by Abby Deuel
Mandy and Lyle arrived at the sale yards. No lights were on. There was no sign of anyone. Mandy always came prepared with a flashlight and a dog to keep her company. She wasn't the most comfortable in the dark, however. She would just have to put her big girl panties on and check the cow. She found the cow by herself in a corner. Her breathing was more labored. Mandy was worried this might be the case. She had brought a special injectable medicine to help with the fluid in the cow's lungs. She dosed her accordingly and gave her the injection in the muscle. She also administered pain medication and another dose of antibiotics. Lyle sat obediently by the cow's face, licking her eyes. The cow was too weak to clean her own face and none of the other cows were nursing her. Lyle was an excellent face cleaner.
Mandy was concerned that the cow was not ingesting enough water and calories. She decided to tube the cow with a mixture to help with both problems. The cow didn't put up much of a fight. That was not a good sign. Mandy thought carefully to ensure that she was not missing anything else she could give the cow to help her. The air temperature was not cold enough to be concerned about hypothermia. There was enough straw around the cow to help with insulation.
Having covered all of the bases, Mandy decided her work was done. Lyle, too, had finished her cleaning. They packed up and left the cow to hopefully turn a corner overnight. Mandy had already eaten so she decided to go back to the clinic to do a little more research in a nice quiet spot. Her mind was not going to give her a break unless she produced a few more leads.
Lyle raced into the clinic and went to Mandy's office where the screen saver was on. This was becoming a new obsession. Unfortunately, Mandy needed the computer to quench her own obsession. The two overachievers were not currently compatible. The puppy chimed in with a whimper. Lyle got to play with the screen saver a bit longer while Mandy fed the puppy. Once the puppy had suckled to her heart's content, Mandy snuggled her in the basket. She moved the mouse, making the ball on the screen disappear. To assuage Lyle's apparent frustration, Mandy gave her a thick chew bone. Lyle sat down on a dog bed in the corner, content with her replacement entertainment.
Mandy checked her email. Shockingly, she received one from the chemistry department. Unfortunately, the person who might know the answer had retired. The responder to the email said he forwarded the information to the retiree and would keep looking into it for Mandy. He also said that he had not seen anything like it. It would likely be deadly to both people and animals, based on the chemical structure which she already knew. But what the compound was, remained a mystery.
Finding no leads there, Mandy continued her search, now focusing on the company linked with the compound, Brucetus. Even if it was all classified information, she ought to be able to find something about it in this age of information and technology. She just needed to find a person's name or location, anything. She tried a different angle than she had tried before. She wanted to look further into the funding of Brucetus. She found an old stock market report linked to the company. She was able to determine that it had been a promising investment once upon a time, before it had crumbled due to the unethical chemical compound. She finally found what she was looking for: a name. It was Cruadhlaoich. It was the last name of one of the major investors. Mandy decided that since it was such an uncommon name, she ought to be able to find Mr. Cruadhlaoich. It did not have a first name associated with it.
Mandy refined her search to include just the last name. It turns out it was a fairly common last name in Ireland. She then included chemistry in the same search and narrowed down to a few people. She could begin to sift through to finally narrow her list down to three people. Her next step was to search those three people's first and the last name of Cruadhlaoich to find out who might be capable of being involved with a multi-million dollar company. Bingo. She had her culprit. It was a Ian Cruadhlaoich. The only problem was that he had died in an accident many years ago. Mandy used that name to try to find other people who might be involved in Brucetus.
It was as if there was no straight path to the answer. This was not going to be an easy murder mystery. Mandy was starting to wonder if she needed extra help. Maybe she should talk to Gerry and Larry and let them know what she had found so far. She could be on a total dead end and she didn't want them to think she was crazy. So far, she had no concrete proof of anything.
She needed to stretch her legs so she went to the front of the clinic. There was a fax laying on the floor. It was from the lab. The fluid that they had sent that was in the glass did not match the chemical compound that Mandy had sent to them for comparison. So, that meant that one glass did not contain the chemical and the other likely did. She couldn't prove that it did because there was no fluid left between the bugs drinking it and evaporation. Still, Mandy had her suspicion. That also supported that someone had come to Derek's house and somehow spiked his drink with a poison while somehow not polluting their own.
Lyle was noisily crunching and sucking on her treat. She had taken up a very relaxed sprawled eagle position to enjoy her chew. She was flipping it up in the air and catching it, smiling and throwing her head back. Sometimes, she could be such a puppy at heart.
"I wish I had your perspective on the world. What am I missing, Lyle?" asked Mandy. Lyle rolled over on her back and stretched her paws. "That doesn't help, though it is very cute."
Chapter 21
The next morning, Mandy got up early to check on the cow from the Crowley crew. Getting up to feed the puppy hadn't wrecked her sleeping pattern much. Lyle, on the other hand, appeared to be exhausted. Lyle stayed in bed to have a break from all of the action. Mandy knew there was nothing wrong with Lyle. Sometimes she just rested. Anyone who had as much constant enthusiasm for life was allowed to relax without there being something wrong with her. Mandy gave her some yogurt as a treat for being such a wonderful companion. Not too many dogs were allowed to have a special breakfast in bed. Lyle was a special dog, though.
There was a slight chill in the air that early in the morning so Mandy put on a parka. She checked everything at the clinic, feeding the cats and the new puppy. She gathered her gear from the clinic and headed off to the sale yards. She must have just missed the Crowleys because the cow had a fresh bucket of warm water by her to keep her hydrated and warm at the same time. Mandy hadn't been able to reach them last night so she planned to leave a note this time just in case they missed each other again.
The cow was looking decidedly perkier. She looked at Mandy with much more spunk in her eyes. She still wasn't standing on her own. Mandy listened to her lungs and was happy to hear less noise. She repeated the injections from the previous evening to hopefully keep the upward trend going. She had a quick look at all of the cows and everyone else seemed alert and hungry.
Mandy was about ready to go so she looked for a spot to leave the Crowleys a note. She found they had already left her a note explaining that they had turned her and lifted her to give her legs some physiotherapy. Mandy's reply said that she was treating with additional antibiotics and a shot to help clear her lungs. She would be back this evening to check the cow but if they noticed anything before then, they could call her at the office.
Happy with her work, Mandy left to return to the RV. She released Lyle, who was definitely ready to hit the ground running, fully recharged from her morning slumber. She raced to the clinic door and attempted to open it with her front right paw. Some doors, she had learned, would open if she popped them with her foot. This door, however, needed to be turned to open and she was unable to accomplish that with her feet alone. She looked up at Mandy for assistance.
Mandy opened the door and Lyle raced in to do her rounds. She checked the bobcat who had eaten his supper and then ran to the only other things of her interest in the building, the computer screen and the puppy, conveniently located in the same room. Mandy, on the other hand, busied herself with attending to the morning clinic chores, watering plants, cleaning, and laundry. For someone who had one foot out the door, she h
ad settled into the routine of running this clinic remarkably well. Comfortable that she had done her morning chores, she went into her office to do some more research before the day really started. She felt like she had forgotten to do something. The clinic had not been this empty in a while. She had no patients in her care except the cow, which she had already tended to. The puppy and bobcat were not patients technically, but they were stable and happy, too.
She checked her email, finding nothing new from last night. This was not surprising, considering she had been up quite late the night before. She thought she would start a whole new angle. She wanted to find out where Cruadhlaoich had gone to college. She was thinking that perhaps that would shed some light on the people that he ended up working with later on. She figured that if she and Anna had stayed in touch, perhaps Cruadhlaoich had a college buddy that he kept in his life. Then, if she could find that person, she might find out more information.
She found that he had majored in agricultural chemistry at a university in Indiana. He had been top of his class. He was involved with geeky chemistry things in college. Mandy chuckled, thinking that they would never have crossed paths if they had been in college together since she avoided chemistry like the plague. Refocusing, Mandy looked for pictures of Cruadhlaoich. Even though it was so many years ago, Mandy thought a picture would be useful. The only one she found was a group photo of the Chemistry Club. She located him and couldn't get very much detail from the image. She saved the image on her computer in case it would come in handy later.
She then found that there was a grant program through the university. He had received it in his final year of college since he was the top student in his discipline. His grant was to help develop a new pesticide with a longer lasting efficacy. What he developed ended up becoming a very successful compound. Not only did the grant pay his way while he did the research, but he ended up making a large amount of money off of the sale of the product. The company, Nordmann's, had given him a share of the stock.
"So that is how he had money to invest in Brucetus. Now to find out more about who else he might have met in college," said Mandy. Lyle didn't even raise her head. She was sulking from the lack of screen saver action.
Gillian peaked her head in. "Talking to yourself again, Doc?" asked Gillian.
"Oh, I didn't even hear you come in. Hi. Yep, I am thinking out loud. That's why I have Lyle. A person is not crazy if they talk to a dog, only if they talk to themselves," Mandy said.
"Makes sense. Ready for surgeries? People are starting to arrive outside."
"Yep, I can come back to this," said Mandy. She saved what she was looking at in her bookmarked sites. She felt like she was onto something.
The morning proceeded with very little excitement. The surgeries were all pretty routine, with the exception of a sugar glider neuter. Mandy had never done surgery on a sugar glider, which are very small marsupials. People started to have them as pets several years ago. The first few that she had interacted with were still too wild to be fun pets. The captive breeding had come a long way. Now, the sugar gliders Mandy tended to see were very docile.
The little male that she was neutering was no exception to the new wave of sugar gliders. He didn't even chitter when she handled him, a sure sign of a well-natured glider. The important thing with neutering one was to make sure they did not self mutilate as they wake up. The disinfectant used to clean the surgical site can trigger them to believe that it is not part of their own body. They will literally eat themselves raw.
To combat this possibility, Mandy pulled some fruit out of the freezer to offer him while he was waking up. She had only used inhalational anesthesia with an injectable pain medication so he was not very dopey. He was ready to eat, in fact. The trick was to keep him preoccupied with irresistible fruit so he wouldn't notice anything had happened. So far, it was working. He was taking handfuls of fruit in his tiny hands and sucking the juice out of it, only to spit out the pith of the fruit. He seemed very content indeed. Mandy had to keep him in her office with the door closed so Emma and Jimbo wouldn't torment him while he was waking up. Mandy and Gillian took turns checking on him.
With all of the patients comfortably in recovery, it was time for lunch. Mandy decided to have a quick meal in the RV so she could get back to her research. She had a bowl of cereal, giving Lyle the remainder of the milk. Mandy hated soggy cereal so she really only used milk to lightly coat the cereal and then have enough left over to offer Lyle. There was little to no point eating anything that involved milk in Lyle's presence without offering her some. If she didn't get milk, she would start tossing and turning, moaning like a small toddler throwing a fit. It was adorable and yet pitiful. Satiated from lunch, Mandy returned to her computer to peruse the computer for new leads.
Chapter 22
Before Mandy could do a little more digging on the net, someone popped in the clinic front door. It was Mr. Crowley and his son.
"Hi, Dr. Bell. We just thought we would touch base with you. It's better to talk face to face than in notes. We just keep missing each other. What do you think of the old girl? Is she going to make it?" asked Mr. Crowley.
"I am pleased with the response to treatment over the last twenty-four hours. It is too early to say whether and when she will fully recover," said Mandy.
"I'll take that. I sure would hate to lose her. She holds some very important genetics," said Barth, Mr. Crowley's son.
"She sure does. Is there anything we can do to speed her improvement along?" asked Mr. Crowley.
"Not really. We are giving her everything she needs. It's just time now," said Mandy.
"All of the other cows look to be healing perfectly, don't you think?" asked Barth.
"I am impressed with them. I think she will be the holdout. When do you plan to ship out?" asked Mandy.
"As soon as possible. In fact, I may need to leave Barth here so I can get back to my farm. We are finalizing arrangements with the town council about the pavilion. I am just sticking around until all the loose ends are tied," said Mr. Crowley.
"I see. Well, we will keep working on her. When will the pavilion construction start?"
"The foundation is being laid soon. Then the structure will effectively arrive ready-made. It's the type of building that is made off premises and then assembled on site. It goes up very quickly. The main thing holding us up was agreeing on the color. It seems that it is hard to get the town council to pick a hue unanimously," said Mr. Crowley, chuckling.
"I could see that. We have lots of chiefs, and not many Indians here. I will check on the cow later tonight and get in touch tomorrow. If you need to leave soon Mr. Crowley, I'd love to take you out to dinner to say thank you before you go," said Mandy.
"That is not necessary to treat us to dinner. We can have a meal together, though. We'll work on that," said Mr. Crowley.
As they were leaving, Gerry was arriving. Mandy realized that getting back to her research would not be happening any time soon. She submitted to this fact and hoped that Gerry might be offering some knowledge on the case.
"Hello, Mandy. Hi, Lyle," Gerry said. Lyle didn't even acknowledge his presence. She was normally so friendly. However, she had taken a disliking to Gerry, especially if he tried to hug Mandy. It had become a bit of a joke. Gerry was good-spirited and willing to work to win the admiration of a grumpy collie.
"Hi, Gerry. Any news?" asked Mandy.
"I came by with not much news about the murder, no. I did find out that Derek's farm is in some trouble. Apparently, he had put several mortgages on it and was not making his payments on time. The only relatives we can find are the reason he was in so much financial struggle. He was sending money to his niece to help her get on her feet and left himself a dollar short. No one is listed on his will for inheritance of the farm."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that the bank takes control of the property in order to try to offset the amount of money he owed. It also means that money is unlikely the
motivation, since he didn't have any."
"What about his sheep?" asked Mandy.
"They will go up for auction to help pay off debts. It's all such a tragedy. He has spent his whole life setting up that farm," said Gerry.
"What about the niece? Any connections there that might shed light on who would kill him?" asked Mandy.
"Not that we can find. She is a single mom on the East coast. She wouldn't have the money to come out here nor does she have a reason to hurt Derek since she was depending on him for support."
"Any other family?"
"It seems that he was estranged from the rest of the family. They haven't spoken in so long that they actually thought he was already dead. No leads there," said Gerry. "While I am here, do you want to go for lunch?"
"Rain check. I just ate. I was just about to start catching up on some paperwork," said Mandy.
"I believe that you just ate but I have my doubts you are going to do 'paperwork'. You are working on this case, aren't you?" Mandy blushed and started fidgeting with papers on the counter below her.
"That's neither here nor there. I haven't heard anything more from the lab. I can let you in on a little secret. Maggie was pregnant when she died. I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up because she was one sick little puppy. She seems to have turned a corner. Want to meet her?"
"Wait. Maggie was pregnant?"
"Yep. When we did the autopsy, we found her wriggling in the womb. We have no idea how she made it. She seems to be thriving so far," Mandy said as she led Gerry into her office to see the bundle of joy. Lyle shot up from her spot and stood purposefully between Gerry and the puppy. Lyle was protecting the puppy from what she considered to be a threat: Gerry.
"Lyle, back off, sit," Mandy said. Lyle was not going to be obedient. All that Gerry could do was back away and see the puppy from afar.
"It's alright. I get it. She's bonded to the puppy. I'm just glad that there is one survivor from this mess. Derek was too nice of a guy to have no legacy whatsoever."