The Horse Whisperer Read Online Free PDF

the sheriff’s office. When Koopman arrived, Wayne was sitting in the snow out in the field. The deputy was just a kid and had clearly never seen a wreck this bad before, but he’d handled things well and even looked disappointed when Wayne told him he’d already put out a call on channel nine of his CB. That was the channel monitored by the state police and minutes later they started to arrive. Now the place was swarming withthem and Koopman looked a little put out that it wasn’t his show anymore.
    On the snow beneath the truck, Wayne could see the reflected glare of the oxyacetylene blowtorches that the rescue squad guys were using to cut through the tangled wreck of the trailer and the turbines. He looked away, fighting the memory of those long minutes after the jackknife finished.
    He hadn’t heard it right away. Garth Brooks was singing on regardless on the tape machine and Wayne had been so stunned at his own survival that he was unsure if it was he or his ghost climbing down from the cab. There were blue jays squawking in the trees and at first he thought this other noise came from them too. But it was too desperate, too insistent, a kind of sustained, tortured shrieking and Wayne realized it was the horse dying in the closed jackknife and he’d clamped his hands to his ears and run away into the field.
    They’d already told him one of the girls was still alive and he could see the paramedics at work around her stretcher, getting her ready for the helicopter. One of them was pressing a mask over her face and another had his arms up high, holding two plastic bags of fluid that were connected by tubes to her arms. The body of the other girl had already been flown out.
    A red four-wheeler had just pulled up and Wayne watched a big bearded man get out and take a black bag out of the back. He slung it over a shoulder and made his way toward Koopman who turned to greet him. They talked for a few minutes then Koopman led him out of sight behind the truck, where the blowtorchers were at work. When they reappeared, the bearded guy looked grim. They went over to talk to the little hunter guy who listened, nodded and got what looked like a rifle bag out of the cab of his pickup. Nowall three of them were heading over toward Wayne. Koopman opened the car door.
    “You okay?”
    “Yeah, I’m okay.”
    Koopman nodded toward the bearded guy.
    “Mr. Logan here is a veterinarian. We need to find that other horse.”
    Now that the door was open Wayne could hear the roar of the blowtorches. It made him feel sick.
    “Any idea which way it went?”
    “No sir. Sure don’t think he could’ve gotten far.”
    “Okay.” Koopman put a hand on Wayne’s shoulder. “We’ll be getting you out of here soon, okay?”
    Wayne nodded. Koopman shut the door. They stood there talking outside the car but Wayne couldn’t hear what they said. Beyond them, the helicopter was lifting off, taking the girl away. Someone’s hat blew off in the blizzard. But Wayne saw none of this. All he saw was the bloodfoam mouth of the horse and its eyes staring at him over a jagged edge of windshield as they would stare at him in his dreams for a long time to come.
       “We’ve got him, haven’t we?”
    Annie was standing by her desk, looking over Don Farlow’s shoulder as he sat reading the contract. He didn’t answer, just lifted a sandy eyebrow, finishing the page.
    “We have,” Annie said. “I know we have.”
    Farlow put the contract down on his lap.
    “Yes, I think we have.”
    “Ha!” Annie raised a fist and walked across the office to pour herself another cup of coffee.
    They had been there half an hour. She’d caught a cab down to Forty-third and Seventh, got stuck in the trafficand walked the last two blocks. New York drivers were coping with the snow in the way they knew best, blaring their horns and yelling at each other. Farlow was already there in her office and had the coffee on. She liked the way he made himself at