Death by Equine by Annette Dashofy (read this if txt) 📗

Milt swore under his breath.

There was another call she’d been avoiding. “I imagine Daniel’s heard the news by now.”

“Maybe not. He hasn’t come in yet. At least he hadn’t when I was over at the front office fifteen, twenty minutes ago.”

Jessie knew the quarantine, especially if it went track-wide, would be costly. She wondered how Daniel would deal with the situation. She wondered how he would deal with her.

Milt had grown pensive.

Jessie looked around the room at the battered file cabinets, the ratty sofa, the faded winner’s circle photos tacked on the wall. Her eyes settled on the framed veterinary license bearing Doc’s name. “He could’ve prevented this, you know.”

“Daniel?”

“No. Doc.”

Milt’s face became a portrait of perplexed amusement. “Now, Jessie, I know you think Doc was some kind of superhero, but even he couldn’t have stopped this.”

“That’s not what I mean. He’d been falsifying Coggins tests. His signature is on the papers for that horse. If it turns out they were faked...” The ramifications made her queasy. “The blood test would’ve caught the presence of the virus. The horse would never have made it through the gate.”

Milt remained silent, watching her. She waited for a response that didn’t come.

“I’ve been learning a lot about Doc,” she went on. “I thought I knew the man. Obviously, I didn’t. Now, besides all the other nonsense, he’s put the lives of his patients in jeopardy.”

Milt still didn’t utter a word.

She wished he’d try to argue the point, if only to make her feel better. With a sigh, she set her phone on the desk in front of her. “I have to call Daniel.”

Milt drew a noisy breath in through his teeth. “What are you gonna tell him?”

“About the falsified Coggins results. That we may have more horses on the premises that haven’t been properly tested.”

Milt rested his elbows on his knees and stared between them at his boots. “Shumway already knows.”

Sixteen

“What do you mean, he knows?”

Milt didn’t meet her gaze. “Doc used blood from a ringer. He’d send it to the lab instead of bothering to draw blood from some of the horses. Especially the ones that were hard to handle. Shumway knew about it.”

Jessie struggled to comprehend what she’d just heard. Daniel knew? She stared at Milt as another realization struck her. “You knew.”

His head bobbed.

Jessie suddenly felt like a complete outsider. It was an experience she’d known all too well growing up. As if everyone was in on the joke but her. Worse, this time she felt like the joke was on her. In addition to Doc, Daniel and Milt were fast becoming total strangers.

She dug her fingernails into the surface of the desktop hoping it would somehow anchor her in the reality that was spinning out of her grasp. “How could Daniel know about this and not put a stop to it?”

“He wanted to. But Doc had the goods on him and threatened to spill if he said anything.”

“What do you mean?”

Milt climbed to his feet and rammed his hands into his jeans’ pockets. He paced to the file cabinets and stood there, his back to her. “Daniel Shumway isn’t his real name. I don’t know what it is, but Doc did. Just like Doc knew he’d spent time in prison. Shumway, or whoever he is, killed a man. It was years ago, mind you, but the fact of the matter is he’s a convict.” Milt turned, meeting her eyes for the first time since the topic of Daniel had come up. “He’s got a criminal record, you see. No way should he be able to hold a gaming license and run a racetrack. When Shumway caught wind of Doc swapping blood samples for Coggins tests and threatened to go to the authorities, Doc told him two could do that dance. If Shumway turned him in, Doc would go to the racing commission. This track is all Shumway’s got and he’d lose all of it. So he kept quiet, and Doc went right on doing what he’d been doing.”

Jessie closed her eyes and wished she could shut out her thoughts as easily. “Daniel killed a man?”

“Afraid so.”

“When? Where? What happened?”

“I wish I could tell you more, but as far as I know, Doc took Shumway’s secret to his grave.”

“How’d Doc find out?” She opened her eyes to see Milt shaking his head.

“He never told me the details, and I never asked.”

“That’s how you know about all this? Doc told you?”

Milt lowered his head. He didn’t reply. He didn’t need to.

Jessie buried her face in her hands. “No. This is a mistake. You misunderstood. Or Doc was lying. I don’t believe Daniel’s a murderer.”

Milt moved to her side. He put a hand on her shoulder. Gave a gentle squeeze. Then he left without another word.

WHEN JESSIE WAS GROWING up, her parents’ response to adversity involved packing up her and her brother and leaving town. She’d hated it. Hated running. Hated being on the move. But after talking to Milt, she wanted more than anything to climb into her truck and just drive.

Daniel? A murderer?

She stuffed her phone in her pocket and made it halfway across the exam area before coming to a stop. Where did she think she’d go? To her trashed house? She wheeled and returned to the office where Molly had climbed onto the desk and sat looking at her with big yellow eyes.

Jessie closed the door and leaned against it, watching the cat watch her. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m not going anywhere without you.”

She removed the phone again and slid into her chair before keying in Greg’s number. When his voicemail answered, she let out a disgusted growl and left a message to call her.

She stroked Molly as the seed of an idea sprouted.

According to Milt, Daniel had already served time for his crime. She’d known him as “Daniel Shumway,” upstanding citizen, for just shy of ten years. Whatever he’d done had to be ancient history. It wasn’t like