Just Horsing Around

Chapter 9

The act of flying itself felt incredibly cool. The three of us floated over Willow Bay, a simple beating of the wings giving us some extra power to keep going. I looked down at the town I loved while I got used to the feeling of rhythmically beating my wings, enjoying the feeling of the warm air against my face. This was awesome.

“You’re going to have to guide us to the farm,” Charlotte told me, so I headed out in front of the group. Sophie would occasionally fly higher than Charlotte and I dared, and then come back afterwards. Because we could fly straight to the farm – I seemed to have this weird ability to know exactly where to go, instinctively – rather than having to follow the roads, it only took about ten minutes of flying before I saw the long, guarded fence.

“Here we are,” I said, landing towards the top of a big tree about fifty feet away from the fence. I easily landed on one of the branches, and Charlotte landed on the one next to me. Sophie attempted to land on the one just above, but because of her extra size, the branch bent dangerously low. She let out an inelegant squawk before flying down to a lower, thicker branch and looking up at us with a look that was obviously a glare.

“Haha!” I teased, “Sophie’s a big fatty.”

“Oh shut up, at least I don’t sound like an angry elephant whenever I open my mouth,” Sophie retorted, and Charlotte flapped her wings a couple times.

“Come on, guys, we don’t have time for this. We need to get as much information as we can.”

“Ok,” I said. “The house is over that way, you can see it there. The stables where Touch of Frost is kept is that big wooden building to my left. I don’t think Sophie will be able to get in there, the door at the front is super secure, and the windows up top seem pretty narrow. So it’d have to be me or Charlotte that go in there. Behind the stables, that big paddock, is where most of the training happens.”

“I want to go check out the house, anyway. I’m going to go pretend to hunt rich people from my perch on their roof,” Sophie announced.

“Maybe remember the reason we’re here is to eavesdrop and spy, not to terrorize the rich,” I reminded Sophie.

“I’ll go see if that Corey is in the stables,” Charlotte said.

“So I guess that leaves me to hang around the paddock,” I replied. “Don’t forget to move around from time to time, it’ll look suspicious if we just hang around the one place for like ninety minutes.”

“Fine, enough with the lesson, I’m out of here,” Sophie said, flying off towards the house.

“We meet back home before the two hours are up, remember that,” Charlotte told me before soaring off towards the stable. I followed her, flying over the paddock behind the stable and getting a bit of the lay of the land.

There were two horses out, with two different jockeys. I could tell from up here that one of them was Tony, although I didn’t recognize the other one. Philippe was walking along the edge of the paddock, obviously giving out instructions from time to time.

I circled up above, watching the horses as they went through their daily training routines. Finally, I circled slowly down and aimed for the fence right next to where Philippe was.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t quite mastered the art of landing properly yet. Maybe making it into that tree the first time was a fluke; either way, I flew a little bit too low towards the fence and flew directly into it, landing with an awkward thud on the ground below.

I groaned to myself as I hoisted myself up and shook my feathers. I flew up once more and tried again, this time managing to land gingerly on the fence where I’d originally been aiming. Luckily, it didn’t seem that anyone noticed anything. That was one advantage to being a bird: most people just ignored you completely.

Hopping along the fence carefully, I made my way a little bit closer to Philippe.

At the far end of the paddock was a steeplechase setup, a fence for the horses to practice jumping over, with a bit of a pool on the other side that the horse had to miss as well.

For a couple of minutes, I watched as Philippe barked out orders. Eventually Tony ran and attempted to jump over the steeple, but the horse’s rear legs clipped the bar and it fell down into the water below.

“Bah!” Philippe spat, obviously disgusted. Tony came over with his horse, while the other jockey continued to do laps down the other end of the large paddock.

“You call dat jumpeeng?” Philippe asked in his strong French accent.

“Damn it, man, I’m a frigging murder suspect, give a dude a break, will you? The last guy was so much nicer,” Tony said, taking off his helmet and shaking the sweat off his hair.

“We are all suspects,” Philippe replied. “But dere is nothing we can do about eet now.”

“Yeah, well, forgive me if I’m a little bit distracted.”

Philippe just shrugged. “You are one of the world’s top jockeys. You are not paid to be distracted. You are riding one of dee finest horses ever. Figure it out.”

“Aren’t you just a little bit worried? Like, at all?”

“I am not the one who cursed the dead over the body in front of other people, like some kind of idiot.”

A flash of anger passed past Tony’s eyes.

“Well how the hell do I know it wasn’t you? You French are shifty to begin with, and you said you were going down to the house to get some water. You could have easily done it then.”

“As easily as you could have, while I was gone,” Philippe replied, his tone icy. It seemed that perhaps Tony’s words were beginning to affect him. “Besides, everyone knows you hated the woman. Whereas to me, she was a boss. I have had worse. Much, much worse. As a young man, in Genf, I was beaten if I didn’t do the work properly. You tell me, did Caroline Gibson ever beat me? No. Did she ever beat you? No. She should have. I would have, if she had let me, with your impertinent mouth. You are lucky dat you are such a good jockey.”

“Yeah, well, this is America,” Tony replied arrogantly. “We have worker’s rights here. And just because she didn’t beat you didn’t make her a good boss.”

“Who do you think did it, den?” Philippe asked. “You think it was me? You tell big, fat policeman de foreigner did it?”

Tony laughed, a hollow, empty laugh. “No. I wouldn’t tell that fat moron anything even if I knew. Everyone in town knows Hawthorne has the IQ of a slug. Can’t trust the man with a simple robbery without him bungling it. Plus, I don’t know who did it. You ask me though, I say Corey did it, so he can finally bang that chick without Caroline getting all pissy about it.”

It sounded like Corey and Ellie wanting to be together was the worst kept secret on the farm.

“Perhaps. Nothing makes a man so crazy as the love of a woman.”

“Especially when that woman is the only heir to a multi-million dollar empire,” Tony added, putting his helmet back on and leading his horse back out to the paddock.

Tony went back to his work and a few minutes later, realizing I wasn’t going to be getting any more information about the murder from the two of them, I flew up and landed on top of the stables – making extra certain that I stuck the landing on the first try, this time.

I replayed the conversation over in my mind, trying to think. There really wasn’t that much information here, other than the fact that Philippe didn’t really seem to have much motive to kill Caroline, Tony openly hated her, and both men had been left alone around the time of the murder. Either one of them could have done it.

Great. If only Philippe hadn’t gotten thirsty – although that could have just been an excuse, I reminded myself – then Philippe and Tony could have been each other’s alibi, and that would have eliminated two people from the pool of suspects.

I decided to fly out towards the house and see if there was anything I could discover there. Landing on the roof, I hopped from window to window, peeking my head inside. I passed a bedroom that surely had to be Ellie’s – every inch of it was pink, covered in stuffed pink bears – and a matching bathroom. I passed another bedroom that looked unlived in, which must have been a guest room, and another room that was obviously used for storage. When I hopped past the next window, however, I stopped. Susan was rummaging through a desk, obviously looking for something. I definitely hadn’t been dreaming this morning, she looked haggard and worried. I couldn’t help but wonder what she was looking for in the room that was obviously Caroline Gibson’s office.

It was done up in a modern style, with white walls and furniture, and pictures of Caroline lined all the walls, including a giant oil painting of Caroline on top of a horse in a giant frame behind the desk. The painter had been very generous when it came to Caroline’s proportions, and I couldn’t help but be reminded of the portrait of Ben Stiller’s character in the movie Dodgeball, one of my favourite comedies of all time.

After a minute, through the window, I heard someone calling from downstairs, and Susan’s face went white. She scrambled to quickly put everything back the way it should be, and then quickly ran out the door, closing it before she went.

I wondered how on earth I was going to manage to get in there. The window was closed, after all. I doubted if my magic would work while I was in bird form, but I had to give it a try, didn’t I?

“Apertoa,” I tried, focusing hard on the window as I pointed my beak and one wing towards it. I felt the familiar pulse of energy coursing through me and out of my feather towards the window, and it opened about three inches. Not as far as it would have if I’d done the spell in human form, but good enough for a Stellar Jay to get through.

I glided over to the desk and landed carefully – I was finally getting the hang of things – and started looking over the papers. I ignored the ones on the top; whatever Susan was looking for obviously wasn’t right there. Using my beak I pushed some papers onto the floor, thinking that whoever came in here next would blame a gust of wind from the open window, and started looking through the papers.

There was really nothing exciting at all. Just some bank statements that I wished were my bank statements, going by the balance, a few old bill stubs, some tax forms, that sort of thing.

I looked at the drawers underneath. Jumping onto the handle, I began to pump my wings away from the desk, hoping to be able to open the drawer just enough to get inside. Luckily, on the third attempt, I managed to pry the drawer open far enough to be able to see what was inside.

On the very top of the drawer was a letter addressed to Caroline. I carefully pried it open with my feet and my mouth – or more accurately, my beak – dropped open as I read it.

Caroline,

I know you and I disagree about your daughter. I love Ellie, and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. You’re her mother, not her owner. She’s an adult, and she can make her own decisions. Stop trying to keep her away from me, or I promise you, you’ll be sorry.

Corey

The letter was dated five days ago. I sat there, reading and re-reading the letter over and over, wondering if I could take it back with me, then realizing that no, I absolutely should leave it here. I supposed the cops hadn’t come around and looked at everything yet; they were bound to find it for sure.

Was this what Susan was looking for so frantically? And if so, why? Was she going to hide it from the police for Corey? What reason could she possibly have for doing so? It was obvious Corey loved Ellie.

Suddenly, a grandfather clock downstairs began to ring half past four, and I realized that the two hours were almost up. I had to get back home, and fast.

I dropped the letter back in the desk, pushed it closed by flying into the drawer, then quickly left out the window and flew back towards our home in Willow Bay.

Pumping my wings as fast as I could, I knew I was going to be cutting it close. I didn’t know exactly what time was two hours from the start of the spell, but it couldn’t be far. It had to be around a quarter to five. That much, I knew. The sense of pure relief I felt when I finally saw the house was palpable, I could see the open window we’d flown out from. With a final pump of my wings I flew towards it, when I realized in horror that my insides were starting to swirl again, that same feeling as when I’d been transformed into the bird. With the bright light around, I wasn’t sure if I’d made it into the house or not.

When the light finally disappeared, I saw Sophie laughing at me, just as Charlotte, still in crow form, began to shine brightly as she too turned human again. It took me a second to figure out why Sophie was laughing: I’d transformed right in the middle of the window, and I was stuck. My body was inside the house, but my legs were still sticking outside, flailing aimlessly at the nothingness below the window.

“Yeah, that’s a way better reaction than coming over to help,” I complained grumpily as Charlotte reappeared in front of me, like magic. Well, I supposed it was magic.

“Maybe you should consider a diet,” Sophie laughed as she got up off the couch and hoisted me through the rest of the window, then closed it behind me. I fell to the floor with an inelegant thud, and a minute later Sprinkles was on top of me, taking advantage to give me as many kisses as possible.

“Hi, Sprinkles! I missed you too,” I said, patting him as I laughed. I was always ticklish when dogs decided to give me kisses.

“You’re back! You’re back!” he exclaimed.

“Yes, we are back,” I said.

“You have to go find the cat!”

“The cat?” I asked.

“Yes, she left right after you did and she’s not back yet.”

I sighed and sat up. Of course Bee was going to make today even harder.