Black Stallion's Shadow (20 page)

Alec stopped reading and looked at Ellie.

“I knew Mike didn't like Kramer, but wow,” she said. “This means …”

Alec finished her sentence for her. “Mike could still be holding Kramer responsible for what happened to his stepbrother. Didn't you know they were related?”

“He never said a word about having a brother, alive or dead. You don't really think Mike could be the one behind all this, do you?”

“I don't know what to think. Mike sure fits the profile of someone with a grudge against Kramer. And he's been there practically every time something went wrong.”

“I can't believe it. He almost killed himself twice trying to stop the accidents.”

Alec shrugged. “I'm not saying he did it, Ellie, just that he had a motive—revenge against Kramer. He could easily have cut the reins that caused the wagon crash. And planting the buzzer would have been a snap for him.”

Ellie nodded. “You're right! He was here the day of the fire, too. In fact, he helped put it out, but not before it spread to Kramer's trailer.”

Alec looked over at Mike's desk. “I think we should
look around in here a little.”

Ellie started opening drawers and poking around in Mike's desk. In a wastebasket she found torn bits of black tape. She showed the tape to Alec. The tape was identical to the kind wrapped around the buzzer.

The back of Alec's neck burned with anger. “I think we better take a ride over to the hospital and have a little talk with Mike.” Ellie took the clipping down from the closet door. She folded it carefully and put it in her shirt pocket.

CHAPTER 21

E
llie phoned Wes at the production office in town and asked him to meet her at the hospital. She didn't tell him what they'd found in Mike's trailer, only that it was important. Half an hour later, Alec and Ellie were speeding down the freeway in one of the ranch pickups.

Ellie dropped off the insurance card with a clerk on duty in the hospital lobby. The clerk said visiting hours were almost over but directed them to room 906.

At the nurse's station on the ninth floor they were told that Jim had left just a short while before. No one else had been in to see Mike. Alec turned to Ellie. “It looks like Wes hasn't shown up yet.”

“Good. That'll give us a chance to talk to Mike alone for a minute.”

They followed the numbers around a bank of elevators.
The air was stuffy. The smell of antiseptic and of years of overcooked hospital food clung to the walls. The door to room 906 was open. A white-haired patient slouched on a chair inside the door. He wore a nightgown and dozed in front of a television set hanging from a mount on the ceiling. The other two roommates lay asleep.

Mike's bed was in a corner of the room beside a wide plate-glass window that had a panoramic view of the night sky. Stars glowed in misty clusters. Mike sat facing out the window, pillows propping up his back. His left leg was uncovered and wrapped in bandages.

Alec couldn't tell if Mike was dozing or lost in thought. An uneaten dinner sat on a tray table beside the bed. Ellie drew the privacy curtain separating Mike from his neighbors. Then she and Alec stepped over in front of the window. Ellie sat down on the sill. “How you doing, Mike?”

Mike didn't move but squinted as he tried to recognize his visitors. His voice sounded warm and sleepy as he spoke. “Is that you, Ellie? Alec? Hey, thanks for coming. Some spill I took, huh? The doc says I may have bruised something in my guts.”

“What happened to your leg?”

“Tore some ligaments; twisted that ankle of mine again too. They got me so doped up I hardly feel it. I'll be ouchin' tomorrow, though.” He tried to force a smile. Ellie and Alec didn't smile back. Out of her pocket she took the newspaper clipping. She dropped it onto his lap. Alec lay a piece of torn tape beside it.

Ellie's voice was cool. “Brought you some things from home, Mike. Look familiar?”

Mike quickly realized what they were. His expression hardened. “What were you doing in my trailer?”

“The hospital called the ranch and said they needed an insurance card for you. We were looking for it.”

Mike fingered the tape and sneered. “In the waste-basket?”

Ellie came closer to Mike. “This is the same kind of tape wrapped around the buzzer Alec found in his saddle blanket.” Mike turned away from Ellie. “Know anything about that?”

Up to that moment Ellie had been doing a good job of containing her wrath. Her tone of voice began to harden. “You put that thing there, didn't you? This has been about you and Kramer all along, hasn't it, Mike? Hasn't it?”

Mike hung his head. When he spoke again, his words came low and even. “All these years, I've been trying to forget. Then Kramer shows up on the set. What was I supposed to do?”

Someone came in the room and shuffled across the linoleum. Wes stepped around the curtain. Ellie ignored him. She threw up her hands and stared down at Mike. “But why, Mike, why?”

“He was my brother, that's why.”

Wes looked puzzled. “Wait a minute. Brother? What's going on here?”

Ellie turned to Wes. “Mike's been keeping a little secret from us. Hank McBride was his stepbrother.”

“What!”

“Mike's been after Kramer since Kramer signed on to
Drover Days.
That's why we've been having all the trouble at the ranch.”

Wes stood there slack-jawed, waiting for Mike to deny Ellie's accusation. Mike said nothing. He looked like a little boy about to be punished. One of the other patients in the room started to snore.

Ellie tried to keep her voice down as she turned back to Mike. “You're not the only one who's lost someone in an accident, you know. I'm not chasing around after the drunk driver who ran into my parents.”

“You were pretty young when your folks were killed, Ellie. It was different with me and Hank.”

Wes stepped closer to the bed. “So you don't care about anything else? Getting back at Kramer is all that matters? Don't you realize what you've been doing to the ranch? Look at me, Mike!”

Mike stiffened, yet his voice sounded soft, almost hypnotized. “Just when I thought I'd blocked the whole thing out of my memory, Kramer shows up at the ranch. Pretty soon it all started coming back to me. If it wasn't for that creep, my brother would still be alive. It kept me awake at night, thinking. I just couldn't sit there and do nothing while … but I didn't mean to …” He started to sob.

Wes grabbed Mike by the shoulders and shook him angrily. Mike cringed with pain. “Your brother was killed in an accident, for pete's sake!” Hurt and betrayal mixed with the anger in Wes's voice. Ellie and Alec pulled Wes back.

Ellie stared down at Mike. “We were your friends, Mike. Didn't that count for anything? What about Joey? You made that horse! And why hurt Alec and the Black? What did they ever do to you?”

“Do you think I like the way things turned out? How was I supposed to guess the wagon team would head for the trees instead of just running off? Or that Frank would switch Kramer's saddle for the Black's? I didn't want to hurt anyone but Kramer.”

Wes laughed in Mike's face. “Oh, I guess that's okay, then.”

Alec seethed with fury. “You idiot! We could have been killed.”

“I tried to stop you, Alec. That's how I ended up in the hospital.” Alec shook his head in disgust.

Mike closed his eyes and leaned back in his pillows. A look of pathetic tranquility drifted across his face. Having unburdened himself of his secret, he seemed resigned to accept his fate. Come what may, it was all out of his hands.

Someone entered the room from the hall. When the nurse saw the three of them hovering over Mike, she told them visiting hours were over and that they'd better go.

Wes shook his head as he turned away. “You're all through, Mike. Don't even think about showing your face around my ranch again. I'll have your things packed up. Write us and let us know where you want them sent.” Then he followed Alec and Ellie out into the hall.

They didn't say anything until they reached the parking
garage. Ellie turned to Wes. “What now, Pops? Do we call the sheriff?”

Wes shook his head. “I know I should, but I'm not going to. Mike doesn't need to go to jail. That wouldn't help.”

“What if he goes after Kramer again?”

“I don't think Mike will be chasing Kramer around the countryside, if that's what you're worried about. Luck brought those two together. Bad luck, but luck just the same. Don't worry. I'll keep my ears open. If Kramer so much as cuts himself shaving, the police will know where to look.”

Ellie's eyes flashed with anger. “Who does he think he is, telling me I don't know what it's like to lose somebody?”

Wes looked back at the hospital entrance. “Revenge is a disease, honey, like chickenpox or measles, only you can't see it on the outside. It'll eat at a person's soul until there's nothing left but anger and hate. Mike is basically a good kid. He'll come around.”

Turning on his heels, Wes walked down a row of parked cars to find his truck. Ellie scratched her head as she watched him leave. “I'll never figure Pops out. One minute he's at war with the world, the next he's Mister Let-it-be.”

Alec and Ellie climbed into her pickup and drove back to the freeway. “I still can't believe this,” Ellie said after a long silence. “Mike was like one of the family.”

“It's like Wes said, revenge is a disease. I sure hope I never feel that way about anybody.”

Soon they were pulling into the ranch driveway. It had been an exhausting day, and Alec looked forward to getting some sleep. He opened the door of the truck and stepped outside. “Guess you'll be looking for a new assistant trainer around here.”

“Know anybody who might be interested?”

Alec smiled. “Not right offhand. I'll let you know if I think of someone. Good night, Ellie.”

“Night, Alec.” She watched him disappear into the dark.

Alec was up early on his last morning at the ranch. He rode into town to gas up the van. The ranch was quiet, except for the sounds of groaning bulldozers and construction workers coming from Sagebrush.
Drover Days
was shooting interior scenes at the studio in town that morning. Alec's plane wasn't leaving for a few hours, so he figured he had time to take one last ride up into the canyon.

When he reached the corral, he found the Black waiting for him expectantly, as if he already sensed that this would be a travel day and was eager to get going. It didn't take Alec long to feed and groom his horse. Soon they were edging their way around the barricade that marked the head of the canyon trail. The stallion moved easily, assured and totally composed. He held his head up proudly, lowering it only when stones cluttered the path at his feet. Once they arrived at the box canyon, Alec pressed the stallion into a jog. He felt the solid, pistonlike motion of the Black's legs grabbing for more dirt.

Trusting the stallion to guide them safely, Alec let the stallion have his head. He tasted the rush of wind in his face as the Black burned a path across the flat canyon bottom. It could have been seconds or minutes before he pulled up on the reins.

Alec slid down from the Black's back and fell to the ground. While the Black ripped up clumps of grass from the dry ground, Alec watched the high white clouds pass overhead. It was a beautiful morning. He lay there awhile, then rolled over and looked around.

There on the other side of the canyon lay the wreckage of the crashed wagon. He couldn't stop his thoughts from returning to that awful scene. A shudder passed through him.

Alec turned around again and sat up, trying to forget the sight of the busted-up wagon. It was no use. A horse lay buried in a fresh grave over there.

Alec called the Black to him. He knew he should be happy. Yesterday the Black had carried him through a line of shadow at top speed. They would be able to race again. Yet something nagged at Alec, keeping him from celebrating. Had he really overcome his fear of shadows? Yesterday's breakthrough had been in a life-or-death situation. How would he react under more normal circumstances? Alec had to know, once and for all. He slung himself up into the saddle and started off at a trot. Quickly the Black lengthened his strides to a thundering gallop.