The Rules of the Red - 2014 Watty Award Winner |✓|

Chapter Two - Part Three

"Well, just let her know that if she needs anything, I'll be around. Maybe she'll give me the chance to make things up."

"Good-bye, Mr. Raines."

The heavy door swung shut, and I came from behind the pillar to lean forward against the cold marble railing.

"Well he's cute, and charming – definitely arrogant. But what does he want from me, Mrs. Trentley?"

"I've known Mr. Raines his entire life, Naomi. And the two things he likes most are money and girls." She folded her hands behind her back smartly. "Take your pick."

*  *  *

After breakfast, I retired to my room to study the documents that Mrs. Trentley had procured. The report that the New Harbor Police Department provided appeared standard enough, with no information or details that I hadn't expected. It described, in brisk words, how Mr. and Mrs. Jack Noble had arrived together at the Challenger Stables on the afternoon of May 3rd. They rented their horses, and rode until approximately 3:30 p.m., when Mr. Noble suddenly slumped over, and then fell from his horse. But by the time Mrs. Noble had reached her husband's side, he was deceased. The ambulance was called, the police questioned Mrs. Noble, and then she was released as her husband's body was delivered to the hospital. All in all, it was a neat little story with no loose threads to pluck.

I read the police report, and then re-read it again but still could find nothing about it to dispute. And so far, there was still no evidence to support my theory of foul play. Two emergency medical technicians had arrived on the scene that day, and neither of them had been able to find a pulse or revive him. It was as simple as that.

But the autopsy report was far duller and more convoluted a read – four pages of medical terms that I would have needed more than just a high school degree to sift through; however I still managed to grasp the gist of it. My father had died from a heart attack, and with no mention of any foreign constituents or drugs in his system. In fact, the medical examiners seemed to have rather easily concluded that Jack Noble died from some type of physical strain or exertion that had simply stopped his heart.

With a sigh, I gathered all of the useless papers together again, and slipped them back into the folder, where they would stay in the drawer of my nightstand. But I still couldn't seem to make any sense out of it all. Something nagged and itched at the back of my mind, telling me that I was missing a clue, right there beneath my nose. And it just wouldn't allow me to accept the idea that my father had gone horseback riding that day, just to have a heart attack and die.

*  *  *

A few hours later, I joined Mrs. Trentley in the foyer, where she waited with my jacket ready and keys to the black Camaro in hand. She wore an expression of leery interest on her face, so I tried to give her a smile to help assuage her reservations, but her gaze remained steely.

"Seeing as how this is will be your first time driving around Harbor on your own, you aren't going out to get yourself in any trouble, are you?"

"No, Mrs. Trentley." I said, along with a small sigh to go with. "I'm just going out to do a little shopping."

"Hmph. Well, did you find anything? In your reports?"

"No, not yet." I replied breezily, shrugging into my jacket. "But give me a little more time and I know I'll find something."

"If there's anything to find." she said with a sniff, and opened the door.

"Mrs. Trentley, since I was a kid, I've always been very good at reading people. And I also happen to have this really amazing sense of intuition. And that's not me tooting my own horn – it's just the truth."