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Grayson Lawton was on page four hundred and twelve ofFire Dynamics for Structural Analysiswhen Ruth Sanger's voice cut through the diner like a band saw screeching through wood.
“You trumped my ace, Walter!Again.That's the third time today.Do it again, and I swear I willendyou.”
A male voice responded smugly, “It’s not my fault you lost count of how many spades are still out, Ruthie.It’s just arithmetic.”
“Don't youarithmeticme.I've been keeping books in this town since before you could tie your shoes.”
Gray turned a page.The textbook was dense, technical, and exactly the kind of reading that made his pulse slow and his mind go quiet.
He was taking a double course load in fire science and arson investigation this semester.His academic advisor had called the schedule “ambitious.”Gray had refrained from mentioning that he'd already read most of the required texts before enrolling.
He read fast.Always had.And he remembered nearly everything.Which was a blessing if you were fast-tracking a college degree ...and a curse if you'd ever had a conversation you wanted to forget.
Rose's Diner at eleven-thirty on a Friday morning was not the quietest place to study.But the coffee was endless, the Wi-Fi was fast and reliable, and the bunkhouse at the Foster Ranch was too quiet during the day.
The pinochle posse, as they called themselves, occupied their regular booths near the front window.They were there every day between eleven-thirty and one, cards out, pennies stacked in tidy columns, gossip flowing as freely as Rose's coffee.
The players changed depending on the day, but Ruth Sanger was always there—a woman of at least eighty whose memory for numbers, grudges, and other people's business was matched only by her willingness to share all three.
Walter Meeks always sat across from Ruth.He was a retired rancher with hands like catcher's mitts and a booming voice that carried to every corner of the diner whether he intended it to or not.
Today, two other players Gray didn't know rounded out that table, and the second booth held four more strangers, their game already well underway.
Gray's phone vibrated beside his textbook.He glanced at the screen.Dillon Steele, returning his call from this morning.Dillon was the veterinarian who traveled with the rodeo during the competition season.Right now, the lucky jerk was back home in Texas eat home cooking and enjoying spring, with weather in the seventies.
He picked up.“Hey Dillon.Thanks for calling me back.”
“I got your message.What's going on with Jenna's herd?”
Gray leaned back in the booth and pinched the bridge of his nose.“I've been tracking her cows' weight gain over the past several months against the expected growth curve for Angus cows carrying Hereford calves.The numbers don't fit.The cows are significantly too heavy.”
“How significantly?”
“Fifteen to twenty percent above where they should be at this stage of gestation.”
“Is Sully overfeeding them?”Dillon asked.
“Are you kidding?He and Jenna are meticulous in how they run the ranch.Besides,” Gray continued, “the weight distribution is wrong.The cows are gaining all the weight in their bellies.”
“Some cows get bigger than others during pregnancy,” Dillon pointed out.“Same way some calves are bigger than others.”
Gray huffed.“You don’t understand.I borrowed the portable x-ray machine from Tucker's ambulance and x-rayed a couple cows.I measured the length of the calf’s leg bones and skull and compared them against a chart of normal gestational size for Hereford fetuses.”
Dillon burst out laughing.“That’s possibly the nerdiest thing you’ve ever done.And you’ve pulled some doozies in the past.”
Gray rolled his eyes.“Do you want to know what I saw or not?”
“Sure, Professor Cowboy.”
“The calves are too big bymonths.The growth chart said the calves are going to weigh over a hundred pounds at birth.I'm telling you, Dillon, the skeletal growth is consistent with a much larger-boned breed.”
Dillon's voice abruptly waxed serious.“You think the semen shipment she impregnated her herd with was mislabeled?”
“Iknowit was.I also know Jenna's cows, all of whom are first-time mamas, are not built to deliver calves that big.”
“How many head are we talking about?”
