“You didn’t think it odd that you were painted?” Mrs. Murphy noticed how hard and healthy Queen Esther’s hooves were.
“Of course not. They put hair shine on our manes, tail sets when we’re in the stalls, dye those little white spots or scars on the forelegs should we have any. No, I didn’t think it strange at all. Seemed like one more human peculiarity to me.”
At this, the other horses laughed along with Esther.
“Who led you out of the Kalarama stall?” Tucker smiled at Queen Esther.
“Jorge. Dyed my legs, face, and neck, too.”
“And you weren’t scared? No one treated you badly?” Pewter felt something was strange beyond the theft.
“I’ve been treated like a queen!”
The other horses laughed again.
Finally, Harry and Fair reached the gorgeous mare.
“That’s her! I swear that’s her.” Harry was excited.
“I think so, too.” Fair looked all around. “Ward’s farm is in the back of the beyond, but she’s out in a pasture.”
“If she goes over the hill there, one wouldn’t notice her.” Harry was confused. “It is bold, though.”
“Hide in plain sight.” Fair slapped his thigh. “’Course, we could be wrong. No one knows these horses better than Joan and Larry or the other trainers, but I’m pretty sure this is the mare.”
“I am Queen Esther,” she affirmed.
“She is,” came the three-voiced chorus.
“How did you all know?” Harry knelt down to the “kids.”
Fair had flipped open his cell phone. “Larry, I think we’ve found Queen Esther.” He filled in the details, then asked Larry to call the sheriff of Woodford County, as well as Renata. “We’ll wait here.”
They didn’t wait long. The sheriff arrived within ten minutes.
What was peculiar was that no one came out of the barns when the sheriff showed up.
W hile one of the Woodford County deputies searched the barns, Harry, Fair, Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker remained in the pasture.
The animals chatted with the horses.
Sheriff Ayscough, portly and in his early fifties, appreciated that Fair was a vet.
“She’s in good condition?”
“Sheriff, she’s in excellent condition. Her legs are sound, no hoof damage. I don’t think she has a temperature, but if you’d like me to be absolutely sure I can go back to my truck and get a thermometer.”
“No,” Sheriff Ayscough replied.
“Someone’s coming.” Tucker sounded the alarm.
Two someones. Ward turned down the main drive, truck motor thumping.
Immediately behind him was Renata in her new Dodge truck.
Each pulled off the road behind the sheriff’s squad car.
Ward hurried up the rise.
Renata walked briskly.
“Sheriff Ayscough, where did you find her?” Ward breathlessly asked.
“I didn’t. These folks here did.”
Ward beamed at Harry and Fair just as Renata reached them. She saw Queen Esther.
“Esther.” She put her arms around the mare’s neck.
“What’s the matter with everyone?” Esther blew air out of her widened nostrils.
On the other side of the drive, Brown Bess, Amanda, and Lucy Lu stretched their heads over the fence. Given the lay of the land they couldn’t see the assemblage, but their curiosity ran high.
Ward walked over to Queen Esther and felt her legs. He picked up each hoof.
Fair watched. “She’s fine.”
“How’d she get here?” Ward asked.
“That’s what I want to know.” Sheriff Ayscough’s thick eyebrows rose upward.
“I don’t know,” Ward said.
“He’s lying through his teeth.” Pewter sat back on her haunches.
“He is. He brought me here,” Queen Esther volunteered, but the humans missed it, of course.
Harry asked, “This is the first you’ve seen her?”
“It is,” Ward solemnly replied.
“Mr. Findley, where is everyone?” Sheriff Ayscough thought an empty farm mighty peculiar.
Ward checked his watch. “Lunch, but Benny should be here.”
“Who’s Benny?” This was no sooner out of Sheriff Ayscough’s mouth than the deputy emerged from the second barn with an older fellow, grizzled, unshaven, walking beside him.
“That’s him.” Ward nodded as the two men drew closer.
“Boss, I fell asleep in the feed room. I swear I did. I didn’t touch a drop.” Benny hit verbal third gear without coasting into first, his words rushing out of his mouth.
Ward’s eyes narrowed. “Benny, I hope you’re telling me the truth.”
“I am. I swear I am. Shelbyville wears me out. I fell asleep on a chair in the feed room.”
“You didn’t hear a van or trailer come down the road?” Ward persisted as everyone watched.
“No.”
“How’d this mare get in this pasture?”
“Dunno,” Benny, contrite, replied.
Renata, overcome at her good fortune, tears in her eyes, kept petting the spectacular mare. “Thank God she’s unharmed.”
Sheriff Ayscough removed his hat to reveal thinning sandy hair. The slight rustle of wind cooled his head. “Ma’am, would you like to press charges against Mr. Findley?”
Disconcerted for a moment, Renata stared at Ward, then back at Harry and Fair. “No charges.”
“You don’t want to know how she got here?” Harry blurted out.
“Of course I do, but all that really matters is she’s fine. And I don’t want to jump to conclusions.”
“It will all come out in the wash,” Ward predicted, obviously grateful that he’d been spared legal proceedings.
“Well, if you folks don’t need me, I’ll be on my way.” The sheriff crooked his finger for an instant at his deputy and then both started for the squad car.
“Benny,” Renata asked the fellow, eyes a little red-rimmed, “do you think she could have jumped the fence, you know, from another farm?”
“Like the rehab center,” Ward volunteered. “Backs up to my land. She could have easily sailed over a fence.”
“Saddlebreds can jump.” Benny shrugged.
“Ward, will you take Queen Esther to Kalarama?” Renata asked.
“You don’t want her at Shelbyville?”
“No.” Renata was firm.
“I’d be glad to.” Ward smiled, patting Queen Esther.
Renata finally focused on Harry; a big smile crossed her face. “We both came out ahead.” She paused. “How did you find her?”
“I found her.” Mrs. Murphy cast a jaundiced eye up at Renata.
“Mrs. Murphy found her,” Harry truthfully replied.
“I was there! I was right behind her.” Pewter quickly plumped her own contribution.
“Don’t start,” Tucker warned them.
“The cats ran off and they discovered Queen Esther.”
“But why did you come here?” Renata asked, Ward’s eyes darting from Renata to Harry and Fair.
Before Fair uttered word one, Harry glibly said, “Fair wanted to drive by the new rehab center. He’d heard so much about it. Joan told me your establishment was behind it, Ward, so we cruised by. Tucker had to go to the bathroom, and when we pulled off, the cats jumped out of the truck and kept going.” She paused. “Why did you come here?”
Renata, not missing a beat, replied, “Ward wanted to show me a horse for sale.”
Ward knelt down, not exactly eye level with the cats and Tucker. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” Tucker replied.
“Yeah, you liar.” Pewter giggled.
He stood up. “Benny, bring me a lead rope, will you?”
Benny ambled off.
Queen Esther touched noses with Mrs. Murphy. “Why is he lying?”