THREE DAYS LATER
It was hot and dry, with no breeze to cool them off.
Danny and Tyrell were doing chores when Tyrell set the wheelbarrow down. He snapped his fingers and nodded toward the west pasture. Two sheep had gotten in. “Brodie boys can’t fix a fence for beans.”
He and Danny headed out and found another one.
“Wonder if there’s more over the ridge,” Danny said.
“Let’s herd these back and take a look.”
Danny whistled for Ruby, who stumbled out from the hay shed. When she saw the sheep, she perked up and ran toward them.
The sheep stirred and hurried back over the ridge.
“Go, Ruby!” Danny called.
Tyrell laughed.
At the top of the rise, Danny and Tyrell looked down at the fence that separated their place from Brodie’s. Three more sheep were on their side, grazing on the slope below.
“Ruby, stay!” Danny said.
She sat but kept an eye on the sheep.
Danny and Tyrell separated to funnel them down the rise. As they neared the Brodies’ fence, Tyrell stooped and picked something out of the grass.
“What is it?” Danny asked.
Tyrell held it up. Another beer bottle.
“What’s going on out here?”
Tyrell sniffed it. “Someone must have come in off the road and passed through.”
Danny looked toward the highway, then back over to miles of rolling rangeland to the north. “Passing through to where?”
“Beats me.” Tyrell stuck the bottle in his back pocket. “Dad should know people are coming through our pasture.”
Danny frowned. “That just doesn’t make sense. There’s nowhere to go.”
Tyrell shrugged.
They continued herding the sheep toward the fence.
“Looks like they broke out in the same spot as the last two times,” Tyrell said.
The wire had come loose and was bowed out where dogs or coyotes had dug under it. Danny put his hands on his hips. “Maybe it would be better if we just fixed it for them.”
“Let’s do it. That loose spot’s probably how Banjo and those dogs got in.”
“Nope,” Danny said.
Tyrell looked at him. “What does that mean?”
“Banjo didn’t chase Brodie’s sheep.”
“He must have been doing something over there.”
Danny jammed his hands in his pockets.
Tyrell turned to head back up the hill. “Get those sheep through the fence. I’ll grab some tools.”
It took some doing, but Danny got them all through. As he stood waiting for Tyrell, he noticed the remains of a small campfire near a rock outcropping on the Brodie side. He frowned. Even though it seemed to have been properly put out, making fires in this dry country was not a good idea.
Still…
A campfire? Here?
They were installing new clips on a green metal post when the Brodie boys came bouncing through the pasture in their ATV.
Billy jumped out and reached back for his rifle. “What are you doing? That’s our fence.”
Tyrell said, “Why, that’s a mighty neighborly greeting there, Billy boy.”
Ben squeezed out of the ATV. “Hey, Danny, Tyrell. What are you doing to our fence?”
“Far as I can tell, there’s a hole in it. Am I wrong about that, Danny?”
“Nope.”
“One more time,” Billy said. “What are you doing?”
Danny threw another shovel of dirt into the hole under the fence. Then another. Something was eating at him, an idea, a thought. He could feel heat rising in his neck.
Tyrell dropped a large rock on the dirt, blocking the hole. “Your sheep got through again. That makes three times in six months. Same hole. Probably the same sheep.” He looked across the fence at Billy. “Someone had to fix it right.”
Billy’s face reddened. “You saying we didn’t?”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“That’s probably how your dog got in,” Ben said.
“You mean that one?” Danny nodded toward Ruby sitting up on the rise.
Tyrell laughed.
Billy held the rifle across his chest. “Pretty sneaky how you tricked our old man into letting your dog off like he did.”
Danny was getting it now. The campfire. The empty beer bottles.
He stabbed the shovel into the ground and glared across the fence. “My dog didn’t chase anything, did he, Billy? You made that up, didn’t you?”
“It’s true!” Billy said. “He attacked our sheep! He was with a pack of wild dogs.”
Danny glared at him. “You lied to your dad.”
Billy stepped closer to the fence. “Who lied to whose dad?”
Danny nearly exploded. But Billy was right.
Ben shouldered in next to his brother. “Your dog was…was attacking our sheep…right up there on that hill, and…and Billy winged him, right, Billy?”
Billy elbowed Ben: Shut up.
“Ow!”
Danny kept his eyes on Billy. “That’s the same story you told the first time. I missed it then, but Ben just now laid it out. You shot Banjo on the hillside, which is on our side of the fence. So how could he chase your sheep? He wasn’t even in your pasture.”
Billy’s mouth pinched tight. His face reddened.
Danny turned to Tyrell. “Show him what you found.”
Tyrell gave Danny a look, then he nodded. He took the bottle from his back pocket and held it up.
Billy’s jaw dropped, just slightly.
That was all Danny needed. He knew it! He had it right. He could feel blood pulsing in his temples. “You two snuck out here in the middle of the night. You made a campfire, right over there…and you sneaked out some of your dad’s beer. Then you thought it would be fun to toss the bottles over to our place. That’s it, isn’t it, Billy?”
Ben looked at Billy.
Billy’s eyes were glued to Danny’s. “That’s a crock.”
Danny wasn’t done. “You had your rifle. Maybe you brought it with you for cougars, or Big Foot, but you saw Banjo up there on the rise, just sitting there trying to see what was going on, and you thought it would be fun to take a shot at him. That’s what happened.”
Billy took a step back. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Ben looked away.
“Look at them squirm,” Tyrell said. “You’re calling this one right, Danny.”
Billy spat. “Come on, Ben. Let’s get out of here.”
They started toward the ATV.
“Hold on,” Tyrell said. “Come here a minute.”
They stopped and looked back.
“What for?” Billy said.
“I want to see that rifle.”
Billy snorted. “Ain’t going to happen.”
“No, really. There’s something wrong with it. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Billy looked at the rifle.
“Give it to me,” Tyrell said. “I’ll show you.”
Billy hesitated, then handed the rifle over the fence. “What’s wrong with it?”
Tyrell studied it, turning it in his hands. “Your dad’s rifle, right?”
“So?”
Tyrell handed it to Danny. “What do you think?”
“Hey,” Billy said. “Give that back.”
Danny inspected it and handed it back to Tyrell. “Someone could get hurt, all right.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Give me the rifle!”
Ben moved closer. “So what’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing,” Billy barked. “And now he’s going to give it back.”
Tyrell shook his head. “Can’t do that. A firearm in the hands of someone who doesn’t know how to use it is dangerous. Am I right, Danny?”
Danny kept his eyes on Billy. “Yep.”
The veins in Billy’s neck bulged. “Give that back! Right now, or I’m taking it.”
Danny picked up the shovel and rested it on his shoulders like a baseball bat. “You want it back, you can have it. But your dad has to come for it, not you, and when he does, I’m going to tell him how you lied about my dog, and how you would have let Banjo die to hide what you and Ben were doing out here. You shot him! Don’t you care?”
Ben looked at the ground.
“You’re going to pay for this,” Billy said.
“No. You are!”
“We’re done here,” Tyrell said. “Let’s go home.”
Danny nodded but didn’t move until the ATV fired up and the brothers took off.
Tyrell put his arm around Danny’s shoulder. “You should think about being a detective. That was incredible, the way you put all that together.”
“Those two were out here being stupid, and when they shot Banjo, they had to come up with a story or get in trouble for sneaking out.”
“And they were willing to let Banjo die rather than tell the truth.”
Danny looked up the rise at Ruby. “Banjo suffered…for nothing. Nothing!”
They headed back up the hill.
“So,” Tyrell said as they neared the barn. “What are we going to tell Mr. Brodie when he comes for his rifle? You know he will.”
Danny thought a moment. “Well, we’ll give it to him…along with that beer bottle and the other one. Let him put two and two together.”
Tyrell broke into a wide grin. “You are smarter than you look.”
“Didn’t take a genius.”
They headed toward the house, a cow bellowing in the distance.
“Banjo was a good dog, wasn’t he?” Tyrell said.
“Still is.”
“Yeah. With a good home.”
“I miss him, Tyrell.”
“You want to try to get him back?”
Danny didn’t answer right away. Did he? Of course he did. But what he wanted didn’t matter. Only Banjo mattered. And after what they’d done to him…
“No,” Danny said softly.
“Yeah…He’d probably never trust us again.”
Danny looked back toward the ridge. He whistled, and Ruby ran over, tripping through the long grass. Danny handed the shovel to Tyrell, picked her up, and tucked her under his arm. “You’re a good dog, too.”
Ruby panted. Her ears perked.
“Not the same,” Tyrell said. “But just as good.”
Danny hugged Ruby. “Just as good.”
When they got to the house, they went in and turned on every light. That’s what they did when Dad was on the road. “What’s for dinner?” Danny asked.
“Beans.”
“From a can?”
“What do you think?”
Danny got the plates.
They ate, did their chores, fed Ruby, and went to bed.
In the morning, they got up, ate leftover beans, and went out to do it all over again.
After lunch, Danny called Meg while Tyrell cleaned up.
“Hey,” she said.
“How’s Amigo?”
“Getting gentler by the day.”
Danny closed his eyes, picturing her. “You got a minute? I want to tell you a story.”
“What’s it about?”
“Banjo…the part you don’t know.”
“Is it better than the part I do know?”
“The guy we got him from said he was once wild. He was nervous around people and skittish.”
There was a moment of silence.
“Like Amigo,” Meg said.
“Yeah.”
More silence.
“And you…had to earn his trust?”
“It didn’t take as long as Amigo will, but yeah.”
“Is that the whole story?”
“Almost.”
She laughed. “So what’s the rest of it?”
“I’ll tell you. But first…well…do you…I mean…after everything that’s happened, do you think you can learn to…to trust me?”
“It depends.”
“On what?”
“On how long it takes you to come over so I can say yes.”
Danny covered the phone with his hand. “Tyrell!”