The Michaela Bancroft Mysteries 1-3 (40 page)

Michaela nodded. "She does come across as high-maintenance."

"You don't know the half of it. She wasn't so
bad when she was married to Hugh. But after the divorce she wigged out. I think
Audrey was probably one of the last ones to stand by her. The rest of her
friends disappeared. And, Olivia…well, this thing is going to be hard for her
to deal with. I think she loved Audrey more than her own mother. Not that
anyone would blame her for that." He fiddled with the can and then shoved
it back into his pocket. "Trying to quit."

"Kathleen does seem to keep a tight leash on
Olivia."

"You saw it for yourself. The woman is a
total control freak. Olivia has no desire to sing. She wants to be a
jockey."

"And you've been letting her ride, haven't
you?"

Josh didn't answer her right away. Her stomach
sank as his eyes narrowed at her question. "Kathleen put you up to this?
Are you here to grill me about Olivia because that old bag sent you? She's
sicker than I thought."

Michaela shook her head. "No. That's not why
I'm here. I'm trying to make some sense out of what happened to Audrey. There
probably isn't any to be made, but I feel like I have to try. Olivia, Kathleen,
and I were the last people to have any interaction with her before she died,
and I thought that maybe Olivia said something to you about Audrey since you
were with her last night. I already know that Hugh asked you to get her from
Steve Benz's place around one this morning, and I also know that by the time
she got home, it was after seven. I thought maybe you two would have
talked."

"I told Olivia about Audrey on the drive back
from Beverly Hills. She lost it, which I expected. I took her home with me
because she asked me to. Said that she didn't want to be alone and she couldn't
deal with her mother yet. I comforted a distraught friend. That's it." His
anger was obvious. He started to lead the horse away from her toward the barn.

"Sorry, I didn't intend to upset you."

He stopped. "What do you want? Really?"

She sighed. "I want to know why Olivia went
off with Benz in the first place. I want to know if she ever said anything to
you about Audrey acting strange, especially lately."

"Olivia was shanghaied last night by Steve
Benz and his ass of a manager, Marshall Friedman."

"How did that happen? I was with Olivia when
she was getting ready to perform and he came by, hitting on her. She didn't
seem interested in him." Michaela also recalled how rude Benz was to Audrey,
who had tried keeping him away from her goddaughter.

"She's not interested in him. You can
probably thank Kathleen for Benz dropping by to bug Olivia."

"What?"

"Sure, she played all innocent this morning.
The
ever
-concerned parent. I'll tell you what she is: She's one of those
psycho stage mothers. Olivia is a grown woman and her mother wants to make a
superstar out of her…forget what her daughter wants."

That didn't make a lot of sense. Sure the control
freak–psycho mother part sort of fit, but Kathleen's anger about Olivia's disappearance
seemed real to her.

Chappy stomped his foot and pawed at the ground.
"I've got to get this saddle off of him."

"Sure." Michaela followed him to the
barn set up next to the track. This one was smaller than the other across the
track and up the hill, where Hugh had taken her. It was obviously only used for
the horses just after their exercise. Josh slid the horse's bridle off him and
replaced it with a halter, securing both sides of it with cross ties to finish
taking off his tack and get him over to the wash rack. As he scraped Chappy
with a sweat scraper, she continued to probe. "Tell me how Olivia wound up
with Benz and Friedman."

"Olivia was angry."

"About what?"

"No, angry with me."

"Why?"

"I wouldn't let her exercise Chico that
morning."

"Does her dad know?"

"No. She asked me not to tell. She's afraid
her mom would find out."

Michaela didn't tell him that Kathleen already
knew. Those photos she'd found proved that much. She was afraid that if she
revealed it to Josh, he'd go ballistic. Although he seemed like a nice guy,
he'd also given her reason to believe he had a temper.

"Olivia is a good kid, but she does like to
get her way. How could she not, being the only child in this clan? She doesn't
like to hear the word
no.
"

"From what I've heard so far, she does seem
to have a problem saying it to her mother."

He agreed. "I don't get it. Kathleen has a
hold on her. And she had one on Audrey. As much as I know Audrey loved Olivia,
and she knew what Olivia's real dream in life is, but she'd never say a word to
Kathleen about it. She'd never tell her to back off or leave her alone and let
Olivia live her own life. I could never get that."

"It wasn't really Audrey's responsibility, do
you think? To tell Kathleen to not interfere with her daughter?"

"I do think she was responsible in some way.
Audrey knew Olivia better than her mother does, and they were tight. Do I think
she should have told Kathleen to back off her daughter? Yeah, I do. I also
think that she shouldn't have been a partner in Olivia's career. But even
Audrey, who could see how happy Olivia was when she rode on the track, came to
me and asked me to try and dissuade Olivia—that her parents wouldn't be happy
about our morning sessions."

"Did Olivia exercise horses a lot?"

He shrugged. "When she could get away from
Mama's clutches. Audrey brought her here when she was in town. Kathleen trusted
Audrey with Olivia and would have never guessed she was bringing her to the
track to ride. Since Olivia moved into her own place last month after a battle
with her mother, she's been showing up here more often."

"You said that Olivia was angry with you
yesterday, but what does that have to do with her going with Benz, and her mom
setting it up?"

He unhooked Chappy from the cross ties and walked
him over to the wash rack, Michaela in tow. She turned on the hose while he led
the horse onto the concrete slab, then took the hose from her, rinsing him
down. Water sprayed onto Michaela. "Sorry," Josh said.

"No biggie. I do it every day."

"You train reiners, don't you?"

"Yeah. It's a great sport."

"Fun to watch, kind of like the dressage of
the western discipline, but for me, there's nothing better than the
track."

"I can see that. For Olivia, too,
obviously." Michaela was starting to wonder if Josh was deliberately
trying to change the subject. "What do you think about this thing with
Olivia and Benz?"

He turned off the hose and threw it to the ground.
"The dickhead got Olivia plowed, probably spiked her drink. I don't know,
because she told me that she didn't have any more than two drinks before
leaving the track with them. They took his limo up to Beverly Hills, where they
had dinner. She says that Benz and Friedman harangued her, promising her the
good life and telling her they could make her a star and she should sign on with
Friedman as her manager."

"Did she?"

"Nope. It was about that time when I found
her. Her dad tracked her down and sent me to get her. They even had a contract
already drawn up, and like I said, I would not be surprised if Kathleen was
behind the whole thing. It'd be just like her."

"What about you and Olivia?"

He stopped grooming the horse and eyed her.
"What about me and Olivia? There is no
me and Olivia
."

Michaela studied him, not knowing if she should
believe him about what had happened with Olivia last night. Her gut, his
actions and reactions to her questions, caused her to believe that, if there
was not anything more going on between Josh and Olivia than just friendship,
Josh would have liked there to be. "I better get going. I've got a long
drive back to Indio."

He nodded. "Hey, I am really sorry about Audrey.
It's a shame."

Michaela nodded and walked to her truck. She got
the feeling after talking to Josh that he had some ill feelings toward Audrey.
He felt that she needed to be the one to make Kathleen loosen the noose around
her daughter's neck. And, there were feelings there. Michaela could tell that
Josh cared for Olivia. He was far more defensive about her than he needed to
be. She could not help wondering if Josh was so infatuated with Olivia and
possibly so twisted in his thinking when it came to her, that he'd do anything
to see the young woman get her way.

Even kill for her?

MICHAELA PLACED A CALL TO ETHAN AS SHE DROVE the 10
East back to Indio.

"Hey, you," he said, sounding more
upbeat than he had early that morning.

"Hi. Well?" She sucked in a breath.

"He's out of surgery and in the recovery pool
so that when he wakes up, he doesn't thrash about and reinjure himself. We were
lucky this facility is so close to the track. They have an excellent team
here."

"What can you tell me about the break? What
are his chances?"

"I'd say they're good. As I explained, he has
a condylar break. He broke it all the way through. It was clean. The break
below the pastern is what could threaten him, but he didn't shatter it, so from
this point on we're looking at a long haul. I'm optimistic, though. In a lot of
ways, this will be up to Halliday. His attitude is going to be important, just
like a human patient, and how well he reacts up in the hoist, off his feet for
some time. It's vital that we keep his weight balanced and not put any undue
pressure on the other three legs. We want to avoid laminitis at all costs
because then we could have an entirely new problem on our hands. It'll really
be his temperament that gets him through. If he can tolerate us and him babying
that leg for the next several weeks, then he should come out of this."

"That's great."

"Yeah, and from everything I've seen so far,
this animal has a good temperament. Sometimes in these cases, if a horse can't
tolerate the treatment there's the risk of reinjuring the leg, and if that
happens it can be many times worse than the initial break. So that's why we'll
stay cautious, plus watch for infection. He should be coming out of the
anesthesia soon and once that happens, I'm going to head back home. I'll make
the commute over the next few weeks rather than stay here. With Summer only
being a few weeks from delivering the baby, I'm trying to stay close to
home."

Michaela cleared her throat. "That's probably
a good idea. Can I ask how you got involved in this?"

He paused. "I wanted to wait and tell you at
the barbecue, but considering this situation…I became certified as a state vet,
Mick. That way I can vet at the track. I thought it might be an interesting
challenge. Yesterday when Halliday sustained the injury, I happened to know the
vets on the surgical team and was invited to take part in performing the
surgery. Since I was with him for the ride down and saw the injury happen, I
wanted to be here with him. The vets have been kind enough to allow me to be
involved."

"Wow. I had no idea that you wanted to vet
the track. That's great." She considered telling him about Audrey. It was
obvious he didn't know. Sooner or later he would, but he seemed genuinely happy
at that moment—he was pretty sure Halliday would recover and he and his wife
had a baby on the way. He'd be upset over Audrey's death, and Michaela didn't
want to put a damper on his day. She also did not want to go to the
barbecue–baby shower deal.

"I've got some other good news: We found out
the baby is a boy."

"Oh, Ethan, I think that's wonderful. You're
going to be a great dad."

"I hope so. I'm looking forward to it. One of
the other vets told me about this baby store close by the center. I thought I'd
stop at on my way home and pick something up for him. Who would have ever known
I'd get all mushy over a kid?"

"I knew you would."

"That's not saying much, you know me better
than I know myself."

She laughed. "Probably so. Okay well, I'll
see you Friday, then, if not before. And keep me posted on the horse. Hey, by
the way, does Kathleen Bowen know about Halliday yet?"

"I've tried calling a few times and got no
answer. I finally left a message on her answering machine to call the center
for an update. It's surprising that she hasn't made the trip down here. Maybe
she's on her way."

She doubted that. For all the concern Kathleen had
portrayed about Halliday the day before, Michaela had to wonder if she was off
taking care of what she considered more important matters, like delving into her
daughter's affairs. "Maybe."

"Hey, Mick, you're not still planning on taking
care of this horse's bill?"

"Yes, I am."

"I don't get that."

"Tell you what, I'll explain it all to you
when I see you."

"You'd better."

MICHAELA TURNED INTO HER PLACE BEFORE 1 P.M. and found Joe
and Genevieve standing out by the barn. Oh no, she'd forgotten that she was to
give Gen a lesson that afternoon. Part of her wanted to cancel it, take time to
think about Audrey. She hadn't mourned her loss; not really. But she couldn't
do that to Gen, and working with the little girl would be therapeutic for her
as well. It would be what Audrey would want her to do. She got out of the
truck, spotted Audrey's overnight bag still in the backseat, and sighed. She'd
deal with it later.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I forgot about today. I've
been in L.A…. and oh God…anyway, I'm sorry."

Joe looked at his watch. "I was ready to send
one of my cousins out after you." He laughed. "Never knew you to be
fifteen minutes late for nuthin'. You okay?"

"Sure. A bit of traffic, that's all."

"And you couldn't pick up that cell phone you
got glued to your ear half the time?"

"Joe. Stop it." She smiled at him.
"Hey, by the way, I need to talk to you about your cousins."