"Huh?" Herb's eyes widened.
Harry tiptoed out, peeked down the hallway. The supply door was open, one box of communion wafers was shredded, and she could just make out Elocution, on her hind legs, pulling down another one, egged on by Pewter.
"What are you doing?" Harry shouted.
"Run for your life!" Elocution shot out of the closet so fast she knocked over Pewter, who quickly scrambled to her feet.
The cats hurried up the stairwell, as the closet was underneath it. The dogs, larger, couldn't slip through the stair rails, so they skidded around the end of the stairs, hurrying up to the landing.
Herb joined Harry. "Red-handed!"
Susan, Coop, and Linda, sticking her head out of her office, looked down the hallway.
They all walked down the carpet to the closet. Not a crumb of communion wafer remained from the shredded box.
"Well," Herb shook his head, "we know they aren't Muslims."
"Lucy Fur needs to come home from your sister's. She'll keep them in line." Susan mentioned Herb's other cat, who had been visiting his sister.
Once the animals were collected and scolded, Harry and Susan drove back down Route 250, heading west. They'd called Fair and Ned, giving each man the details. Then they called BoomBoom and Alicia, who just couldn't believe Nordy was that devious and smart. Big Mim already knew, since Sheriff Shaw kept both herself and her husband, as mayor of the town, in the pipeline.
As Susan flipped on her turn signal, Harry said, "No. Let's go back up to Afton. I want to see the Blessed Virgin Mary again. I have a prayer."
"Funny, I do, too."
Harry turned to the animals in the back of Susan's station wagon. "If you know what's good for you, you'll have a prayer, as well. I am so ashamed of you. Can't you eat Ritz crackers? Does it have to be communion wafers?"
"The cats made us do it," Tucker whined.
"Shut up, you weenie." Mrs. Murphy clocked him one on the snout, which made Owen crouch down lower in the sheepskin bed.
"Don't be ugly, Murphy," Harry reprimanded her.
"Why eat a Ritz cracker?" Pewter replied. "They're too salty. Anyway, eating the communion wafers makes a statement."
"It does?" Owen popped his head up.
"Sure. You know the story about the fishes and the loaves? Well, give me fishes and I won't eat the wafers." Pewter thought herself terribly clever.
The animals giggled. Harry crossed her arms over her chest. "Susan, do you ever get the feeling they're laughing at us?"
"Every day."
This time Susan pulled up to the parking lot at the monastery, which was close to full. The events did not necessarily discredit the powers of Our Lady of the Blue Ridge to the devout or to those deeply in need of spiritual succor.
Harry and Susan, trailed by the animals, walked up the hill, then stopped at a distance from the praying people.
The cardinal flew and sat on Mary's hand. "Bunch of nits."
"Good thing no one knows what he's saying but us." Mrs. Murphy fluffed out her fur.
"So much has happened since Thanksgiving, I feel as though I've lived a year," Susan said, her breath escaping like a plume of white smoke.
"Me, too. Herb and I are going to do our best to buy the farm. And this whole thing up here—I couldn't exactly put my finger on Mark, but at least I was in the game. It made me think, made me think about how a life can be snuffed out in a split second and others ruined because of selfishness, greed." She shook her head. "Why? I just don't understand why."
"I don't think we ever will and I don't think it will ever stop, Harry. There will always be humans ready to rape, steal, lie, kill. And they'll either act on impulse or think they have a good reason. I don't think the human animal has advanced emotionally as a species since we've been walking upright."
"Bleak."
Susan's lower lip jutted out for a moment. "Maybe we can't do much for the species, but we can change ourselves. We've done what justice we could for my great-uncle. I'm satisfied."
"Good."
"And," she stopped and reached for Harry's hand, "I want to tell you something, something I have carried since I was nineteen years old, since I married Ned. This brush with fate or whatever you want to call it made me realize that it wasn't Ned who was withdrawing, it was me."
"Why?"
"Harry, I've lied to Ned, to you, to everyone since that wild summer."
"What are you talking about?"
She faced Harry directly. "I fell in love with Charlie Ashcraft and I got pregnant. Ned was head over heels for me at the same time. Of course, I never told anyone what was what, and you know how Charlie was. He dumped me like a hot rock. So I told Ned I was pregnant by him and we married. Danny was born eight months later in case you didn't count."
"Susan, why didn't you tell me? How you must have suffered."
"At first," the tears finally came, "I felt lucky. I mean, because I wasn't caught. And Ned is such a good man. Eventually I did fall in love with him. Danny looks so much like Charlie, but—and here's the odd thing—people see what they want to see. Ned has blue eyes, so people would say about Danny, 'He has his father's blue eyes.' I would reply, 'Yes, he's the spitting image of Ned,' all the while lying through my teeth. But what I didn't know is that little by little, I was growing distant. You can't lie to people and not pay for it inside. It's like a drop of poison put in a deep well each day, until one day you can't drink the water."
"Susan, I am sorry. Truly."
"You're my best friend and I've lied to you. Forgive me."
"Of course I do." She thought a few moments. "I can understand why you did what you did. I wish you had trusted me, but I do understand and I love you. You're my sister. I love you no matter what."
Susan choked up for a second, then said, "I told Ned last night."
"You did?"
Susan nodded, sputtering. "It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life."
"God, Susan, what did he do?"
She quietly replied, "He said he always knew."
The two stood there, not moving or speaking.
Harry finally whispered, "That's a big love."
"Look," Tucker barked.
Tears flowed down the Blessed Virgin Mary's face, blood red in the sunlight.
Harry thought for a moment that there was probably some blood left in the statue, and then she thought that it didn't matter. Miracles do happen.
That evening when Fair stopped by, Harry told him, "Yes."
Dear Reader,
Catnip! Tuna! Chipped beef! These are the things that make life wonderful. Of course, I wouldn't mind a bunny with a limp.
The more I write these mysteries, the more I enjoy myself. I don't really need Mother at all except to type, open the canned food, and give me furry toys.
Pewter contributes about as much as the human in the house.
As for the dogs, poor things, they try so hard to read.
I hope you are all well, lots of mice in the cornfields, moles in the ground, and little voles, too.
The old truck finally pooped out at 200,000± miles. I want a big new one with my name emblazoned on the side. Too flash? How about a small S.P.B. on the driver's door? I know Mother is frothing at the mouth to buy one but she has to drag it out, research it to the max. Right now she can't make up her mind between an F-250 4x4 or an F-150 4x4. Personally I deserve an SL 55 AMG, but we are farmers so I have to be practical. The S.P.B. is a must, though.
You should insist that your human put your initials on the door. After all, they can't put one foot forward without us.
Ta ta,
Sneaky Pie
Dear Reader,
Having just picked up the manuscript, discovering Sneaky Pie's letter, I feel I should set the record straight.
My God, how she flatters herself.
I work just as much on these mysteries as she does. Furthermore, I don't waste time bringing baby copperheads into the house. Nor do I dash after the chickens only to have them turn on me. She's not as smart as she would have you believe.