Connor followed the veterinariaan into the fading afternoon light, watching silently as McSween repacked his equipment into his truck.
“How do you think Cleo cut her leg?” Connor finally asked.
Dr. McSween clanged two stainless steel buckets back into the truck. “Have you checked your fences? Maybe there’s a nail exposed.”
“There’s not a nail or splinter loose on these grounds.” Old Henry spoke from the shadow of the barn. “I check the fences daily, and the stalls. Someone hurt that animal. They did it on purpose, and there’s no sense pussy-footin’ around about it.”
In her heart, Connor had known that it was a deliberate act, but she hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it. Now it was out in the open. Old Henry was a tall stalk of righteous rage.
“Someone went in that stall and cut Cleo badly enough that they almost crippled her,” Old Henry continued. “Not to mention the way that filth had been jammed into the cut.”
McSween turned around. “You’ve got yourself a serious problem here, Connor. Who would want to hurt your horse?”
“That’s a good question.” She blinked back tears. “I’ll have an answer, too. Before the end of the day.”
“You can bet on that.” Old Henry spun around and walked back into the barn.
McSween wiped his forehead again. “You be careful. I can’t prove that cut was made by a person. I believe it was, but I’ve seen horses do strange things to themselves. Without concrete proof, I’m not willing to state that only a human could have done that.”
“But you know that’s what happened. I do, too.”
“Connor, maybe you should question everyone who has access to the barn.” He closed up the drawers and equipment in his truck before he finished. “Think about this: whoever would do that to an animal is capable of a lot more. If someone viciously cut Cleo to get back at you, what might they do to you if they got the chance?”
“How soon before I can trailer her?”
McSween shook his head. “I wouldn’t be thinking about that. Not with her pregnant. Too much stress.”
“Maybe just over the bay. Elvie Adams lives over there, and she’d take care of her for me.”
“I can’t advise that. You’d be risking the mare and the foal, Connor.”
“I can’t leave them here for some maniac to cut to pieces.”
McSween put his hand on Connor’s shoulder. “Watch her. Maybe it was an accident.”
“Accident, my butt.” Connor wiped an angry tear from her eye.
“I’ll be back tomorrow to check on her and give her another shot of antibiotics.”
“Thanks.” Connor managed a fleeting smile. Dr. McSween was a rare find, a man who loved his work and his patients.
“You take care.” The vet walked around to his truck, got in, slammed the door, and drove away.
For as long as she could, Connor watched him drive away. When his truck had vanished among the oak trees and woods, she turned around and walked back into the barn. She intended to question everyone, with the exception of Old Henry. If he hadn’t been watching out for Cleo, she might have been in much worse shape.
Before she started looking for Jeff, she dialed Clarissa Barnes’s stables and got Elvie on the phone. She briefly told her what had happened to Cleo.
“Since you can’t bring her over here, do you want me to come over and stay with you?” Elvie asked.
Connor hesitated. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.” For the first time her voice broke. “It’s not just Cleo, there are some other things happening at Oaklawn.”
“What is it?” Elvie’s voice was filled with concern. “I know I haven’t said anything, but Richard has been worried about you. He won’t ever tell me any specifics, but he’s always asking about you, making sure that you’re happy. Hell, I told him you were Queen of the South.”
“I’m okay,” Connor said, fighting to regain control. “If I need you, I’ll call, okay?”
“Are you sure? I can brave the old dragon and ask Clarissa to let me have tomorrow off.”
“No point in getting your skin scorched unless you have to. If I need you, I’ll call. I promise.” She put down the phone and went into the barn. Old Henry was leaning over Cleo’s stall, watching her.
“Jeff!” she called. “Jeff! I want to see you in my office!” Now the questioning would begin. She took a seat at her desk, gripping the edge of the top to hide her trembling hands. It was only a matter of a few seconds before Jeff appeared.
“If you’re going to ask me who cut that mare, I can tell you I don’t know.” Jeff stood in the doorway.
“Since you’re innocent, you won’t mind answering a few questions, then. Where were you all day?”
“Well,” Jeff leaned against the door frame, “I don’t know that I want to tell you this.”
Connor felt her anger churn. All afternoon, dread and guilt had managed to keep the anger pushed to the back. Now it was dangerously close to the surface. “I know Clay feels that you’re a good manager, Jeff, and I agree with him. But let me warn you, if he even suspects you’ve damaged an animal, you’re gone. It would be better if you told me. I’m not asking you alone, I’m going to ask everyone on this place. Someone cut Cleo, and I’m going to find out who and why.”
“When I heard old Henry squawking, I looked at her leg. I knew she’d been cut deliberately, but it wasn’t me. If you’re really wondering what I was doing all morning, maybe you’d better ask Sally. She might be embarrassed, but she can give you the specific details.”
“Sally?” Connor repeated the name as if she were stupid.
“She called in sick this morning, and I took a little time myself. I’d just gotten here when that deliveryman pulled up. Maybe you’d better ask Old Henry if he did it. He’s been lurking around that mare like a lovesick old fool.” He walked out the door without another word.
Connor let him go. The children had been in school. Besides, Danny loved the horses and Renata wouldn’t go in the barn. That left only Willene, who’d had never been down to the barn a day in her life and wouldn’t go close enough to a horse to spit on it, much less touch it. That covered everyone who belonged on Oaklawn. Cleo had been cut by someone who wasn’t supposed to be at the estate. But who? Who hated her enough to do such a thing? Whoever was in the house. Whoever it was who’d been hiding and lurking, sneaking and attacking her. Now she’d moved on to the horses. And she had to be stopped.
Connor picked up the telephone and dialed Clay’s office. To her surprise, Margaret, the receptionist, had no idea where Clay had gone.
“I don’t know where he is. His brother’s been calling here, and Mr. Ashton. They’re both very upset. Mr. Sumner has simply disappeared.”
“When you find him, please tell him to call his wife immediately. This is an emergency.”
“Certainly, Mrs. Sumner.”
Connor replaced the phone, and her fingers traced over the bill from Bayshore Boutique. In the madness over Cleo, she’d pushed the matter of the dress to the back of her mind. She had to talk to Clay. Before she really lost her mind.
“Connor! Connor!”
The note of excitement in Danny’s voice got her out of her chair. Looking out the office window, she saw Danny and Renata trotting very fast into the barn area. She hurried outside to meet them.
“Look what we found!” Danny rode up to Connor and held out his hand. The pocketknife was covered in blood and dirt. Some of it had rubbed on Danny’s hand and arm.
Her first impulse was to recoil, but she held out her hand. “Where was it?” Connor took the grime-coated weapon. She couldn’t prove it, but there was a good chance this was the knife that had been used to cut Cleo.
“Not too far down the trail.” Danny’s eyes were wide. “Wonder who dropped it. Do you think it was used to kill somebody?” His voice rose with childish anticipation of imagined horror.
“I don’t think so.” Connor realized then that Danny didn’t know about Cleo. “Someone went in the barn
and cut Cleo’s leg pretty badly. The vet just left from stitching it up.”
“They cut Cleo? Let’s hunt them down and kill them.” Danny’s eyes glittered with anger and tears.
Connor shivered. Dusk was settling in around Oaklawn. Always a melancholy time of day in the winter, it now carried an edge of the sinister. “I’m going to report this to the police,” Connor said, patting Danny’s leg. “They’ll find whoever did this, and we’ll prosecute.”
“Is Cleo going to be okay?” Renata looked worried. “Is the baby okay?” Tears formed in her eyes. “I can’t believe anyone would hurt one of the horses. That’s not right. Nobody should do such a thing. Nobody.”
“I think she’s going to be fine,” Connor soothed. Renata was working herself into a real frenzy. “Did you see anyone in the woods?”
“No.” They spoke in unison.
“Not even your friend Hilla?”
Renata slid down off her pony. “I think she’s gone, but she wouldn’t hurt a horse anyway. She loves horses. She had one of her own.”
“Can I see Cleo?” Danny interrupted.
“She’s still sedated, but she’ll be glad to see you.” Connor was worried about the children. Danny loved all the horses, but after Ali Baba, Cleo was his favorite. And Renata—she’d grown fonder of the horses than even Connor had suspected.
As the children went to untack, Connor walked around the corner of the barn and turned the hose on the knife. It had an expensive onyx handle with a stainless-steel blade. As the blood and grime rinsed away, she saw the initials: CAS. With water dripping off her fingers, she went back into the barn.
Danny was standing in the aisle at Cleo’s door, talking to the mare. Renata stood about fifty feet from the doorway, looking in but unwilling to enter.
“You guys run up to the house and get washed up for dinner. It’s going to be dark soon.”
“Can I come back down to see about Cleo?” Danny asked.
“We’ll see. Run on, now.”
When they were gone, Connor went back to her office. She closed the door and leaned against it, her body shaking so severely that she almost cried with weakness. CAS. Clay Alan Sumner. The same as the stock tie. Clay’s signature on the bill for a black wedding dress—purchased the day after she’d made her own selection, the day after she’d described the dress in detail to her loving groom.
Like a sleepwalker, she went to the telephone and called Harlan. Four weeks ago, no one could ever have convinced her that she would voluntarily call the doctor for any reason.
“Harlan, it’s Connor.”
There was a long pause. “Have you heard from Clay?” His voice gave nothing away.
“No.” Connor could hear her own voice falling apart. “Have you seen him?”
“No, but when I do, I’m going to kick his butt. Benedict and I have been trying to find him all day. He’s flown the coop and I’m left here to babysit the telephone and try to track him down. He had a very important meeting with the Chairman of the Democratic Party.”
“I need to talk with him.”
“Sounds more like you need a good stiff drink. What’s this all about? Trouble in paradise? So soon?” There was a bit of gloat in Harlan’s voice.
“I want to know the truth about some things.” Connor found herself choking back tears. Her emotional fragility embarrassed her. “I have to know, Harlan. I think I’m going crazy.”
“What the hell is going on out there?”
“Harlan, did you get someone to dress up in a black wedding dress at my wedding?”
Harlan’s answer was swift and emphatic. “No. What are you saying?”
“I didn’t fall. Someone, a woman, tried to hit me with a hammer. I wasn’t lying about that, and I didn’t make it up.” Connor gripped the telephone tighter. “I thought you were behind the incidents. Sort of an attempt to scare me into leaving.”
“I won’t pretend that I didn’t want you to leave. I did, and I still think, for your safety, that the best thing would be for you to leave Oaklawn immediately. I don’t know what’s happening there. I have no idea. But I do know that Clay has never been … completely balanced. Especially not when it comes to women. He gets obsessed with one to the point that he has to press and press and press until he wins her. Then …”
Connor shut her eyes, but two tears squeezed out. “Don’t say that, Harlan. It isn’t true. Why would Clay want to marry me just to hurt me?”
“I’m not a psychiatrist, and my opinion is strictly prejudiced, so it isn’t worth hearing. Let’s talk about facts. This woman you say attacked you—how is it possible for her to be at the wedding when no one saw her but you?”
“There’s a secret passage to the third floor. I found the dress in an old trunk up there. There are other things I’ve found, too. I got an invoice today for the black wedding dress. Clay signed it.”
There was a pause. “We need to get you out of there. Tonight. I never believed Talla when she said there was someone haunting Oaklawn.” Harlan sounded genuinely contrite. “I knew she was drinking and taking pills, and I never believed her. She said there was someone else in the house, someone who meant her harm.”
“This Melanie person, did she die before or after Talla?”
“After. What are you thinking?”
“I asked Clay about her. He insisted she was still alive. He swore she was out in California and that she was fine. He said he had letters from her to prove that she was okay.”
“Impossible. That girl is dead. She went into a coma after the fall. I saw her at Greenbriar Hospital, and she was in terrible condition. All broken up.” He hesitated. “Before she went into a coma, she swore she was pushed off the roof.”
“Pushed? Did she say who pushed her?”
“She was in such pain that they wouldn’t let her talk. Shortly after they gave her something to ease her suffering she went into a coma. She died two days later without ever naming her assailant. No one claimed the body. There was apparently no family, so I had her buried. I can assure you, she’s dead.”
“I don’t believe you.” Connor wanted to scream, but she didn’t. If Melanie was dead, then everything Clay had said was a lie. The photographs—all a lie to trick her into marriage. Why? Why? She had to have some answers.
“Call the hospital, Connor. Ask them. They’ll tell you that a young woman named Melanie Banks died there, in July.”
“Hospital records can be forged. You’re a doctor! You could do that!”
“The girl is dead. If you don’t believe me, I can take you to the grave. I might be able to forge a hospital record, but I can’t fabricate a grave. Take my word about this and think of your own safety. You have to get out of Oaklawn, Connor. Tonight.”
“I’m not leaving until I find out who’s behind this. Everyone who’s involved.”
“Even if it’s Clay?”
Tears dripped off Connor’s chin. “I love Clay. This is all so crazy. How can I love someone who may be trying to hurt me?”
“Connor, get out of Oaklawn. Give yourself some time to think. If you put some distance …”
“Distance won’t solve this, Harlan. Running won’t, either. If there’s something wrong with Clay, I’m going to find out.”
“Are you sure that’s what you want? I tried to warn you about getting involved in this family. I did everything I could to discourage you.”
“I am involved. And I want some answers.”
“If I show you Melanie’s grave, will you swear to leave Oaklawn?”
“Why are you so worried about me?”
“If something happens to you, they’ll have to reopen Talla’s death. This whole can of worms will be exposed. I have no love for my brother, but he’s too close to power. And as I told you before, I need that power. I’ve gotten myself into some trouble. Serious trouble with my medical license. Clay, if he’s elected, can prevent them from taking my license. Is that clear enough for you to understand?”
“I want to see
her grave.” It would be the one thing that convinced her Harlan wasn’t lying. He was right, he couldn’t fabricate a grave in an hour.
“Meet me at the Shady Vale cemetery? Bring a flashlight, and wait for me at the gate.”
“I’ll bring a flashlight and a gun. Just for the record, I know how to use one and I won’t hesitate.”
“You still suspect that I’m somehow behind this, don’t you?”
“At this point, I suspect everyone.”
“Honest to a fault, Connor. That’s a serious problem for a candidate’s wife. Give me half an hour and I’ll be there.”
Connor replaced the phone. What if Melanie wasn’t dead? What if she and Clay … but why had he married her? Why? Talla had a family, money, influence. Connor brought none of those things to the marriage. And she’d certainly put no pressure on Clay to marry. In fact, he’d put the heat on her. Why? If he hadn’t wanted to marry, why had he insisted on it?
It wasn’t an obsession. She thought of the physical reaction they had to each other. No man had ever ignited such a response from her. And the fire was mutual. All they had to do was look at each other. But that wasn’t obsessive. No, Harlan was wrong.
She telephoned Willene and told her not to hold dinner but to serve the children. Opening the desk drawer, she removed the revolver that was kept there. She made sure the clip was full, then checked on Cleo one more time before she turned out the lights in the barn. Instead of walking to the house, she drove. There were several highpowered flashlights in the house, and she wanted one of those if she was going to meet Harlan Sumner in a cemetery.
Willene and the children were in the dining room talking about Cleo. Connor paused for a moment, listening to the soothing tones of Willene’s voice as she told the children the horse would be fine. Connor found a big flashlight in her room and left without making any noise. It would be better if everyone thought she was still at the barn.
The drive to the cemetery took twenty-five minutes. She had time to kill while she waited on Harlan. She twisted her wedding band, aware for the first time that it felt strange on her finger. Talla’s ruby ring was still on her pinky. In the horror of the day she’d forgotten to take it off.
Deception Page 37
