At first glance, Maggie thought the scene looked like an archaeological dig revealing some prehistoric creature.
The cow’s face had been sliced away leaving a permanent macabre grin, jawbone and teeth minus flesh. The left ear was missing while the right remained intact. The eyeballs had been plucked clean, down to the bone, wide sockets staring up at the sky. Though the carcass lay half on its side, half on its back, stiff legs straight out, its neck was twisted, leaving the head pointing nose-up. Maggie couldn’t help thinking the animal had been trying one last time to get a look at who had done this to her.
Maggie guessed at the gender. Anything that would identify the cow as male or female had been cut away and was gone. And again, there was no blood. Not a speck or a splatter. What had been done was precise, calculated, and brutal. Still, she needed to ask.
“Forgive the obvious question,” she said carefully, treating this like any other crime scene, “but why are you absolutely certain predators did not do this?”
“Because bobcats and coyotes don’t use scalpels,” a new voice said from behind her. “Not the last time I checked.”
This was obviously the rancher they were meeting. The man came down the hill letting his cowboy boots slide in the sand, picking up his feet over tufts of grass then sliding down some more. Even in the fading light, he maneuvered the terrain without needing to look. He wore jeans, a baseball cap, and a lightweight jacket—the latter something Maggie was starting to covet.
“This is Nolan Comstock,” Donny said. “He’s been grazing his cattle on this parcel—how long has it been, Nolan?”
“Near forty years for me. And I’ve never lost a cow that looks like this one. So I hope you aren’t gonna waste my time and yours just to tell me a fucking coyote did this.”
“Nolan!” Donny’s usually calm, smooth voice now snapped. Maggie saw his neck go red; then, correcting himself, he changed his tone and said, “This is Maggie O’Dell from the FBI.”
Nolan raised a bushy eyebrow and tipped back his cap. “Didn’t mean any disrespect, ma’am.”
“I’d prefer you didn’t use that term.”
“What? The FBI doesn’t swear these days?”
“No. I mean ‘ma’am.’”
She saw the men exchange a look but they’d missed her attempt at humor. She ignored them and squatted in front of the carcass, making sure she was upwind. She hadn’t come all this way to get into a pissing contest between an old rancher who couldn’t care less about a woman FBI agent and a law officer who insisted he notice.
“Walk me through the details,” she said without looking back at either man. They were losing light and patience would soon follow.
“It’s like all the others.” It was Donny who answered. “Eyes, tongue, genitals, left ear, sides of the face—”
“Left ear,” she interrupted. “Is that significant?”
“ID tags usually go in the left,” Nolan said.
When Maggie didn’t respond, Donny continued. “All are precision cuts. No blood from the incisions. It’s like they’re completely drained. But there’s no footprints. No tire tracks.”
“And no animal tracks,” Nolan added. “Not even hers. Her calf’s been bleating. No way she wandered off without it. The rest of the herd’s about half a mile west of here. I’m guessing she’d been down here two days, and yet, take a look. Vultures haven’t even touched her.”
And no flies or maggots, Maggie noticed but didn’t mention. Without blood it would take longer for the carcass to attract the regular vermin that usually invaded.
Maggie stood, walked to the other side of the animal, and squatted down again. Several minutes passed as she let her eyes scan and examine. She noted the complete silence, the almost reverent quiet of her hosts. She glanced up at both men who remained side by side watching from a good fifteen feet back like spectators, waiting expectantly.
“So is this where I’m supposed to hear the theme music from the X-Files?” she asked.
Neither man blinked or smiled.
Seconds passed before Nolan turned to Donny and said, “X-Files? What the hell is that?”
“It was a TV show.”
“TV show?”
“It was a joke,” Donny explained, recognizing it as such but he still didn’t smile.
“A bad joke,” she added as way of an apology.
“You think this is a joke?”
It was too late. She’d struck a nerve. Nolan bared yellow, coffee-stained teeth in a sarcastic smile accompanied by narrowed dark eyes.
“This is no prank,” he told her. “And this isn’t the only one. By my count, this is number seven in three weeks. And just here on forest property. That doesn’t include what we’re hearing about over the border in Colorado. And it doesn’t count those that haven’t been reported. I know at least one rancher who found a Black Angus steer last month but he won’t report it on account of insurance won’t pay on cattle mutilations.”
“I didn’t mean to offend you,” Maggie said. “I just meant that it is very strange.”
“That other guy, Stotter”—and this time Nolan was addressing Donny—“he seemed to believe it was UFOs, too. There’s no way to catch these people. Hell, I don’t even know if it is people according to you experts. All I’m saying is that I’m gettin’ tired of lame explanations and excuses.”
“So what do you think it is?” Maggie asked as she stood to face him.
The old rancher looked surprised that she’d want his opinion.
“Me personally?”
She nodded and waited.
Nolan glanced up at Donny, almost as if what he was about to say might offend the state patrolman.
“I think it’s our tax dollars at work.”
“You think it’s the government,” Donny said. “Because of the lights and the helicopters.”
“Helicopters?” Maggie asked.
“Folks out here are used to seeing strange lights in the night sky. Some claim they’ve seen helicopters,” Donny explained. “There are a couple of ranchers in Cherry County who use helicopters to check their herds.”
“These are no ranchers’ helicopters.” Nolan shook his head. “Those make noise. I’m talking black ops helicopters.”
“And others have claimed they’ve seen alien spacecraft,” Donny added with a tone that was meant to nullify both claims.
“Followed by fighter jets,” Nolan said, not paying attention to Donny who now rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his massive chest.
“That was only one time,” Donny came back with. “We’re smack-dab between NORAD and STRATCOM,” he told Maggie. Then to Nolan he said, “There wasn’t any verification from either military base on fighter jets in this area.”
“Of course not.”
Maggie stood back and watched them. There was obviously a lot of information left out of her x-file. Nolan pinned her down with his eyes.
“So maybe you can tell us,” he said. “Is there some classified government project?”
She looked back at the butchered animal, noticing how the open wounds still looked raw in the fading light. Then she met the rancher’s eyes.
“What makes you think the government would tell me?”
That’s when the two-way radio clipped to Donny’s belt started squawking.
Even in the Nebraska Sandhills, Maggie recognized the codes. Something was wrong. Very wrong.