Toni Petti - Horse Girl Homicide

Chapter Twenty One

The ravine behind Brummel Equestrian is really wide and several miles long and a river runs though the middle.

"Incredible scenery, and so quiet."

"An illusion," Teo says, being negative. "The far end is a moonscape." He's still upset over my revelation and so I decide to just enjoy the view until his mood clears. It's another quarter mile before he speaks again.

"You look like her you know."

"I'm wearing her clothes."

"And your hair."

"She's going to survive..." I repeat what I deduced from Lisa LaFlamme on CTV News last night. Teo nods but grimaces like he knows things will never be the same. I wonder about their family. "Are you two close?"

"Tanya's not the type to let anyone get close."

"What do you mean?"

"She's... Transactional."

"Ahhh." What a cold observation about a family member, even a stepsibling, but it fits with the notes in her journal. I'm about to ask for some examples when he changes the subject.

"Do you want to meet the neighbours?"

Teodor trots Scissor to the mouth of a washed-out gravel road which snakes uphill between mature oaks. Tree branches arch over what remains of the trail and I trace the route up and find a decrepit red brick farmhouse perched atop the rise.

"Are they the Munsters?" I refer to the 1960′s TV series and the dysfunctional family that lived at 1313 Mockingbird Lane. But this entrance looks even creepier, and the house more haunted. It's a dilapidated mansion with boarded-up windows and shutters askew.

"Accessible only by horseback," Teo steers Scissor onto the property. "The Beaumont farm didn't have a well. They had to use the creek." He points to a crumbling stone structure overgrown with vines. "Their stable had twelve stalls." He nods to indicate the lichen covered cement foundation complete with rusty stanchions.

"Did you know them?" I ask, but Teo ignores my question to continue his story.

"That means they hauled twelve buckets of water up this hill every morning, and twelve more every night, just for the livestock. Think about that. Everything requires water. You wanna boil potatoes? You haul a pail a water."

We ride past the haunted house and crumbling barns and into an overgrown farm lane. Scissor King whinnies and Prince turns to him and makes throaty noises. He nickers and shakes his mane at the younger horse.

"Are they talking to each other?"

"And to us." Teo explains, "Scissor says he's right scared of this place, and his dad just told him to hang on, there's a good time ahead."

"Really?" I have no doubt that's what Prince said, but where is the good time?

"Just relax the reins a bit and let him take you there." Teo says. I let the lines go slack and he makes a chi chi sound and Prince plods forward in low gear. My horse leads us past a ramshackle driveshed and through a gate at the back of the property. I see an apple tree and then another and another, all laid out in rows. Its a feral fruit orchard and one tree ahead of us is laden with pale green apples on which there are bright red stripes.

"Antonia..?"

"Toni." I tell him, "just Toni."

"This..." He sounds nervous, "is my favourite place."

"I can see why." The ancient orchard has several varieties, yet most of the crop is still green. We turn back to ride under the branches of the bountiful tree we saw on arrival.