Vetted

by K'Anne Meinel

  The woman handed her a business card and Fiona tucked it away with her cell phone as she returned it to her pocket.

  “Well, it looks like branding is going on around here,” Officer Seiling concluded.

  Allyssa resisted the urge to say, “Duh, ya think?”

  “The tracks of the vehicle in our yard are the same as these,” Fiona pointed out.

  “We’ll look at that,” he promised.

  “I’d like copies of those pictures too,” Sheriff Bradley put in. When he had a moment alone with Fiona he asked, “Why didn’t you call my office first?”

  Fiona explained about the attitude of his officer who had come out the first time.

  “I’ll look at that and this,” he promised, gesturing to the signs around them and seeming sincere. He handed her a business card with his personal cell phone number written on it.

  “I want to bring some people out here?” Cecily Fremont asked the two women’s permission. “If they are doing what you say with the mustangs that’s a federal offense, and I want to catch them in the act. I’ll need a few agents.”

  “Bring what you need, but for God’s sake catch them!” Fiona said angrily, giving permission.

  “Looks like we are going to have a joint effort here,” Officer Seiling said optimistically. “I’m sure these people have done this for a while and are just looking for us to notice. We’ll have to go about this carefully.”

  “Well, they knew I was inquiring about the brands earlier,” Fiona told them and went on to explain about the confrontation.

  “That’s not a safe situation,” the officer advised, not pleased that she had pulled a gun on someone, but he understood, he absolutely did. “Your work requires you to go out there,” he waved at the beautifully scenery that encompassed them, “and they probably thought you were vulnerable. I wouldn’t, however, advise you to do it again.”

  Fiona nodded, but they all knew she would if she had to. The officers all took notes, compared them, and then decided to get back to civilization and get the wheels rolling. The sheriff intended to start stopping trucks that were carrying livestock in this area, looking for their paperwork. The trooper and the land management officer were going to send men and women out here to camp out and watch for activity in hopes of catching them in the act.

  “Can’t you trace where the horses went and stop the people from killing them?” Allyssa asked, feeling bad for the horses she had seen. They may have been poorly or skinny from living on the plains, but they didn’t deserve to become dog food.

  “There is no way to trace where they went with them, ma’am,” Officer Seiling explained kindly. “If we find where they went and we can bring them back, we will.” He didn’t mention the likelihood of that was slim.

  Dropping Allyssa and Fiona back at their ranch, the officers left to get ready. The two women spent the afternoon cleaning up the cabin, careful to wear leather gloves when picking up the shards of glass they stacked in boxes to dispose of in town. Allyssa called the insurance agent and arranged to send pictures of the devastation from her phone. Fortunately, Fiona had been so proud of the cases she had taken many pictures of them before, so they could send both to prove their value. Many of the medical supplies could have gone back on the shelves after they were cleaned and dusted off, but the shelves themselves had been busted. The sound of shattering glass must have given these guys real pleasure. Allyssa found a glass replacement place in the next town and they agreed to send someone out to measure and replace them all for a fee.

  “But it won’t be like the original or catch the light like the other glass,” she lamented sadly, sure that the beautiful glass couldn’t be replaced.

  “Still, they didn’t damage the cabinets themselves, only the glass,” Fiona pointed out. “We’re going to need a new computer though.” She had seen Allyssa try to get the other one working, but it was hanging by only one hinge.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  There was a lot of traffic on the road that wound through the ranch these days. Fiona and Allyssa ignored it as they tried to let their life return to normal, but it was impossible as they were anxious for these people to be caught. During the week the state police and land management people were out there, they heard nothing about a capture, an arrest, or any other progress; it was quite frustrating.

  In the meantime, Fiona replaced Allyssa’s laptop and a computer guru transferred the data from the hard drive to the new computer, so nothing was missing. He also showed them how to back it all up on another portable drive that could be locked up separately.

  Much to the delighted surprise of Allyssa, their insurance company agreed to pay on their claim. They had receipts for the glass, which had turned out amazingly similar to what had been in the cabinets before, the guy treating it as a challenge to match the pictures they had of the original lead-like glass with the beveled edges. The glass for the shelves was easy and after extensive measuring, he returned a week later with the replacements for both the fronts and inside, using a vacuum to get the last small pieces from inside nooks and crannies. He did such a good job that Allyssa was pleased to write him a check for his work.

  The mattress was as good as the old one, but some of her childhood memories and clothes couldn’t be replaced after the vandals had gone through the boxes and thrown them about. They decided to make a trip together, but only when the men delivering the house walls were on the ranch. They didn’t want to leave the ranch alone while the men were still out there stealing cattle and horses.

  * * * * *

  The delivery of the pre-fabricated walls was exciting. The big truck that brought them had a crane attached to the bed and lowered the walls directly where the builder wanted them placed. It was fascinating to watch, and Allyssa found herself snapping pictures on her own cell phone for Fiona to look at later. She’d resumed work immediately, spreading the news about rustlers in the area; however, she didn’t mention the state police, the sheriff, or the Bureau of Land Management. Gossip traveled faster than wild fire, and whoever the men were, they ceased operations. Meanwhile, Fiona and Allyssa’s house was going up.

  Wall by wall, room by room, it began to take shape. Details would be added later, but for now they were securing the walls to each other and building the two-story farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than the old house, the rooms a more logical size than the narrow, smaller rooms that had been in the original. Each room had a function and Allyssa and Fiona walked around the site in the evenings after everyone had gone, amazed at what they were seeing.

  “I can’t believe this is going to be ours,” Allyssa commented.

  Holding her from behind, Fiona looked over her shoulder, but just barely as she had to stand on her toes. “Not only is it ours, but we are going to raise a family here,” she promised.

  “Someday,” Allyssa agreed, wondering when that would be. She’d turned twenty-one out here and the day had passed just like any other—with hard work and not a lot of fanfare. Still, Fiona had made it special by bringing her a cake and candles, a very sweet and sentimental card, and a llama.

  “A llama?” she asked, incredulous, as she watched her wife unload it from the horse trailer.

  “Not everyone can own a llama,” Fiona told her logically. “They are very regal creatures.”

  “So, does that make me a llama mama?” she teased, wondering what in the world one did with a llama.

  “Only if you want to be.” She’d been unable to collect from one rancher and this very pregnant llama was now theirs in forfeit of his outstanding bill. “This is a pedigreed llama,” she mentioned, “and she’s gonna be the llama mama soon,” she said as she carefully petted the neck of the snooty creature.

  “Reminds me of a Push Me Pull You,” Allyssa commented, laughing at the beautiful creature. Its eyes looked like velvet and its eyelashes would make any woman jealous.

  “A what?”

  “You know, from Doctor Doolittle?”

  Shaking her head to confirm she h
ad no idea what her wife was talking about, she frowned as she led the llama to the corral, wondering if she dared put it in with the horses. Both animals could kick, and since the baby was valuable she determined it was going in another corral and then the barn at night. “That movie with Eddie Murphy?” she asked, horrified at the comparison and still not understanding the reference. She didn’t recall a llama in that movie.

  “You’ve never seen the original Doctor Doolittle?”

  “There’s more than one?”

  Allyssa laughed, not only at the elegant animal her wife had brought her, but that she didn’t know about the movie. “Yes, the original with that actor Harrison something.”

  “Harrison Ford?” she was still confused.

  “No, I think Rex Harrison was his name.” At his name, the dog looked up, trying to figure out this new animal they had brought for him to smell and chase, and who eyed him suspiciously. “I will try to find you a copy.”

  “Okay?” she left it at that, not understanding at all.

  Their new ‘pet’ soon adapted to its corral, looking off to the mountains as though it were eager to travel to them. Fiona explained they could take their new acquisition on hikes into the mountains, carrying gear to camp out.

  “Why wouldn’t we take the horses or ATVs?” she asked, as obtuse about the camping idea as her wife had been about the movie.

  Still, the animal was interesting to watch. It could spit when angry—Rex learned that. Its long legs allowed it to move quickly and its stamping indicated its eminent anger. Rex learned to run as it wasn’t about to put up with any of his foolishness. Allyssa tried to make friends with her. The llama let her pet her neck and back, but wouldn’t allow anyone to touch her face or ears, being sensitive about that.

  “When its crias come, you’ll see the cutest little babies,” Fiona told her.

  “Cria?”

  “That’s what a baby llama is called.”

  “And then I’ll have a llama mama,” she said with glee over the funny phrase.

  Fiona shook her head at her wife’s humor and eagerly anticipated the crias’ arrival. She intended to sell both to recoup the monies they had paid out to treat the rancher’s other animals.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Allyssa and Fiona rode out one day on the doctor’s only day off in weeks. They were just looking to find some time alone together away from the phones and the computer, and away from the noise of their house going up. The day didn’t turn out quite as they expected.

  They had brought food, the dog, sleeping bags, guns, all of it ‘just in case’ as they were out on the range and things happened. They came across what was obviously several people herding horses. They were tightly bunched and moving quickly or so the tracks indicated. Fiona sped up as soon as she read the signs.

  “Maybe you should hang back,” she advised Allyssa, worriedly.

  “Maybe you should stop worrying about me,” she answered astutely, “and let me help you. Just tell me what to do.”

  Fiona smiled at her wife as they continued to follow the tracks. They found a couple of big rig tractor-trailers with gates and fences, and horses being herded into them. It was obviously another herd of wild mustangs. Cowboys on ATVs and horses were harrying the hapless horses they had captured.

  Furious, Fiona rode close and then veered up into the trees before they could be seen. Turning to her wife, she advised, “Shoot out the front tires of the truck first.” Dismounting, not sure the horse would stand if she started shooting, she pulled her gun from the boot and tied off her horse to a nearby pine. Without looking back at her wife to see if she was following, she crept up and started shooting at the tires until she heard the satisfying thudump and then saw she had scored a hit. A moment later, she heard her wife’s .22 shooting ineffectively at the other tires of the other rig. “We have to get closer,” she said and saw the shotgun was on a sling over her wife’s shoulder.

  The scene was immediate chaos as the rustlers dove for any cover they could find, mostly behind the big rigs, which they soon realized were under fire. The horses, already freaked out at their capture and the boxes they were being forced into, began to bolt. Fences came down as the horses pushed against them. Eventually, the horses collapsed them, trampling anything and anyone in their path to escape.

  When Fiona saw that both trucks had hits in several tires, she turned her rifle on the ATVs, scoring several hits before she began to hear the return gunfire. Worried about Allyssa being hit, she began to retreat under the cover of the trees on the knoll. “Come on,” she ordered her wife, who had continued to fire. She grabbed an excited Rex who had joined them, unsure what to do. She started loading her gun back up as she walked quickly, Allyssa copying her actions with her own.

  “Now, what?” Allyssa asked when they arrived back at the horses, chests heaving from their exertions. Allyssa was excited and nervous all at once. She wasn’t sure she had hit anything, but she was impressed with how accurate and commanding her wife had been.

  “Now, we get the hell gone and call in the troops,” she quipped as she anticipated calling the state police, the sheriff, whom she now trusted, and the Bureau of Land Management.

  They quickly mounted up, glancing down at the chaos they had caused and slipping away over another hill.

  “We have to ride hard, so they don’t find us. We didn’t get all of their ATVs and I’m sure their trucks are around...” she had just started saying when she spotted where they had parked their trucks with ramps for the ATVs. “Come on,” she encouraged her wife and then tied off her horse again as she dismounted. Loading up her rifle as she walked along and waited for her wife to catch up, she quipped, “Target practice.” As soon as they got close enough, she aimed for the tires on every one of the five vehicles parked in this little valley, hidden out of sight. They flattened the tires not only on their trucks and SUVs, but on the trailers that two of them were sporting. To be on the safe side and to give her experience, Fiona talked Allyssa into shooting her shotgun into the front of each of the vehicles, destroying their radiators and perhaps more. As they were finishing up, they heard shouts and quickly ran back to their horses, mounted up, and rode rapidly away.

  “That’s going to piss someone off,” Fiona said as they took turns galloping and then pulling back to a more sedate pace to rest their horses and allow Rex to keep up. They were all hot and sweaty by the time the ranch yard came into sight.

  “I’ll take care of the horses,” Allyssa offered. “You go make your calls.”

  Fiona nodded, heading for the cabin, which they now kept locked. Not that it would do any good against a determined person who wanted to make a mess, but they had learned not to make it so easy. She ignored the call of their builder as he hailed her. She hurried up the steps to unlock the door and get to the phone.

  Allyssa removed the sweaty saddles and hung out the saddle blankets. She immediately started brushing one of them, wondering if she should take the garden hose to their sweaty backs, but unsure if that would cause them to get cold. The water from their spring house was icy. She saw that Rex was drinking from a water trough, the llama eyeing him suspiciously.

  By the time she had rubbed down both horses, Fiona returned. She loaded both rifles and the shotgun fully. At Allyssa’s inquiring look she commented, “Just in case.”

  Allyssa knew that whoever was out there stealing the horses and probably doctoring cattle brands was going to be pissed. No one had seen Toby Colbert since he had signed the contract with them to use their ranch for grazing cattle. Neither of them doubted that he knew exactly what was going on or was involved in some way.

  It took a couple hours before the sheriff and his deputies arrived. Later, the state police and their deputies arrived. Fiona had gone with the sheriff, so Allyssa directed the state police to where they could go along the dirt road before turning off. Fiona had promised to flag the turn off for anyone following. Later…much later, Agent Cecily Fremont and a couple of her people a
rrived and were also directed down the road. Allyssa didn’t dare leave the ranch yard. She’d answered the builder’s few questions, but hadn’t told him what was going on, figuring it was none of his business. He and his men couldn’t fail to see the sheriff, the deputies, the state police, and the Bureau of Land Management vehicles arrive and then go off, so they had to be wondering.

  They only captured four of the men involved in that day’s incident and two of them were the big rig truck drivers. The drivers were already asking for court-appointed lawyers and threatening to sue the ranchers, Fiona and Allyssa, for damage to their vehicles. Where the others had disappeared to, no one knew, but Fiona was sure they had horses and were hoofing it somewhere to hide. She had no doubt in her mind there would be repercussions of the violent kind. They had already shown that they meant business by trashing the cabin, so she was going to be prepared. The sheriff arranged to have all the vehicles towed off her land and the tow truck drivers were warned to bring either flatbeds or plenty of tires. The two big rigs required industrial tow trucks and those had to come from further away. Two big rigs came in to unhitch the big rigs’ trailers and haul them off the range.

  “I’d like to make a claim for those,” Fiona put in about the trailers on the backs of the trucks, the SUVs, and the ATVs that were left abandoned, “as they were found on my land...” she added with a grin. She thought they could use the trailers on her own ranch and was certain her wife and the internet could get those ATVs fixed.

  The sheriff told her how to fill out the paperwork to put in a claim, grinning broadly at her audacity. They hadn’t been able to arrest the men for anything but trespassing and even that would be weak. Only Allyssa and Fiona had seen them loading the horses, and it would be their word against the thieves’. It was up to the district attorney’s office to determine how strong a case they had. The damage to their equipment and vehicles might weigh against the doctor and her wife.