Chapter 26

Ryan

The excitement bubbling through me was absolutely ridiculous, like a kid on Christmas morning. When I first decided to do it, I’d thought it would be just a really nice gift, a drop in the bucket compared to the sports car collection I kept in my garage under my building. It was something she could really use on a daily basis. I felt like it was almost like giving to a charity, or at least, that was what I had convinced myself. When I started talking to the dealers and suppliers, though, the project went from small to huge in the blink of an eye. I had no idea what she was going to need, and what had started as a normal, run of the mill van, suddenly morphed into a top-of-the-line mobile laboratory. I became obsessed with including everything she would ever need and most of everything she would ever want. Nothing was too good for Sara, and she deserved every part of it.

In the end, I found myself pulling up to her practice in a quarter-million-dollar van. It was chump change to me, what I would spend on a weekend away in the islands or a small vacation home, but for her, it would be career-changing, and that was worth every single penny. When I pulled up out front, she came outside, stopping and staring at me as I opened up the door and stepped out. I was really nervous at her reaction, but I was doing the best I could at disguising it with a ridiculous smile, hoping the enthusiasm of it all would carry the day. As the breeze blew over us, she wrapped her arms around her and looked at me.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

I walked forward still smiling and looked down at her. I could tell she was curious and maybe a little unnerved, but I didn’t care. She was going to love the thing. I looked back at the van and then to her, feeling the butterflies in my stomach.

“I bought you a going-away present to remember me by,” I said. “Come here.”

I pulled her to the back of the van and opened up the doors, stepping to the side and waiting. Her reaction went from confused to awestruck in about two seconds, and I had to hold back a chuckle. She stood there just staring into the back, no words coming to her.

“Come on,” I nodded. “Check it out.”

Going from a rather nondescript exterior to an interior outfitted with the latest technology made her jaw drop almost to the floor. I pressed a button and watched as the ramp extended from the back. Slowly, she stepped up into the van and looked around clutching her hands together. I came up beside her and smiled triumphantly.

“It has everything you’ll need,” I said, walking over to the right. “There’s the mounted hydro table in case you need to do something right then and there.”

“Hydraulic.” She giggled.

“Huh?”

“Hydraulic table,” she pointed out.

“Right.” I laughed. “Then I had them put in the x-ray machine and this OG something or other oxygen system. And then, over here is the anesthesia section with all kinds of parts I can’t pronounce.”

“It’s a vaporizer.” She smiled, lightening the mood.

“Pretty much anything and everything you would need,” I said, turning to her.

“Jesus,” she said with wide eyes. “Ryan, I can’t believe you bought me a mobile lab. This is beyond anything I ever thought I would be able to have. I don’t even know what to say.”

“No problem,” I said, acting as if it was no big deal.

I knew it was a big deal to her, though, something that could really push her practice to the next level and something that might help save some animal lives. She was in wonder, and I didn’t know if she was going to laugh or cry. She walked around the lab, running her fingers over the equipment, shaking her head and smiling.

“I think it’s time to take it for a spin,” I said. “You can get to the seats right through this plexiglass door.”

I held the door open for her and watched as she slowly walked forward. I stuck my hands out and dropped the keys into it, watching her just stand there looking down at them. I had to keep myself from laughing, she was so adorable.

“I want you to drive, to see how smooth it is,” I said. “I’ll put up the ramp and close the back doors. You get comfortable in the driver’s seat.”

I fixed everything up and climbed up into the passenger seat, looking over at her as she put the keys in the ignition and put on her seat belt. She drove out of the practice parking lot and headed toward town. A smile moved over her lips as she drove, making several different turns and loosening up a bit. After driving all over town, I looked over at her and smiled.

“We should head over to your place,” I said. “That’s where I had my driver drop off my SUV.”

“Okay,” she said. “Ryan, this is really the most amazing gift ever. I don’t know how I can possibly thank you enough for this. It’s beyond anything I’ve even dreamed up for a mobile lab. And way more expensive than the practice could ever afford to buy on their own. I don’t even know how I’m supposed to accept such a lavish gift.”

“You just have to,” I said. “It’s nonrefundable, and it might be pretty weird for me to keep this thing and drive it around. People might think I was up to no good.”

She laughed and shook her head, driving toward her house. “They might arrest you for being creepy,” she said.

“In all seriousness, it’s a gift not only for you but for the entire community,” I said. “They rely on you to take care of their animals, some of them being family and the others being their livelihood. You have an important job.”

“Well, thank you for it,” she said, looking over at me as she slowed toward the driveway at her house.

“You’re more than welcome,” I said.

We pulled up into the driveway and the headlights tilted up at the garage door, lighting up a mound lying in front of her car. Her face dropped a little, and I squinted, trying to see what I was looking at. Suddenly, Sara slammed on her brakes and put her hands to her mouth, letting out a bloodcurdling scream. I put my hand on the dash to brace myself from the jolt and looked back at the mound on the ground, my heart racing in my chest. Suddenly, I realized exactly what I was looking at, and I scrambled to get my seat belt undone. I jumped out of the van, leaving Sara sitting there, wishing I could block her from the view, but it was too large, too bloody, too messy. It was almost too much for me, and I had a strong sensibility.

I bent down next to the large animal’s head and shook my head. It was a huge animal, an elk, and its belly had been completely slit open. There was steam rising from the pile of intestines spilling out on the ground and a trickle of blood ran down the driveway under the new van. I covered my mouth and stood up, not believing my eyes. At the sound of the door shutting behind me, I turned and started walking forward. Sara was out of the van, and she was coming closer, her eyes wide and full of tears. I rushed forward, grabbing her by the shoulders and turning her away from the beast. I hugged her close to my body and bent over to her ear.

“You don’t need to see that,” I whispered.

“No,” she whimpered. “I need to go check on it, to see if I can help it. I have all this new equipment, maybe I can save it.”

“No, sweetie,” I sighed. “The poor thing is dead. There’s no doubt about that, and I’m pretty sure there’s nothing you could do at this point to help it. I’m so sorry, Sara.”

Her whole body was shaking against me, and I could feel her trying to fight back the tears. Instantly, my heart contracted in my chest, not wanting her to feel that kind of sadness or fear. Her first thought was to help the thing, not knowing that someone had made damn sure there was no coming back. Slowly and gently, she pulled back and looked up into my eyes. I had to let her go, to make her own decision. I nodded my head and stepped to the side, watching her draw slowly closer to the elk.

She stood there for a second looking over the animal from top to bottom, shaking her head and wrapping her hands around herself. As her eyes moved back up to its head, she stopped and tilted her head to the side. Her arms dropped down, and she took another step forward.

“What?” I said. “What is it?”

“Look,” she said, pointing at the animal. “That elk has the same chipped antler as the one you found on your ranch, the one that I helped. Oh my god, it’s the same elk. I’m not seeing things. How can that even be possible? Someone would have had to have seen me and then tracked the animal down. And this elk was only recently killed. What in the hell is going on?”

“I’m sure that’s not true,” I said, rubbing her shoulder. “You’re upset, and I can see why, but how they could even do something like that?”

“I don’t know,” she said, shaking her head. “But that’s the same elk.”

I shook my head and frowned, looking back at the animal. I stopped and took a step forward, looking at the chipped antler and thinking about the elk at the ranch that day. My mouth fell slightly open, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. She was right. It was the same exact elk as before. Some of the iodine she had put on its hoof still stained its fur. I swallowed hard and reached over, pulling her away and walking her up to her house. She opened the door and walked inside, leaving it open for me.

“You go ahead,” I said. “I’m going to get this animal taken care of for you, okay?”

“All right,” she said shaken. “I’ll make some tea.”

When she disappeared around the corner, I called up the same guy who had taken care of the fawn for me. He was surprised to hear from me, but I explained the situation, and he agreed to come and take away the carcass without disturbing the residents. I thanked him profusely and made a mental note to give him a bonus on his next check. I put the phone back in my pocket and walked into the kitchen as she was finishing up the tea. She handed me a cup, and I followed her over to the kitchen table and sat down across from her. I didn’t say a word, just sat there staring off into space. My mind was running a million miles a minute trying to make sense of what had happened. Not only was that the same animal from the ranch, but it was obvious a person had killed that animal. This was so far off from anything a predator could have done.

There was also no way the elk could have been cut and then magically landed at that specific house in that specific spot in the middle of the night. The ranch was miles away from her, and her house was nestled in the middle of rows of other houses. It would have been an act of God for that kind of coincidence to occur, and I knew that wasn’t possible. No, this was deliberate like the other ones. Someone out there was trying to scare Sara, and they were doing a damn good job of it. They had managed to purposely find the exact animal she had helped at my ranch. It was one she would find a personal connection to. Then, the person brought it to her house and cut open its belly. I was sure it was dead when it arrived, but they had waited to spill its guts since there were no drag marks or footprints.

I brought myself back to the table and looked over at Sara who was staring down at her tea. She looked a bit more relaxed and less in shock than before. It was obvious she was putting as much thought into it as me.

“It’s the third animal,” she whispered. “And the most obviously slaughtered one. Someone is sending me a message.”

They sure were, and I had a feeling I knew exactly who it was.