rooms for equipment and feed.
As soon as the door began rolling open, horse heads poked out of the stalls to see who had entered. “Good morning, babies,” Odessa sang, reaching into her jacket pockets. She came out with handfuls of carrots, which she began to feed to each one.
“How often do you usually ride?” I asked.
“Oh, at least twice a day. I ride Deimos every evening, of course, so Beau can live vicariously,” she said with a rueful smile. “But I also rotate among the others, usually during the afternoon. A couple of my friends stop by once a week or so to ride, and so does Maya, Beau’s executive assistant.” She stroked the horse in front of her, a chestnut brown with a white diamond on its face.
“Maya rides too?” The still-unseen personal assistant had sounded so businesslike on the phone.
Which, I realized, might be why I hadn’t considered her as a suspect. Beau was convinced of her loyalty, but had he actually pressed her to see if she was keeping anything from him? Even if he had, there was more than one way to be an unwitting accomplice. She might have divulged information to someone without realizing it was sensitive.
I could go talk to her once Becca had arrived, but while I was here, I might as well see if Odessa knew anything about her that could help me. “Are you guys friendly?”
Odessa had been murmuring nonsense to the horses, the way I talk to the herd, but she paused and turned on her heel to look at me. “Friendly . . . ish? Maya has always done a lot for me. When I was still in school, she was the one who arranged for me to have nannies, a cook, new clothes, all that stuff.” Odessa shrugged. “And she was the emergency contact at school in case I got a fever or fell on the playground. We chat and stuff when she comes to ride. But we’re not, like, tight.”
Hmm. I would need to go see her, but I didn’t see any reason to let Odessa know that.
There was a dusty bench near the tack room, and I sat down, taking a sip of my tea as I watched Odessa interact with the horses. Most of them were docile and affectionate with her, waiting eagerly for their turn. Deimos, who stood a head taller than the others, snorted and stamped impatiently until Odessa reached his stall at the far corner of the barn.
“All right, you big baby.” She pulled the rings off one hand and reached into her pocket to exchange them for an apple. Then she held it out to the horse, who bit off half of it in one loud chomp.
“Jesus,” I said, wincing. “Don’t you worry about losing a finger?”
Odessa laughed. “You learn how to hold it so they can get the right leverage without getting your hand.” She held her palm flat and let Deimos take the second half of the apple, patting him on the neck. “When we first got him, he was half-wild, but he likes me now. He doesn’t like when I wear rings, though.”
“Who did you ride before him?”
“Tuxedo,” she said, nodding at a black-and-white horse a couple of stalls away. He was the next tallest, after Deimos. “He’s a great horse, but Deimos is all power and speed, all the time. We understand each other.”
Deimos nosed her jacket insistently, probably looking for more treats, but she just smiled, patting the side of his face. “I’m going to miss him,” she said softly, without looking away from the horse.
So Beau had already talked to her about leaving town. I put the tea down on the bench next to me. “Where are you going to go?” I asked.
“Oh, Beau’s sending me to New York to stay with one of my brothers. He’s even making Becca fly up there with me, to make sure it’s safe.” She rolled her eyes. “Then Becca’ll come back and I’m stuck up there.”
“Do you get along with your brother?” I asked lightly.
“He works sixty-hour weeks on Wall Street, and his wife does yoga twice a day. I never feel like I can breathe when I’m there.”
“What about the other brother?”
Odessa made a face. “He’s in grad school at Princeton. He doesn’t even have a couch I could sleep on.”
She gave Deimos a last pat and turned to face me. “All right, mealtime. Usually the night grooms do this right before they leave, so we’re already