The Chase Read Online Free Page A

leaned back against the headrest. The radio station was fading in and out, and he reached over and twirled the knob to turn it off. Lack of sleep was beginning to catch up with him. He sighed wearily and closed his eyes, appreciating the sound of the rain on the roof and the rhythmic swoosh of the windshield wipers.
    The loud whoop of a siren blared outside his truck, and Jake sat up and saw the flashing lights of an emergency vehicle pass by slowly on the shoulder to his right. The truck windows had fogged up, and he leaned over and used the heel of his hand to clear an area on the passenger side. A brown sheriff’s car glided past him, followed closely by a truck hauling a horse trailer. As the truck and trailer passed by, Jake read the writing on the side of the trailer.
Equine Medical Center Horse Ambulance
.
    Jake straightened up in his seat and watched for a moment as the receding taillights of the horse ambulance grew dimmer. After a brief hesitation, he put the truck in gear and nosed it onto the shoulder.
    The rain still beat down steadily, but the visibility had improved somewhat, and Jake followed the horse ambulance past a couple of dozen vehicles until it stopped short of where two sheriff’s cars and a fire truck blocked the road. An ambulance with its lights and siren on was pulling away, but Jake couldn’t see any other vehicles or signs of any kind of accident.
    A sheriff’s deputy climbed out of his car and walked towards the horse ambulance, but when he saw Jake’s truck, he held his hand up and gestured for Jake to back up. Jake rolled down the window and waited for the deputy to approach.
    The deputy scowled at him. “What do you think you’re doing, following behind an emergency vehicle?”
    “Sorry, Deputy, I’m not trying to interfere. I saw the horse ambulance and I followed to offer my help.”
    The deputy gestured towards Jake’s cowboy hat, which lay next to him on the seat. “You work with horses?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “All right,” the deputy said, squinting against the blowing rain. “Leave your vehicle here. I’ll let the ambulance driver know you’ve offered to help.”
    Jake nodded and rolled up the window. He turned off the ignition, pocketed the keys, and opened the door, jamming his cowboy hat on his head before stepping out into the rain. The horse ambulance’s driver had just started up the road, and Jake grabbed the front of his hat and ducked his head to keep the rain from blowing in his eyes as he sloshed through rain puddles to catch up with him. By the time he reached the ambulance driver, his T-shirt and jeans were soaked through to his skin.
    He could see that the driver was younger than himself, maybe in his late teens, or early twenties. Definitely too young to be a vet. He was wearing muck boots, a yellow rain slicker, and a Redskins baseball cap.
    As Jake drew alongside him, the young man extended his hand. “Hi, I’m Steve. Thanks for offering to help.”
    “I’m Jake. What happened? I see the rescue vehicles, but I don’t see any sign of an accident,” he said, shaking Steve’s hand.
    Steve motioned ahead and to the right. “See the tracks? Some guy was hauling a tagalong. He drove off the road and the trailer flipped off the hitch. There’s one horse in it. From the call I got, it sounds like the horse is in pretty bad shape.”
    “Is a vet here?”
    Steve shook his head. “No. Another driver saw the guy go off the road and called nine-one-one from his cell phone. When the rescue squad arrived and found the horse trapped in the trailer, they called the Equine Medical Center. The EMC doesn’t usually dispatch the ambulance without a vet referral, but in this case they didn’t want to waste time waiting for a local vet to get to the scene.”
    Jake and Steve followed the tire tracks off the road, and as they started down the embankment, a fireman appeared from over the rise and trudged towards them.
    “Hey, guys,” the fireman greeted them.