Free Bluegrass Peril by Virginia Smith Page A

Scott thought he looked relieved to have an excuse to escape. He slipped into the crowd flowing toward the track and was quickly lost to sight.
    Kaci lowered her voice, still clutching his hand. “I want to get up to the box for this race. But apparently I’m to have a visit from the police this evening.” Her blue eyes caught his, her gaze hard.
    “Really? Why?”
    Her eyes moved as she searched his face. Then her mouth relaxed into a smile. “If it wasn’t you, then it must have been Neal’s secretary.” Her voice dripped scorn at the mention of Becky. “The housekeeper called my cell phone about an hour ago to tell me the police stopped by with a few questions. Someone must have given them my name as a person of interest.” Her smile stretched into a sly grin. “Of course, I am quite an interesting person, to those who get to know me.”
    Scott shifted his weight, suddenly uncomfortable. He wasn’t used to females flirting so openly with him. “I’m sure you are,” he managed.
    The clear trumpet notes sounding the call to post cut through the murmur of the crowd, signalling the race was about to start. The speed of the people moving toward the track increased. Kaci glanced over Scott’s shoulder.
    “I must go. Mother’s filly has a good chance of breaking her maiden in this one, and I don’t want to miss it.”
    Scott gave her hand a final squeeze and released it. A racehorse’s first win, or breaking its maiden, was a celebrated event among breeders and trainers alike. “Of course. Good luck to her.”
    Kaci fluttered her fingers in his direction and hurried toward the clubhouse elevator. Scott stood, indecisive, as the crowd surged around him. He could look for Eddie again, try to continue his conversation. But he didn’t really need to. He’d gotten what he wanted from the guy, a verification of Haldeman’s illegal betting activity, and a number.
    The paddock area had emptied. Scott made his way toward the exit, remembering the flare of anger in Eddie’s eyes and in his voice. True, thirty thousand dollars was probably not a big deal to a guy in Eddie’s business. Not a big enough debt to kill a man over. But if Haldeman owed money to several people, and if each of them found out, it would certainly make someone worry that he wasn’t going to get paid very quickly. He might want to apply a little pressure, to make sure his debt got settled first. And that kind of pressure could turn physical at the drop of a hat. Fistfights had been known to erupt for much less reason. And a fistfight could turn nasty quickly.
    Especially if there was a handy weapon nearby.

NINE
    “N ow boys, please be on your best behavior. We want to show our manners to Mr. Lewis, don’t we?”
    Becky eyed her sons in the rearview mirror as she turned into the driveway of the Pasture. Jamie, intent on the colorful plastic man in his hands, nodded obediently in answer to her request, but Tyler’s face bore its usual stubborn expression.
    “Why?”
    Becky let out an exasperated sigh. “Because he’s my new boss, and I want to make a good impression on him. I told you that.”
    The boy fixed her with a look so like his father’s that Becky’s heart stuttered in her chest. “Will he really fire you if me and Jamie act up?”
    How could a child who had not seen his father since he was six months old speak in the same voice and look at her with Christopher’s eyes? Genetics, she supposed. She lived in Christopher’s shadow every day of her life. It just wasn’t fair. Yet she loved these tiny replicas of their father more than she loved her own life.
    She shoved the shifter into park. “You never know.” She locked eyes with Tyler in the mirror. “He certainly won’t be impressed with an assistant whose sons act like savages. He might not let me bring you back again.”
    She watched the dark head nod as he acknowledged the truth in her words, and breathed a sigh of relief. Her goal for this beautiful Saturday