When he turned, the look of anguish on his handsome face startled Annie. Here was a man who truly cared about his animals and hated to see them suffer. It took every ounce of self-control she possessed not to throw herself into his arms.
Instead, she told them all to move back so she could have a look. Dallas didn’t bother introducing her to his ranch hands, and she wasn’t interested in their names at the present. Not when a creature was suffering.
The steer’s legs were twitching slightly, and his mouth was covered in slimy froth. He was clearly fighting for every breath. “Dallas,” she said, without looking up, “you need to have your men remove all the healthy cattle from this ranging site. Any that are staggering or look otherwise ill, leave here.”
“Yeah, yeah, okay. Tuck, take care of that will you please?”
“Sure thing. You all heard the boss,” the man called Tuck said, “let’s get these head moving.”
“There’s not much I can do for him right now,” Annie said. “My best bet is to look at a dead one.”
“Okay, okay.” Dallas led her to a carcass. Chad and Dusty followed.
Annie had a hunch. She didn’t like it, but she had to check it out. She pulled a scalpel out of her bag.
“What are you going to do, Annie?” Dusty asked.
“I’m going to cut him open.”
“Why?”
“I need to see his blood.”
She put on a pair of rubber gloves and made a small incision on the steer’s neck, near the carotid artery. She inserted her fingers into the incision. The blood against the white rubber was a bright reddish orange.
“Damn,” Dallas said. “That’s not normal, is it?”
“No, bro,” Chad said. “It’s not. Annie, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“If you’re thinking cyanide poisoning, then yeah.” She stripped off the gloves and put on a clean pair. “You got any enemies, Dallas?”
Chapter Eleven
Dallas stood, mouth agape.
“I’ll need to run some tests, but I’m pretty sure these cattle have been poisoned.”
“How?” Dallas asked.
“Any number of ways. Sometimes from the grass they eat.”
“Cattle have been eating this grass for decades,” Dallas said.
“True, but you’re coming out of a drought,” Annie said.
“So?”
“So, Dallas,” Chad said, “drought puts stress on the plants, particularly sorghum grass, which produces cyanide. This is re-growth, too.”
“Which increases the risk,” Annie said. “We’ll need to test these grasses, but honestly, I don’t think that’s the problem.”
“Why?” Chad asked.
“You’ve been coming out of a drought for several years,” Annie said. “If these grasses were producing cyanide, you would have seen evidence of it before now.”
“Makes sense,” Chad agreed.
“What else do you fee