Outback Blaze (35 page)

What the hell was he thinking, contemplating getting a dog? And if Ruby wanted one it was no concern of his
.

He could get the call at any moment, summoning him home to appear at the trial and return to work, but dammit, he was starting to feel settled here. He knew most of the townspeople on a first name basis and was even beginning to warm to Mike. He actually looked forward to the latest instalment in the other man's cyber love story every time they worked together. Hell, he'd been
that
close to adopting a damn dog

But most of all he was getting used to going home to Ruby. Last night, lying in her arms, listening to her stories about her evening at the pub, had felt so natural. So perfect and right. He couldn't recall ever feeling so at ease in another person's company, not even Belinda's – and they'd almost gotten engaged.

He'd barely spent any time at his place since he and Ruby started sleeping together. Granted that small excuse for a house had nothing much to offer him but he wasn't being fair to her. She'd shared her painful past with him and he'd skated round the edges of who he really was whenever conversation got close. Nothing would ever have happened between them if the fire hadn't torn apart her world, but it had, and he'd let things go way too far. Although he'd made it clear in the beginning he couldn't offer her anything long-term, they were beginning to act like they were in a relationship. He had to end it. Now. Before things got even more serious and he hurt her.

‘So, what do you say?' Liam asked, his tone hopeful.

‘Sorry.' Drew dragged himself to a stand and tried to ignore the nibbling at his trouser leg. ‘I'm not in the market for a dog. Not at home enough.'

Liam's shoulders drooped. ‘Was worth a try. Suppose I'd better get some posters made up and put around town.'

‘Yes, and we'd better get onto finding this burglar.' He looked to Mike. ‘Let's go.'

They were barely outside before a lead sparkled at them from the pavement. ‘What's this?' Drew stooped down and picked up a shining five-cent piece. He'd have thought nothing of it if there wasn't another one only a metre or so away. And then another.

‘Hey, maybe it's a trail, like in Hansel and Gretel,' Mike said, excitedly.

Drew shook his head, thinking if that were the case the burglar was pretty thick, but decided to follow it none the less. They'd walked just down the street and round the corner to some government housing units when the trail stopped.

Mike nodded towards the second unit. ‘Those tosspots have been arrested for petty theft on a few occasions. Before my time but apparently last year they broke into the butcher's, stole a load of sausages and then had a massive barbecue that afternoon at the Apex Park.'

‘And is that an empty vodka bottle I see next to their front door?' Drew asked.

‘Looks that way to me.' Mike chuckled as the two of them approached the house.

Inside they found a man and a woman completely off their faces, along with the plastic bag Liam kept his spare change in and the other stolen bottles. The culprits didn't even bother trying to deny it. This had to be the quickest case Drew had ever closed but that didn't bring the buzz it should. It had been too damn easy to be satisfying. Besides, he couldn't stop thinking about the puppy, about Ruby and what he had to do that night.

At around two p.m., Mike was about to go fetch them a late lunch when another crime was called in. This time Drew answered and his heart rammed into his tonsils at the news.

‘Who was that?' Mike asked when Drew put down the phone.

‘The vet.' He was already at the wall, taking the patrol car keys from their hook. ‘Looks like someone's poisoned one of Ruby's horses.'

Saturday afternoon, an excited Macy arrived with her mother just as Ruby was coming out of the house. She'd lost track of time talking to Faith on the phone about Ryan's bombshell.

Tilley leaned out the window of her Landcruiser. ‘Shall I come back in a couple of hours?' she called.

‘Yeah, that'll be fine.' Ruby waved at Tilley as she took the steps down the veranda to Macy. ‘So, your mum wants me to show you what it's like to own a horse.'

‘Yep.' Macy held her chin high and nodded. ‘She reckons I can't handle the work. I'm going to prove her wrong.'

‘Good for you. Let's do this.' As Macy and Ruby headed for the paddock, Macy nattered on about the new names she'd thought of for her horse. Apparently Mr Riley Junior had lost favour as she wanted something unique. New top contenders were Justin Bieber (Ruby tried not to cringe) and Swift (also after the singer of the same name). This conversation made Ruby wonder if maybe it was better if Macy stuck to riding Riley for a while, at least until her tastes in horse names matured.

Roxie was waiting for them by the fence, which was unusual because she usually liked people to come to her. When Ruby reached up to pat her, she threw back her head, whinnied loudly and took off to the other end of the paddock. An overwhelming bad feeling came over Ruby. Not wanting to alarm Macy she tried to ignore the panic rising within her as she followed quickly behind Roxie.

The paddock had a slight hill in the middle of it and as Ruby reached its peak, she felt as if her heart turned itself over in her chest. Pushing past the shakes that began in her legs, she ran towards Riley lying on the ground. She could count on one hand the number of times she'd seen him lying down in the middle of a perfectly good day, but he'd seemed okay that morning when she'd checked on them. Was he sick? Had he hurt himself fooling around with Roxie? All these thoughts whirled round Ruby's head and it seemed forever before she finally arrived at his side and collapsed onto her knees.

One look at him close up had her heart thudding to a stop. His breathing was laboured, his usually sparkly eyes were now glassy, the pupils dilated. She'd seen some sick horses in her years working with them and in many ways he looked peaceful, but something deep inside her told her something was seriously wrong.

Yanking her mobile out of her pocket she scrolled quickly to the number of the local vet. It went straight to message bank but also gave a mobile number to call in emergencies. She memorised that number, hung up and then punched it into her phone. All the while she kept her eyes on Riley and one hand at his neck, taking note of his breathing.

‘Hang in there, sweet boy,' she whispered as the ring tone reverberated in her ear.

Finally Sally the vet picked up. ‘Sally Henderson.'

‘Sally. It's Ruby Jones. I need you to come quickly. I think my horse has been poisoned.'

‘I'm on my way.'

Ruby flung the phone onto the ground and racked her brain for what she could do while they waited for Sally.

‘Is he going to be all right?' Macy's voice broke with sobs and Ruby looked behind her, having forgotten the young girl was here. Her eyes were full of fear and she suddenly looked a lot smaller than her eleven years and her body looked to be on the verge of crumbling. The last thing Ruby needed right now was to deal with Macy's hysterics when she was on the verge of losing it herself.

‘I'm not sure,' she said honestly, ‘but the next little while is very important. I need you to help me while we wait for Sally. Can you run back to the house, grab a few water bottles from the fridge and some towels from the cupboard in the hallway.'

Nodding, Macy turned and stumbled in her haste to get away. Ruby wasn't sure what she'd exactly do with the supplies but she couldn't deal with Macy right now. She glanced down at Riley and saw Roxie out of the corner of her eye, hovering.

‘What did he eat?' Ruby looked up to her healthy horse, wishing more than ever that they spoke the same language. She glanced around herself to see if there were any signs of poison but the paddock looked as innocuous as always. A groan from Riley had her focusing her attentions back on him and what she saw terrified her.

He was trying to move, shaking slightly as he tried to get up. It was useless. His big body flopped back against the dirt, looking to Ruby, his eyes wide and pleading as if begging for her help. She placed her hand back on his neck, rubbed him in the way he adored and tried to ignore the sweat that greeted her hand.

‘Hurry, please hurry, Sally.'

But even as she pleaded with higher powers above to save her friend, she knew it was futile. She shuffled closer to him, lifting his heavy head onto her knees, hoping he'd get some comfort from her touch in what she now knew were his last minutes on this earth.

As a car skidded to a halt in her driveway, as she heard the hurried footsteps of Macy and Sally approaching, tears cascaded down her cheeks and onto the near-lifeless horse. Without a word Sally dropped to her knees beside them and began her examination. She asked questions and Ruby did her best to answer but she couldn't recall anything. She'd seen nothing, heard nothing and now it was too late.

‘I'm sorry,' Sally said, reaching out and placing her hand on Ruby's. ‘He's gone.'

But Ruby already knew. The pain crushing her chest, burning in her head, was like nothing she'd ever experienced before. The humiliation and rejection Jonas had inflicted on her felt like a paper cut in comparison.

Sally rose and then squeezed Ruby's shoulder. ‘I'll give you a few moments.'

Ruby couldn't even manage a nod as the vet stepped away to look after Macy. Somewhere in the back of her mind she registered relief that there was someone else to take care of the child, but mostly she focused on Riley.
Why him?
As much as she loved Roxie, Riley was her favourite. You weren't supposed to have favourites but just like she suspected a mother sometimes had a favourite child, she'd been just that little more besotted with Riley. She fell over the horse, her arms circling his neck as the rest of her sobs fell onto his mane.

Why was everything in her life going so terribly, horribly wrong?

Drew leapt from the patrol vehicle even before Mike had turned off the ignition. His heart was thumping in his chest as he jumped the paddock fence. Sally had told him Riley was dead but he couldn't believe it. He hoped to God there was a more natural cause than poisoning but he'd been in this job too damn long to be a glass is half-full type. Riley and Roxie had been grazing normally in the paddock when he'd driven off that morning and now one of them was dead.

He reached the peak of the tiny paddock hill and swallowed the emotion in his throat as he gazed towards the spot. Sally, whom he'd only met a couple of times, stood alongside Macy O'Neil, comforting the young girl who was sobbing in her arms. Only a few metres in front of them stood Roxie and before her, Riley lay on the dirt – his capacious body prostrate and lifeless. Ruby sat with him, his head in her lap, his mane falling over her knees, her head pressed against his and the flower she usually wore in her hair lying on the ground beside them both. He wondered if it had fallen or if she'd purposefully tugged it out. Her shoulders were heaving and her sobs were ten times worse than the other times she'd cried in his presence. For a second Drew just stood there, looking on, feeling helpless. Hadn't Ruby been through enough?

And then, he felt a furry head nudge his shoulder and he looked up to see Roxie beside him. It was a stupid thing to think but she looked sad, her eyes glistening as if filled with emotion. He reached up and rubbed her neck. He'd seen a hell of a lot of horrific things in his time, but a horse's pain at the loss of their mate was right up there.

Something snapped inside him and he realised Ruby needed him now more than ever. He took three large strides and dropped to the ground beside her. Without a word he wrapped his arms around her and felt her painful sobs as if they were his own. Neither of them said anything. Speaking through her tears would have been impossible and he found himself choking up too. It seemed like weeks since the four of them had been out riding but it was barely even days. And they would never be able to do that again.

Feeling the emotion fist inside him, he forced himself to look up. Macy's mum had arrived and taken over the comforting of her daughter. She looked to be trying to usher her away but despite her tears, Macy didn't want to leave. Sally and Mike were talking, serious expressions on both their faces. None of them seemed to find it odd that he was on his knees comforting Ruby. Likely news about their liaison had travelled through town already, but maybe it was also that country policing was different. You were allowed to care more than you did in the city, expected to.

Either way, Ruby's tears hadn't yet subsided and despite his left foot having gone numb with the awkward angle at which he sat, he wasn't ready to let her go. He'd planned to end their affair that night, but this changed everything. No way could he desert her after this.

‘Who would do this?'

Drew blinked, realising Ruby's sobs had dwindled and she was now looking up at him.

‘I can't believe it,' she added, biting her lip as if fighting more tears. ‘How could anyone kill a horse?'

Uncaring about what Mike, the vet, Tilley or Macy O'Neil saw or thought, he pressed a kiss against Ruby's forehead. ‘I don't know, but I promise you I'm going to get to the bottom of this. Will you be okay a moment while I talk to Sally?'

She shook her head. ‘I'm coming with you. I need to hear what she has to say too.'

Nodding, he helped her to her feet and they both stalled a moment, glancing down at Riley. It felt wrong to leave him.

‘Can we say goodbye?' Tilley and Macy approached them, still clinging to each other.

‘Sure. He'd like that,' Ruby smiled sadly.

They stepped back to join Mike and Sally, leaving Riley with friends.

‘What are your thoughts?' Drew asked Sally. Likely she'd already told Mike, but he wanted to hear himself and Ruby needed to as well. ‘Has someone done this?'