AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I’ll be right there. I’m just finishing up a few things.”
My father acted as if his office wasn’t right down the hall from mine. He certainly could have used what little exercise the walk would have provided, but I knew he was never in any kind of temperament to hear my suggestion.
I closed my laptop and grabbed my notebook full of notes for the upcoming derby and headed down the hallway to his office. I found my father leaning back in his chair, grinning wide, with a cigar hanging out of his mouth as he chuckled into his phone.
“Well, well. How about that! I imagine we’ll be seeing her here in a couple of years then. That’s great, Jameson. I look forward to seeing you in a few weeks. I’ll talk to you later.” He snapped the flip phone shut, and I shook my head, still surprised that the man refused to upgrade his cell phone from the one he had gotten ten years prior.
“That thing is going to give out on you,” I said with a half-smile.
“Nah, she’s holding up. They don’t make things like they used to. I’ll use her until it’s time to put her out to pasture.” He tapped the end of his cigar on the ashtray on his desk.
“You know, I could probably call OSHA about you smoking in here. I’m sure they’d have something to say about your daily cigar and the fact that your most valuable employee has to be exposed to carcinogens.”
He laughed. “Sweetheart, that’s the beauty of a home office. I’m the king around here. What I say, goes.”
“And your lungs may as well,” I said as I scrunched my nose and waved the smoke out of the air. “Elsie said you had a few things to talk to me about.”
He cleared his throat and put the cigar down in the ashtray, a thin thread of smoke rising from the tip.
“I sure do. With the derby coming up we’ve got a lot going on, and I know you’ve been just as busy as I have.”
I smirked but didn’t say anything. The idea that my father had been doing as much work around here for the derby as I had was laughable. Beyond making phone calls to his good ol’ boys at ranches around the country, he didn’t do an awful lot for the derby anymore. Most of the work was left to the rest of us and since I was second in charge most of it fell on my lap to take care of.
“It is definitely the busiest time of year for us,” I said with a nod.
He narrowed his eyes, and I could tell the wheels in his brain were turning.
“I hate to ask you to do much more, but I need you to make a call and take care of something for me.”
“What is it?” I asked, leaning in to see what he was looking at on his desk. He pushed a folder toward me. It was labeled ‘Killarny Estate’.’
“What’s going on with the Killarnys?”
My father took a deep breath. “I’m going to need you to tell them they won’t be entering a horse in this year’s derby. Not this one and, not the next one. Not ever again.”
I looked at him with my mouth agape. “Why would you remove the Killarnys from the derby? They’ve had a relationship with us for as long as anyone has and they have been a very valuable draw for us. People come from all over to see who the Killarnys are racing. Dad…you’re going to have to explain.”
“I’ve got my reasons,” he said, sounding suspicious as he picked up the cigar again.
I crossed my arms in front of my chest and leaned back into my chair. “Well, you’re going to have to tell me what they are before I go about ending one of the oldest relationships we have with a stable. Aren’t you considering the kind of repercussions this could have?”
He shrugged. “Listen to me, Sara. There’s more going on here than what you think you know. I’ve been suspecting them of some things for quite some time, and I just want to keep things above board around here.”
“Above board?” I was confused. I had only ever known the Killarny Estate horses to be absolutely clean thoroughbreds. I couldn’t imagine the family being involved in something unsavory. “What are the
y doing? Are they colluding with someone? Fixing a race?” It was the only thing I could think of, but it seemed very far off base. Anything else though…would be nearly criminal to consider.
“I think they are doping their horses.” He said the words matter of factly and waited for me to respond.
“You’re kidding, right? Jesus, Dad, you’ve known Sean Killarny forever. The last thing they would do is dope their horses.”
“People do it all the time. You know that. When the testing isn’t as rigorous, it’s especially bad! And I’ve been noticing a few things over the years that have left me very suspicious of them. I also think that they’ve been using this relationship for a long time now and think that they can get away with it. Well, I’ve got news for Sean Killarny—it’s done. I don’t mess with dopers, and I won’t have them giving my derby a bad name. Imagine if the word got out that this was going on. People would bring this relationship up in the discussion for sure and then you would have folks looking at our derby. Think about all the sponsorship we could lose, not to mention our license.” He took a deep breath. “No, I cannot allow it to continue. They can’t keep coming here if they are going to operate that way.”
My mind was whirling, trying to put all the pieces together. I couldn’t believe that my father really thought the Killarnys were drugging their horses, but he was right—some people did, and if we were accused of having any connection to them it could look very bad for us.
“Evidence…I’m going to need to see something. I can’t just call them up and tell them without—”
“Sara.” He cut me off and held up his hand to silence me. “Trust me. I know what is going on over there. We can have no connection to it. I can make the call if you would rather not take care of this yourself, but since you are in charge of day to day operations, I thought it would be best if you took care of this yourself. If you can’t though…” he reached for his phone.
