I walked into the bathroom, braced my hands on the sink, and hung my head. She'd been sending out subtle messages all along that she needed to go slow, and I'd blown it. I sucked in a lungful of air. After a minute or two, I splashed cold water on my face-it didn't help-finished dressing, and brushed my teeth.
When I went back into the kitchen, Rachel had made herself at home on one of the barstools. She looked composed and relaxed, and she'd tucked in her shirt.
I kissed her on the cheek and rested my hands on her knees. 'I need to go back to Foxdale, I'm afraid.'
'To feed the horses?'
I nodded.
'Marty's taking care of it.'
'Wow,' I mumbled.
'He couldn't get you on the phone-'
'It's off the hook.'
'So I see.' She brushed her bangs off her forehead. 'Anyway, he wanted to tell you to stay home. They're going to do whatever they can tonight to get ready for the clinic and finish up in the morning. So I offered to drive over to tell you, but I see Marty was wrong.' She glanced at my crotch and seemed surprised that her eyes had betrayed her. 'You're not at all impaired from lack of sleep, are you?'
'Wide awake now that you're here.'
She giggled. 'So you don't mind my dropping in unannounced?'
I grinned. 'Come anytime.'
Rachel rolled her eyes. 'Are you sure this wasn't an elaborate plot between the two of you to get me over here,' she glanced around the loft, 'in your apartment?'
I grinned. 'No, we're not that clever.'
Her eyes were so dark, they were almost black.
'Would you like something to eat?' I said.
She hesitated. 'Dinner only.'
'I promise.'
'Who colicked?'
I told her about the pony while we ate grilled cheese sandwiches-the only thing I had left suitable for human consumption-and some stale pretzels. I didn't spend all that much time in the loft and rarely had company. The place would feel empty when she was gone, and I hoped her presence would become routine. But it wouldn't happen if I kept behaving like a sex-crazed lunatic.
I turned sideways on my stool and watched her. She took a bite of her sandwich and looked up at me. A smile shone in her eyes, and I couldn't help but wonder what her past experiences had been like. I swallowed some Coke and realized that I really didn't know all that much about her.
Despite what Marty had said, we decided to go back to the barn at ten-thirty. As I followed Rachel's Camry down Foxdale's lane, barn A's lights flicked out. Barn B was already dark. I pulled into a parking space as three of the four vehicles still in the lot started up and headed toward the exit. Only Karen's car was left. As Rachel and I walked around the corner of the indoor, Karen was locking the office door.
'Getting everybody out of here's a pain in the ass,' Karen said when we met on the sidewalk. 'Especially on weekends. They wanna hang out and socialize, they oughta go somewhere else to do it.' Karen's gaze flicked over us, and she took in the fact that we were holding hands. 'I have a life, too, but they never think of that.'
'You gonna catch any of the clinic?' I said.
'You kidding? I have a weekend off, the last place I wanna be's here.'
'Well, goodnight,' I said.
'Oh, I almost forgot,' Karen said. 'Marty got all the stalls done except the eight that were in the last lesson, so you lucked out.'
'Great.'
With my blessing, Rachel bent Foxdale's rules (Karen would've had a fit) and worked her horse in barn B's arena while I started on the stalls. I was mucking out the second to last stall when she joined me.
'How much longer will you be?' Rachel said.
'At the pace I'm going, another twenty minutes.'
'I'll keep you company.'
'You don't have to do that.'
'I know.' She leaned against the doorjamb. 'But I want to. Anyway, I don't have anything better to do.'
'I might be longer. You're distracting me.'
'Oh… I'll leave then.' She backed into the aisle.
I hopped out of the stall, took her in my arms, and kissed her. There was passion on her part, I was happy to see, and less poised control.
In actuality, it took me half an hour to finish up. Afterwards, we walked out to the parking lot. As we stood by her car, a police cruiser out on the road slowed and turned into the lane. The tires crunched across the gravel, sounding loud in the quiet darkness. He pulled alongside Rachel's car and left the engine running.
Officer Dorsett climbed out of his cruiser. 'Jesus. You live here?'
'Just about.' I made introductions.
Dorsett flicked his gaze over Rachel, pausing, I noticed, at the more compelling parts of her anatomy. Even with a jacket to ward off the chill, she couldn't disguise her figure. I wondered if she'd noticed, but if she had, nothing showed in her face.
'Were you leaving?' he asked us.
'Yes.'
He looked directly at me and said, 'Have you walked around yet?'
'No.'
'I'll go with you. Nothing much going on right now.'
Rachel and I said goodnight. Not the goodnight I'd envisioned, however, thanks to Officer Dorsett watching our every move. After she'd driven away, I started toward the barns. I'd taken several steps before I realized Dorsett hadn't moved.
I turned around and looked at his face. 'What's wrong?'
'I've heard something that might be connected with your case.'
A muscle twinged in my gut.
'Last weekend, just off Route 30 across the Maryland-PA line, some horses were stolen from a hunter barn. The woman who owns the place heard something and went outside to investigate. No one's seen her since.'
I groaned. 'Did anyone see the rig?'
Dorsett shook his head. 'So far there aren't any leads, and her live-in boyfriend didn't hear a damn thing.'
I swallowed.
'The farm's secluded. You can't see it from the road, and the barn's not close to the house.' His portable radio clattered. Dorsett listened, then dismissed a broadcast that was mostly unintelligible to my ears. 'They probably thought they wouldn't be interrupted.'
'What about the boyfriend?'
'He remembers that she went out. After that, nothing. They'd been drinking, and he was pretty much wasted.'
'What's Ralston think?'
Dorsett shrugged. 'He's up there now.'
We checked the farm, but afterward, I couldn't remember one damn thing I'd seen or done.
I lay awake for hours. When the clock radio switched on at four o'clock. Saturday morning, my skull felt as if it had been squeezed in a vise. I walked over to the window and rubbed my eyes. Light had already begun to seep into the eastern horizon.
