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    "And he was by the horse barns?” His glanced back at the pirate, his expression thoughtful.
    "You know him, don't you?” I stopped and put my hand on his arm.. “Who is he? Why shouldn't he have been by the barns?"
    "What makes you think I know him?" He turned his back and started to walk off.
    "Don't try to get evasive with me, Dan Dunham." I grabbed his arm and tried to make him face me. "Where do you know that pirate from? Did you arrest him? You suspect him of something. What?"
    “ Ellie, I guarantee you, I have never arrested that pirate, and the only thing I suspect him of is being more rude than his parrot. Come on.”
    I glanced back at the group surrounding the pirate and stopped short.
    “ Dan, look.”
    Bryce and Stephanie were now part of the circle. Stephanie had substituted jeans for shorts and had tucked in her shirt. Her sunburn had faded, and her eyes sparkled. She was almost pretty.
    Make-up. That was it, she’d tried a little make-up. It must have helped. She had a firm grip on Bryce’s arm, and he wasn’t brushing her off.
    “ What do you suppose that means?” We continued walking.
    “ That Bryce has interesting taste in women.”
    We were almost at the horse barns, but neither of us really noticed.
    "Dan." I tried to stop, but Dan just kept walking. "Do you think his being near the barns this morning could mean something? Could he have known Rusty? And how about Stephanie? Could she--Dan, answer me. What's the matter?"
    The faintly amused expression on Dan's face had changed. Abruptly, he stopped.
    "Isn't that Chovalo?"
    A tall thin figure in boots, jeans, western shirt and black sombrero strode purposefully toward the barns. He disappeared as a fat lady trying to eat cotton candy pushed a stroller in front of us.
    "So what if it is. He works there."
    "Go get some ice cream.” Dan almost tripping over the stroller in his haste to follow..
    "Where are you going?"
    "I’ll meet you at the fountain in, oh, forty-five minutes.” He glared at the fat woman, stepped around the stroller and was gone.
    “ Well!” She pulled off a long strand of gooey stuff and fed it slowly into her mouth. “Where’s he going in such a hurry?”
    Exactly what I was wondering. He must be following Chovalo, and the only reason could be Rusty. That brought the murder closer to the barn, which meant closer to Susannah. So, ice cream forgotten, I followed Dan.

CHAPTER FOUR

    “ Do you see him?”
    Dan had stopped in front of a closed stall door directly across from Irma’s barn. I tried to peer around him.
    "What the hell do you think you’re doing? Didn’t I tell you to go get ice cream?”
    He was irritated again. I chose to ignore it.
    "Why are you following Chovalo? What do you care where he goes? There, he's stopped. Right in front of Irma’s barn, where he belongs. Satisfied?"
    "No. There aren't any classes tonight. So I, ah, was curious, that’s all. What’s he doing back here?”
    "Maybe he came to feed. Or give the horses water. Or kiss them all good night. Horse people have some strange ideas. Why are we skulking?"
    "Police chiefs don't skulk. We observe. If you won’t go away, will you please be quiet?”
    It looked like skulking to me, but I kept my opinion to myself and followed close behind Dan. He stopped again, and pulled me into the deep shadows of the quiet barn.
    "If he's kissing horses good night, why isn't he putting on the lights?" Dan whispered into my ear as we crept down the line of closed stalls. Most of the barns were dark, the only sounds the occasional snort of horses, the rustle of straw. From a couple of aisles over came the blare of a radio. Someone laughed, clippers buzzed. We could make out a faint glow of light, but it didn't reach us or
    Chovalo. The clop clop of hoofs froze us in place. A man rode by, whistling softly to himself, then disappeared around the corner of the barn.
    "He didn’t come to feed." Dan nudged me and pointed toward the far end of the