Chapter Seventeen
The next morning, I made Lily coffee and toast and gave them to her in bed on a tray I found in the small kitchen’s cabinet. It was a token of my appreciation for her assistance in helping me maintain my cover, but from Lily’s reaction, I felt like I was treating her like a queen.
While she ate and got ready, I looked up the farm where the recently fired employee, Tilly, was now employed.
The glossy website showed a sprawling ranch with large barns and beautifully white-fenced paddocks.
A gallery of glossy photos showcased happy riders and gleaming horses in various states of motion: wilderness rides, show jumping in the covered school, and gliding on long reins, their tails fanned out.
They claimed to have many prize-winning horses and the unlisted fees suggested it was the playground of wealthy locals who could splurge on the expensive hobby.
“It seems like a fancy place to work,” I said to Lily as we drove there mid-morning. “It’s easily comparable to the farm, if not fancier. Maybe smaller but those barns are glorious.”
“Why would they want to employ a thief?” Lily asked, checking her reflection in the visor mirror. With all the fresh air and sun we’d been getting, her skin was glowing. However, maybe that was owing to the three bath bombs she’d used last night.
“That’s a very good question. My research suggests they have a lot of high-end clients. That could mean a lot of potential targets for a thief.”
“But they hired her anyway,” Lily pointed out. “They had to have known about the accusation. Horsey communities are fueled by gossip.”
“Which begs the question, why hire her? Surely everyone knows everyone else around here? An accusation of theft is a career killer for a lot of people. So the owners here either live under a rock, don’t care, or something else is going on.
” I turned the car onto the long driveway, under an arched sign painted with “McClain Farm.” I parked in a large, neatly laid out parking lot beside a large wooden barn, edged with a flower border full of wafty white blooms, adding to the charm.
“Excuse me!” I called to a young man pushing a wheelbarrow across the parking lot. “Where can I find Tilly?”
“She’s in barn two,” he said, setting the wheelbarrow down for a moment to point.
“Thanks!”
We headed to the barn, the scent of hay and earth filling my nose.
Several horses hung their heads over their stall gates.
Bars separated the upper part of the stables and the barn was filled with soft light.
At the far end of the barn was a young woman in jeans, muck boots, and a band T-shirt.
She shoveled straw into a wheelbarrow, singing along to the radio perched on a chair near the doors.
“Hi,” I said as we approached her. “Are you Tilly?”
She paused her shoveling to stand straight. “That’s me. Can I help you?” she asked, surprisingly friendly.
“Jessica Casey hired us to do some work. We wanted to ask you a few questions.”
“At Ashgrove Farms?” she asked, frowning. “I heard what happened to Jessica. That’s so sad. I’m not sure how I can help you though. I don’t work there anymore.”
En route, Lily and I had discussed the best way to get Tilly to talk, and we’d decided to go with a blend of the truth: Jessica had hired me, true, and she’d mentioned Tilly as being the person to talk to about the horses, lie.
All we had to do from there, was encourage Tilly to talk.
If she’d wanted revenge for being fired, perhaps she would be ready to gloat or even pass blame.
Regardless, I wanted to know how she felt about Jessica.
“Jessica said you were great with the horses so we thought we’d come by and ask you about them. It would really help with our training program,” I lied.
“We’re very exclusive instructors,” added Lily.
Tilly frowned. “I don’t see how I can tell you anything that one of the other stable hands wouldn’t know,” she said. She made no attempt to dismiss us, instead waiting uncertainly.
“They’ve all been helpful but everyone has a different perspective,” I continued. “You worked there until recently, right?”
The frown deepened and her eyes darkened. “Yeah,” she said.
“Jessica said you’d worked with Pepper often. That you two bonded.”
Tilly’s expression softened and a flicker of a smile appeared on her lips. “Great horse,” she said, adding, “a touch misunderstood.”
“We were told Pepper always performed great for you. Becca was struggling with him.”
“Tell Becca to go lighter on the reins, like, really light, and she’ll be fine. Same with her legs. Pepper doesn’t really need telling what to do, he just needs a little light instruction. Don’t push it. Trust his judgment.”
“Genius,” said Lily, nodding along enthusiastically like everything that came out of Tilly’s mouth was gold. “I’ll make a note.”
“And he likes being talked to,” added Tilly, encouraged now. “He’ll listen if he likes you. Horses are more sensitive than we think. Sweeten him up with some carrots and he’ll be your best friend.”
“It’s a shame you left. It sounds like you really worked well together and had a promising future.”
“It’s not like I had a choice!” Tilly’s jaw stiffened and she glanced away. If I didn’t act quickly, I’d lose her enthusiasm and her attention.
“Jessica said she fired you,” I said as gently as I could, like Jessica had given me all the crucial details.
“No, well, yeah, kind of.”
“But it’s great you got a job here so quickly,” said Lily.
Tilly frowned again. “I wouldn’t have if Jessica hadn’t made a few calls. I guess I can thank her for that. The job comes with accommodation and benefits and generous vacation time.”
“Wait… Jessica got you this job?” I asked, confused.
“Yes! I know she felt bad about everything that happened. She said it was the least she could do and she made sure I was paid everything I was due, including my bonus and a little extra for the trouble. She said she’d make sure they didn’t spread any gossip about me.”
“They?” I asked, seizing on the word.
“I probably said too much. Jessica said…”
“Jessica told us everything,” I lied, “but we’d like to hear it from you.”
She clasped the long shovel handle nervously. “I don’t see why. It really doesn’t have anything to do with the horses.”
“You said they’re sensitive and I’m looking into everything to do with their performance, including the atmosphere on the farm. It’s important for me to know everything so I can work with the horses successfully.”
Tilly puzzled that over. “I guess,” she said, finally, moving to prop the shovel against the barn wall. “I was glad to get out of there anyway. I knew those jerks would make my life hell if I stayed so I might as well leave with some money and another job to go to.”
“Right,” I said, nodding along. “Right, because…”
“Because they’re a pair of liars,” continued Tilly, heated now. “I didn’t steal anything! One of them made that up so that Jessica wouldn’t believe me if I told her what I saw.”
“Which one do you think it was?” asked Lily before I could. A quick glance at my best friend and I could see she was as confused as I was.
“Probably Yvette. She was always nice enough to me, but I doubt she’d want me to tell Jessica I caught her with her brother-in-law’s tongue down her throat and his hand up her T-shirt.”
Lily feigned a gasp. I remained rapt.
“Yeah,” said Tilly, nodding. “I walked right in on them. They were in the tack room, not even trying to be discreet. When I realized who it was, I tried to back out quietly but they heard me. Joel was furious. He said it wasn’t what it looked like, and I was, like, sure, okay, whatever.
Then Yvette said I better not say anything or she’d have me fired.
I guess they decided to do that anyway because Jessica and Yvette came and found me that night and fired me. ”
“I don’t understand why Jessica would help you when she fired you.”
Tilly leaned in to hiss, “She said Yvette told her she’d seen me go into the office and take a wad of cash. When she checked, a thousand dollars was missing. It was my word against hers. Yvette just stood behind her, smirking.”
“Why didn’t you say something?”
“I tried, but Yvette was there saying I was a liar and a thief and that she’d noticed other things that were missing and they should call the police. I was so upset, I raced back to my cabin and started packing my stuff. I spent the next few nights sleeping in my car, then Jessica found me…”
“By herself?”
“Yeah, she said she was really sorry how everything had gone down and she knew it wasn’t true.
I asked if I still had my job and she said no, I couldn’t come back to the farm.
I asked why not and she said it wasn’t a good idea.
She wanted to know if something else had happened, something I hadn’t said when Yvette accused me. I told her about Joel and Yvette.”
“What did Jessica say?”
“She just sat there, staring into space, then she said ‘okay’ a few times like she was trying to process it and couldn’t quite work it out.
I told her I wasn’t lying and she said she knew that and she believed me but she was really hurt, I could tell.
Like I said before, she told me she’d make sure I got paid and she paid for me to stay in a motel for a couple nights too.
It was really nice of her even after I told her about those two jerks. ”
“Did she say anything else?”
“She said it was time for her to get some help too. When I asked what she meant, she shook her head and said it didn’t matter.
Anyway, she came back to the motel a couple days later and said she’d made some calls and there was a job here if I wanted it.
I asked her why she was doing all this for me.
I wanted to ask her why she believed me over her sister, but I didn’t want to sound mean or like I was rubbing it in, so I just asked why and she said, she couldn’t sit by and let me be treated like that and she was trying to do her best to make it up to me.
That I didn’t deserve what they’d done. Once I started here, I realized I didn’t want to go back anyway. ”
“That was very nice of her,” I said.
“Yeah. Jessica was like that. She always treated everyone so well. I’d like to go to her funeral but I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“For what it’s worth, I don’t think your colleagues believed the story. We were told you were trustworthy on top of being a great rider.”
Tilly smiled then, dimples popping up on her cheeks.
“I’m happy to hear that. They’ve texted me but I was so embarrassed I haven’t responded.
Okay, maybe I will go. I guess I could just slip in the back but I don’t want any awkwardness with Joel and Yvette.
Those two didn’t deserve her.” She stopped, wrinkling her nose, then continued, “Sorry, I’m prattling on about me, me, me, and you just wanted to know about the horses. ”
“You’ve been very helpful. You’ve given us a lot of insight into the tension the horses might have picked up on,” I said.
“But I hardly told you about the horses at all.”
“You gave us some great tips for Pepper. Can we come back if we want to ask more questions?” I asked.
“Sure, I’m here 24/7. Either somewhere in the yard or in cabin seven. It’s nicer than the one I had at Jessica’s,” she said, pleased. “I don’t know what I would have done without Jessica helping me. I owed her.”
We thanked Tilly, said our goodbyes, and declined the offer of a short tour of the stables. As we left the barn, I glanced over my shoulder, seeing Tilly head back into the stall, a burst of hay being tossed into the wheelbarrow.
“That was interesting,” I said.
“Joel and Yvette set her up. What a nasty pair!” said Lily, disgust leaking from her tone.
“Seems like it, and they set Jessica up to do their dirty work, but it’s more than that. Jessica saw through them. She knew about their affair.”
“Gosh, that’s an awful thing to know right before you pass,” said Lily. “Can you imagine how painful that must have been?”
I could, unfortunately, having had my own brush with a cheater in the past. My former fiancé’s actions hadn’t just hurt me, but the rest of my family too. I was glad to get rid of him. It was one of the universe’s supremely unfair moves that Jessica didn’t have the same chance to fly free.
Instead, I said, “If Jessica knew about her husband’s affair with her sister, then what did she intend to do with that information?”
“Hopefully, leave.”
“Maybe. Maybe she was sitting on the knowledge until she knew what to do with it. She must have been planning something. Perhaps that’s what got her killed.”