Call of the Cougar

by Terry Spear

  "How many bedrooms do your parents' home have?"

  She frowned at him.

  "Three? Plenty of room."

  "Didn't you hear what I said?"

  "Yes. I'll clear it with your folks first."

  "Don't you dare call them."

  "Then you call them and tell them. Because I'm going with you."

  "All right. Your funeral." She got on the phone and made a call. "Hello, Mom?" She cast an annoyed glance Hal's way. He watched her, giving her the deputy sheriff's look that said he meant business.

  "Okay, so Dad called Mick and you all need my help there. Right?" She let out her breath. "All right. So Dad thinks he's going to protect us all. But that's not the way this works. First off, I'm the one who has a badge—" She paused. "Yes, I know I'm on administrative leave. Sheesh. But I still have a badge. No, my boss didn't take it away from me. He knows better."

  Hal smiled, thinking how much "fun" having the wild cat working for Mick had to be.

  She nodded. "All right. But here's where we have a problem. I've been staying with a deputy sheriff. No, not for a long time. Just since early this morning. Mom, no. Don't you dare put a date on your calendar for making a wedding cake. He was watching over me for a little bit. A few hours. Like a bodyguard." She glanced at Hal. "Yes, he's in great shape."

  Hal smiled. He already liked her mom.

  "He's a deputy sheriff. Hal Haverton. He has to be in great shape. What? No, I haven't seen him eat any donuts. How would I know he's in great shape?" Her cheeks grew red, and she again glanced at Hal.

  He couldn't help grinning back at her. He really liked her mom.

  "No, you do not have plenty of room at the house. Not with Jessie staying there. No. Bodyguards don't sleep with the body they're guarding."

  Hal chuckled.

  "So can he sleep on the couch?" She paused. "How tall is he?" She looked at Hal.

  "Six feet."

  "He's six feet. Yes, he's here with me now. We went for a horseback ride and are headed back to the ranch. Yes, he's a deputy sheriff, a cougar, and a rancher. All right? Why do you want to know the color of his hair and eyes? Mom. He can curl up on the floor if the couch is too short for him. As a cougar."

  She bit her lip. "Fine. I'll sleep with Jessie and he can have my room. Who? Who is Stan? Oh, for crying out—all right. Are they getting married? No? And you're letting her sleep with him in her bedroom? Does Dad know?" She glanced at Hal.

  He chuckled.

  "Fine. I'll sleep on the couch. Hal can have my room then. Where is his ranch? Out in the boonies. Two hours from Loveland. South. No, I don't have the address. Sure, you can ask him when he gets there. No, I don't need to know his address."

  Hal smiled. He suspected her father was going to do a search on him. Probably call Mick to learn more about him.

  "I don't know when we'll get there. Tonight, I guess. We've got to get packed, have something to eat, and we'll head on out there. I can help you bake some cakes while I'm staying with you. Oh, all right. If it interferes with my guard duty, I won't. Love you, Mom. See you in a bit."

  Tracey pocketed her phone and glowered at Hal.

  He shook his head. "See, it's fine with them. Parents never cease to amaze me. When we're kids, they have one set of rules. When we're all grown up?" He shrugged.

  "Not my parents. Jessie must have thrown a fit and said she wasn't visiting if Stan, whoever he is, didn't get to stay with her."

  "You don't want my address?" Hal was smiling when he asked her.

  "You know what they're going to do with it? Investigate you!"

  "I can handle it. I like your mom." He called Ted. "We're headed back but we're going to be packing up and leaving."

  "Las Vegas?" Ted asked.

  "Everyone's a wiseass. No. We've got some more problems. Think you can handle Ricky all right?"

  "Yeah, sure thing. He's a great help, and he loves it here. Do you want me to fix us something to eat?"

  "Yeah, go ahead. I've got fixings for beef stroganoff in the fridge, if you don't mind making that. We're going to pack up while you take care of the horses. You've got my number if anything goes wrong with Annie."

  "Gotcha."

  Then Hal called Dan. "I'll be pulling some guard duty at Tracey's parents' place in Loveland, so I won't be around for a little bit."

  Dan didn't say anything for a couple of heartbeats.

  Hal smiled. He knew he was going to get as many questions from his buddies as Tracey's mother had asked her.

  "Mick called," Hal explained.

  "Ahh, and he wanted you both at her parents' place?" Dan sounded confused.

  "No." Hal further explained the situation. "Tell Mick, if you wouldn't mind, that I'm going to be at their house also."

  "Okay, will do. What do you want me to tell the rest of the guys?"

  "I'm serving as her bodyguard."

  "Yeah, okay. Right. I'll…let them know."

  Hal pocketed his phone and glanced at Tracey. She was watching him. "So, sounds like they wonder about what's up with this as much as my mother does."

  "Dan never said anything about us going to Las Vegas."

  Her eyes rounded, she said, "Who said anything about us going to Las Vegas?"

  He chuckled. "Ted. He's a wiseass. Didn't I warn you about that already?"

  Shots rang out near one of Hal's ponds off in the distance and Hal and Tracey turned around, knowing the shots were fired too far off to be anyone shooting at Tracey. "Damn it to hell," Hal said as ducks, geese, a swan, and herons took flight. "I'll meet you back at the house." He galloped off, but she rode after him.

  He glanced at her. "I don't need backup."

  "I'm giving it to you anyway." She was frowning so hard that he figured she'd take a cavalry-strength force of hunters on and arrest every one of them single-handedly, she was so mad.

  He was glad she was on his side.

  Chapter 12

  Hal and Tracey continued past one pond, then through a stand of pine trees to make their approach a little less obvious, though the hunters would hear them riding through the area. She suspected they'd try to run off with their illegal catch before the landowner arrived.

  Riding on horses to the scene of the crime with a hot deputy sheriff was a totally new experience for her, and she felt as though she was in an old western. She just hoped no one began to shoot back at them because she feared for the horses, most of all.

  As soon as they saw the two thirtyish-aged men stalking through the grasslands away from the pond, rifles in hand, making a hasty retreat, Hal hollered, "Deputy Sheriff Hal Haverton! Drop the rifles and put your hands behind your heads."

  One of the men looked at the other and the black-haired man swore. "You said that it was all right to hunt here, damn it."

  "Put your weapons down now!" Hal said again, his voice stern, like he had been a military commander.

  This time the men did as he said. "Walk this way, gentlemen."

  "Can we see a badge?" the lighter-haired man asked as he glanced at Tracey.

  "Don't need to because you're trespassing on private property, my property, and no hunting and no trespassing signs are posted all over the place. You can't help but see them." Before Hal could show his badge anyway, Tracey was showing hers.

  He fought smiling at her.

  "Special Agent with Fish and Wildlife Service. Hope you weren't shooting any protected birds on top of killing waterfowl on private property," she said. She didn't have as commanding a voice as Hal had, but both men's eyes bugged out. Which silently told her what she didn't want to hear. "You shot the birds and left them to rot?" She turned to Hal. "Did you leave food out for the birds?"

  "Yeah, I put some seed out every three days. Which means, if the area was open to hunting, you still couldn't legally hunt here until ten days had passed since the seed was all gone. That means the timing would never be right, and you wouldn't have the right to hunt them." Hal holstered his rifle and dismounted. He handed his
reins to Tracey, but she was ready to pull her Glock out if the men tried anything.

  "Let's see some I.D. and hunting licenses, and then we'll return to the lake and see what kind of luck you had."

  The black-haired man narrowed his eyes at Hal. "We couldn't have reasonably known the area was baited."

  "So you know the law enough that you think you can say the right words and get around it." Tracey was dying to check out the birds, but she didn't want to leave Hal alone in case the men pulled anything.

  Both men glanced at her, probably surprised she knew the situation as well as she did. They must have forgotten the part about the job she did.

  Hal made a call. "Sheriff, I've got a couple of poachers on my land. Here's the information."

  She assumed he called Dan by his title, which she hadn't once heard him use, to impress upon the men the trouble they were both in.

  "They're both from Denver."

  That said it all. They weren't cougars from the area or they would have known not to trespass here.

  "All right. We're going to check out the birds they killed." Hal continued to eye the men with irritation.

  She noted that not once had they denied they had killed any.

  "Nope. They didn't take them with them. They heard us riding up on horseback and figured they'd take off on foot and pretend they didn't know anything about this. They just didn't realize that they'd not only have to deal with a deputy sheriff, but a FWS Special Agent also, who's trained in investigating poachers and more when it comes to the harm done to wildlife."

  Watching the men's reactions, and knowing they wouldn’t get much more than a tiny fine and a slap on the wrist if they'd just shot some ducks illegally, she suspected more was going on here. Hal cast her a look that said he thought the same.

  So what had they shot?

  Hal handed them back their licenses after taking down all the information, seized their rifles and secured them, then remounted his horse and motioned for the men to walk with them.

  It was killing Tracey not to ride ahead of the men, but she stuck with Hal, ensuring the men didn't decide to take off. They were both sweating now and looking nervously about.

  "So what did you shoot?" Tracey finally said. "Couldn't have been birds."

  Neither man said anything.

  "What else visits the pond?" she asked Hal.

  "Everything. Big game, when it gets hot and dry like this. Bull moose, mountain goats, bull elk, pronghorn antelope, bighorn sheep." He paused when the men looked guilty as sin. "You killed a bighorn sheep?"

  "Jail time and damn big fines," Tracey said, furious, but glad something would be done about it. She suspected that because of the cougars running things here, they'd give them the maximum sentence they could.

  Hal gave Ted a call and told him they were in the middle of apprehending a couple of poachers. "No, Ricky can't help. I'm sure he's got chores he's doing for you. All right. Out here."

  When they got beyond the stand of pine trees, they saw the bighorn sheep lying dead beside the pond. Tracey was glad they hadn't wounded it and left it to suffer. She dismounted and measured his horn length. "At least one-half curl, twenty-five thousand dollar fine in addition to a fine between one-thousand up to one hundred thousand dollars, imprisonment of up to a year in the county jail, and an assessment of twenty points. If convicted, the commission may suspend any or all license privileges for a period of one of year to life. So who shot him?"

  The animal had been shot several times.

  Neither man spoke up.

  "That's okay," she said to the men. "We'll determine who shot him." She glanced in Hal's direction. "Do you want to make the arrests or shall I?" That was one thing she loved about being a Special Agent. She had the authority not only to use a firearm in the apprehension of people like this, but she could arrest them.

  "I'll do it." Hal dismounted and secured their wrists with plastic ties. Then he read them their rights. He called for backup. "I need a pick up. The hunters shot a bighorn sheep, not waterfowl as we had thought. Yeah, big fines and jail time, if we're lucky."

  One of the men snorted. Hal cast him a small smile. Tracey suspected luck would have all to do with them having done so in the cougar territory. Word would spread that it was not a good idea to poach in the cougars' jurisdiction.

  "Yeah, I'll head them on over to the road. You can pick them and the evidence up, and we'll head on out."

  One of the men muttered to the other that they were serving no damn jail time.

  Tracey hoped he was wrong. She glanced at Hal. He smiled at her. She liked that the cougars ran the territory. Too bad more didn't run other areas.

  After waiting about forty minutes, Stryker picked them up in a police pickup. He and Hal loaded the animal in the back.

  "What about my car," the black-haired man said.

  "We'll have a tow truck pick it up."

  "And I'll have to pay for that?"

  "It's parked on my property," Hal said. "Remember the part about trespassing on private property, the signs posted all over, along with the no hunting signs?"

  "Yeah, I forgot about that part," Tracey said. "Sounds like some more charges, more fines. Expensive hunting trip for the two of you."

  Stryker looked like he'd rather be riding horseback alongside Tracey, but then she worried—did she look like she'd had a tumble with Hal? Great. When it came to her job, she forgot everything else.

  After Stryker took the men in his vehicle and waited for the tow truck to show up, they visited for a bit, and then once the tow truck arrived, Hal and Tracey headed back to the ranch.

  She wanted to ask if Hal thought Stryker knew about what had happened between the two of them. About how far they'd gone. But then again, she really didn't want to know.

  When they got back to the ranch, Ted took the horses' reins. "Beef stroganoff is simmering on the stove. Ricky and I'll take care of the horses, and then we can eat."

  "I'm going to pack." Tracey blushed furiously and hurried up to the house.

  Ted smiled at Hal. "I heard she had a date with Stryker today. Did you…beat him to it…again?"

  Hal smiled and slapped him on the back. "This time it couldn’t be helped." He turned to head to the house and pack.

  "Couldn't Stryker have served as her bodyguard?"

  "Nah. He's a full-time deputy sheriff. Dan would have been shorthanded then."

  Ted said to Ricky, "That's the way to get the girl."

  "I offered to protect her. I was trying to shoot at the bad guys when they had us pinned down in the cave, but she wouldn't let me," Ricky said. "What happened out there?" He motioned in the direction of the ponds.

  "We'll talk about it over the meal." Hal stalked off toward the house.

  As soon as he was done packing, he saw Tracey heading out to her Hummer with her bags. He headed her off. "We're taking my vehicle. I'm driving."

  "I thought we would take both."

  "No. Too dangerous. One vehicle. One driver."

  "Has anyone ever told you that you're awfully bossy?"

  He just chuckled and loaded her bags in his truck. Then they rejoined the others in the house.

  When they were getting ready to eat at the dining room table, she said, "Can we sit outside? We can't watch the sun set this early, but I'd love to just sit outside and see the vista while we eat."

  "Yeah," Ricky said.

  "Sounds good to me." Ted grabbed his plate of stroganoff, and they all headed outside.

  She really wished she didn't have to go.

  "No shootouts this time?" Ricky asked Hal as if he was afraid she wouldn't want to tell him the truth. "When she's involved, someone's usually shooting at her. And at whoever's with her." He scarfed down some of his stroganoff.

  "Not this time," Tracey said.

  "I would've come and helped you out, but Ted wouldn't let me go. He said I couldn't ride yet, and I couldn't have my gun back."

  "Maybe someday, if you keep out of trouble, you c
ould do something like we do," Tracey said.

  Then Hal told them all about what had happened, and Ricky kept asking more about laws and anything else he could think of.

  Tracey hoped that meant he wanted to stay on the right side of the law and not learn how to ensure he didn't get caught breaking them in the future.

  When Tracey finished eating her meal, she said, "This was so good. I'd love to have it again sometime."

  "I can certainly fix it for you." Hal rose from the table.

  "Are you sure that I can't go—" Ricky didn't finish what he was saying when both Tracey and Hal shook their heads at him.

  "Fine. I'll just eat some more." Ricky went to the kitchen to serve up some more stroganoff on his plate.

  Ted cleared his throat. "Is the agency paying for room and board for Ricky?"

  "I'm earning my keep," Ricky said.

  Ted shook his head.

  They all laughed.

  "Mind Ted while I'm gone," Hal said.

  Tracey smiled at Ricky. "I'm glad you're here."

  Ricky was still holding his plate, but not going anywhere. "But you're leaving."

  "It's all part of the job. Watch out for anyone who might come to the ranch. Not that anyone might, but just be on guard." Tracey glanced in Ted's direction. He nodded. She was glad he'd be watching out for Ricky.

  Then she and Hal headed out to his truck.

  As soon as they were on their way, Hal said, "I still think this business with you is something more personal. Have you ticked off anybody lately?"

  She gave him a get-real look. "Do you know how many traffickers I have put in jail or got hefty fines? Who lost their sales licenses? Hunting licenses? Who were given a black eye when it came to their friends and family? Of course, I've ticked off some people." Tracey folded her arms and leaned back in the seat as Hal drove her to her parents' home.

  "A lot, huh?" Hal smirked at her.

  "Yeah. A lot. I keep busy."

  He sighed. "But no other case that might be connected to this one."

  "What do you think would make it really personal?"

  "You killed someone's brother or best friend?"

  "That's possible. I killed three men in the line of duty during the shootout in Anderson on New Year's Day. One of them murdered my partner." She closed her eyes and remembered seeing her partner die, and she didn't believe she'd ever get over it. She was just lucky she'd managed to get three of them before they killed her also. "But one made a clean getaway. He was wounded also. My partner was still alive, I hoped, but I couldn't reach my Hummer to get phone reception. They were waiting for me up on the cliffs, and I knew I'd be gunned down by these men if I tried to make it through town as a human. And I couldn't carry my cell with me as a cougar."