Black Stallion's Shadow

by Steven Farley

  Alec felt a little guilty about Mike getting hurt trying to help him. “What he did took guts. It was a little crazy, though. I mean, I know he was trying to help, but he almost drove the Black and me into the trees.”

  “Any idea why the Black took off like that?”

  Alec told her about the buzzer that Wes had found hidden in the saddle blanket.

  “Unbelievable. You say Frank made you switch saddles before the shot?”

  “Yeah.”

  “That probably means the buzzer was meant for Lowball and Kramer!”

  “I thought of that too.”

  “Kramer! Maybe he’s the one they’ve been after all along!”

  Alec nodded in tentative agreement.

  Ellie smacked her forehead. “If I hadn’t been so pig-headed in trying to pin our troubles on Sagebrush, I would have seen this a long time ago. How could I be so stupid?”

  “Any idea who tacked up Lowball this morning?”

  “Probably Mike. But that doesn’t mean anything, if the buzzer was well hidden. It could have been anyone.”

  “How about Julio?”

  “Maybe.”

  Alec scratched his head. “How many people could have guessed which saddle blanket Kramer was going to use for the PSA?”

  “Anybody. Kramer’s superstitious, always uses the same gear. It kind of surprises me that he agreed to switch with you.”

  “You know,” said Alec, “that has to be it! Kramer must be the target. Now all we have to do is start looking at people who have a grudge against him.”

  Ellie rolled her eyes. “That list could fill a book. And whoever the bad guy is wouldn’t even have to be here. They could be paying off someone on the crew to help with the sabotage.”

  Ellie walked along as Alec led the Black back to the corral. She opened the gate and Alec turned the stallion loose inside. After feeding the Black a few coffee cans full of oats, they walked back to the house. Ellie said she had to get back to work. Before she disappeared into the office she told Alec to go into the kitchen and make himself a sandwich. Alec did as she suggested. Later he walked outside to sit on the porch. At Sagebrush, bulldozers churned up the dirt by the houses under construction.

  Jeeps started returning from the location site. Wes came by and told Alec that they had finished the PSA with Patrick filling in for Alec. For the rest of the day the crew would be moving to the studio in town for more work on Drover Days. Wes walked back to his Jeep, saying he had to go to the production office for a conference.

  After Wes left, Alec wandered back out to the Black’s corral. He groomed his horse and stayed there awhile, just watching the Black and thinking.

  For the first time since it happened, he recalled the pangs of fear he felt as the Black bore down on the line of shadow at a full gallop. What had he been scared of? And why? Were the tightening muscles he felt in the Black as they approached a line of shadow just a response to Alec’s signals to hesitate, signals he didn’t even realize he was sending? They must have been. All along he’d thought Wes was way off base when Wes had suggested Alec might be the one with the shadow phobia. Now he was convinced. When his life and the life of the Black had been on the line, he had forced himself not to flinch, not to worry. And the Black had responded—thank God.

  When Alec stopped by to see her that evening, Ellie was at her desk in the office. She looked up from the papers she was working on.

  “How’s it going?” he asked.

  She rubbed her eyes. “Ugh. Fine print is making me go blind.”

  Alec reached over and switched on the desk lamp. “Any word about Mike?”

  She shook her head. The phone rang, and Ellie picked up the receiver. From what he overheard, Alec gathered someone from the hospital was on the other end. “They need an insurance card number for Mike,” Ellie told Alec. “It should be in his wallet in his trailer. Want to help me look for it?”

  “Sure. They say how he was doing?”

  “Okay. He’s resting now.”

  They walked out to Mike’s trailer and went inside. Ellie started looking around for Mike’s wallet. “You know, I was thinking some more about what happened this afternoon. Anyone could have a grudge against Kramer. But only someone in the core crew could get close enough to do anything about it. Or one of the actors.”

  “Like who?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe one of them is jealous of Kramer or something.”

  “Maybe so.”

  Alec’s gaze drifted around the room at the pictures and posters on the wall. Mike’s trailer was a little Western museum all its own. Ellie picked up a pair of jeans that hung on a closet doorknob. In the back pocket she found the wallet, and inside she found the card they needed. “Here it is.”

  She hung up the pants again. Alec turned to leave, but Ellie didn’t follow. She was staring at a dog-eared newspaper clipping tacked on the closet door.

  “Hey, look at this. You know who that guy is standing next to Mike?” She pointed to the clipping Alec had noticed earlier, the one of Mike winning a trophy belt buckle at a rodeo.

  “I saw that too,” Alec said. “Some actor, isn’t he?”

  “I never noticed it before, but now that I see it close up, that looks like Kramer’s old sidekick, Hank McBride.”

  “You mean the actor who was drowned on location, the one Jim was talking about the other night?”

  She nodded and leaned closer to examine the faded clipping. “Yeah. That’s McBride, all right. What’s he doing with Mike?”

  Reaching over to touch the paper, Alec felt the thickness at the bottom. The lower section was doubled up. Unfolding it, he read aloud the news article hidden under the photo. “Brother Gives Trophy to Brother: Harleyville—Western movie star Hank McBride, left, took time out from his busy schedule to present the awards at the Harleyville Rodeo yesterday. Top prize for bulldogging went to a familiar face on the Northwest rodeo circuit, young Mike Reynolds, who just so happens to be Hank McBride’s stepbrother. Success must run in the family. Other winners were …”

  Alec stopped reading and looked at Ellie.

  “I knew Mike didn’t like Kramer, but wow,” she said. “This means …”

  Alec finished her sentence for her. “Mike could still be holding Kramer responsible for what happened to his stepbrother. Didn’t you know they were related?”

  “He never said a word about having a brother, alive or dead. You don’t really think Mike could be the one behind all this, do you?”

  “I don’t know what to think. Mike sure fits the profile of someone with a grudge against Kramer. And he’s been there practically every time something went wrong.”

  “I can’t believe it. He almost killed himself twice trying to stop the accidents.”

  Alec shrugged. “I’m not saying he did it, Ellie, just that he had a motive—revenge against Kramer. He could easily have cut the reins that caused the wagon crash. And planting the buzzer would have been a snap for him.”

  Ellie nodded. “You’re right! He was here the day of the fire, too. In fact, he helped put it out, but not before it spread to Kramer’s trailer.”

  Alec looked over at Mike’s desk. “I think we should look around in here a little.”

  Ellie started opening drawers and poking around in Mike’s desk. In a wastebasket she found torn bits of black tape. She showed the tape to Alec. The tape was identical to the kind wrapped around the buzzer.

  The back of Alec’s neck burned with anger. “I think we better take a ride over to the hospital and have a little talk with Mike.” Ellie took the clipping down from the closet door. She folded it carefully and put it in her shirt pocket.

  CHAPTER 21

  Luck

  Ellie phoned Wes at the production office in town and asked him to meet her at the hospital. She didn’t tell him what they’d found in Mike’s trailer, only that it was important. Half an hour later, Alec and Ellie were speeding down the freeway in one of the ranch pickups.

  Ellie drop
ped off the insurance card with a clerk on duty in the hospital lobby. The clerk said visiting hours were almost over but directed them to room 906.

  At the nurse’s station on the ninth floor they were told that Jim had left just a short while before. No one else had been in to see Mike. Alec turned to Ellie. “It looks like Wes hasn’t shown up yet.”

  “Good. That’ll give us a chance to talk to Mike alone for a minute.”

  They followed the numbers around a bank of elevators.The air was stuffy. The smell of antiseptic and of years of overcooked hospital food clung to the walls. The door to room 906 was open. A white-haired patient slouched on a chair inside the door. He wore a nightgown and dozed in front of a television set hanging from a mount on the ceiling. The other two roommates lay asleep.

  Mike’s bed was in a corner of the room beside a wide plate-glass window that had a panoramic view of the night sky. Stars glowed in misty clusters. Mike sat facing out the window, pillows propping up his back. His left leg was uncovered and wrapped in bandages.

  Alec couldn’t tell if Mike was dozing or lost in thought. An uneaten dinner sat on a tray table beside the bed. Ellie drew the privacy curtain separating Mike from his neighbors. Then she and Alec stepped over in front of the window. Ellie sat down on the sill. “How you doing, Mike?”

  Mike didn’t move but squinted as he tried to recognize his visitors. His voice sounded warm and sleepy as he spoke. “Is that you, Ellie? Alec? Hey, thanks for coming. Some spill I took, huh? The doc says I may have bruised something in my guts.”

  “What happened to your leg?”

  “Tore some ligaments; twisted that ankle of mine again too. They got me so doped up I hardly feel it. I’ll be ouchin’ tomorrow, though.” He tried to force a smile. Ellie and Alec didn’t smile back. Out of her pocket she took the newspaper clipping. She dropped it onto his lap. Alec lay a piece of torn tape beside it.

  Ellie’s voice was cool. “Brought you some things from home, Mike. Look familiar?”

  Mike quickly realized what they were. His expression hardened. “What were you doing in my trailer?”

  “The hospital called the ranch and said they needed an insurance card for you. We were looking for it.”

  Mike fingered the tape and sneered. “In the waste-basket?”

  Ellie came closer to Mike. “This is the same kind of tape wrapped around the buzzer Alec found in his saddle blanket.” Mike turned away from Ellie. “Know anything about that?”

  Up to that moment Ellie had been doing a good job of containing her wrath. Her tone of voice began to harden. “You put that thing there, didn’t you? This has been about you and Kramer all along, hasn’t it, Mike? Hasn’t it?”

  Mike hung his head. When he spoke again, his words came low and even. “All these years, I’ve been trying to forget. Then Kramer shows up on the set. What was I supposed to do?”

  Someone came in the room and shuffled across the linoleum. Wes stepped around the curtain. Ellie ignored him. She threw up her hands and stared down at Mike. “But why, Mike, why?”

  “He was my brother, that’s why.”

  Wes looked puzzled. “Wait a minute. Brother? What’s going on here?”

  Ellie turned to Wes. “Mike’s been keeping a little secret from us. Hank McBride was his stepbrother.”

  “What!”

  “Mike’s been after Kramer since Kramer signed on to Drover Days. That’s why we’ve been having all the trouble at the ranch.”

  Wes stood there slack-jawed, waiting for Mike to deny Ellie’s accusation. Mike said nothing. He looked like a little boy about to be punished. One of the other patients in the room started to snore.

  Ellie tried to keep her voice down as she turned back to Mike. “You’re not the only one who’s lost someone in an accident, you know. I’m not chasing around after the drunk driver who ran into my parents.”

  “You were pretty young when your folks were killed, Ellie. It was different with me and Hank.”

  Wes stepped closer to the bed. “So you don’t care about anything else? Getting back at Kramer is all that matters? Don’t you realize what you’ve been doing to the ranch? Look at me, Mike!”

  Mike stiffened, yet his voice sounded soft, almost hypnotized. “Just when I thought I’d blocked the whole thing out of my memory, Kramer shows up at the ranch. Pretty soon it all started coming back to me. If it wasn’t for that creep, my brother would still be alive. It kept me awake at night, thinking. I just couldn’t sit there and do nothing while … but I didn’t mean to …” He started to sob.

  Wes grabbed Mike by the shoulders and shook him angrily. Mike cringed with pain. “Your brother was killed in an accident, for pete’s sake!” Hurt and betrayal mixed with the anger in Wes’s voice. Ellie and Alec pulled Wes back.

  Ellie stared down at Mike. “We were your friends, Mike. Didn’t that count for anything? What about Joey? You made that horse! And why hurt Alec and the Black? What did they ever do to you?”

  “Do you think I like the way things turned out? How was I supposed to guess the wagon team would head for the trees instead of just running off? Or that Frank would switch Kramer’s saddle for the Black’s? I didn’t want to hurt anyone but Kramer.”

  Wes laughed in Mike’s face. “Oh, I guess that’s okay, then.”

  Alec seethed with fury. “You idiot! We could have been killed.”

  “I tried to stop you, Alec. That’s how I ended up in the hospital.” Alec shook his head in disgust.

  Mike closed his eyes and leaned back in his pillows. A look of pathetic tranquility drifted across his face. Having unburdened himself of his secret, he seemed resigned to accept his fate. Come what may, it was all out of his hands.

  Someone entered the room from the hall. When the nurse saw the three of them hovering over Mike, she told them visiting hours were over and that they’d better go.

  Wes shook his head as he turned away. “You’re all through, Mike. Don’t even think about showing your face around my ranch again. I’ll have your things packed up. Write us and let us know where you want them sent.” Then he followed Alec and Ellie out into the hall.

  They didn’t say anything until they reached the parking garage. Ellie turned to Wes. “What now, Pops? Do we call the sheriff?”

  Wes shook his head. “I know I should, but I’m not going to. Mike doesn’t need to go to jail. That wouldn’t help.”

  “What if he goes after Kramer again?”

  “I don’t think Mike will be chasing Kramer around the countryside, if that’s what you’re worried about. Luck brought those two together. Bad luck, but luck just the same. Don’t worry. I’ll keep my ears open. If Kramer so much as cuts himself shaving, the police will know where to look.”

  Ellie’s eyes flashed with anger. “Who does he think he is, telling me I don’t know what it’s like to lose somebody?”

  Wes looked back at the hospital entrance. “Revenge is a disease, honey, like chickenpox or measles, only you can’t see it on the outside. It’ll eat at a person’s soul until there’s nothing left but anger and hate. Mike is basically a good kid. He’ll come around.”

  Turning on his heels, Wes walked down a row of parked cars to find his truck. Ellie scratched her head as she watched him leave. “I’ll never figure Pops out. One minute he’s at war with the world, the next he’s Mister Let-it-be.”

  Alec and Ellie climbed into her pickup and drove back to the freeway. “I still can’t believe this,” Ellie said after a long silence. “Mike was like one of the family.”

  “It’s like Wes said, revenge is a disease. I sure hope I never feel that way about anybody.”

  Soon they were pulling into the ranch driveway. It had been an exhausting day, and Alec looked forward to getting some sleep. He opened the door of the truck and stepped outside. “Guess you’ll be looking for a new assistant trainer around here.”

  “Know anybody who might be interested?”

  Alec smiled. “Not right offhand. I’ll let you know if
I think of someone. Good night, Ellie.”

  “Night, Alec.” She watched him disappear into the dark.

  Alec was up early on his last morning at the ranch. He rode into town to gas up the van. The ranch was quiet, except for the sounds of groaning bulldozers and construction workers coming from Sagebrush. Drover Days was shooting interior scenes at the studio in town that morning. Alec’s plane wasn’t leaving for a few hours, so he figured he had time to take one last ride up into the canyon.

  When he reached the corral, he found the Black waiting for him expectantly, as if he already sensed that this would be a travel day and was eager to get going. It didn’t take Alec long to feed and groom his horse. Soon they were edging their way around the barricade that marked the head of the canyon trail. The stallion moved easily, assured and totally composed. He held his head up proudly, lowering it only when stones cluttered the path at his feet. Once they arrived at the box canyon, Alec pressed the stallion into a jog. He felt the solid, pistonlike motion of the Black’s legs grabbing for more dirt.

  Trusting the stallion to guide them safely, Alec let the stallion have his head. He tasted the rush of wind in his face as the Black burned a path across the flat canyon bottom. It could have been seconds or minutes before he pulled up on the reins.

  Alec slid down from the Black’s back and fell to the ground. While the Black ripped up clumps of grass from the dry ground, Alec watched the high white clouds pass overhead. It was a beautiful morning. He lay there awhile, then rolled over and looked around.

  There on the other side of the canyon lay the wreckage of the crashed wagon. He couldn’t stop his thoughts from returning to that awful scene. A shudder passed through him.

  Alec turned around again and sat up, trying to forget the sight of the busted-up wagon. It was no use. A horse lay buried in a fresh grave over there.

  Alec called the Black to him. He knew he should be happy. Yesterday the Black had carried him through a line of shadow at top speed. They would be able to race again. Yet something nagged at Alec, keeping him from celebrating. Had he really overcome his fear of shadows? Yesterday’s breakthrough had been in a life-or-death situation. How would he react under more normal circumstances? Alec had to know, once and for all. He slung himself up into the saddle and started off at a trot. Quickly the Black lengthened his strides to a thundering gallop.