(The 1st in a series of 8!)
CATTLE RUSTLERS
Deputy Les Johnson was obviously agitated when he entered the office of Sheriff Ben Winters. "Ben, we've got a queer case here that appears to be a mystery," Les said.
The sheriff looked up from the report he was working on, and noting the deputy's state of mind, was concerned. "Why, what's happened?" he asked.
"Well, I'm not sure, Les responded, but it looks like we have missing
persons and cattle rustling, all in the same case. Rev. Waters called me this morning about no one knowing where the Shepherd family was. Gloria Shepherd was supposed to sing a solo at church yesterday morning, but didn't show up. He tried calling their place, but didn't get an answer. That's not like her. So, this morning Waters went to their place, but no one was around, and all their livestock were gone."
"There wasn't any sign of somebody taking the stock? Was their
pickup there?" asked the sheriff. Les had a puzzled look as he answered, "Everything seemed normal; even the pickup was there. The door wasn't locked, there was no note, and everything appeared normal. Waters knows her relatives, and called her sister over in Mesa City, and she didn't have any idea of where they could be. She said she talked to Gloria on Saturday, and she was looking forward to Sunday."
"Well, we better be sure they're missing before we get all panicky about the situation and check into the missing livestock. Something may have come up unexpectedly, and there may be a normal reason that all this happened. Have you checked the hospital, and does Waters want to file a missing person's report?" the sheriff asked.
"He's pretty concerned, but he doesn't want to act hastily and make
any conclusions until we check more," the deputy replied. "There was
nothing from the hospital, and Gloria's sister is coming over to look
through stuff at the house for a clue. It's too early to do anything about the missing livestock, and I'll wait until we are pretty sure that something is wrong before we get into that."
"Good plan," the sheriff agreed, adding, "I'll go and talk to the
neighbors. You see who members of the choir are, and talk to them about any sudden changes Gloria might have made due to unusual
circumstances. Jess Gardener, their next door neighbor, works with
John Shepherd a lot, cutting wood and building fence. He might know,
especially about the livestock."
The sheriff stopped on the way to the Shepherd farm and invited
Rev. Waters to accompany him. When they arrived at the property, it seemed you could feel the emptiness of abandonment. It was, well, deathly quiet. "We're going to do an invasion of privacy here," the sheriff said, "But we'll take a good look to be sure something didn't unexpectedly overcome them or nobody is sick or hurt."
As they got out of the car, Waters exclaimed, "Sheriff, something isn't right. Their two dogs aren't here! I didn't realize they weren't here when I was here with your deputy because I was concerned about Gloria and the family. It would be very unusual they would go away with someone in another vehicle and take the dogs, too. There truck is still here. Now I'm really worried."
The sheriff shook his head in agreement. The house was not locked and there was only a screen door. As they went through the house room by room, everything seemed to be in place. There wasn't any sign of disturbance or haste. Breakfast dishes were in the sink. "Looks like they were here for breakfast on Sunday," observed the sheriff. A car pulled into the driveway as they left the house.
"It's Gloria's sister," Waters said. He made the introduction, and the sheriff told her, "We just checked the house, and everything seemed okay. You'd probably notice anything out of place, so it'd be good if you took a look. Give a yell if you discover anything, and we'll check the barn and other buildings." The sheriff and Waters continued on to the barn, slowly scrutinizing the ground as they went. There had been no rain, so any tire tracks or footprints would still be there. "There's nothing on the driveway," the sheriff noted, so the family must have used the path from the house to the barn. We'll check that on our way back."
The sheriff was careful not to handle any latches or hardware as they entered the barn. It was silent and empty. There was no sign of disturbance, no open gates, no buckets overturned, feeders were empty, no water spilled. Waters looked at the feed bin, and remarked, "Lots of feed here, so nobody starved." They moved from the barn to the pasture, and noted there were separate pastures for the cattle and horses, and both had access to the barn. There were no open gates.
"Let's check the fences," the sheriff said. "I'll walk the cattle fence,
and you can do the smaller horse pasture." Waters agreed, and both
proceeded to their task. "Everything looked good," the sheriff said. "How about the horse fence?" "Not a thing wrong with this fence, either," Waters reported. The two returned to the house, checking the path on their way. The path was hard packed earth, and almost as hard as concrete. "No tracks on this kind of surface," the sheriff noted.
Gloria's sister met them on the porch. "Everything looks normal," she reported. "I'm going home to wait until my husband gets out of work, and then we'll both come and look around. This is very strange. I talk to her two or three times a month and we keep pretty current on what we're doing. All our other relatives live quite far away, so we don't see each other that often."
Waters and the sheriff stopped at the Shepherds' next door neighbor on the way back to town. Waters had told the sheriff this man was a member of the church and a good friend of the Shepherds. "Any news of my neighbors?" the rancher asked after greeting his visitors. "I'm afraid not," responded the sheriff. "Is there anything you know that can help us?"asked the sheriff. The rancher replied,"I don't think so. The only thing I can recall from the past few days was a stranger stopped here, and asked about the cattle. He said he was looking to pick up a dozen head or so, and the Shepherd's stock appeared to be very good. He didn't give his name, but he was driving a pretty high-priced car."
"Have you had a chance to talk to John about that man?"asked the sheriff. "Yes, sir, I did," responded the rancher. "Saw John the very next day. He said the man was very polite, but John told him the cattle weren't for sale. He said if he left, the cattle would be going with him." "Did John say anything about going any place?" the sheriff asked. "No sir, he didn't," the rancher said, "And I didn't think it was any of my business to ask. But, I must admit it left me quite curious because that family put lots of love in that property."
Waters and the sheriff thanked the rancher and headed back to town. They had been so absorbed in their search they had completely forgotten lunch. "I'm going to see if that man talked to any other local people with cattle," the sheriff told Waters. We need to find out who he was and what connection he may have. "Sheriff, I just realized I've missed a clue at the farm!" Waters said excitedly.
(To be continued)
--Rev. Walbear
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