by D C Young
He was right, it was still dark but then again it was just about 4:40 a.m.
I see better in the dark than you know, mister.
“No trouble at all,” I replied. “Pretty much exactly where the GPS said it would be.”
He laughed at the comment. It was exactly what he’d told me the night before when he’d called to give me the address.
“Sure enough. Well, I hope you wore some comfortable shoes, Miss Sam. The boys are saddling up the horses right now to take us out on the route they used to move that herd over to Blue Corn a couple weeks ago.”
“The trip the cows went missing on…”
“Yup.”
I nodded and lifted the cuff of my jeans to show off my brand new pair of athletic shoes. I hadn’t been confident in buying boots and Kingsley had pointed out that really good riding boots would need breaking in which might actually be a rather uncomfortable experience. Tennis shoes on the other hand… not so much.
Earnest nodded his approval and ushered me into the house. There was a huge open space down the center of the house which resembled a hall… I think they call them great rooms in this type of architecture. At one end, just before it opened up onto a huge back porch, there was a long table with benches down each side. It was covered with chafing pans and platters of all kinds of food. There were jugs of water and juices, carafes of coffee and hot water and a pile of plates, bowls, cups and cutlery.
“Did you have a chance to eat?”
“As a matter of fact I did, Earnie. I’ll be fine with just some water for the ride.”
“Certainly. We’ll have water and such in our saddlebags for the trip of course.”
Earnest must have seen the confused look on my face because he offered an explanation for the buffet immediately.
“We have about thirty grown men working on the ranch daily, Miss Sam. Their days start at four in the morning and don’t end sometimes till seven or eight at night. We make sure they eat well and this is the most efficient way the ranch cooks can do it since the cowboys don’t always get to sit down all at once.”
“I see. That’s makes so much sense.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” he said smiling. “The cooks have breakfast out from four to eight, lunch from noon to two and dinner from six to eight.”
“Sounds efficient.”
“It is.”
I grabbed an apple from a basket as we walked past the table towards the back porch.
“Alright then, come on Miss Sam, the boys are waiting at the stable.”
A short ride down a dirt trail on-board a John Deere Gator got us over to the ranch’s stables where six strapping men were already busy buckling saddles tight around their horse’s bellies and adjusting stirrups and other tack.
I’d confess to anyone, any day that my knowledge about farms and horses and horse riding were rather limited but I wouldn’t be admitting it to these guys unless it was absolutely necessary. I mean, I’d ridden a horse once or twice, and I more or less knew my way around one, but I was far from an expert on the matter. I just didn’t want them to be more worried about my ability to handle myself on the ride than they were about telling me every little detail they remembered from that night in the stockade.
“Good morning, boss,” a cowboy in a crisp blue shirt said walking up to shake Earnie’s hand.
“Good morning, Randal. This is Miss Samantha Moon. She’ll be joining us on the ride this morning.” The man had a skeptical look on his face. I wasn’t offended; I’d expected to get some of those. “Insurance… you know. It’s important she come along with us to inspect the stockade fences.”
Randal’s doubtful expression changed into one of slight contempt; the kind everybody has for insurance adjusters.
“Well then, in that case, I hope we don’t find too much amiss on this ride. Sure as hell don’t need any more problems with this whole missing cow business. We all feel bad enough as it is. Don’t we boys?”
There was a mumble among the men as they agreed to what Randal was saying. I instantly wished that Earnie hadn’t blindsided me with trying to pass me off as an insurance adjuster but I decided to play along with it. He must have had his reasons for not wanting the cowboys to know I was looking into the disappearance of the cattle.
As I was deep in thought, Earnie walked up to me leading two horses that were saddled and ready to go.
“You’ll be riding Sheila. She’s a good one and knows the stockade trail like the back of her hoof.”
I smiled and took the reins from his hand, careful not to touch him with my cold skin. Before he could suggest the mounting block, I put my left foot in the stirrup and launched my right leg over Sheila’s back. Earnie looked impressed but he didn’t say a word as he mounted his own horse and started towards an open field at the side of the stable. I pressed my heels into the horse’s sides and she followed suit.
When we got to the entrance of the stockade I was taken aback by the structure and its operation. First, we entered a corral through an eight-foot-tall chain link gate which was some sort of staging area for the herd. The various animals selected for the move would be brought up from the fields or pens and placed into the corral. Second, we moved through a second pair of gates into the main run. When the entire herd had been assembled in the corral, then the cowboys would open the second gate which led into the stockade run.
It was very organized and secure since two gates were never open at the same time and as soon as all the cows had been herded through into the stockade run, the gates to Silver Creek ranch were closed behind them just as they were at the moment we started off down the trail.
In front of us a corridor of land, about forty feet wide, rolled over the hills and valleys that separated Silver Creek from Blue Corn. As I looked out at the endless run of chain link fence that disappeared over the horizon, I was even more puzzled than I had been the moment Earnie had told me about the mysterious disappearance.
How the hell did someone snag these cows from under the noses of six bright and experienced cowboys while being moved through such a seemingly secure section of land?
Chapter Nine
There wasn’t much to see on the ride between Silver Creek Ranch and Blue Corn Ranch, just miles and miles of grazing land and fence stretching out in front of us in an unending landscape. It was beautiful out there though. The sun shone on the green fields as the grass swayed from side to side in the wind. Dew drops on the plants glittered like jewels in the bright sun which wasn’t quite warm enough yet to turn them to vapor.
Around me, the cowboys chattered endlessly about this and that. From their discussions I noted a few key things; for one, the co-op was a busy place to work but they all enjoyed their jobs and two, when they were riding the stockade none of them paid very close attention to their surroundings. They’d probably been through there a thousand times before… they were also not seasoned investigators with a mystery to solve… so they were taking it all for granted.
“Hey, Earnie!” I called over my shoulder.
“Yes, Miss Sam?” he replied as he rode up beside me.
“Are there any gates in these fences? Any places where the cowboys can lead the cattle out into the surrounding grazing land that we’re currently passing through?”
“No. Why would there be?”
I gave him a questioning look. Earnie was a perceptive man and he reacted immediately to the expression on my face. “It would be too dangerous to have any openings in the stockade, Miss Sam. It’s a safeguard against the very thing we’re going through now. That’s why I needed an ace investigator like you because as far as I’m concerned, these fellas let someone pick my prize cows up, lift them over four foot of fence and drive off with them into the night. I haven’t let it show, but I’m pissed as all hell about this whole predicament we’re in. That’s mostly because it shouldn’t a happened in the first place.”
I understood exactly what he was feeling. He was confused and angry all at the same time but his
position as an owner in the ranching co-op meant he couldn’t let any of that show on his face until the mystery was solved. He couldn’t cast any suspicion on any of the cowboys and wouldn’t point a finger until the facts were in.
Being the boss can really suck sometimes.
In an instant, my admiration for the man grew leaps and bounds. I tipped my hat at him and pressed my heels into the horse’s belly. She trotted up to where the two lead cowboys were riding in the front of the group and elegantly made her way in between their mounts… exactly where I wanted to be.
***
Two hours later, I could see the rooftop of the buildings at Blue Corn ranch peeping over the top of the hill it was built on. Just like at Silver Creek, the main house stood tall; looking out over the surrounding grazing land in all directions.
“We made good time,” I said to one of the men glancing at my watch.
“Yup! Sure did. It’s a lot slower when you’re moving the cattle though. Usually, that ride takes the better part of eighteen hours.”
I raised an eyebrow and the cowboy laughed out loud.
“You ever seen a cow sitting out in the field under a shade tree chewing the cud, Miss Moon?”
“I’m a city girl, cowboy. I can’t say that I have.”
He laughed again. “There’s no rushing a cow, Miss Moon. They’ll walk at their own pace and lay down and not move a muscle if they want to. When we’re moving a herd that’s six hundred head strong, you’re dealing with a whole lot of stubborn. We gotta take a steady smooth pace or they’ll just quit on ya, park it and not move again till the morning.”
“I understand.”
We rode up to the stable behind the main house and dismounted at a hitching post at the edge of the yard. Randal jumped from his horse, reins in hand and was standing waiting for me to hand him Sheila’s reins. I dropped them into his hand and he held her steady and tied her up securely as I vaulted from her back and landed safely on the ground.
“Steady there, cowgirl!” I heard Earnie say behind me. When I turned around he was watching my rear end with a smirk of amusement on his face.
Maybe you should cool it down, cowboy! We won’t be having any of that!
“Let’s get on up to the big house,” he said soberly. “Greg and Fred are chomping at the bit to meet you.”
“I assume they’re about as antsy as you are to find out what’s been going on around here then?”
“More, I think.”
I took that as a sign to hurry up and keep my pace matched to his as we walked up to the two-story building. I was both excited and hesitant about meeting Greg Collins and Fred Santino; the other co-op owners. Until that moment, they had pretty much remained shrouded in mystery and to my investigator’s mind that meant they were both suspects.
Until I eliminate that possibility of course…
Hell, as far as I was concerned, Earnie and every cowboy at Silver Creek were still on that list too despite me not finding anything suspicious in their energies or the way they relayed their stories about the night of the theft to me. What did concern me was the consistency of that story
Almost rehearsed…
It was as if someone had subconsciously fed them a script which they recited in their own words over and over again.
Weird… but as I always say, my life is weird.
“Miss Sam,” Earnie said as we approached two men who were standing up from Adirondack style chairs on the wide wooden front porch of the ranch house. “This is Greg Collins, owner of Blue Corn Ranch and Fred Santino of Hermosa Ranch. They’re my partners in the Silver Blue Hermosa Ranching Co-operative and my best friends this side of the Mississippi River.”
I extended my hand to shake theirs without taking my gloves off. It was still quite chilly and I feigned being cold which they seemed to think nothing of.
“A lot colder up here than it gets in the sunny south, isn’t it?” Fred said, shaking my hand vigorously. “I’m from San Diego myself. The weather in the valley took a little getting used to but now that I’m pretty much settled into it, I find the range in temperature a whole lot more tolerable than the heat down there.”
I smiled. “I love the warmth.” I turned slightly and took Greg Collin’s hand. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Collins.”
“The pleasure is all mine, Miss Moon.”
As the men invited us to sit with them a pleasant woman in a blue plaid shirt and khakis came out to ask if we wanted a drink. A round of sweet tea was requested to which she nodded, turned and left.
“I notice the plaid shirts are a theme on the ranches,” I said sitting down in one of the relaxing chairs.
“Yes. They’re easy to take care of, great for the weather and stand up to the work load,” Earnie offered. “We wear red at Silver Creek, blue here at Blue Corn and over at Fred’s place, Hermosa, it’s green.”
“I like it,” I responded.
The three men beamed at my simple approval.
As they relaxed with the light conversation, I decided to take a look onto their psychic energies. The dark tendrils of doubt that I had seen on Earnie at our first meeting were gone, and both Fred and Greg seemed to wear the same pretty blue aura that Earnie did. It was rather tranquil being in their presence.
No threat here, Sam. These men are clearly the target of something more sinister than your regular every day inside job.
***
That night, I sat at one of the tables at supper sharing a bench with Earnie and Randal with Fred and Greg seated across from us. The food was very local and featured a lot of red meat served quite rare.
My favorite…
After dinner the cowboys hung out around the common room playing games and music until about ten o’ clock but soon after that, everyone began to disperse to their rooms for the night. I followed suit but as soon as I was sure everyone on the compound was sound asleep, I slipped out to the corral and headed to the edge of the hill the house sat on. I closed my eyes for a moment and felt the cold wind coming up from the valley. It was cleansing and carried the smell of sweet grass from the pasture below I took a deep breath and several steps back. Then I ran and launched myself off the edge and into the valley below. In a second, I was soaring over the floor of the ravine in my bat form, swooping from side to side as I headed out towards the stockade we had ridden through from Silver Creek.
I flew low over the corridor searching hard for any sign of disturbance along the fences I may have missed on the ride over to Blue Corn and about ten miles out from the ranch, I spotted exactly what I had been looking for. It was a wide patch of trampled grassland leading away from a fifteen foot section in the fence. I swooped down for a closer look.
When I perched on the fence, it was easy to see where a blowtorch had been taken to the metal bars that ran along the top of the chain link fence.
Well, hello!
From the looks of it, someone had cut an entire section out of the fence to remove the animals, welded it back together again so no one would notice, and then herded the cows away along the trampled section of grazing land. Over the past week since the incident, the grass had recovered wonderfully but my night vision had picked up on the disturbance in the soil easily.
I looked out over the field and shook my head from side to side.
Who could have done this? And how?
They had somehow managed to pull off the heist right under the nose of six seasoned cowboys who I was now convinced were in on the theft. There was no way they weren’t involved.
Or was there? We’d surely be finding that out soon enough! Otherwise, it would mean I failed to solve the case.
I took flight again and headed out over the grass following the trail that had been left behind by the thieves and the co-op’s missing cows.
Chapter Ten
Bill saw the black car pull out of the garage. He stopped on his way to the ranch manager’s quarters, to watch his boss turn the car and start on down the driveway. She stopped and lowered the window to w
ave and call out to him.
“I’ll see you in the morning.”
“You bet,” he responded with a wave. He watched the car until it came to the end of the driveway, turned onto the road that passed in front of the ranch and then rumbled to life with a deep roar. Juanita didn’t spare the horses from the sound as she accelerated away from the ranch. Bill shook his head. “Damn.”
The Porsche matched her personality and flare.
If she doesn’t keep it under control on that sharp curve near the mouth of Spring Gulch, they’d be picking up pieces of her and that damn car all up and down the valley.
The Porsche was dangerous, but probably not nearly as dangerous as the woman behind the wheel. She was precarious in so many different ways that Bill wasn’t sure where to start whenever he considered it. The image of her curves in that red dress she was wearing and the feel and scent of her were as good of a beginning point as any. It was an image that hadn’t quickly left his head and he strolled toward the small, two-bedroom house that served as his living quarters on Caldera Ranch. It wasn’t the first time his mind had started down that path. He’d wandered off the straight and narrow from the very first time he’d met her.
As he turned the doorknob and stepped into the Ranch Manager’s house, the memory was as clear to him as it had been three years before. He settled into a chair in the kitchen and leaned his elbows on the table and allowed the image to come up in his mind.
The first thing he saw was a pair of large dark eyes, which made him sit up straight and try to clear the fog from his alcohol-saturated brain. Once he’d gotten past the eyes, the straight white teeth surrounded by a pair of full, red lips piqued his interest even further. He nearly sobered up entirely as his eyes traveled further downward. He’d gotten all the way to her feet when it finally dawned on him that she was speaking to him.
“Is this seat taken?” the dark-eyed beauty had asked.
“It is now,” he’d responded looking up at her with the broadest grin he could get to fit on his lips.
