At Risk by Kit Ehrman Read Free Book Online

"In
October."
    "Where do they unload? Would they know the
farm's layout?"
    "Yeah, probably. We have them unload
different places, depending on what we're working on."
    "And Gregory Davis?"
    "He's Foxdale's vet." I handed Detective
Ralston the sheet. "And my landlord."
    He tossed the printout into his briefcase and
scribbled something in his notebook. "He'd know Foxdale's routine,
then?"
    "I guess so. He has a whole slew of clients,
so I wouldn't say he's an expert on what goes on here." I gestured
to his briefcase. "You don't think they have anything to do with
what happened, do you?"
    He glanced at me over the rims of his
glasses. "I'm checking everyone."
    Ralston shifted in his seat and looked toward
the barns, and I couldn't begin to guess what he was thinking. When
he said nothing further, I leaned my head against the vinyl
headrest and stared unseeingly at the sun visor. After several
minutes, I looked over at him. He was jotting down notes in a neat,
controlled script. His fingernails were clean and well manicured,
his hair cut military short. Everything about the man was neat and
tidy, right down to his expertly-polished shoes.
    I looked at my hands. Dirt was permanently
ingrained in skin that was mostly chapped, and my fingernails
weren't too clean, either. Come to think of it, my clothes were
filthy, and I was certain I smelled like a horse, or worse.
    I cleared my throat. "Why has the case been
referred to you? I thought someone else was handling it?"
    He shifted in his seat so that he was facing
me, rested his arm on the backrest, and absentmindedly turned the
pencil over in his fingers. With effort, I kept still under his
gaze.
    Finally, he said, "The detective who
interviewed you in the hospital, Gary Linquist, he responded to a
teletype I'd sent out to surrounding counties in the hope of
connecting with anyone who's investigating a case similar to one
I'm working."
    "What kind of case?" I asked.
    He gestured to the indoor. "Is that where the
assault took place?"
    I glanced at the huge building. "Yes."
    "I need to look at the scene." He stopped
fiddling with the pencil. "And I need you to walk me through what
happened that night."
    I looked out the windshield.
    "I also want to see each stall a horse was
taken out of and the location of the fuse box."
    "Fuse box?"
    "They didn't break the security lights,"
Ralston said. "Shooting them out would have made too much noise.
Turning all of them off would have attracted attention. Based on
Howard County's report, it looks like they just flipped the circuit
breakers for half the security lights and nothing else."
    I nodded. The light behind barn A and the one
down the side lane to the implement building had been on. I
remembered seeing them from the road.
    I showed him each stall and, for the first
time, realized that all of the stolen horses had been housed in
barn A. Next, we went into the utility room. The fuse boxes were
covered with a layer of black dust and smudges that I assumed were
the result of fingerprinting.
    He examined both boxes, then stooped down and
angled the beam of his flashlight across the floor, even going as
far as peering behind the water heaters and heating unit. "Was this
room locked?"
    "I don't know. It should have been." I looked
at the floor. From one end of the room to the other, hoses snaked
across the cement. We had stepped over them when we'd first walked
into the room. "I guess the door could have been left unlocked. The
crew's always coming in here to get the hoses since we can't keep
them in the barns this time of year without them freezing."
    "Do you remember locking it that night?"
    "No."
    He straightened and glanced at me but said
nothing. After he examined the entire floor of the small room, I
showed him where the truck and trailer had been parked between the
barns, then we walked toward the parking lot.
    As we neared the southwest corner of the
indoor, I turned around and looked down the lane. "I was about here
when I saw the