Chapter 15
Myrna looked up when Pedro walked into the kitchen the next morning, and she lifted the spatula and waved it around. “So?” she asked with a smirk.
Pedro didn’t answer until he filled his coffee cup and took a couple of sips. “I don’t think I moved all night.”
“You didn’t,” she giggled. They had made love the night before, and fallen asleep in her bed.
When she had woken earlier, he was still in the same position he had been in when they’d snuggled afterward.
She had shaken him awake, and told him she was heading to the shower, then she would start breakfast, he had only groaned at her.
She showered, dressed, and shook him again to wake him before she came out to the kitchen.
To make sure he woke, she’d gripped the blankets and pulled them off him as she left the bedroom, laughing as he groaned harder.
“I’m going to apologize to you every single day for the rest of my life for getting mad when you returned to your bed after we made love the first time.
If you ever need to purchase another mattress like that, I will go in on half of it.
” He sipped his coffee, then grinned at her.
“It was great.” They laughed together and he saw what she was cooking, and automatically started making toast.
“I thought an omelet would be filling. I know we have to meet Agent Wilson at eleven, but it’s a three-hour drive from here to my old place.
I don’t know if we’ll stop for lunch or not.
I do know that there’s nothing to eat at my house, and if there is, then it’s going to have to be thrown out.
” At his confused look, she elaborated. “I’ve been here for almost five weeks, before that I was in the hospital for two, and it took me a week to get from Gus’s home to where you found me.
That’s two months of food rotting in my refrigerator. ”
“Oh, yeah, that will be bad.” He shuddered as he buttered the toast, and they ate while making small talk, and after they did the dishes, they went to their respective rooms and packed a bag with enough clothes for a week.
When they met back at the living room, Myrna went to the kitchen and fixed some sandwiches to take with them.
By nine, they left the bunktel, and stored their bags in his truck.
They drove over to the main barn and Cole was waiting for them.
He waved them toward the trailers, and it didn’t take long for the men to hook one up to the back of Pedro’s truck.
While they did that, Myrna went to find Ann.
“What’s up?” Ann asked when she came out of the stall she’d just cleaned.
“Can I ask a favor of you?”
“Sure.”
“Pedro and I are leaving any minute, we don’t know when we’ll be back. I tried to cook us a big breakfast and I made sandwiches for the road, but could you go over and clean out the refrigerator? I have milk, juice, bread, meat.”
Ann reached out and put her hand over Myrna’s. “I got you.”
“Thank you,” Myrna squeezed her hand and handed her the key she used.
“I shudder to think what’s left at my house, when I went after Sally, I didn’t really think about what I left behind in the refrigerator.
” She shuddered again, then went over to talk to her horse.
She laughed when Sally ran over to her and when it looked like she wouldn’t stop, she turned her body to the side, then actually grinned at Ann.
She laughed, and rubbed the horse’s neck.
“I’ll be back, Sally. I have to go home for a few days. You’ll be safe here, and when I get back, there’s someone I want you to meet.” At a strangled sound beside her, Myrna looked over and saw both Pedro and Cole.
“What are you doing?” Cole asked.
“Sally reminds me of Ball Buster in some of her actions. I haven’t seen Buster’s lineage, but I know Sally’s. I’m wondering if they are related, or do they just have the same personalities. I think if Sally is around someone like her, she won’t be so lonely.”
Pedro shook his head with a smirk, “Yeah, I can see the two of them being related.” He turned to Cole. “Sally is acting like Ball Buster.”
“Oh Lordy,” Cole said, and chuckled.
Myrna looked around wildly, then held up her finger. “I’ll be right back.” She ran out of the barn, hopped into the golf cart that Ducky was driving, and told him to take her to the bunktel. They were back in seven minutes.
“Where did you go?” Pedro asked as he looked at his watch.
“Cole, these are Sally’s papers. Her tattoo number, and her lineage. I haven’t seen any of Buster’s records, but if you have time while I’m gone, could you see if they are related?”
“Sure,” Cole said as he took the folder she passed to him.
“Thanks. It’s probably nothing, but I’d like to know. I’ve seen Sally’s personality in Buster, and vice versa.”
“I’ll look into it.” Cole promised, and Pedro walked over and rubbed Cocoa’s neck, and told him that when he returned, he would take him out to a track. Cocoa looked at him, and shook his head up and down, causing the three of them to laugh.
After that, Pedro and Myrna made their way to his truck, and after a wave to Cole, Ducky, and Ann, they left to head over to Erin’s Way.
Once they arrived at the other ranch, they saw Agent Wilson and her two other agents standing there with Erin and Duane. Pedro pulled in, turned around so he was heading out, and instead of shutting off the truck, he put it in park to watch Agent Wilson walk toward them.
“Do you mind if I ride with you?”
“No,” Myrna answered, “We were going to ask you to drive with us.” They waited for her to climb into the back after talking to the two guys with her. Pedro pulled out, and nodded when the black SUV followed them.
Twenty minutes down the road, Myrna turned to look at Yvonne. “Agent Wilson,” she began.
“Please, call me Yvonne.”
“Okay, Yvonne, can I ask you a silly question?”
“No question is silly, but what do you want to know?”
“Do you know if anyone cleaned out my refrigerator?”
“We did,” Yvonne said with a nod. “When we get closer, I’ll call Agent Lela Smith. She’s going to pose as an old college friend of yours.”
“I never went to college.”
“Okay, then an old school friend. Anyway, if you can make a grocery list, I can take a picture of it and send it to her. She knows that we’re on the way.”
Myrna nodded and when Pedro pointed to the spot beneath his elbow, she opened the storage section and pulled out pen and paper. She made a quick list, and passed it back. Once everything was done, Pedro looked in the rearview mirror and asked his question,
“Do you know what the Godwin’s are after, Yvonne?”
“Honestly? Not a clue, I’m hoping by bringing Myrna back there they will try something stupid and show their hand.”
“I have a theory,” Pedro began, and before she could say anything, Myrna passed the pad of paper and pen back to her.
“Wait,” Yvonne said, and pulled her phone, and dialed. “I’m going to patch the guys in, and Lela. As we drive, they can research.” When she had everyone listening, he launched into what he and Myrna had discussed the night before.
For the rest of the ride to Myrna’s home, the three people in Pedro’s truck discussed Pedro’s theory with the two agents driving behind them, and Lela who was sitting in the parking lot of the local grocery store. They all had input, and by the time they entered Myrna’s road, they had a plan.
“Well,” Yvonne said as she hung up. “I want to thank you, you gave us something to look into. If it doesn’t pan out, we can at least investigate to see if there’s any meat on this.”
Myrna gave directions, and when they pulled in Myrna studied her home with a totally different eye. She turned to look at Yvonne as Pedro backed the truck and trailer down her driveway.
“Question?”
“What?”
“Has anyone heard anything about my trailer? We all saw on the video that Gus loaded Sally into a different one. Why would they want mine after I rescued her?”
“That’s a mystery,” Yvonne said, and as they exited the truck, they waited until the two male agents cleared the house, and when they went in, the men went back to their truck and one of them came back in with a duffel.
“You’re staying?” Pedro asked in confusion.
“Yes, I’ll be helping Agent Smith protect both you and Ms. Trenton.”
“Please, call me Myrna. If anyone comes here, you don’t want to call me Ms. Anything to tip our hands.”
“Correct, pardon me. Myrna and Pedro it is.”
“And you are?”
“Agent Benjamin.” At their looks, he smirked. “Fine, Robert Benjamin, and yes, I prefer Robert.”
“Okay, since you’ve been here before, you know my place isn’t that big.”
“I know, I’ll be sleeping on the couch, I presume you and Pedro will take your old room. Then that would leave the spare one for Agent Smith.” At Myrna’s raised brow, he shook his head. “Lela.”
“You are correct.”
“I’ll be going back to the office with Agent Gregory after Lela arrives,” Yvonne said. “I’ll be working on the theory we discussed earlier.”
“Hey,” Pedro said as he looked around, then whipped his gaze toward Myrna. “Do you have access to the camera to see who might have taken your trailer? Other than Officer Mosher. Did she work with anyone is what I’m asking. We couldn’t really see much on the phone screen.”
Myrna nodded, turned on her heel, and went to her office.
She held up her hand, and ran back out to her bedroom where she had put her bag on the bed.
She withdrew her laptop, and went back to the office.
She had seen that Pedro was making a pot of coffee.
It didn’t take long for a cup to be at her elbow, and everyone hovered over her.
“Son of a bitch,” Myrna said as she stopped the scrolling video. Thankfully it had been motion activated. The trailer had come up missing two days before Yvonne and the other agents had arrived.
“What?” Pedro asked, concerned for her tone of voice. He laid a hand on her shoulder as he looked at the screen and saw a vehicle back into the driveway, someone exited, and looked behind them, then backed up more. In under ten minutes, they pulled out with Myrna’s trailer.
“Do you know who that is?” Pedro asked.
“Lakewood’s finest. It’s Officer Avery Mosher. Just like I saw on the phone screen, but I didn’t see anyone with her.” She looked at Yvonne and shook her head. “Why? What does my horse trailer have to do with anything?”
Everyone remained silent for a good ten minutes as they tried to think as to why a police officer would want the trailer.
“What if…” Pedro said as he sipped his coffee and studied the theft of the trailer.
“What?” everyone asked him when he remained silent.
“What if it wasn’t about auto parts like we discussed earlier? What if it was about Sally all this time? You said Randy didn’t know she had a tattoo, but what if he did?”
“How can you tattoo a horse?” Robert asked.
“The inside of their lip,” Pedro said. He looked at Myrna, then Yvonne as he pulled his phone and put it on speaker as he dialed.
“Hello?”
“Cole, this is Pedro, we arrived safely at Myrna’s. We discussed a theory on the way here as to why someone might have been after Myrna, however, we might be way off base.”
“How so?”
“We, or I, came up with the theory it had something to do with her job. She was a shipping clerk for an import export company. They dealt with automotive parts.”
“Shit, yeah, I can see something happening with that, but that’s not what happened?”
“We don’t know, the FBI will be looking into that angle, but I called to ask you a question.”
“What’s that?”
“Why would someone steal Sally? At first we all thought it might have been as leverage for them wanting Myrna to do something, but what if it’s something else?”
“Like?”
“Another question, first. Why would someone steal a horse trailer? There’s no horse, they stole Sally’s trailer from Myrna’s driveway.”
The line remained silent, but they heard papers ruffling. “Can I call you back? I have no clue right now, I haven’t looked at Sally’s papers yet, and I’m going to verify her tattoo to the papers, just to make sure, then do some research. It might take a couple of hours.”
“Okay, we’ll put on our thinking caps here, but Cole, you are the only one with Sally’s papers.”
“I’ll keep them safe.” He reassured them, and hung up.
Before anyone could say anything, there was heavy pounding on the front door. The two male agents, along with Yvonne, drew their weapons and left. Pedro drew his gun from the holster on his hip and stood in the doorway, protecting Myrna from a possible threat.