“Anonymous tip,” she shot back.
Cam looked directly at Jake. “Anonymous, my ass.”
Shandi’s bright, piercing green eyes dared the sheriff to press the issue. She’d pulled her fiery red hair back into a pony tail, unveiling in full her striking, determined features. Jake knew she hated exercise, but apparently good genetics, an active job, and the burdens of being a single mother kept her fit and attractive.
While certainly qualified for bigger and better things, she’d remained in Rose Valley, and worked now for the Rose Valley Reporter, writing rote articles about the drudgery of small-town life. A rare story like this excited her inner investigative journalist.
“Come on, Shandi,” the sheriff pleaded. “You’ve got more important things to do. It’s just a dead lamb.”
In high school, Shandi had run in the same circle as these three men, even though her parents tried to keep her away from the older boys. She had been particularly close to Jake, but their friendship had evaporated when Jake left town for nearly two decades. Since his return, they’d begun to reconnect, and Jake hoped this lead would further strengthen their bond.
“A lamb and a goat, Sheriff. Both torn in half. Neither one eaten. You don’t find that strange?”
The sheriff sighed, his broad shoulders slumping down. He marched back to his Suburban in a juvenile huff with no more words, and in an act of minor defiance, drove through the field to escape Shandi’s blockade and what had become hostile territory.
Shandi grinned as she turned towards Steve and Jake, entirely too pleased with herself. “Mornin’, boys!”
She pulled the Nikon from her hip and, without permission, started taking pictures of the bloody pieces of the lamb. Steve didn’t object, but he did throw an exasperated look to Jake, one full of unspoken memories of the endless mischief Jake and Shandi heaped on him over the years.
“So, whadyathink, guys? What did this? I mean, ripped in two? That’s insane. Nothing could do that, right?” She talked with a fevered clip, unlike most in Rose Valley.
Steve shrugged. “Who knows. I’m going to have to hire some extra help to keep an eye out, though. I can’t afford to be losing my sheep to whatever did this.”
“I really appreciate the text,” Shandi said, flashing a quick wink Jake’s way. “The sheriff made Bill over at Serendipity clean it all up before I could get there. A picture is worth a thousand words, they say.”
“It’s a pretty gruesome picture.” Jake said.
“Do you think cheetahs could do this?” she said. “They’ve got some over at Relics Wildlife Reserve. Maybe they got out.”
“No idea. Seems like it would take two cheetahs to rip it in half like this. And then why wouldn’t they eat it?”
Shandi dropped the Nikon back to her hip. “Yeah. Good point. Why kill anything if you’re not going to eat it?”
With Shandi done with her pictures, Steve walked in, picked up the back half of the lamb and tossed it into the four-wheeler’s trailer. Jake could tell he just wanted to move on with his day. Steve had a lot of work to do and speculating about wild animals didn’t feed the chickens or move the sheep.
“Sheriff says it was a coyote.” Jake rolled his eyes, making it clear that he didn’t buy into the theory.
Shandi laughed. “Right. I think it’s more believable that aliens did this.”
Steve picked up the front half of the lamb. “Probably just some prank. School’s starting up again soon. The kids get crazy towards the end of the summer.”
Shandi replied, “Pretty macabre prank.”
She glanced over the scene one more time. Satisfied that she had gotten what she needed, she approached Jake and embraced him in a quick, light hug.
“Thanks again for the tip, Jake. You should get out more. You’re good people.” She flashed him a wistful smile before turning to Steve. “Have a good one, Steve.”
Steve nodded and touched the brim of his ball cap. “You too, Shandi.”
She walked over to her Camry and climbed in. Within moments, Shandi tore away from Watermelon Ranch, returning things to the quiet bleating of sheep and the laid-back unflappability of the ranch-hands. The ranch felt empty without Shandi’s energy.
She would write one hell of a story. Perhaps about the Sheriff’s Department trying to hide grisly livestock mutilations from the masses. Or maybe a piece about how the sheriff failed to provide protection for the citizens of Rose Valley from a dangerous creature.
Whatever her angle, Jake knew that Shandi would take any opportunity she could to crucify her ex-husband.
What kind of creature could, or would want to, wreak this much havoc? Jake imagined a predator lurking in the shadows of Rose Valley, unknown to science and poised to shock the world with its existence. He imagined Bigfoot, or chupacabras, or something else newer and more dangerous. After a year of rehabilitation from a car accident that nearly killed him, the mystery of an unknown creature stoked a fire within him that had been dormant for far too long.
He had a mystery to solve, even if it meant embracing his place in the world once again.
CHAPTER 2
~~~
Shandi slammed the paper down on the desk of her editor, Dan Carter. His slow, measured demeanor brought into question his fitness to run the paper now, but he had shepherded the Rose Valley Reporter through decades of news.
“What the hell, Dan?” Shandi yelled, her flushed complexion matching her hair.
Shandi reached over and flipped the paper to page seven, tearing multiple pages along the fold as she went. There, a meager headline flatly stated: “Coyotes Attack Local Ranches.” Shandi’s name graced the byline, but one would be hard pressed to find any remnants of her original article.
Dan remained calm. Dan was always calm, maddeningly so.
“I know, I know,” Dan said, throwing up his hands as if to physically defend himself. “Look. The sheriff called and had some concerns about what you might print. It’s the same story, Shandi. It’s just less editorialized.”
He had a point. She couldn’t think clearly when
