She hesitated before dialing. For all she knew, Mr. Hooper was on good terms with Gary and would tell him a woman had called and asked about him. Gary might figure out she’d been snooping.
Then again, Officer Kahale told her she should have checked his background. What if she was in danger? She needed to know if she could trust Gary. She blocked her number, made up a ranch name, and called Earle Hooper.
After a few moments, he answered. “Hello?”
Kate broke into her spiel about checking Gary’s references for a foreman position, ending with, “What can you tell me about him?”
Mr. Hooper gave a gruff laugh. “I can tell you that Gary is stupid, but not stupid enough to give anybody my number for a reference. Who is this really?”
Well. Mr. Hooper had seen through her ruse pretty quickly.
In the pause of her hesitation, he added, “Are you some sort of private investigator?”
“No. Have private investigators asked about him?” Because that would be an obvious red flag.
“Not yet, but it wouldn’t surprise me. So why are you really calling?”
Mr. Hooper didn’t sound like a friend of Gary’s. Kate decided to tell him the truth. “My parents hired him as our foreman, and now I’m wondering about his past. He let it slip once that he’d worked for you.”
“Oh,” Earle said, mollified. “In that case, my advice is to find someone else before you lose all your cattle.”
Her stomach dropped. “You mean because he’s incompetent or because he steals them?”
“One doesn’t exclude the other, does it?”
That was not a comforting response. “Twenty-six of mine have already disappeared.”
Mr. Hooper grunted. “Doesn’t surprise me. In the two years he worked for me, I lost nearly sixty head. I’ve had cattle stolen before, but never that many and never that consistently. I put more cameras out, did more patrols. Didn’t turn up anything. He knew where the cameras were, and he knew my schedule. Then one night I came home early from a trip and caught Gary and two others red-handed, loading some steers into their trailer. I fired all three on the spot.”
“Did you have them arrested?” This, she supposed, was what was in Gary’s record. Her father definitely should have known about a charge of cattle theft before hiring the guy.
“I didn’t have any proof they’d stolen the others. Besides, the insurance had already cut me checks for the rest, and they won’t pay if it’s an employee who’s done the stealing. I didn’t dare try and pin the past thefts on Gary, but you can bet he was responsible.”
When Mr. Hooper began this story, Kate had thought the most shocking thing she’d hear would be a list of Gary’s crimes. But no. The most shocking thing was the phrase: the insurance won’t pay if an employee has done the stealing.
If Gary had taken her cattle, she wanted justice. But if he was convicted, she would be out at least thirty-five thousand dollars. She couldn’t recover from that. She’d lose the ranch.
Her stomach had gone beyond dropping; it plunged to her toes, then shot straight to her throat. The insurance premiums Kate had dutifully paid every month—those wouldn’t even matter. “That isn’t fair,” she sputtered. “I didn’t choose who stole my cattle. I didn’t condone it.” Of course the people most likely to steal cattle would be the ones who knew how to work with them. “So, the insurance only pays if your cows are stolen by beauticians and lunch ladies?”
“Your policy might be different,” Mr. Hooper said. “My advice is fire him, take the insurance check, and don’t look for evidence linking him to the crime.”
“Just let him off scot-free?”
“Karma will catch up with him eventually. She can kick harder than a thousand-pound bull.”
So far karma hadn’t done a very good job. The only one getting kicked was Kate. The police had Jake in custody, and he could implicate Gary at any moment. He might have already done so.
“Next time you hire a foreman,” Mr. Hooper continued, “make sure it’s someone trustworthy.”
That was evidently harder than it seemed. She put a hand to her throbbing temple. “The foreman before Gary told my neighbor he’d sabotage my ranch for a price. How do I find someone who’s trustworthy?” She didn’t really expect Mr. Hooper to answer. She was just upset, complaining, and slightly hysterical.
“Do your research,” he said. “You’ll never be a hundred percent certain. Important decisions always involve some risk. That’s just part of life. Use your best judgment.”
Her best judgment didn’t have a great track record thus far. Mr. Hooper hadn’t been referring to her decision not to trust Landon, but the man’s words fell on her ears like a direct indictment. She’d been too afraid of the risk involved in loving him, and that had cost her everything.
Kate thanked Mr. Hooper for his time, hung up, and got out her insurance policy. It contained pages of legalese. She skimmed through them until she came to theft coverage.
And there it was. The exclusion for employee dishonesty clause.