Furever Friends

by Patricia Fry

  “Yeah, it’s Rags. He’s trying to drag me away somewhere.”

  “He’s strong, isn’t he?” Andrew said.

  She nodded, then looked to her left and muttered, “I don’t see anything over there that concerns you, Rags. Just cowboys watching the horses from their trucks.” She picked him up and pointed. “Hey, you can see Moose out there. Look, see Moose?”

  “How can you tell which one’s which?” Michael asked, peering into the distance.

  “Sandy’s wearing a hot-pink blouse,” Savannah explained.

  “Oh yeah; now I see her. She does stand out.”

  When Rags began struggling in her arms, Savannah followed his stare again. Hmmm, what’s that guy looking at? She chuckled to herself. Hasn’t he ever seen a cat watching an endurance ride? “Let’s go find Moose again, shall we?” she said to the cat while she followed Michael to their car. “Moose is going to stop up here a ways and we can visit him again.”

  “No,” Andrew said. “No visiting. You’ll have to keep Rags away from the horses. Everything’s happening fast from now on. The riders will want their horses run through the checkpoint as fast as possible so they can get back on the trail. There’s a lot of activity. You’ll want to stay out of the way.”

  “Oh,” Savannah said. She addressed the cat, “Got that, Rags? We can’t schmooze with Moose until the end.”

  “Right,” Andrew said, petting Rags.

  “What’s he doing?” Michael asked, when Rags climbed up onto Savannah’s shoulder. He lifted the cat and looked around.

  “I think he wants to go on the ride,” Savannah explained. “He keeps looking out to see where Moose went.”

  “Yeah,” Michael said, “that’s all Moose needs, is this eighteen-pound liability. You’d slow him down, buddy,” he said to the cat.

  “He seems to be interested in those guys over there,” Andrew suggested.

  Michael looked around. “Where?”

  “Next to the dark-colored pickup truck with that silver trailer behind it,” Andrew squinted. “I don’t think I know them. They have California license plates.”

  “Yeah, they probably also have food,” Michael said. When Andrew looked puzzled, Michael added, “That cat can be a beggar. He especially likes tailgating.”

  Everyone laughed at Michael’s remark as they climbed into their vehicles and drove away, toward the next stop along the ride.

  ****

  “Well, that was interesting,” Savannah said when Andrew began slipping his equipment and supplies back into his bag after completing the next checkpoint.

  “Yes, everyone looks fine.”

  “Even that mare you were concerned about?” she asked.

  “I think Dr. Kimberly checked her over.” He surveyed the area. “Yeah, I guess she passed her. Good. I’m glad she’s okay.” He frowned. “Hey, where’s your cat going?”

  Savannah turned and realized that he’d just about reached the end of his long leash. She trotted after him. When she saw a group of men sitting together drinking beer just ahead of Rags, she muttered, “Looking for a snack, are you?” She attempted to grab the cat, but he managed to slip away from her and run under a truck. “Darn it, Rags.” She tugged on his leash. “Come out of there, boy. There’s a treat in it for you. Come on, let’s go get you a treat.”

  But Rags wouldn’t budge, so Savannah got down on all fours and peered under the truck. She could see that he’d positioned himself just behind a back wheel, and the leash was crimped around the tire. She moved over a couple of feet to free him, but before she could pull on the leash, she heard a man’s voice. “What’re ya doin’?”

  “Trying to get my cat,” she said, tugging on the leash. She pulled hard enough to drag Rags out into the open, then stood up and lifted him into her arms. She took a step toward the pop-up where Michael and Andrew stood talking, but the man suddenly blocked her. Surprised, she moved to the left and he stepped in front of her again. She looked briefly into his face, then quickly moved aside, and hurried past him.

  “What’s wrong?” Michael asked when Savannah returned.

  She glanced behind her. “Nothing, I hope.”

  He followed her gaze. “What happened, hon? You seem a little shaken.”

  Andrew also looked in that direction.

  “Michael,” she said, anxiously, “I think I’ve seen that man before—the one wearing the cowboy hat.”

  Andrew laughed. “I see about twenty guys wearing Western hats. That’s not uncommon around here.”

  Savannah stared back at the men, but couldn’t see the man who’d spoken to her. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  “Who do you think he was?” Michael asked.

  “Oh nobody, I guess.” She set Rags on a table in the pop-up and brushed the dirt off him. “Is there another checkpoint?”

  “Two more,” Andrew said. “One in another couple of hours, then the one at the end. Hey, it’s nearly lunchtime, There’s a chuck wagon at the next stop; we can get something to eat while we wait for the riders, if you’d like.”

  “Sounds good,” Michael said. “We’ll follow you.” He asked Savannah, “Are you getting some photographs, hon? I haven’t seen you take your camera out much.”

  “Yeah, I’ve been kind of busy with Rags. You got some of Rags and Moose together, didn’t you?”

  He nodded. “Are you hungry?”

  “Yeah, I could eat something. I wonder what they have.” Savannah looked again toward where she’d encountered the man before walking with Rags and Michael to their car.

  Chapter Eight

  After lunch Savannah listened to Michael and Andrew talk shop until she became restless. She put her hand on Michael’s shoulder. “Rags has been in his pen for a while; I think I’ll take him for a walk.”

  “Okay, hon,” he said.

  Savannah followed Rags around for several minutes, enjoying the warmth of the desert sun on her skin and entertaining herself by listening to some of the conversations she heard along the way. Two women with leathery skin, trim bodies, and wearing baseball caps were talking about some of their barrel-racing experiences. One of them took a double take when she saw Rags at the end of Savannah’s leash.

  “It’s a cat,” the sixty-something woman said. She laughed. “That’s a first.”

  “What, seeing a cat?” her slightly younger friend joked.

  “No, seeing a cat at one of these rides.”

  “It’s a first for him, too,” Savannah said.

  “So what’s he doing here?” the first woman asked.

  “He has a friend in the competition.”

  “Oh?” the woman asked suspiciously.

  “Yeah, Moose the…”

  “Moose?” the other one said. “Sandy’s horse?”

  Savannah nodded.

  “Is Sandy a friend of yours?”

  “We just met recently. I’m boarding Moose for her right now.” She nodded toward Rags. “He and Moose have struck up a friendship.”

  The older woman gave her a sideways look. “The cat?”

  Savannah nodded. “Yeah, I guess Moose likes small animals. He made friends with a chicken at one of the places where he stayed.” Savannah studied the women for a second and asked, “Do you do these rides?”

  Occasionally,” the younger women said. “Not the majors, though. Not anymore.” She reached out her hand. “By the way, I’m Stella; this is Donna.”

  “Hi. I’m Savannah. So both of you have done these rides? It’s gotta be strenuous. I’ve gone out with Sandy and Moose and another friend a couple of times, and I can see that these horses are expected to face some tough challenges.” When the others didn’t say anything, she continued, “The areas I usually avoid, they want to take. My mare is kind of plucky, though, so she doesn’t mind following along.”

  The women laughed and Donna said, “You ought to enter her in some of these easier rides. You might enjoy it.”

  Stella asked, “Do
you ride in shows or do rodeo?”

  Savannah shook her head. “No. At this point in my life, with two small children, Peaches is just a backyard hobby.” Suddenly she realized that Rags was out of sight. “Rags, where are you going?”

  Stella laughed. “He seems to like challenges.”

  “You have no idea,” Savannah said, rolling her eyes. She followed him and found him still connected to the long leash, but with his front paws at the opening of the storage compartment in a horse trailer. Embarrassed, she tugged on the leash and urged him to come with her. He balked. In fact, he leaped into the storage area and began pawing at something. Savannah looked around, hoping no one was watching, and rushed to retrieve him. When she tried to remove him from the compartment, his claws caught in a horse blanket. He inadvertently pulled it out of the trailer with him and it landed on the ground. “Rags!” Savannah said, exasperated. Just then she heard someone walk up behind her. She turned and froze. It’s that cowboy I saw earlier. Gads, what’s wrong with him? He looks angry. “I’m sorry,” she said, “my cat…” She picked up the blanket and started to put it back when something dropped out of it at her feet.

  “Just get that cat outta here, will you?” the man snarled.

  Those eyebrows, Savannah thought. I’ve seen him before. Who is he? When she picked up Rags and saw what he had dangling from his claws, she gasped. She took one more look at the man, then trotted with Rags to where Michael and Andrew had been talking, but they were no longer there. In fact, she saw no one around except for the two women she’d been talking to and the people in the food truck, who were inside cleaning up.

  “Is something wrong, honey?” Donna asked.

  “Um…” Savannah said. “I’m looking for my husband.”

  She pointed. “I saw several people walk up the trail a ways. The horses should be just about to the bend and folks like to get a first look at them before they filter into the checkpoint. He might have gone on up there.”

  “Thank you,” Savannah said, glancing behind her.

  “Are you okay?” Stella asked. She looked in the direction Savannah had gazed, then stood up and peered around the corner. “Did something scare you?”

  “Um…no, I’m okay,” Savannah said, trying to sound calm. She held tightly to Rags. “I’ll just walk down the road and catch up with my husband. You say he went this way?”

  “Yes—he’s just out of sight around that bend, I imagine.”

  Savannah asked, “Aren’t you going up there?”

  “Naw,” Donna said, “we’ve seen a lot of these rides. The old legs don’t work all that well anymore.” She grinned. “I’m saving them for something more fun.”

  “Like the dance tonight?” Stella asked, grinning.

  Savannah took a quick look behind her again, then, carrying Rags, walked quickly toward where the women had pointed. Before she’d walked far, Stella called out to Savannah, “You dropped something.”

  Savannah stopped, looked at where Stella pointed, and exclaimed, “Oh!” She ran back and picked it up, then jogged on down the road. When she saw the group ahead, she tried to spot Michael and Andrew. She saw them just as a horse came around the bend.

  Someone shouted, “Get out of the way, lady!”

  Realizing then that she was inside the trail barrier, she quickly darted under the yellow tape, then tripped over a rock and fell hard into some brush. “Damn,” she said under her breath. When she realized that Rags had fallen a few feet away from her she reached for his leash, but he slithered away from her and out onto the trail. “Rags!” she called. “Rags, no! Come back here.” She scurried to her feet and chased after him, hoping to get him out of the way before the swiftly moving horses reached that point. When she saw that she wasn’t going to make it, however, she did the only thing she could think of. She dove out of the way, hoping like heck that Rags would run to the other side when he saw the horses approaching. And he did. He sat just off the wide trail, watching as horse after horse trotted past him, until he saw Sandy and Moose.

  Unable to see Rags from her vantage point on the saddle, Sandy was bewildered when Moose suddenly stopped and snorted a couple of times. Thinking something awful had happened—that he’d pulled a tendon or stepped on something—she slipped down from the saddle and began checking him over. In the meantime, he walked slowly to the side of the trail and greeted Rags, who appeared to be waiting patiently for him to show up.

  “Well, dang,” Sandy said. By then all of the contestants except for a few stragglers had passed into the checkpoint where Andrew and other veterinarians now waited.

  “I’m so sorry,” Savannah said, approaching Sandy.

  Sandy laughed. “No harm done. I just think it’s so cute—these two and their sweet friendship.”

  “Yeah, but your ride…”

  “Hey, we’re doing great. There’s just a ninety-minute leg left. One of Moose’s strengths is his endurance.” She scrunched up her face and said, “Well, yeah, this is an endurance ride, right? But he usually ends a short one like this with just about as much energy as when he started—maybe more. He’s pretty incredible that way.” When she took a closer look at Savannah, she frowned. “What happened to you?”

  “Yeah,” Michael said when he caught up to her, “what’s wrong, hon?” He put his arm around her and she collapsed a little against him. Standing there with him, she remembered something. She held out her hand and showed Sandy and Michael. “Rags found this. Michael, I came to tell you about it and I got caught where I wasn’t supposed to be. I saw the horses coming and dove into the brush. Rags got away from me…”

  “Well, what is that? Looks like a mask,” Michael said.

  “It is, Michael. It’s just like the masks those guys were wearing the other night when they came to hurt Moose.”

  This caught Sandy’s attention. “They’re here?” she screeched. “They’ve followed us here?”

  Savannah nodded, trying to catch her breath. “Yes, and Rags pulled this out of their horse trailer. I saw the guy with the bushy black eyebrows.”

  “Bushy black eyebrows?” Sandy repeated. “Well, that sounds like…” Before she could finish, she said, “Hey, Moose and I have a race to win. Listen you two, stay away from those Bozos. I’m going to tell my partner to call the police and have them meet us at the last stop.”

  “Sandy, what if they try something? How about if we keep an eye on them? I can call the police and we’ll trail them until the cops can get out here and arrest them.”

  “On what grounds?” Michael asked.

  “Well, this evidence is a start,” Savannah asserted. “I think once the authorities hear our story, they’ll know what to look for.” She motioned to Sandy. “Now go! You don’t want to get too far behind. Go! We’ll take care of it from this end.”

  Once Sandy had ridden off on Moose, Savannah and Michael walked back to the car with Rags. Savannah started to call the police when she noticed that the trailer and pickup were gone. “They’re gone!” she exclaimed to Michael. “Their rig was parked right there.”

  “Dark-colored pickup?” he asked.

  “Yes—black, I think.” She slipped her phone back into her pocket and opened the back passenger door of the car.

  “What are you doing?” he asked

  “Preserving fingerprints, I hope,” she said, carefully laying the clear plastic mask on a paper towel on the floorboard.

  “Did you call the police?”

  “Not yet,” she said. “What would I tell them? I don’t have a license-plate number, names, nothing. The guys have split. They’re probably going to the finish line, unless…”

  “Unless what?” he asked.

  “Well, unless they plan to do something to Moose while he’s on the trail.” Her anxiety level began to soar. “Michael, people who live around here probably know the trail, and I’m sure it isn’t blocked off at every opening. If someone wanted to do damage to a horse or rider, they probably could.
” She glanced toward the pop-up. “Hey, it looks like Andrew’s finished; let’s find out what he knows.”

  As they approached Andrew, he reported, “Had to disqualify two. The riders weren’t surprised. They were newcomers and wanted to see how far they could get and find out from us and from this experience what they have to work on going forward. I told them to pasture the horses on a hillside and to ride more in the mountains and maybe deep sand. The horses just need more conditioning.” He chuckled. “So do the riders; they were a little overweight. Too much beer, no doubt.” He looked at Savannah and Rags. “Your friend’s gelding’s doing spectacular!”

  “Great,” Savannah said. “Hey, Andrew, we have a problem.”

  “Oh?” He pointed. “Bathrooms are over there.”

  She shook her head. “No, not that. The thing is, I think the guys who attacked me the other night are here, and we’re pretty sure they’re out to hurt Moose.”

  “Are you serious?” he asked, looking around.

  “I could see the bushy eyebrows of one man through his mask that night, and…”

  “Hey, a lot of men have bushy eyebrows,” Andrew said.

  “Well, this guy’s brows are over-the-top bushy. Anyway, I…well, Rags found a clear plastic mask in a horse trailer a while ago, and the trailer was being pulled by a black pickup.” When Andrew didn’t respond, she explained, “That night, Michael saw the men leave in a dark-colored pickup that was pulling a white or silver horse trailer.”

  Andrew furrowed his brow. “Well, a lot of people drive dark-colored pickup trucks and tow horse trailers.”

  “But do they carry around a clear full-face mask?” she asked.

  This stumped Andrew. “Now, that I don’t know how to answer. You’ve got me stymied. So what are you concerned about?”

  “We believe that Moose and Sandy are in danger. I want you to show us the vulnerable places along the trail—you know, where someone might try to sabotage a rider and a horse. And I want to alert the police. Do you know the most likely place where someone could cause a problem for a rider along the trail today?”