Prince Ali Read online

  They bounced along in silence after that. Ali, in the trailer, struggled to keep his footing as the trailer bounced over ruts and rocks so the trailer swayed back and forth. He whinnied his discomfort loudly but there was no one to hear him except the Hix brothers and they could have cared less at this point. All they wanted to do is be rid of him, the sooner the better.

  CHAPTER NINE

  When Caroline arrived with Becky the emergency waiting room was empty. As the news spread, more and more people arrived. The emergency waiting room was now filled to capacity and people were standing around in little clusters. More people were outside the doorway talking quietly in little groups as they waited for news.

  Finally a door opened and a tall, slender older gentleman in a white lab coat over scrubs stepped out looking around the room. “Mr. and Mrs. Howard?” In blue lettering, D Spencer was embroidered above the left breast pocket of his lab coat and he had a stethoscope draped around his neck. His graying hair was neatly trimmed, his blue eyes behind dark framed glasses were soft and compassionate.

  “We’re here,” said Walter as he stood and helped Caroline to her feet. They walked toward the doctor and he escorted them to an empty conference room near the emergency room waiting area.

  “I’ve just been with your daughter and you can go in and see her in a minute, after we’ve had a minute to chat about her condition,” Dr. Spencer said quietly. “I thought a little privacy would be in order.”

  Caroline’s eyes filled with tears again and she began to shake as she and the doctor took a seat at the small conference table. Walter stood behind her with his hands on her shoulders. “How is she, doctor?”

  “Becky took a very hard blow to the top of her head, right about here,” he answered and pointed to a spot about midline of his own skull and just a little forward of center on the top. “It looks to us like she hit her head on some kind of building because we found stucco in the wound. We’ve done skull x-rays and a CAT scan. She has a fracture under the wound site but no displaced bone. In other words, the bone is just cracked; all of the pieces are still intact.”

  “But she has bruised her brain in that area, there is some bleeding inside her skull and her brain may be swelling some. We’ve given her medication to help with that for now but we need to keep an eye on it closely for the next 48 hours. If her brain swells too much, there’s nowhere for it to go inside her skull. We may have to remove a piece of her skull to give it more room until the swelling goes back down.”

  “If she bleeds inside her skull too much, it will put extra pressure on the brain. We’ll have to relieve that pressure by drilling a hole or holes into her skull to allow the blood out. We are doing what we can right now to stop the bleeding.”

  “She is breathing on her own and her heart is strong. We couldn’t find any other injuries. But she is in a coma right now. There’s no way for us to know how long she’ll be in a coma. These brain injuries are difficult to predict. She could wake up five minutes from now, or it could be five weeks from now. All we can do at this point is give her body the best medical support we can and hope for the best. She’s young and strong, so she has that going for her.”

  The doctor looked directly into Mom’s eyes, “And, many of my patients have told me prayer works when medicine doesn’t. I’ve been around long enough to believe that myself.”

  Dr. Spencer took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose, looking tired. “Is there anything else you’d like to know before I show you to her room?”

  “Is she going to be okay?” asked Caroline with great concern and anxiety.

  “I wish I had a guarantee for you,” answered Dr. Spencer, “but there are no guarantees here, just a gut feel from an old man who thinks she’ll recover just fine. As I said, the next 48 hours are the most critical. She’s in a fight for life. We’ll do everything we can medically to support her. The rest is up to her and the Man Upstairs.”

  “Thank you, doctor,” Walter said quietly. “Can we see her now?” He steadied Caroline as she got to her feet.

  “Right this way” Dr. Spencer led them down a hallway into the ICU. “She’ll be here in ICU until the bleeding and swelling in her brain is controlled. I think the nurses here will tell you that you can see her for five minutes every hour, but if you have any trouble with them give me a call. I can arrange for a folding bed in the room so one of you can stay if you’d like. Please keep the other visitors to family only though. I’d rather not get on the bad side of the nurses.”

  Walter and Caroline followed Dr. Spencer into Becky’s room in the Intensive Care Unit. They were shocked at what they saw. Her head was completely swathed in bandages and she had tubes running into her little body from everywhere. Her eyes were closed and bruises were forming underneath them. She was going to have a pair of “shiners” by tomorrow. She wasn’t on a respirator, but she did have a tube inserted in her nose and taped in place.

  Machines beeped and chirped as they monitored her vital signs. One large screen above her bed kept pace with her heartbeat, blood pressure, blood oxygenation and respiration. IV’s dripped medication into each arm. And she looked so small and so helpless and so pale. Caroline broke down in quiet sobs again.

  A nurse walked in and introduced herself. “Hi, I’m Joanne and I will be Becky’s nurse for the rest of the day. I get off at midnight and another nurse, Susan I think, will take over for me. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.” Joanne checked the monitors, typed something in Becky’s chart and left the room.

  “I know this looks a little scary to you, so I’ll try to help you navigate some of the stuff we are doing for your daughter,” said Dr. Spencer. “We cleaned her wound and stitched it, but we did have to shave off quite a chunk of her hair. Sorry about that, but it will grow back.”

  “We are feeding her a high protein supplement to keep her body healthy. That’s what the tube in her nose is doing. It goes directly into her stomach. We have an IV line in one arm with saline solution to keep the vein open for medication we have to inject. The other IV is for the medication I talked to you about for the swelling and bleeding in her brain.”

  “If she stays in a coma for more than a week, we’ll have to put in something else. IV lines go into veins and have to be repositioned every couple of days or the veins collapse. The monitors here tell us that her heart is beating strongly and her blood oxygen level is excellent, her blood pressure is good and her heart rate is fine.”

  “Now I do have something else to talk to you two about. We have a very strong belief that patients in a coma are aware of their surroundings. I have a feeling that Becky hears every word spoken in this room. She knows you are here. She may not respond to you, but I believe she knows what goes on in this room. So my advice is that you talk to her, read to her, and sing to her. Let her know you are here and that you love her. I think knowing you are here and helping her fight will make a difference.” Dr. Spencer said softly. “Do you have any questions before I get back to the ER?”

  “Oh, and before I forget it,” he reached into his pocket and took out two business cards handing one to each of them, “here’s my card. You can reach me on that number 24/7. If I don’t personally answer, my service will and they can track me down. If you need me, I’ll be here. I also want to assure you we have excellent doctors here that will assist me.”

  Dr. Spencer left the room and closed the door. Dad and Mom were left alone with their daughter. Caroline began to cry again and Walter put his arms around her and held her tightly. Once she stopped crying, she took a chair next to the bed and held Becky’s hand. Walter stood across from her and held Becky’s other hand. They both talked to Becky and told her how much they loved her. Mostly they just held her hand and prayed.

  Joanne poked her head into the room. “The Sheriff’s Detectives are here to speak with you.” she told them. “I got you a conference room near the ICU so you have some privacy. It would probably be better if they conduct their interview
with you in another room, not in here with Becky.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Joanne led Walter and Caroline down the hall to a small conference room. When she opened the door, two men in suits sitting at the conference table stood up. Joanne held the door open for them.

  A tall, nice looking man of about 40 reached out his hand to Walter. “I’m Detective Brian Nelson and I’m the lead on this case. This is my partner, Ron Bentley.” Ron, about the same age as Brian Nelson but a little heavier, nodded in their direction.

  Walter took his hand and shook, “I’m Walter Howard and this is my wife, Caroline.”

  “Please take a seat. We need to go over a number of things with you,” Detective Nelson said. “First of all, I need to get your address, and any contact phone numbers you have and any other names you go by.”

  Walter gave the information while both detectives scribbled it down in their notebooks. Caroline sat dry-eyed and numb during this exchange.

  “We understand Caroline was the one who first found Becky,” said Detective Nelson. “Can you tell me about that?” He looked at Caroline with raised eyebrows.

  “Well, after the parade, Becky walked Ali, that’s our horse, back to the trailer to give him some water and grain and take off his costume. Walter and I were delayed by people in the crowd so I didn’t get there until maybe fifteen or twenty minutes after Becky and Ali got there. I got tied up talking to people who wanted to know more about our horse. Walter doesn’t like crowds so he went back to the El Adobe so he could hold us a table. Becky and I were going to take Ali home and come back for the street fair and lunch.” Mom sniffled. “I should have been there with them.”

  “Take your time,” Detective Nelson reassured her and handed her a tissue from the box on the table. “I understand. I have a 14-year-old daughter.”

  “Becky left the feed and water out and took off Ali’s costume and her own before whatever happened happened.” Caroline broke down. All the guilt and all the fear suddenly washed over her in waves. “I was chatting to people about our horse when someone attacked our daughter and stole him!” she wailed.

  Walter put his arm around her and held her close while she sobbed. “Give us a minute, okay?” he asked the detectives. He held his wife, whispering to her while she cried as if her heart was broken.

  Caroline pulled herself together in a few minutes, dried her face and blew her nose. She looked at the two detectives with red, swollen eyes. “Let’s get on with this. I know you have a job to do.” She sniffed and mopped her eyes with the tissue.

  “Okay, you went to the trailer parking lot from the street faire area to check on your horse and your daughter, that right? You were going to take the horse home and bring Becky back for the street fair and lunch. And you found her unconscious and the horse was missing? Do we have that right?” asked Detective Nelson. “Do you know about how long it was from the time you last saw Becky and the horse until you got back to your trailer and found her?”

  “When I last saw Becky and Ali I checked my watch. It was 2:10. I probably got to the trailer and found Becky about 2:35 or so. I didn’t check the time.” Mom blew her nose again, then wiped at her eyes.

  “That’s when I found my baby girl laying there bleeding and I couldn’t wake her up.” Fresh sobs tore through her and Walter held her close and comforted her.

  After a few minutes Mom regained her composure. Detective Nelson said, “Well, this is what we know right now. Your daughter was walking the horse to the trailer at 2:10. We have a witness that saw two men putting a gray horse in a blue and white horse trailer right in front of your truck about 2:25 to 2:30. You found your daughter unconscious about 2:35 and your horse was missing.” The detective referred to his notes. “We found a cigarette butt that looked fresh next to your trailer. Either of you smoke?”

  Both Walter and Caroline shook their heads, “No.”

  “Okay, it could have been left by the suspects. We’ll have it checked for possible DNA. We also found a syringe next to your trailer. It’s too large for human use, so we’re assuming it was for livestock. Could it belong to you?”

  “No, we have the vet out when our horses need shots for anything,” Caroline explained. “We wouldn’t have one in the truck or our trailer.”

  “Okay, then we assume it could have been left by the suspects. We’ll have the lab check it to see what was in it and look for possible fingerprints.”

  “Now,” Detective Nelson said, “with what we know, it looks to us that the horse was the target, not your daughter. She might just have been in the wrong place at the wrong time, got in the way, or interfered. We won’t know for sure until she wakes up and we can talk to her. Do you know of anyone that might have a grudge against you or anyone in your family? A business associate? Another family member? A neighbor you don’t get along with?”

  “Not that we know of,” answered Walter. “So you think Ali is what they were after?”

  “Let’s talk through some scenarios. How would your horse react to strangers? Would he go willingly with someone he didn’t know?”

  “We have no idea, really. He’s never been in that position that we know of. He’s been seen by lots of people he didn’t know, and he’s always friendly. But he loves our Becky so he wouldn’t be very happy with anyone that tried to hurt her. He’s a big boy. If he got angry or upset, he could be threatening.” Walter said.

  “Well, assuming your horse was the target, there are some facts we know. If they left that syringe behind, maybe they drugged him to make him easier to handle. First, tell me about the horse. What is his value anyway?” asked Detective Nelson.

  “Ali is something of an anomaly. He’s only five years old. We started showing him in large breed shows when he was a yearling. He’s done extremely well, nationally and internationally, because he has excellent conformation for his breed, he’s very talented, he’s a very handsome individual and he has a lot of natural charisma. We were offered 1.3 million for him as a two-year-old. That was just after he won his first World Championship at the Salon du Cheval in Paris, France. He won his second world title a few months ago. We were approached three months ago about syndicating him for somewhere close to 2.5 million dollars. We would never consider selling him for any amount of money. If you are looking purely for his dollar value, you’d have to use the syndication offer,” Dad explained.

  “How does syndication work?” asked Detective Nelson.

  “When you have a top performing stallion of any breed there are many mare owners wanting to breed to him hoping to create a top producing horse for themselves.” Walter explained. “If every superior horse produced nothing but superior horses, the breeding business would be easy. But it doesn’t work that way. Syndication legally limits the number of mares who can be bred to the stallion. ‘Breeding Shares’ generally run into five or six figures, depending on the horse. The share-holders also pay annual ‘maintenance fees’ for the stallion and ‘mare care fees’ which also run pretty high. This insures the stallion is bred only to the best quality mares for the highest quality babies. It also limits the number of babies. Supply and demand helps keep the value of the babies high as well,” Walter explained.

  “We’re really not ready to ‘retire’ Ali to stud just yet. We planned to take him to Dubai and England this year and Becky wants to ride and show him herself.”

  “Wow,” whistled Detective Nelson. “That’s 2.5 million reasons to snatch your horse for ransom. “We need to focus on that angle here.”

  Detective Bentley cut in, “I’d say we’d better get a wire-tap on your phone now. Don’t want to miss the ransom call.”

  “The more I think about it, Ron, we’d better put out an alert on the airports as well, in case they try to fly him out of here. Can you call the Commander and have that wire-tap done a.s.a.p. and see who at the Federal Aviation Authority we need to get a hold of to put a watch out at the airports?” Detective Nelson spoke to his partner, “I’ll get the Howards to sign off on th
e authorization for the wire-tap before we’re done here. We might also put extra patrols on their home, just in case. And it would be a good idea to have someone at the house 24/7 until we know more.”

  “Is that okay with you two?” he asked Walter and Caroline. They nodded their agreement.

  “Is there anyone at your home right now?” Detective Nelson asked.

  “Yes, Esperanza, our housekeeper and nanny is there and Luis, our grounds-man, is there. I called Esperanza a while ago to let her know what happened to Becky and what we know right now. Luis is taking care of the horses and keeping an eye on the place.” Walter answered.

  “Oh, and we need some better pictures of the horse. The only ones we have now were taken by the news photographer at the parade. He’s wearing some kind of costume and you can’t see the horse very well. Do you have pictures of him without the costume that we can use?” Detective Nelson asked.

  “Yes, in my office at home,” answered Caroline, dabbing at her eyes. “Esperanza can show your officer in. They can take whatever they need to help find Ali. Finding him is important to us. You have to understand, I think of him like a son, and he is Becky’s best friend.”

  “Ron, when you talk to the Commander, can you see that someone gets over there and picks up a picture of the horse for us?” Detective Nelson asked.

  “Sure thing. I’m going outside so I can use my cell phone. Is there anything else I should report or get handled now?” Detective Bentley asked.

  “Not that I can think of, but I’ll be outside with you in a couple of minutes. I just have one or two more questions for these folks and I know they want to get back to their daughter.” answered Detective Nelson.

  He looked at Walter. “Can you call your people at home and let them know we’re sending officers over to work on the phone lines and pick up the picture? You might also let them know we’ll be keeping an eye on the house and doing extra patrols of the neighborhood.”