Blood Sisters Read Online Free PDF Page B

was quite sure from the state of their injuries that they were either thrown or driven off the top of the cliff. Almost all their legs are shattered and some of them have broken necks. Not only that, they weren’t all thrown or driven over at the same time. Judging by their varying states of decomposition, some of them must have been lying there for some considerable time, possibly as long as two months. Others are comparatively recent.’
    ‘One of them was still alive, right, when they were discovered?’ asked Kenny Byrne. He was a young freelance who supplied news stories to the Corkman in Mallow and the Southern Star in Skibbereen, as well as Cork’s 96 and Red FM. He had tight blond curls and acne, and Katie always thought that he was far too young to be a reporter – although two or three times he had given tips to the Garda that had helped them locate runaway teenagers and arrest ecstasy dealers in local clubs.
    ‘Yes, Kenny, one horse was still alive, although it was gravely injured and the officer had to put it down.’
    ‘Can you tell us who found the horses in the first place?’ asked Jean.
    ‘I can’t, no. All I can say is that they were two innocent people out walking. They prefer not to have their names published, and we can fully understand their concern. The way these poor creatures have been disposed of is clearly a criminal act, although it’s far too early for me to say what its full implications are.’
    ‘You’ll allow our photographer down on the beach to take a few pictures?’ said Dan Keane, although it was more of a statement than a question.
    ‘Of course, yes. The more coverage you can give this, the better. Even if it wasn’t done all at once, throwing nearly two dozen horses off an eighty-metre cliff top is not exactly what you’d call an inconspicuous activity. Somebody must have seen something that can give us a useful lead.’
    ‘Do you have any idea at all where the horses might have come from?’ asked Jean.
    Katie knew that it was no use trying to hold back the information that the horses were all thoroughbreds. Dan Keane was a racing man and would recognize them for at once for what they were, even though many of them were so decomposed, and in any case their shoes would give the game away immediately.
    ‘We don’t yet know if they came from one particular stable, or several different stables, but as far as we can ascertain they’re all race-trained thoroughbreds.’
    ‘Racehorses? All twenty-three of them?’ asked Johnny Byrne.
    ‘Look, as I told you, we haven’t had the opportunity yet to examine them all, but every one that we’ve seen so far appears to fit into that category.’
    ‘But who’s going to throw twenty-three racehorses off a cliff? Like, what for, like?’
    ‘Somebody who doesn’t want to pay for their legitimate disposal, I would say,’ Dan Keane put in. ‘Or somebody who doesn’t want it known that those particular animals are dead.’
    ‘Well – those are both possibilities that we’ll be looking into,’ said Katie. ‘They should all have been microchipped, of course, so that should help us to trace their owners.’
    ‘Oh, this is going to be an interesting one all right,’ said Dan Keane. ‘Think of all the reasons why you wouldn’t want it known that a racehorse was dead. Whatever it is, you can bet one hundred to one that there’s money behind it, and big money, too.’
    ‘It’s much too soon to say,’ Katie told him. ‘I’m not going to start making accusations of any kind, not until we have some credible evidence about where they came from and who might have disposed of them, and why. Obviously, though, we’d like to hear from anyone who has any information that might lead us to understand what happened here. Did anybody see dead horses being carried on the back of a pick-up truck? Or horseboxes being driven along the farm tracks towards Nohaval Cove? It’s the usual Garda confidential number – 1800 666 111 – and