Mystery at Higby Ranch

"Allison, what is it?" he said with some alarm.

"A dead body! I saw a dead body in that old pump house," she explained, gasping for breath.

"Calm down, Alli," Mr. Higby said taking off his blue baseball cap and wiping the sweat from his tanned face with the sleeve of his red plaid work shirt. "Start at the beginning and tell me exactly what you saw."

"I was looking for Mr. Molly. His bowl was still full when I came downstairs this morning. He never leaves his food, so after you left I went to look for him. When I couldn’t find him in the house, I started looking outside and ended up out by the back pasture you rented to Mr. Edwards for his horses. I thought he might have gotten into the pump house. I looked in through the broken window, and that’s when I saw him."

"Mr. Molly?" Her father asked.

"No! The dead body!" Allison exclaimed, her bright blue eyes wide with excitement.

"OK, Alli, let’s go take a look."

Allison’s short legs had to work hard to keep up with her dad’s long strides as they walked along the winding tractor path. He was a tall man, and since her mother died he had lost so much weight, he looked even taller.

The pump house was a small weathered shed that needed work like most of the other buildings on the ranch. It housed a rusty pump that didn’t work anymore. Mr. Edwards replaced the floor and used it to store various supplies for the horses. Allison’s dad approached the shed and looked in the window. He moved to the door, pushed it open, and stepped inside.

"Allison, come here," he called.

Allison shyly poked her head through the door. Spider webs hung in every corner and mouse droppings covered the floor. There, sitting beside the rusty pump sat Mr. Molly, licking his shiny black coat.

"I don’t understand. A body was here and Mr. Molly wasn’t," she said puzzled.

"Whatever it was, it isn’t here now. Are you sure it wasn’t Mr. Molly curled up behind the pump?"

"I know what I saw. A body was on the floor right over there." Allison pointed toward the pump.

"What did he look like?" her father asked.

"I don’t know, the pump was in the way, besides, I didn’t stick around long enough to get a good look."

"Well, I certainly don’t have an explanation for it, do you? Mr. Higby looked at Allison who just shook her head. He removed his cap and ran his hand through his thinning reddish blond hair. "Come on, let’s take Mr. Molly and go back to the house for some lunch."

Allison scooped up her cat and they started back to the house. She knew her dad didn’t believe her and in a way she couldn’t blame him; it was pretty bizarre. She would just have to find a way to convince him.