“Mr. Westland, thank you for making time out to see us,” Kate said as she approached the man.
Michael Westland grinned at her, catching the slight sarcasm in her tone. “I apologize for making you drive all the way back out here, Detective. It’s difficult to find time to leave a busy stable during the workday. Please, follow me, we can sit in the break room where you talked to Jessie yesterday.”
Westland closed the door behind them and took a seat opposite Kate and Castle. “Mr. Westland, I understand Mr. Townsend offered Kaylan a position here as one of his jockeys.” He nodded. “How did you feel about that?”
He shifted in his seat and uncertainty flashed through his eyes. Beside her, Kate felt Castle sit forward in his seat, catching the uneasiness of the man. “Well Kaylan showed real promise as a jockey, so I of course supported Mr. Townsend in his decision to try and win her over.”
“You weren’t at all unhappy that he was going to promote Kaylan over Jessie? A jockey you’ve been working with for years?” Castle asked.
“I work with other jockeys besides Jessie now, so of course I didn’t mind.”
“But Kaylan wouldn’t have just been another jockey, Mr. Westland,” Kate interjected. “She would have been the new star of Breaking Meadows, with plans of becoming a top notch trainer. Mr. Townsend promised her a career at Breaking Meadows. She could have taken your job. You’re going to tell me that you honestly didn’t mind?”
“No, of course I didn’t mind!” He exclaimed. “Look, so long as she—“ But he cut himself off.
“So long as she what, Mr. Westland?” Kate asked, leaning forward in her seat.
Westland let out a long sigh and sat back in his chair, suddenly looking defeated. “Look, about two weeks ago, Jessie accuses Kaylan of messing up her career, right?” Kate nodded. Both she and Castle had already heard this from Jessie herself. “And I heard that she wanted to move on to being a trainer. You have to understand, this girl was some sort of prodigy with horses. Anything she did she not only achieved, but broke records. The girl was amazing. I knew that if she ever became a trainer, I would be thrown out of the spotlight just like Jessie. And she and I had been the best until Kaylan came along. So Jessie and I hatch a plan, right? To discredit Kaylan in some way so that she would be ruined. We decided that since she kind of blew onto the scene and became this hot sensation who couldn’t lose a race, that she should be framed for using performance enhancers on her rides. That way it was like she wasn’t some hot shot jockey, just another low life who cheated to win.”
“So then what happened, Mr. Westland? Did Kaylan catch you, come at you or threaten you in some way, so you killed her?” Kate asked.
“What? No! I didn’t kill the girl. I told you, all this was two weeks ago. We didn’t even get a chance to carry out the plan anyway. Mr. Townsend found out about it and put an end to it. It wasn’t long after that that he seriously started looking at the girl as an investment. Next thing I know he’s offering her a place at Breaking Meadows.” Westland shook his head. “It was an in the moment thing. We horse folk aren’t always the best of people and we may take shortcuts and cheat to get what we want, but the people here aren’t killers. Not physical, heart stops beating killers anyway.” He looked between Kate and Castle for a beat before continuing on. “Look, I’m not proud of what I was willing to do to keep my career. But so long as she never found out or mentioned it, I wasn’t going to begrudge her a place her. Like I said, she was one hell of a horsewoman. I would have been proud to have her on my team.”
Kate nodded, still trying to wrap her mind around what Westland had just told them. She was going to hear all about this on the car ride back. Murder, mayhem, and conspiracy, all put together and on the backdrop of the horse racing industry. Kate was surprised Castle wasn’t calling dibs on the story. Of course, he would most likely give it more twists and turns. “Mr. Westland, I do need to ask you one last question. Where were you between 1 and 3 on the night of the murder?”
