Close Call

Ronnie pressed himself even deeper into the barrel. His lungs began to ache from holding his breath for so long. Sweat dripped down his brow as he silently hoped with all his might that he would remain undetected. He could hear the sisters bicker between themselves. They sounded like they were coming closer and closer. Then one of them shouted.

“Aha! There it is!” one of them exclaimed.

“Now that you’ve got your bandana, let’s get out of here. I don’t want to deal with the sheriff today,” the other replied. “I still have a few bruises from last time.”

Two pairs of heavy footsteps stomped away, growing fainter until he couldn’t hear them at all. Once he couldn’t hear them anymore, he still remained silent inside the barrel. He finally let himself breathe in and out. The stench still lingered, but it was fading away. After about a minute he finally poked his head out of the barrel. He was alone in the alley. His heart was still hammering in his chest as he climbed out.

“Damn, that was a close one,” Ronnie breathed out as he wiped the sweat from his brow. “It almost got ugly back there. At least I got a good look at the culprits.”

April nodded and wrote down on a notepad as Ronnie finished recounting his story. “Yeah, that sounds like a perfect match for Jessie and Jane. They’re pig twins. They might not be very smart, but they’re big and they throw their weight around, literally. I’ll write up an arrest warrant. They’ll be in for a surprise next time they’re in town. Hopefully, a couple of days in a cell will make them think twice.”

Ronnie raised an eyebrow. “Day or two? Mugging is a violent crime. I’m sure you can do better than a day or two.”

The fox visibly deflated. “Ideally, yes, but…”

“But what?”

“Vivian. Vivian is what,” she continued.

“Ah, her.”

“You already know about her?”

“Of her. I know she’s not exactly clean, but does she really have enough power to just wave away violent crime like that?”

“Unfortunately. We can catch them red handed with dozens of witnesses, but at best they just stay for a week behind bars,” April said as she shook her head sadly. “Still, she’ll get hers one day.”

“Well, it’s a bit disheartening that I nearly got stuck between those sisters for only a couple of days of their time,” Ronnie said with a sigh.

“I know what you mean,” she replied with a sigh of her own. “Still, we can’t just give up and let them do whatever they want. Speaking of which, I don’t have any active investigations for you to help, so you can help me finish up some paperwork. I’m sure something else will come along soon before you get bored in a day or two. This place isn’t very big, but there’s always something going on.”

Ronnie regretted taking the assignment to investigate Smiling Jacks from April. He could smell the ranch before he could see it. A deep, overwhelming earthy scent assaulted his nose. It was thick enough for him to almost taste it. And it only got worse from there. His eyes were nearly watering and he began to feel a little lightheaded. Still, he trudged on. Cattle has recently gone missing from town and Jacks was the prime suspect. All he needed to do was verify that some of the missing cattle had somehow found their way into Jacks’ ranch. She probably wouldn’t see much jail time, if at all, but at least the stolen cattle would be returned to their rightful owners.

Lendrz held the telescope in his hands to do just that. Trying a direct approach like asking Jacks herself would end up with him missing. After all, the ranch was the only piece of civilization in miles. No one would be able to hear anything that happened to him.

Ronnie kept low to the ground as the ranch came into view. A tall wooden fence surrounded the entire property. Several large wide barns and a few pens were built within the walls. He could just barely make out the tiny dots that were the ranch hands moving between the buildings. Large dots were lazily milling about in the pens were probably the animals.

The area around the ranch was mostly flat and open but found a small hill. He lay on his stomach behind it and poked his head out. He peered through the lens of the telescope. It took a second for his eye to adjust, but once it did he began scanning the area for the missing animals. He wouldn’t be able to tell any of them apart, especially from this distance, but he could spot some key features. She could have easily gotten away with taking a random animal or two every once in a while, but she had taken several locally famous ones.

“On poney with a heart pattern on his head,” Ronnie said to himself as he turned away to scribble down the information on his notepad. “One winner of the local fair. Wow, they didn’t even bother taking away its ribbon.”

Ronnie kept talking to himself as he took notes of the animals. He was so wrapped up, that he wouldn’t notice if someone had snuck up on him.