I'm On a Ranch?

by Misty Malone

  “Sure, I understand that,” Lena said. “Do we have problems?”

  “Maybe, I'm not sure. I hope not, but the sheriff's going to have some people to round up. We will have to be careful until he gets them all. That's why I want you to know exactly what's going on, as well. I'm thinking I may even bring the men in to hear it, too. I can repeat it all to them, but you run the risk of leaving a detail or two out anytime you repeat it, and you never know what might be important.”

  Lena's eyes were growing by the second. She nodded, a bit in shock.

  “Right now we need to get Janelle to a bed so she can rest.”

  Janelle, who had been sitting at the table drinking some iced tea, spoke up. “I am tired and would like to rest before I tell this whole story, Bryce, but—” She paused, looking at him.

  “But what, sunshine?”

  “Are you going back out to the barn until they get here?”

  “Not on your life. Now that I know what's going on, I'm staying with you. I'm not letting you out of my sight until the sheriff knows the story and he's got people in custody.”

  “I was hoping you'd say something like that,” she said.

  Bryce's eyebrows rose. “You were?”

  “Yes. Now that I know what's going on, I'll admit I'm nervous. I know I'll be able to rest better if you're close. I feel safe around you.”

  Lena could see the love in both young people's eyes, and she saw how Janelle's simple statement caused Bryce to swell up with pride. Yes, these two would be fine now.

  “I'll stay with you,” he promised her.

  “Could I rest on your couch in your office again? You can do some work then, and I won't feel quite so guilty, taking you away from your work.”

  “We can do that,” he agreed. “Are you ready?”

  “I am, but I can walk that far,” she said. She got up, and he led her into his office, his hand on her back, and a big smile on both their faces. Lena couldn't have been happier. She was fond of both of them. But she was more than a little concerned about whatever had Bryce so upset.

  Bryce got Janelle settled on the couch, and it didn't take long for her to fall asleep. He knew she was exhausted, and he couldn't blame her. He knew she hadn't been sleeping well, and she'd just been through a great deal. What she'd done to save the colt had been very impressive. He was sure she was a good veterinarian. It didn't surprise him a bit, either. She'd spent a great deal of time in his barn, his ranch hospital, as she called it, and it somehow relaxed her. Now they knew why. It also explained why the horses all accepted her, and she didn't appear to be afraid of any of them. Her love of animals was even stronger than he'd realized.

  He watched her sleeping peacefully and had to smile. He'd fallen in love with her when she was Jane Doe and had worried about what he'd do if she were already spoken for. He knew he would do the right thing and bow out, but it would have been hard. He was so relieved, and excited, that he didn't have to. Instead, he was free to date her, although it was odd. They hadn't had one date yet, but he felt sure she was the woman he wanted to be with the rest of his life.

  But before he could take her out on their first date, they had a major obstacle to get past. He thought about what lay ahead of them and shuddered. He had to keep her safe. They'd all have to be on their toes. He hoped things went quickly and easily, but they had to be ready in case there was a problem.

  He was still thinking of the ramifications of what they were about to tell the sheriff, when he heard a car approach. Looking outside, he saw Clay's pickup, and a sheriff's cruiser behind it. Both the sheriff and Deputy Armstrong had come out. Good.

  He went to Janelle and lightly shook her. “Janelle, honey, are you awake?”

  She opened her eyes and looked around a few seconds. “Yeah, I'm awake. Is the sheriff here?”

  “Just pulled up,” he answered. “Why don't you take a couple minutes to wake up, go to the bathroom if you want. Take your time. I'm going to get the hands. I want them all to hear this, too, if that's okay with you?”

  “Yes, of course. I think you had a good idea to do that. Then everyone knows.”

  “Okay. I'll go get them. You come out to the living room when you're ready, okay?”

  “All right.”

  He looked down at her and stopped. “Are you okay, sunshine?”

  “Yeah, fine. Just a little nervous, I guess.”

  “I can understand that,” he assured her. “I'll be there with you. Lean on me all you want.”

  “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “You really do make me feel stronger, safer.”

  “Good. I'll be right there with you.”

  She caught his eyes and smiled. “I'm okay now. Go get the men and let's get this over with.” He gave her a kiss on her cheek before going out to the barn to gather up the men.

  He found Landon and told him his plan to have them all hear the story, and Landon agreed. Together they rounded up all the men and went inside. They knew this was a serious matter or he wouldn't have included all of them.

  They went in the living room, where Janelle was sitting, looking nervous. Lena was about to lift a large tray with a pot of coffee, cups, spoons, and a plate of cookies. Bryce took it in and set it on the coffee table. “Have a seat, everyone,” he said as he sat down next to Janelle, taking her hand in his. “Help yourself to coffee and cookies.”

  While the men were getting coffee, he asked Janelle, “Are you okay?”

  “Just nervous.” He squeezed her hand in encouragement, and she nodded.

  When everyone who wanted coffee had it, the sheriff asked, “Okay, Bryce, what did you gather us all here for?”

  “Dr. Janelle Ehrlinger, previously known as Jane Doe, has recovered her memory, and everyone here needs to be aware of what was happening when she ended up on the ranch.”

  The sheriff's eyebrows drew together, and he took out his notepad and pen. “Okay, Doctor, tell us what we need to know. Why don't you start with how and when you regained your memory?”

  Chapter 10

  Janelle, with Bryce's help, quickly told how the injured colt triggered her memory and she automatically jumped into action.

  “Is all your memory back?” Sheriff Hollinger asked.

  “I think so,” she answered. “As far as I can tell.”

  “And I take it it's the history right before they found you on the ranch that we need to know about?”

  “Yes.” She took a deep breath and began. “I'm from Maine, but I recently accepted a position with a veterinary clinic in Kansas, not real far from here, just across the border. My specialty is with larger animals, and more particularly horses, so they sent me on a call to a farm that breeds, trains, and boards race horses. While I was treating an animal there I overheard two men talking outside the barn.”

  She swallowed. Bryce rubbed her hand with his thumb, and she continued. “One was telling the other one that the boss wants him to give a race horse some of their special feed. He said he needed to do it in the next couple days so it would have time to take effect before the race on Saturday. They went on to discuss it more, and it became clear that their boss owned a race horse, and they'd been poisoning other horses that posed a threat, or a challenge to his horse.”

  “Do you have any idea who it is that owns these horses?” the sheriff asked.

  “Yes,” Janelle answered. “It's Wayne Bartello.”

  It got quiet in the room. “Congressman Wayne Bartello?” the sheriff asked.

  “Yes,” Janelle answered.

  Sheriff Hollinger and Deputy Armstrong looked at each other meaningfully. “How do you know this?” the sheriff asked.

  “One of them asked why it was so important all of a sudden that this horse win so many races. The other man explained that the horse's ownership was buried so deep it would be hard to trace it, but if you go through the corporations that actually owned it you'd find that the actual owner was Congressman Wayne Bartello. He said the congressman is planning his political career,
and that includes running for the White House. But people have a rather bad taste in their mouths right now for members of the congress, so he's planning on running for governor in a year and a half.”

  Sheriff Hollinger's eyes opened wide. “I just heard that, that he's running for governor.”

  “Well, according to this man, he figures he'll need lots of money to buy, as he put it, the position. He said it takes a lot of money to run a successful campaign these days, so he's counting on having lots of money from this horse's winnings. He claimed the corporations that own the horse can donate huge amounts of money for his campaign, and no one will ever know these corporations are all basically his.”

  Deputy Armstrong was nodding his head. “So basically he's fixing the races by poisoning any horses that are a real threat to his horse. Then the horse wins, and the money for the win goes into these fake corporations, which in turn will donate large chunks of money to his campaign. Is that it?”

  “Yes,” Janelle confirmed.

  Sheriff Hollinger was thinking the story through. “And no one's picked up on the poisoned horses? It would seem if there were several of them there would be an investigation into it.”

  “Apparently it's not always obvious the horse has been poisoned. He said two of them had just gotten enough of the poison that they didn't appear sick, they just didn't perform quite at their best. They finished the race in the middle of the pack somewhere. Another one got more than they meant for it to and he said it acted drunk the morning of the race and fell. When it fell it hurt a foot, so they had to scratch him from the race because of his injured foot. He healed fine.”

  “Did any of them die?”

  “One did. Apparently, though, they did a tox screen, toxicity screen on it after it died, and the man said they lucked out. He said you have to look specifically for it, and they just did a general tox screen, so it didn't pick anything up.”

  “Do you know anything more about the horses, how many they may have poisoned?”

  “Not for sure. I know about those four, and the one they were planning on poisoning, but I'm not sure if they did that one or not.”

  “Do you know what the horse's name was they were going to poison?”

  “Morning Lilly,” Janelle answered.

  “Okay,” Sheriff Hollinger said, “we'll look into the horses, especially Morning Lilly. Did you see these two men that were talking?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she confirmed. “I finished treating the horse and went out to get in my truck to leave. They saw me and started chasing me. I turned around to look at them, and I've never been so scared in my life. They both had guns out. There were a lot of people around, so I ran for the crowd. I was able then to get in the truck quick and left.”

  “So you saw them?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did they chase you once you left in your truck?”

  “Yes. They ran to their car and followed.” She had tears in her eyes and was shaking.

  Bryce put his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. “Do you want to take a short break, Sunshine?”

  She swallowed hard and let him take her in his arms. She leaned her head against his chest for a moment, but quickly pulled herself back upright, squared her shoulders and said, “No, let's keep going. The sheriff needs to find these guys.”

  That earned her the respect of every man in that room, who were all sitting still, listening to every word.

  Sheriff Hollinger nodded. “Okay, but if you want to stop sometime and take a little break, tell us. We can do that. I know this is difficult, Dr. Ehrlinger.”

  “Please just call me Janelle. And thank you.”

  “Okay, Janelle. When you left the horse farm where did you go? I assume somehow you ended up here, but can you take us through that?”

  “I'll try. I was new to the area and that was the first time I went through there, so I'm not sure how specific I can be, but I'll tell you what I can.”

  “That's fine, Janelle. Just tell us whatever you can remember, any landmarks you might remember.”

  “Okay. I turned left out of the horse farm's lane and went straight. It went into a little town called Collinsville, I think.”

  “Yes, I know where Collinsville is,” Deputy Armstrong said.

  “I turned right at the light there, hoping I'd lose them, because they were a couple cars behind me. But it didn't work, they were still behind me. I turned into some kind of shopping plaza, but they were still behind me. So I drove around back and there was a back exit, so I took that, and it came back out onto a main road. Here's where I'm not much help. I don't know what that main road was, but I turned left onto it, and then when it went around a curve I turned left again into an alley. They went past and I thought I'd lost them, but they must have seen me, because I saw them turn around and come back right towards me, so I took off again. I made it out of that little town, and fortunately there were two or three cars between us. One of them was going slow enough, and there were cars coming the other way so they couldn't pass him. I was able to get a little ways ahead of them, but not nearly far enough.”

  “Do you know which way you were headed?” the sheriff asked.

  “Not really. I just kept following that road until I came to whatever that little village is over that way.”

  She pointed, and Bryce filled in, “Weston.”

  Sheriff Hollinger turned to Bryce. “Weston right down here?”

  “Yes,” she confirmed. “I made it to that little town, and I was about out of gas in my truck. I knew I couldn't exactly stop and fill up somewhere, and if I ran out of gas out on the road I'd be a sitting duck, so I pulled into another little shopping plaza. I went around back, hoping they wouldn't see the truck, and got out and started running.”

  The deputy looked shocked. “You were running on foot?”

  “Yes. I didn't know what else to do,” she explained. “So I took off running. I went behind buildings, hoping I'd find a police station or something, but I didn't find one. I saw them walking around looking for me, so I ran for a woods I saw. I thought maybe if I could make it to them without them seeing me I'd be okay. But they saw me and followed me to the woods. They had their guns out again.”

  “Why didn't you call 911?” Sheriff Hollinger asked. “Surely you had a phone for your work?”

  “I did, but I dropped it back at the horse farm. When I saw they had guns I was petrified. I turned and ran, and I think my phone must have fallen out of my pocket then, because I couldn't find it anywhere once I got in the truck. So I was on my own.”

  The sheriff nodded. “So you got to the woods. I take it you ran through the woods?”

  “Yes.”

  “How did you lose them, and how did you end up in the tree?”

  “Sheriff,” Bryce said, “it was pure brilliance on her part.” He reached over and pulled her in tighter against him again. “She's shaking. She told me the story from this point on. Do you need to hear it from her, or can I relate this next part?”

  The sheriff could easily see how shaken Janelle was. “Janelle, if he tells it from here, will you listen carefully and stop him if he says anything wrong?”

  “Yes. Thank you.” She was almost in tears and relieved when Bryce took over.

  “According to what she told me, she ran through the woods, and when she was about at the edge of the woods she knew she'd be in a big open field, so she ran for the scattered trees, running one to the next, hoping they wouldn't see her. She saw the creek and ran to it. There are high banks on both sides of the creek, so she stayed low and went into the creek. She heard them a ways behind her. Even though the water was about freezing, she stayed in the creek so they wouldn't be able to follow her footprints. She slipped and fell on two rocks that were covered with moss and were slippery, and when she fell she hit her head. When she got up to run again she was dizzy. She took a moment to recover and knew she had to get out of there, and she had to rest. So she found a place along the creek that had grass inste
ad of just dirt, and took her shoes off so she could get out, hopefully without leaving tracks they could follow. She went quickly to a large tree close by and climbed it.”

  Deputy Armstrong's eyes were wide. “You climbed the tree?”

  “She put her shoes back on and climbed as high as she could get quietly, making sure she was covered with leaves. They walked past, watching for footprints along the creek, just as she'd hoped.”

  “You're right, Bryce,” the sheriff said. “That was a brilliant move.”

  “Once they were out of sight she moved down lower, where the limbs were bigger, and found a place where she was secure on a couple limbs, and rested. Her concussion set in then, I think, because she fell asleep and became unconscious. That's when Landon found her.”

  There was a collective sigh as the story came to an end. Everyone sat still, looking at each other, looking surprised. The sheriff was the first to recover. “First, Janelle, I want to say I'm glad you got away from them. That was good thinking on your part.”

  “Thank you. I'm glad it worked.”

  Deputy Armstrong looked at the sheriff. “Wasn't there something about a stolen vet truck last month? Did they find it?”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” the sheriff said. “I think they found it and put out a warrant for the vet. Let me call and check on that.”

  Janelle was instantly alarmed. “A warrant? Am I wanted?”

  “I'm sure it will be canceled when we explain what happened,” the sheriff said.

  He took out his phone, but Bryce stopped him. “Sheriff, I'm not sure I trust the phones. These men are obviously looking for her. I'd say they're the ones who've called, claiming to be her cousin. I'm afraid they've somehow been able to get a tap on the phones. Is that possible, or am I being paranoid?”

  “It would be difficult to get a tap on our phone, but it would be possible,” the sheriff admitted. He thought for a moment and looked toward the ranch hands. “If I can borrow one of your phones I can call the state highway patrol and check on the missing truck and vet.”