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“How long have you actually managed the farm?” he asked.
“About four years.”
“Ever since your husband’s death?”
Tiffany felt her back tighten. “That’s right. Before that I helped Ellery on the farm, but he ran it.”
“I don’t mean to bring up a sore subject,” the wily reporter went on, “but ever since you took over, you’ve had quite a few bad breaks.”
Tiffany smiled grimly. “That’s true, but I don’t like to dwell on them. Right now I’m concentrating on Journey’s End.”
“The three-year-old, right?”
“Yes. He has all the potential of being one of the greatest horses of the decade.”
Rod Crawford laughed aloud. “I doubt if you’re all that objective about your own colt.”
“Obviously you’ve never seen him run,” Tiffany replied with a slow-spreading grin. The tense air in the room dissolved, as she talked at length about Journey’s End’s impressive career.
“What about the recent string of deaths in the foaling shed?” Rod asked when the conversation waned. Though Tiffany had been bracing herself for the question, she found no easy answer to it.
“Three foals died shortly after birth,” she admitted.
“And you don’t know why?” Skepticism edged Rod’s question.
Tiffany shook her head. “So far the autopsies haven’t shown anything conclusive, other than that the cause of death was heart failure.”
Rod settled into his chair and poised his pencil theatrically in the air. “Were the foals related?”
Here it comes,Tiffany thought. “They had different dams, of course, but both colts and the filly were sired by Moon Shadow.”
“And he stands at stud here, on the farm.”
“Yes, although we’re not breeding him . . . until all this is cleared up.” Tiffany’s hands were beginning to shake again, and she folded them carefully over the top of the desk.
“You think he might be the cause?”
“I don’t know.”
“Genetic problem?”
Tiffany pursed her lips and frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t think so. He’s stood for almost eight years, and until now he’s proved himself a good sire. Devil’s Gambit and Journey’s End are proof of that.”
“Moon Shadow was the sire of both stallions?”
“And many more. Some not as famous, butallperfectly healthy and strong horses.”
“So, what with Journey’s End’s success, you must be getting a lot of requests for Moon Shadow’s services.”
“That’s right. But we’re turning them down, at least for a while, until we can prove that whatever is happening here is not a genetic problem.”
“That must be costing you—”
“I think it’s worth it.”
“Then you must think he’s the cause.”
“I don’t know what’s the cause. It may just be coincidence.”
