Purebred (16 page)

* * *

H
ER
MIND
WAS
GOING
IN
circles as she checked on all the horses. She kept trying to focus, but her thoughts kept wandering back to the cemetery. To finding George. To imagining what horror Helen must have felt when she’d been euthanized like an animal.

She shuddered. Would the nightmare never end? Dread filled her but she continued working, hurrying to finish. Hurrying to put distance between her and whatever was frightening her.

Then she tried hurrying from the barn, from the invisible threat that frightened her, but a sharp pain in her back stopped her cold. Her legs gave out and she fell facedown on the stable floor. She lay there, unable to move, her thoughts hazy. A commotion from nearby told her one of the horses was in danger.

Hooves crashed against stall boards, followed by an almost human scream…

The scream carried into real time…one of the horses…

Aidan nearly fell off the couch in his hurry to check on Cat. He didn’t take a breath until he saw her there, safe in her bed. Though she was sleeping, she must have been dreaming, as well, for she thrashed…settled…thrashed some more.

What nightmares plagued
her
sleep?

He wanted in the worst way to slip into bed with her and take her in his arms…to comfort her…to love her.

Instead, he shook away his own longing and entered the office farther down the hall to check the monitors hooked up to the cameras in the barn. The barn was dark as it had been last time he’d checked, so there was nothing to see. That horse’s scream had been all in his head. Nothing going on there. He could barely make out the movement of a few restless horses.

Disappointed for multiple reasons, he returned to the couch. This wasn’t about what
he
wanted; it was about keeping Cat safe from Sheelin’s damn curse.

If only he could get her to believe.

Then he could warn her, tell her about the dream that was so like the first one he’d had. Similar but different. Some things had changed—time of day, sensory details—but in the end she was drugged, as she had been in the first dream. Could he still be mixing up the danger to Cat with what had happened to the vet?

He shook his head. It was all too fuzzy, too unspecific. Cat would never believe him. Even if she did, what did he expect her to do? Walk away from her business? Go somewhere to hide until the killer was caught?

If she would do it, he would go with her.

And then a plan took shape in his mind.

If Cashel weren’t so far off in Ireland, Aidan would call his older brother and tell him what he decided he had to do to protect Cat.

For a moment, he considered his options.

Tiernan was far away, as well, but South Dakota wasn’t “Ireland” far. He could catch a flight and be here by end of day tomorrow. The youngest McKenna brother had worked with the business until two years ago, and he’d helped train Mac when the colt had been a yearling. Tiernan could represent McKenna Racing and take over for him as Mac’s trainer for the upcoming stakes race.

Tiernan had fought the curse and won. He and Ella were happily married. Once Aidan told him what was happening, Tiernan would surely agree to do whatever he could to help.

Aidan checked the time. Hours before dawn. Earlier in South Dakota. Too early to call and wake his brother. He would wait for a decent hour. Tiernan would need his sleep to have his wits about him.

In the meantime, Aidan would get things in order. Leaving a police officer to guard Cat again during the day, he would go to the racetrack for the morning training session, after which he would make the call. And then at last he would hire a jockey. Once Tiernan arrived, Aidan would kidnap Cat if necessary, and take her somewhere the murderer could never find her.

She might hate him for it, but at least she would be alive.

Chapter Eighteen

By the time Cat awoke, sometime before noon, Aidan had left for the track. In his place on the couch was a different police officer than the one who’d shadowed her the day before. Stretched out, glued to a televised news show, he barely seemed to notice she was up and about. One glance at her and his gaze returned to his program.

Going about her business, Cat caught a quick lunch, fed the dogs, then headed out for the barn.

“I’m getting to work now,” she called back to him.

Had he even noticed she’d left?

The dogs went off on their daily rounds and she entered the barn. Not having some stranger trailing her around, asking questions and getting queasy watching her work as had happened the morning before was a relief. She could get more work done if she didn’t have to explain herself every few minutes.

As she began with Dean’s mares, she found it hard to tell whether or not Fairy Tail had conceived. If not, Dean would be disappointed that his streak had ended. Diamond Dame was looking good, but it was too soon for Cat to tell if the mare had taken. Be My Valentine, the mare she’d bred the day before, seemed a little skittish this morning. Reminded of the way Fairy Tail had acted the night after being bred, Cat checked Valentine over thoroughly but found no reason to be concerned.

Her restless night had her jumping out of bed nearly every hour to check the monitors in her office, only to see nothing. The barn had remained dark. Apparently nothing untoward had gone on here last night. Nothing to worry her.

Thinking that she—and the horses—were all safe, Cat nearly jumped out of her skin when she left Valentine’s stall only to run into Bernie, who held a mucking shovel in hand.

Heart thumping, she asked, “Why didn’t you say something? You could scare someone to death.”

“Sorry. I was just trying to do my job.” As if to prove it, he entered the stall on the opposite side of the aisle.

He sounded out of sorts. Remembering her conversation with Vincent, Cat asked, “Something troubling you?”

Bernie merely grunted in return and heaved a shovelful of manure into the wheelbarrow he’d left in the aisle.

“I understand your uncle has been riding you.”

“My uncle?”

“Martin Bradley is your uncle, right?”

That stopped him dead. “Uh, yeah. How did you find out?”

“I didn’t know it was supposed to be a secret.”

“Well, it’s not. I just thought you might not hire me if you knew I was related to your best client.”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“I don’t know.”

Realizing he sounded irritated, Cat tried again. “So was the argument at the cemetery something serious?”

Bernie stared at her, openmouthed, his eyes widening slightly. “No, of course not. Uncle Martin just likes to run things his way.”

Did he mean personally or here at the farm? Cat chose not to ask.

“Just remember that I’m your employer, and I haven’t had any complaints about your work. I think you do a great job around here.”

Flushing, Bernie looked away from her, mumbling, “Thanks.”

Was he embarrassed by the compliment or because he was doing something he shouldn’t…something his uncle had asked him to do?

“Sometimes you just need someone to talk to, Bernie. I’m a pretty good listener.”

His grunting in response and hefting another shovelful of manure to the wheelbarrow ended the conversation in Cat’s mind. It opened another flood of questions—like whether or not she ought to be working in the barn with Bernie and no other witnesses. Maybe she should go back to the house and remind the cop of why he was there.

But as she approached the open doors, she saw him sitting beneath a tree between house and barn. So he was on the job, after all, if not willing to spend his time in the barn looking over her shoulder. That suited her just fine.

She switched aisles and checked on Martin’s horses next. Another few days and she should know whether or not Sweetpea Sue was pregnant. She hoped so. Martin seemed to be losing faith in her because his other mares hadn’t conceived with the first cover. He seemed a little desperate. What was that about, and what was he asking Bernie to do that had caused an argument at the cemetery? Bernie had been anything but forthcoming, which made her decidedly uneasy.

About to take care of her own horses—they could all use some time out in the pasture, and so she headed for the back aisle to open the gate—Cat realized Raul had entered the barn and was preparing buckets of feed. Looking decidedly unhappy, he left what he was doing to talk to her.

“Miss Clarke, Placido called me, said you’re not giving him the ride in the stakes race.”

Certain that Aidan had good reason to eliminate Raul’s brother—after finding the matches from Fernando’s Hideaway and then seeing the jockey there and learning their other brother owned the place, Cat didn’t trust him much herself—she said, “The decision wasn’t up to me.”

“Mr. McKenna hired someone named Tim Browne to ride Mac Finnian.”

Unable to hide her surprise, she started. “The hotwalker?”

“That’s what my brother said. What kind of craziness is this? It’s not right, Miss Clarke. Even if this guy got his jockey’s license, what does anyone know about him? Placido earned his ranking at the track. He deserves the chance. Not some wannabe jockey hotwalker. Can’t you talk to Mr. McKenna, get him to change his mind?”

“Indeed I will speak with Aidan about it.” Not that she would recommend Placido. “You know he has the final say as to who rides Mac Finnian. He is the trainer.”

“But you’re the backer,” Raul argued. “He wouldn’t be here without you.”

At the cemetery, Aidan had said Tim Browne was more than a backstretch worker, but he’d never explained that he was a jockey. In the meantime, she didn’t want bad feelings with Raul, so she tried to smooth things over.

“I’ll let you know if Aidan will reconsider.”

Scowling, Raul nodded and went back to his feed. Cat realized Bernie was just bringing his empty wheelbarrow back inside and probably had overheard their exchange.

She opened the pasture gate, then made for the center aisle and her horses. Just before she reached the first stall, something underfoot crunched. She looked down to see what she’d stepped on. It looked like broken glass. Stooping, she carefully picked up several of the pieces—thin and strawlike. Her heart began to pound.

Just then, she realized Bernie was standing a short way off and staring.

“Broken glass,” she said, forcing herself to stay calm. “Do you know anything about this?”

“Me? No!”

Her employees knew better than to bring glass into the barn.

Especially this type of glass.

Not knowing what else to do, she scooped it up with gloved hands and threw it in the trash. Though she scoured the barn floor, she didn’t find more glass.

Looking back, she realized Bernie had disappeared.

Cat stood there a moment, trying to decide what to do.

How could she go on, acting like this was just another day? That’s what she’d been trying to do since learning George had been murdered. She’d been putting one foot in front of the other, continuing on with her business and her life as if nothing had happened.

As if Helen hadn’t been put down like an animal.

As if she herself hadn’t been knocked out.

And now this.

How could she trust anyone associated with her own barn?

Realizing what she’d just done, she bent over the trash and got a hand on some of that broken glass, scooped it back up and carried it with her to the house where she found a plastic bag, dropped in the shards, put the small bundle into her shoulder bag, threw the gloves on the sink and left.

“Where are you headed?” the cop asked as she made for her vehicle.

He was on his feet, apparently ready to go with her.

“Racetrack,” she said.

“Hey, I’m willing. I got a couple of extra twenties in my wallet.”

Upset by his casual tone and the big grin, she got into the SUV. “If you want to bet on some races, take your own car!”

Cat needed to find Aidan to tell him about what she’d found. She roared off the property and focused on getting to the track’s backstretch as fast as she could. She made it in eleven minutes flat.

After parking in back of the shedrow, Cat ran for Mac’s stall. No colt. No Aidan. Being that the track was in the midst of its late-afternoon races, they might be at the practice track. To be certain, she decided to call to find out. She’d barely pulled the phone from her pocket when she heard the Irish lilt.

“C’mon, boyo, you and me are going to become best friends.”

She turned to see Tim Browne leading the black colt back to his stall. “Excuse me, but where can I find Aidan?”

“He left for the airport ten minutes ago.”

“Airport?”

“Aye. His brother is flying in and Aidan went to fetch him.”

Cashel was in from Ireland? What was going on? Why hadn’t Aidan told her? Feeling her adrenaline deflate, Cat turned to go back to her vehicle. What did she do now?

“Miss Clarke, if you can spare a moment…”

Though impatient, Cat waited to see what he wanted. He put Mac into his stall and gave the colt a peppermint, then turned his attention to her.

“I promise you, I will put my all into making Mac Finnian into the champion he deserves to be.”

“I certainly hope so.” She couldn’t keep a tiny note of uncertainty from her tone. “I thought you were a hotwalker.”

“No need to fret, I have my jockey’s license. Everything is legal. I have been a jockey for more than a decade. I took the hotwalker job simply to be at this track when McKenna brought the colt in from Galway.”

“You took that kind of a chance so you could convince Aidan to let you ride Mac Finnian?”

“’Twasn’t my idea at all. Truthfully, I was surprised when he asked me to do it this morning. I came to America simply to see what kind of trainer Aidan McKenna really was.”

“I don’t understand.”

“If he hasn’t said anything yet, I suppose he will, so no harm in telling you that Pegeen Flynn was my half sister. I was laid up in Australia when her horse broke down under her. I had to be certain her death was not on McKenna’s head.”

Cat’s breath caught in her throat. “Pegeen…she was a jockey?”

He nodded. “My influence, I fear. And when she met McKenna, she lost all sense of care for her own safety. She was so determined to win for him.”

It dawned on Cat. “They had a personal relationship.”

“Indeed, they were in love. McKenna still carries guilt on his shoulders for her death.”

Her stomach knotted at his words and she could only listen in shock.

“I have seen him at work these last days,” Browne went on. “One of the best trainers I’ve ever known. He would never take a chance with someone’s life. ’Twas my sister’s own stubbornness on having the ride despite McKenna’s warning that killed her.”

“There was something wrong with the horse?”

He shook his head. “Considering the short time you have worked together, I guess you would not know everything about your business partner. Aidan McKenna has the sight. He saw the accident to come and did his best to talk Pegeen off the horse. My sister was the down-to-earth one in the family. No sense of whimsy or of anything she couldn’t see or touch. She never even believed talk of fairy creatures when she was a wee lass. McKenna warned her, but she did not believe him.”

As he spoke, Cat went cold inside. Aidan loved another woman. A dead woman. He hadn’t told her about Pegeen. He hadn’t told her about Tim Browne, either. He hadn’t told her that his brother was flying in. He certainly hadn’t told her about having the sight.

Would she have believed him? She might have allowed his claim to having a psychic connection with Mac, but she’d scoffed at the idea of a love curse.

She remembered the end of that conversation with him:

“But no one died.”

“Not that time, because Da avoided the curse.”

What other time was he referring to?

She still wondered about that “other time.” Did Aidan think he’d brought this curse down on Pegeen?

What else hadn’t Aidan told her?

Shaken to her core, Cat backed away. “I’m sorry for your loss,” she whispered, and then fled the scene.

Somehow, she got herself back to the farm in one piece. Aidan wasn’t there, of course. He was at the airport. When had he been planning to tell her about Cashel flying in from Ireland?

Had he ever planned on telling her the woman he loved had died for him?

* * *

A
IDAN
DROVE
HIS
BROTHER
Tiernan and sister-in-law Ella first to the track, where he gave them a quick tour and got Tiernan to sign his paperwork so that he could be recognized as a trainer for McKenna Racing. Before leaving, he introduced his brother to Nadim and Tim Browne.

After which he drove to a car rental company and then led the way to a chain motel on the main road between the track and town.