The Chase (29 page)

Kendall nodded. “Yes, she’s been very reliable. I just can’t understand why she hasn’t at least called. Anyway, if she doesn’t show up soon, I don’t know what I’m going to do. Unless you’re willing to bend the rules and let me take the kids on the field trip without an assistant.”

Margaret pursed her lips and shook her head. “I can’t, Kendall. Our insurance company requires that two chaperones accompany the children on all outings.”

“I don’t suppose there’s any way you could come along, is there?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t. I’ve got customers coming to look at a horse this afternoon. I need to be here for that.”

Kendall tried to think of an alternative. “Does it have to be an employee, or could I see if I can get one of the parents to come along?”

“As I recall, I think insurance dictates that it be an employee.” Margaret looked at her watch. “I can call my insurance agent and confirm that with her, but I doubt she’d be in the office yet.”

Kendall closed her eyes and rubbed her throbbing temples. “Never mind. By the time you reach her, and I try to get a parent to join us, it will put us too far behind schedule. If we’re not at the Land of Little Horses by eleven-thirty, we’ll lose our spot.”

Margaret held her finger to her lips. “I’m just trying to think whether I have someone from the barn staff I could spare for the day.”

“What about Todd? He knows the kids, and he was really good with them when he came along on our field trip to the kennels.”

Margaret hesitated. “I don’t know. He’s mighty young.”

“He’s about the same age as Elizabeth. Besides, that’s probably one of the reasons the kids like him.”

Margaret nodded. “All right. If you’re comfortable with having Todd as your assistant, that’s fine with me.”

Kendall reached for the doorknob. “Thank you, Margaret.”

“Kendall, please wait a moment.”

She turned around.

“Something has been bothering me since last evening, and I want to get it off my chest.”

“What’s that?”

Margaret drew Kendall to the couch. “I know your love life isn’t any of my business, but I feel the need to speak my mind.”

“Okay.” Kendall’s stomach cramped into a knot as she sat down.
Was this about Jake?

“I don’t trust Stephen Lloyd, Kendall,” Margaret said in a tight tone. “I’m sorry I encouraged you to go out with him.”

Kendall’s breath escaped in a rush. “Margaret, I have no romantic interest in Stephen. It was a mistake for me to go to the polo match with him last night.”

“Oh, thank goodness.” Margaret held her hand to her chest. “He was so obviously smitten with you last evening, I feared the feeling was mutual.”

“Hardly. There’s definitely no attraction there. At least not on my part.” Kendall shuddered at the memory of Stephen’s arm around her waist.

“Good,” Margaret said. “Because I think he’s a phony.”

“A phony? In what way?”

“Well, first of all, I don’t believe he’s from Aiken, but if he is, I don’t think he plays polo there.”

Kendall frowned at her. “Really? Why?”

“I first became suspicious when Stephen said he has a three handicap. If he’s that good, why would he want to board his polo ponies at my barn? That would be like you boarding Wellington at a polo barn. That’s why I asked him whether his handicap was on grass or in the arena. Remember? And he told me he only played arena polo?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I’ve never heard of anyone playing arena polo in Aiken.”

“Why would he lie about that?”

Margaret raised an eyebrow. “Who knows? Maybe he’s just trying to make an impression. But I wouldn’t be surprised if, when Stephen’s cast comes off, we learn he can’t play polo worth a lick.”

Kendall laughed. “Maybe Stephen did exaggerate his handicap, but I thought he seemed pretty knowledgeable about the sport.”

“I disagree. Remember when Stephen said as soon as he got his cast off he’d be putting his breeches on?
Polo players don’t wear breeches
. They wear white jeans. And they refer to them as whites.” She shook her head. “Then there was that baloney about being a left-handed player.”

Kendall remembered Stephen bragging about playing left-handed. “I’ve never seen anyone play left-handed. Is it extremely difficult?”

“Difficult? You’ve never seen anyone play left-handed because it’s strictly prohibited under the rules.”

Z
elda took a deep breath as she steered the bus through the gates of Fox Run Farm.

“This is it,” she said, exhaling slowly.

She was relieved to see that everything looked just as Zach had described it, and her racing heart began to slow as she braked to a stop across the parking lot from the office door. She didn’t see signs of a guard around, but she figured he was in the barn watching over the Cummings kid. In fact, no one was outside, but she opened the bus door anyway, just like Zach had told her to.

As she waited, Zelda’s eyes roamed the farm, taking in the beige wood-and-stone buildings surrounded by neatly trimmed grass; the horses grazing behind black wooden fencing; and the dozen or so expensive-looking cars and SUVs in the parking lot. A manure spreader hooked up to a John Deere tractor was parked in front of the nearby entrance to the barn.

A breeze kicked up a whirlwind of dust in the gravel drive, sending a strong whiff of fresh manure and urine-soaked bedding through the open door of the bus, and Zelda was flooded with memories of the summer she’d spent mucking stalls at Charles Town Racetrack. Even now, sixteen years later, she felt sick to her stomach just thinking back to what had started out as the best, and ended up as the worst, summer of her life.

Earl had taken a job driving for a truck transport company that summer and was on the road all the time, so when she’d heard they were looking for workers at the racetrack, no experience required, she had decided to give it a try. She figured anything would be better than staying at home without Earl and working the shitty job she had waitressing at Moe’s Diner.

She’d found out quick enough that mucking stalls was backbreaking work, and she hadn’t been crazy about getting up before the crack of dawn every day, but the pay was good, and she liked hanging out at the backside and going drinking at the Winner’s Circle lounge after work with the other stable hands. She especially liked hanging out there on race days, when the trainers came in. It had been a race day when she’d met Gatsby.

Zelda closed her eyes for an instant and pictured the way Gatsby had looked the first night she’d seen him at the lounge. She had noticed him talking with some other trainers near the bar, and she could tell right off he’d been partying for a while. His blond hair was all mussed up, his necktie was cockeyed, and half of his shirttail was untucked from his khaki pants. His face was too thin to be called handsome, but there was something sexy about him. It was his eyes, she decided. All blue and shimmering, like those pictures she’d seen of the ocean in Hawaii.

She asked a friend who knew him to introduce her, and when Gatsby had learned her name, he’d held both hands over his heart and said that at last fate had delivered his true love. She hadn’t understood what he was talking about, but he had laughed and told her Gatsby wasn’t his real name, just a nickname based on some famous novel written by a guy whose wife was named Zelda.

Zelda had gone home with Gatsby that night, and most every night after that for the next couple of weeks. Then one day he’d come to the track half-drunk and all pissed off, and told her he had to ship his horses back home for a while. Something about his mother pulling the plug on his bank account. He told her he’d stay in touch, but he never did, and by the time Zelda found out she was pregnant with Zach, Gatsby was nowhere to be found.

The office door opened and Zelda shook her head to clear her thoughts. There was no sense in thinking back to that summer. She was with Earl again now, and that was all that mattered.

Z
elda watched a group of young girls burst out of the office, carrying lunch boxes and backpacks. They were followed by a tall brown-haired woman, wearing khaki shorts, a black polo shirt, and sneakers, who carried an armful of blankets and a picnic basket. Zelda figured the woman was the camp counselor, Kendall. She wasn’t bad-looking, if you went for the too thin, flat-chested model look.

The woman left the office door open, and a minute later Zach appeared in the doorway, shouldering a large ice chest. He turned to wave at someone inside, then closed the door and followed the woman and girls towards the bus.

“So far, so good,” Zelda said.

The little girls arrived first, and Zelda counted heads as they climbed aboard the bus, trying to single out Samantha Cummings. There was one blond girl wearing a pink T-shirt who might be her, but Zelda couldn’t tell for certain. She hadn’t seen the kid in over three months, and at that age they grew like weeds.

Zelda frowned as the last kid walked down the aisle, and she turned to count them again quickly.
There were only seven kids on the bus
. There were supposed to be eight.

She whipped her head back around and searched the parking lot, but there wasn’t another kid in sight. Just Zach and the woman. The woman reached for the railing and raised her eyes to Zelda as she stepped into the bus.

“Hello,” she said, frowning slightly. “Where’s Mrs. Parker?”

Zelda flashed a smile. “I’m substituting for her today.”

“No one told me about that,” the woman said, a tight-lipped look of annoyance clouding her face.

“It was last-minute. She took sick overnight. She called me all frantic this morning, asking if I’d substitute drive for her. I’m Connie, by the way. Connie White.”

“Hi, Connie, I’m Kendall. I’m the camp counselor.” She half turned and motioned behind her towards Zach. “And this is Todd. He’s going to be my assistant today.”

“Nice to meet you both,” Zelda said. “We better get on the road if we want to keep to the schedule. I don’t go over the speed limit, so if we’re behind schedule, we’re just going to get there late.”

Kendall studied her for a moment. “You know, I think I should just go check with the farm’s owner to make sure she’s all right with the substitution.”

Zelda’s heart raced, but she forced her voice to be cool. “You suit yourself on that one. You’re the one knows when you have to be there. I’m happy to show you my driver’s license, if that would make you feel better.”

Kendall glanced at her watch. “Sure, I guess that would be okay.”

Zelda reached above the visor for her fake driver’s license and handed it to Kendall. “Mrs. Parker told me I was supposed to drive eight kids today. I only see seven.”

“One of the girls is sick today,” Kendall replied, studying the license.

“That’s too bad.” Zelda shot a questioning look at Zach. “Wonder if it’s the same bug that Mrs. Parker has.”

Kendall handed the license back to her. “I don’t know, but something must be going around, because my regular assistant didn’t show up today, either. Thankfully, Todd agreed to come along.”

Kendall looked at Zach, who gave her a shy smile and said, “I’m honored you asked me, Miss Waters.”

Oh please
, Zelda thought.
Where had the kid learned to act like that?

Kendall moved past Zelda and headed down the aisle, taking a seat in the fourth row, right in front of the kids. She placed the picnic basket on the seat in front of her. As Zach drew close to Zelda, he leaned down and said, “The Cummings kid is the one missing.”

Zelda stared wide-eyed at him. “Now what?”

Zach shrugged and followed Kendall down the aisle.

Shit! With or without Samantha Cummings, they couldn’t turn back now
. Zelda pulled the lever that closed the bus door and put the bus in drive.

“I’ve got a couple of rules that I want everybody to listen up to,” she said as she eased up on the brake and headed slowly out the drive, working hard to imitate what a bus driver would say. “I want everybody to have fun today, but I don’t tolerate no screaming and hollering on my bus. So you just keep your voices down, and we’ll do just fine together. Everybody understand?”