For The Love of Horses (Pegasus Equestrian Center)

by Diana Vincent

  “You don’t owe me anything, Bill, don’t be ridiculous.”

  “Nevertheless, listen to this. I just received the transcript of an interview with a young man who is facing possession charges. Seems like he isn’t too willing to reveal the name of his supplier, but he thought he could bargain with the confession of his part in a separate crime. Aren’t you working on a stolen horse case?”

  “Correct,” Delia answered, her interest immediately perking up. Not only did her interest perk up, but her heart rate as well, accelerating with excitement as Bill related to her the information he had just received.

  “Unbelievable,” she exclaimed. “I think John is in a meeting right now with Judge Hanshaw. Can you fax me a copy of the transcript?”

  “Already done!”

  They said goodbyes, and Delia immediately stepped out of her office to meet Eric coming toward her with a file in hand.

  “Oh,” Delia said in surprise, “Eric, I was just coming out to see if you received a…”

  “A fax?” he interrupted her, smiling broadly. “Just came through; marked urgent.”

  She quickly perused the papers inside the file Eric handed to her, pleased to find the promised faxed copies of the interview transcript.

  “I need to get to the court house right now!” She turned back to her office to grab her briefcase and keys.

  *****

  “Ms. Evans has been working on investigations relevant to this case, but I don’t know what she has turned up just now. May I have your permission to confer with her?” Fields asked.

  “You may,” Judge Hanshaw allowed, and leaned back in her chair with arms folded.

  “Your honor, this is highly irregular,” Murphy complained. “Can’t we just end this with your decision and get on with our day?”

  “This is not a trial so there are no irregularities or regularities,” Judge Hanshaw stated in annoyance, especially since she would like to as well, ‘get on with her day’, but was not going to concede anything to Murphy, and besides in fairness…

  Fields stepped outside the room and the others could hear excited voices whispering. A few minutes later, Fields returned escorting Delia Evans in with him.

  “This is my colleague, Delia Evans,” Fields introduced her to the judge.

  Delia did not let her eyes wander to where Sierra and River sat together, but stepped up in front of the judge. “Your honor, I apologize for this last minute intrusion, but this information was just given to me by deputy prosecutor William Mackey, who realized the relevance to this case.” She handed the judge her file. “I am sorry I didn’t have time to make copies for Mr. Murphy…” She stopped talking as she noticed the frown of concentration on the judge’s face as she looked over the highlighted section of the transcript copy.

  “This is extraordinary,” Judge Hanshaw said when she finished reading. She handed the file back to Delia. “Why don’t you summarize the contents for Mr. Murphy?”

  Delia gave the file to Murphy so he could follow along as she related the contents.

  “This is a copy of the transcript of an interview with a young man, Justin Blomquist, facing charges of possession of cocaine.” Delia watched Dean Clark from the corner of her eye as she stated the name. Was that a sudden blink of his eyes…a flinch? Dean quickly composed his expression and Delia continued, “On the date noted in September of last year, he claims to have entered into a bargain with his ex-girlfriend, a Miss Crystal Douglas. He waited out of sight at the restaurant named in the transcript. When a specific car arrived and its occupants went inside, he opened the trunk of the car using a key given to him by Miss Douglas. He found a satchel in the trunk and inside the satchel, a lab tube containing a blood sample inside a plastic bag. He used a solvent to remove the label on the sample, and then he put the label on an identical lab tube with a blood sample, also given to him by Miss Douglas. Then he exchanged his sample, putting it into the plastic bag.”

  “Oh my God,” Sierra whispered, and beneath the table River grabbed her hand and squeezed.

  Delia paused, noting the color draining from Dean’s face. “Your honor, the tube of blood replaced the sample collected by the veterinarian Denise Sindoski, who unknown to her, sent the erroneous sample in for DNA testing. The DNA report in the Beverly Cormack case is not the DNA of the horse in question.”

  “Objection, your honor,” Murphy jumped to his feet.

  “On what grounds?” Judge Hanshaw peered over her glasses at the attorney.

  “Prosecution has not had a chance to examine this evidence. This should have been brought to our attention outside of this hearing.”

  “I remind you again, Mr. Murphy, this is an informal meeting. Please sit down.” Judge Hanshaw pushed her glasses back up on the bridge of her nose, and then a smile spread over her face. “I believe this warrants a court-appointed agent to re-test the horse.”

  “Yeah, well first of all you’ll have to get that little jerk to tell us where he’s hiding Diablo…my horse,” Dean shouted out, trying to stand up.

  “Mr. Murphy…” Judge Hanshaw began, but Murphy had already placed a restraining hand on Dean’s shoulder.

  River looked at Sierra and the trace of a smile lifted the corners of his mouth as he met her eyes, filled with new hope. “I will bring Corazón back to Pegasus, and you can get the sample from him there,” he said to the judge.

  “Thank you, Mr. Girard,” Judge Hanshaw said, still smiling. “This meeting is over. When the results come back from forensics, we will meet again.”

  *****

  A loud whinny greeted River and Sierra as they followed Ben to Corazon’s corral.

  “He looks fantastic,” Sierra said as they approached, noting the fit muscles of the black horse, standing with his head high and nostrils flared as he caught their scent. The sun gleamed off his black coat, causing it to shimmer like diamonds off the planes of his body. Then he trotted up to the gate, and uttered a series of soft whickers as River stepped inside the corral to meet him.

  “Oh, hermano,” River murmured, as he reached out to his horse. The black dropped his head and nuzzled at the boy’s chest. River threw his arms around his horse’s neck and buried his face into the warm, silky coat.

  “Now, there’s a pair,” Ben said, smiling, and Sierra had to agree.

  *****

  Bret made contact with a Mr. Rupert Brown, previous owner in partnership with Keith Petrick, of Green for Blue Farm. Mr. Brown had retained the records since his partner had died, and proved more than willing to talk about his old business. Bret gave Delia his telephone number and she was able to talk with Mr. Brown herself, now more out of curiosity than necessity.

  “Yep, it was just too much when Keith was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer,” Rupert explained. “I decided to retire, so we sold our two stallions and the brood mares. But I remember the colt you all are interested in, because his breeding was an accident; and because we heard about Marilyn Gaspar.”

  “How is that?” Delia asked.

  “We sometimes helped out a friend of ours who bred race horses - thoroughbreds, and one of his stallions was at our farm. These things happen sometimes; his stallion got loose and bred with one of our Holsteiner mares. Since we were interested in improving our own line of Holsteiners, we had the colt gelded and sold him as a yearling.

  “Even though he wasn’t a purebred, he had good conformation and a lot of potential. I was happy when Marilyn bought him because she was a successful amateur horsewoman in our community and I thought they would get along well. Quite the tragedy...” Rupert paused and cleared his throat. “The horse was only a three-year-old when she took him out on the trail; had to have been very green. I don’t know any horse that doesn’t freak out the first time they are exposed to a moving train. I don’t know what she was thinking to even take a chance like that to ride near the tracks, and by herself. Well, I guess you heard what happened. Harold Gaspar was not a horseman, and he took out all his grief and anger on the horse.
I guess the horse was in pretty bad shape by the time he sent him to auction. I’m glad to hear from you that he has ended up in a good home.”

  “Thank you so much for telling me the story,” Delia said when he finished. “And thank you again for giving a copy of his breeding record to my agent.”

  “No problem. Both his sire and dam have DNA on file. Since you tell me you’re having the horse DNA tested, it will be easy enough to verify he is the offspring of the breeding I told you about.”

  “Wonderful!”

  When the forensic report of the repeat DNA sample came in, it not only confirmed that the DNA sent in for Beverly Cormack did not match Corazón, but proved that he was the offspring of a registered thoroughbred sire and registered Holsteiner dam.

  Judge Hanshaw declared Pegasus Equestrian Center the legal owners of Corazón, and all charges against River and Sierra were dropped.

  *****

  Chapter 23 Senior Year and After

  Ride your horse forward and make him straight. – Gustav Steinbrecht

  *****

  Corazón quickly settled back into his life at Pegasus. River spent the first few days just hanging out with his horse in the pasture, grooming him in the crossties, and then spending time with him in his stall before going to bed at night. His horse showed every indication of feeling relaxed and happy, and it was clear Ben had given him the best of care, for which River was deeply grateful. The black’s coat gleamed with health and his muscles were firm with fitness. River started riding him again and soon jumping, and Cory responded as if he had never been gone.

  Sierra went with River to the regional championship to help out as his groom and cheer him on. Meridian performed at his best, and he and River won junior preliminary champion.

  Senior year was soon underway and then in October, Sierra and River competed at the dressage regional championship. Sierra and Fiel finished fourth at junior third level, and River and Pendragon came in second at intermediate I, and first for their Prix St. Georges musical cur.

  A week before Thanksgiving, Delia invited Tess, River, Sierra, and her mother to dinner.

  “I think you all have a right to know what happened, and now that the case is settled, I can tell you everything,” Delia said after they had been seated and placed their order.

  “At his arraignment, Dean pled innocent and claimed he had no idea what Beverly Cormack had done when he bought Corazón from her. His mother had bought two horses from Beverly in the past, and had suggested he check out Beverly’s stock while he was at school in Boston. He claims that is what he did, and happened to see a horse at her place that looked a lot like Corazón. When he told Beverly how much her horse resembled one that had won a championship, he claims that must have been when she got the idea. What Dean didn’t realize, was that when the Cormack woman was summoned for an arraignment and subsequently offered a deal if she confessed, she told everything.

  “Beverly Cormack admitted she was paid fifty thousand dollars for her part in the scam with the promise of an additional fifty thousand if Dean successfully acquired the horse. The horse that looked like Corazón had severely injured a leg and was doomed to be put down in the next few days. Dean proposed getting a blood sample before euthanizing the horse. With the horse dead and keeping that fact a secret, they would try to claim Corazón as the same horse, and you already know how they managed to switch DNA samples.”

  “Hmph; so she actually never sold the horse for eighty-thousand dollars,” Tess said.

  “Correct, although when you offered to buy him for ninety-thousand, she tried to convince Dean to take the money. But as you know, with Dean it wasn’t about money but revenge. Anyway, she flew out here the next week and hired Patrick Cooper, a lawyer that wouldn’t back away if his suspicions were aroused. We don’t know how involved he was in the scam. He of course acted shocked when confronted, and claims he believed Cormack when she hired him. Well, you know what happened from that point on.”

  “What’s going to happen to Dean and Crystal?” Sierra asked.

  “Crystal denies knowing anything about the DNA switch. She claims Dean asked her to contact her old boyfriend Justin, because Dean thought he was the type of guy to do him a favor. She claims she didn’t know what Dean wanted Justin to do. She says she believed Beverly really did own the horse because everyone suspected he had been stolen at one time. It seems her statement has been accepted and no charges have been brought against her in spite of Justin’s previous testimony.

  “Dean continues to claim he bought the horse in good faith from Cormack, believing she had recovered her stolen horse. Even with the evidence against him, he sticks to that story. Caroline also claims to have believed Beverly legitimately owned the horse, and we’ll probably never know how involved she was in the actual deception. Dean denies he ever asked Crystal to contact Justin, and he states that Justin probably conspired with Beverly. Also, Sierra, he denies everything in your statement of when you visited the Clark home. So charges against Dean have been dropped. I have to believe his father’s influence had something to do with that. No charges were ever officially brought against Crystal.”

  Tess shook her head in disgust. “So those two kids get off scot free.”

  “I’m afraid so,” Delia said.

  “I don’t care, as long as they leave us alone,” River stated.

  *****

  Academically, Sierra enjoyed her senior year of high school more than any of her previous years. Enrolled in all advanced placement courses, she had the best teachers her school had to offer, and she found all her classes quite engaging. The school months flew by in a whirl; first preparing for and taking the SAT exam; then studying, writing papers, and taking tests; and filling out countless applications to universities and for scholarships. At her guidance counselor’s advice, she joined one extra-curricular school club, choosing science club, as her counselor said it would help when being considered for scholarships.

  Socially, Sierra remained oblivious to most of the school’s social activities and the usual gossip. She didn’t have time for the homecoming prom or any of the other school dances or festivities. But she couldn’t help taking quite a bit of satisfaction in one change in the social hierarchy of Firwood High. Crystal Douglas lost her status as the most popular girl in the senior class. Perhaps even teenagers had more integrity than Sierra would have thought, based on her previous perception of the shallowness of Crystal’s followers. But somehow, the story of Crystal’s involvement in River losing his horse had leaked out. It might have started with a story in the school newspaper that recounted how River had rescued and rehabilitated an abused horse, only to have it taken away from him two years later under false pretenses. The story won much sympathy for River; and although the article had not named any culprits, rumors spread that it had been Crystal and a boy who had graduated two years ago, who were behind the plot. Sierra suspected it was Katrina who spread those rumors.

  Not that Crystal completely fell from grace, but Katrina and her cheerleading friends moved into the top social sphere. Probably most devastating to Crystal; that year Katrina was elected homecoming queen, even though Crystal had been freshman, sophomore, and junior princesses the previous years. It was quite a blow to Crystal to lose the highest honor of queen in her senior year, especially since she thought of it as her rightful place.

  Not long after homecoming, Katrina, bursting with news, found Sierra and Allison at their lockers. “Dean’s been arrested!” she announced, her eyes gleaming with satisfaction.

  “What are you talking about?” Sierra asked.

  “I overheard my mother talking to a friend of hers on the phone who had heard the story from someone at their club. Dean was at some kind of wild frat party that got busted; the usual drugs and alcohol kind of stuff. But guess what?”

  “Katrina, just tell me,” Sierra pleaded.

  “He was there with an underage girl, in a ‘compromised’ situation in one of the bedrooms.” She giggled with s
atisfaction. “He’s also charged with statutory rape!”

  Both Sierra and Allison gaped speechlessly as Katrina continued, “Remember Billy’s girlfriend Charlene, and what happened to her two years ago at the Valentine’s Ball?”

  Sierra still had sick feelings whenever she thought about the night she had broken up with Dean, and then later, learned he had that same night seduced Charlene, an innocent and naïve girl. All in order to win a bet!

  “Her parents are members of the same club, and I think when Charlene heard the story, it gave her the courage to finally tell her parents what happened. So he’s facing additional statutory rape charges.”

  “Oh my, poor Charlene,” Sierra said, thinking of the humiliation the girl would have to go through again, in order to support her accusation. “But good for her!”

  June and graduation came. Sierra was among five candidates for valedictorian, but she was very pleased when Allison was chosen (especially since the idea of having to make a speech at the graduation ceremony did not appeal to her at all).

  A week before commencement, Sierra heard about the outcome of Dean’s trial – found guilty by a jury of his peers, and sentenced to two years in prison. Perhaps the sentence was lighter than it should have been, but not even the Clark money could totally absolve him of his crimes. Sierra felt a sense of relief that Dean would not be returning any time soon with plots of revenge. She hoped two years might teach him something; some regrets over the suffering he had caused others as he now suffered in prison; but she doubted it. When she told River the news, he stood thoughtfully for a few minutes, and then his mouth lifted in a slight smile; but he said nothing. How grateful she was to have a boyfriend who could let past injuries go, and did not waste energy on revenge.