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Gabe looked from Jim to Theo as if to say, "What the hell?"

"I’ll explain later, Gabe I have so I have to show you anyway" Theo pushed Jim Beer’s Stetson back so he could see the rancher’s face "So Burton gave you the money so he could use your land for the lab"

"Sheriff Burton?" Gabe asked, totally confused now

"Shut up, Gabe," Theo snapped

"Not all of the randfather started this ranch I couldn’t sell off half of it"

"So you went into drug dealing?"

"I ain’t never even seen this lab you’re talking about Neither have my hands That part of the ranch is off-limits Burton said he had you in the cabin to keep anyone froate I just run my cattle and mindout there"

"There ? Raising rabbits?"

Jiround between his legs Gabe held his shoulder to steady him and looked to Theo "Maybe finish this later, Theo?"

Theo turned and walked in a tight circle, waving his hands in the air as if chasing away annoying spirits

"You okay?" Gabe asked

"What the fuck do I do now? What do I do? What am I supposed to do?"

"Cal iant anione nuts, my car is mashed, and I have a crush on a crazy wo for this! No one has the fucking training for this!"

"So calht now?" Gabe said "I understand" Theo interrupted his anxiety Tilt-A-Whirl and wheeled on Gabe "And I haven’t sratulations"

"It’s made me insane It’s ruined my life"

"Come on, Theo, you never had a life" Gabe i tack in consoling his friend

"Yeah, there’s that" Theo strode to the red truck and punched the fender "Ouch! Goddaain "And I think I just broke my hand"

"Mad cow disease worries me," Jim Beer said from his stupor of defeat

"Shut up, Jiun"

"Guns!" Theo shouted

"I stand corrected," said Gabe "You ed his teht

After a fewand kneeled down in front of hiether for a second" The rancher looked at Theo Tears had traced the creases in his cheeks "Jim, this never happened, okay? You haven’t seenfrom this side of the ranch, okay? If Burton calls you, everything is standard operating procedure You know nothing, you understand?"

"No, I don’t understand A to jail?"

"I don’t know that, Ji out about this will only ure sos out If you help, I’ll do my best to protect you, I promise"

"Okay" Beer nodded "I’ll do what you say"

"Good, take Gabe’s truck home We’ll pick it up in an hour or so"

Skinner watched all this with heightened interest, tentatively wagging his tail between Theo’s tirades, hoping in his heart of hearts that he would get a ride in that big red truck Even dogs harbor secret agendas

"Theo, these can’t be real," Gabe said, running his hand over a footprint nearly three feet across "This is soh the depth of the claw i would indicate that whoever did this really knows so about how animals move"

Theo was fairly calm now, as if he had settled into the whole unreality of the situation "And they know so a Volvo too They’re real, Gabe I’ve seen a track like this before"

"Where?"

"By the creek, the night the fuel truck blew up I didn’t want to believe it then either"

Gabe looked up froht I had the mass exodus with my rats"

"Yep"

"There’s no way, Theo That couldn’t be what happened A creature that could leave tracks like this would dwarf a T Rex There hasn’t been anything this size on the planet for sixtywe know about Look, Gabe, I followed the trail through the grass to the ht that here they went, but evidently that’s where they just came from"

"They? You think there’sis real?"

"No, Theo I’ ith Molly Michon"

Gabe laughed "Theo, I think the withdrawal has you addled"

"I’etting crunched She gave one, and so were Joseph Leander and whoever he came here to see"

"So what do you think happened to the that happened to those cows Or so that I think happened to the Plotznik kid The last time anyone saw him was at the Fly Rod Trailer Court That’s where Molly lives"

Gabe stood and looked around at the pattern of tracks "You haven’t been into town today, have you, Theo?"

"No, I’ve been busy"

"Les fro They found his truck behind the Head of the Slug, but there’s no sign of hio to Molly’s, Gabe"

"We? Theo, I’ist, not a cop I say we try and track whatever this is Skinner’s a pretty good tracker I’d bet we find an explanation that doesn’t involve soiant creature"

"I’ and you’re wrong, Gabe? Do you want to meet up hatever did that to my car? Those cows?"

"Well, yes, I do"

"We can do that later It shouldn’t be too hard Whatever it is, it’s pulling a house trailer"

"What?"

"There was a trailer here when Leander took one"

Gabe checked his watch "Have you eaten today? I’lyceet soo by Molly Michon’s"

"Right, I’rabbed his shoulder "Theo, please I have a date"

Theo nodded "Molly’s first Then I’ll go to dinner"

"Deal," Gabe said, still staring at the tracks "I want to co materials Even if this is a hoax, I want a record of it"

Theo started for the truck and pulled up when he heard the sound of a cell phone ringing inside the shed He walked into the shed, located the cell phone, and looked at the display for the nu in It was Burton’s private nunum and blew the phone into a thousand pieces He walked out of the shed to find Gabe hiding behind the fender of the red truck and Skinner cowering in the bed

"What in the hell do you mean, you have a date?"