All the Lost Little Horses (A Desperation Creek Novel Book 2)

by Janice Kay Johnson

  “Grant likes a Judge Donald Yeatman, who is not only out of town for the weekend, he didn’t answer his cell phone.” Jed’s jaw muscles spasmed. “We then approached Judge Arthur Bascomb. He wasn’t happy that we’d bothered him late on a Saturday afternoon. He told us to come back Monday morning, and he hoped we’d have more evidence than the dubious word of a man desperate for a deal.”

  “How quick will Thayer call his friend to warn him?” Niall asked.

  “Oh, I think Mason called his good buddy Gene the minute he walked out of the holding cell this morning.” In his quiet way, Linette decided, Jed was furious. “We’re trying to keep an eye on him, in case he decides to run, but our budget doesn’t allow a twenty-four/seven stake-out. It’s complicated further by the fact that he has a small house in town as well as the ranch, which means both places have to be watched.” Looking at Niall, he said, “I’d get you involved, except it might blow your cover.”

  “I can stay with Linette if you need to fill in anywhere.”

  To her relief, Jed shook his head. “The others will manage. Even if Baxter does take off, he’s not sophisticated enough to stay hidden.”

  The knowledge that he didn’t intend to leave her calmed Linette. To contribute, she said, “You can’t do a stake-out on a suspect inside the city limits, anyway, can you?”

  He caught her hand for a quick squeeze under the table, telling her that he had guessed at her stress and tangled emotions. “Actually, we can,” he answered. “The FHPD is confined by the city limits, but it doesn’t work the other way around. Normally we avoid stepping on the police department’s toes, but the sheriff’s department has jurisdiction over the entire county.”

  Niall gave a slow smile. “Seward’s head will explode if he finds out you’re operating inside his territory.”

  Once it became apparent both men had finished eating, Linette hustled to the kitchen to scrape off her plate into the garbage. Niall followed her and said, “Let me clean up tonight.”

  She almost insisted on doing it. She needed every distraction, but couldn’t turn down the opportunity to cuddle with Jed on the sofa and talk – or not.

  When they first went to bed that night, they didn’t make love. They held each other, Linette struck by a sense of unreality. She trusted him, turned to him in her need, everything she’d sworn she would never do again. She felt a deep pang of a different fear, this one that she’d succumbed to a few seemingly sincere words but no commitment on Jed’s part. But the solidity of his body stretched out beside her, the comforting circle of his arm, the strong beat of his heart beneath her hand, the way he sometimes looked at her, all offered reassurance. He was being the man she needed, not saying words she wouldn’t have believed anyway.

  If he’d knocked on her door out of the blue, before this all started, and said, “I missed you. I love you. Please take me back,” she’d have slammed the door in his face. And really, could she imagine Jed doing that? Had he even thought the word ‘love’?

  Strangely, she believed he had. Wasn’t that what he’d been saying, when he said things like, “Use me.”

  Her breath hitched and her eyes burned. He stroked her back and shoulder as he lifted his head from the pillow. “Linette?”

  She said urgently, “I want you.”

  As she scrambled higher in the bed to reach his mouth, he rolled to half-pin her beneath him. What he did was make love to her, with astonishing tenderness and intense focus on what he thought she needed.

  No, he didn’t have to say the words.

  *****

  Sunday crawled, as far as Jed was concerned. They were all in limbo, Linette most of all. He’d have given just about anything to be able to say, We’ve spotted the truck and trailer, and what looks like your horses in a corral. SWAT is surrounding the property right now. Instead, Theo Willis appeared to have driven off the edge of the world with her horses.

  The real problem was the size of the county versus the few sheriff’s deputies patrolling it. There were miles and miles of seemingly empty country, countless dirt or gravel lanes leading to distant farmhouses and barns. Theo could have driven right into a barn and pulled the double doors closed behind him. The horses could have been unloaded into stalls, paddocks, let loose in a pasture with other animals. Up close, the Kiger were distinctive, but not from a distance – say a plane flying overhead.

  After breakfast, Linette and Niall went out to the barn to take care of the rest of her herd. With a grim sense of purpose, Jed stayed in to work. He continued learning what he could about the two other members of the rustling gang named by Hinton.

  One had grown up here in Fort Halleck, attending school a couple of years behind Thayer and Baxter. Jed talked to Grant, who said, “Lee Graafstra? The name rings a bell.” The pause suggested he was thinking. “I vaguely remember his older sister. Jenni? Jenna? Pretty sure she was a year ahead of me, though, so we didn’t have classes together.”

  The other guy, Ross Alford, had drifted from his native Idaho through Montana, Nevada, Arizona and Northern California, working as a ranch hand, never staying on any job for more than a few months. Jed had the disquieting thought that Russ Alford was what he might have become if he hadn’t joined the army – or if his foster father had dragged him along instead of insisting he stay where he could finish high school. This Alford seemed a natural to have been sucked into the cattle rustling gang: perpetually broke, rootless, feeling no loyalty to any employer. He’d probably thought, Why not?

  Like Mason Thayer, he was currently working at the Circle S, Karen Steagall’s place. Unlike Mason, Ross probably bunked there, too. Had the two so much as thought twice about stealing from her, a widow desperate to hold onto the land for her young son? Jed would enjoy arresting this SOB, too.

  It occurred to him that he hadn’t called Karen to let her know about Mason, but he’d wait until he’d made the second arrest, too.

  He moved on to search for any and every nugget of information online about Harrison Seward and Theodore Darcy Willis. In neither case did he find anything new.

  He put together lunch, wishing his phone would ring. Vibrate. Something. He craved an update. When Linette came in, gaze fastened on his, he had to shake his head. No news.

  A yearling named Alita Esperanza had a limp that worried Linette. Niall and she debated whether to call the vet, ultimately deciding to wait until morning in hopes she improved. Otherwise, they scarcely spoke as they drank soup from mugs and ate hefty sandwiches.

  Linette only nibbled at half her sandwich, but did finish her soup. Jed swore her face looked thinner than it had yesterday, but told himself he was imagining things. Fasting was supposed to be good for you, wasn’t it?

  After lunch, he went out to work, too, hoping some hard physical labor would wear him out enough to sleep tonight. He rebuilt some older paddock fencing, keeping an eye on Linette when he could. It occurred to him that she almost had to be feeling cabin fever. When was the last time – besides her fun overnight stay in the hospital – that she’d left the ranch? Ten days? Two weeks? The only time she’d even ridden out on her own land was yesterday to check the camera feed. He’d seen the obstacle course she’d constructed on a hillside to work her horses in difficult terrain and response to her signals, but had banned that, too. Ditto for the large outdoor arena. In her shoes, he’d have been going stark raving mad by now. Maybe it was the years of lying stretched out in one spot for days on end, waiting, waiting. His body responded to the memory with a nerve tic below his right eye. No, he’d have a hard time now being constrained or confined in any way. Linette was handling it with grace – although he wondered how often she had chosen to leave the ranch when she lived here alone.

  Did she prefer being alone? Feel crowded with his and Niall’s presence? He hated to think that, but knew eventually he’d have to ask. This house, the ranch, already felt like home to him. What if, in the end, she didn’t want him to stay?

  Up in the barn loft to toss down a bale of hay
, he huffed a laugh that didn’t hold all that much amusement. There’d been a time when he had possessed the ability to wait with limitless patience. No more.

  Knowing he’d be sleeping with Linette tonight…that helped.

  *****

  Jed was aware that Linette had hoped Troy would be back today, but the kid had called last night to let her know he’d have to take a few more days.

  “I’m having pretty bad headaches,” he had told her. Mumbled, according to Linette.

  Poor guy had probably been eager to escape his mother’s solicitous care, Jed thought.

  The young guy who’d been here Saturday returned today. Ken something. Linette reported that he was even quieter than Troy, but a hard worker. Jed lifted a hand at him when he turned his truck around and started down the driveway.

  In the rearview mirror, he saw Linette halfway between the house and barn, watching him go. His gut suddenly twisted and his foot moved to the brake. He didn’t want to go anywhere. The reluctance that hit him was so powerful, he didn’t know where it had come from. She wouldn’t be alone, and he was in the middle of tying up his investigation of cattle rustlers. If they kept falling like dominoes, he’d be cuffing Harrison Seward in no time.

  Examining his feelings, he clenched his teeth. No, he didn’t actually believe in presentiments, despite his recent outbreaks.

  Jed didn’t let himself brake until he reached the road, and then only briefly.

  Halfway to town, he groped for his ringing telephone.

  “We have the warrant for Gene Baxter,” Grant told him. “I’ve already sent it to you.”

  Jed had ignored a couple of buzzes. Surprised, he said, “Judge Bascomb?”

  “Yeatman.”

  “Does it cover both the ranch and his house in town?”

  “It does, and bank accounts, too.”

  “I wonder if he went to work today.”

  “Fischer says not. He’s still in front of the house. He’ll wait to provide backup for you.”

  Deputy Ben Fischer was young, but solid.

  Ten minutes later, Jed rolled to a stop at the curb behind Fischer’s patrol car. The neighborhood appeared quiet; kids were probably off to school, parents to their jobs. At the moment, there was no traffic, nobody on foot or bicycle within a couple of blocks. The timing was ideal to make the arrest.

  He switched to studying the house, noting that the front blinds were pulled. Didn’t mean he wasn’t being watched.

  After taking a minute to silence his phone and unsnap his holster, Jed got out. Fischer did the same. Their eyes met, and they fell into step going up the driveway.

  Jed said quietly, “I need you to cover the back.”

  The young deputy nodded his understanding. As Jed turned on the narrow concrete walkway that led to the front door, Fischer eased around the side of the clapboard house.

  Baxter didn’t seem the type to struggle or pull a weapon, but you never knew. As he invariably did, Jed stood to one side of the front door when he rang the bell. A gong sounded from within, but he didn’t hear any footsteps. After a minute, he knocked hard and called, “Police! Open the door, Gene!”

  Still nothing. He reached for the doorknob, tried to turn it. Locked.

  That’s when a shout came from the backyard.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Before going to the locker room, Niall paused to check incident reports from the weekend, BOLOs, anything else that might help him do his job, however temporary that job was. He’d seen only three other officers doing the same. The rest swaggered in, went straight to the locker room, and swaggered out to their cars. The lack of discipline and training in the department infuriated Niall. He’d registered Jed’s disapproval, but the atmosphere and morale here were even worse than he’d expected.

  He was buckling his belt and running a mental checklist on what he’d need today before closing his locker when he heard a man’s voice he recognized. Despite being hushed, it still carried.

  “Chief wants us out there right away. Says daytime’s safer—”

  Bill Wheeler, a ten-year officer who had so far ignored Niall. He entered the locker room, saw Niall, and cut off what he’d been saying. Entering behind him was Jeremy Horner, the officer the ex-rodeo guy had named as a fellow cattle rustler.

  Niall nodded at the pair. “Morning.”

  Horner nodded back. Wheeler grunted, looking suspicious.

  As he should be, Niall thought, shutting his locker. On the way out of the building, he greeted a few other people. Once he was behind the wheel of his assigned cruiser, he drove out of the parking lot, circled two blocks and pulled to the curb behind another car in the shade of a big oak, where he could see any other vehicles leaving the station parking lot.

  He offered a mental apology to the good citizens of Fort Halleck. Rather than sticking to the city limits and following his patrol route, being prepared to protect and defend those citizens, he intended to follow Officers Horner and Wheeler. He was a lot more interested in finding out just what the sheriff wanted them to do today than he was in ticketing speeders.

  *****

  Relieved that Alita’s limp was scarcely noticeable this morning, Linette led another yearling into the plywood-enclosed arena Jed deemed to be safe. She’d be an idiot to argue about the limitations he’d set in place, but that didn’t mean she didn’t chafe at them.

  The trouble was, her chores in the barn took only a small slice of her typical day, relatively speaking. Usually she spent as many hours as possible on horseback, working the horses on lead changes, staying straight and collected, lateral control, stops…and any particular issues each animal might have. She took longer to achieve outward results than some trainers, because her goal was to ensure that her horses never felt defensive or threatened. Linette aimed for calmness and trust. That was why she had the reputation she did as trainer.

  Last year, for the first time since moving out west, she’d taken on some horses to work with on a temporary basis. The money had been a help, but this year she’d been saying no to callers. She had so many young horses of her own needing attention. She could only be grateful right now that she didn’t have responsibility for anyone else’s animals. Gee, a silver lining.

  Having Jed in her life again might be another one. With her trust issues, she wasn’t sure yet.

  She couldn’t even make herself look at the chart on the wall in the tack room tracking each horse’s progress and what needed doing next. She had lost almost two weeks now, which wasn’t a lot – but already she knew she’d see backsliding with the younger horses especially.

  She looked around at the high plywood walls and couldn’t decide if she felt safe…or penned in.

  At her signal, Luis Alfonso circled widely around her on his lead. He was a true dun, his black markings distinct against his lighter coat. He moved well, stayed responsive when she asked him to trot, canter, walk, change directions.

  She was the one to become distracted when she heard an odd coughing sound. Was that one of the horses? Or had Ken inhaled something awful? She didn’t hear anything else, but with her focus lost, she drew in the dun colt and led him to the gate. They’d done enough for today.

  Just before turning him out to pasture, she removed the halter. He tossed his head hard, sending his mane flying, and trotted away. For a moment she continued to watch, enjoying his springy steps.

  After closing gates, Linette walked down the wide aisle of the barn. Alita snorted and stamped in her stall, and a sparrow darted from above out the open doors. The barn was otherwise quieter than usual. Admittedly, she’d yet to hear Ken singing, talking to a horse, dropping something and swearing… It wasn’t late enough for him to have taken a lunch break, was it?

  Linette glanced into stalls, but hadn’t yet reached the tack room when she heard a footfall behind her. Unnerved, she started to spin – but a muscular arm clamped around her body just above her breasts.

  “Hello, Linnie,” Theo said. “Been waiting for yo
u. Are you glad to see me?”

  Through the terror, she asked, “What are you doing here?”

  He pressed the sharp tip of a knife into the side of her neck hard enough that she felt a sting…and what she thought might be a trickle of warm blood.

  “Have to teach you a lesson.”

  *****

  Once they left town, Niall let an increasing distance open between him and the police car ahead. The country roads were too damn empty, running straight for miles on end. He caught only occasional glimpses of his quarry, not much more than ant-size, but believed he’d know pretty quickly when they turned off. Since he already suspected their destination, he didn’t really need to see them anyway, and his route on the GPS confirmed it. They were heading for Chief Harrison Seward’s ranch.

  His suspicion, of course, was that they and perhaps any working hands here today were going to move stolen cattle. That was smart of Seward in one way. He had to be worried that one of the men who’d been arrested would roll on him. He knew about the regular air patrols at night. Livestock trailers or trucks would be more visible during the day, but his land was near the county line. Some of the smaller ranchers around him would be occupied with their day jobs. Others, if they even noticed cattle being moved, wouldn’t think a thing about it. Hey, he was the long-time, trusted police chief of the county’s largest city, and any rancher sent some animals to market now and again.

  A prickle on the back of his neck had Niall snatching quick looks at his rearview mirror. What if the two officers ahead of him weren’t the only ones Seward had sent? If they closed in on him, he could be in deep shit.

  Should have brought backup.

  He still didn’t know what was going to happen – but this would be a smart time to call Jed.