Five minutes later the other two EMTs brought Gilly out. She was strapped to a stretcher, her face as white as the bulky bandage wrapped around her forehead.
Nancy bit her lip, holding back a sob. Would Gilly be okay?
Turning, she followed them down the aisle. She wanted to tell Lee Anne and Michael what had happened, but the EMT was still talking to them. As Nancy approached, the EMT put away his sheet and left with the others. When the ambulance roared off, Lee Anne turned to Nancy.
“Gilly’s really hurt!” she exclaimed, the blood rushing from her face. “But what… how?”
Michael glowered at the officer. “What do you mean we can’t go in the barn right now? What authority do the police have to keep me from my horses? I’ve got to compete this morning.”
“Texel thinks Curio might have accidentally kicked Gilly,” Nancy explained. “There was blood on his horseshoe.”
For a second Michael stood speechless. Then he snorted. “That’s crazy. I’m going to find Klaus. He’ll straighten this out.” Turning, he stomped off.
Nancy watched him go. He’d never once mentioned Gilly, she realized.
“I can’t believe it,” Lee Anne said. “First Aristocrat, now Gilly.” She raised her eyes to Nancy. “Do you think she’ll be okay?”
“I wish I knew.” Nancy stepped outside the barn and walked away from the doorway, then motioned for Lee Anne to come closer. “I have to tell you that I think I saw Michael’s station wagon roar out of here right after I found Gilly.”
Lee Anne stared at Nancy in disbelief. “So what if it did? What’s that got to do with Curio kicking Gilly?”
“Do you really think Curio kicked her?” Nancy asked.
Lee Anne shook her head, but then her eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute. You don’t think Michael had anything to do with Gilly’s accident, do you? That’s even crazier than accusing Curio!”
“Nancy.” Texel came striding out of the barn. Lee Anne glanced from Nancy to Texel. Without another word, she left in a huff.
Nancy just stared as Lee Anne stomped away. If she said anything to Texel about Michael, Lee Anne would never forgive her.
Taking Nancy’s elbow, Texel steered her farther from the barn. “What else were you going to tell me?” He kept his voice low.
Nancy took a deep breath. No matter what Lee Anne’s reaction was, Nancy had to inform Texel about the station wagon.
“The car I saw zooming out of the parking lot was an old station wagon. It looked like the one Michael Raines was driving when we all went out to dinner last night.”
“Did you see it when you first drove in?” Texel asked.
“No. But it was pretty dark, and the wagon could have been parked in the lot with all the trailers and vans.”
“Good.” Texel dipped his head.
He was about to go, but Nancy stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Now you have to tell me what’s going on,” she said.
“That’s fair. I told the officers you’d seen someone run from the barn, so just in case the horse didn’t kick the girl, we’re checking around.” Texel eyed her. “Do you have any idea why someone might want to hurt Gilly?”
Nancy nodded. It was too late to keep Gilly’s secret. “Last night Gilly begged me to meet her this morning. She said she knew something about the theft of Aristocrat.”
Texel jerked his head up in surprise. “The theft?”
“Yes. Only when I got here it was too late to find out what she meant.”
“That complicates things.” Texel rubbed his hand over his chin, scraping against his rough whiskers. “So you think there’s a connection?”
“I wish I knew,” Nancy said, suddenly gloomy. A horse had been stolen and a girl knocked unconscious, and she had no idea who was responsible.
“Hey, Texel!” Yates hollered.
Nancy and Texel swung around to see what was going on. Yates was standing in the doorway of the stall that High Hills used as a tack room. “I think I’ve got something.”
Nancy and Texel hurried to the stall. Yates stood in front of a tack trunk. Printed on the side of the trunk was a name: Michael Raines, High Hills Farm. With gloved fingers, Yates reached behind the tack box and pulled out a rasp—a long metal bar with a rough surface. When he held it up, Nancy gasped.
The edge of the rasp was covered with blood.
10
Caught
“We should be able to match the blood on this rasp with that of the victim,” Yates explained. “Maybe we’ll even be lucky and lift some fingerprints.”
Texel looked at Nancy. “And the tack box belongs to Michael Raines? Interesting. Nancy, tell Sergeant Yates what you saw this morning.”
“So the person might have run from this stall?” Yates asked after Nancy repeated her story.
Nancy nodded.
“I think we’d better find Raines,” Yates told Texel. The police officer was carefully putting the rasp into an evidence bag.
“Let me in!” an insistent voice resounded along the aisle. Nancy recognized Klaus Schaudt’s voice. “Texel! Tell this officer I demand to be let into my barn.”
