Uchenna turned the flashlight on, shone it around her. The hoofprints, the last remnants of the bagged grass, they were all as they had been.
But the apples were gone.
She froze. Oh, no. Oh no.
Uchenna turned the flashlight off again and made her way back through the hedge and across the board over the Ditch. They found them. The Guards found the apples. It was the only possibility: nothing else lived in this field that was big enough to eat them all, or strong enough to take them away. And it’s not going to take long for them to find out where they came from. They’re don’t look like the kind of apples you buy at the Tesco! They’re full of bug holes and bruised bits.
She was sweating all over as she climbed the wall again and came down in her yard by way of the tree. Very quietly Uchenna made her way back into the house, slipped the flashlight back into the kitchen drawer, and was just about to sneak back upstairs when her Dad came into the kitchen from the living room where he’d been working.
“Where were you?” he said, looking at her a little strangely. “You weren’t in the Back Office—” He reached out to her, and to Uchenna’s surprise picked a leaf off her shoulder, looked at it. “In the tree?”
Uchenna swallowed. “Uh, yeah,” she said.
The expression her Dad turned on her was very strange. “Chenna,” he said, “tell me truthfully. You’re not—seeing anybody, are you?”
“What?” She was astonished that he would ever think such a thing: though at school she pretended to be as interested in it as everybody else was, Uchenna privately found the whole concept of sex kind of icky. “No!”
“All right,” he said, sounding very relieved. “All right. Listen now, hurry up and go get yourself cleaned up, your Mam’s on the way home.” And he went back into the living room.
Uchenna went hurriedly upstairs, turning this new weirdness over in her mind. As she changed out of the tree-smudged sweatshirt and chucked it into the laundry basket in her room, she thought, Oh, GTS, thank You for making Dad such a star! If Mam had caught me that way this time of night when she told me not to go over the wall—
Outside she could heard the engine of the SUV as it swung into the driveway. With a clean sweatshirt on, she headed downstairs and hugged her Mam as soon as she came in the door. Her Mam looked at her quizzically. “Why, sweet, what’s the matter?”
If only I could tell you! “I hate it when you’re out late,” Uchenna said, muffled, into her Mam’s front. “I worry about you.” And while this was true, it was also a great way to distract her Mam from anything that might still be on her mind from this morning.
Her Dad was watching Uchenna from the doorway into the living room with an expression she found impossible to decipher. Is he going to tell her on me? Uchenna thought. But she doubted it. Her Dad sometimes went out of his way to keep her out of trouble with her Mam, who was stricter with Uchenna than he was. Probably this was because of the way he was with his Mam: Granny O’Connor was sweet with Uchenna, but when it came to her Dad, she spent a lot of time giving him the rough side of her tongue.
“It’s all right, sweet one,” her Mam said, wearily dropping her bag on one of the kitchen chairs and shrugging out of her white coat. “Did you eat? Good. I could eat a horse. Hey, handsome guy, heat me up some of that chicken tikka and let me tell you about my day…”
Uchenna went quickly and quietly up to her room, half afraid that one of the things that her Mam was going to tell her Dad about “her day” would have to do with what she and Uchenna had said to each other that morning. But if that happened, neither of them gave any sign of it. Her parents just said “Good night” to Uchenna as usual when they went up to their own bedroom.
All the same, she didn’t sleep well that night: images of that placid brown eye, of the field with no apples in it, kept coming up through her dreams to trouble her. And Uchenna got no relief the next day, either, because a lot of the kids at school were buzzing with uneasy interest about the horses. How could they just turn up in a field, and no one see them get there? How could they get moved around the way they had and not get noticed? One hallway rumor said the Guards had already found two other fields where the horses had been kept (and again Uchenna flushed hot and went quiet, but no one noticed). And conspiracy theories were starting to flower.
“It’s the IRA,” one kid said in the crowd that was forming in the front of the doors of the school’s auditorium, waiting to go in for that afternoon’s weekly assembly.
“Oh, come on,” somebody else in the crowd said, “why would the IRA want horses?”
“Well, they stole Shergar, didn’t they!”
“He was a race horse, you dim fecker! The Provos were going to hold him for ransom for a coupla million quid! Who’s going to do that with some dirty old tinker pony?”
“Drugs,” another kid whispered. “It’s one of the drug gangs from up in Dublin.”
“Are you kidding? What would they want horses for?”
“Didn’t you hear? Some drug dealer up in Dublin found a horse head on his doorstep the other morning. Like in The Godfather. He was dealing drugs without giving the gang their cut. Prob’ly the gang wants more horses to send more warnings. So they just took these cheap street horses for it—”
The very thought of the Mammy Horse having her head cut off to intimidate some stupid drug dealer made Uchenna break out in a sweat that was half fear, half fury: but she didn’t dare show any reaction.
Other theories were floated while everybody was waiting for the doors to be opened, but none of them were more worthwhile than the ones Uchenna had heard so far. Emer came up behind her as the doors opened, and they went in together and sat down in one of the lower rows, over with Belle and some of her group.
After five minutes or so, the Headmaster came in and started the assembly. It was the normal recitation of games schedules, complaints about discipline problems, reminders about permissions for upcoming school trips, and other boring crap. “Wish he’d get on with it,” Emer whispered to Uchenna: “he’s putting me to sleep here. Who’s today’s special guest speaker?” For there was normally some kind of guest at assemblies, someone educational or occasionally even marginally famous.
Uchenna shook her head. She hadn’t heard anything. But then the Headmaster stopped speaking and looked off toward the wings of the stage: and out onto the stage walked a tall, broad-shouldered shape in a dark blue uniform, with a hat under his arm. It was a Guard.
Uchenna felt herself go cold.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” said Mr. Mallon, “this is Garda Sergeant Moran from the Garda Regional Investigation Section in Naas. He’s here to speak to us about some of the odd things that have been going on in the Adamstown area over the past week, and to ask for our help.”
An uneasy silence fell over the seated students. “Good afternoon, everybody,” Sergeant Moran said. “We’re hoping you can assist us in our inquiries into a theft or thefts in this area. The thefts involve a group of horses which have been introduced into various private properties in this neighborhood without the owners’ permission, and have then been removed again. The people involved in this business are at the very least guilty of trespassing, possibly criminal trespass, and may have plans for something more ambitious in the near future, involving other properties in the Adamstown area. Now as many of you know, we’ve had a spate of burglaries and an attempted ram-raid recently, so I’m sure you’ll all understand that—”
Uchenna was finding it difficult to concentrate on what the Sergeant was saying: she was too busy looking at him and being nervous, for she was already imagining him standing in her living room and denouncing her to her horrified parents as some kind of accomplice horse thief. He didn’t have the kind of face that suggested he would be particularly understanding of a kid’s explanation about feeling sorry for pregnant horses, either. His hair was iron-grey and cropped very short, and he had a grim, narrow-eyed, frowning look to him, even when his face was relaxed.
&
nbsp; “—business with the horses may be some kind of attempted cover-up for something else that’s going on. At any rate, someone has been bringing these horses food in their temporary quarters, but we’ve found no traces of car transport for this food, which suggests that someone local is helping them—”
Uchenna held absolutely still. “So I’d appreciate it if you’d all think about whether you’ve seen anything strange in the area, any people you don’t know, and especially anyone out in the fields behind Adamstown who might not normally have any business being there. The comings and going of lorries or cars and trailers would be of great interest to us, but so would details about anyone seen walking through the fields, especially on the west side of the development, over the last few days—”
Uchenna breathed, but only because she couldn’t see anyone immediately turning around and staring at her. Oh, God, I hate being so tall! If anybody saw me there’s no way they wouldn’t know who I was—
But no one turned around and identified her as the one the police were looking for, and very slowly Uchenna began to relax. The Sergeant was still talking, but the other kids were beginning to get less concerned about him now as well: the normal rustle and whisper of a normal assembly started to reassert itself. “So please call the anonymous Garda information number that your Headmaster will be posting on the school bulletin boards and the school website,” Sergeant Moran was saying. “We guarantee that you will not be identified as the enquiry proceeds. We just want to find out who stole these horses, and who they belong to, so we can take appropriate action. And we appreciate your assistance. Thank you.”
There was some uneasy applause as Sergeant Moran walked off. As he did, Uchenna noticed something about him that she hadn’t picked up on before: he was limping.
Emer saw it too. She leaned over to Uchenna and whispered, very softly, but with a helpless snicker, “What do you want to bet he’s the one the Mammy stepped on?”
Terrified as she was, Uchenna couldn’t help but laugh. But most people were too busy whispering to each other to notice, and Uchenna managed to shut herself up.
Mr. Mallon stepped up and spoke for a few minutes more about some final details, including congratulations to the girls’ hockey team for their win of the weekend, and some kids clapped and looked back at Uchenna when that happened. But then it was all over and everybody was dismissed to the last couple of class sessions of the day.
As people left school that afternoon, the usual gossiping crowd was hanging around the gate, waiting for their rides home and talking excitedly about the horse thefts and the possible identities of the mysterious thieves who were involved. “Hey, bet I know who it is,” said one of the kids standing outside the gate, giving Uchenna a sidelong look as she came up.
She paused there, not sure she was the one being talked to, and glanced around to see if she could see Emer anywhere nearby. She couldn’t. But another of the kids standing there said, “I know! It’s her little friend the creamer.”
Uchenna flushed hot again, ready to say He’s not my friend! But something stopped her. And the others noticed that. “O ho,” said another of the kids, and there was nudging and nasty laughter.
Uchenna just rolled her eyes and shook her head at them. “You guys are so fecking clueless,” she said, and walked off. But as she did, someone in the crowd behind her said, more quietly but no less nastily, “Better tell the Guards about the knacker and save everybody some time. I mean, who else here would be screwing around with street horses? Those people all stick together, he must know something about it even if it’s not him. Hey, text me that hotline number—”
Uchenna kept walking, sure that this particular group was just pulling her leg for casual cruelty’s sake. But others might be having this same idea—kids who didn’t like Jimmy or just felt like getting him in trouble because they could. Oh, please don’t let it happen… she thought as she headed for home. But she doubted somehow that GTS was going to get involved in this any further. The Mammy Horse was safe now with people who would take care of her, which was pretty much what she’d been praying for. Now, Uchenna thought, everybody else involved in this—meaning her and Emer and Jimmy—would probably be on their own. And we’ll be okay. I really, really hope…
8: In The Office
The next day, she started to suspect that this was might be true. The school day went by without incident or interest for Uchenna, partly because she was mostly avoiding her schoolmates when she didn’t have to be in a class with them: she felt strongly that it would be smart for her to keep her head down at the moment. Afterwards she walked home in company with Emer as usual, then sat down to do her homework on the kitchen table as she normally did on weeknight evenings. She’d discovered that this kept her parents calm about whether she was actually getting the work done, and right now Uchenna definitely wanted them calm. But a little after six, while her Dad was standing in the kitchen making some tea, her Mam came through the back door and before even taking her coat off, said to her Dad, “Did you see the Kildare People today?”
Her Mam’s expression was peculiar, and there was something a little odd about her tone of voice, too, as she looked at Uchenna’s Dad. He shook his head. “Didn’t stop by the newsagent on the way home,” he said. “Why, did you pick one up?”
Uchenna’s Mam nodded and dropped the People on the table in front of him. It was the local newspaper that covered both County Kildare and the part of County Dublin just north of it, which included Adamstown. The front featured a headline, Adamstown Mystery Horses Re-Horsenapped!—and a picture of the field near the school, now full of Garda cars surrounding the five horses.
Uchenna stared at it for a moment and then turned away, intent on not looking like this was any kind of big deal. Her Dad was leaning on the table, his head down, reading the article. “A group of five unlicensed and unidentified horses which were impounded in the Adamstown area by the Gardai on Monday morning after a number of complaints from local landowners have disappeared,” Uchenna’s Dad read out loud.
“I didn’t know horses had to have licenses,” Uchenna’s Mam said as she slipped out of her coat.
“Only since a few years ago,” Uchenna’s Dad said, glancing up. “A lot of the city kids were buying horses from Travellers’ markets and then keeping them on waste ground, by motorways and so forth… Some of them weren’t being well treated. The licenses were the only way the government could make sure that people actually had somewhere decent to keep a horse, could afford to feed and water it…” He was scanning down the article again. “Hmm. ‘Police believe that the horses may be part of a larger group of illegally held horses impounded in Dublin City early last week. These horses were removed without leave from the City Animal Pound by persons unknown during the night last Wednesday. At that time the horse thieves did several thousand Euros’ worth of damage when they broke into the pound complex. Five of these horses were recovered by Adamstown Gardai from a local field two days ago, only to be lost again late last night.’”
“Somebody stole them twice,” Uchenna’s Mam said, getting herself some coffee. “Pretty persistent.” She was frowning.
Her Dad nodded and kept reading. “But listen to this. ‘Security cameras at the parking lot of the station on Adamstown Crescent were disabled and locks on the gates to the secure parking area were cut through when the horses were removed. Adamstown Gardai when contacted said only that they are conducting a local investigation and will be asking for the assistance of local citizens groups to identify the horses’ owners and determine who is responsible for illegally siting the horses on private property—” He trailed off, reading down the article. “So weird,” he said. “Who goes to that kind of trouble for some street horses?”
“Uchenna—”
Her Mam’s voice had that particular tone to it. Uchenna turned around.
“You wouldn’t know anything about this, would you?” her Mam said. “Or not you. Your, uh, friend who was helping you mow the lawn.”
“What, Jimmy?” Uchenna said, and now it was very hard to try to look calm. I promised not to get him involved, I promised! “You’re kidding, right? He doesn’t even like horses.”
“A Traveller who doesn’t like horses?” her Dad said, glancing up. “Sounds a little unusual.”
“If it’s true,” her Mam said. She looked at Uchenna for a long moment: Uchenna gazed back, forcing herself not to look away or do anything else that might make her seem guilty—even though guilty was exactly how she felt: and scared. If the Guards ever came after me for anything, Mam would simply rip the flesh off my bones—and it’s going to happen and there’s nothing I can do —
“I bet you this this is something to do with that new Traveller encampment up on the Naas Road,” her Dad said, straightening up again. “That one you passed the other day. I was by there this afternoon on the way back. They had some horses there.” He turned to the fridge to get out a beer. “You know the kind. Those shaggy ones…”
Uchenna’s Mam sighed, frowning, and turned away. “They’re going to turn that whole area into a dump, like they did with the field at the end of the road in Stillorgan that time,” she said. “It took the County months to get rid of them. I still can’t forget the rats coming down into the street from that field those people were camped in…”
She headed off into the living room. Uchenna sat at the table and turned her attention back to her homework: but she found it almost impossible to finish it. She kept coming back to the thought of what her Mam would say when—not if—she found out Uchenna had been fibbing to her about Jimmy. Gotta remind Emer what to say about this. We’ve got to present a united front…. Because her Mam was suspicious of something: there was no doubt of that. But they hadn’t been doing anything wrong, so she didn’t really have anything to worry about. Well, except for doing something Mam said not to do….