we can breed him, and his babies could be famous in the racing world.”
“Don’t put him out to pasture yet,” Pedro said as he walked over and laid his hand gently on Chocolate’s neck. “The first thing we need to do is get him tested, and fattened up.”
“Before we take him inside,” Lorissa said, “He needs a bath, along with Sally.”
