Read Whisker of Evil for Free Online

much more than that.”
    â€œMary Pat, a beautiful woman, inherited pots of money. Her parents were killed at the beginning of World War Two when the Germans sank a passenger ship that had left Lisbon. They’d been caught in Europe when war broke out and were trying to get home. Obviously, she was still a minor, so the executor of the will administered the estate. That was Randy Jenkins, and he did a good job. Mary Pat graduated from Holy Cross, studied at Hollins, graduated, and came back to run St. James Farm. She wanted to breed horses and she did. She disappeared in 1974 along with Ziggy Flame, not a trace of either one ever found until now,” Big Mim recounted. “We’d been friends since childhood. She was older than I, but even when I was small she was a friend, like a big sister.”
    â€œNo suspects?” Cooper knew she’d give up her Sunday. She would head right back to the station and search for Mary Patricia Reines’s file.
    â€œOh, Marshall Kressenberg, a stable hand and exercise rider, was a suspect, but only because he was on the farm when she disappeared. They got along all right. Sam Berryhill, her farm manager, was a suspect, but he’d been in Middleburg so that ruled him out. Let’s see, he died in ’88. Her entire estate except for a couple of broodmares passed to Alicia Palmer, who became the prime suspect. They never could pin it on Alicia.” Aunt Tally filled in details.
    Cooper interrupted. “The actress?”
    â€œYes.” Big Mim picked up the conversation. “She had a good career, married again and again and again. She lives in Santa Barbara and, as you know, occasionally comes back to St. James, which she maintains just as Mary Pat left it—except for renting out the stables and training track to Barry Monteith and Sugar Thierry. Alicia’s not really a horse person.”
    â€œGraveyard of old movie stars, Santa Barbara,” Aunt Tally giggled. She remembered Santa Barbara when Ronald and Benita Colman owned San Ysidro Ranch. Aunt Tally had spent many a lovely weekend there in her youth, and it was quite a wild youth, lasting well into her fifties.
    â€œHer horses were sold at auction. A big breeder in Maryland bought most of them. I remember Humphrey Finney was the auctioneer. The progeny of her stable are still on the tracks today. Mary Pat knew what she was doing.” Big Mim sighed, for she had loved Mary Pat. “And she bred back that mare to Tom Fool. Ziggy disappeared just as his career was burgeoning but, thank God, the bloodlines survived. When the broodmare band was dispersed, Ziggy’s mother was bought by a breeder in Kentucky. Forget the name. Out of that breeding came Ziggy Dark Star, Flame’s full brother, a year younger, who had a stud career. Never raced, or if he did I never heard about it. He was in Maryland. Of course, Mary Pat was gone by then, so she didn’t know just how good her breeding program was.”
    â€œDon’t forget Tavener Heyward.”
    â€œHe was a suspect?” Harry was incredulous, since Tavener Heyward was one of the most respected equine veterinarians in the country.
    â€œNo, no. Mary Pat gave him four broodmares, daughters of Speak John, Raise a Native, Secretariat, and Buckpasser, and a sum for stud fees. She’d left instructions for their breeding, too. Tavener did quite handsomely with those mares. Course, he’s made a bundle in the practice, too. He was one of the few people who stood by Alicia when she was under suspicion.” Big Mim checked the large clock on the wall. “Aunt Tally, we need to leave soon.”
    â€œWhen I’m ready will be soon enough. I’m not ready,” she resolutely replied. “Those broodmares put Tavener on the map. That’s how he got into the racing world, but for him it’s steeplechasing. As you know, he’s behind one of the most successful chasing stables in the country and he