Chapter 13
When Tegan pulled into the stockyard, he instantly knew something was wrong. He jammed the truck into Park and ran toward the pens. The cows were everywhere, and the isolation pens were empty. He dropped down into the maze of fences and pens only to find someone had smashed the fencing into toothpicks. He pulled out his phone and called Ken Zorn.
“Zorn.”
“Ken, someone tore the hell out of the stockyard. I’ve quarantined cows messed up with isolation cows, and my fences are torn to hell.”
“I’ll be right there.” Ken hung up.
Tegan called Senior. “Sir, someone tore the shit out of the stockyard. The cows are mixed together, and there’s a lot of damage.” He walked forward and stopped. “They used a sledgehammer.”
“How do you know?”
“Because they left it. I’m looking at it.” Tegan swore bitterly. “This will take a week to fix.”
“Was anyone there? Are our people okay?” Senior demanded.
“No, sir, no one was here. I told the guys I’d stop by this afternoon to feed and make sure everything was okay. They’re at home.”
“Well, that’s a relief. I’ll head down in just a minute.”
Tegan called Kate next and explained what happened. “I hate to ask you this, but could you come get Doodle and Ajax and take them to my place?”
“Not a problem. I’ll leave you my truck. What else do you need? Do you need me to feed the animals?” Over the line, he heard her talking to Lawrence; though it was muffled as if her hand was over the speaker. A moment later, he heard clearly, “Lawrence is coming with me. Cody’s dad came out to collect him, so they could run down to Belle. Craig and Hailey are watching some superhero movie and drinking hot cocoa in front of the television. There are leftover sandwiches for them to eat if we take too long. They’ll be fine for a couple of hours. What else do you need?” Kate’s Army side was showing.
“The animals have been fed. If you could turn out Ajax and feed Doodle?”
“Yep. We’re on our way.” The phone went dead. He chuckled and shook his head.
“Tegan?” a voice called.
Tegan whipped around. “Over here, Ken.” He waved his hand, then heard Ken moving the cows out of his way.
“What in the hell?” Ken looked around. “Who would want to destroy this place?”
Tegan’s mind flickered back to the comment Barry made about wanting to destroy things, but he shrugged that off. The guy wouldn’t do anything like that. At least, he didn’t think so. “They used a sledgehammer.”
“How …”
Tegan pointed over to the hammer leaning against the fence line. “That doesn’t belong to the stockyard, so somebody brought it, used it, and forgot it.”
Ken walked over and lowered into a squat, looking at the massive hammer. He shook his head. “Damn it.”
“What’s up?” Tegan moved a cow and walked over to him.
Ken pointed to the etching on the wooden handle. It was the Hollister brand. It came from the Hollister ranch. Ken looked up at him. “Any chance this was here prior to today?”
Tegan shook his head. “No. I walked this exact path to check on the isolated cows this morning. There was nothing here. I would have seen it.”
“Then I think we have a problem.” Ken stood up. “I’m going to call in Garth, and we’re going to photograph the damage. If you see anything else out of sorts, you let me know immediately. We’re also going to need an insurance report and the total amount of damages.” Ken stood back up. “Is Senior or Andrew coming?”
“Senior. He’ll be here shortly.” Tegan glanced down the way a bit. “Ken, I’m going to go farther and check on the cows and such.”
“Yell out if you find anything.” Ken had his phone to his ear, already making the calls he needed to make.
Tegan headed back to the far side of the interlocked systems of corrals. He stopped and swore bitterly. Someone had shot a cow. She was dead, and the only good thing about the situation was she’d died instantly—a shot through the skull. And by the way the blood had coagulated, she’d been dead for hours. “Sheriff! Over here.” Tegan knelt beside the cow and glanced at the tag. It was one of the isolated cows. Damn it, he couldn’t abide by such senselessness. Anger rose up and grabbed his throat in a stranglehold.
“Son of a bitch,” Ken spat when he saw what had happened. “I’m going to need Noah to get that bullet if it’s still there.”
Tegan stood. “This”—he pointed to the defenseless animal—“makes whoever did this dangerous.”
“Tegan, the amount of rage someone had to have to do this made them dangerous from the first swing of that sledge.” Ken shook his head. “Finish doing a sweep. Keep your eyes open for anything that doesn’t look normal.”
“Yeah.” Tegan left the animal and kept moving. His eyes swept left and right. As he was turning to head back toward where Ken was standing, his eyes caught on a piece of fabric attached to a nail. “Ken,” he called, pointing to the little piece of cloth.
Ken got really close and took a picture. “Camouflage.”
“Like a hunting jacket?”
“No. Like a military jacket.” He stood up and showed Tegan the picture, but it was blown up. “This is the new stuff, digital camouflage.” Ken rubbed the back of his neck and swore slowly under his breath. “It all points his way.”
“What? Whose way?” Tegan knew who Ken was referring to, but damn it, he didn’t want to believe Barry could do such a thing.
“Never you mind. When Senior gets here, I’ll need a couple of minutes with him before you show him the damage, all right?”
“Sure.” Tegan sighed. “You think Barry did this, don’t you?”
Ken gave him a side-eyed look. “Why would you say that?”
“Because he has anger issues, works at Hollisters’ ranch, and was in the military.”
“You need a job as a deputy?” Ken clasped him on the shoulder. “Say nothing to anyone about what you’ve seen or what you think. Nobody is guilty until they’re proven guilty. Understand?”
“I’m not saying shit to anyone.” Tegan motioned to where Senior was moving through the cattle. “I’m expecting Kate and Lawrence. They’re taking my animals back and turning them out.”
Ken nodded. “Do what you need to do, then I’m going to need a statement from you about discovering all this.”
“Yeah, I know,” Tegan said and headed in the direction Senior was coming from. He stopped and shook the older man’s hands. “You need to go back to where the sheriff is, sir.”
Senior frowned. “Bad?”
“It’s not good, sir. Not good at all.” Tegan pointed toward the front. “I’ll be right back. I need to get my animals sorted, so I can work this situation.”
“Do what you have to do. I’ll call a couple of hands in to help get the cows separated and patch up this shit, at least for the night. I’ll send someone down south to pick up some lumber, so we can fix what we can.”
“Ken is taking pictures, so you’ll have that and his report for the insurance.”
Senior shook his head. “Who would do such a thing?”
“Go talk to Ken. I think he has some ideas.” Tegan left him with that and headed to the parking lot as Lawrence and Kate arrived in different trucks. He tossed his keys to Kate, who tossed him hers. “Do you need help?” Lawrence looked toward the pens and enclosures. “I brought some tools, nails, and such.”
“I’ll go turn Ajax out and feed Doodle. I’ll make you some dinner. Come home when you can. I’ll be there.” Kate lifted onto her toes and kissed him. Then she turned on her heel and left.
“You treat her well, you hear?” Lawrence’s gaze was direct, and there was no bullshit in the warning.
“I’d never hurt her.” And that was the God’s honest truth. “Come on back and bring your stuff. I have some here, but I need to get all these cows into one pen. That’s the priority. Our isolated cows have been mixed in the quarantine herd. Well, all but one.” When Lawrence had his hammer and bag of nails, Tegan took him through the building and gathered two hammers, nails, and a pair of gloves before they went into the corral area.
“Son of a bitch,” Lawrence murmured under his breath as they neared the damage.
“Yeah, exactly my sentiments.” It was cold and getting colder. The front that was supposed to move in tomorrow had obviously escalated its arrival time.
“Ken, are we good to fix up the back corral?” Tegan pointed in the direction of the largest corral in the yard.
“Hold on for about ten minutes, will you? I need to finish here before I document that.”
“Will do.” Tegan put down his load.
“Why would anyone want to do this?”
“Good question.” Tegan leaned against one of the fences that hadn’t been broken.
Lawrence looked around and saw the dead cow. He walked over and bent down next to it. Tegan followed him. “Well, if we find them, I’d do some damage to them, that’s for sure.” Lawrence shook his head. “Anyone who would do this is sick.”
“Yeah,” Tegan agreed with him. “How did no one hear this in town?”
“Don’t know, unless … What way was the wind blowing today? From the southwest, right?”
Tegan nodded. “That’s right.”
“Then the sound was pushed away from the town, and if anyone heard the sound of a hammer, they’d probably just figure it was you and your crew working on something.” Lawrence shrugged. “At least that’s what I’d think.”
Ken had walked up while Lawrence was talking. “Hey, man. Good to see you.” He shook Lawrence”s hand. “That little gal was shot point blank range. Might have stifled the sound. She never knew what hit her.”
“Doesn’t matter. The person who did it needs to pay.” Lawrence crossed his arms and shook his head.
“And they will. But we aren’t getting much from this other than the obvious. The cows have wiped away any evidence like a boot print and such. With all the trucks that drive in and out of the parking lot, there’s no way to determine what tracks are fresh.” Ken shrugged.
“So, the bastard gets away with it?”
“Didn’t say that.” Ken shook his head. “We’ll get them. Sooner or later, they always make a mistake.”
“We don’t need anything like this to happen again.” Lawrence sighed.
“And I agree with you.” Ken clasped Lawrence on the shoulder. “Let me get this photographed. It’s going quicker than I imagined. Garth is covering the southern portion of the county while I work this.”
Lawrence stared down at the cow. “Damn shame.”
“I agree,” Senior said. “I have a truck filled with hands coming. We’re bringing what boards we have. With some inventive hodgepodging, we can get the big corral secured.” Senior shook his head. “Can’t see it. I just can’t see why anyone would do this.”
Tegan didn’t pay attention to the conversation going on between Lawrence and Senior. He tried to reconcile the fact that Barry had basically told him what he’d do when he exploded, and then it happened not more than a week later. He glanced over at Ken, who was working gathering evidence. He’d talk to the man later when no one was around. As he’d said earlier, innocent until proven guilty.