The Incident at Pine Hills Mounds
Black-eyed kids and other shenanigans.
Jane Blackmon
Jane Blackmon lost her first Quarter Horse on a gloomy and misty October night, just before the fall rainy season began in earnest. A second horse vanished a week later, and then a third disappeared. The horses were disappearing at a rate of one per week. There were no signs as to the fates of the animals; the horses simply vanished without a trace.
When Jane lost the third horse she hired Jerry Farley, a local boy, to stake out the barn and patrol the pastures. Whatever was making the horses disappear needed to be found and, if possible, stopped. It was assumed by Jane that her livestock had fallen victim to a predator, but she wasn’t absolutely certain. A pack of wolves or coyotes or even a mountain lion would probably leave behind some physical evidence, such as blood. As stated, Jane’s horses were simply vanishing.
Jerry, who was an experienced hunter, arrived just before dark a week later. It was drizzling rain, but that was to be expected. He came armed with his coat and some rain gear, along with a 308 hunting rifle and a thermos of hot coffee. After talking with Ms. Blackmon for a little while, he left her home and slipped out to where the tractor was parked. It was covered with a tarp and it was in sight of the horse barn. The ground beneath the tractor was still dry, so Jerry slid beneath it and began to watch the building.
Jerry didn’t discover anything on his first visit to Jane’s property. The second night he brought Paul Montes along, and both hunters carefully watched the pastures. The silent sentinels stationed themselves beneath a very large oak tree that had fallen earlier in the year.
The second night brought success. There were indeed predators robbing Jane Blackmon of her horses, but they weren’t the four-legged kind. Jerry and Paul watched silently as an older model pickup with an attached horse trailer drove slowly by. There was a horse in the trailer already. Farley and Montes hadn’t seen anyone stealing the horse, but it was obvious that the horse belonged to Ms. Blackmon. The vehicle and the trailer were on her land. They were driving around in the dark without any headlights. They were also heading in a curious direction.
The pickup was going north through the pasture and toward the northernmost treeline. If a thief intended to steal a horse and get away with it, the obvious thing to do would be to turn south toward Farm Road 1821. Going north led to no highways: None at all. The only thing you could do by driving north from Jane’s property would be to, eventually, run into the Silver Creek River.
Jerry Farley and Paul Montes took no action against the horse thieves, who would likely have weapons of their own. Armed with the information they had discovered, they informed Ms. Blackmon and suggested that she inform the authorities. She now knew that something, definitely, was amiss.
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