She interrupted. "All you and Arthur think about is the money. If I burn through my inheritance, that's my tough luck.
"We should keep our funds together and invest. It's the way to make more money."
"I don't want to do that. I have never wanted to do that. You take your share and I'll take mine."
"That's crazy!" he yelled. "Don't you realize what's at stake?"
"I realize that you and Arthur Tetrick went to court two years ago to extend the term of Arthur's trusteeship." Her face was red, "It's my money. Thank God, the judge didn't extend the term!"
"You were loaded on drugs, Addie. We did the right thing to try and protect you."
"Bullshit!" She threw her hard hat on the floor.
Chark tried another approach. ' 'What if we get another adviser?"
"Dump dear Uncle Arthur?" The word uncle was drenched in sarcasm.
"If it would convince you to keep our money together, yes."
A silence ensued, which Addie finally broke. "No. You and Arthur can watch over your money. I'll watch over mine."
"Goddammit, you're so stupid!"
She screamed, "I'm not going to be under your thumb for the rest of my life!"
"No, you'll just be under the thumb of whatever son of a bitch you fall in love with next—just like Mother."
The sound of a slap reverberated throughout the barn. "I could kill you. I wouldn't be surprised if you killed Nigel."
"You're nuts!" Chark stormed out of the tack room and out of the barn.
The animals, not moving, watched as Addie charged out of the tack room, running after her brother and bellowing at the top of her lungs, "I hate you. I really friggin' hate you!"
"Hi," Rodger called down from the hayloft. "Don't pay any attention to them, they're always fighting over money."
"Hi," called Pusskin, Rodger's adored girlfriend, sitting by his side.
"Have you heard?" Pewter loved to be first with the news, any news.
"No." Rodger climbed backward down the ladder to the hayloft. Pusskin followed.
"Coty Lamont was found murdered last night," Pewter breathlessly informed them.
"How awful." Pusskin slipped a rung, putting her hind paw on Rodger's head.
"That's why we're all here, Rodg," Mrs. Murphy said. "Let's go into Orion's stall."
Rodger, knowing of Paddy's reputation with the female of the species, walked between Pusskin and the handsome black cat with the white tuxedo front and white spats on his paws.
Orion stood in his stall, for he was to be clipped today, a process he loathed. The stiff whiskers on his nose and chin would be shaved off with hair clippers like the ones humans used for a buzz cut. His ears would be trimmed and a path on his poll behind his ears would be cut, a bridle path. The stall was latched.
"Orion, how are you today?" Rodger called to him from the tack trunk.
"How do you think? That damned Addie will twitch me and Chark will play barber shop." A twitch was used to keep horses standing still for such beauty treatments. A looped piece of rope at the end of a half broom handle was wrapped around his lip.
"I'll make a deal," Mrs. Murphy called out to him.
"I'm listening." Orion walked over to behold the gathering on his tack box. Tucker was seated beside it.
"I'll open this latch. I think if we cats push on the door, we can slide it back. Now, I don't care if you run out, but will you wait until we stop digging?"
The handsome horse blinked, his large brown eyes filled with curiosity. "What's in my stall, anyway? Sure I'll promise."
Mrs. Murphy, lean and agile, stretched to reach the bolt on the stall door. About the width of a human little finger, although longer, the metal bolt slid into a latch, a rounded piece of metal on the top, enabling a human to pull back the latch with one finger. Helped Mrs. Murphy, too. After much tugging, she pulled the fingerhold on the bolt downward, then she pushed with all her might to push the whole bolt back through its latch.
"You did it." Pewter was full of admiration.
"Now let's push." Rodger put his paws on the stall door, right below the X, which strengthened the lower door panel. Paddy put his paws at the very base of the door. Pewter added her bulk to it, and Tucker nudged with her nose. In no time at all they rolled the door back as quietly as they could.
"Over here." Rodger bounded to the spot.
"Let's pull the shavings away from it." Pusskin sent shavings flying everywhere.
All the cats, plus Tucker, were sprayed with little shavings bits.
"I can't smell anything," Orion added, "and you know I have a good sense of smell."
"I can't either," Tucker confessed. "But, Orion, if you'll use your front hooves to crack up the hard-packed earth, we can get digging faster. We might find something. Treasure, I bet!"
"Treasure is sweet feed drenched in molasses." Orion chuckled as he tore out chunks of earth.
Mrs. Murphy mumbled. "Too noisy—it'll bring the humans."
Noisy as Orion was, he dug out a deep saucer much more quickly than the combined cat and dog claws could have done. They heard footsteps outside.
"I'm out of here." Orion wheeled and trotted out of his stall just as Addie, over her fury, walked back into the barn from the other end.
Once outside, Orion jumped the fence into the pasture where his buddies chewed on a spread-out round bale of hay.
Two other people came into the tack room from outside. Tucker leapt into the small crater.
"Anything?" Mrs. Murphy asked her trusted companion.
"Can you smell gold?" Pusskin innocently asked.
Pewter bit her tongue. The pretty tortoiseshell was a kitty bimbo, but she made Rodger happy in his old age.
"I do smell something. Faint, very faint. Maybe another two feet below, maybe less."
"What?" came the chorus.
"Well, I don't know exactly. A mammal that's been dead for a long, long time. It's so faint and dusty, like mildew after the sun hits it."
Before the animals could react, Addie, Charles, and Arthur Tetrick lurched into the open stall.
"What the—?" Addie opened her mouth.
"That damned Orion. He's too smart." Charles slapped his thigh. "He heard the clippers."
"How'd he get out?" Addie stared at the animals, not comprehending that they had freed the hunter. "What is this, an animal convention? Mrs. Murphy, Tucker, Pewter, Paddy, Rodger, and Pusskin even."
The animals remained silent with Tucker slinking toward the door.
Arthur inspected the hole. "Better fill this in right away. It's not good for a horse to stand in an uneven stall. Not good at all."
"But that's the funny thing." Charles removed his baseball cap and ran his fingers through his hair. "Orion isn't a digger."
Arthur snorted. "Well, he is now."
"You would do best to dig further," Mrs. Murphy told Addie.
"Yeah, Adelia, something's down there," Rodger added, noticing that Addie was pointedly ignoring her brother and Arthur.
"I'll get the shovel and pack this back down." Charles left the stall.
"Keep digging!" Tucker barked.
"That dog has a piercing bark." Arthur frowned. "I never liked little dogs."
"I never liked fastidious men," Tucker snapped back, then ran out of the stall followed by the other animals.
Adelia snapped too, as she walked away from the stall, "You two are as thick as thieves. I'm going to lunch."
"Come on, Addie." Charles said, but she kept walking away.
"Rodger and Pusskin, keep your eyes open," Mrs. Murphy told them as her small group left the barn. "Anything at all. A change in routine—"
"We will," Pusskin agreed. "But what the humans do is their own business."
"Curiosity killed the cat," jibed the big ginger.
"Don't say that, Rodger. I hate that expression." Pusskin frowned.
"I'm sorry, my sweet." He rubbed the side of his face against hers.