Chapter Twenty-Eight
There was no sign of Harvey’s car when we returned. It would have been sensible to post a sentry to keep an eye out for an unexpectedly early return but Solomon had headed back to the agency to work on Jessica’s phone and the suspicious tracker, leaving only Lily and me at the farm.
Glancing around, I wondered if Maddox had any view of the farm’s main entrance. If so, he would be the perfect set of eyes.
“Hey,” he said, on answering my call. “Any developments? Still at the farm?”
“You mean you can’t see me?” I asked. Lily and I remained in the car for the call, giving us both privacy and a good view of the entrance.
“Unfortunately not. We’re parked at our usual spot and I don’t see you at all. Where are you?”
“In the main parking lot.”
“That’s the other side of the farm to us. What’s up?”
“I was hoping you would keep watch for Harvey’s car returning? He’s supposed to be out for the evening but we want to do a little uninterrupted snooping in the rehab yard.”
“I can keep watch, but I’ll only know if his vehicle approaches from our side. If he comes from the other end, then no go.”
“He left driving in your direction so I’m hoping he’ll return the same route.”
“Give me the car details and license plate if you have it.”
I hadn’t noted the license plate but I gave the car’s description and Maddox said, “Yeah, we saw it leave. Anything else I can help you with?”
“Not yet. We’re going to get evidence for the potentially stolen horses tonight.”
“Do you have backup?”
“I have Lily.”
“Okay… do you need backup?”
Lily scowled.
“Just alert me if Harvey appears so we can get out of the yard,” I told Maddox.
“Can do, with the caveat, again, that we might not see your guy if he doesn’t return the same way.
We’ll remain alert for any sign of him. We’re knocking off at midnight so whatever goes down, can you be out of there by then?
Like I said earlier, the boss is looking to wind up this angle if we don’t get any evidence soon so, pretty please, do share whatever you find. ”
“I would anyway, but the pretty please clinched it.”
“Thought it would.”
We disconnected and hopped out, aiming directly for the rehab yard, the microchip wand tucked in my pocket under my T-shirt.
We ignored the locked gate and slipped through the rusty bar’s opening and walked into the quiet, shadowy yard. The same horses eyeballed us over their stable doors and a pair of cats chased a leaf under the hedgerow. A donkey brayed in the distance.
“Let’s get started,” I said, approaching the first horse. I scanned its neck but the microchip wand remained silent so I swept it again, then tried the other side. The machine beeped and a code appeared on the screen. Lily copied the code onto my phone and sent it to Lucas, as we’d arranged.
We had scanned half of the horses, noting the codes and sending them, when a noise made us both halt, and look around.
“What was that?” whispered Lily.
I strained to hear but there was nothing but rustles in the nearby paddock. “Nothing,” I decided. “Let’s finish.”
The chestnut with the dyed face was next and when I swept the wand over its neck, the wand quickly beeped a result. Lily peered at the screen, inputting the code into my phone and hitting “send” when the noise sounded again.
“It sounds like gravel,” I said as my phone buzzed. We both peered at the screen. Maddox had texted: Company!
“The noise must be coming from the gate to the road,” I said, pointing to where we’d seen Harvey lead a horse to the stable after unloading it at the external gate, yet I couldn’t hear any engine noise.
Go Go Go came a second text.
We whirled around, looking for somewhere to hide. “Stable?” suggested Lily.
“They might be bringing in a horse,” I said, shaking my head.
I looked around, my gaze alighting on a horse trailer all by itself.
I pointed and said, “In there!” We took off across the yard, leaping into the horse trailer.
Lily pulled the door closed and we crouched, looking through the gaps in the wall slats.
Yvette walked into the yard, flashlight in hand and took a moment to survey the area. “Is someone here?” she called softly. A horse snickered in answer.
“What’s she doing here?” asked Lily, her voice little more than a whisper.
Yvette jogged over to the big chestnut and slid a machine down its neck.
“It looks like she’s doing what we were doing,” I said. “Damn. She’s suspicious of something too.”
“Maybe she regrets trying to kill you on that horse.”
“Flowers would have sufficed.” A cramp was starting to set into my left leg so I shifted, stretched and then knelt, hoping the hard floor of the horse trailer was cleaner than it looked.
It smelled faintly of horse, like it hadn’t been used in a long while, but thankfully, I didn’t kneel in anything squishy.
Yvette stepped back from the stable and put her phone to her ear. “Can you run a code for me?” she asked. “Yeah, just the one. Maybe a couple more. Thanks, I appreciate it.” She rattled off the code and waited. “Are you sure? Can you check it again? Yeah, I’ll wait.”
Lily and I exchanged raised eyebrow glances. Then Lily’s nose wrinkled and her nostrils flared. Aachoo! She clapped her hands over her mouth and nose, grimacing with her whole face.
Yvette whirled around. She flipped on her flashlight and roamed it across the yard.
“Yeah, I’m still here,” she said, sweeping the beam across the horse trailer and towards the path leading to the exterior gate.
“Yes, I’m sure… I don’t know what to do either but I swear I’m looking at him right now.
He looks different but…” She tucked the flashlight between her knees and reached up to rub the horse’s face.
It nuzzled her happily before she withdrew her fingers, rubbing them together.
“Dye,” she said. “Damn it. It’s worse than I…
hold on.” She paused, holding the phone to her chest.
It took another few seconds, then I heard it too. A car engine quietly rumbling, then switching off. Then a door opening and closing.
My phone buzzed. More company!
“Maddox is not on the ball today,” I whispered.
Not Harvey’s vehicle was the next text. I showed it to Lily and she shrugged, frowning, then she nudged me.
Yvette was looking directly at the horse trailer.
The gate opened with a loud squeak and Yvette darted to the corner of the yard, sliding through the slim gap in the stables, seemingly disappearing.
I checked my phone, making sure the codes had been received, then realized how bright the screen was. Was that what had caught Yvette’s attention? I dimmed it and slid it into my pocket and settled on my haunches to wait.
Harvey came into the yard with another man, the two speaking softly as they approached the chestnut’s stable.
Harvey patted the horse’s neck and then reached for the halter that was hung on the side and slipped it over the chestnut’s head.
He slid back the bolt and opened the door, leading the horse out.
The other man inspected the horse, walking around it. “You really want to move it?” he asked.
“There are too many busybodies poking around the farm,” said Harvey. “All we need is one of them getting too suspicious and screwing up the whole operation and then we’re all in deep shit.”
“Joel’s got enough money to keep his mouth shut.”
“It’s not him I’m worried about. Do you have somewhere secure?”
“There’s a barn a couple miles south. It’s in probate or something and no one comes around.”
“You sure? If anyone stumbles on a horse like this in an abandoned barn, they’re going to start asking around to see who’s missing a horse. He needs to be completely out of sight for another week or two.”
“Yeah, well, if it comes down to it, I can sort it out.” The man pulled back his jacket, revealing a pistol at his waist.
“By shooting them?” Harvey scoffed.
“By shooting this,” he said, forming a pistol shape with his fingers and pointing them between the horse’s eyes. I shivered but the horse simply blinked patiently.
“Do not shoot the horse, asshole,” said Harvey. “There’s a hell of a lot of money banking on him. Just put him somewhere secure, feed him, and make sure you don’t leave anything linking you to it.”
“I can’t believe you!” yelled Yvette.
I was so focused on the two men, I missed her reappearing through the gap. Now she was striding across the yard, her forefinger pointed at the two men. “You stole him! And now you’re going to shoot him!”
“Shit,” snarled Harvey, still hanging onto the horse’s halter. “Yvette, I…”
“I knew you were up to something. I knew it! And that lying sack of… oof!”
The man whipped his pistol-holding hand across her head and, with a sickening crack, Yvette slumped to the ground.
Lily gasped softly behind her hand.
“What did you do that for?” yelled Harvey, thumping the gunman’s shoulder. “Now we have to clean up this mess too.” He tossed the halter to the gunman and knelt, checking her pulse. “She’s still breathing,” he said as he took the device she still gripped in her hand.
“We can toss her in a ditch somewhere.” The man’s nonchalance shocked me to my core.
“Damn it! She’ll have to come with us. It’ll need to look like an accident too. Wait here while I load the horse and work out how to fix this mess.” Harvey grabbed the lead rope and started walking away. He stopped and turned, jabbing a finger at his associate. “Don’t you dare touch her.”
“Don’t need to,” said the man, nudging her with his toe. Yvette didn’t move.
“We have to do something!” hissed Lily.
I grabbed her hand, holding onto her, ensuring she didn’t step outside of the horse trailer.
“We’re not armed,” I whispered back as I frantically thought of what we could do.
From the rise and fall of her chest, Yvette was definitely breathing, but there was no telling what damage had been done, and after observing this man’s volatile nature, there was no telling what he might do if we rushed him.
Even if we did succeed in disarming him, there was no way we could keep him restrained while also trying to help Yvette.
There was only one thing for it. I tapped a MAYDAY to Maddox and Solomon. If there was any time to call in the cavalry, it was now.
The gunman crouched next to Yvette. I eased to a crouch, prepared to spring out of the horse trailer and surprise him if he tried anything unsavory with the unconscious woman.
Like Harvey, he tested her pulse, and apparently satisfied, got back to his feet. He stretched and rolled his shoulders, the gun remaining ominously in his hands.
“We have to follow them,” I whispered. “We can’t let them kill Yvette.”
“How do we get to the car from here? It’s on the other side of the farm.”
I thought for a moment. “There must be a horse trailer waiting outside. If we can get the keys, they won’t be able to leave before help arrives.”
“How do we get from here to there?” asked Lily jabbing her forefinger at the floor and then to the exit Harvey had taken.
“Why do I have to come up with all the plans?”
“You’re the PI! I’m the sidekick!”
“We need a distraction,” I decided, looking around. I was about to make a suggestion when Harvey jogged back, alone now.
“We’ll load her, then come back for the other horse,” he said, reaching under her arms. Yvette flopped like a rag doll, her head lolling awkwardly. “Grab her legs.”
Between the two of them, they lifted Yvette and carried her from the yard.
“Now,” I said, grabbing Lily’s hand. We darted from the horse trailer to the edge of the yard.
The gate squeaked once, then twice, clanging as it dropped into its frame, and we ran forwards, concealing ourselves in the overgrown shrubbery.
A moment later, the gate squeaked again, the men’s feet just inches from our hiding place.
Once they’d rounded the corner, I grabbed the gate, just before it closed and eased it open, horribly aware of the whine it emitted.
“You need to oil that gate,” muttered the gunman as we slipped through the space, letting it shut behind us with another whine. I could only hope they thought it was caught on something, and wafting open and shut.
In the small parking area was a large, dark horse trailer, the ramp down. I ran to the cab and opened the door, searching for the keys.
“I can’t find them,” I hissed to Lily. “They must have kept them.”
Hooves clacked on the ground.
“Yvette must be in the back. If we can hide in there with her, they’ll take us wherever they’re going,” I said, and we ran to the back of the trailer, darting into the dark interior.
The trailer was divided into stalls with gates between them acting as dividers. The furthest stall was closed and the chestnut occupied the second stall, its gate not yet closed although the lead rope had been attached to a ring.
I eased open the gate a fraction and Lily and I slipped inside, sliding the bolt back into place.
Yvette lay in a heap on the floor. There was nothing to cover us but a mound of stinky horse blankets so Lily and I scrambled under those and hoped they wouldn’t come back to inspect their hostage.
It only took a few more minutes for the second horse to be loaded into the trailer and then what was left of the light was lost as the main doors shut, bolts sliding into place.
I pushed back the blankets, sitting up. Yvette was still out cold but didn’t seem to be bleeding, and when I checked her pulse, it was strong and steady.
The engine rumbled to life and then the trailer was moving, crunching across the gravel, and turning right. In a few minutes we’d pass Maddox’s concealed FBI van. I reached for my phone to call him but my pockets were empty. I patted frantically and winced.
“I dropped my phone,” I said. “I already sent a MAYDAY so they should be on their way but they’ll think we’re at the farm.”
“I have mine. Who are we calling first?”
“Maddox. Then Solomon. They can call everyone else.”
“Even your mom?”
“Everyone except my mom.”
Then, I realized, we needed to come up with a plan fast because when the two men came to kill Yvette, there was nowhere for us to hide.