Dark Horse

56

Landry arrived on the heels of the ambulance that had been called for Paris. My shot through the windshield had clipped her shoulder. She had lost some blood, but she would live to see another day, and another and another-all of them from a prison cell, I hoped.

Landry got out of his car and came directly to me, holding a finger up at the deputy who had secured the scene, warding him off for the moment. Deputy Saunders, my escort from the night Michael Berne's horses had been turned loose, stood watching me, not willing to accept my word for my innocence.

Landry dismissed him, his focus on me.

"Are you all right?"

I gave him the half smile. "You must be tired of asking me that. I'm fine."

"You've got more lives than a cat," he muttered.

I filled him in on what had happened, what had been said, my take on it all.

"What made you come here in the first place?" he asked.

"I don't know. I thought Paris might try to get to Trey. It all revolved around him-around Trey, around his money, around this place."

I looked back at the barn, the massive walls washed in the colored lights from the ambulance and county radio cars. Trey was being escorted in handcuffs to one of the cruisers.

"I believe Trey and Jade cooked up a scheme to kill Sallie Hughes so Trey could inherit and build this place. I confronted Trey about it. He didn't even bother to deny it. That's why he's stayed loyal to Jade. He didn't have a choice. Paris wanted Jade out of the way so she could have it all. And in the end, none of them will end up with anything," I said. "All the deceit, all the scheming, all the pain they caused-it's all for nothing. Everybody loses."

"Yeah," Landry said as the ambulance rolled out with a cruiser behind it. "Cases like this one make me wish I'd listened to my old man. He wanted me to be a civil engineer."

"What did he do for a living?" I asked.

His mouth quirked. "He was a cop. What else? Thirty years on the Baton Rouge PD."

"No sign of Van Zandt yet?" I asked as we walked back toward our cars.

"Not yet. The guy at the cargo hangar told us Van Zandt's horses arrived by commercial shipper a while ago, but they haven't heard from Van Zandt all day. You think he was in it with Paris?"

"I still believe he killed Jill. But Trey said Paris got out of his bed to go check the horses that night. Jill's body was left to be found, and whoever put it there knew everyone would connect it to Jade. That furthers Paris' plan."

"We know Van Zandt was at The Players that night," Landry said. "He was all over the girl. Say he followed her out, thinking to pick up the pieces after Jade had broken her heart. Maybe she said no and he didn't want to hear it. She ends up dead."

"Paris comes on the scene and convinces Van Zandt to dump the body in the manure pit," I speculated. "Was he involved in the rest of it? I don't know. Chad tried to tell me someone had actually raped Erin, that Paris had let things get out of hand. Maybe Van Zandt came into it and took over."

"If that's what happened, I'm sure she'll spill it," Landry said. "She's in custody, he's not. Nothing ruins a partnership faster than threat of jail time. Good work, Estes."

"Just doing my civic duty."

"You should still have a badge."

I looked away. "Oh, well, don't you say the sweetest things? I wouldn't express that opinion around the SO, if I were you."

"Fuck 'em. It's true."

I felt embarrassed that his compliment meant so much to me.

"Any news of Chad and Erin?" I asked as my phone rang.

Landry shook his head.

"Estes," I said into the phone.

"Elena?"

The tremulous sound of her voice sent fear through me like shards of glass. "Molly? Molly, what's wrong?"

I was already hustling toward Landry's car. I could see the concern on his face as he kept pace with me.

"Elena, you have to come. Please come!"

"I'm on my way! What's happening?"

In the background I could hear pounding, like someone banging on a door.

"Molly?"

And then a strange and terrible keening sound that ended with her name.

"Hurry!" Molly said.

The last thing I heard before the line went dead was an eerie voice: "I only ever wanted a nice life… I only ever wanted a nice life…"