Page 64 of Bridles and Bribery

Jordan shook his head. Then he sighed and reached for his boots.

Gil was about to draw his weapon, but Dave shook his head. “Let him explain.” He’d made the mistake of doubting Jordan one too many times already.

“She had ‘em resoled recently.” Jordan tugged his boots off and turned them over, examining them one at a time. “Here.” He flicked a finger against one of the square heels. “My guess is she embedded some sort of tracking device in ‘em. Either that, or she had one embedded in me,” he sighed.

“Tagged like a stinking steer,” Dave growled, producing a pocket knife. He handed it to Jordan and let him do the honors.

In a matter of seconds, Jordan had carved out the center of both heels. A tracking device dropped out of the second heel and clattered to the rocky ledge.

“Uh, fellas?” Gil rolled back into the prone position,holding his gun out in front of him. “We can examine the particulars later. Right now, we’ve got company.”

The red Jeep ground to a halt at the base of the ridge. The door on the driver’s side flew open, and Jan Jacobson hopped out. She shaded a hand over her eyes to gaze upward. “I know you’re up there, Jordan. Don’t make me come after you.”

“She knows we’re here,” Jordan groaned in a whisper. “Whadaya want me to do?”

Dave signaled to Gil that they needed to capture what was being said. They took turns setting their phones to record live video, sliding the phones closer to the edge of the cliff and wedging them in the dirt to face downward.

Then Dave pointed Jordan toward the path they’d taken to reach the overlook. “Try to talk her into meeting you halfway or something. We’ve got your back. I promise.”

Nodding nervously, Jordan stumbled to his knees and crouched over the edge of the cliff. He swung his head back and forth, calling out to his mother in a monotone. “Western Storm is hurt bad. I won’t leave him.”

Well, I’ll be!Dave watched in amazement as Jordan snapped effortlessly back into Forrest Gump mode.

Jan Jacobson gave a high-pitched laugh. “So, he didn’t die in the fire, eh?”

“He’s hurt bad,” Jordan repeated, rolling his eyes heavenward and rocking harder. He curled his hands like claws against his chest. “Horses never forget.”

“Oh, for pity’s sake,” his mother exploded. “You’re gonna make me come up there, aren’t you?”

“Horses never forget.” Jordan abruptly took a seat on his backside. His movements sent a trickle of pebbles over the edge of the cliff. They rained down on his mother, forcing her to dance out of the way.

She snarled something that Dave couldn’t make out. Then she stomped over to the winding path leading up to the overlook. “No offense, but you were supposed to be with your daddy already, sweetie.”

No offense, sweetie?Dave ground his teeth in rage as he listened to the woman’s grisly monologue.

“If our doofus lawyer hadn’t insisted on interviewing you the day he arrived in town, you’d have just gone to sleep. Nighty night,” she crooned as she hiked up the path. “Not that he was supposed to make it in one piece to Dallas.” She made a sound of disgust. “If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. Lesson learned.” Her breathing grew rough as she climbed higher.

“Western Storm is hurt bad,” Jordan reminded when she lapsed into panting silence. “Too bad to race.” He curled his hands in agitation into his shirt, gripping two fistfuls of fabric. “Horses never forget.”

“Why do you always say that?” she shouted shrilly up to him. “Who cares what horses think or don’t think?”

“I do.” He scrambled to his feet and tottered a few steps in her direction, swaying dizzily on his feet.

“That’s it,” she crooned. “Be a good son and come to your mama.” She paused and waited, doubled over and heaving, while he slowly descended the path in her direction.

The way he averted his head, keeping an eye on Dave, told him that Jordan was carefully gauging the distance between his mother and their hiding place.

“We had a good run together, didn’t we?” His mother straightened, making a sound that was partly a laugh and partly a sob. “You racing horses and keeping your father happy, while I made bigger plans for our family. I knew you wouldn’t be able to race horses forever. You were gettingtoo old, too sick, and too crazy. We would’ve lost everything if I hadn’t placed that first bet.” Tears trickled down her lined cheeks as she unburdened herself to the son she was plotting on taking out of the world once and for all. “We almostdidlose everything after your dad found out about my gambling. He threatened to go to the police if I didn’t call them myself and confess what I’d done to the bridles to fix the races. I told him I did what I had to do to make sure my bets stayed on the winning horses, but it only made him madder. I’m also the one who bribed those dumb jockeys to throw their races in your favor. I made it look like your dad did it, of course, since he was about to die, anyway. I needed the police investigating everyone but me.” She stretched her arms out to Jordan. “You helped me accomplish that more than you’ll ever know, you crazy little man. All your psychic number crunching helped me choose the horses with the best odds of winning and losing before I figured out how to guarantee the outcomes on my own.”

He stumbled and fell to his hands and knees. “Horses never forget.”

“Not that again.” She dropped her arms with a long-suffering groan and continued her climb.

As she closed in on him, Dave and Gil low-crawled closer, keeping their guns trained on her. She never looked their way. Reaching her son, she flung her arms around him and gave him a tight hug.

“Come here, you crazy boy.” As she tugged him closer to the edge of the cliff, her deadly intentions became obvious to Dave. The monstrous woman was going to throw her own child to his death.

Dave and Gil hovered their fingers over their triggers, preparing to do whatever was necessary to intervene.

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