“Then why was he arrested?”
“And released, they can’t have had anything on him.” David tapped the notes where the charges had been dropped. “Who are these other men?” he peered at Susan’s phone and the four men she had indicated earlier.
“Ames Barry, Jim Johnson, Dan Wellings, and of course Andrew Coatins. They were all in the task force.”
“We need to talk to the other men,” David took a turn around his small kitchen. “Maybe they’ll have some suspicion about what happened.”
“We don’t know who we can trust,” Susan said shaking her head. “We need to be careful. If Coatins is the dirty cop, we don’t want to tip him off.”
“We’ll be careful,” David agreed. “Don’t worry. For now I have to go to work. Can you dig into where the rest of these men are now? For all we know they’re not even alive.”
“I’ll do some searches today. Why don’t you come over for dinner tonight, and we’ll see what I come up with?” Susan’s blue eyes sparked with hope. She didn’t want to leave David on his own for some reason. She liked having him around. Having someone to talk to about all the strange questions bouncing around in her head.
“I’ll see you there,” the young man smiled. “Now go home and stop worrying.”
Susan collected her notes, stuffing them into her bag. “Be good.” She shot over her shoulder as she headed out the door, feeling far better than she had before.
“Hey, what’s for dinner?” David shouted as the door swung shut.
Susan was feeling much better as she drove the short trip home calling out to her grandmother as she entered the house.
“You’re home sooner than I expected,” Alana walked into the kitchen examining her granddaughter critically.
“I found some information.”
“Tea,” Gram stated. “Sit while I get it. I made shortbread. We can munch while you talk.”
“Oh, David is coming for supper,” Susan said taking a seat and pulling out her notes. This time as she looked at them more questions stirred in her brain.
“I only have salad for supper.” Alana glared at her granddaughter.
“I’ll order pizza,” Susan’s absent reply made Alana grin.
“Oh, I love pizza. Can we get some of those little hot wings too?”
Susan’s chuckle was kind. Her grandmother never ceased to amaze her.
In a matter of minutes Alana and Susan had their heads together studying the notes and pictures.
“This man looks familiar,” Gram tapped the screen indicating Mr. Coatins. “I think he might have spoken to me after I found the horses. I know an officer came out to look at them, but they didn’t know who owned them.”
“It’s all such a mess, Gram.” Susan looked up. “David and I have a theory though.”
“A theory? That sounds serious.”
“We think one of the policemen was involved in the moonshining and was getting a cut of the profits. Back then the county was dry and men could make some ready cash selling hooch. A poor farmer could be sure to make enough to pay taxes and hold on until the harvest came in with this nefarious pass time.”
“Susan, the way you talk.”
Susan grinned. Her grandmother was old school and never had a hair out of place.
“You don’t really believe that a police officer was involved in all of this do you?” Gram asked as she lifted a crisp shortbread wedge. “This is such an old case. Are you sure it is worth the fuss?”
“David thinks so,” Susan turned serious eyes on her grandmother. “It must be terrible to live with everyone thinking that your grandfather either ran off on his family, or worse was killed in some drunken brawl.”
“Well you two need to be careful. People who have worked so hard to keep a secret will not like you trying to dig them up now.”
Susan smiled. She had been thinking the same thing, and though she wanted to find the truth and solve the mystery of the painted ponies, she didn’t want to see anyone hurt. “If I think there is any real danger, I’ll stop.” Susan grasped her grandmother’s hands.
“You’re a good girl,” Gram said. “Now where are we going to get pizza tonight?”
Susan’s chuckle washed away the last of the residual anxiety from earlier that day. Perhaps tonight they would do something fun and not fuss over faded papers and old pictures. It would be good for everyone to put some distance between themselves and the case. There were so many questions, suspicious, and odd threads that the whole thing was going to drive her crazy. A night off and a nice chat might be just what they all needed.
Despite her best intentions, Susan and David spent most of dinner talking about the clues and ideas they had come up with, until Alana told them to put the notes away and pulled out an UNO deck.
“You two young people have gone over all of that at least three times. Give your brain a rest and do something fun.” She turned soft blue eyes to David and smiled. “We can all get to know each other a little better. David tell us about growing up in town.”
David smiled, shifting his eyes to Susan as she shuffled the deck. “What would you like to know?”
“Oh I don’t know,” Gram started. “How about your girlfriend? Surely a handsome young man like you has a girlfriend.”
Susan had to bite back a laugh at her grandmother’s question. The woman was shameless, but she realized that she wanted to know if David had a girlfriend as well. The memory of that brief kiss at the little falls made her stomach tremble, and she paused in her deal, losing track of her card count.
“I’m sorry,” she smiled at David, collecting the cards and starting again. “I lost count.”
Alana Holmes shook her head. “Pay better attentions. David you were about to tell us if you have a girlfriend.”
David felt his face flush as he flicked his eyes to Susan once more. “I haven’t had time to think about a girlfriend,” he finally admitted. “I
