On their ride toward the southern part of the valley, Luke couldn’t help the fury rushing through him. All the details pertaining to this incident sounded too close to his own and several other cases, all involving the same patterns—masked men attacking ranches, stealing horses, and setting fire to homes. It was infuriating.
“There it is!” the young man yelled after they’d rushed their horses in a wild race against time for almost fifteen minutes. They were roughly six miles outside of Stevensville when the tall barn roof became visible. Shortly after, they arrived at the ranch house. Luke could immediately see the charred part of the roof and side wall where the fire had started.
They all jumped off their horses at the same time.
“Stay back, please,” Luke said to the young man with a stern tone. He nodded obediently as he took the reins of both their horses.
Luke immediately rushed to the burned part while Caleb walked around the other side of the house.
It was disheartening when Luke noticed all the footsteps where people had obviously tried to douse the fire. Since the temperatures were on the milder side, the snow was now mixed in with wet mud, and they had probably trampled most of the evidence into the ground.
Searching the roofline for possible fire starters, Luke didn’t find any evidence there either. Then his eye caught an oddly shaped, charred piece of something sticking out of the snow several feet away from the house. When he picked it up, it was the broken-off neck of a small bottle. On closer inspection, Luke noticed the distinct smell of kerosene, and he saw the remnants of a burned piece of cloth inside the bottle neck. Spinning around, he searched the ground for similar pieces and found two others. All three exhibited the same distinct smell of kerosene or some kind of strong alcohol. It could have been a combination of both.
“Caleb! Have a look at this!” he called to his deputy, who came around the other side within seconds.
The fact that they were lying around like this near the burned part of the house could only mean one thing. The criminals had used these to start the fire.
“Have you ever seen this before?” Luke asked, but Caleb shook his head. Luke had heard of this method only once before.
“They stole all the horses…” the young man said from a little distance away.
“Thank you. We’ll take it from here,” Luke said with some urgency as he took the reins from both horses. He didn’t want to waste more time. “I’ll file a report, and hopefully I can update you and your family with some information.”
“Thank you, Sheriff! You can find us on the Fallon Ranch, next door.”
Luke nodded, and the young man raced off toward his family’s home as he and Caleb climbed back into the saddle and began following the many hoof prints in the snow.
They didn’t speak much as they listened closely for possible unnatural noises. Maybe these criminals would shoot randomly at something, giving away their location. Anything was possible, since sound travelled far in these mountains, especially during winter, when all the trees were bare.
It was impossible to tell how many animals had ridden this way because it was all a big mess, but after a long ride which led them all the way into the thick woods on the outskirts of the valley, they came across an old, decrepit house.
By now, it was much later in the afternoon, and the sun had already begun its descent. Luke and Caleb dismounted at adistance and crept in a crouched position closer to the building. They didn’t see or hear anything, and it became obvious that the thieves had abandoned the house a while ago.
They searched separately around the building, but aside from relatively fresh horse droppings in various places, they came up short. Looking up at the house, some of the windows were broken, and the front door was in dire need of repair. Both men carefully ventured inside to have a look around. It was very bare, scarcely furnished—just some random chairs and one table in the middle of the main room.
“They were definitely here,” Caleb said quietly as Luke looked around. “They dragged in snow, and those footprints haven’t fully dried up yet.” Caleb pulled one hand out of its glove and held it over the fireplace. There were no embers visible, but the ashes still radiated a little heat.
“They even had lunch,” Luke said disparagingly, pointing at leftover bones all in and around the fireplace.
“Look!” Caleb exclaimed. Luke spun around and saw his deputy briskly walking over to the table, where he picked something up, shaking off a little dirt. “Look at this!” he said, as he held up a piece of paper. “They must have left this behind…”
“Well, what is it?” Luke asked impatiently. Caleb handed him the paper.
“It’s an advertisement,” Luke said aloud as his eyes scanned the printed pamphlet. “For a horse chow… at the Christmas Fair… in Stevensville…” Then his eyes widened at the last part. “This is for the Christmas Fair this year!” he exclaimed. “So, this isn’t an old pamphlet! This is new!”
“There’s a horse auction at that fair,” Caleb mused. “It could be possible that they want to sell the stolen horses there… Why else would they carry this around?”
Luke nodded in agreement.
“At these auctions, the sellers sometimes take a whole week in advance to get the temporary stables ready for their horses,” he said. “Just to get it all set up and ready for the show.” Luke stroked his beard, reading over the pamphlet again. “If that’s the case, this could be our chance to track down the thieves, maybe even their gang leader, if theyaredown there to sell.”
Luke didn’t want to sound too hopeful, but this pamphlet was the best news in years, and it was hard to contain his excitement at having found such a crucial piece of information. He carefully folded the pamphlet in half before he hid it in the pocket of his vest, right below the sheriff’s star. They left the house and walked back to their horses. It was time to head back—the first snowflakes were beginning to fall.
A short while later, when they’d left the woods behind, heading back toward Stevensville, Luke praised Caleb. “This could be the breakthrough we’ve been looking for so long,” he said. “Well done, Caleb!”
“Thank you. But this was clearly God’s doing,” Caleb replied, which elicited an eyeroll from Luke. “He put it there. I am certain of it!”
Luke grunted.
