Flying Change

Chapter 15

We sat up half the night, making calls, discussing, making more calls and then throwing the same comments around. As it turned out, Joe Baines was a very bad guy. 

The investigator had turned over a treasure trove of information, that although well hidden was not quite erased. 

It turned out that 'Joe Baines' as he was now known had assumed a few different identities all over the world, he had been a 'Heinrich Wortmann' and had links to diamond mines in the Congo as well as a host of other dodgy dealings tracing through Africa and the East, the money from these had been laundered through businesses from butcheries to Casinos and of course, horses. He had started with race horses in Dubai, always good horses but never quite good enough to win any really major title. That had been over a decade back but since then it seemed he had cleaned up his act after a brief run in with authorities, got himself a new life and returned to his old name, at the same time, returning to his old revenge plot. 

That was where we fit in, whether we were a way of cleaning money or simply  part of some elaborate scheme, it wasn't quite clear, what was clear was that he could be a very mean adversary. He had even managed to buy a horse off of a Sheikh from the UAE, something that was practically unheard of. There was no way of knowing exactly how far he would go but I wasn't keen to find out. 

"Is it really worth pissing this guy off?" I asked for the umpteenth time, "He has a criminal record!"

"For Tacx evasion Lexi not mass murder," Stefan sighed. 

"Yes, but how on earth do you know what his limit is?"

"Okay, we know he's not a savoury character, but where does Kristina fit in?" Phillip asked. 

There was silence, no one had asked  that question yet. 

He looked around, "I mean, that was how this started right? We figured out that she must have been under age, and they clearly know each other... So where does she fit in? If it was a normal relationship they wouldn't be hiding it, right?" 

There was silence, no one had an answer for it. 

"So, why don't we ask her?" He said quietly, looking straight at me. 

"She won't tell me..." 

"I didn't say you should ask her," he bore into me. 

"You mean you should ask her?" I replied archly. 

"I'm just saying that if she didn't react well to him it might be a crack we can  exploit." 

"And another crack we could exploit would be the fact that she fancies the pants off of you," I drawled. 

"Okay enough you two, we aren't fighting," Stefan fixed us both with glares, "Phillip is right, she might say something, and all we know is that there is a guy with lots of money and no morals looking to buy everything he can out from under you, so we have to take what we can get okay?"

I nodded, staring at my hands. 

"Good, now go get some sleep, you have to ride tomorrow." 

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There wasn't much sleep to be had but fortunately it was an early start, Phillip and I didn't discuss it, I knew it was the logical process to let him approach Kristina but still I could feel the jealous girlfriend screaming to come out. Every time I felt a twinge I took a long hard look at the horses and imagined life without them in the barn and that kept me in check. 

"Okay," Val chirped pulling me out of my thoughts as she walked Cherry out of her stable. "All ready" 

The horse was groomed to perfection, even though it was a schooling class, you never got a second chance at a first impression and so the horses were always in tip top shape. Val was usually armed with a back pack filled with everything from carrots to whitening shampoo and hoof oil.