“I noticed the foyer light is up. Did Angelo come to the rescue?”
“Bingo.”
Angelo was Isabella’s older brother and one of her dad’s construction supervisors. Her mom usually called him whenever her dad had one of his little accidents so he could get over to the house and complete the unfinished project before her dad got home from the hospital.
“Got any big plans for tonight?”
“I thought I’d head over to Rosa’s for a burrito and beer after your mom gets in.”
“No hot date tonight either?”
Isabella sank further down in the couch and crossed her arms. “Not unless Mason wants to join me,” she said smiling. “He’s the best guy I’ve been around in a long time.”
Mason grinned and hugged her. “Shoosh, girl!”
The back door opened and Sam’s mom came in brushing snow from her coat and hat.
“Hi, sweeties! I think the snow is finally slowing down out there.”
She crossed over and gave Mason a hug and kiss. “I know you two girls probably have some plans, so get out of here before the snow starts in again!”
THIRTY MINUTES LATER, Sam and Isabella were seated in one of Rosa’s booths sipping Margaritas.
They were enjoying Mariachi music and monster burritos when Sam noticed John O’Connor, one of their county commissioners, come in with another man behind him. The guy had a full beard and long hair and looked familiar, but he had a baseball cap pulled down low over his face so Sam couldn’t get a good look at him. The waitress seated the men in the booth behind them and Sam could hear them order drinks.
“I heard you had a hard day today at the Wilson Ranch,” Isabella said.
“Yeah, it wasn’t one of my better days. I had to put down one of their prize mares and send their champion stallion to CSU for treatment. I think I’ll be on the Wilson’s black list forever, which really hurts me I can tell you.”
Isabella giggled. “Yeah. I know how much you like to impress the Wilson’s.”
Sam nodded. “You know only too well how I feel about them. Hey! Did I tell you I saw Cheyenne Wells today? Have you seen him lately? Holy shit! Here I was covered in horse poop and cow snot, drenched to the skin from being outside all morning, which frizzes my hair and makes me look all weird, and he looked like an Aztec God. I couldn’t believe it.”
”Aztec God? Cheyenne? You’re kidding! I haven’t seen him in years. He really must have changed a lot since high school if he looks like an Aztec God now.”
Sam took a big gulp of her Margarita and grinned. “He’s iced. He was wearing tight jeans and I could see his muscles rippling through his shirt………” She stopped when Isabella raised her eyebrows.
“Omigod! You’ve got the hots for Cheyenne Wells!”
Sam stared at her friend. “Bite me.”
Isabella laughed. “Okay. I get the picture. He’s a God now and you’re pissed.”
“Damn right I’m pissed. Who said he could grow up to be an Aztec God? And then, he had the nerve to kiss me!”
“No way!” exclaimed Isabella. “How did that happen?”
Sam slowly shook her head. “I don’t really know. I was standing there looking like a drowned rat from being outside all morning and all of a sudden he had his arms around me and we were in a lip lock.”
“Wow.” Isabella’s eyes were dreamy. “Is he a good kisser?”
Sam pursed her lips together. “Good God, Isabella. We’re talking about Cheyenne Wells here, not Brad Pitt.” She picked up her Margarita and sloshed the ice around while Isabella watched her. Then she grinned. “But it wasn’t bad.”
Isabella shook her head in disbelief. “Unbelievable. After all these years you two end up kissy-kissy.”
Sam grimaced. “Kissy-kissy? I don’t think so girlfriend. That was an impulse kiss, not an invitation for a long term relationship. But the worst part was I had a confrontation with Marietta. What a shitty day. I need another Margarita.”
The Mariachi band took a break and there was silence in the restaurant. Sam could hear the two men talking in low voices behind her.
“I heard Wilson was going to sign a contract with that developer,” the young man said. “That’s going to have a negative impact on our open space plans and be a detriment to our ecological environment. Were you able to talk any sense into him, John?”
“Are you kidding!” the other man snorted. “That jackass is so full of himself he won’t listen to anyone. He only listens to the almighty dollar – his god.”
“Well, maybe if we ………”
They lowered their voices and Sam leaned back to try and hear what they were saying.
Isabella stared at her with disbelief. “Are you eavesdropping on those two men behind you?” She asked in a loud whisper.
“Ssssh. I heard them say something about the
Wilson’s
. You know how I love for people to gossip about the Wilson’s! They may say something I can pass around so be quiet a minute.” Sam giggled as Isabella rolled her eyes.
The waiter brought them two more Margarita’s and someone started the jukebox with an old Freddie Fender favorite, “Wasted Days and Wasted Nights.”
Great, Sam thought. I’ve had the perfect wasted day. Maybe I can get totally wasted before the night is over!
The next day dawned with beautiful sunshine and snow on the mountain peaks. Sam’s workdays always started early and she was in her office by 7:00 checking voice mail and other messages left by Melanie. Then she looked at her calendar to see what was scheduled for the day.
The phone rang and Samantha picked it up. “Dr. Kendrick speaking.”
“Dr. Kendrick, this is Suzanne from the Lazy W. Cheyenne asked me to call because we have several horses he’d like you to check. He’s afraid they may be coming down with that same virus. I’ll have Jose bring them to the treating room if you can come out right away.”
“Okay. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Sam groaned when she hung up the phone. She was thinking of Marietta. She knew if Marietta saw her back at their ranch things could get ugly, but she had no choice since Doc wasn’t back yet.
A short time later Sam drove up to the Lazy W. When Dundee saw where they were he jumped in the back and laid down on his pillow. He made it clear he wasn’t interested in joining Sam.
“Chicken,” she told him before she closed the truck door. She walked to the barn and met Suzanne at the door.
“Cheyenne is on his way to CSU to check on
Brio
, but he left Jose in charge. He’s in the treating room with the horses waiting for you,” Suzanne told her.
“How is
Brio
doing?” Sam asked before she headed toward the back.
“Cheyenne said he’s not out of the woods. We’re not sure if he’s going to make it.” Suzanne shook her head sadly. “He’s such a beautiful stallion and worth a fortune. He’s insured, but money can’t replace our
Brio
.”
Suzanne went into her office and Sam made her way through the barn to the vet’s room and saw Jose with two geldings.
“
Buenos Dias
,” Jose said with a slight nod.
“Do you speak English?
Hablas ingles
?” Sam asked.
“Yes,
un poquito
, a little.”
“Good. Let me check these guys out.”
She went to work and looked both horses over thoroughly. “When did they last eat, do you know?”
“
Si
, not much day before, and no today.”
“Any diarrhea?”
“
No, senorita.
”
“Well, you need to watch them carefully. I think they may have colic, or eaten some bad hay or grain. I’ll get some fecal samples to test immediately to make sure they’re not coming down with the Salmonella virus. I want you to stall them and not put them with any other horses, do you understand?”
“
Si, si, doctor.
”
“Good, I’ll give them some medicine to help them get over the colic. Let me know immediately if they start having any diarrhea. You can have Cheyenne call me if he has any questions.”
“
Bueno, bueno. Gracias.
”
After Sam doctored the horses and Jose led them out, she was finishing up her paperwork when she heard a voice outside the treating room door. Evidently someone was on a cell phone but she didn’t recognize who was talking. She didn’t pay much attention until she heard her name, then her ears perked up.
“Yeah, yeah, I put the note in the mail box just like you told me. But that damn dog that belongs to that vet, Kendrick, found a syringe in the field with the mare. It could be the one that fell out of my pocket.”
There was silence for a minute and then more talking as the voice faded away. Whoever was talking was walking away and Sam quickly moved to peek around the door.
By the time she got there no one was in sight. She didn’t recognize the voice but she knew it was a man. Could someone be intentionally infecting the horses with a Salmonella virus?
Sam shuddered as she slipped her hand in her coat pocket and felt the syringe Dundee found yesterday. She decided to get out as fast as possible and take the syringe with the samples to CSU for testing.
Sam packed her gear up as quickly as possible. One thing she didn’t want was to run into Marietta again. She grabbed her stuff and headed for the door. She turned the corner and smacked into Marietta, knocking her red glasses to the ground.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Marietta snarled as she snatched up her glasses and put them back on her face. They were a little crooked but Sam didn’t think she noticed. She was way too pissed to notice anything but her right then.
“Suzanne called me out to check two of your geldings. She said Cheyenne was worried they may be coming down with the same virus the others had and wanted someone to check them over.”
“Where the hell is Doc? Isn’t he back yet?”
“No. He’s supposed to get back some time later on this morning.”
“Well, I don’t want you here without him so get out! You’ve done enough damage to this ranch. I can’t believe you put
Brilliante
down without consulting me. What kind of moron are you anyway?”
Sam could see Lance rushing up behind Marietta with a concerned look on his face.
“What’s the problem here?” he asked when he got to them.
Marietta turned and gave him a disgusted look. “There’s no problem except this inept girl who’s posing as a vet coming out here and treating my horses.”
Lance patted Marietta’s shoulder. “Now Marietta. Doc wouldn’t have her as a partner if she’s inept, you know that. She’s just doing her job so calm down.”
Instead of having a calming effect Sam could see the blood rushing to Marietta’s face and knew the explosion was coming. She slowly backed away.
“You are such an idiot! I don’t know why I didn’t divorce you years ago!” Marietta screamed at him.
Then she turned to Sam.
“Get out! And I mean now!”
Sam grabbed her stuff and hauled ass to her truck. She looked back once and saw Marietta yelling in Lance’s face with her crooked red glasses bouncing up and down on her nose.
March went out like a lamb a day later, and the warm April sunshine melted the snow and felt like a mother’s sweet kiss on the front range of Colorado. But the warm spring weather didn’t soften the blow when the test results came back from CSU on
Brio
and
Brilliante
. Both had been infected with the Salmonella Colitis X virus.
Brio
was making a slow recovery, but Marietta was mad as hell at Sam, telling everyone because of her inexperience she had panicked and made the wrong decision to put the mare down when she could have saved her.
Sam didn’t worry too much about the politics at the Lazy W. When Doc got back she told him everything that happened. She knew he could handle the Wilson’s and squash any malicious gossip spread by Marietta.
After overhearing the conversation on the cell phone, Sam was not surprised when the syringe tested positive with traces of the Salmonella virus in it. Someone had purposely injected the horses with the deadly virus just as she feared.
Doc gave copies of the test results to Lance and Marietta as well as to George Olson, their county sheriff. Unfortunately there were so many fingerprints on the syringe, not to mention Dundee’s own paw prints, that the sheriff wasn’t able to get any clues as to who might have injected the mare or stallion. No syringes or any evidence was found in
Brio’s
stall.
“I believe it was a threat to try and change Lance’s mind about selling off half his land to developers,” Doc told Sam that morning. “I even told him, but he’s a stubborn old fool and won’t back down. Can’t blame him much on that, though. Tough ol’ ranchers like him can’t be pushed around. But I reckon he’s keeping a real close watch on all his horses so it won’t happen again.”