Death by Equine by Annette Dashofy (booksvooks txt) 📕

sat up. Molly meowed her displeasure and hopped from the sofa, sulking off to her food bowl. Jessie moved to her desk and thumbed through the Rolodex for the number for the USDA.

As she’d expected, the chief veterinary officer at the Department of Agriculture officially ordered Emerick’s barn quarantined. The rest of the track would remain open for normal operation pending further testing.

Veterinary Services was sending a doctor to assist. Still, the prospect of drawing blood from every horse stabled at the track was overwhelming. Her next call was to Dr. McCarrell, the other track vet. After reminding her that he was trying to cut back on his workload, not increase it, he grudgingly agreed to help.

Her third call was to Meryl, who sounded frazzled. “What do you mean, you need my help at the track? I’m busy with your practice here.”

“I had a horse test positive for EIA.”

The line went silent, followed by Meryl’s whispered, “Shit.” Another brief silence. “I’ll cancel the rest of today’s appointments. Be there in half an hour.”

She hung up before Jessie could thank her.

Jessie loaded up the Bowie unit in her truck with all the red-stoppered Vacutainers she had in stock. The crunch of shoes on gravel interrupted her preparations. She looked up to see Sherry.

Hooking her thumbs in her jeans’ pockets, Sherry said, “I thought you could use an extra pair of hands.”

“I could. I’m surprised you would offer.”

She nudged a rock with her toe. “I just picked up my mail. Got my state license. I’m a real vet now.”

“Congratulations.” Jessie was too tired for sarcasm.

Sherry rolled her eyes. “Lotta good it does me since dear ol’ Dad didn’t see fit to leave me his practice. Look, do you want my help or not?”

Jessie took a moment to think about it. “I do. Thanks.”

“Where do we start?”

“At Barn A.” Jessie opened the driver’s door and tipped her head toward the other side. “Get in.” She turned the key and shifted into gear. “Mind if I ask you a question?”

“Does it matter? You’re gonna ask me anyway, aren’t you?”

“How could you let him do this?”

Sherry turned on her. “Me? How about you? You knew what he’d been doing.”

“Only recently. Even then, I didn’t know for sure. The first time, I thought—hoped—it was an isolated incident. But...” She searched, not only for the right words, but for the truth. “I didn’t want to believe he could—”

“That he could be so lazy?” Sherry offered.

“That he could be intentionally negligent.”

Sherry looked out the passenger window without answering.

“You knew what was happening with the gray. Why didn’t you speak up sooner?”

“I wish I could’ve.”

“Why couldn’t you?”

“I was in a bind. I needed money. And Neil wasn’t going to let me out of it.”

“What’s Neil got to do with it?”

Sherry turned her back to the door. “Dad used Sullivan’s blood for the Coggins tests.”

Mighty Sullivan with the bowed tendon. That would explain why Emerick kept the horse at the track instead of resting him elsewhere. It wasn’t just the lure of the swimming pool.

“It really was never a big deal,” Sherry went on. “The horses were already here at the track. They’d had legitimate negative tests all along. If we’d had any doubts, Dad never would’ve done it.”

Jessie choked. “How can you say that about the gray? He was bought at an auction and brought to the track where Doc fudged the test.”

Sherry fell silent, her face pinched in a troubled scowl.

Jessie remembered something else.

“You said you owed Neil Emerick money?”

“No. I owe Butch money.”

“Butch? The loan shark security guard?”

“Yeah.”

Jessie rolled this latest revelation around in her mind. “And Doc left you money to pay off loans.”

“Loan. Just one. He left me the money to pay off Butch. Damn him. He wouldn’t give me the money to pay off the jerk while he was still alive.”

Jessie wondered how much money they were talking about. “How does Emerick play into that?”

“Neil’s been helping me make my loan payments up to now. In exchange, I take care of vetting his horses. And I keep my mouth shut about the other crap that goes on in his barn.”

“Like the gray?”

Sherry faced forward again. “It’s all gonna come out now. I don’t need his money anymore.”

Jessie noticed a smug smile on her face.

Sherry caught her looking. “You’re a lot like my dad, you know.” And then she quickly added, “The good parts of him, I mean.”

Jessie shot another glance Sherry’s way.

If she was being sarcastic, she didn’t show it. “Don’t act so surprised. I know I’ve been an ass. I guess I owe you an apology.”

“I’ve wondered what you had against me. Did you really want Doc’s practice that bad?”

“No. Maybe.” Sherry huffed a short laugh at her own indecisiveness. “No. I just hated you is all.”

“Why?”

“Because my dad loved you.”

Not the answer Jessie expected.

“My dad always raved about you.” Sherry gazed out the front window. “He’d go on and on about what a good student you’d been. What a hard worker you were. He made me feel like I had to live up to that. I couldn’t. My grades were never anywhere near what yours were. I like to have fun. Every time I screwed up, he’d give me the Saint Jessie speech.” Her voice deepened to mimic her father’s lecturing tone. “Jessie always studied hard. Jessie never asked me for money. She worked her way through school. Why can’t you be more like Jessie?” Her voice settled back to normal. “Jessie this, Jessie that. Blah, blah, blah.”

Stunned at the outburst, Jessie tried to make sense of it in the larger picture. “Is that why you broke into my house?”

Sherry’s head snapped toward her. “What?”

Jessie parked the truck in front of Barn A and turned sideways to observe the young woman.

Sherry’s face had reddened. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“You broke into my house the night I went out to dinner with Daniel.”

“I most certainly did not. Where did you get an idea like that?”

Jessie wished she had the barrette in