Cow Crimes and the Mustang Menace by Sharon Dunn

Author:Sharon Dunn
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Tags: Mystery & Detective, Religious, Women Sleuths, Fiction
ISBN: 9780825424908
Publisher: Kregel Publications
Published: 2005-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

I don’t know how far I walked. I stuck to the main road and with each turn kept thinking I would see something that looked familiar. No such luck. I didn’t know the landscape as well as I thought I did, and it was hard to see much of anything in the dark. I’d only driven through this part of the country. Everything looks different when you have to hoof it.

After about two hours, my bum ankle started throbbing. Off to the west, a giant circle beamed like a Christmas tree, something I would never have noticed in daylight. In fact, it was the only light source in my immediate surroundings. I wasn’t cold, but my legs were tight, heavy, and screaming for sleep.

Opting for the sure thing rather than the maybe of Starlight’s house, I veered off the road and made my way toward the giant sparkling circle. Hopefully, it was a life-form other than cattle — someone with a driver’s license or phone would be nice.

I kept my eyes on the beacon and trudged across the hardpack earth, dodging the occasional frozen mud puddle. Though I was able to put weight on it, my ankle hurt. After a couple of turns in the road, silhouettes of Ferris-wheel chairs materialized around the lights. An Airstream trailer rested beneath a yard light. Next to the Ferris wheel was an eight-foot-high wood fence. Old cars, appliances, and twisted pieces of metal bulged over the top of the fence. Shadows behind the Airstream suggested a shack or barn of some sort.

I stopped about a hundred yards from the trailer, wondering if the guy who lived here would be my deliverance, or if he was bald and played the banjo. Sunrise wasn’t for at least three or four hours. No way could I be so lucky as to stumble onto the property of an insomniac.

I crossed my arms. What choice did I have? Try and find Starlight’s? Trudge back to my car and wait for someone to stop? A light glowed in the trailer. I approached slowly, aware that people who own junkyards this size usually also have guard dogs.

A white, ghostlike cat sauntered out of the shadows and took up her post on a log. Like a gang positioning for a rumble, several more cats emerged from beneath the Airstream. Two cats, one black and one calico, crawled out of a doorless dryer resting by the trailer steps.

Yellow feline eyes assessed the prey in front of them, namely me. I’ve never been attacked by a herd of cats. But I guess there’s a first time for everything.

“I just need a ride into town,” I explained to the white cat who was the apparent leader. I pointed behind me. “My car broke down.”

The felines, maybe eight of them total, flicked their tails. The white one lifted a paw and licked between its toes.

The door burst open. “Who’s out there?” A man whose most prominent accessory was a rifle tromped down the aluminum steps.

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