Cozy Mystery Bundle #1 (South Lane Detective Agency)

by John P. Logsdon

  “Why?” ventured Casey, trying again to get more information.

  “He’s fast,” stated Riggs as if that explained everything. “Real fast.”

  “Well, he’s a horse, so...” Zane said with a shrug of his shoulders.

  Riggs gave him a dull stare. “When we win races, it’s like by ten lengths.”

  “Sorry?” Casey said with her pen in the air. “Ten lengths?”

  “It means how many horses would fit between my horse crossing the finish line and the closest horse behind me. So ten lengths means that ten horses could fit in that gap.”

  Riggs looked like a proud parent as he spoke.

  “Okay, that is pretty fast,” Zane said as he picked up a cap that was sitting on the side bench, “unless all the rest of the horses are slouches, I suppose.”

  “Unlikely,” Riggs said, shaking his head, “and would you put my riding hat down, please?”

  “Sorry.”

  Casey wondered if the reason could be simple. “Could it be that the horse just gets tired?”

  “No,” Riggs immediately said. “I mean, sure, they get tired, but I’ve been riding horses all my life, and I know that’s not it.”

  “How do you know for sure?” asked Zane.

  “It’s just something you learn,” Riggs replied with a shrug. “I would imagine it’s the same with you and solving mysteries. You can’t explain how you do it, it just comes naturally.”

  “That’s true,” agreed Zane.

  Casey fought to contain a grunt.

  “Still,” she said, “there must be something you can give us to go on?”

  “Well, have you ever ridden a horse?” Riggs said.

  “We dated in college,” Zane answered proudly.

  Riggs gave them both a confused look. “So?”

  “Just ignore him,” Casey said with a disturbed glance at Zane.

  “What?” Zane said. “He asked if you—”

  “He said horse, not pig.”

  “Oh, I get it now,” Riggs said. “Ew. Anyway, have you ever ridden a real horse?”

  “No,” Casey said, quickly adding, “A pony once at the fair when I was younger.”

  Zane put his hands on his hips. “You were twenty-three.”

  “Which means I was younger.”

  “You rode a pony at the fair when you were twenty-three?” Riggs said.

  “Can we get back to your case, please?” Casey said.

  Riggs shook his hands in the air. “Right, sure. Sorry. Anyway...” The little man once more turned to Zane with an expression of irritation. “Okay, put down my riding jacket.” He pointed at Zane. “On second thought, you know what? Just don’t touch anything.”

  “Don’t get short with me,” Zane said with a snort.

  “Hey!” said Riggs, clearly getting the joke in Zane’s comment.

  “Zane,” warned Casey, “do I really need to make you wait in the car?”

  “I don’t want to wait in that thing,” Zane said sourly.

  “Nice,” Casey said. “So, Riggs, what’s different about this horse?”

  “Well, first off, his name is Lightning’s Twist, but we call him LT.”

  “Why?” Zane said.

  Sometimes she truly wondered at Zane’s intellect. He was a gorgeous specimen of a man, but he couldn’t walk and chew bubblegum at the same time. It was as though the universe had to balance out his stunning looks somehow.

  “How do you even make your own breakfast in the morning?”

  “I don’t,” he replied, giving her an are you stupid? look. “I have people for that.”

  Riggs looked at Casey.

  “Glad you’re the one really in charge here,” the little man said and then tilted his head at Zane. “Seems like a bit of a dullard.”

  “You have no idea.”

  “Hey, I’m standing right here, you know,” Zane said.

  “Anyway,” Riggs went on, “LT acts the same before every race. He’s always excited and ready to go. But something happens between us leaving the stables and getting to the gate that sometimes causes him to slouch and I don’t know what it is. And it’s only started in the last few months, too. We’ll win three or four races and then he’ll slouch and we’ll get burned badly.”

  “Performance anxiety?” Zane suggested.

  “Now who’s bringing up college?” Casey said, turning to Zane.

  “Hey, watch it.”

  Riggs gestured between the two of them. “You sure you two aren’t still dating?”

  “Yeah, why?” Casey said.

  “No reason,” Riggs replied, looking surprised. He stepped over to his desk and began thumbing through some papers. “Look, the oddest part of all of this is that Mr. Berlington seems to be happier on the days that we lose.”

  “That is indeed odd,” Casey said, tapping her pen on the paper.

  Zane sat on the bench, next to the cap he obviously still wanted to play with. “Maybe he just feels good for the other horses.”

  Casey gave him a look like he had lost his mind. “What?”

  “Right,” Riggs said, seeming equally baffled by Zane’s comment. “If it wasn’t for that oddity, I wouldn’t have thought anything of it.”

  Casey had the feeling she was out of her league here, but she had to get back to base investigative thoughts. It didn’t matter what the case was. Her job was to figure out what was going on, build up evidence, and let her customer know what she’d uncovered. Whether it was a diamond heist, a missing cat, or a horse that slouched every few races was irrelevant. All that mattered was her solving the puzzle.

  She reset her stance and took a deep breath.

  “What reasons can you think of that would make him happy that one of his horses is losing?”

  Riggs, seeming to take a cue from Casey’s change in demeanor, straightened up to his full height, which wasn’t saying much.

  “Only one thing I can think of,” he answered strongly. “He’s betting against LT.”

  “So you think he’s fixing the races?” Casey said.

  “That’s what I’m afraid of.”

  “I see,” Casey said after a moment. “And you want us to pinpoint the spot when the horse gets sluggish so you can find out who’s helping him.”

  “That’s about the gist of it, yes.”

  Zane got up and the three of them began to walk back out of the stables, into the late morning sun.

  Walking through the stables didn’t offer up the greatest of smells in the world, but there was something posh about walking around here. It was nothing to Zane, of course, but Casey had to fight off her subconscious mind’s attempt to want to belong here.

  “When is the next race?” Casey said, hoping she wouldn’t have to give up the coming weekend.

  “Today at four o’clock,” Riggs said as he shut the stable doors behind them.

  She put away her notebook and pen, and found her car keys in her pocket. “Doesn’t give us much time,” she said.

  “Has to be today because we’ve had three wins in a row.”

  “So?” Zane said.

  “So there’s a pattern that’s emerged,” Riggs said. “Two wins and a loss, then three and loss, then two and a loss, then three and a loss, then—”

  “It keeps doing that, right?” Casey said, cutting him off.

  “Sorry, yes.”

  “You don’t happen to have any videos of past races, by chance?” Casey asked. She was hoping to find a clue in one of them.

  “Sure,” Riggs said as he pointed to his office. “We keep records of all the races so we can study them. Wait here for a second.”

  Casey turned to Zane. “What do you think?”

  “About what?”

  “About Riggs, dummy.”

  “Nah, he’s a little too big to play the part of a dummy.”

  “You’re the dummy, not him!”

  “I’m definitely too big to play the part of a dummy.”

  Casey laughed. “Apparently not. Pay atte
ntion, do you think he’s on the up and up?”

  “More like the down and down.”

  “Then you don’t trust him either?”

  “Oh, I thought we were talking about height again.”

  “You’re such a child, Zane.”

  “Thanks,” he said with a smile.

  “Again, do you...”

  Riggs ran back out of his office with something in his hand.

  “Here we go,” the little man said, handing a rectangular object to Casey.

  “A thumb drive, eh?” Casey said, looking at it.

  “I’ll take care of it,” Zane said, taking it from her hand. “It’s 2016 and she doesn’t know how to use basic tech.”

  “I do so.”

  “Sorry, she’s right,” Zane self-corrected. “She does know how to use basic tech, just not today’s version of it.”

  “Just keep walking, fly boy,” Casey said with a wince.

  “Boy, you guys really make a weird pair,” Riggs said as he walked them to Casey’s car.

  “Tell me about it,” Casey muttered under her breath. She unlocked the car and put her things in the back seat.

  Zane stopped suddenly, looking down at his shoes. “Aw, man! I just stepped in mud.”

  “Wonderful,” Casey said, looking over the top of the car at him. “You’re not putting those in my car.”

  “These shoes are worth more than your car.”

  Riggs’s head snapped up and looked at Zane. “That’s not possible.”

  “Look at my shoes,” Zane said, lifting one foot.

  “Oh, those are top of the line, aren’t they?” Riggs said. “But still, her car...”

  Zane dramatically pointed at Casey’s car. “Look at it! It’s a Honda!”

  Riggs nodded. “Okay, maybe they are more expensive than her car.”

  “Told you.”

  “But I have some bad news for you,” Riggs said as he shook his head.

  “Something worse than stepping full-on into a pile of mud with my John Lobb’s on?” said Zane.

  “Yeah,” Riggs answered apologetically, “that’s not mud.”

  THE VIDS

  As soon as Casey and Zane walked back into the office, Casey was approached by several of the workers. She struggled to get through them so she could put her things down, but they merely followed her.

  “Now, do you want the dividing wall half-high or full up?” one was saying.

  “Um, full up, I guess.”

  “So no glass, then. Got it.”

  “No, wait!” Casey said, stopping the guy before he could get away. “I want glass.”

  “So you don’t want the wall full up,” he stated with a grunt, scratching out his note and writing a new one down.

  “I want it like what he’s got,” she said, pointing to Zane’s side.

  The worker sighed and gave her an annoyed expression. “Ma’am, that’s half-high.”

  “Yeah, okay.” She did her best to equal his annoyed look. “I want that.”

  “You want smoked glass or clear?”

  “What’s Zane got?”

  “Clear,” the guy said, pointing at Zane. “You can see him.”

  “So if it’s smoked what’s that mean?”

  “Means you can kind of see in, but it ain’t clear.”

  “Let’s go with smoked.”

  The guy flipped through his papers for a second before looking back up. “Sorry, lady, but that ain’t in the budget I was given.”

  “Then why’d you ask?” It was Casey’s turn to grunt.

  “It’s on the form,” the guy answered, clearly unaffected by her tone.

  Casey hated working with contractors. They always talked down to her. If she had the money that Zane had, it wouldn’t be like this, of course, and she refused to go in to Zane’s office and ask him to straighten this guy out. No, this was her fight.

  “Can’t you just copy whatever he’s got on his side of the office?”

  “Not at the price he paid, no.”

  “Well, what are the differences, then?” she said, crossing her arms. “Let’s just talk about those.”

  “Cheaper carpet, cheaper desk, cheaper walls, cheaper paint, cheaper...”

  “I get it.” She threw her hands up in disgust. If the guy already knew all of this, why was he bothering her about it? “Just make it as close to his as you can, okay?”

  “Whatever you say, lady.”

  Casey felt defeated as she walked over to Zane’s desk.

  “You’re unbelievable, you know that?” she said to him.

  Zane smiled up at her. “Thanks.” Then he pointed to the flat screen TV on the wall. “Sit down. I got the vids up.”

  Casey sat, staring in wonder at the television that had magically appeared. “I don’t recall seeing a TV in here before.”

  “’Cause it’s in the wall.” He shook his head at her and then reached for the remote. He pressed a button and a panel slid down to cover the TV, making it look like it had never been there.

  Casey was impressed. “Am I getting one of those?”

  “Sorry, wasn’t in the budget.”

  “Figures.”

  “Want some popcorn?” Zane said, offering her a bucket of it.

  “You even have a popcorn maker?”

  “Of course,” he said coyly. “Why would I have a flat screen with an HDVD player and a sound system and not have a popcorn maker?”

  “Seriously, you’re unbelievable.”

  “Again, thanks.”

  Zane clicked the button on the remote and the partition slid back up and the video began to play. They sat back to watch one of the races.

  “I wonder which horse is LT,” Zane said in between bites of popcorn.

  “My guess is the one that’s way ahead of all the others.”

  “Could be,” he agreed.

  “It is,” she stated flatly.

  “How can you be so sure?” said Zane with a sideways glance.

  “Because at the bottom of the screen it shows that the first place slot is currently held by Lightning Twist.”

  “Oh, right. I never read the screen.”

  “Never?”

  “What’s the point of having video if you have to read stuff?”

  “So you don’t read books?” she asked.

  “Haha ... Oh, you’re serious.” He sniffed. “Of course I don’t.”

  “Magazines?”

  “Well, I don’t read magazines. I just look at the pictures.”

  “Ew.”

  Zane picked up the remote again and turned up the volume.

  And it’s Lightning Twist by eight lengths. Nobody’s catching him in this race. Mr. Berlington looks to have another win with this thoroughbred!

  “Go to the next one,” Casey said, pointing at the remote.

  Zane nodded and began fast-forwarding past the loading of the horses.

  “Let me just cut to the race.”

  “No, wait,” Casey said, causing him to pause the image. “Let’s watch what happens before the race.”

  “Why?” Zane said.

  “Because Riggs said that something must have happened before the race started, right?”

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t paying much attention.”

  “Yes, I know,” Casey said with a roll of her eyes.

  Zane’s eyes glassed over. “Actually, I wonder where I can get one of those riding crop things.”

  “Shhh.”

  “You shhh. This is my office, remember?”

  “Looks like there are three main locations for the horses,” she said aloud as she studied the visual. “We should be able to spot something happening there. Of course, whatever is going on could happen while they’re transporting the horse to the track, too.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Pause it.” Casey stood up and walked up to the screen. “Right here are the stables. Then there is a spot here where it looks like the horses are being inspected, and there’s the gate
.”

  “So?”

  “So we need to watch each of those spots today when we go to the race,” she said. “And we have to do it without our being seen.”

  “But there are only two of us.”

  “You really are getting better at deduction, Zane.”

  “I am?”

  “No,” she said, rolling her eyes yet again. “We need a third person.”

  As if on cue, Amber walked over and waved at them, trying to get their attention.

  “I’m going to hit lunch,” she said in her sweet little I’m-so-hot voice. “I should be back at one. Do you want me to bring you anything?”

  “Actually, Amber,” Casey said, ignoring the girl’s offer, “how would you like to help us with an investigation?”

  “I like where this is going,” Zane said as he set the remote down on his desk.

  “Will it interrupt my lunch?” asked Amber.

  “It shouldn’t,” Casey said.

  “Yeah, okay.” She was twirling her hair now and moving back and forth on one foot. “What do I have to do?”

  “Just watch a particular horse to see if anything fishy happens,” Casey answered, trying to keep herself from being irritated at the fact that all the construction workers were staring dully at the receptionist.

  Amber looked confused. “Is the horse going to be in the lake or something?”

  “What?” said Casey, instantly pulled back into the reality of the moment. “Why would you think that?”

  “Because you mentioned fish.”

  “I honestly don’t know how to respond to that,” said Casey.

  Zane gave Amber a warm smile. “She says things like this sometimes, Amber. I find it’s just easiest to nod at her.”

  Amber nodded.

  “Yes, like that,” Zane said, pointing.

  “Just go to lunch and we’ll work out the details when you get back,” Casey said.

  Amber nodded again.

  Zane clapped. “Perfect!”

  AT THE TRACK

  The first thing Casey noticed as the three of them pulled up to the track in Cypress was the large sign advertising a past winner, California Chrome, having used the track for practice. It reminded her of celebrities making toothpaste commercials, as if using the same brand of toothpaste would automatically make anyone a superstar. As she looked around at the sprawling track, all she could see was lots of dirt. And, when it came right down to it, dirt was dirt no matter where it was.