'No.'
'You had night check last night. What time-'
'No, I didn't,' she said. 'Don did. I offered, but he insisted. After what happened in Michael Berne's barn the other night, he said it wasn't safe for a woman to wander around out there at night.'
'He told me you had the job last night,' Landry said.
Paris Montgomery's pretty brow furrowed. 'That's not right. He must have forgotten. God, if one of us had been there last night, maybe we could have prevented what happened.'
Or one of them had been there and caused what had happened.
'What time would he have done the check-if he had remembered?' Landry asked.
'Normally, one of us will check the horses around eleven.'
Jade had said he'd been at The Players. If he'd gone to the barn later, he would surely have seen the vandalism, might even have caught the girl in the act. It wasn't a stretch to think they might have argued, things might have gotten out of hand…
'Where were you last night?' he asked.
'Home. Doing my nails, doing my bills, watching TV. I don't like to go out when we've got horses showing in the morning.'
'You were alone?'
'Just me and Milo, my dog. We fight over the remote control,' she said with a flirtatious smile. 'I hope we didn't keep the neighbors up.'
Landry didn't smile back. He'd been at this job too long to be swayed by charm. It was a form of dishonesty, as far as he was concerned.
That should have meant Estes was the girl for him. He'd never known anyone as blunt as Elena.
'Have you noticed anyone strange hanging around your stalls?' he asked.
Paris made a face. 'There are plenty of strange people around the equestrian center. I can't say that I've noticed anyone in particular.'
'So, you're fresh out of grooms now,' he said. 'I hear you lost one a week ago.'
'Yes. Erin. Boom. Just like that. Quit and went somewhere else.'
'Did she give you any explanation as to why?'
'She didn't talk to me about it. Never even said she was thinking about it. End of the day Sunday she told Don she was leaving, and off she went.'
'No forwarding address?'
She shook her head. 'I have to say, that really hurt, her just dumping us that way. I liked Erin. I thought she would be with us a long time. She talked about how cool it was going to be when we moved into the new barn. She was looking forward to going with us to show in Europe in the spring. I just never expected her to leave.'
'You last saw her when?'
'Sunday afternoon. I left the equestrian center around three. I had a migraine.'
'And Erin seemed fine when you spoke with her?'
She started to give an automatic answer, then stopped herself and thought about it. 'You know, I guess she'd been distracted the last week or so. Boyfriend blues. She had broken up with some guy her own age and had her eye on someone else. I don't know who. Someone who wasn't a child, she said. Then some jerk keyed her car a couple of nights before. She was upset about that. My money's on Jill for that. She was horribly jealous of Erin.'
She stopped herself again, looking confused. 'Why are you asking about Erin?'
'She seems to be missing.'
'Well, I think she went to Ocala-'
'No. She didn't.'
The big brown eyes blinked as she took that in. 'Oh, my God,' she said quietly. 'You don't think- Oh, my God.'
Landry slid a business card across the table to her and rose to his feet. 'Thank you for your time, Ms. Montgomery. Please call if you think of anything that might be helpful.'
'We're finished?'
'For now,' Landry said, going to the door. 'I'll need you to call with a number for Ms. Morone's next of kin.'
'Yes, of course.'
'Oh-and a number for a Susannah Atwood and the rest of your clients, but first and foremost for Ms. Atwood.'
'Susannah? Why Susannah?'
'Seems Mr. Jade was performing a night check of his own last night,' he said, curious to see her reaction. He expected jealousy. He was disappointed.
Paris raised her eyebrows. 'Don and Susannah?' she said, amusement turning one corner of her mouth. 'I learn something new every day.'
'I would think it'd be hard to keep a secret in such a small world.'
'Oh, you'd be surprised, Detective Landry,' she said, standing too close to him, her hand just below his on the edge of the open door. 'There are two things the horse world is full of: secrets and lies. The trick is telling which is which.'
24
People can do the goddamnedest things.
Words of insight from Monte Hughes III. Perhaps there was a scrap of substance beneath the self-absorbed, alcohol-soaked narcissist after all. Certainly there was something lurking beneath his well-worn surface, something that had penetrated the fog enough to trouble him.
'… that would be because of the murder.'
'But that was days ago.'
I had to think he'd been referring to Stellar, and in that, admitting the horse had been killed. But at the same time, I couldn't get the image of Jill Morone's corpse out of my mind. The connection between Jill and Erin made me anxious. If one could be murdered, why not the other?
I hated that all of this was happening in the world that had been my refuge. But people are people. The setting doesn't change basic human emotions-jealousy, greed, lust, rage, envy. The players in this drama could have been plucked from this particular stage and placed on any other. The story would have been the same.
I left Trey Hughes and went in search of the one person no one had questioned who I thought might have something relevant to contribute. The one person in Jade's barn who was ever-present, but practically invisible. Javier.
His inability to speak English did not render him blind or deaf or stupid, but it did give him a cloak of anonymity. Who knew what he might have witnessed among the staff and clients of Jade's operation. No one paid any attention to him except to order him around.
But Javier had vanished that morning when Landry had come down the barn aisle, and I had no luck finding him. The Hispanic workers in the neighboring barns had nothing to say to a well-dressed woman asking questions, even if I did speak their language.
I felt at loose ends. For the first time that day I admitted to myself that I wished I still had a badge and could have been sitting in an interview room, pushing the buttons and pulling the strings of the people who had known and disliked Jill Morone, the people who had known Erin Seabright and may have held the key to her whereabouts. I knew those people and understood them in a way the detectives interviewing them never would.
At the very least I wanted to be there putting questions in Landry's ear. But I knew I would never openly be allowed that near an active investigation. And, despite my threats to Bruce Seabright, I would now be held completely outside the kidnapping investigation. I couldn't bully my way into that house with half the Palm Beach County detective division involved. I couldn't even call Molly on the phone because the calls would be traced and
