at all surprised when he stepped out onto the porch, warmly dressed and ready to go.
“You sure picked a fine day for this,” he remarked.
“I didn’t pick it. It picked me.”
He grinned and started down the steps. “I’ve even got my horses in the barn. Are you sure you should be out?”
She spread her arms. “I came dressed.”
He glanced toward the truck. “Who’s your compadre?”
“My neighbor, Jerrod Marquette. He seems to think I shouldn’t be out doing this alone.”
“Well, you shouldn’t. But I didn’t intend to leave you alone. Nora will be thrilled that I can come back as soon as I show you the site. Then the two of you be sure to stop in for something hot to drink. You’re going to need it.”
She noted that Jerrod didn’t get out of his truck. Jake noticed, too, glancing that way again, but quickly turning to his own truck parked alongside the house. “I’ll lead the way. Damn winter came early, didn’t it? Ground is already frozen.”
“How are your stock doing?”
“Unhappy, but surviving. We’re spending an awful lot of time checking on them.”
A minute later, Jake pulled away from the house, leading the small convoy across his rangeland. They had to stop a few times while he opened gates to let them through, then waited while he closed them.
Jake had a decent-size ranch, but they could have gotten to the problem location faster on a galloping horse. They weren’t driving on a road, and Allison bounced up and down, her seat belt locking up frequently but preventing her head from hitting the roof of the car. Small mercies, she thought.
At last they came to what she would have guessed to be the farthest reach of his range, judging by the stream that still rippled and sparkled in the sunlight and the almost abrupt rise of the ground toward the mountains just beyond it.
An area was surrounded by yellow tape, and no cattle were in sight anywhere.
Jake climbed out and walked back to her as she exited her vehicle. Jerrod finally decided to emerge from his truck and she made introductions. The two men shook hands and exchanged measuring looks.
Jake got right to business. “Sheriff Dalton roped this off. It includes where we found the dead animal that might have been coyote bait, and the spot where my cows died and a considerable piece around it. For safety, I moved my stock to a different pasture.”
“Those pin flags? What are they?”
“The red one is where we found the bait. The yellow ones are where we found the cows. They didn’t get very far, but you could see where they convulsed and vomited before we got this fresh snow.”
“Damn,” Allison whispered.
“What?” Jerrod asked.
“I get that cows don’t move far very fast usually, but this toxin affects the nervous system and brain. Most animals when they’re exposed will run crazily, have seizures, try to bite at themselves. In short, I would have expected the cows to travel farther.”
Jake looked at her. “You think the toxin was that strong that it killed fast?”
“They had to be eight hundred or so pounds?”
“They’re Angus. They both tipped the scales close to a thousand.”
“Damn,” Allison murmured. “That was a lot of poison.”
“Did you get results from the state lab?”
“Only as to what kind of poison. They haven’t given me concentrations. I guess I need to call them Monday. I’m also wondering how they could have gotten so much of it. A little meltwater....” She trailed off, trying to imagine it. “Given what cows eat, this is weird.”
“Scary, too,” Jake said. “I’m still amazed my dogs didn’t get into the bait. They should have found it irresistible.”
“Given that the poison is odorless and tasteless, yes, they should have. Maybe the cows’ reactions were so fast they moved away.”
“They sure moved the rest of the herd away.” Jake shook his head. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. I’d like some answers, but I’m not expecting them overnight.”
He nodded to her and Jerrod, climbed back into his truck and drove toward the ranch house.
Allison stood looking at the roped-off area, feeling utterly creeped out.
“Maybe,” Jerrod said presently, “you should have a whole decon team out here.”
“It’s crossing my mind. I’m trying to think of all the ways that quantity of poison could have wound up here. A single bait? It seems a reach. Maybe someone was screwing around out here doing something they shouldn’t have been doing and spilled a bunch of the stuff. I told you how little it takes. But in terms of its effects on those cows, I’m thinking it was more than a teeny bit.”
“Yeah. Enough to kill five or six men?”
“Or maybe cows react differently. I need to talk to someone after I get done here. The thing is, that poison usually takes a couple of hours to start working. That makes it even stranger that the cows and the bait were found so close together. They should have wandered away before it hit, even if they were grazing normally.”
“Unless the supposed bait was still wandering itself when it got here.”
“Which opens up a whole other can of worms. Where had it been? Where did it find the toxin? How far had it come?” She shook her head. “I’m going to get my gear. Maybe you should stay outside this circle.”
He didn’t look as if that sat well with him, at least insofar as she could tell from his stony facade, but too bad. She had the gear to protect herself, and he didn’t.
Five minutes later she had disposable decon boots pulled up to her knees and big rubber gloves over her hands that reached up to her elbows even over her snowsuit. Then she picked up her sample case, corer and a shovel and headed for the circle.
Given what she had just learned, this was no longer looking like such an easy job. If the quantity of toxin was truly large, it could be all over by now. Some would have broken down, but she wondered how well. She had no idea how it reacted to the cold. She understood that fungi in the dirt would break it down, but how active were they near the surface now that it was so cold? Either way, she needed to be extremely cautious that she didn’t carry the toxin out of this area in any way.
So many variables right now that could make everything worse.
She ducked under the tape, then reached back for her supplies. It was going to be a long morning.
* * *
Jerrod watched her work, pacing around the outer edge of the delimited area. He figured he could help her if he had the protective gear, and he decided to ask her if she had any spares, and if he could help in some way.
