Thirteen #5
young. I would not want harm to come to them on the long trip to my ranch.”
Cole studied the man with appreciation of his concern. He didn’t look like a person who would care about animals, but obviously
he did. Cole called his foreman and told him to have the veterinarian do a quick examination of the young bulls and not let
Raines see him do it if the man came back before the exam was finished.
While this was going on, Sheriff Dunn Marlowe drove up at the stables where the conversation was going on.
As he joined Cole and the visiting cattlemen, his face suddenly hardened. His dark eyes glittered as he stared at Velasquez.
“We have a problem,” Velasquez told him suddenly before he could make a comment.
“What sort of problem?” Marlowe asked.
“Something is suspicious about the small lot of purebred bulls I just sold this man,” Cole told him. “He wants our vet to have a look at them before he takes them off the property. He thinks his employee may have some shady business going on that concerns them.”
“What sort of shady business?” Marlowe asked, his eyes burning a hole in Velasquez’s face.
Velasquez turned to him. “You know that mules very often send drugs across the border inside all sorts of vehicles.”
“Of course,” Marlowe said, surprised.
“This has also been done inside the stomach of animals.” His face hardened. “If someone has done this to my young bulls, there
will be consequences,” he added icily.
Marlowe was surprised at the other man’s heated reply. He knew Velasquez. He owed the man a debt that he wanted to pay in
blood. It was all he could do to stand next to him without throttling him. Velasquez’s concern for the animals was unexpected.
Very unexpected. It infuriated him that he couldn’t just arrest Velasquez and take him into the jail. But Velasquez had not
done anything in the United States that would stand up to an arrest. In fact, he had no record at all, not in this country.
Velasquez could see the hatred in the other man’s face. He knew why it was there and he wished with all his heart that he
had time and the opportunity to apologize and explain. But he knew the other man would not accept any apology from him and
that he would not understand any explanation. They were rivals in a business that did credit to neither of them. He had caused
this man untold agony. The man wanted to do the same to him. He couldn’t know that there had been plots within plots that
led to Marlowe’s tragedy, preceded by that of Velasquez. It would have been a comedy of errors except for the horrible mistakes
that had been made.
At the moment, of course, there was no opportunity for anything except the business they were involved in.
While they were sharing information, the vet came around the side of the corral and joined them, his hands deep in the pockets of his jeans. His face was furious.
“We have a problem,” the vet said.
“Well?” Cole asked.
The vet said quietly, “Each of them has several plastic bags full of narcotics, or at least they look like narcotics, in their
stomachs. And what a good thing you did by having an X-ray machine added to your operation.”
“Oh, my God,” Cole said, furious. “What, were they put into them surgically?”
“I don’t believe so,” the vet replied. “I think they were forced to swallow them.”
“Any idea what sort of drugs?” Cole asked.
The vet gave him a droll look. “I’m not psychic. I’ll need to get them out first. Something to induce diarrhea, then something
to stop it just as quickly, so that they don’t get dehydrated. Damndest thing I’ve ever seen,” he added, shaking his head.
“Drugs,” Velasquez, who had listened quietly, said coldly. “In the stomachs of babies!”
Cole wondered at the expression on Marlowe’s face because it was an amalgamation of anger and surprise and astonishment and
curiosity all at once. “You can remove the drugs?” Velasquez asked the vet.
“Yes, of course,” the vet said, “although I can’t do it immediately, but I have a big stable and several corrals. I can board
them and they’ll be safe.”
“That can be managed,” Velasquez said. “I will tell my man that I want them picked up several days from now. Will that give
you enough time to remove the drugs?”
“Well, yes. But what will we do with the drugs?” the vet asked.
“Turn them over to your sheriff, of course,” Velasquez said without hesitation.
The look on Marlowe’s face as he said it was a study in astonishment.
“Raines must have planned to transport the drugs this way,” Velasquez said aloud.
Silently, he was furious. Raines had obviously planned to steal the drugs by concealing them in the young bulls and driving them right down to Velasquez’s ranch—except that probably the bulls wouldn’t make it that far.
Raines would have his small fortune in stolen drugs, and the bulls would be collateral damage.
He’d have carved up the young animals to retrieve his drugs with no one the wiser.
He’d have some cock and bull story ready for Velasquez, too, no doubt.
Velasquez was already aware of the coming double cross, and this idiocy of Raines only emphasized what a stupid man the mule really was.
Velasquez was outraged at what had been done to injure small animals in that manner. It was unconscionable. He treated his
animals well, especially his bulls. This made him very angry and it was obvious to everyone around him.
“Shouldn’t we turn the man in to the sheriff?” Cole asked.
“Can I speak to you for a moment?” Josie asked, smiling as she took the sheriff’s big, calloused hand in hers.
He was rattled enough by Velasquez’s suggestion that he went without a protest. Velasquez was amused and impressed by her
intervention; he hadn’t expected it.
He might have changed his opinion if he knew what she was saying to the sheriff. “Listen,” she said, “you can’t arrest Raines.
He knows who the big guy is and when the shipments are going out. I need him. Without him, I can’t get my hands on the shipment
that’s coming through, the big shipment. This is not it, this little stash of drugs in the calves, although I have to admit
Raines had me keeping an eye on them and I didn’t know why. I feel very stupid.”
“You’re not the only one who’s confused here,” Marlowe replied. “But what do you mean about the main man?” he added because
surely, she knew who Velasquez was.
“The big guy,” she said, “the drug lord, the main man who’s moving this product around from Mexico to the United States. I’m not sure which of two drug lords it is, and I can’t find him without Raines. I can’t find the shipment without Raines. You can’t arrest him. Not now.”
Josie’s exasperated expression fascinated him. He couldn’t believe that she didn’t know who Velasquez was, but now he had
a bigger problem. She’d said there were two big drug lords. This was news, and not good news. It was obvious, very obvious,
that she had no idea who the man was with whom she’d been so friendly the night before at the bar. He himself hadn’t been
there, but he’d heard about it from a contact of his. She and Velasquez had spoken as if they knew each other and had known
each other for many years. But he was fairly certain that she hadn’t. And then he remembered that strange sixth sense of hers
that seemed to kick in at odd times. If she sensed something good about Velasquez, it was news to Marlowe, who hated his guts
with a passion. But she was right. He didn’t dare arrest Raines. And he had no grounds for arresting Velasquez, who had no
arrest record in the United States, no wants or warrants. His past in the country was as clean as a whistle, even though he
had been under indictment at least once in Mexico for drug running, and if Dunn arrested Raines it would not go well for Josie.
It might put her at greater risk. Plus, he risked losing a multimillion-dollar shipment of illegal drugs.
“All right,” he agreed finally. “Since we don’t know exactly who planted the drugs in the cattle right now, we can’t arrest
anybody. I hope you know that I feel like every bone in my body is broken from making this kind of concession,” he added.
“There, there,” she said. “When we get everybody behind bars you’ll feel all better.”
He laughed in spite of himself. “All right, I’ll go back to my office and play solitaire on my cell phone in between reports.”
“Poker is better,” she remarked with a laugh.
“Only if I could find somebody stupid enough to play poker with me,” he replied enigmatically, and smiled. He glanced toward
Velasquez with one more hot look. He was still amazed at the man’s concern for a few cattle. “I’ll see you around,” he told
Josie. He got in his car and drove away.
Josie joined the others at the corral. Velasquez and Cole were talking about cattle as if they’d known each other for a hundred
years with an ease that set strangely on a drug lord and rancher who was as straight as an arrow. But then she reminded herself,
miracles still happened. She’d saved Raines, but she still had work to do. And in order to do it, she needed Raines.