Red After Dark (Blackwood Security #13) - Elise Noble Page 0,40

Mr. Devane’s lawyer painted Jarrod as a guilty man out to evade responsibility for his mistakes. Ironic, huh?”

“How do you know Jarrod was telling the truth?”

“Because one of my friends saw Kyla get out of the driver’s seat.”

“Did your friend tell the police?”

“No, because Jarrod was a jerk, and she didn’t want to face the wrath of Kyla either. Cross her and you’ll pay. Like the time Piper Simms got voted homecoming queen and Kyla was only a princess.”

Dare I ask? “What happened to Piper?”

“Who knows? She vanished a week before the parade. That was thirteen years ago, and nobody’s seen her since.”

“Did the police look?”

“Officially, the sheriff’s department searched, but guess who was the biggest donor to Sheriff Tucker’s re-election campaign?”

“Was their surname Devane?”

“Good guess. Bribery makes the world go round. Anyhow, Kyla pretended to be really cut up about Piper’s disappearance. They were supposedly best friends before the homecoming quarrel, but did she forgo the crown when she ‘inherited’ it? No way. And a month later, a note arrived from Piper, saying she’d moved to LA to pursue a singing career and she was having a great time.”

“Did anyone compare the handwriting?”

“I heard it was typed.”

“Wow. That’s crazy.”

“Yup. So you see, the stunt with my father was nothing for Kyla. She’s had years of practice. I only hope your friends know what they’re doing.”

“They do,” I assured Harriet, although I wasn’t totally sure about that. The team of Emmy and Alaric had worked well against a muscle-bound psycho in London, but Kyla Devane was a whole other level of cunning. Now that I knew a little more about her past, I needed to warn Alaric what he was dealing with. “What do you think happened to Piper?”

“I have no idea, but I don’t think she’s belting out show tunes in musical theatre.”

That’s what I was afraid of.

When Harriet trundled off to empty her wheelbarrow, I tried phoning Alaric, but my call went straight to voicemail. Rather than leaving a long, rambling message, I sent him a text.

Me: Would you mind calling when you have a moment?

Could eighteen-year-old Kyla really have been involved in her friend’s disappearance? For a homecoming crown? It seemed somewhat drastic, but then again, she might well have bribed a sick senator with an expensive stolen painting and then tried to destroy a rival with underage porn. Perhaps it was all in a day’s work for everyone’s favourite political candidate?

“Enough about Kyla,” Harriet announced. “I need to check on Daddy, but do you want to try barrel racing after that?”

It would be rude not to. When in Rome and all that…

“You’ll have to show me what to do.”

“You can ride Bucky. He’ll teach you.”

“Bucky? That’s not a nod to his character, is it?”

“Don’t worry; he’s a dream to ride. But his registered name is ‘Who Gives a Buck?’ Rodrigo bet me five dollars it’d get rejected, but I think the person who checks the forms must’ve been asleep on the job that day.”

Who Gives a Buck? Yes, I was definitely going to be good friends with Harriet.

CHAPTER 16 - BETHANY

WHAT A RUSH!

Eventing had always got my adrenaline up, especially the cross-country phase, but a short-course round over fixed fences took seven or eight minutes while a run around the cloverleaf pattern took less than thirty seconds. Bucky was a 2D horse, which meant he was usually within half a second of the 1D, or fastest, time. Learning all the new terminology was like getting the pass key to a different world, but even with a western saddle instead of a smaller English one, the basics of riding were still the same. Harriet was of course much faster, but I didn’t disgrace myself.

“Thanks so much! I feel like a traitor when I say it, but I haven’t had that much fun on horseback in years.”

She adopted a snooty pose, back straight and head up. “You think I should give dressage a try?”

“If you ever come to England, you’re very welcome to sit on Chaucer.”

Harriet glanced around the barn, which was in slight disarray before our end-of-day tidy-up.

“Thanks for the offer, but I doubt that’ll ever happen. There’s too much to do here. Want to ride another?”

I couldn’t keep the grin off my face.

By the time five o’clock rolled around, I was tired, but a good tired. After I worked on Judd’s report, which incidentally, he still hadn’t emailed me, I’d sleep well. Maybe I’d even watch another movie with Alaric? Not that I could tell you