The footsteps passed them, the metallic steps vibrating as the individual stepped up onto the back platform, then opened the door to enter the caboose.
Mrs. Murphy and Pewter jumped down with ease. Tucker hit the ground with an oomph, rolled over, scratched to her feet, and followed the cats under the caboose as Harry and Coop dropped to the ground. The two women quietly crept along the side of the caboose opposite from the main building. It was even darker on that side.
They heard someone else walk toward the caboose, coming from the direction of the party.
Both women looked at each other. They hoped their feet wouldn't show.
Mrs. Murphy peeped out from under the caboose. “Sean.”
“I knew it,” Pewter crowed.
Not a moment later, Lottie's voice called out, “Sean, where are you going?”
Whoever was in the caboose froze.
“For a smoke. Thought I'd walk around the yard.”
Fair walked out trying to shadow Lottie, but it's difficult for a six-foot five-inch man to be unobtrusive.
Lottie turned toward him, “Fair, what's going on?”
“We never had our dance.”
“Oh.” She faced Sean. “For some inexplicable reason I've become attractive to Fair.” This was said with irony.
“May I have this dance then?” Fair persisted.
“Let me smoke a cigarette with Sean and I'll be right back in.”
Fair beat a retreat toward the ball, all the while racking his brain for a place to hide so he could spy on Lottie. Rick, meanwhile, leaned against his car for a smoke, his eyes darting back to Sean from time to time. Diego came out, asked Fair where Harry was. Fair shrugged. He had no intention of helping Diego. Diego returned inside.
“Would you like to walk with me?” Sean evenly asked Lottie. “My first stop is the caboose. I don't believe I've ever showed it to you.”
“That would be lovely.” She raised her voice in that falsely feminine way.
Cooper and Harry heard whoever was in the caboose tiptoe to the coupling door in the back, the same one they used. The door opened and closed but no footfall followed. Whoever it was was hanging on the handrail. The two women looked at one another. Cooper silently cursed herself for leaving her evening purse in Rick's car. A small pistol was in it.
Just as Sean and Lottie reached the caboose steps, Lottie said, “Sean, I'm just freezing. Let me run back to the car for my wrap.”
“I can go faster than you can. High heels.” He smiled, pointing to her feet, then headed toward Lottie's car about one hundred yards away.
No need for her to describe her car. In Crozet everyone knew everyone else's wheels.
With lightning speed, Lottie climbed up the steps, pushed open the door, grabbed the sack, and walked back out again, the sack over her shoulder. She shoved it under the caboose and as she did, she saw Harry's and Cooper's shoes. She started running for her car.
Whoever was hanging on the caboose dropped.
“Thomas!” Pewter exclaimed.
“No, you don't.” He tackled Lottie just as Sean opened Lottie's car door, unaware of the drama at the caboose.
“The money's under the caboose.” She hissed a whisper, hoping that Cooper would nail him. He let her go. She hurried for her car, Tucker right behind.
Thomas bent down and grabbed the sack just as Coop stepped out from behind the caboose.
“Hands up, you're under arrest.”
He saw Cooper was unarmed, hit her in the midriff with the sack, and tore after Lottie, who pushed Sean out of the way as she was plucking the keys out of her bag.
“Stop.” Tucker bit her on the ankle.
Lottie howled but managed to shake the dog off, hitting Tucker in the head with her purse. She slipped in the car, slamming the door shut while Tucker barked for all she was worth.
“You okay?” Harry bent over Cooper.
“Stop them,” the tall woman gasped.
They could hear more running footsteps and hoped some of them belonged to Rick and Fair.
Harry, unarmed, heard a gun fire, felt wind by her temple, and hit the ground.
The cats were right with her. A sensible person would have rolled under cars for cover. Not Harry. She ran for all she was worth to the front of the main building.
“What's she doing?” Pewter kept up with the human. As humans aren't that fast, the cat didn't have to overexert herself, but she was out of shape.
“There's only one way out. She's going to block it.” Mrs. Murphy knew how her human thought.
“They'll blow through that chain-link gate.” The gray cat was really worried now. She had visions of Harry being run over and then realized that same fate could apply to her as well.
At the gate Harry rolled it shut, then climbed up on the crane. She sat high in the cab. She could see Sean crawl out of the way, Tucker helping by tugging at Sean's collar, as Lottie started her engine. She was ready to run them both over.
Thomas had sprinted to his car, a Mercedes sports car. He shook his fist as Lottie roared by him.
They would have to drive around the full car lot, around the side of the building, and then out the front drive to the gate.
Rick figured that out. He ran through the cars toward the front gate.
“Push over flowerpots, Pewter, anything to slow them,” Mrs. Murphy hollered.
Tucker, rounding the corner at warp speed, heard the tiger, and started slamming into the wooden trellis, whiskey kegs, empty, old wooden milk cartons. “I bit her on the ankle!” the mighty little dog barked.
Fair Haristeen also figured out where the crisis would be. He, too, was running through the parked cars as fast as his legs would carry him.
“Got it.” Harry fired up the crane, the heavy diesel motor rumbling.
People, hearing the commotion, began to pour out of the building. A few were unsteady on their feet. Those might have thought it was the ghost of Roger O'Bannon, loaded again, creating another memorable drunken scene.
Harry, nervous, forgot exactly which calipers controlled what. She swung the ball over the festooned building, causing those outside to scream and hit the dirt.
“Dammit!” Harry cursed, took a deep breath, gently squeezed the correct calipers, and swung the ball back.
Big Mim, back on her feet, realized what Harry was doing.
The roar of car engines and squeal of wheels were heard from behind the building. People scattered again.
Harry ran the ball up to the nose of the crane, positioning it directly above the gate. She blessed Sean for putting out the colored floodlights.
She didn't know the exact time it would take from when she squeezed the calipers to when the ball would hit, dropping straight down vertically. She prayed she'd get it right as she kept her hand on those calipers.
Lottie took the corner around the main building on two wheels. She crushed the trellis. Tucker dodged out of the way. The cats fled to the safety of hiding under the crane.
“Hurry, Tucker, Thomas will be right behind,” Mrs. Murphy called to her dear friend.
Tucker ran for all she was worth.
Rick, gun in hand, reached the corner of the building, too. He fired at Lottie's tires but she saw him and swerved. Thomas, not ten feet behind her now, also saw Rick and he turned his vehicle straight at the sheriff, who tucked and rolled as Thomas swerved to miss the side of the building, narrowly missing Fair, who leapt on top of a car hood, then onto another one.
The guests, mesmerized, watched.
Diego, realizing Thomas was part of the drama, stepped away from the crowd as he edged toward the parked cars closest to the gate.