CHAPTER NINETEEN
Double B
Amber~
“Welcome back,” Lance said as Amber came bustling into the stable block.
Big dark faces looked out of the stalls and Buddha nodded at her. Amber scratched the stallion’s nose. “Thank you,” she murmured. Lance stood so close to her that they were almost touching, but she didn’t feel crowded. Apparently he was the one man who could stand as close as he pleased.
“How was your sister?”
“Pretty good – considering she had just had three babies.”
“I thought you were going to stay for a while.”
Amber moved off toward the back wall and the row of hanging pitchforks. Lance followed. “I was, but the babies are still in intensive care. Heather wants me to come to stay when they’re all home.”
“I hear all three are girls.”
“Yup. Want to see?” She pulled out her cell.
“Of course.” He admired Stella, Hope and Bethany in their incubators. “They sure do look tiny. But cute as a bug’s ear.”
Amber nodded. “Everyone says they are doing fine, but all they do is sleep.”
“I think that’s normal for babies,” Lance reassured her. “You get started in Lane Three. I want you to tell me what you notice about Sissy.” Sissy was Alberta’s Silver Scilla. The bay mare was due to give birth.
Amber had been working with the big mare for two weeks. Now she shifted Sissy to one side of the stall so she could muck out. She rapidly filled her wheelbarrow with soiled straw. The horse’s huge belly was even more swollen than it had been two days earlier. And she smelled stronger.
But given the quantity of horse apples in the straw, Sissy was still eating her usual amount of silage, or maybe a little more. She began tucking into the fresh hay Amber provided even before it was properly distributed in the manager.
Lance appeared in the doorway. “Well?”
“She’s bigger. And hungrier.” Was that it? Or was it the smell thing?
“And?” He was grinning.
Amber shook her head. “Let me groom her and ask again.”
“Okay.” He slipped away. She heard him greet the boss’ gelding Dakota in a soft croon.
Sissy’s glossy dark flanks were muscular. Her chest was broad and strong. Her shoes were in good shape. Her ears were clean. No burrs were stuck in her mane or tail. She did have a small amount of discharge dripping down her hind legs. That was new and the source of her stronger smell. It was probably what Lance was expecting her to find. If she remembered correctly, discharge meant that Sissy would foal soon.
She combed the mare’s long tail with extra care and braided it in preparation for the labor. Sissy normally enjoyed being groomed. But today she was impatient with the brush and curry comb. She kept swishing her tail in Amber’s face. It stung. Particularly when it struck directly across her eyes. But she got the job done.
Lance’s voice made her jump. “Well?”
“She’s in labor, right?”
“Just about. Tonight, or maybe tomorrow night. Would you like to stand watch with me this evening?”
“I’d love that.” She hesitated. “I guess I’ll have to go in to the sheriff’s office today and explain about that fight at Hank’s.”
Lance patted her shoulder. “I’ll go with you after stables. I have to sign my own statement. Believe me, the sheriff would wait much longer than this for you to do that paperwork. I told him that the Bascoms had flown you to Washington State to be with your sister.”
“What difference does that make?”
Lance only grinned at her. Well, duh. What was she thinking? The Bascoms could do as they pleased in Success, Colorado.
Amber was still a little nervous when they got to the sheriff’s office. She was glad Lance was in the room too. Of course it wasn’t the prospect of giving a statement or talking to the perfectly friendly sheriff that had made her uneasy. It was the probable consequences of giving testimony against a snake shifter that frightened her.
She was more than a little surprised when the sheriff told her Orville Sutton was still in the county lockup. She had half-expected that the snake would have slithered off by now. It was all too easy for a snake to escape from a lockup. The narrowest crack or vent would do.
“The judge set his bail at ten grand,” Ramirez told them. “I guess that was too high for Mr. Sutton. At any rate, he hasn’t posted bond.”
Lance grunted and his lips tightened.
“What about his friend? That guy Dog?” Amber asked. Although he wasn’t a shifter, Dog smelled like trouble too.
“Mr. Sutton’s associate has left the county,” Ramirez said. “We came up empty on his name, which could either mean that he’s clean, or that Mr. Sutton lied about his buddy’s true name.”
That information was altogether too vague to suit Amber. Neither of those jerks had struck her as the forgiving type. “Do you know where Dog is now?”
“Nope. We don’t have the manpower to put a deputy on a citizen with no outstanding warrants,” Ramirez explained. “However much we’d like to.”
“Well, do you know where they are from?” Lance asked.
“Mr. Sutton’s driver’s license was issued in Illinois. He has only a couple of misdemeanors to his name. No current employment, but that’s not a crime.” Ramirez sounded as dissatisfied with his sketchy facts as Amber felt.
It was obvious the sheriff’s department had been unable to adequately trace Blondie. That was a red flag all by itself. These days the internet could track anyone alive. Anyone could be thrown out of work, but the absence of a job combined with his patchy background, indicated that Blondie bore watching.
Amber looked between Ramirez’s big stern face and Lance’s even graver expression. They were both uneasy about Blondie and Dog, without quite knowing why. But she could hardly blurt out that Sutton was a snake. Briefly, she wished she were back in French Town among bears.
Ramirez had been taping their conversation. He asked a few more questions before he turned off his phone. He was obviously mentally reviewing Amber’s answers against what she had said and he had seen on Saturday. He must have decided it was close enough. He stood up.
“I’ll have this typed up. I suggest you folks go get some lunch. Come back in an hour or so to sign it.”