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“I’ll tell you exactly what I told him. Until a crime has been committed and I’m the one investigating, you cannot just dally wherever you please.”
“I assure you there was no dallying going on.”
Blake laughed then, his eyes crinkling as he took her hand. “Hannah and I have been praying since Kent returned that there would be at least a few minutes of loitering between the two of you. She even told me about the puppy and how she encouraged Kent’s idea that you take it so there was a need for you to talk. Until she missed the dog so greatly, she could no longer allow it.”
Alice crossed her arms, suddenly feeling set up by her family. “And what end did you hope to accomplish? He may talk to me, but after this investigation is over, he won’t have any more to do with me.”
“Do you believe that?” Blake sobered. “He may try, but I don’t think so.”
“I do.” She’d felt him warm, then pull away too many times. He liked the icy shell that kept him safe from what others thought of him.
He released her hand and tilted his head in thought. “Tell me what has happened. He mentioned a dead cow and a dead sheep. That could be an illness. What makes you think the water is to blame?”
She couldn’t fathom why he hadn’t asked Kent, who was more knowledgeable. “First, as near as I can tell, some cattle took sick at the Oleson place. Kent went to see what happened, then a few of his took ill a day or so later. I only knew because I’d met him . . . accidentally in his pasture the day before Hannah’s dog got sick.”
“And you don’t think the dog is linked to this, nor do you think Kent passed the sickness by seeing all of these animals?”
She bit her lip. That was a question she hadn’t asked, and she was the one tasked with thinking of every question. “No, I don’t believe so. He was never near our sheep when they took sick, only after one died.”
Blake nodded, crossing his arms. “And the water?”
“All the sick animals were drinking water from roughly the same source. That river.”
“The Olesons aren’t near the river.” He lowered his chin, giving her a questioning glance.
“No, but the river formed a temporary tributary from the flooding and that’s how those animals were drinking.”
“I offered to get a sample of the water for Kent, but I want your promise that you will stay out of this. The law is not clear about defending property. If they feel like you are trespassing and they have a right to defend their property, they could shoot. They are supposed to call a warning, but if you’re dead, who would testify that they didn’t?”
She swallowed hard and nodded slowly. “I won’t go again.” She prayed that promise wasn’t like the one she’d made to her father. While she knew she’d only broken it to do what was right, it was still broken and would be a thorn between them if she didn’t come clean. This would be all the worse because of the penalty.
“Your father and Louis Douglas will need to come talk to me about this. I need to start a file or I can’t go ask for a sample.”
She laughed, felt not a smidgen of humor. “That will never happen. We might be able to convince Armstrong, but never Louis.” And without him, there would be no file of a crime.
Unless Blake was right and Kent was the unwitting, accidental connection between all the sickness and the plant had nothing to do with anything. If that was the case, Kent would never forgive himself. He already carried more blame than his shoulders could bear.
“Do what you can. I can’t force him to do anything unless he breaks the law. But as it stands, the only ones who have broken anything are you and Kent.” He stood and plopped his hat atop his head. “Enjoy the rest of your supper. I’m sorry to have had to come out here.”
She saw him to the door and headed upstairs instead of returning to her plate. She wasn’t hungry, anyway. If she was the one who had to think, then thinking of a way to convince Louis would fall to her and she was fresh out of ideas.
Chapter16
The living room left little room to pace with all the furniture arranged so people could talk. Alice hung back from the men in the room, her father Armstrong, Kent, and Blake as they talked about the coming meeting with Louis Douglas.
She was certain they would waste their time. After what he’d said to her and even said to his own son, there was no possibility he would ever agree to work with her father, even if it meant saving his own herd. The man was the living definition of bull-headed.
She clenched her hands together, trying to ignore the muffled words just a few feet away. By rights, she didn’t have as much to lose as those men. While she’d cared for the sick sheep, who only seemed to get worse, she didn’t own a single one of them.
“We can sit here jawing or we can go talk some sense into him. But since he is the owner of that herd until he dies, he has to report when one has died by suspicious means.”
She turned to face them and took a deep breath. The thought had plagued her since they’d arrived, and she couldn’t drive it away. “Perhaps we should convince him to do it on his own? There’s no reason the report must be with Pa. Two separate reports might even hold more weight.”
The men stared at her silently until she wanted to fidget. Why did they have to stare at her like that? As if they were weighing whether the idea had merit based on the mouth it came from.
“She does offer some unique perspectives,” Kent stated quietly. “Though Blake said we should work together, this doesn’t have to be a failure if he refuses. There can be another way.”
“The reason I believed it should be one report is that Bodey might well agree with you that they could find the culprit in the water. Louis will not feel that way. He may very well point his finger right over here.” He indicated the Johlman men around him.
