That Summer (8 page)

Someone clicked the remote and the station came up. Eventually we got reports from all of the tracks where three-year-olds had run that day. The favorite, Mileaminute, trained by D Wayne Lukas of California, had won the Bluegrass, and in the Arkansas Derby another frontrunner had won. It had not been a good day for come-from-behinders.

“That's okay,” Liam said when we turned the TV off. “The California trainers won today; we'll see who wins in the big race.”

“Who owns Mileaminute?” my mother asked.

“Prince Salman of Arabia.”

“Are there any Coolmore horses entered in the Derby?” I named the single, most powerful force in the racing industry today, the Irish stud run by John Magnier.

“I'm sure they'll have an entry that they're training in Ireland.”

Mom said, “Well, our horse is being trained in Kentucky and I hope he wins.”

Liam laughed.

We stayed around talking for a while then Liam said, “Who wants to go out to eat? Dinner's on me. I think Buster distinguished himself.”

“Sounds good to me,” Kevin said. “How about it, Anne? Can you come?”

“It depends on my mother,” I said. I had no intention of letting her go back to the house alone.

“Come on, Nancy,” Liam said. “We'd love to have you.”

At first Mom demurred, but then she gave way. Liam called around for a reservation and the four of us all ended up going to the Horse Shoe Inn for dinner.

The Horse Shoe was not one of the premier restaurants in town. It was a steak and fish place, with a salad bar. Mom and I ordered shrimp and the men ordered steaks. As we sat eating our salads Kevin said, “I hear you went out with Michael Bates, Anne.”

My mouth dropped open. “How did you hear that?”

“The old Midville grapevine. He's a cop now, isn't he?”

“Yes. How do you know Michael, Kevin? He wasn't part of Leslie's crowd all those years ago.”

“I know about him because you went out with him,” Kevin returned. “I've been keeping my eye on you, Anne.”

His response startled me and I gave him a look.

“How can someone who looks like you be so unassuming?” Kevin asked with amusement.

I said, “I thought going out with Michael would be a good way to find out about how the investigation is going.”

“My God. The poor man. He probably has no idea that you had an ulterior motive.”

He was making me sound underhanded. “I like Michael, “ I said. “He's funny.”

Liam said, “Did you have
another
date with him?”

He was frowning. This made me very happy. “Why not?“ I asked breezily. “He's nice and he's handsome and he asked me.”

Mom said, “You don't want to hurt him, Anne.”

I didn't want to do that at all. I had hurt John, the man I had almost been engaged to, and it had not been a pleasant experience.

“All I did was go to a movie with the guy,” I protested. “I'm not going to marry him.”

“Well I should hope not,” Liam said.

“I almost did get married once, or at least I almost got engaged,” I said to him.

He said peremptorily, “When was this?”

“A year ago.”

His brows furrowed.

I said deliberately, “I'm twenty-six, Liam. I'm not a child anymore.”

Kevin said, “So did your boyfriend tell you anything about the investigation?”

“He's not my boyfriend …” I began in annoyance. I looked at Liam. “At least not yet,” I amended.

“Do you know he's divorced?” Liam asked me.

“Yes, he told me.”

“You're Catholic. You can't marry a divorced man.”

“For God's sake, “ I said. “I went out with the man twice and Kevin says he's my boyfriend and Liam thinks I want to marry him. Are they crazy or what, Mom?”

“I think they're a little ahead of themselves,” she replied with a smile.

“They certainly are.”

“My question still remains,” Kevin said. “Did you find out anything new?”

I shrugged. “Nothing that isn't already common knowledge. Leslie was hit with the baseball bat. Apparently the attack took place in the summerhouse and the body was transported to the Stanley woods and buried.”

“And I'm the police's favorite candidate for being the murderer,” Liam said bitterly.

“You always were,” I pointed out. “But they don't have any more evidence now than they had ten years ago. Michael said they didn't have enough to make an arrest.”

Liam said intensely, “Well I wish they would find out who did it. I don't relish people thinking I was the one and that I got away with it.”

Kevin put down his empty glass. “You avoided each other at the party. That's what I told the police.”

Liam said, “I never spoke to Leslie that night, and I most certainly didn't club her over the head with a baseball bat. “

An alarm bell rang in my brain. I looked at Liam. He seemed perfectly sober, perfectly truthful. Yet he had just told a lie.

Of course he's lying,
I thought defensively.
He'd have to be crazy to come out and say he and Leslie had an argument just before she disappeared. The police would be all over him.

I said, “Andy is really pushing the police. If he wasn't such a high-profile person, I don't think they would have reopened the case.”

“Andy thinks I did it.” Liam's voice became even more bitter than before. “He acts like I'm unclean. I feel sorry for him and all that, but it isn't fair to me. “

My mother said, “To lose a child is a terrible thing. To lose an only child is even worse. And to lose her the way the Bartholomews lost Leslie is unspeakable.”

We were all quiet after that. Then dessert was served and we all got into Liam's BMW and went home.

CHAPTER 6

A
t two in the morning, Liam called me at the house. “Pennyroyal is having problems, Annie. Can you come?“

“I'll be right over,” I said.

I put on my jeans, pulled a warm Virginia Tech sweatshirt over my head and ran out the door.

The light over the foaling stall was on in the mare's barn when I arrived and found Liam and Jacko in the stall with a groaning, heaving Pennyroyal.

“The baby is twisted,” Liam told me. He looked very pale in the stable light. “One foot is coming out but not the other.”

The correct way for a foal to be born was to come out with both front feet first, then the head which was tucked between the front legs, then the rest of the body. One of Pennyroyal's foal's legs was out of position and caught in the birth canal. It would have to be straightened out for her to be able to push out the baby.

Pennyroyal was lying in the straw with one of her foal's forelegs poking out of her vagina. “Do you have gloves?“ I asked Liam.

Silently, he handed me a pair of long latex gloves. I knelt beside Pennyroyal and reached in around the foal, feeling for the other leg.

You have to be strong to turn a foal in the birth canal, which was one of the reasons I worked out with weights. Finally I managed to get the baby righted and the second leg came out of the mare. I reached in, hoping to find the nose between its legs. It was there.

“I think we're out of the woods,” I said. “Now it's up to her.”

The rest of the birth was a textbook delivery. About ten minutes later, the foal was almost completely out of its mother's womb and a few minutes after that, the baby slid out onto the bed of straw. She was dark bay in color, with a star on her forehead and two white anklets on her hind legs.

“A filly,” Liam said with pleasure. He toweled the foal dry of the birthing fluid, to keep her from getting cold in the night air, then placed her in the straw next to her mother so that Pennyroyal could finish the job with her tongue. The licking would encourage the filly to stand.

Usually foals stand for the first time between a half hour and an hour after birth. Pennyroyal continued to lick her baby's haunches and the foal made an effort to get her thin spindly legs under her and stand up. It took a few tries, but she eventually got to her feet.

There are few things more awesome than the way these newborn babies get to their feet in such a short time. Human babies don't walk until almost a year after birth, but foals stand, and nurse, and within a few days Pennyroyal's daughter would be running at her side out in the sunny pasture with the other babies and their mothers.

We left the mother and baby in peace to continue their bonding. “Like a cup of coffee or tea?“ Liam asked me as we walked out the barn door.

“Sure,” I said. “Your place or mine?“

“We're closer to your place.”

“Okay.”

We both washed our hands at the sink and I put the kettle on the stove to heat and sat at the table across from him.

“I'm glad you were here, Annie,” he said.

“I'm glad I could help.”

“I thought of trying to straighten her myself, but I thought a vet would do a better job.” He gave me a measuring look. “You're stronger than you look.”

“You have to be strong to work with horses. I work out at the gym three days a week.”

“Do you have muscles?”

“You bet I do.”

“Let's feel.” He reached across the table and cupped his hand around my upper arm.

Once again that bolt of electricity shot through me. He dropped his hand and gave me a startled look. Had he felt it too?

“That
is
a muscle,” he said.

Maybe he was just surprised that I had a real muscle.

“I know.”

The kettle whistled and I went to fill the teacups.

He was looking down at his hands as I brought one of the mugs to the table for him. The usual unruly lock of hair was falling over his forehead and he needed a shave. I put the cup in front of him and he flashed me a quick smile. “Thanks.”

I always felt his smile in my heart.

I brought my own mug to the table and took my usual seat. “Mom says she liked the house. Lucky for us you saw that ad.”

“Yeah.”

I thought he was looking tired. And worried.

“Has anything happened?” I asked.

“Yesterday an auditor showed up to look at the farm books.”

I frowned. “What does that mean?”

“I'm not sure, but the farm and the horses belong to my father. They are part of his assets. If he's really in financial trouble, I suppose his creditors could come after the whole shebang.”

“Oh Liam, no.”

“It's not a happy scenario.”

“You don't own any of the horses?”

“Actually, I own Buster. I saved the money to buy Pennyroyal and two other mares, and I paid the stud fees on them when I bred them. So Buster is mine.”

“And the rest of the horses are your father's?”

“They belong to the farm, which belongs to my father.”

“What made you buy Pennyroyal for yourself?”

“It dawned on me one day that, after years of hard work, I had no financial stake in the farm. I was completely dependent on my father. He paid me a salary and I ran the farm. I decided that I would be better off financially if I bought some horses on my own.”

“It sounds as if you made a wise decision.”

“Still, I don't know what I'd do if the farm was lost. It's been in my family for almost two hundred years!”

“It would be a terrible shame,” I agreed. “But I doubt things will come to that point, Liam. Your father won't want to sell it. It won't look good for him.”

“That's true.” He sipped his tea. “It's nice having you home, Annie. I've missed you.”

“You've missed my sympathetic ear, you mean.”

He smiled. “No matter what happened, I always knew that you'd be on my side.”

“That hasn't changed, Liam.” I hesitated. Should I say this? But I had never had any secrets from Liam. I said quickly, “I saw you and Leslie together the night of the Hunt Ball, you know. You were out by the fountain and I came out onto the back patio to get some air. You were yelling at each other.”

He went perfectly still. His blue gaze got hard. “You never told me this.”

“I know I didn't. And I didn't tell anyone else, either.”

“Why?”

“Because it would make you even more of a suspect than you already are.”

“And that's precisely why I've said nothing about it.” His voice was bitter. “Leslie was trying to make me jealous, and she succeeded admirably. I was furious with her, but I didn't kill her, Annie. I promise you, I didn't kill her.”

“I never thought you did. That's why I didn't say anything.”

“Why are you telling me this now?”

“I don't know. Habit, I guess. We don't keep secrets from each other.”

He said, “Are you going to tell the police now?”

I gave him an affronted stare. “How can you ask me such a question? Of course not.”

“You must be pretty sure that I didn't do it.”

My stare became even more affronted. “Of course you didn't do it.”

He put his teacup down. “The thing is, Annie, someone did. And it had to be someone who was at the party. Leslie went out to the summerhouse with someone; I'm sure she didn't just wander out there by herself.”

I shivered a little. “I know.”

He sighed. “I've thought and thought and I just cannot imagine anyone I know doing such a terrible thing.”

I said again, “I know.”

We were quiet for a while. Then Liam said, “Enough of such depressing conversation. We should be happy. Pennyroyal has once again given birth to a beautiful baby.”

I lifted my teacup. “To Pennyroyal.”

Liam touched my cup with his. “To Pennyroyal.”

We drank.

He said, “So tell me about this guy you almost got engaged to.”

“There's nothing to tell. He was a very nice man and I liked him a lot. I just didn't love him like he loved me. It wouldn't have been fair of me to marry him, feeling the way I did.”

“I almost got engaged once myself,” Liam offered.

My heart plummeted. “You did? To whom?”

“A girl I met at the University of Virginia. She was a cheerleader.”

I immediately pictured a beauty with blue eyes and long straight hair, like Jennifer Aniston's. “What stopped you from getting engaged?” I asked.

“Same thing that stopped you. It just didn't feel right.”

I nodded.

There came a step at the door and my mother, wearing pajamas and slippers, peered into the kitchen. “I thought I heard voices down here.”