Part 2
Poppy flinched. Her mother withdrew the searching tip of her trunk and settled it against the calf’s face instead. Daniel watched the change happen so quickly that it seemed to precede the pain.
Abby turned her head and wiped her nose on her shoulder. She still had the empty scoop in her hands, though there was no reason to hold it now.
“When it first happened, you could hear her crying from the parking lot,” she said. “Now she hardly makes a sound.”
Daniel couldn’t tell her that quiet was an improvement. Across the divider, Ruth gathered a little grass and offered it through the same gap. Poppy accepted it, pausing between mouthfuls while her mother waited.
“There was a vet,” Abby said suddenly. “Mom got one to come. I don’t want you thinking she didn’t.”
“I believe you.”
“Dr. Navarro. She was here the next morning. Mr. Bell wouldn’t agree to pay her, and he wouldn’t open up. He said everybody was making trouble over something Poppy would grow out of.”
The calf’s hide stretched tight above the rubber. Daniel pressed the cap of the water bottle into his palm until he noticed it hurting, then loosened his hand.
“Tell me what happened before that.”
Abby set the scoop on the ground. Her account came in short pieces, interrupted by glances toward the road. The park had held an October festival with a hay maze and pumpkins arranged for photographs. Bell wanted more videos of the baby elephant; the ones they posted brought people through the gates.
Someone put three tires in the little exercise yard. They called them enrichment. Poppy pushed them, stepped through them, climbed over them. Visitors laughed when she got her front end into the biggest one.
“She went too far,” Abby said. “She couldn’t get back out. They tried pulling before Ruth came over, and that made Poppy scream.”
“Were people hurt?”
“Two handlers got knocked down. They were okay, but everybody was scared. He closed the exhibit and sent the visitors home.” She nodded toward the tire. “After that, every time Mom asked, there was some other reason.”
Daniel had seen tires used around large animals. He had also seen the routine work that made such objects safer: checking, watching, taking something away when an animal outgrew it. Here the object had stayed, and the argument about paying a veterinarian had lasted longer than any excuse could account for.
A truck engine revved beyond the empty snack shack. Abby bent for the scoop, as if being caught without a task would make things worse.
“That’s him.”
A faded blue pickup came around the building and braked on the loose gravel. The driver was already talking before he had shut his door. He wore a cap with a sweat-darkened band and carried his phone in one large hand.
“Put the camera away. You don’t have permission for any of this.”
Daniel moved enough to put himself between the man and Abby. Bell’s attention followed the camera strap across his shoulder before shifting to the girl.
“I might’ve known. Who else have you been calling?”
“Talk to me,” Daniel said. “I’m the one who came out here.”
Bell stopped several feet away. Up close, he looked worn and furiously alert, watching for something he could turn to his advantage.
“Then you can be the one who explains how a private road works. Turn around. Take your equipment. Leave.”
“There’s an injured calf behind you.”
“I’ve fed that calf every day of her life. You people arrive for ten minutes, take the pictures that make you look good, and go home. Any of you ever stay to pay a bill?”
“A veterinarian’s coming.” Daniel kept his voice level. “The county’s been called too.”
Bell’s eyes narrowed. He glanced toward the gate, then the road, and finally at Poppy. Daniel noticed the order of those glances.
“Nobody asked you to do that.”
“You can speak to them when they arrive.”
Abby shifted behind him. Bell caught the movement and pointed at her with the phone.
“You’re done here. You understand? Whatever you think your mother arranged, it doesn’t include bringing strangers onto my land.”
“She’s been bringing feed,” Daniel said. “That’s what she’s holding.”
“She can hold it somewhere else.”
At the raised voices, Ruth spread her ears. Poppy edged closer to the divider, and the tire rubbed along the injured skin. Daniel heard Abby take a sharp breath beside him.
Bell took a step back from the fence. Then he pointed toward Ruth.
“That’s your real problem. You bring people in here, that cow goes for them, and whose fault will it be? Mine again, I suppose.”
“She brings Poppy food.” Abby’s voice was unsteady, but she had come out from behind Daniel. “Through the divider. I’ve stood right here and watched her.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I know what I’ve seen.”
Her fingers shook so badly that the scoop rattled against her leg. She stayed where she was. Beyond her, Ruth kept her trunk against Poppy’s shoulder.
Daniel heard a siren before he could see anything on the county road. Bell heard it too. For a moment he seemed to consider another argument; then his eyes moved toward the barn and the stack of livestock panels beside it.
He turned away.
Abby caught Daniel’s sleeve. “Don’t let him get those.”
“What?”
“The gates by the barn. Last time an inspector came, he used them to push Poppy around behind the storage shed.” She was already moving. “You can’t see her from the road back there.”
Bell had reached the stacked panels. He gripped the outside one and began dragging it free…
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