“It is a lot of work. Those cows are expensive, so anytime one of them comes up missing, I lose money.”
“How many head?”
“A thousand.”
“I didn’t realize there were that many. Where are they?”
“In the pastures close to the house now. The men check the ear tags to get an accurate count. Seven are missing. We also have to watch for wolves, coyotes, and bears.”
“Well, wolves, coyotes, nor bears took your cows.”
“I know. I looked for a blood trail.”
“I’m sorry, Rory. I’m doing all I can to find out who’s doing this.”
“Thank you.” She got to her feet when the printer spit out a paper. She removed it from the tray. “What about you? Were you ever married?”
“No, ma’am. I came close about two years ago, but we parted ways.”
“I see.”
“Do you? Because I sure as hell don’t. I thought we’d get married for sure.” He huffed. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have even said that.”
“It’s fine. Did you break the engagement?”
“No. Tammy did. We were planning the wedding, and the next thing I knew, she called it off. I think it was because of my job. I’m gone a lot on cases.”
“A career can do that sometimes. I’m sorry.”
“No big deal. It was two years ago. I heard she got married recently so I suppose she’s happy now.”
“Are you?”
He shrugged. “It wasn’t meant to be. I’m fine.” He took the paper from her. “Thanks,” he said as he looked over it. “I don’t see Buster’s info on here.”
“Buster would never do something like that,” she said in anger.
“I told you, I needeveryone’sinfo. Including him.”
Rory sighed, moved to the computer, printed out Buster’s info, then handed it to him after taking it from the tray.
“Do you want mine too?”
“No need to be sarcastic, Rory. If you want me to do my job, you have to cooperate. Unless you’re doing this for insurance reasons, I don’t need your info.”
Her temper rose. “Insurance reasons? How dare you?”
“How dare I?” He slowly got to his feet. “Do you or do you not want to know who took your cows? How do I know if you’re behind it or not?”
She gasped. “I’m not!”
He shook his head. “I didn’t think so.” He glanced down at the paper, then back at her. “I’m a pretty good judge of character. I have to be in this line of work, but I’ve been wrong before. I’m sorry if I offended you, but I have to make sure.”
“I get it. Shouldn’t you have gotten their info earlier? You’ve been here a while, and you’re just checking backgrounds.”
“I wanted to get a feel for the men first. I’ve done this before on other ranches.” He shrugged. “It’s how I do my job. If it’s all right with you, I’ll go to my place, get the ladder and then install the cameras.”
“Of course. I apologize for jumping all over you.”