Bullet Work (22 page)

AJ didn’t sense it coming, and he flew
backward, landing on his butt with his head slamming into the
corner of the stall. His backside landed in fresh manure, and he
fell onto his side. His hat flew off, landing in his lap.

“Keep your hands off our horses. We don’t
need your help. You understand?” said Romeo.

AJ didn’t respond. He was shaking and waiting
for them to leave so he could get up.

“You understand?” He yelled this time,
kicking the back of AJ’s thigh. “Seems like we need to teach this
guy a lesson. Don’t we, Luke?” said Romeo.

“Sure as hell do,” said Luke. He bent down,
grabbed AJ’s cap, and threw it onto the slick of horse manure. Then
he stepped on it and ground the hat with the heel of his boot.

“Get up,” yelled Romeo.

AJ didn’t move; he was waiting for it to be
over. He would wait them out.

“I said, get up.” Romeo planted another kick
to the boy’s backside.

AJ slowly crawled to his feet and cowered in
the corner, not looking at the men. Luke reached forward and
slapped the boy. AJ kept staring at the matted straw. He made no
effort to defend himself other than backing into the corner and
moving his hands to cover his ears.

“Put your hat on,” Luke said. The other men
laughed. Luke kicked the hat, and it landed on one of AJ’s tennis
shoes. “Put it on, shithead.”

AJ bent down and shook his cap holding the
bill. Chunks of manure dropped off, but the right side was
virtually painted in horse excrement. He tugged it onto his head,
continuing to look down at the straw.

“You’re gonna learn a lesson all right,” said
Romeo. “Time for a little blanket party.” He reached behind him and
tossed a horse blanket over AJ’s head.

Luke grabbed him, pinning his arms to his
side. All was darkness. AJ yelled, but under the blanket his plea
was muted.

“Looks like we got us a screamer,” said
Dellingham’s groom.

“Yep,” said Luke. “We’ll take care of that.”
He ripped the blanket off AJ’s head. AJ stumbled back into the
wall, blinking his eyes. Romeo yanked the boy toward him, then
pinned AJ’s arms. Luke stepped forward with a cloth wrap and
tightly tied it around AJ’s mouth. Then the blanket went back over
his head.

They spun him around several times, then
picked him up like a roll of carpeting.

AJ couldn’t scream. No sound came out. He
wanted it to be over. He couldn’t control his shaking. He wanted
them to stop and just leave him alone. They were carrying him out
of the stall. He could only hear their laughter. He tried to focus
on his horses, what he needed to do for them this afternoon. AJ
tried to imagine it away. He tried to ignore it away.

Then, beneath the blanket, he started to
cry.

This time, he realized, it was not going
away.

Chapter 39

dan wheeled into the owner/trainer
parking lot at the regular time. AJ was usually sitting on the
white fence, waiting for his ride. Today, no AJ.

Little movement stirred on the backside
today. Horses had all been exercised, fed, washed, wrapped, and
penned back in their stalls. Two guys were shooting hoops in the
stifling heat, and a few lonely souls were visible resting in the
growing shade of the barns.

Dan walked toward Latimer’s barn. AJ must be
working on something last-minute, Dan thought. There was no
movement around Latimer’s barn as he approached. The door to the
trainer’s office was open, and a two-foot fan had been propped into
the doorway. It hummed like a reluctant servant, pushing air but
cooling little.

Inside, Dick Latimer was scanning the
condition book, flipping pages, looking for opportunity.

“Hey,” said Dan. “Was looking for AJ. He
here?”

Latimer dropped the book on the desk and
leaned forward. “He’s around. Haven’t seen him for a while. Check
the stalls; he’s here somewhere. Kid will be with a horse
somewhere.”

Dan started down the shedrow, looking in each
stall. Sleepy horses stared back at him, shifting their weight and
shivering to keep flies off them.

“AJ,” Latimer yelled.

A dark face poked out of the room adjoining
Latimer’s office.

“Paulo,” Latimer shouted. “You seen AJ?”

“No. Not for a while,” said Paulo.

Dan spun around the corner. “He’s not in the
stalls.” Then looking at Paulo, “When did you see him last?”

“I don’t know—two, three hours ago.”

“Shit,” said Latimer.

“Got that right,” said Dan, scanning the
backside. He moved out of the barn area, looking left and
right.

“Not like the kid to be gone five minutes.
Where the hell—? Paulo, run up to Crok’s and see if he’s there,”
said Latimer. “Ask if anyone’s seen him.”

Dan ran toward the main track. “AJ. Hey, AJ,”
he shouted.

Two women sat in the shade of an adjoining
barn. “You guys seen AJ? The kid who works for Latimer.”

Both shook their heads, not evoking any
emotion, apparently in an attempt to avoid expending any
energy.

“Damn it,” Dan muttered. Sweat beaded on his
forehead and upper lip. He swiped it away and thought,
Where would he go? Test barn? No, no races today, so it would
be empty. Grandstand? Nothing over there on dark days.
He
saw Paulo running back from Crok’s. He didn’t need any words. Paulo
hadn’t found him and had no clues.

Dan ran east along the barns. “AJ,” he
yelled.

He came to the end of the barns. Two other
stable hands were quizzed; neither had any information about AJ’s
whereabouts. Dan turned left away from the track and back toward
Manassas State Park.
Would AJ have gone into the
park? What the heck for?

After crossing five rows of barns, he was
near the spot where the loose horse was captured.
AJ had to be with a horse somewhere. He wouldn’t be away from
his barn unless he was helping some animal.

Latimer was several barns to his left,
inquiring, then jogging to the next barn. Dan saw him stop
suddenly, questioning someone. Dan ran toward them. His shirt was
soaked in sweat and clung to him like a body cast. Latimer took off
running, Dan followed, slowly gaining ground.

“What is it?” Dan asked between breaths.

“Sons a bitches.”

“What? Where is he?”

Neither was setting any land speed record as
they moved westward. Latimer was hindered by age and cowboy boots.
Dan made better time, but he didn’t know where they were going.

Latimer huffed, “Dung heap.”

Dan shot him a quizzical look, then realized
what he meant. He raced forward toward the far end of the backside.
Each day’s straw and manure was mucked from the stalls, collected
in piles, and carted to the far end of the backside. Every few days
the mountain was loaded on trucks and hauled away.

In the distance he could see a mountain of
mucked residue, but no AJ. The stench from the urine and manure hit
him like a sledgehammer as he approached. His eyes filled with
water, and flies darkened the area.

His vision was drawn to something on the back
side of shit mountain. It had to be AJ. Someone was tied to a post
with a blanket over his head. Dan sprinted the final fifty yards.
“AJ? You okay?” The blanket moved slightly. Dan knelt down and
untied the rope binding his hands to the post. Latimer rushed up
and pulled the blanket off AJ. His mouth was gagged, and Dan
quickly unbound him.

It had to be 120 degrees under that blanket,
Dan thought. AJ was soaked from head to toe. Dan looked at a large
wet spot on the ground near AJ’s feet. The poor kid had peed
himself.

AJ coughed and rubbed his mouth. His eyes
were glassy and he bent over to take some deep breaths.

“AJ, who did this?” asked Latimer.

AJ just kept inhaling and wheezing.

“AJ?” Latimer said, grabbing the boy by the
shoulders.

The boy looked up at him. “Don’t matter,” he
said.

“What do you mean, it doesn’t matter?” said
Dan. “You coulda died under there.” He shuddered to think that if
AJ had vomited from the smell, he would have drowned in his own
puke. “Who did this?”

“Couple guys.” AJ said. “M-M-mad about me
helping some horse.”

“What the hell?” Dan said.

AJ started to move away. “Gotta go finish
some wraps.” He staggered sideways and nearly collapsed. Latimer
caught him.

“Dick, get some water in him,” said Dan.
“He’s got to be dehydrated. Get him someplace cool or air
conditioned, and I’ll find you. Motherfuckers.” He looked at
Latimer. “Where’s Kimbrough’s barn?”

Latimer had his arm around AJ and was walking
him back toward the barn. “Trackside, third barn from the
entrance,” said Latimer. “Why?”

Dan turned and moved that direction. “I made
a promise, and I’m going to make good on it.”

Chapter 40

in his search for AJ, Dan had nearly
circled the entire backside by the time he made it to Kimbrough’s
barn. Anger surged through him as he thought about AJ. Red-faced
and dripping with sweat, Dan strode into the grassy area outside
Kimbrough’s barn.

“Hey, Romeo,” Dan yelled to the man and girl
talking under the eve of the shedrow. “Get your ass over here.”

Romeo pushed away from the wall and casually
moved toward Dan. “Name’s Paul.”

“Get over here now,” Dan said.

He walked out into the grass and stopped
about eight feet from Dan. He stood with arms crossed and a smile
on his face.

“What the hell’s the matter with you?” said
Dan.

“What.”

“You nearly killed that boy,” Dan said.

“What boy?” Romeo asked.

“You know damn well what I’m talking about,”
Dan said. “I told you anything happens to that boy and I’m coming
after you.”

“Just playing a game. We’re just playing with
him.”

“He was assaulted and battered. He was tied
to a post. That’s not a game. That’s criminal.”

“We were just messing with him. Nobody, like,
hit him or anything.”

“I don’t give a shit. I’m holding you
accountable,” Dan said, stepping forward. Romeo stepped back and
raised his arms, to block a punch. “I’m not going to hit you. I’m
going to get you ruled off. I’m going to get you thrown off the
property.”

As much as he wanted to smack the kid, Dan
knew that he would lose all leverage with the stewards. Although AJ
got hurt, if one of the guys who did it also got hurt, the stew’s
would rule it a dog fall.

Dan wanted to pummel him, but he had to be
smart. It took all his resolve. Be calm. Be smart. Dan could give
him physical pain that would last a few hours or he could give him
economic pain—take his job away. That would last much longer.

Romeo smiled. “Stew’s won’t do nothing. There
are fights all the time on the backside.”

“This wasn’t a fight. This was an ambush. A
calculated attack. You’re a predator.”

“So, what are you gonna do?”

“I’m going to have you taken care of. You
won’t be messing with anybody from now on. I ought to knock the
crap out of you right here, but I’m not going to hit you. I’m not
going to give you the satisfaction.” Dan moved in close. They stood
eye to eye. “Why pick on that boy? What did he ever do to you?”

“Kid’s a show off.”

“How?”

“Like, like how he caught that loose horse.
Like he has some kind of power to talk to these damn horses. Like
he’s better than us. He ain’t nothing. We don’t need him showing us
up.”

“He is better than you,” Dan said. “You and
all your little Nazi pals. But rather than watch and learn
something from the kid, you’ve got to tear him down. He’ll always
be better than you.”

Romeo shrugged and shifted his weight side to
side. The slightest smirk appeared on his face. As if he realized
he had won a stalemate in a game he should have lost.

Dan knew the kid was right. The stewards
wouldn’t do much, especially given the tension around the extortion
plot and dead horses. A civil case was possible, but AJ, though
compelling, wasn’t exactly going to be a star witness.

“You and I aren’t done. Far from it,” Dan
said.

“See ya round,” said Romeo.

Dan turned to leave, then the thought of AJ
under that blanket, combined with Romeo’s smirk, got the best of
him. He spun on his heel with balled fist. Romeo threw his hands up
to block a punch to his face. Dan had no intention of hitting him
in the face. He went low and buried his fist into Romeo’s
stomach.

As a lawyer, Dan knew evidence. A broken
nose, a bloody lip, a swollen eye, those were direct evidence of an
assault. The vision, even in photographs, screamed evidence of a
crime. The blow to his unprotected midsection was as satisfying for
Dan as any blow to the jaw. It also left little visual evidence.
Romeo can to go the stews. Like he said, fights happened all the
time. An owner striking a stable hand was unusual, but the claim
would go nowhere.

The air flew out of Romeo like a balloon at a
child’s party. He doubled over gasping for breath.

Dan jammed his foot into Romeo’s hip and
pushed him sideways. Romeo stumbled for two steps, then fell to the
ground.

Dan leaned down over Romeo. He was curled
into a ball and struggling to draw oxygen. “That’s an appetizer,”
said Dan. “You don’t want me to serve the fucking entrée.”

Dan turned and planted a kicked to Romeo’s
backside as a parting shot. “Leave the kid alone. This is the last
time I’m going to say it.”

Chapter 41

sunday mornings caused no change in
the routine of the backside. More people were hung over and fewer
horses worked on the track, but the routine and activity was the
same. Dan had just dropped AJ off at Latimer’s barn and stopped by
to see Beth and Aly Dancer. The fact that Jake was paying the
protection money was some small comfort to Dan. But the fact that
someone had targeted his filly made it personal. He also kept an
eye peeled for Romeo. He didn’t need to get jumped by some punks as
he walked the backside.