Whirlwind (2 page)

Now the mare was gone.

A chorus of honking and clucking announced the arrival of Miss Hahn. Jas stuck the photo back in her pocket. She peered from the stall just as her foster mother strode into the barn, her stiff leg swinging. Trotting after her was an entourage of animals: geese, cats, and chickens. Jas had nicknamed them “the underfoot gang,” because they always got in the way. Old Sam, a German shepherd, and Rose, the farm’s potbellied pig, had been patiently waiting for Jas outside Shadow’s stall. But when they spotted Miss Hahn, they rushed toward her, tails wagging furiously.

“They’re like paparazzi stampeding a celebrity,” Jas said to her foster mother. “All you need is a red carpet and evening gown instead of a dirt floor and overalls.” Her light
mood faded when she saw the solemn look on Miss Hahn’s face.

“Officer Lacey from Animal Control called. We have an emergency,” Miss Hahn said. “The trailer’s hitched and ready. Chase isn’t here yet, and I’d like some help. You still have time before lockdown. How about it?”

As part of her sentence for assaulting Hugh, Jas wore a transmitter around her ankle. It kept track of her whereabouts. She wasn’t allowed to leave the house except for preset times.

“Um …” Jas chewed her bottom lip. While living at the farm, she’d worked with many of the animals that were recovering from abuse. But except for a trip to a horse auction, she’d never been on an actual rescue, although she’d heard the gut-wrenching stories from Chase and the other volunteers.

“It’s your choice,” Miss Hahn said. “Not everyone has the interest—or the stomach.”

“I’ll go,” Jas said. “Rescuing is important, and I want to help.”

“Good. Grab a halter, a lead line, and a bucket of oats. I’ll let Officer Lacey know we’re on our way.” Without waiting for a reply, Miss Hahn strode from the barn.

Jas patted Shadow. “Don’t think for a
minute this means no ride today. It’ll just have to wait until this afternoon.” She gave him one more swipe with the brush, then laid her cheek against his sleek neck. Oh, how she loved this horse. Thank heavens she hadn’t lost him, too.

“Jas, I’ll meet you in the truck!” Miss Hahn’s voice rang from the office trailer. Hastily, Jas picked up the grooming box. When she opened the stall door, Sam leaped to his feet. Rose waddled after her to the supply room, grunting excitedly.

“You’re on a diet. Vegetables only, remember?” Jas said as she unbolted the pig-proof latch on the door. Rose squealed, her eyes barely visible in her folds of fat. Ignoring the pig’s demands, Jas slipped inside. She grabbed a halter and lead rope and dumped a cup of oats into a bucket. When Jas opened the door again, Rose stomped her stubby legs and cried, “Feed me, feed me, FEED ME!”

Jas sprinkled a few oats on the dirt floor before hurrying from the barn. Mr. Muggins, a new volunteer, was tossing cracked corn to the geese. Earl the rooster strutted around his legs.

Jas waved to Mr. Muggins as she crossed the stable yard. The area around the barns and
office was fenced with woven mesh to keep the underfoot gang and other animals safely contained. But the dogs were allowed out the gate. Jas shut it securely behind Sam and wound around the pass-through built into a board fence, which circled the yard and the house. Miss Hahn was waiting in the pickup.

Four more farm dogs met her at the back door of the house. She let all five inside the kitchen, found her baseball cap, and ran to the truck. She stuck the bucket into the truck bed, slid into the passenger’s seat, and shut the door. Tucking her light brown hair behind her ears, she put on the cap.

“Here’s the situation,” Miss Hahn said as she drove down the rutted drive. “Planner’s Bank foreclosed on a small farm about five miles from here. The place was owned by a man convicted of making and selling meth. When he landed in jail, his wife couldn’t make the mortgage payments. Two weeks ago, she took off. Yesterday the bank’s loan officer inspected the property and discovered a horse behind the house. It was in a small paddock with no shelter, food, or water.”

Jas blinked in disbelief. “She just left it?”

“Abandoned it without a thought. Like it
was a piece of trash or a sofa. I take that back—she
took
the sofa.”

“What condition is it in?”

“Officer Lacey’s exact words were ‘it brought tears to my eyes,’ and he’s seen some grim situations.”

Jas’s stomach knotted. Maybe coming was a mistake.

Miss Hahn turned off the main road onto a dirt lane. “I haven’t been back here for years,” she said. “Sure is run-down. Though not much worse than our place,” she admitted as the truck bumped down the lane, which wound through cedars and locust to a brick ranch house. “Hay prices are sky-high because of the drought. That doesn’t leave much for maintenance.” She gave a worried sigh. “I’ll be glad when your grandfather moves in to help.”

She pulled the trailer around a loop and parked under an oak. Jas rolled down the window. The place was eerily silent.

“We must have beat Officer Lacey here,” Miss Hahn said. “He’s bringing permission from the bank to remove the horse.” Draping one arm on the back of the seat, she faced Jas, her mouth set in a line.

“While we’re waiting, I have some news.” Miss Hahn’s gaze darted to the windshield.

Jas tensed. Her foster mother’s hesitation signaled one thing:
bad
news.

“Mr. Jenkins called. He’s the president of the company that insured Hugh’s horses. The company’s lawyers are putting together a case against Hugh for insurance fraud. As expected, Hugh’s hired a big-name defense lawyer. It’s going to be tough to nail him.”

Jas gripped the halter, too angry to speak. Whirlwind
was
gone—but Hugh hadn’t killed her. The dead horse in the paddock had been a look-alike that Hugh had poisoned. Then he’d claimed it was Whirlwind in order to collect the insurance money.

It had only been a week ago, during an unexpected encounter with Hugh, that Jas had discovered the truth.

Whirlwind’s not dead, is she? You killed another horse, a ringer. Then you sold her to someone else
.

That’s right, Jas. It took me a while to find Whirlwind’s twin. But I obviously did a good job, since even you never suspected it wasn’t her lying dead in that paddock
.

You’re evil, Hugh. You may not have killed Whirlwind, but you killed a horse and then made it look like it was Grandfather’s fault. And for what?

Money
, Jas thought bitterly. The insurance company had paid Hugh $50,000 for a dead horse they thought was Whirlwind.

“Unfortunately, since they have no proof the mare is alive, Mr. Jenkins says the company can’t pursue a case against Hugh for Whirlwind,” Miss Hahn said, breaking into Jas’s thoughts.

“Unless I can find her,” Jas said.

A rumble of tires signaled the arrival of Officer Lacey.

“How?” Miss Hahn asked as she opened the truck door. “Hugh’s too smart to tell anybody where she is, which means the odds of locating her aren’t good. I’m sorry, Jas.” Before climbing out of the truck, Miss Hahn asked, “Are you okay?”

Jas nodded, although she
wasn’t
okay. That day when she’d been alone with Hugh, he’d confessed that Whirlwind was alive. But it was only her word against his. When the insurance company took him to court, he would admit nothing. That meant she had to find
Whirlwind. Finding her alive would be solid proof that Hugh had committed insurance fraud.

Jas pictured Hugh’s arrogant, mocking face.
You’ll never find her, Jas. Never
.

“Only I
will
find her,” she whispered fiercely. Then a thought made her shiver. Hugh would be determined to keep her from finding Whirlwind. How determined?
Ruthlessly determined
. After all, he’d already murdered two horses.

NOT ONLY HAD HUGH KILLED WHIRLWIND’S
twin, but he’d also murdered a second horse.

Five years ago, Hugh had killed a horse that was a look-alike for his talented jumper, a Dutch Warmblood named Aladdin, and had collected $30,000 in insurance money. Then he’d sold the real Aladdin for big money. When Aladdin had gotten sick and was no longer able to perform, he’d ended up at a killer auction. That’s where Jas had found the skinny, listless horse she’d named Shadow. She had saved him and later discovered he was Aladdin. Now she needed to save Whirlwind.

However, Jas knew the odds of finding the mare weren’t good. And Hugh would be determined to stop her. But giving up was
not
an option.

Jas bolted from the truck, her heart pound
ing. She caught up to Miss Hahn and Officer Lacey as they walked around the house to the trash-littered backyard. A tumbledown garage, its open double doors sagging, was the lone building behind the house. She followed them to a dirt pen fenced in by rusted barbed wire and stacked packing crates.

An animal stood in the middle of the pen. Jas stared, not sure if it was a horse or simply the skeleton of a horse. Its hip bones, spine, and ribs seemed held together only by its hide.

“I don’t know how long it’s been without food and water,” Officer Lacey said. “But the poor thing has eaten the bark off every tree and started peeling wood from the crates.”

At the sound of his voice, the horse turned its head. It was covered with sores. Flies rose from its body in a black, buzzing cloud.

“Oh, sweet heaven,” Miss Hahn murmured.

Bile rose in Jas’s throat. She thrust the halter at Miss Hahn. Clapping her hand over her mouth, she ran to the front of the garage. She grimaced, glad that Chase hadn’t come along. He’d be razzing her big-time about being so squeamish.

Jas vowed that this time she
would
handle
it. Dropping her hands, she took deep breaths. Her stomach quit churning. Behind her, something rattled. She peered into the garage, but it was too dark to see. Again she heard the sound.
A skunk? Raccoon?

Whatever it was, it was dragging something metal—like a chain. She peered closer and heard a whimper.

A dog
. Whirling, Jas ran to the truck. Reaching through the open window, she pulled a flashlight from the glove box and raced back. Several feet from the garage, she slowed. If it was a dog, she didn’t want to scare it to death. Flicking on the light, she shined it toward the back.

The beam bounced off a small shaggy dog, which trembled from head to tail. “Oh, sweet heaven,” Jas repeated Miss Hahn’s words. The family hadn’t just abandoned a horse.

Jas stepped into the shadows. A chain large enough to hold a Great Dane was attached to the dog’s neck. An empty bowl sat beside it. Another chain and empty bowl lay in the dirt as if a second dog had once been tied there. The whole place stunk.

Jas crouched. Maybe if she made herself smaller, the dog wouldn’t be so frightened.
“Hello,” she said softly. The dog glanced away, submissive.

“Will you let me take the chain off your neck? Would you like some water?” She duck-walked closer and was encouraged when the dog didn’t crawl away. “I bet you’d like to come with me to Second Chance Farm. There you’d have plenty of food and friends. The farm helped me when I was all alone.” She reached out her hand, but the dog slunk away. Sitting back on her heels, Jas patiently waited. As she gave it time to get used to her, her mind drifted.

When she first thought that Hugh had killed Whirlwind, she’d been lost in anger. It had taken her weeks to trust anyone at her new foster home. She had finally learned to trust Chase, a volunteer who was about her age. He’d helped her figure out the insurance scam that Hugh had pulled, when he’d switched the look-alike with Aladdin. Fortunately, they’d dug up enough evidence so at least the lawyers were charging Hugh with one count of fraud. Now, if she could only find—

A wet tongue licked Jas’s knuckles. Startled, she glanced down. The little dog had crawled beside her. It pressed itself against her knee as if desperate for her touch.

Gently she stroked its back, the fur tangled and gritty. Its tail thumped. “So you’ve decided to trust me?” Her fingers found the chain, which had rubbed its neck raw. “I can’t believe someone did this to you.” She undid the chain and let it drop. Only she
did
believe it. Hugh had shown her how cruel people could be to animals.

Moving slowly, Jas wrapped her arms around the dog and held its quivering body to her chest. When she stood and walked into the sunlight, it hid its muzzle in the crook of her arm.

She carried it around the garage to the makeshift paddock. Miss Hahn was smearing something on the horse’s sores. Officer Lacey was feeding him a handful of hay. Jas was glad to see him chewing hungrily.

She’d learned that an animal suffering from malnutrition had to be gradually reintroduced to food. Starvation messed up the animal’s digestive system. Horses given too much feed too fast could colic, founder, or die. “How’s he doing?” she asked.

“He’s young,” Miss Hahn said. “So I think he’ll be okay. What’s that you’re holding?”

“A dog I found tied in the garage.” Jas wrinkled her nose. “It’s filthy, skinny, and scared.”

“Officer Lacey,” Miss Hahn said. “Do we need the bank’s permission to take an abandoned dog to Second Chance Farm?”