Treasure Uncovered (Bellingwood #3) (23 page)

"No worries. At least I got to eat my meal tonight."

Henry had already flagged the waiter down and asked for the check.

"One of these days we're going to make it through an entire meal here without any incident," he said.

"I'm so sorry. Jeff wouldn't have called if it wasn't a big deal," Polly apologized.

They paid for the meal and Henry brought the truck up. When they were on the road again, Polly apologized again. "I can't believe this. The last time we were at Hickory Park, I got scary phone calls about one of my guests. This time, it's my horses."

She turned to Henry, "It's takeout from now on if we want their barbecue. I'm not risking it again!"

Sal quietly said, "I was looking forward to ice cream," and then she giggled. "I'm kidding. We need to make sure everything is alright. I totally get it."

"If the horses are fine, I will make sure you have ice cream before the evening is over. How does that sound?" Mark asked her.

"That sounds nice," Sal responded.

Polly turned around. Her friend's voice had gotten lower and sultrier. If she didn't know better, she would have thought Sal was seriously flirting with Mark.

She heard him say, "Why don't I check out the horses with Polly and you go upstairs and get into something more casual and comfortable and then we can find a little something sweet. I know of a couple of places where we can wet your whistle and end the evening quite nicely."

"I'd like that. A lot." Sal said. She bent forward and asked, "You don't mind, do you?"

She was flirting with Mark! Polly tried not to think too hard about it. She'd wanted them to enjoy each other so that Sal's last evening in Bellingwood would be fun, but she wasn't sure what to do with this at all. She checked herself. Was there a hint of jealousy in her feelings? Yes, actually, there was. But that didn't make any sense. She didn't want a relationship with Mark Ogden. He wasn't her type. And if Sal could have fun with a nice guy, well, she should be fine with that. Then she decided she was absolutely fine with it. Anything else was stupid and selfish. She smiled to herself. This had the potential for disaster or fabulousness. Or it could be nothing in the long run. And besides, it was a little cute.

"Polly, do you care if we go out for a while?" Mark echoed.

"No," Polly replied. "We don't care at all. We'll hang out. No problem." She squeezed Henry's hand and he squeezed back, neither of them looking at each other. She was a little afraid of giggling until she couldn't stop herself, so she bit her lip and kept her eyes straight ahead.

When Henry pulled into the parking lot of Sycamore House, it was full, so he drove up to the front door. All of the outside lights were on, as were the lights in the barn. Mark helped Polly and Sal out and then, both men shrugged out of their jackets and headed down to the barn, while the girls ran upstairs.

Polly said, "I'm sorry about tonight, but it sounds as if you two are going to redeem it."

"I hope so! You go get changed and I'll talk to you later. Leave the light on if you want me to knock when I come in."

"Cool!" Polly laughed and ran for her door. Jason and Andrew were watching a movie when she entered.

"Hi," she said. "Do you know anything yet?"

"Eliseo told me to stay up here," Jason said. "I don't know what's going on. Are you going down? Can I come with you?"

Polly was pulling her heels off as she went into the bedroom. "Let me find out what's happening first, okay?" She shut the door, unzipped her dress and dropped it to the floor. Pulling jeans and socks on, she opened the dresser for a sweatshirt, pulled the bobby pins out of her hair and shook it out. She pushed her phone down into her back pocket, ran to the entryway, slipped into her boots and took off for the barn.

She ran through the gates and into the opened doors. Mark was in Demi's stall, checking his forelegs, Henry was standing there as if on guard and Eliseo was seated on the bench between Nan and Nat's stalls. He was bent over with his head in his hands. Jeff was sitting beside him with a stricken look on his face and his hand on the man's back.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Everything is good, Polly. The horses are alright."

"Why are you checking Demi's legs then?"

"He kicked at the wall and I wanted to make sure he hadn't hurt anything. He's fine. No worries."

She looked down at his shoes. They were filthy. "I might owe you a pair of shoes."

"They'll clean right up. At least they aren't leather."

Jeff looked up at her, shook his head and smiled.

"Will someone tell me what in the hell happened out here, then?" she asked.

Mark walked out into the alley of the barn and pulled the door shut behind him. "I'm no longer needed here. This is your deal. I have a gorgeous date to pick up and take away from your world. See ya."

"Be sure to have her home in plenty of time for a good night's sleep," Polly admonished.

"Yes, Ms. Giller. I'll be honorable."

"You'd better!"

He left and Polly spun on the other three men in the barn. "Okay. Now, who is going to tell me why my horses got so agitated tonight and destroyed yet another of my dates?"

Eliseo looked up at her. Misery filled his eyes. "It's my fault, ma'am."

Jeff patted his back and said, "It's not your fault. You couldn't have stopped them."

"Stopped who?" Polly gasped. "Who in the hell was in my barn tonight upsetting my horses? And why didn't you call the police?"

Ken Wallers walked out of her tack room and said, "They did, Polly. I'm afraid you've been hit."

She dashed back and looked at the room. All that was left was feed and hay. Her brand new tack was gone; the saddles, the harnesses, everything."

"Damn it," she cursed. "They actually did this when there was a party going on up at the main house? Are they nuts?"

"Apparently they thought that would help them get away. It worked out for them," Ken responded.

"And no one saw anything?"

Eliseo had come up behind her. "It’s my fault. I wasn't feeling great, so I went down to my room. I should have stayed out here tonight. I knew this was going on around town."

Polly spun around, "Stop it. I'm not blaming you. It's no one's fault but the smarmy, sneaky thieves. They're the ones who are in trouble, not you."

"Have you talked to any of the wedding guests, Ken?" she asked.

"No, not yet. I was waiting for you to get here before I interrupted their party. Would you mind doing that with me?"

"I sure can, but I think they know Jeff better. I'd rather stay here with Eliseo and make sure the horses are calm."

"That's fine with me," Ken said. "Jeff?"

The two men walked out of the barn and Polly said, "You shouldn't feel guilty about this, Eliseo. The horses are fine and the rest of it is only stuff."

A playful grin passed across his lips. "If you had let me sleep in the hay, this wouldn't have happened."

"I think it still would have happened," she replied. "That would have been an opportunity for you to get hurt again. It was better this way."

She opened Daisy's stall door. The horse was snorting and Polly could tell she was edgy. She stroked her neck and began talking to her, "I'm sorry you had to deal with that this evening. It's not much fun having strangers in your space when no one is around to tell you it's alright."

"Polly?" Eliseo called from Nat's stall.

"Yes?"

"What about poor Jason. I know he wanted to be down here."

"You're right. Let me run up and get him. I'll be back in a minute." She patted Daisy once more and shutting the stall behind her, ran up to Sycamore House and her apartment.

She was panting when she got in the door and Jason stood up, "What happened? Did one of the horses get hurt?"

"No," she said, leaning against the door. "I decided to run up here and tell you that you could come down with me. Everything is okay. The thieves who have been breaking into barns and trucks around the area hit my barn and stole my tack tonight. It upset the horses and I think we could use you to help out."

"Really?" he asked.

"Sure," she said. "I know you love them and I get it that you want to be with them after something like this. Go on down. I'll be there in a minute."

Andrew was sitting on the couch. His ever present notebook and pencil were perched on top of the cat in his lap while the other cat was nuzzling his neck from the top of the sofa.

"Are you okay with staying up here, Andrew? If you want to come down to the barn, you can."

"It's cool," he said. "They don't like me as much as they like Jason. I think I'm too small. They scare me. Maybe when I'm bigger."

"You're a good kid, Andrew Donovan. Thanks."

She went back downstairs and as she passed by the offices, Ken beckoned for her to come in. He was standing in the outer office with two young people dressed for the wedding.

"Polly, this is Debbie Siffel and her boyfriend, Terry Danour. They've given us our first good lead in the case. They saw an old green, pickup truck leaving when they went outside to have a cigarette and have given us a pretty good description of the people inside the truck."

"It wasn't someone from the party?" Polly asked.

"No, ma'am, it wasn't," the young girl said. "Terry and I know most everyone here. They weren't with us. We figured they worked for you since they drove down to the barn."

"Did you see them come in?" Ken asked.

"No, they were getting in the truck and drove away when we went outside."

"So, you don't know how long they were there."

"No, like I said. We ran out to have a quick smoke and a little peace and quiet for a minute. We didn't think anything about it. They acted like they knew what they were doing and then drove away."

The young man interrupted and scowled at the girl with him, "We don't know if they acted like they knew what they were doing. We wouldn't have a clue about that, but they weren't in a real hurry. They drove off and headed back toward downtown."

Debbie sneered and said, "We don't know if they went downtown, they turned north out of the driveway."

"Whatever," the young man remarked.

"That's fine," Ken said. "I appreciate your help this evening. I think I have everything I need from you right now, but if I have any more questions, someone from my office will give you a call. Will that be alright?"

"We're glad to help, sir," the young man replied and escorted his friend out of the office and back to the party.

"Are they from Bellingwood?" Polly asked.

"No, they're in town for the wedding. That would have been a lot more helpful, but at least this gives us some good information."

"So, you don't have a list of fences around here?" Polly asked. "You know, like on the cop shows? Somewhere these people will try to get rid of the items they are stealing? Surely they're doing it for the money."

Ken laughed with her. "No, we don't have anything like that. These items will probably end up on an online auction site. I don't have the manpower to keep an eye on all of them, but if you see any of your things, let me know."

"It wouldn't have even occurred to me to look."

"That's about the only place they're going to sell all this stuff. I can't believe they keep doing this. They have to know that every time they steal, it puts them one step closer to my jail."

"They've gotten away with it this long, they probably think they're invincible."

"Could you email a list of what you've had stolen to me tomorrow, Polly?"

"Sure. Eliseo and I will work on it in the morning."

"How are things going with him? Is he doing alright?"

"He's doing great here and is alright physically. I'm hoping that one of these days he'll open up and tell me what's going on and why those guys beat him up the other night. I know the horses would hate for him to leave and at this point, so would I."

"Let me know if you need something from me or if you find something out I should know about."

"Thanks for coming out tonight."

Polly headed back down to the barn. Henry, Eliseo, and Jason were standing in the center alley talking when she entered. "Is everything okay?" she asked, looking into Daisy's stall. The horse was nibbling at an itch on her side and swung around at Polly's voice. She came over for a head rub, then turned back to her hay.

Jason was the first to speak, "I'm sorry you lost your stuff, Polly."

"I know, Jason. So am I." She gritted her teeth. "Stealing incenses me. I don't know why people think it is easier to take from others rather than do a little work."

Eliseo quietly said, "Sometimes it isn't as easy as all that."

Polly forced her shoulders down and took a breath. "You're right. I would have been a lot more tolerant if they hadn't chosen to steal my brand new saddles. And Mark was talking about starting to work the horses as teams this next week. That's going to be a little difficult to do without the tack, now, isn't it?"