Till the Cows Come Home (16 page)

Chapter Twenty

I awoke to someone banging on my door.

Good God
, I thought.
What now?

It was two AM, and I had finally gotten myself and Queenie to bed around midnight. Howie insisted on taking the first guard shift, and I had fallen asleep in my underwear, having left the rest of my clothes by the washer. My shoulders were stiff from hauling now-useless grain to the Dumpster.

The knocking came again, louder and more urgent. Queenie opened her eyes but didn’t move an inch from where she lay on a blanket under my window.

“You just sleep, girl,” I told her.

I jumped out of bed, pulled on some jeans and a shirt, and ran down the stairs. Howie stood there, his hair on end and his eyes wide with panic.

“I called 911. They should be here anytime.”

I shook my foggy head. “What?”

Howie dragged me out of the doorway so I could see the heifer barn, smoke and flames shooting out of the windows on its east side.

“Oh my God.” I wrenched my arm from his grasp, leapt into the boots I’d left inside the door, and ran toward the barn. I searched frantically until I found a side door that wasn’t on fire and threw myself into the smoke and chaos. Howie came running, screaming at me not to be a fool. But he followed me in.

I ran up to the heifers’ gate and threw it open, making my way in amongst the panicked youngsters. I went to the back of the group and started smacking their rears and pushing them toward the entrance. The fire was still on the opposite side as the heifers, but not so far that we had more than a few minutes to get them out.

The cows ran into each other, rolling their eyes, stumbling over their own feet. I regretted the help Queenie could have given, and tried to calm myself enough to steer the heifers toward Howie, who stood holding the gate open, ready to shove the cows out into the night.

Finally, amidst their panic, the cows surged toward the entrance, pushing and getting stuck three across in the gate opening, until Howie could get them apart. Sweat poured down my face, and heat stung my skin. I breathed shallowly, but smoke burned my lungs and eyes, and I bent over to get to fresher air. The only light was from the fire, and I slipped and slid in manure and urine, falling several times when a cow would burst away from my hands.

I was chasing the final heifer toward the gate when I heard sirens and saw lights through the open door. Howie put a hand on my back and pushed me toward the barnyard. We ran outside and kept going until we were up by the house. I dropped to the ground, gasping for breath. Howie stood bent over, his hands on his knees, his breathing loud and forced.

A crash from the house startled me upright, and Queenie came barreling toward me from the screen door she’d bashed through. I caught her against my chest, making sure she hadn’t cut her face or paws, then fell onto my back, breathing in the night air. It smelled of smoke, but it was pure compared to the inside of the barn. Queenie pranced around me, but couldn’t get far with my fingers clasped around her collar.

Several fire trucks had arrived, as well as police cars, the fire chief, and an ambulance. A couple of EMTs ran up to us, carrying first aid kits.

“You folks okay?” one asked.

I gave him a weak thumbs-up, but Howie slumped onto the ground. Both paramedics rushed to his side. I let go of Queenie and started to crawl over to him, but it wasn’t long before I heard him telling them to leave him alone. Satisfied, I went back to my collie, who lay down beside me and nuzzled my hand with her soft nose.

I forced myself to look at the heifer barn, now completely engulfed in flames. There wasn’t any hope left for it, so the firefighters were doing their best to keep the blaze from spreading to the buildings around it. So far, it looked like they were being successful.

“Ms. Crown?” A man stood over me in fire gear. His black and yellow suit was covered with soot, his face as streaked as Howie’s. Sweat plastered his dark hair to his head.

“That’s me.”

“Assistant Chief Downy. Any idea what started the fire?”

“Nope.”

He sat beside me on the grass. “From what I could see, it looked like it started in the east corner there.”

I nodded. “That’s the first thing I saw. Flames shooting out those windows.”

“Any electricity in that corner? Anybody smoking?”

“Neither. The only electric is for the lights and a couple plugs on the west side we use for space heaters in the winter. Neither Howie or I smoke.”

“Your insurance up to date?”

I looked at him. “I won’t take that personally.”

“Good, because I don’t mean it that way. Any reason someone else might want to burn down your barn?”

“Can’t imagine any. There’s no one who would benefit in any way. I won’t benefit either, if you’re looking at my insurance angle. I have to find a new place to house my heifers, and I lost all the hay and straw that was kept in there. Plus, I just hired someone this week to repair and paint the damned barn, and he’s already put in two days work I’ll have to pay him for.”

With a start, I realized the heifers were still loose. They were cowering beneath the overhang of the main barn, milling about and shoving each other further into the corner, eyes wild and mouths foaming from their panic. I gave Queenie a final pat and pushed myself up from the ground.

“Anything else?” I asked.

Downy stood, too. “I’m going to call the county and ask them to bring in their arson dog. We’ll find out what happened, Ms. Crown.”

I nodded, and he clumped away in his big boots.

“I’m going to round up the heifers,” I told Howie. “You stay here.”

“But—”

“No, Howie. Besides, Queenie needs you.”

He looked relieved at my insistence, and buried his hand in Queenie’s fur. She leaned against him, and he planted a hand on the ground to keep himself from falling over.

I quickly counted the heifers by the barn and funneled them into the milking parlor where they’d be safe. Once they were secured, I ran out hunting for the two unaccounted for.

“Need some help?” A police officer trotted up to me, gun belt slapping against her hip. “Officer Stern, at your service.”

“Got two runaways. Seen ’em?”

She shook her head. “I can help look.”

“Great. I’m going around the house. You make sure they’re not cornered somewhere in the midst of all these trucks.”

She turned toward the vehicles, and I ran around the house. I went to the road first, remembering my encounter earlier in the evening. Fortunately, there were no cows lying alongside the road, having caused an accident. There was, however, a heifer in my yard, chewing on a young maple tree.

“Come on, darlin’,” I said. I thought for a moment she was going to bolt, but I put up my hand slowly, and while she was studying it, got close enough to snatch her chain with my other hand. Unlike her older counterparts, she followed without a struggle.

I got her reunited with her friends and ran back out to look for the last escapee. In fifteen minutes I still hadn’t found her, but a triumphant-looking Officer Stern came up, leading a docile heifer.

“Found her in that building over there,” she said, pointing at the feed barn.

“Oh, great.” Stern looked disappointed at my reaction, so I upped my enthusiasm. She didn’t know what the feed barn had been through already that night. “Thanks a lot,” I said. “I can’t believe we didn’t lose any of them.”

“Kind of a miracle, I think. Glad I could help.” She trotted back toward her car, probably to call in her successful rescue.

I got the heifer into the milking parlor and was leaning against the outside of the barn when I felt something brush against my leg. I automatically reached down and stroked Queenie’s ears. She nudged my arm with her nose and I felt that her nose was wet. I was glad someone had the sense to give her some water.

Howie came over and slid down to the ground by Queenie. Together, the three of us watched the heroic efforts of the fire squad, while our partially refurbished heifer barn burned to the ground.

***

Three hours later the fire trucks had gone, having made a holy mess but leaving all buildings other than the heifer barn still standing. I probably should’ve been thankful for that, but at the moment I felt nothing but a cold, hard anger. An arson investigator with a big German shepherd was picking his way through the rubble, and I dreaded hearing what he found.

Unbelievably, it was almost five AM. Howie and I relocated the heifers to the back pasture—the one that had been manure-logged just days before in what seemed like another lifetime—so we could milk our completely freaked out herd. They may not have been directly involved in the fire, but they could smell the smoke and water-saturated wood, and had been kept awake by all the commotion.

It was wonderful to have Queenie back to help round them up, although she moved slower than usual and left off about halfway through to lie in her usual corner and fall asleep. She hadn’t even had enough energy to be excited about the German shepherd sniffing through the barn’s ashes. I gazed at her with a rush of love, thanking God I hadn’t lost her.

Howie and I dragged ourselves through the milking, moving slowly from cow to cow, not saying a word. He seemed preoccupied and weary, but I figured that was to be expected after the night we’d had. He hadn’t even gotten the two hours of sleep I’d managed.

Queenie woke up when Nick drove in about at about six o’clock, and Nick was so busy greeting her he didn’t even notice the absence of the heifer barn or the arson guy’s car that still sat in the drive. Talk about dense. I was watching him from the milking parlor when he turned around. His jaw literally dropped and he shook his head like he couldn’t believe it.

He saw me looking at him through the window and came into the parlor. “What in the world.…”

“It’s just what it looks like, Nick.”

He shook his head again and sat on a bale of straw, stunned. I went back to work until I saw him stand up.

“What can I do to help?” he asked.

“Not sure. Until the arson guy is finished we’re not supposed to touch anything.”

Nick opened his mouth to say something and then closed it.

“Why don’t you take the day off?” I said. “Let me figure out what’s going to happen.”

He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Sure I can’t help around here?”

Two days ago I would have jumped at his offer, just to see him move around, but after hearing that certain tone in his voice last night I was a bit nervous about where our relationship was headed. His help would be nice, but my sanity was more important.

“Thanks for the offer,” I said. “I’ll let you know later if we can use you.”

“Okay,” he said, not sounding sure that it was. “Glad to see Queenie’s back.”

“Me, too.”

He patted Queenie again and went outside.

Howie gave me a look which told me he knew what I was thinking about Nick. I ignored him, and we continued working in silence. When the last few cows were milked and let outside, and the milker was going through its cleaning routine, we sank onto the floor, resting our backs against the wall.

“The stalls are just going to have to stay dirty for a bit,” I said.

Howie grunted and closed his eyes. I tried closing mine, too, but my mind was spinning too fast to drift off.

“This is crazy, Howie. No matter how I think about the past few days, I can’t imagine who would be messing with us. The only person who has any kind of a motive is Hubert, and he’s pretty much been shoved out of the picture. Besides, he couldn’t stomach
this
. Cut off electricity, punch holes in the manure lagoon, maybe. Come to think of it, he could’ve let the cows out, too. But burn down a barn? With livestock in it? Sending the dweebie real estate lawyer is much more his style.”

My fried brain couldn’t take any more creative thinking. I stuck with facts.

“We can be pretty damn sure someone deliberately set fire to the barn.”

Howie rolled his head toward me and opened his eyes. “I guess we’ll find out for certain when that guy’s done out there.”

I pounded the floor with my fist. “What have we ever done to anybody?”

Howie looked away, but I could tell he had an opinion.

“What, Howie?”

He shook his head. “Nothing for sure. But I’ve been checking into—”

The arson investigator suddenly loomed over us. His face was grim.

“What?” I asked.

“I think you already know.”

I put my head between my knees.

Someone had burned down my barn.

Chapter Twenty-One

By eight o’clock I had eaten a piece of toast, tried to force one down Howie—who excused himself and went up to his apartment—left a message for my insurance agent, called Belle to make sure Zach was okay, and taken a long shower. I used my Lever 2000.

At eight-thirty I was standing in the muddy and fire-engine-rutted driveway trying to decide where to start cleaning up, when Queenie started to bark and a couple-year-old Taurus pulled up. It was Richard Snyder, my insurance rep.

“Hey, Richard,” I said. “Thanks for getting here so fast.”

“Stella.” He put his briefcase on the ground and stood beside me, taking in the damage. His face was pinched and pale.

“Thank God for insurance,” I said. “I guess those premiums weren’t a waste of money, after all.”

He looked me up and down, taking in my heat-scorched face and the bags under my eyes, and I tried out a smile. It mustn’t have worked, because he looked even more disturbed.

“I hope your new rep will take care of you as well as I would have,” he said. “And why call me? Where’s your new guy?”

“What new guy? You’re the only guy for me.”

His eyes widened. “Stella, what about your phone call the other day?”

“What phone call? The last time we talked was when we went over the schedule of insured items in May.”

He paled even more, and I was suddenly afraid he was going to be sick on my shoes. I backed up a step.

“Stella.” He ran a hand through his hair. “You called the other day and told me you found cheaper and more comprehensive insurance. You canceled your insurance with me.”

I opened my mouth to deny it, and the consequences of what he was telling me hit home. Then I felt like
I
was going to throw up. “I never called you.”

“Then who was it?” Richard no longer acted like he was going to puke, but still looked terrorized.

I put my hand over my mouth and walked a few steps away. Queenie followed, whimpering. I patted her head and turned back to Richard.

“What does this mean? I never signed any cancellation.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. This has never happened to me before.”

“Well, you’d better find out. Because I need that money.”

He nodded, speechless.

“I
have to have
it.”

He picked up his briefcase and clutched it to his chest. “I’ll go back and check my logs. There’s got to be an explanation.”

“I’m sure there is one. But it’s not going to be one I’m happy about.”

Richard scuttled to his car, gave me one last glance over his shoulder, and drove off. He’d been gone about ten minutes before I could make myself walk to my office. Once there, I pulled out my insurance file to make sure all was in order from my end of things. It was.

Without letting myself think about it too much, I picked up the phone and called Abe. Ma answered and knew by my tone of voice I wasn’t calling for a chat. Abe was instantly on the line.

“I might need a lawyer,” I said.

“What? What happened?”

I explained the situation, somehow without throwing anything at my office wall. “I figured you might know somebody. Only lawyer I ever had was when my mom died, and he bit the dust several years ago.”

“I’ll find you someone. Give me an hour or two.”

I hesitated, wanting to say more. “Thanks, Abe.”

“Glad to help.”

It got to be nine-thirty without a call from Abe or Richard, so I forced myself to go out and take care of things that had to be done. Howie wasn’t in appearance, so I assumed he was getting some much-deserved sleep. I wasn’t about to wake him with more bad news.

I spent an hour hauling hay and water down to the pasture for the heifers, then checked my answering machine. Still no message from Richard, but Abe had called to say that Brigham Bergey, a lawyer from Lansdale, would be waiting for my call. I wanted to wait to talk with him till I’d heard back from Richard, so I went back out and used the skid loader to scrape up the mud the firefighters had created in the barnyard.

Once the mud was cleared away I went back to the office and found the message light blinking. I called Richard back immediately.

“Well?” I said.

“It’s all here. Documented and dated. I got a call at three-thirty in the afternoon, three days ago, canceling your insurance.”

“It wasn’t me.”

“I know. I believe you.”

“Good.”

I heard him take a deep breath. “But my bosses don’t.”

I froze. “
What?”

“They think you canceled your insurance, then your barn burned, and now you want to renege.”

I threw the receiver down on my desk and stared unseeing out my window until I was calm enough to talk again. I picked up the phone.

“Okay, Richard. Supposedly I told you I was going with another insurance carrier. Who are they? And why would I come back to you?”

“I told you, I believe you. You don’t have to convince me.”

“Well, that’s great. It just doesn’t help me a whole hell of a lot if you can’t convince the rest of them.”

“What do you want me to do?”

“What do you think I want you to do? Get my insurance back.”

“No need to be snide. I’m doing my best.”

“Sorry. I’m just very…upset.” I was going to say something stronger, but was afraid I might
offend
him.

“How about the phone number?” I asked.

“What phone number?”

“The one of whoever called you.”
You idiot.

“How am I supposed to know that?”

“Caller ID. Don’t you have it?”

“Sure, but since I get so many calls it doesn’t save things longer than a day if I don’t lock them in.”

“So you don’t have the number.”

“No. I checked.”

“Well, how do we get it?”

“Look, Stella, I’m doing everything I can from my end. I don’t have the phone number, I don’t have a photographic memory, and I don’t have a recording of the call. I can’t do anything else.”

“Fine. Just do whatever you can to get your stupid superiors to believe me. I
have
to have that money.”

“I told you. I’m on your side. I’ll keep after them.”

“Great. I really do appreciate it, Richard. And my lawyer will be calling you.”

“Oh. Okay.”

I pushed the flash button and dialed the number Abe had given me. Brigham Bergey was with a client, but his secretary said she’d have him call as soon as he could. Great.

I pushed the flash button again and called the police station, hoping to leave Willard a message. I had told Howie the night before that I would, after the cows were let out, and now seemed as good a time as any. Plus I had a lot more to tell him.

“Police Department, Detective Willard speaking.”

“I wasn’t expecting you to be there.”

“And this is?”

“Sorry. Stella Crown. I figured you’d be with your son.”

“Nothing I can do there. And he’s holding steady. No better, no worse.”

Seemed to be the parent mantra these days.

“Heard about your barn,” Willard said. “I was at the hospital last night, or I would’ve come. Arson investigation team’s on it, right?”

“Right. And today I found out someone canceled my insurance.”

“What? How’d they do that?”

“Over the phone.”

“The agent took the cancellation?”

“I know, you don’t have to tell me. He’s a moron. But he really thought it was me.”

“So what can I do for you?”

“The home office of the insurance company doesn’t believe me, even though Richard does. I need to find out who called him. Can you get a list of phone numbers or something?”

“When was this?”

“Two days ago.”

He was quiet for so long, I thought we’d been cut off.

“You there?” I asked.

“Sorry, just thinking.”

“Can you think a little faster? I’m about to blow up here.”

“I’m not sure I can help you.”

“What? Can’t you get a court order or something?”

He sighed. “I’ll see. But phone companies are notoriously difficult to work with on things like this. Don’t get your hopes up.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“It’s the best I can do.”

“Something else. Somebody let my cows out last night. Cut the padlock on the barnyard gate and set half a dozen of them free. Probably the same person that burned down my barn.”

“Good grief. Don’t they know when to stop?”

“Apparently not.”

“There’s a large fine for that offense.”

“I don’t care about that. I just want these assholes caught.”

“As do I. Anything left for me to look at in regards to the lock they cut?”

“I saved the lock. Tried not to handle it too much.”

“Great. I’ll come get it sometime this afternoon.”

“After you check on the phone numbers.”

“After that.”

“All right. Thanks.” I hung up and leaned my head on my hands. On top of everything else, I now had a headache bigger than a tanker truck.