He falls in step beside me, tail stiff, ears sharp. He looks like Snoopy on a hunt—if Snoopy had fangs and murder in his eyes.
The beam sweeps across the yard: metal bins, the old tractor, water troughs, nothing out of place. Until?—
The barn. The door’s cracked.
My heartbeat throbs at the base of my throat. I push inside.
The smell hits first—sweet, syrupy, chemical.
Antifreeze?
My stomach lurches.
My light lands on a feed sack, slit open, powder spilled across the floor like sugar.
I see someone bent over a bag, hand clutching something?—
“Gilbert?”
He whirls, eyes wide. In his grip, a small flask glints. For a heartbeat, we just stare. My brain takes a second to catch up with what my eyes already know.
“Doctor…Kirk,” he stammers, guilt twisting his face.
“What the hell are you doing?” My voice is like a whip because I know what the motherfucker is doing.
“I—ah—just came to check?—”
“You killed Ranger,” I accuse.
“It’s not like that!” His hand jerks. The flask hits the ground with a clatter, liquid splashing dark across the dirt.
Bandit explodes into barking and lunges.
“Bandit, no!” I cry.
Gilbert swings a boot, catching Bandit in the ribs. The dog yelps but snaps back, teeth bared. Rage rips through me.
“Stop it!” My scream tears my throat.
I lunge for the container, desperate to keep it away from the feed, keep Bandit away from the antifreeze?—
But Gilbert shoves me.Hard.
My skull cracks against the corner of a metal trough. White light bursts across my vision. The world tilts, spins. My knees give out, and the flashlight clatters out of reach.
Bandit lunges again, fury in every snarl. Gilbert curses, kicks, then bolts. I hear boots pound against dirt, fading into the night.
Silence drops, except for Bandit’s frantic whining. He presses against me, trembling, licking my hands, my face.
“I’m alright, sweet boy,” I murmur, though the words scrape weakly. My fingers grope my temple and comeaway sticky. Blood.
The torn bag, with feed spilling wide, and the reek of sweet and chemical odors, soaked deep into the grain.
Gilbert. The man I trusted. The man Bodie trusted.
Fuck!
My hand shakes as I fumble for my phone and call Cade first and then the police.
