Page 17 of Sheriff's City Girl

Ron was the one to answer. “Over a hundred heads.”

I shook my head, shock filtering through my body. “That would’ve taken a damn semi-truck to pull that off. The whole world would’ve heard it.”

Jackson pursed his lips, and then took an audible deep breath. “Unless it maybe happened in the middle of a loud ass BBQ and dance.”

“I think that’s entirely plausible,” Ron agreed with Jackson.

“Does he have any idea where they went missing?” I asked, still just stuck on the massive loss that would be for Lucas. It was thousands of dollars that just… disappeared.

“He said they were in the bottom pasture on the other side of the creek,” Jackson answered, rocking back in his chair. “And based on this morning, they’re working on double checking all of the fence lines.”

“Okay,” I said with a nod, my chest suddenly burning with irritation. Why didn’t Lucas call me? Hell, I worked at the ranch when I wasn’t at the station. I would’ve dispatched deputies to help him look…

“I know that you’re probably bent out of shape over him not telling you,” Ron began, giving me a knowing glance. “But he’s trying real hard not to jump the gun and make assumptions. He said there’s a chance they got into one of the other pastures—and that’s what he’s checking right now. But based on what I already know…”

“Yeah, it makes sense,” I agreed with my mentor. “I think you have a good map setup here. I just don’t understand—a hundred head of cattle ain’t no tiny load. It would’ve been multiple trucks and trailers or an overloaded semi. Not to mention, it rained a few days ago. I’d think there’d be some kind of marks showing up.”

“That’s where you’ve got me,” Ron said with a heavy sigh. “I searched around the roads that butt up to the pasture. There ain’t nothing there. I couldn’t find a single sign of anyone loading out—and you know, you’d have to set up temporary corrals in order to catch and load that many.”

“But for all we know…” Jackson’s voice trailed off. “Maybe they did. However they’re doing it, it must be efficient—and it’s not their first time.” He pointed to the other red marks on the page. “There are fifteen head missing, ten head missing, twenty head missing… It’s almost like they were putting in practice for this one,” he pointed to Lucas’s place. “And I still think it had to have happened last night.”

“Or this could all be a waste, and they just got into another pasture. I know that the interior fencing on the ranch could stand to have some improvement,” I countered, playing the devil’s advocate. Honestly, I agreed with Jackson, but there was the freak chance that every single cow got through the fence.

“You know as well as I do that the fence would’ve had to just disappear for every single head to be missing,” Ron said what I was just thinking. “Lucas is in denial about it, but I told him he needs to report it so he can turn it into his insurance.”

I nodded, though something tugged at my brain. I knew Lucas better than anyone, and I just had a bad gut feeling about this entire scenario. “I think I’m gonna go out to the ranch and see what’s going on.”

“Not before we have a plan of attack for this,” Ron grunted, giving me that mentor look. “I get that you wanna run out and get answers from Lucas since your feelings are hurt, but he’s not the only one missing cattle.”

“But he’s missing four times as many as most of them,” I argued.

“Yeah, but everyone matters,” Ron chided me. “And once we have something figured out, then you can run off and do that.”

“Okay, so why don’t we dispatch some deputies to each of the missing cattle locations? We’ll make official reports. You know that we can’t do anything if there’s no report,” I said, removing my cowboy hat and running my fingers through my dark hair. It was tangled, and for a moment, my mind flashed to the hook up with Emma—the one that had her storming off like I was gonna ruin her life…

But I wasn’t planning on telling anyone anything.

“I’ve tried to get Bob Parson, Landon Henderson, and Derek Johnson to file reports,” Ron pointed to three of the marks. “But none of them will. They’re concerned about the backlash—and none of them had insurance on their cattle.”

“That can’t be a coincidence…” Jackson’s voice trailed off, and I could see the wheels turning in his head before he looked up at me. “Can people find out stuff like that?”

“With the right connections, maybe.” I drummed my fingers on the table, trying to piece together why the hell these ranchers weren’t reporting their missing stock. I mean, yeah, it was pretty common for them to search high and low for them first, just to make sure they weren’t jumping the gun, but to not say anything at all—and then deny the offer to report it…

That was just weird.

“Have any of them been checking the local sales to see if the cattle were sold at auction?” Jackson asked the obvious question that no one had yet.

“Yeah, they have,” Ron said, his eyes still glued to the map. “And he said he hasn’t come up with anything. But you know, you can’t make every single cattle auction and none of these were branded. You would’ve had to go off ear tags and markings. That’s a lot harder to prove.”

“Lucas’s all have brands,” I thought aloud, the LC brand on every single head. “It’s well known, too. I don’t see a rustler being able to sell a hundred head of them and not raise some questions.”

“They could illegally haul them out of state,” Jackson reasoned, shrugging. “It’s not that unheard of for something like that to happen. I don’t know how they’d manage it in a semi-truck… But there are backroads that will take you right out of Texas. They could’ve easily hauled up to Oklahoma. There’re a lot of small livestock auctions. Could’ve spread them out.”

“Ballsy move—and a lot of work,” I commented.

“But not undoable.” Ron’s voice was flat, his expression blank. “At this point, I think we have to think of all the possibilities. I don’t think this is a backwoods operation for getting some drug money.”

“Yeah, we need to reach out to surrounding counties and see if they’ve got any of the same problems.”

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