Page 30 of No Rules

Caroline paused, furrowing her brow in thought. “Well, there’s one person who comes to mind. Nathan Harker.”

“Who’s that?”

Caroline led them into another stable, the smell of hay and leather lingering in the air. “Nathan’s an up-and-coming jockey. Ambitious, talented…and pretty damn resentful when Marilyn passed him over to ride Sam’s Promise. I heard he didn’t take it well.”

Ryan’s eyes narrowed, and Alex could almost see the gears turning in his head. “So, he might’ve felt like he had something to prove or a score to settle?”

“Maybe, but I don’t know him well enough to say for sure. It’s something I heard through the grapevine.”

“Thanks for sharing that with us. We’ll look into it.”

“Good.” Caroline nodded, her face once again taking on that determined expression. “I hope you find whoever did this to Sam’s Promise. No horse deserves to suffer like that.”

They came up to a stall where a big sand-colored horse poked its head over the door. “This is Angel’s Wings,” Caroline said. “Hey, baby,” she cooed. “How are you feeling today?”

She reached into her pocket and fed the horse some treats as she scratched between his ears.

“What was wrong with him?” Alex asked.

“Inflammation of the tendons in his right front leg due to overtraining. It’s always a challenge to find the right balance between pushing a horse and overexerting it. This time, we pushed too hard.”

She rubbed his nose, then kissed his head. “But you’ll get to race again soon, won’t you?”

Her affection for Angel’s Wings was obvious, and the horse mirrored it. Alex had always felt animals were often much better judges of people’s characters than people themselves, so if the horse trusted Caroline, that spoke volumes.

“Thank you for giving us a tour and answering our questions,” Ryan said when they were back at their car, offering a genuine smile that showed he felt the same way about Caroline as Alex did. “We’ll do our best to find out what happened and bring whoever’s responsible to justice.”

Caroline nodded. “You do that. For Sam’s Promise and the sake of our entire racing community. And if I think of anything else that might be relevant, I’ll let you know.”

The sun dipped low in the sky, casting golden rays across the rolling hills as they drove away. Alex glanced over at Ryan, who gripped the steering wheel with a focused intensity that belied his brooding thoughts.

“Caroline was an interesting character,” Alex said. “Didn’t hold back on her feelings about Marilyn, that’s for sure.”

Ryan snorted. “Yeah, she’s a straight shooter, all right. What other impressions did you get?”

Alex had expected that question, and he appreciated Ryan giving him the opportunity to share his thoughts, even if Ryan had come to the same conclusions. “I don’t think she had anything to do with Sam’s Promise getting killed. She runs a clean, ethical business that seems to be doing well financially. Plus, her genuine love for the horses is obvious. I don’t see her capable of committing an act that gruesome.”

“Agreed. I didn’t think she was involved, but it was good to meet her and have that confirmed.”

“So I guess our next stop is that jockey, Nathan Harker? His ambition might have driven him to do something drastic.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Ryan cautioned. “We still need to dig deeper into everyone’s alibis, including Caroline’s. Can’t rule anyone out yet.”

“I know, but he’s a new lead we can check out. I suppose we’ll try to see him tomorrow?”

“Can’t. I’m out of town for two days.”

“Out of town?”

“Yeah. It’s my mom’s sixty-fifth birthday, so I have an early flight to Austin tomorrow to spend some time with her and my sister to celebrate.”

It was so strange to hear Ryan talk about his mom and sister with such open affection. He was revealing a part of himself that usually stayed hidden. Did he even realize how his voice changed when he talked about them? That his face lost some of its cold sternness and grew softer?

“I suppose you don’t want me to work on the case by myself?”

Ryan shot him a quick look sideways. “Not if you mean talking to Nathan Harker, no, but you can check out other stuff. Caroline’s alibi, for one, and you could do a preliminary background check on Nathan. Plus, we need information on the bets placed that day, so see what you can find out there.”

Alex fought to keep his face neutral, not wanting to show the excitement bubbling inside him. “Thank you for trusting me with that.”