Puss 'N Cahoots

the barns, then under the fence into the pasture where Mrs. Murphy and Pewter walked.
    “Good idea.” Harry followed.
    Within a minute all were in the large pasture, which mirrored the retired mares’ pasture.
    If someone came out of the barns looking in their direction, they would see them, but if they left by the other side, they’d miss the small convocation.
    “That’s her!”
Mrs. Murphy cried jubilantly when she saw Queen Esther, whose neck and legs, although washed, were still a tad darker than her chestnut body.
    Pewter dashed up to the sleek mare, who chatted with five other ladies at the peak of their show year.
“Queen Esther.”
    Bemused, the chestnut laughed at the rotund cat.
“I am.”
    “We’ve been looking for you,”
Mrs. Murphy piped up.
    “Well, I’m right here. Food’s good. I’m glad I’m not at the fairgrounds. Where’s Renata?”
    “Esther, you’ve been stolen!”
Pewter blurted out.
    Tucker, now with them, asked,
“Sure you’re all right?”
    “Of course I am. I didn’t like that awful dye, but Ward washed it off the minute I arrived here. I’m not stolen.”
    “You didn’t think it odd that you were painted?”
Mrs. Murphy noticed how hard and healthy Queen Esther’s hooves were.
    “Of course not. They put hair shine on our manes, tail sets when we’re in the stalls, dye those little white spots or scars on the forelegs should we have any. No, I didn’t think it strange at all. Seemed like one more human peculiarity to me.”
    At this, the other horses laughed along with Esther.
    “Who led you out of the Kalarama stall?”
Tucker smiled at Queen Esther.
    “Jorge. Dyed my legs, face, and neck, too.”
    “And you weren’t scared? No one treated you badly?”
Pewter felt something was strange beyond the theft.
    “I’ve been treated like a queen!”
    The other horses laughed again.
    Finally, Harry and Fair reached the gorgeous mare.
    “That’s her! I swear that’s her.” Harry was excited.
    “I think so, too.” Fair looked all around. “Ward’s farm is in the back of the beyond, but she’s out in a pasture.”

    “If she goes over the hill there, one wouldn’t notice her.” Harry was confused. “It is bold, though.”
    “Hide in plain sight.” Fair slapped his thigh. “’Course, we could be wrong. No one knows these horses better than Joan and Larry or the other trainers, but I’m pretty sure this is the mare.”
    “I am Queen Esther,”
she affirmed.
    “She is,”
came the three-voiced chorus.
    “How did you all know?” Harry knelt down to the “kids.”
    Fair had flipped open his cell phone. “Larry, I think we’ve found Queen Esther.” He filled in the details, then asked Larry to call the sheriff of Woodford County, as well as Renata. “We’ll wait here.”
    They didn’t wait long. The sheriff arrived within ten minutes.
    What was peculiar was that no one came out of the barns when the sheriff showed up.

W hile one of the Woodford County deputies searched the barns, Harry, Fair, Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker remained in the pasture.
    The animals chatted with the horses.
    Sheriff Ayscough, portly and in his early fifties, appreciated that Fair was a vet.
    “She’s in good condition?”
    “Sheriff, she’s in excellent condition. Her legs are sound, no hoof damage. I don’t think she has a temperature, but if you’d like me to be absolutely sure I can go back to my truck and get a thermometer.”
    “No,” Sheriff Ayscough replied.
    “Someone’s coming.”
Tucker sounded the alarm.
    Two someones. Ward turned down the main drive, truck motor thumping.
    Immediately behind him was Renata in her new Dodge truck.
    Each pulled off the road behind the sheriff’s squad car.
    Ward hurried up the rise.
    Renata walked briskly.
    “Sheriff Ayscough, where did you find her?” Ward breathlessly asked.
    “I didn’t. These folks here did.”
    Ward beamed at Harry and Fair just as Renata reached them. She saw Queen Esther.
    “Esther.” She put her arms around the mare’s neck.
    “What’s the matter with everyone?”
Esther blew air out of her widened nostrils.
    On the other side of the drive, Brown Bess, Amanda, and Lucy Lu stretched their heads over the fence. Given the lay of the land they couldn’t see the assemblage, but their curiosity ran high.
    Ward walked over to Queen Esther and felt her legs. He picked up each hoof.
    Fair watched. “She’s fine.”
    “How’d she get here?” Ward asked.
    “That’s what I want