Kit Ehrman: At Risk

Five days after the horse theft, I went back to work.

I nosed the pickup down the long gravel lane, swung the truck around into my spot, and switched off the engine. It was a quarter of seven, and as usual, I was the first one there. Except for a row of trailers parked along the fence bordering the southwest field, the lot was deserted. I listened to the pings and clicks as the engine cooled and tried to ignore the tension that had crept into my shoulders and settled at the base of my skull.

I climbed out of the truck and slammed the door. As I walked down the lane past the entry door by the pay phone, for a brief second, it was the middle of the night, and I was back inside and scared half to death. Scared half to death and hurting. Hell, I was hurting.

I shook my head and tried to lose the sensation as I unlocked the office door with the new set of keys Dave had dropped off at the loft the day before. I scooped up the scraps of paper in my bin and flipped through them-a list of horses to be medicated, a reminder to leave Mary Anne's gelding in so he'd be ready for an early morning lesson, a note from Mrs. Hill that Lori's mare had thrown her bar shoe again. She'd scrawled that one in red ink and had underlined "again" three times. I added the mare's name to Nick's list, jammed the slips of paper into my coat pocket, and walked down to barn B.

Overnight, it had warmed up to a balmy thirty degrees, and the barn was fragrant with the long familiar smells of horse, hay, and sawdust. Listening to the usual chorus of nickers and whinnies, I loaded medications and supplements into the feed cart and was halfway down the aisle, when I felt as if someone had kicked me in the gut. Fourth down the med list was a name I wouldn't need to worry about. "Gold Coast-vit. supp.," it read. Poor Shrimpy. He wasn't going to need a vitamin supplement anymore. Neither were six other horses.

I rubbed my face. I hadn't thought it would affect me like this. Hadn't prepared myself for any of it. I glanced at my watch when I heard a thump in the barn aisle across the way.

"Yo, Steve. That you?" Marty's voice.

"Yeah."

He cut through the small arena and strolled down the aisle toward me. "There's the man hisself. Our hero. Defender of horses everywhere."

"Give me a break."

He came closer and inspected my face. "Pretty."

I ignored him.

"You got a nice rainbow going-black, purple, green, yellow-kinda clashes with your blond hair, though."

I shoved the scoop into the grain, then emptied some of the pellets back into the cart until I could see the three-quart line. "How'd it go while I was out?"

"The usual circus. You shoulda been here Monday. Mrs. Gardner came back from some cruise Sunday night and found out about her horse secondhand," Marty said through a yawn. "She had a fit, and Sanders made a scene, like he actually gives a shit about his horse."

"We know better, don't we?" I said. "He doesn't get a horse, and fast, he won't be able to show off for his girlfriends."

"Man, oh man." Marty slapped his thigh. "That's right. You missed it. The Monday you were off, before the horses got pinched, Sanders brought this blonde to the barn. I swear, the girl had secretary printed on her forehead."

"Administrative Assistant."

"What?"

"Never mind."

"She was really hot, man. If her skirt'd been any shorter, I'd've been checkin' out her underwear, assumin' she was wearing any."

I snorted. "What in the hell do they see in him?"

"His money, what else? The guy's got no redeeming qualities. Anyway, I happened to be hayin' down at the far end of the aisle when she-"

"Happened to be? Yeah, right. You were scopin' her out, man."

"Hey. I had to hay down there eventually, didn't I? Anyway, they're lookin' in at that stud of Whitey's, and he's hangin' like he always does. Well, she just about pees her pants when she sees how big his dick is."

I chuckled.

"And get this," Marty said. "Sanders has the nerve to compare hisself. Like he's even close."

"What an asshole." I scooped out an ounce of biotin and dumped it on top of a helping of grain. "How'd the crew do for you?"

"Brian let things slide a bit, and I caught him smoking."

"Damn." I rolled my shoulders. "Where?"

"Out behind barn A. Thought he was on vacation, you not being here and all."

"Yeah? Well, he'll earn himself a permanent vacation if I catch him at it."

Marty chuckled.

I dumped the grain through the opening in a stall front. The pellets slid down the bay's nose and clattered into the feed tub. "What's that sign about, at the corner of Rocky Ford and Stonebridge?"

"Farm got sold." Marty pushed the feed cart farther down the aisle. "Some big-time developer's gonna build a bunch of fucking mansions on puny two-acre lots."

"Oh, no," I said, but it wasn't a surprise. Everywhere you looked, what had once been prime farmland was now a housing development or shopping center or office complex.

It also wasn't a surprise, because the brothers who owned the farm were getting up there in age, and their kids wanted nothing to do with farming. Although I had been drawn into lengthy conversations with them on more occasions than I cared to remember, the old guys were good neighbors. They were as generous lending their equipment as they were dispensing free advice. And most astonishing of all, they had ignored the present-day free-for-all when it came to litigation and had given Foxdale's boarders permission to ride on their property.

"Well," I said, "at least we still have the park land."

"Yeah. In a couple years, it's gonna be the only place where there won't be houses standing eyeball to eyeball." Marty stretched and yanked off his hat. His black hair stood up from his scalp, full of static electricity. He smoothed it down with his palms. "Want me to finish graining, Steve?"

"No. This is easier than haying. I'll leave that to you guys this morning."

Marty grunted. "Why'd you come back so soon? Mrs. Hill would've let you take more time."

"If I'd stayed in the loft another day, they'd be hauling me out of there in a straight jacket."

Marty rolled his eyes and headed for the door, muttering under his breath. Though he kicked butt when he was at work, he would have taken full advantage of a shot at some time off, most of which he would have willingly spent in the sack. And he wouldn't have been lonely, of that I had no doubt. Marty had inherited his father's height and his mother's Latin American looks, and this time of year, he made the rest of us look anemic.

At twenty-two, he was a year older than me, and he made me feel old.

By nine o'clock, I'd had my fill of similar comments from both crew and boarders alike. I went outside and stood in the alleyway between the barns. All morning long, geese had been flying so low that the beating of their wings was clearly audible, their distinct voices urgent. I walked up to the office, put my hand on the doorknob, and paused. Sanders was standing in front of Mrs. Hill's desk with his back to the door. His posture was rigid with tension as he stabbed a finger in the air, and I could hear him easily through the glass. I stepped inside and clicked the door shut.

"I can't believe you let this happen," he was saying. "You're all incompetent. Why didn't-" Sanders must have sensed someone behind him, because he whirled around. When he saw me, he clamped his mouth shut.

Although he was in his late forties, his skin was unnaturally smooth and moist-looking, like he'd just splashed after-shave lotion on his face. With what I hoped was an impassive expression, I watched a muscle in his jaw twitch as the silence in the room lengthened.

Mrs. Hill cleared her throat. "As I was saying, Stephen tried to stop the thieves but couldn't. He wound up in the hospital for his troubles. He's lucky to be alive."