Sweet Montana Boxed Set 1-5 Page 3
She carried both buckets over to the stall and put them down. She then picked up the water bucket and poured the water into the trough. Tossing the empty bucket aside, she heaved the grain bucket and started pouring that into the livestock feeder.
She was almost done emptying the bucket when she heard yelling outside. Trip was yelling to Kas. Tabby couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying but he was clearly upset.
“That doesn’t sound good at all, Tenterhook,” she said as she dropped the half-full bucket of grain to the ground, spilling its contents.
She closed the stall gate, secured it, and then ran down the path toward the open door. She’d left her jacket in the arena, something she didn’t notice until she was standing outside in the bitter cold. She abandoned the idea of going back to get it when she heard raised voices in the barn. The barn door was only a few yards away, so she ran the few yards to barn. But not before noticing the split in the wood, most likely caused when Mad Dog escaped.
Once inside, she raced down the center aisle toward the grooming room where she heard Kas and Trip’s voices. Most of the stall doors were closed and the horses that occupied them were showing distress instead of eating hay and grain, or resting. When she reached the grooming room, she saw Trip crouched over Levon as he lay on the floor. Kas grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away, reaching in his jeans pocket for his cell phone.
“What’s going on? What’s happened to Levon?” she said, trying to pull free from Kas’s grip.
Kas quickly dialed a number while holding onto her arm, hurting it. Without letting go of her, he listened on his cell phone and then said, “We need an ambulance at the Lone Creek Ranch right away.”
Forgetting the pain in her arm, Tabby gasped softly and said, “Ambulance? It’s that bad?”
“Yes.”
She glanced at Kas and realized he wasn’t answering her but to whoever it was he was talking with on the phone. She yanked free of Kas’s grip and ran to Trip. As she reached the grooming room, Trip was getting up from the position he was in over Levon. He pulled off his cowboy hat and staggered as he turned to her.
“Trip? What’s wrong with Levon?”
She’d grown to know Trip well over the years. He wasn’t a man who showed emotion. Not like her father had. But by the heavy slouch of his shoulders that made him look as if he were carrying a weighty load, she knew he was rattled.
“The ambulance is on the way,” Kas said coming up behind her.
“We won’t need it,” Trip said as he stepped away from Levon, giving Tabby a clear view of the ranch hand laying on the floor.
“Oh no!” Tabby cried as tears filled her eyes. “He’s hurt!”
Blood poured from the side of Levon’s head and flowed to the drain in the center of the room. His skin was gray, most likely from the blood loss, and his eyes were only slightly closed.
Trip took Tabby by the arm as she advanced forward. “No, Tabby. Stay back.”
“He needs help! We need to stop the bleeding.”
“What’s done is done. You can’t help him now,” Trip said, forcing the words up his throat as the gravity of what was before them sank in. “I need you to go with Kas and see if you can find Mad Dog. Can you do that for me? He took off on a run, but he won’t get too far.”
Tabby gazed up at Trip unable to understand anything he was saying. “He…what? He’s a fast horse. I won’t be able to catch him. We need to—”
“He won’t go far,” Trip pressed. “He’s lost a shoe. He’ll probably get the ranch gate before whatever spooked him is forgotten. Go. I’ll tend to Levon.”
She hated the sound of his voice, dark and dire. “Trip?”
“Come with me, Tabby,” Kas said, taking her by the arm. He wrapped his fingers around the same spot she’d yanked free of his grip earlier. She winced, which Kas saw. His distressed expression changed to guilt before her eyes.
“I want to stay and help Levon.”
“Let Trip do it,” Kas said, his voice low and strangely gentle.
She wrenched her hand free as irritation surged through her. “My parents were alive in their car for hours when they were in that crash. No one stopped to help them. No one. I’m not going to search for a horse and let Levon bleed to death while we wait for an ambulance before he gets help. What’s the matter with you two?”
“You can’t help him,” Trip said, his voice harsh and raw. Blood drained from her body leaving her colder than she’d been when she’d left the arena without her jacket. “Tabby, he’s dead.”
Sweet Montana Sky: Chapter Three
It took over thirty minutes to find Mad Dog. Then another thirty to get him back to the barn through all the snow he’d run through. During all that time, Tabby wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. But she only felt numb.
As Trip had said, Mad Dog’s shoe was missing. But they didn’t find that out until they’d reached the road and could inspect his hoof.
When Tabby and Kas finally made it back with Mad Dog, Tabby saw a police cruiser parked in front of the barn. The ambulance they’d seen speed down the driveway while they searched for Mad Dog out in the field had come and gone. But the police remained. Levon was dead and they wanted to know why.
Caleb Samuel walked up the aisle and met them at Mad Dog’s stall. Tabby had known Caleb for a few years. He’d been on the Sweet Police Department for several years, having joined after his military service.
“Is this the horse?” he asked.
“He’s the one who took off running, if that’s what you mean,” Kas said.
Trip walked up the aisle to meet them. “Is Mad Dog injured at all?”
“It doesn’t seem so,” Kas said. “He’s missing a shoe, just like you said though.”
“Good. Good.” Trip said the last word quietly. He looked beaten down. Tabby knew the feeling. She knew how to dress warm for these Montana winters. But nothing was going to keep the chill from her body today with what had just happened to Levon. She’d gone back to the arena to fetch her jacket and ran to her apartment over the garage to get her warm boots and gloves before looking for Mad Dog. She hadn’t remembered doing it, but as she trudged through the snow following Mad Dog’s tracks in the pasture, she realized she must have done it.
Montana winters were nothing to take lightly. But she had a feeling the chill in her bones would never go away after seeing Levon’s lifeless body.
“I just have a few questions for both of you, if you have a minute,” Caleb said.
“Sure,” Kas said.
“You were both in the arena when you heard the commotion in the barn?”
“Yes, I was just finishing a barrel run with my horse.” She suddenly remembered that she’d left Tenterhook in one of the stalls in the arena. “Tenterhook is still out there.”
“He’s fine. I checked on him,” Trip said. He looked as if he’d aged ten years in the span of hours. Trip had known Levon a long time, much longer than she had. And he was clearly hurting. But knowing Trip as she did, he wouldn’t fully allow himself to feel it until he was alone.
She knew that because that was how he’d been when her father died. She’d known that he’d been hurting, too. But he never showed it. At least not to her. It was just his way.
“Did you see anything or anyone in the barn before you went into the arena to do your run?”
Tabby shook her head. “No, just the other ranch hands. But Dusty and Hal left to head over to the Crow Reservation to visit Hal’s mother and sister right around that time. They weren’t here when…it happened.”
“What about the farrier?”
“Hunter Williams? He was here today. This morning. He came by to change Tenterhook’s shoes.”
“Hunter has been my farrier for years,” Trip added.
Caleb turned to Kas. “How long have you known Levon Taper?”
“I just met him a few days ago,” Kas said. “My understanding is Levon didn’t move to Sweet until after I’d left for college.”
“I met him when I moved here from Missoula. That was about eight years ago. My father bought Tenterhook from him as a graduation present shortly before my parents’ death.”
Caleb looked at Trip, who nodded to verify her story, and then wrote a few things in his notepad. “Graduation, huh? I just realized you must be around my sister’s age. Twenty-six?”
“Yes.”
“If you’d grown up here you would have gone to school and graduated with her.”
“Does she still live in Sweet?” Tabby asked.
Caleb closed his notepad. “No. She left Sweet around the same time you moved here. Hasn’t been back since.”
“I guess it’s not for everyone,” Kas said.
“Guess so.”
“Caleb, what…happened to Levon?” Tabby asked.
“As best we can tell, he was struck in the head by a thrown horseshoe. Since Mad Dog is missing his shoe and he took off on a pretty good run, I’m guessing something spooked him while Levon was grooming him. He may have started bucking. At any rate, we found the bloody horseshoe in the far corner of the grooming room. Nothing else though.
“The coroner will check him for any other signs of injury. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are bruises or other markings from being kicked. Looks like a freak accident. I’m really sorry for the loss of your friend, Trip. Do you want to contact his family or should I?”
Trip drew in a deep breath. “He has a brother in Colorado. I suspect that’s where they’ll want to bury him. I’ll call him as soon as I get back to the house and direct him to your office if he has any questions.”
“Okay. Give the station a call when you do so we can release Levon’s name to the papers should they ask for information about his death. I’m real sorry about this, Trip.”
Trip nodded. “Thank you. I best be getting at that.” He turned and headed back to the house. No one would notice the heavy gate of his step except someone who knew him the way Tabby did.
She turned to Caleb. “What happens now?”
Caleb glanced at his notes. “Most of this information is routine for my report. But to me, it looks like a clear case of accidental death.” He picked up the plastic bag with the bloody horseshoe in it from the table in the grooming room. “Levon must have been shoeing Mad Dog, or grooming him and maybe hit a spot the horse didn’t like or the horse got spooked by something. He bucked and threw the shoe. From what I can tell, the shoe hit Levon right in the temple, a pretty delicate place for an injury.”
“A single strike to the temple caused death?” Kas asked.
“He hit him spot on and looks like pretty hard. I’ve seen lots of freak accidents over the years. A single hit to the head can rupture an artery if it’s done with enough force. A horse has that kind of power in their kick. Of course, the coroner in the next county will have to looked at everything and come to a definitive conclusion. But that’s my take based on what I’ve seen.”
“Thank you, Caleb,” Tabby said.
He adjusted his hat on his head and they said their goodbyes.
She smiled, not trusting her voice to cooperate given the emotional surge that struck her. As Caleb walked out of the barn, Tabby turned to the horseshoe over the doorway. It was still turned upside down. Bad luck? Some would say yes. The events of the day certainly gave credence to it.
“What’s wrong?” Kas asked.
She took a deep breath, pulled her gaze from the horseshoe and looked at Kas. “Besides Levon being dead?”
He reached for her, but she put her hand on his chest and pushed, keeping her distance. She wanted his comfort. But she wasn’t sure if she wanted it from him or just wanted comfort from someone. She’d only met the man two days ago. She knew nothing about him except what other people had told her.
“I’m sorry. I know you must be hurting.”
“That pretty much sums it up.”
“I know I grabbed you pretty hard earlier. I just didn’t want you to see Levon on the ground like that.”
He was talking about her arm, not her emotions something that pained her far more than her flesh.
“It’s okay,” she said.
“No, it’s not. I hope I didn’t leave a bruise.”
“You were trying to protect me. I admit it irritated me when you did it. But now I understand why.”
“You…were staring off into space just now. You looked like you were thinking of something important.”
“Important? No. I don’t think it is. It’s just superstition.”
“Superstition? I wouldn’t have thought it was that.”
“What did you think it was?”
His expression softened. “You mentioned your parents. I thought you were thinking of them.”
Her heart hurt with his words. It always did whenever she was reminded of how her parents died. It was senseless and tragic and she’d never come to grips with it. But who did? They were her parents and she’d loved them.
She leaned against the gate to Mad Dog’s stall. “They were coming home from an anniversary dinner about eight years ago. I was home alone. I’d spent some time with friends after graduation.”
She shook her head as if she were trying to get the image out of her head. But in truth, she’d never seen pictures of the accident. She’d only read the police report.
“You don’t have to talk about it if it’s too painful. In light of what just happened here today… You were pretty upset about no one being there to help them.”
She felt the stinging of tears in her eyes. “What can I say? They crashed on wet pavement. The SUV broke through the Jersey barrier and then slid down an embankment about fifty yards off the road. Their headlights were buried in debris from plowing through vegetation so no one saw the lights. Cars passed by on that road every few minutes. Someone must have seen the break in the Jersey barrier, but no one reported it until the next day. By the time an emergency crew got to them, they were dead. The coroner said they’d been alive all night.”
A tear slid down her cheek. She would not cry in front of this man. Tears would come tonight. They always did. She’d cry for Levon when she was alone, just like Trip.
But the tears were there, and try as she may, she couldn’t stop them.
“I’m okay,” she said quickly, before he could reach for her again. She turned and swiped the tears from her cheek and then pointed to the upside down horseshoe. “I noticed that the other day.”
Kas turned and looked at the barn door. “Noticed what?”
“The horseshoe. Does it seem out of place to you?”
Walking over to the door, he inspected the horseshoe, pushing at it with his fingers and then letting it go. It swung back down.
“You mean because it’s upside down?” he asked.
“A few days ago I noticed it was upside down.” She shook her head. “It’s not that big a deal by itself. Just…don’t you think it’s a coincidence?”
“What, that Levon was killed by a horseshoe? Tabby, there are horseshoes all over this ranch. Look, the nail holding it upright probably rusted and broke off.”
“Both nails?”
Kas shrugged. “Could be. Are you superstitious?”
“Yes. And no.”
He grinned. “Well, which is it?”
“Yes, I guess. An upside down horseshoe on a barn door and then Levon is killed by a horseshoe strike to the head. Doesn’t that sound funny to you?”
“You heard Caleb. Levon’s was an accident.”
“I know. I…never mind. I heard what Caleb said and I know it’s plausible. Freak accidents happen. It’s just…”
“What?”
“I’m superstitious, I guess. I’ve always been told a horseshoe should hang right side up to catch luck. An upside down horseshoe means that whatever good luck you had will spill out. You’ll have financial trouble, suffer infertility if you are looking to have a baby or whatever else that’s important in
your life. Bad luck.”
“You make your own luck.”
She shook her head and felt her cheeks flame. “It’s stupid. It’s just a horseshoe.”
“Is that all?”
She glanced at him and saw that he was genuinely interested. “You should know this. Everyone knows about rodeo folklore.”
“Yeah. Some of the bull riders I knew on the circuit used to say it offered protection. I knew one bull rider who kept a horseshoe in his duffel bag when he traveled, just in case.”
“It’s just superstition and…I just still can’t believe Levon is dead. I guess I’m looking for a reason why.”
He reached for her again. This time she didn’t protest. “I don’t blame you. But there are some things in life you just don’t get answers to. They just happen.”
The randomness of life had always confused her. Maybe because Tabby had searched and wanted answers to how her parents had died eight years ago. Everyone wants answers to things that seem so incomprehensibly painful. Some answers never came.
* * *
Something had nagged at Kas since the moment Tabby started talking about horseshoe superstition in the barn. He wasn’t a superstitious person by nature. But he did know a lot of people who were and took it seriously.
One of the reasons he’d come back to Sweet was to check on his investments. He had investments in breeding, both in stud fees and finding the right mare to mate. He envisioned himself one day leaving New York and coming back to Sweet when he found the right spread of land to buy and build a ranch. That was still a long way off. To do it right, he had to plan and wait for the right property to become available. Until then, he’d continue investing in stock and building his reputation in the Western Rodeo Circuit.
The day he’d arrived at the ranch, Trip had been agitated by complaints that several of his studs failed to produce pregnant mares for his clients. Tabby had said that infertility was one of the “bad luck” things resulting from an upside down horseshoe. If his clients’ mares failed to become impregnated by next spring, Trip would lose business and his reputation as a breeder.