“I am. I feel betrayed by elected officials. They’re officials, not leaders. Hell, I feel betrayed by my own body.”
Toni waited a moment. “Look to yourself first.”
“I’m sorry. I’m upset. First, I found Paula, and now Thadia. I need to keep my mouth shut.”
Toni replied, more kindly now, “It’s been two nasty shocks. You did the right thing in calling me. I need to contact her groups.”
“Toni, before I let you go. You said Cory Schaeffer was having an affair. Thadia was on him like a tick. Do you think his mistress could have killed her?”
A long pause followed this. “No. She’s not that stupid, and I don’t think she loves him. He’s her boy toy.”
After disconnecting, Harry drove to the clinic, where she told Fair everything.
Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker always enjoyed visiting the horses who were recovering from surgery in their special stalls.
As Harry’s husband advised her to relax and try to put this unpleasantness out of her mind, the cats and dog walked outside in the sunshine.
“She’s got the wind in her sails,” Mrs. Murphy said.
“It’s her nature, just like it’s your nature to chase mice and my nature to herd cows, horses, humans.” Tucker sighed. “What worries me is that with each of her treatments, she’ll become weaker. In the past when she’s made a mess of it, her strength and her quickness helped.”
“And we saved her ass,” Pewter bluntly put it.
“What do we do now? She’s going to get into it. Two young women dead from the same workplace. Something’s not right. It’s no coincidence,” the corgi posited.
“Double murder.” Pewter tossed this off.
The two women’s deaths meant nothing to Pewter. As far as she was concerned, there were way too many humans on the earth anyhow. But she did love her human, and, although loath to admit it, she was worried, too.
They sat watching the beautiful deep blue barn swallows, with their russet breasts, flash in and out of the barn. Purple martins, tree swallows, and barn swallows, all of the same family, could zoom about at such speeds, and they could execute turns almost at a right angle.
“Well?” Pewter asked.
“Well what?” Tucker replied.
“What are we going to do?” For once, Pewter had dropped the blasé act.
“We’ll do the best we can,” Mrs. Murphy quietly said, then ducked as a barn swallow flew right for her.
“Banzai!” the beautiful bird shouted.
“We have to survive these barn swallows first.” Tucker laughed as she moved out into the small paddock, followed by the cats.
When Harry arrived at Heavy Metal Gym the next morning at 5:30, the weight room teemed with people. A smaller room off the weight room had mats on the floor for stretching. In the boxing area, two young men did rope work; another hit the speed bag.
Dr. Annalise Veronese and Toni Enright were already there. Harry flopped down and took her orders from Noddy. Chitchatting was at a minimum, because everyone here attacked their exercises seriously. Two bodybuilders arrived at 5:45 A.M. They, too, stretched. Easy as stretching appears compared to a three-hundred-pound bench press, it took concentration. It bored Harry, but she trusted Noddy’s wisdom.
“Hold that for one minute,” Noddy commanded.
On her back, left knee to the ground over her right side, Harry started to sweat. By the time she finished twenty minutes of stretching, she knew why the bodybuilders carried towels with them. She wiped her sweat off the mat.
“We’ll concentrate on your core. I’ll give you isolated exercises for your arms, back, legs, but today it’s your abs and obliques. We’ll work on strength, twisting for flexibility. Given your riding, there are times when you need to swivel in the saddle. Well, I’ve put together a program for you.”
“I don’t have any weights at home.”
“The exercise program uses the floor, chairs, and a low tree branch for you to do chin-ups. If you don’t have anything low, then buy a bar and put it up in a doorway. In time, you might want to work on a bodybuilder’s schedule. That means you isolate the muscle groups, and for three consecutive days work each one, take a day off, then back again. You always begin with stretching, and you end with running or the stationary bike. You can possess the best core strength in the world, but if you haven’t wind or stamina, what good is it?”
“Right.” Harry was beginning to realize there was a lot more to this than was at first apparent.
However, she was enthusiastic. All the more so when she saw how much Annalise and Toni were accomplishing.
“On your back.” Noddy pointed down. “Now bring your legs up a foot off the floor; keep them straight. Arms out to your sides straight. Fold yourself together so you’re on your butt. Back’s off the floor. There. Now hold it.”
After one hour, plus twenty minutes for the stretching, Harry felt exhilarated even if tired. She headed for the locker room.
Annalise showered, dressed, and applied light makeup in the mirror near her locker. She stepped into her jeans, putting a pocketknife in one pocket, a list of chores in the other. She looked over at Harry.
“How’d you like it?”
“It’s harder than I thought, but I thought it was great.”
“I didn’t hear about your finding Thadia until last night. You have an odd knack for finding dead people.”
“Let’s hope this is the last. Will you perform the autopsy?”
“No. Richmond has one of the best forensic pathology departments in America. They’ll do the work.”
“I don’t know how pathologists do it.”
“Most people don’t,” Annalise answered in good humor. “A pathologist is always right but a day late. There may be something we can take from the dead that will help the living.”
“Forgive me if I’m asking this the wrong way, but how did you get interested in dead things?”
The attractive doctor laughed. “I didn’t think of it quite that way. When I was little we had such a wonderful family doctor. That was the beginning, but I didn’t know I had an interest until biology class. I loved dissecting things, just loved seeing how everything fit together. Once I got into med school, it all fell into place. I feel like a detective when I’m working. I enjoy the challenge.”
Harry changed the subject. “Don’t you find it odd that two women who knew each other, both from Central Virginia Medical Complex, have died, one clearly murdered?”
“It is unfortunate. And yes, it is odd.”
Toni returned from the showers, towel wrapped around her. She twirled the combination lock for her locker. “Talking about recent events?”
“Yes,” both women said.
“Jigs for Coke,” Harry quickly said.
In the South, if two people say the same thing at the same time, the first who utters the words “jigs for whatever” gets it.
“All right.” Annalise laughed. “Do you want money for it so you can drink one on the way home, or do you want one on different terms?”
“Medical skills and negotiating skills. We’re lucky to have you,” Toni teased.
“Now.” Harry grinned.
“All right.” Annalise opened her purse and pulled out a five-dollar bill.
“That’s too much,” Harry protested.
“You might need more than one. You had quite a workout.”
“I feel great.”
The well-built, strong physician added, “Wait until the second day.”
“We’ll see.” Harry then turned to Toni. “How’d it go—telling Thadia’s groups, I mean?”