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Spotting the grim look on the detective’s face the moment I stepped into the precinct, I knew whatever she had to tell me would not be nice.
“Mister Maxwell,” she greeted me. “My office, please.”
I entered her office and saw the piles of folders on her desk, the coffee maker bubbling away in the corner, and the bookshelf crammed with books of all sizes. She stepped around the table and slid a folder to me. “It’s worse than we thought. One of the chemicals in that trough was Triaryl phosphates.”
“Our men found that even if these animals were given five, ten, or even 20 grams per kilogram, they would have developed diarrhea, severe abdominal pain, dehydration, and eventually comatose. No, the levels were so high the animals skipped all those and died in convulsions. Not only that,” she said, “The calves didn’t have a snowball in hell’s chance of surviving because we found rodenticides in the mix as well.”
My addled brain took a long while to catch up, but rage swept through me like a bushfire when it did. “You mean to tell me this fucker put rat poison in there too?”
“Not only any rat poison but bromadiolone,” she added. “Usually, zero-point zero, zero-five percent of bromadiolone is lethal. The levels in the trough were zero-point ten percent. Overkill, Mister Maxwell, that is what we call overkill.”
Decimals were kids’ stuff, but I wasn’t too shabby either; this attacker had reduced the thousands to hundreds and even rounded up. “They were practically dead from the first swallow,” I grounded out, dropping the folder in disgust and dismay. “Can you trace these to the owner?”
“Unfortunately, we can’t. As hideous as it is, you can find these chemicals in almost every household and farming shop in the town, much less the state, but we’ll try our best.”
“Thank you,” I replied, rubbing my face. “Do you have any leads on the break-in?”
“We’re running down leads on that, too,” she nodded. “See, for a job like that, it had to be a skilled thief, someone with the tools to get in and out without detection. The camera footage your men gave me was good, we don’t know who the person is, but from the figure we’ve found there, we have the bodily characteristics and type to match with any suspect we’ll fetter out.”
I’d seen the same footage and knew that the perpetrator was a slim person, about five foot six, and from how they twisted and turned, they had to be double-jointed. They had worn all black and a hood that only left out the eye space, the slit showing very common brown eyes. Identifying the guy with no fingerprints or DNA left at the crime scene would take a miracle.
“Please relay to me whatever you find.” I stood, lifting the folder. “May I have these?”
“Sure,” Juliann replied. “I have my own.”
With a final nod, I left the precinct for my truck, revved it up, peeled out of the parking lot, and headed back to the ranch. I stopped at the town bakery to pick up some treats for Sam and Harper, then drove home.
I called Ben inside and handed him the folder when I entered my office. “There was rat poison in there, Ben, strong rat poison too. Enough to make sure half the calves were dead if you hadn’t jumped in.”
“Jesus take the wheel,” Ben whistled as his eyes ran over the words. “If West is behind this, he’s a downright wicked sonofabitch.”
“I know he is, but I just need to prove it,” I replied. “Unfortunately, those chemicals are so popular in almost every household.”
“‘Cept this one,” Ben jabbed a finger to the bottom. “Says here it found traces of Toxaphene. That doozy was banned in Texas from the nineteen ninety. Who the heck would have that shit still around?”
“I don’t know,” I replied, taking the paper. “She didn’t mention that. Why, though?”
“Bigger fish to fry,” Ben replied. “A trace doesn’t mean much of anythin’.”
“Maybe…” I said while looking over the list. “But it might help eventually.”
My phone rang, and I saw Rayna’s name light up on the screen. A smile curved the corner of my lips. “Hello?”
“John?” There was a tremor in her voice that instantly removed the slight happiness I’d just felt. “I’m at the supermarket with a friend and…and I think I know who would have t-boned me. She just pulled out of the lot.”
“She?” I frowned. “Who is this she?”
“Miss Hernandez,” Rayna replied. “West’s secretary.”
My blood ran colder than the Arctic. “Do I need to come get you?”
“No,” she replied. “I’ll be fine. My friend Jessica is here with me. She drove me to the supermarket and will stay with me later.”
“Good, stay with her,” I replied, my eyes meeting Ben’s. “Because I have a sudden visit to make.”
I shut the call off and grabbed my hat from the table. “Come with me. We’re going to West’s place.”
