Faye Kellerman - Blindman’s Bluff

“I assumed it was the groomsman-Riley Karns. He was here yesterday.”

“Is he here today?”

“Haven’t seen him.”

“Who let you inside the property?”

“Piet Kotsky. He said you told Neptune Brady that you don’t want any private guards around until you’ve cleared them.”

“I might have said that,” Decker told her. “Does that mean Riley Karns isn’t considered a guard? Because I certainly haven’t cleared him.”

Wynona shrugged. “Someone has to take care of the livestock.”

“I’m going to poke around the stables…see if he’s there.”

“Take a mask. I betcha it stinks.”

“I don’t mind horse shit. In my younger days I had a ranch and stables. I used to ride all the time.”

She cocked her hip and looked at him. “Is that a fact?”

“It is. I’m at home around horses. It’s people that I find confusing.”

THE STABLES HAD eight stalls and six of them were empty, but the straw had been recently changed. The two remaining horses-both looked like Morgans-were well fed and well hydrated.

Decker left the stables through a half door that led to a paddock. Three animals were hooked up to an automatic horse walker-a contraption that looked like a giant umbrella frame without the canvas top. As the horses walked, the frame rotated like a carousel.

Riley was grooming a well-muscled mare with a deep brown coat and a white blaze down her snout, moving the rubber currycomb in a gentle circular motion to loosen up dirt. He glanced up when he heard Decker come into the area, but he continued working. Karns was a tiny man, but with a wiry frame that screamed jockey. He had thin brown hair that was combed across his brow and tiny facial features embedded in a craggy face covered with a sheen of sweat. He wore a black T-shirt, jeans, and work boots.

Decker said to Karns, “Nice-looking quarter horse.”

“Not just any quarter horse. Her sire-Big Ben-was AQHA World Cutting Champion two times over. Won a purse of over a half million.” Karns pursed his lips. “I used to ride him…Big Ben.”

“Did Mrs. Kaffey buy the mare on your recommendation?”

“I don’t make recommendations,” Karns said. “I’m just hired help. But when I heard that Big Ben was siring a foal, I gave the missus a contact number. She fell in love with Zepher. Who wouldn’t?”

“She looks young.”

“She is young. Wait till she fills in.”

“She’s got good muscle.”

“Great muscle.”

Decker said, “So the Morgans came first?”

“The missus loved Morgans. She shows them all the time.” Karns grew quiet. Then he said, “Horse shows bore Mr. Kaffey. So he decided that he’d try his hand at racing. That’s how he came to buying Tar Baby…the black stallion. The first time I raced him, I knew he didn’t have it. But I kept me opinions to meself.”

“Smart man.”

“I’m just hired help, sir.” Karns trailed a finger over Zepher’s topline. “Go ahead. Ask your questions, Governor.”

“It’s Lieutenant Decker.”

“Whatever you say, Guv. Where’d y’learn about horses?”

“I used to keep horses. I like quarter horses. Versatile animals. On my way over here, I noticed Afghan hounds in the kennel; was Mrs. Kaffey the primary force behind them as well?”

“Yes, the missus loved her Afghans, but not Mr. Kaffey. He didn’t allow any animals in the house. I think he was bitter.”

“Why’s that?”

“’Cause he tried out some of his own dogs and it was a disaster.”

“Let me guess. Greyhounds.”

“Right you are, Guv.” Karns shook his head. “Mr. Kaffey thought he could make money racing them. He could have, except he bought on the cheap. Any half-wit could see that those dogs didn’t have it.

The man didn’t know a fig about animals.”

“Or he didn’t want to put out the cash to buy champions.”

“True enough, Governor.”

“Who owns the remaining animals now that Mr. and Mrs. Kaffey are gone?”

“I reckon it’ll be the boys. They’re the ones paying me to keep ’ em healthy. The younger one, Grant. Yesterday, he asked me how he would go about sellin’ them. I told him if that’s what he wanted, I could help. He said he wanted to wait until his brother got better first, but if I could get some prices, that would be good. He also said to sell the dogs. That won’t be hard. Some of them are champions.” He looked at Decker. “You’re not asking me this to buy a dog.”

“That’s true.”

“So what do you want, Guv?”

“Your building isn’t too far from the kennel.”

“About five minutes.”

“Did you hear the dogs barking on the night of the murder?”

“When Ana woke me up, I heard the dogs barking. Ana probably woke them up with her screaming.”

“In the summer, my setter often slept with the horses. Every time I drove up to my ranch, she’d come barreling out to meet me, barking away.” When Karns didn’t respond, Decker said, “The kennel isn’t all that far from the house. You’d think they’d sense a commotion going on and start barking up a storm.”

“Maybe they did.”

“But their barking didn’t wake you up.”

“I told you. Ana woke me up.” He switched from the currycomb to the dandy brush and flicked away a cloud of dirt from the animal. “When I went to the house with her and Paco, I heard them barking. I reckon they could have been barking all along and I didn’t know about it. I’m a deep sleeper.” He stopped for a moment. “I don’t have trouble sleeping like upper class do, Governor. It’s because I do an honest day’s work and my conscience is clean.”

“Let me ask you this, Riley. If the dogs heard people walking by the kennel, do you think they’d start barking?”

“Probably.”

“And do you think that barking would probably wake you up?”

“Maybe. But not that night, Guv, not that night.” He looked at his watch and adjusted the automatic horse walker to a slower tempo. “If an intruder came in through the horse trailer gate, he’d probably wake up the dogs. But if he came in through the other side, I wouldn’t hear a peep and neither would my pets. So if I was you, I would be guessing that the intruder didn’t come through this area.”

Decker switched to another topic. “Did you know that we found a body dumped in an old horse grave?”

“Hard not to notice all the commotion going on last night…or the night before. I forget. Cops are here all the time now.”

“Someone had to dig up the grave beforehand to place the body that deep inside the hole. You didn’t hear any noise from that either?”

“The grave is on the other side of the ranch, Governor.”

“Did you know there was a horse grave on the property?”

“Of course,” Karns said. “I dug it. People with big ranches do it all the time.”

“You buried three horses at once?”

“Not all at once. The first one I dug was for Netherworld, then the next one was for Buttercream. I dug her grave right next to his. But then when Potpie died, I didn’t feel like digging a whole new grave. That’s a lot of work. So I just dug up the area between Netherworld and Buttercream and made one big hole and stuck her there.”

“How long ago did the horses die?”

“Netherworld and Buttercream died about two years ago. Potpie died last year. It didn’t smell that bad. The first two had already rotted by then.”

“Anyone else know about the horse grave?”

“The missus knew about it. She said a little prayer each time one of her babies died.”

“Anyone else besides Mrs. Kaffey?”

Karns’s eyes darted back and forth. He said nothing.

Decker said, “It’s not a trick question. Who else alive knows about the graves?”