Toni Petti - Horse Girl Homicide

Chapter Twenty Seven

I sleep in my car and dream of stallions. I'm riding Prince and Teodor is behind me on Scissor. What fun that was! We ride through the orchard and pick apples on horseback. We ride beside the shriveled creek on that dusty trail that bends around the dunes... To the gravel pit!

I wake. It's just after 3am and I'm still parked on Doug Duncan drive, but a moment ago, in my mind, I was back in that dusty pit. That excavation site is where it all happens, every six days. Bernard rides Prince there early in the morning when Teodor is offsite. The tire tracks on the ground, the boot prints, the barn manager meets the Eastern Equine rednecks there I'll bet. They collect Prince's valuable semen from right under Teo's nose. Tanya got wise to the scheme and that's her Bernard Deal! Rather than blow the whistle, she lined-up for her cut of the action. Wow. That's cold.

Do I have this right? Maybe not. I'm not confident enough to return to the police station. It's three o'clock in the morning, and nobody is there anyway.

Do I call Ainsley? No.

Do I call Terrence? No.

Do I try to talk to Teodor? I doubt he's still locked up. They'd have released him by now. But no. I don't have his phone number. Even if I did have his number, what would I say? Meet me at the gravel pit? How would he react to that? And what if I'm wrong?

Do I go there alone under the cover of night and poke around just to see if I'm right? Yes. Sadly. That's what I'll do. I always take the most dangerous path to the truth. But first I'll leave Ainsley a text to tell her what I'm doing, and where I'm going. That's prudent.

"Crown Prosecutor likes this case..." Lafleur was so proud. Okay, fine. I'll wreck their case. I'll get evidence of what's really happening so they'll see Teo is innocent. All I need is some indisputable video. Today is the sixth day.

But they could've cancelled the collection this morning, considering the police investigation, and how Prince leapt the day before. Or maybe they'll take what they can get while the getting is good. Teo was hauled away and questioned by police and the Brummel family is in turmoil. The crooks must split the proceeds which would be very lucrative indeed if each straw is worth $1500 and Prince can fill ten straws per leap every six days, and not just one. That's fifteen thousand dollars a ride which is five grand for each of them and that'd be reason enough to get up early and conduct shady business on the perimeter of the property.

But why poison Cortes? Because Bernard knew Tanya was onto him, and their deal was 'off' as Tanya herself wrote in her journal. 'Bye Bye Bernard' she'd scribbled across the page. He dosed both their horses in a pre-emptive strike to protect his secret revenue. He knew the damage that ADHD medication would do to a dressage horse, and even better, he knew that Teodor would be blamed. He broke into my car to steal the footage, but also to throw me off his trail and to plant evidence that would incriminate Teo.

I bring up Google Maps on my phone and study the region behind the farm. Beaumont Conservation Area is an impossible tangle of logging trails and streams and there are four different gravel pits. Which one was it? How will I know? I'll have to go there and look.

I'll just drive about and see what I can learn from the road. Or maybe I'll park my car and survey the area on foot, with all my cameras. This is a hunch. It's a stupidly dangerous idea, but if I don't try, I'll hate myself for abandoning Teo, and for giving up when I could have saved him.

-

Driving by moonlight, I retrace my route back to the eighth concession. Then it occurs to me, I can't just park anywhere. I'll need to find a hiding spot and my mini cooper is bright red. The sideroads are confusing because they don't run in straight lines; they're twisty with bridges in the dips and they rise over small hills and snake around bigger ones. But just around the next bend, I spy the perfect place to stash my ride.