Disconcerting: Day 5

Word Count: 30,007

Summary of Events: 

Caetline spent some time visiting with Queen's Pride before helping her great-aunt find her great-uncle and tell him there was a message for him; Caetline learned the message was from Jada's mother, who was adamant that the riding school purchase a bay horse for Jada. Macaulay, back home, was sent on errands by his stepmom that included getting himself a haircut because she thought his hair was too long . . .

Excerpt of the Day:

The radio being played in the salon went to a news break shortly after she started and Macaulay listened casually.

"Now on the animal abuse allegations against Allan Douglass-Milligan," the newscaster said. "We have received an update from Stonehaven Police."

The audio changed. "In accordance with the complaint against Mr. Douglass-Milligan officers have gone out to his estate and seen the horse in question," Macaulay guessed the speaker was now a police officer. "They were accompanied by two veterinarians and will be posting photos of the horse, who was found in immaculate health and judged to have not ever suffered any ill treatment by the veterinarians. It is the opinion of the Stonehaven Police that the video posted online is a hoax."

Macaulay nearly launched up from his seat in a fury. A hoax? How could they have pulled off a hoax like that? It sure seemed genuine to him. There was no way it could've been a hoax.

Sure the footage had been grainy, that was what one got for shooting their footage on a mobile instead of an actual camera, but the inflection of their voices, their startling when the first whip crack had sounded, the panicked flurry of the hooves, the sounds of the striking, all of them, they'd been so genuine. How could those women have possibly faked it?

"Is that what you want?" the hairdresser interrupted Macaulay's thoughts.

"Shorter down here," Macaulay replied, indicating.

She affixed a shorter comb to the razor and started cutting.

Macaulay wanted to shake his head in appall. He had no clue how the police could possibly believe it a hoax. He didn't even know why the activists would've lied. What would they gain by lying?

Nothing. Any activist group had little to gain by lying. If they wanted to be viewed as credible they needed to tell the truth, this group would be ruined if they were lying. They had to be telling the truth. Mr. Douglass-Milligan had to be lying.

But how? Did Mr. Douglass-Milligan have two horses? Da had said he only had one, and even that had surprised Macaulay. What would Mr. Douglass-Milligan do with two horses? What would Mr. Douglass-Milligan do with one horse?

Unless they'd made a mistake. Maybe the activists had thought that they'd been at Mr. Douglass-Milligan's estate but had been elsewhere. The police hadn't mentioned the activists being present at the inspection of the horse — which strongly suggested that the police were biased against the group — so how could the police or the activist know they'd been at the right place?

Macaulay figured this was going to necessitate him going online and looking for any and all news articles he could find on the whole thing, or maybe even going directly to the webpage the women had cited in the video and seeing if there was any further information there that might prove whether it was a case of mistaken identity on the part of the location or not.