More applause from inside roused Harry. "I guess I'd better go back in and make sure Murphy hasn't caused another commotion."
"A musical cat." Cynthia smiled, patting Harry on the back. "I know this is upsetting, but we just can't go out and arrest people. We'll keep working until we can make it stick. It's the price we pay for being a democracy."
"Yeah." Harry exhaled from her nose, then opened the door a crack and squeezed through.
The two cats remained on the table.
The last song, a great big burst from Handel's Messiah, raised the rafters. The audience cheered and clapped for an encore. The choir sang another lovely spiritual and then took a final bow, separating in the middle and filing out both sides of the stage.
The audience stirred. Harry walked over to the table, ready to scoop up Mrs. Murphy and Pewter when Mim, Jim, Charles, and Arthur came over, Fair immediately behind them.
Harry, overcome with emotion at the sight of the murderer, blurted out, "How could you? How could you kill all those people? How could you kill someone you loved?"
Arthur's face froze. He started to laugh but a horrible flash of recognition gleamed in Mim's eyes and in Chark's. Lightning fast he grabbed Harry, pulled a .38 from under his coat, and put it to her head. "Get out of the way."
Fair ducked low to tackle him. Arthur fired, grazing his leg. Fair's leg collapsed under him as people screamed and ran.
Mrs. Hogendobber, not yet off the stage, ran out the side door and hopped into her Ford Falcon. She started the motor.
Rick and Cynthia, hearing the shot, rushed back in through the double doors just as Arthur dragged Harry out.
"You come one step closer and she's dead."
"What's another one, Arthur? You're going to kill me anyway." Harry thought how curious it was to die with everyone looking on. She felt the cold circle of the barrel against her head, saw the contorted anguish on the faces of her friends, the snarling rage of her dog.
No one noticed the two cats streaking by. Tucker stayed with Harry.
"Don't rile him, Mother. The minute he shifts his eyes I'll nail him," the sturdy little dog growled.
"Arthur Tetrick!" Mim shrieked. "You'll rot in hell for this. You killed Marylou Valiant, didn't you?"
Arthur fired over her head just for the joy of seeing Mim frightened. Except she wasn't. People around her hit the ground but she shook her fist at him. "You'll never get away with it."
Chark, the time for talk past, lunged for Arthur. A crack rang out and the young man slumped to the ground, grabbing his shoulder.
Arthur ran outside now, propelling Harry, the cold air clarifying his senses, but then Arthur was always coolly assessing the odds in his life. His car was parked near the front. He pushed Harry into the driver's side, keeping the gun on her at all times, making her slide over to the passenger seat.
"Can you get a shot off?" Rick, on one knee, asked Cynthia, also on one knee, pistol out.
"No. Not without jeopardizing Harry."
Fair limped out, trailing blood. Herbie Jones ran after him, struggling to hold him back. "He'll kill her, Fair!"
"He'll kill her for sure if we don't stop him."
"Fair. Stay where you are!" Rick commanded.
Tucker had reached the car where Harry was and grabbed Arthur's ankle as he started to get in. Arthur shook the dog off, not noticing that Mrs. Murphy and Pewter had leapt into the backseat. He quickly turned the gun back on Harry, who had her hand on the passenger door handle.
"Keep down in the backseat," Mrs. Murphy told Pewter. "Once he gets in the driver's seat and reaches for the ignition, we've got him."
Pewter, too excited to reply, crouched, her fur standing on end, her fangs exposed.
To Arthur's shock, Mrs. Hogendobber roared through the parking lot, stopping the Falcon directly in front of him.
"I'll kill that meddling biddy!" he screamed, losing his temper for the first time.
He opened the driver's window and took aim, firing through her passenger window. Mrs. Hogendobber opened her door and rolled out, lying flat on the ground. Arthur could no longer see her.
"Run for it, Miranda, he's going to ram the car!" Herb shouted as he rushed forward, crouching to help Miranda. She scrambled to her feet, her choir robes dragging in the stone parking lot.
Just as Arthur cut on his ignition he heard two hideous yowls behind him.
"Die, human!" Mrs. Murphy and Pewter leapt from the backseat into the front, attacking his hands.
Murphy tore deeply into his gun hand before he registered what had happened.
Seizing the opportunity, Harry grabbed his right hand, smashing his wrist on the steering wheel. He tried to reach over the steering wheel for her with his left hand but Pewter sank her fangs to their full depth into the fleshy part of his palm. He screamed.
Harry smashed his wrist again as hard as she could against the steering wheel. He dropped the gun. She reached down to grab it. He kicked at her but she retrieved it.
Now Arthur Tetrick felt the cold barrel of a gun against his right temple.
Rick Shaw, his .357 Magnum pressed against Arthur's left temple, said, "You are under arrest for the murders of Nigel Danforth, Coty Lamont and Marylou Valiant. You have the right to remain silent—" Rick rattled off Arthur's rights.
Cynthia opened the passenger door as Arthur howled, "Call off your cats!"
Harry slid out the opened door. "Come on, girls!"
Mrs. Murphy took one last lethal whack for good measure, then leapt out followed by Pewter, who appeared twice her already impressive size.
Tucker and Fair, both limping, reached Harry at the same time. Fair grabbed Harry and held her close. He couldn't speak.
Harry began to shake. Curious how she had felt so little fear when she was in danger. Now it flooded over her. She hugged her ex-husband, then broke to rush to Miranda, being attended to by Herbie and Mim.
"Miranda, you could have been killed!" Tears rolled down Harry's cheeks. She stopped to scoop up the two cats, clutching them to her, repeatedly kissing their furry heads, then knelt down to kiss her sturdy corgi.
"Well, if he'd gotten out of this parking lot, you would have been killed," Miranda stated flatly, oblivious to her own heroism.
"I'd say two hellcats and Miranda saved your life." The Reverend Jones reached out to pet the cats.
"And Tucker. Brave dog." Harry again kissed a happy Tucker.
Arthur Tetrick sat bolt upright in his car. He'd never felt so much pain in his life, and being the self-centered man that he was, it did not occur to him that what he had inflicted upon his victims was much, much worse.
The whole crowd—Miranda, Fair, Cynthia, Rick, Big Mim, Little Marilyn, Jim, Susan, Herbie, Market Shiflett, Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker—sat in the back of the post office the next day. Addie had come home from the hospital, but now Chark was in. She had the ambulance take her to Martha Jefferson Hospital to be with her brother; he would recover, but the bullet had shattered some bone.
Arthur had confessed to the murders of Marylou Valiant, Sargent Wilcox, a.k.a. Nigel Danforth, and Coty Lamont. As a lawyer he knew that after his behavior at the church he was dog meat, so he planned to throw himself on the mercy of the court with a guilty plea and thereby escape the death penalty.
Rick, who had interrogated Arthur, continued his story. "—probably the only time Arthur ever acted out of passion, but once he killed Marylou Valiant, he had to get rid of the body. Coty and Sargent, through pure dumb luck, walked in on him as he was dragging her to his car. Sargent had been at Arthur's barn for only ten days, but he proved willing and flexible. He and Coty helped him bury Marylou in the last place anyone would ever look—Mim's barn. Sargent must have pocketed the St. Christopher's medal when no one was looking. Shortly after that Arthur gave up steeplechasing."