Page 35 of Bridles and Bribery

A Triple Crown?“That’s impressive!” Dave straightened, glancing around the room. He knew Jordan’s family had left Heart Lake so their son could compete on the horse racing circuit, but Dave hadn’t personally followed Jordan’s career.In hindsight, he wished he had. It sounded like the guy was really good at what he did for a living.

Jan huffed out a breath. “Even more impressive is how Jordan nursed Western Storm back to health before he started racing him. I think that’s what this is really about.” She folded her arms angrily. “Until an ambitious news anchor started digging her nose into Western Storm’s background, very few people knew that Western Storm used to run for Horseshoe Valley. Their cutthroat jockeys abused him for a couple of seasons, then the owners had him slotted for a kill pen. Long story short, my husband and Jordan worked with a horse sanctuary a few summers ago to extract him from the kill pen right before…” She stopped and drew a deep breath. “They saved his life, Dave.”

“That’s quite a story.” Dave could easily picture the kindhearted horse trainer he remembered and his horse whisperer of a son doing something like that.

Jan slapped the air, continuing her rant. “As soon as the story hit the news, Horseshoe Valley’s PR team did everything they could to squelch it. Between me, you, and the doorpost, the crooked operation they run wouldn’t have withstood much public scrutiny. Then, out of nowhere, rumors started circulating about my husband’s declining mental health, and now he’s dead. A coincidence? I think not!”

Dave frowned as he listened. As much as he sympathized with her loss, he preferred to stick to the facts alone. Irrefutable facts were the only thing that would stand up in court. He carefully worded his next question to try to coax something more concrete out of her. “How did Jason and Jordan come into contact with Western Storm in the firstplace?”

“Good question.” Her lips flatlined. “Unfortunately, the answer I’m about to give you won’t help our case. A few summers ago, we sent Jordan to one of Horseshoe Valley’s advanced training clinics. It was before we knew about their cruel treatment of their livestock, of course.” She gestured wryly. “It was a week-long training camp. Because of my son’s autism, he tends to wander off alone instead of hanging around to socialize with others. During some of his wandering after one of their training sessions, he stumbled across Western Storm in a remote pasture out back.”

Dave nodded slowly. “I’m gonna need to see all the documentation you own on Western Storm, and I mean everything. His file from the sanctuary. Adoption paperwork. Clinic records. The whole works.”

“I’ve got all of that.” She waved at her ransacked desk. “I pulled an all-nighter to scrape it together for you. You’re welcome to take it and keep it as long as you need it. Our initial hearing with the racing commission will take place on Friday.”

Whoa!Dave’s eyebrows rose. That was only three days from now. It wasn’t much time to slog through a mountain of paperwork and prepare a defense. However, he would do his best. “Alright then.” He rubbed his hands together briskly. The paperwork she was handing over to him was a good start, but it wasn’t nearly everything he would need — not since Jan was insisting her husband’s death involved foul play. If there was any truth to her claim, it most certainly would have bearing on the case.

He didn’t want to be broadsided by any surprises during the hearing, so he planned to use the limited time he had left to cover as many bases as possible. “I’m also gonna need to have a look at your husband’sdeath certificate, any medical reports around the time of his passing, any autopsy reports…”

A shadow passed across Jan’s face as she pointed at her desk. “It’s all there, hon. That and a whole lot more.” She shook her head in growing distress. “I also printed out the threats both Jason and I received from the Prophet. Like I told you, he died one week on the dot after receiving his. If the same thing is going to happen to me, I, um…” She swallowed hard. “I have four days left.”

Dave withdrew the standard agreement, outlining the legal assistance he was prepared to offer her. “I’m not gonna let that happen, ma’am.” That was why she’d called him into town, wasn’t it? He carefully explained the agreement and the costs of doing business with him.

She didn’t ask any questions. She simply signed where he pointed and handed the forms back to him.

The skin beneath her eyes looked bruised, and there were shadows in her eyes that seemed to go to her very soul. “Listen, Dave. About the threat from the Prophet, when it’s my turn to go, it’s my turn to go. I’m mostly worried about what’s going to become of Jordan if anything happens to me. He never married and probably never will, thanks to his autism. The one thing that keeps him going is the horses.” She drew a shuddery breath. “That’s why I’m not going to sit around and do nothing while those…” she shook a trembling finger at no one in particular, “while those creeps malign my husband’s character and disqualify an innocent jockey.”

Dave wished there was something he could say to offer a modicum of comfort, but nothing came to mind. “I’m gonna do everything I can to help you and Jordan.” That was the only promise he could make to her right now. Heglanced toward the open door. “Where is he, by the way?” He was surprised Jordan hadn’t already made an appearance.

A smile softened Jan’s expression. “With Western Storm, of course.” Despite the worry lines wrinkling the corners of her eyes, she gave a sniff of humor. “If we put a cot in his stall, he’d sleep right beside his horse.”

“Mind if I go say hi to him?” Dave wasn’t sure if his nerdy, introverted former lab partner from high school chemistry class would even remember him.

“Not at all.” She straightened and turned around to gather the paperwork she was sending back with Dave to the motel. “A visit from an old friend might be just what he needs to snap him out of the funk he’s fallen into.”

“I imagine he’s taking the loss of his dad pretty hard, eh?” Sadly, it was something Dave could relate to all too well.

“Of course.” Jan piled all the folders and papers into one messy stack. “I reckon that’s the most logical explanation for the way he’s been acting.” Her tone suggested there was more to the story.

Dave narrowed his gaze at her. “Acting how, exactly?”

“Cagey,” she exploded, moving around her desk to rummage in a back closet. She returned with a dusty brown backpack and stuffed the papers and folders into it “Worried. Preoccupied. More distant than usual. A few times lately, he disappeared for hours on end and wouldn’t say where he’d been after he returned.” A scowl twisted her features. “He’s keeping secrets from me, and I don’t like it.”

Though Dave could understand her concerns, it was anyone’s guess what had caused Jordan’s change in behavior — grief, autism, middle age… “What’s your motherly intuition saying?”

Her answer was surprisingly blunt. “My motherly intuition picked up on a downward spiral with Jordan long before his father’s death.”

Dave’s gut told him they were finally getting somewhere. “Care to elaborate?”

She zipped the backpack and shoved it into his hands. “I know this is going to make me sound like a woman carrying a grudge, and maybe I am, but so be it. My son’s behavior was remarkably different after he returned home from the training clinic at Horseshoe Valley Ranch.”

Dave slung the backpack over one shoulder and gestured for her to continue.

She shook her head helplessly. “Like I said, he’s been more withdrawn in recent months. More agitated. More suspicious.”

“Of what?” Dave didn’t know much about autism, but he mentally added it to his list of things to read up on. He had a doctor friend who specialized in stuff like that. He’d give him a call and beg for some professional insight on Jordan’s diagnosis.

“Everybody,” Jan exploded. “It’s like he’s lost his ability to trust anyone anymore.” She looked like she was tasting something bitter. “Sometimes I feel like he blamesmefor his father’s death!”

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