Purebred (7 page)

Both dogs were digging now, making whining noises that made it sound as if they were crying. This wasn’t a fun find for them. The dogs were freaked out and, his gut clenching, Aidan was certain he knew why.

When they got to the bottom of the ravine, Aidan felt as if he was experiencing this for the second time.

As if last night’s rain had bloated the creek to overflow its banks and wash away the earth to expose it, a man’s booted foot stuck out of the ground.

Then Cat yelped and jumped off her horse and ran to the dogs, who were digging furiously. Aidan dismounted and joined her, put an arm around her back to support her as they got a better look at what Smokey and Topaz uncovered—a bloated face, skin tinged a green-blue and blistered, tongue protruding, fluid oozing from the mouth and nostrils, maggots eating their way through the side of the dead man’s head where it had been opened by some heavy object.

Cat let out a horrific cry and clung to him. His instinct to protect her made Aidan hold her close as he said a silent prayer for the dead man at their feet.

“I knew it,” she said, her tone ripe with horror. Her fingers dug into the flesh of his arms, as if she needed to anchor herself to him. “I knew something was wrong, but no one believed me.”

“I don’t understand. You recognize the man?”

“This is my missing barn manager.” She choked out the words. “George Odell.”

Chapter
Eight

“He would have been in
a state of deterioration that would have made him unrecognizable if whoever
killed him hadn’t buried him,” Detective Wade Pierce said when they convened
in Cat’s kitchen two hours later. “Three weeks exposed to the air
and—”

“Please. What we saw was
horrific enough,” Aidan said.

Guilt crept up Cat’s spine. Not
the guilt of having sex with a man she hardly knew, but having it within a
hundred yards of a dead man she’d known all her life. She made fists in her
lap as she thought about what they’d been doing when the dogs had made the
initial discovery. Not exactly a way she would have chosen to honor George.
Her eyes stung with unshed tears. She couldn’t have known, of course, but
that didn’t make her feel any better.

All these weeks…she should have
suspected her barn manager was dead…should have investigated herself…should
have found his remains before anything happened between her and Aidan.
Seeing him that way right after having exciting, heart-pounding
sex…

Cat swallowed hard.

She’d thought having sex with
another man would obliterate any memories of Jack from her mind. And now she
didn’t know if she could ever have sex again.

“Who could have done this?” she
whispered.

Pierce said, “Hopefully my men
will get a lead from something in his trailer.”

Sitting across the table from
him, Cat made eye contact with the trim and fit if seasoned detective, who
looked to be in his early fifties by the creases in his face.

“I knew something was wrong when
George disappeared. I made a complaint to your department,” she reminded
Pierce in a forced-steady voice, “but no one would believe me.”

“I remember. I also remember
asking if you knew who had something against him and you didn’t have any
reason to believe there was foul play. Any new thoughts there?”

George’s body had already been
taken to the morgue, though the evidence technicians were still
investigating the burial site. She and Aidan had already told the detective
in detail how they’d found the body. Just not what they’d been doing while
the dogs had been investigating.

She shook her head. “In the past
three weeks, I’ve gone over and over what could have happened to make him
simply vanish. I got nothing. George was a sweetheart and a hard worker and
he kept to himself mostly.”

“What about when he had to deal
with other people? He was your barn manager, after all. What about his
relationship with your other workers?”

Cat didn’t want to believe one
of her farm employees was capable of murder. She met Aidan’s gaze. He gave
her an encouraging nod and placed a reassuring hand over hers.

Biting back the tears she wanted
to shed, Cat said, “He got along with them fine. Mostly.”

“What do you mean by
‘mostly’?”

“Like you said, he was my barn
manager. Sometimes he had to ride a little hard on someone to make sure the
work got done.”

“Ride on who?” Pierce asked.
“The kids?”

“Vincent and Laura? Yeah, sure,
once in a while, but they want to be here. In addition to their wages, they
get to take out the horses on the trails when their work is done, so they
went out of their way to please George.”

“What about your men, Ayala and
Hansen?”

“Raul’s a good worker. Bernie,
too, but he’s young. He didn’t like being bossed around, that’s
all.”

“Any real
altercations?”

“Physical? No, of course not.
Just a few arguments about how Bernie did things. George thought Bernie cut
too many corners.” Unable to sit any longer, Cat got to her feet and moved
to the sink where she turned her back on the men and quickly swiped the
moisture from her eyes. “I would swear George didn’t have an enemy in the
world.”

“Obviously he had one,” Aidan
said.

Cat’s stomach clutched as she
remembered the shocking way they’d discovered the body, the sickening sight
of the bashed-in head. If Aidan hadn’t been there for support, both moral
and physical, she didn’t know how she would have gotten through
this.

Scribbling something in his
notebook, Pierce then turned his gaze on the Irishman. “What about you, Mr.
McKenna? Any thoughts?”

Aidan shrugged. “I didn’t even
know the man. I only arrived here in Illinois yesterday.”

“To what purpose?”

“To race my colt, Mac Finnian.
He’s in the stable now.” Aidan checked his watch. “As a matter of fact,
we’re due at the track to get everything set up for his move there in a
little more than an hour. Should one of us call and reschedule for
tomorrow?”

“I don’t see that’ll be
necessary.” Detective Pierce thought for a moment, then mused, “Odd that you
found the victim at all, considering where he was buried.”

“Cat was simply showing me the
lay of the land. ’Twas the dogs who found him, as we told you,” Aidan said.
“They wouldn’t come to her command, so she went to fetch them or we wouldn’t
have found the body and the man’s whereabouts would still be a
mystery.”

Pierce nodded and put away his
notebook.

“The question is,” Aidan went
on, “where was the man killed? Surely not in the ravine. A convenient place
to bury him, but what would he have been doing out there in the first
place?”

“Well, that would be the
question, wouldn’t it?”

“That didn’t even occur to me.”
Cat didn’t want to consider George might have been killed somewhere on the
farm. “He could have been killed anywhere. Even in town.”

“Quite right.” Pierce got up to
leave. “That’ll be all for now.”

Staring out the kitchen window,
Cat saw Laura and Vincent outside the barn, police officers rushing around
them. Laura was crying and Vincent was trying to console her. He wrapped his
arms around the girl as she sobbed into his chest. His expression told Cat
he was ready to break down himself. She felt sorry for the kids—they were so
young, they couldn’t hide their grief at losing someone to whom they’d been
so close.

“Anything we can do for you,
Detective,” Aidan was saying.

“I want to see what we come up
with—if anything. Then talk to your workers—”

“Not the kids,” Cat said. Laura
was upset enough.

“Everyone. The kids might have
noticed something important. That includes the owners who have their stock
stabled here, by the way. Dean Hill is one of them, right?”

Cat nodded. “He’s here for the
long haul. His horses will be here until after they foal, at least. Martin
Bradley has several mares here, but that’s only until they conceive.” And if
Jack really went through with his plan to give his fiancée the broodmares
he’d taken from her, Martin would undoubtedly want to bring in even more.
“Hershel Miller and Audrey Rockwell have a couple of mares here to be bred,
as well.”

Several new broodmares were
scheduled to come to be covered in the following week. At least she hoped
their owners wouldn’t change their minds—one never knew what damage gossip
would do.

Speaking of damage…Cat couldn’t
believe it when the red truck pulled up outside. Oh, great. Jack. Just what
she needed. Her ex-husband certainly knew how to make an entrance at the
worst times. Had he already heard about George and was here to put in his
two cents? She closed her eyes and collected herself—she wouldn’t let Jack
make her break down in tears. She wouldn’t.

“You never know what they might
have noticed that you didn’t,” Pierce said. “Plus I’m going to do some
asking around town.”

Thinking he should have done
that three weeks ago when she first reported George missing, Cat clenched
her jaw. She didn’t have to like it, but she could see his side of the
matter.

“We’ll talk again,” Pierce
promised. “Soon.”

Cat escorted the detective out
of the house, satisfied that she’d gotten her emotions under control. Aidan
followed close behind her. She wished he would take a step back. If Pierce
noticed how protective he was being, she didn’t want to have to explain
herself. Not that what she did, or with whom, was any of his
business.

Nor was it Jack’s.

Her ex-husband stomped into the
middle of things. “What’s going on here?”

Cat kept her focus on Pierce,
who stopped at his vehicle. “So you’ll keep me informed, right?”

“As much as I can.” He opened
the car door. “Gonna drive over to the trailer. Got a corn that’s
practically killing me.” Pierce jiggled his right foot.

“Hey, I asked a question.” Jack
appeared to be fuming at being ignored. “Detective Pierce?”

Pierce looked from Jack to Cat,
who couldn’t hide her displeasure.

“How well did you know George
Odell?” he asked her ex-husband.

“Well, enough, I guess. I did
live here for more than a year. You still didn’t answer my
question.”

Pierce continued his
interrogation. “How well did you get along with Odell?”

“I don’t form relationships with
the hired help.”

“Because they don’t have money
or influence,” Cat added.

Before Jack could jump on her,
Pierce asked, “Does that mean you didn’t get along?”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re
not telling me something I should know?” Jack demanded.

“George Odell is
dead.”

Jack shrugged. “Too bad, but he
was old, lived a good life.”

Shocked at his attitude, Cat
stared, openmouthed.

Then Aidan said, “He was
murdered.”

Cat glanced at him. His gaze was
glued to her ex-husband.

Jack didn’t react for a moment,
then exploded. “Wait a minute—you don’t think I had anything to do with it?”
He turned a furious expression on Cat. “What have you been telling these
men? Are you trying to get even with me because I left you for another
woman?”

“Your name never even came up,
Jack,” Cat assured him. But maybe it should have. “George disappeared before
I was called back from Ireland to meet you in divorce court.”

“So what?”

“So you took as much as you
could from me. How do I know you weren’t snooping around the farm, seeing
what you could put your hands on? Maybe George caught you and
you—”

“Bitch!” Jack yelled, stepping
toward Cat threateningly.

Aidan got between them. “That’ll
be enough now. Cat doesn’t need you giving her more trouble.”

“Who the hell do you think you
are?”

“A friend of the lass. I would
not threaten her if I were you.”

“All right, all right, let’s
just calm down here,” Pierce said, then turned to Jack. “What about it? Were
you here at Clarke Acres while your ex-wife was in Ireland?”

“She was still my wife
then.”

“Not so as anyone would know
it,” Cat said.

“Were you here?” Pierce
repeated.

“Yeah, once. I had a right to be
here, since we were still married. I didn’t want her trying to put one over
on me in court, so I was checking things out for myself. I figured if she
was out of the country on a buying trip, she had more assets than I
realized. But I didn’t kill George. Never even saw him.”

Only once? Knowing how easily
lies tripped off his lips, Cat would be surprised if that was the
truth.

“Who did you see?” Pierce
asked.

“Bernie. He can vouch for me. I
was only here for half an hour.”

Having expected him to say
Martin Bradley,
Cat started.

“I’ll check with him about it,”
the detective said, getting into his vehicle. “In the meantime, take
McKenna’s advice and back off.”

He headed the car for the other
side of the barn where the trailers were located.

“I would suggest you leave now,”
Aidan told Jack.

“This isn’t your
property!”

Aidan turned to Cat. “Do you
want him here?”

“No. Leave, Jack.
Now.”

Aidan got right up in Jack’s
face. “You heard the lass.”

Cat watched breathlessly to see
what her ex-husband would do. The men engaged in a staring match that seemed
to go on forever. To her satisfaction, Jack looked away first.

“Our business isn’t settled,” he
warned her, as he made for his shiny new red truck.

Cat didn’t bother answering him
lest he warm up to the argument and torture her further.

“Thank you,” she murmured, as
the truck’s wheels spun gravel. Earlier she’d been comparing him to Jack
because of the money issue, but at the moment it seemed they were nothing
alike. Aidan had taken a stand to protect her. “I don’t think I could have
gone another round with him today.”

“At your service,” Aidan said.
“Anytime.”

Cat swallowed hard. Only here
two days, and Aidan had become a complication that she wasn’t sure she
wanted.