"Doesn't matter where they live, they can't live without us. We kill the pests,"Pewter bragged, then yowled,"It's wet here. My paws are soaking wet."
"Poor darling,"Mrs. Murphy sarcastically remarked.
"Pewter, you ran through a thunderstorm,"Tucker reminded the fat gray cat.
"That was different. I had no choice."Pewter climbed on a fallen log."Pick me up! Harry, you come back here and pick me up!"
"What's she screaming about?" Harry turned to see Pewter marooned on her log.
For spite, Mrs. Murphy splashed past Pewter, puddle water now on her immaculate gray coat.
"/hate you, Murphy."
"Who cares?"The tiger ran ahead of BoomBoom.
Harry, worried that they'd come back by another route, returned to Pewter and picked her up. "Jesus, Pewts, go on a diet."
Tucker mumbled."What a phony."
"I heard that."Pewter wrapped her paws around Harry's neck as the human pushed through the mucky area.
After ten minutes of slogging through the lowlands, passing jack-in-the-pulpits on the edge of the swampy parts, hearing ground nesters in the swamp grass, they emerged at the edge of the old Berryhill place.
"I don't remember the place ever looking this good," BoomBoom commented on the restored Virginia farmhouse, the freshly painted white clapboard gleaming along with the new additions.
"The Hahns sure have done a lot in a year." Harry bent over, glad to put Pewter on the ground.
Pewter stood on her hind paws, reaching up to Harry's knee."I'm traumatized. Carry me some more."
"I'm going to throw up the biggest hair-ball."Mrs. Murphy pretended to gag.
"Ha! You'll throw up worms,"Pewter sassed back, now following Harry, who hadn't fallen for her ploy.
"We get wormed once a month, remember?"
"Doesn't work for you. Only works for Tucker and me,"Pewter saucily declared as they walked through the newly fertilized pastures to the stable, a tidy four-four stall structure that matched the house, Federal-period style.
"Let's check here before we knock on the door." Harry walked into the stable, which was clean. Three horses, contented, lounged in their stalls. Each door sported a brass nameplate.
Munching away in a stall, the door still open, stood Jed.
"Bingo!" BoomBoom called out as she found him first.
Harry trotted over to her, and they closed the stall door. "He's perfectly sound."
"So he is."
"Not a scratch." Harry felt her stomach tighten.
Mrs. Murphy, with presence of mind, asked the happy little fellow,"Did you cut your leg yesterday?"
"No,"came the one-syllable reply.
No one ever accused Jed of high intelligence.
"Who let you out?"Tucker picked up the line of questioning.
"No one."
"How'd you get here?"Pewter joined in the questioning.
"Jumped the fence."
"Jed, did you see anyone on your farm besides Toby?"Mrs. Murphy asked.
Jed laughed."No, didn't see anybody. Heard two trucks. I knew Toby'd be occupied, so I boogied on."
"Why'd you jump out?"Tucker sat down.
"Dunno. Felt good."
Harry and BoomBoom ran their hands over his legs. Jed didn't bat one loopy ear.
Mrs. Murphy looked at Tucker, then Pewter. Finally, she said,"Jed, Toby is dead."
Jed's lower lip dropped down."Huh?"
"He was murdered yesterday."
Two big tears welled up in Jed's large, pretty eyes. He let out a bray that startled Harry and BoomBoom.
"/loved Toby."
"I'm sorry, Jed. I'm sorry to tell you this."Mrs. Murphy was sympathetic.
"Harry will take you home until everything gets settled, Jed. Don't worry about anything like...you know."Pewter certainly didn't want to say what might happen to an animal no one wanted or, worse, pretended to want.
Many a knacker pretended to give a good home to a retiree or a homeless quadruped, only to cart the creature off to the slaughterhouse and pick up about eighty cents to a dollar a pound. Bad enough to cart an animal to a slaughterhouse. It's another sin to deliberately lie to people who trusted you.
Harry patted him on the neck. "Poor Jed. It's like he knows."
"Let's see if Christy's home." Boom-Boom wiped Jed's eye with a handkerchief from her coat pocket.
They walked out and knocked on the back door of the farmhouse.
"Just a minute."
They heard footsteps, then the door opened and pretty Christy Hahn opened it. Thirty-four and trim, she possessed a bubbling personality. "Come on in, Harry and BoomBoom. What a nice surprise."
"Actually, Christy, we've got to walk back to Pittman's farm. Jed's been missing, and we thought he might have come here and he did. When did he show up?"
"What?"
"He's in your barn; the stall door is open. We closed it."
"I bet he's in Hokie's stall. I turned him out early." Christy thought for a second. "Is he all right?"
"Fit as a fiddle." Harry smiled.
"Come on, girls, step inside. It's raw out today." Christy tugged them inside.
The three animals, muddy paws and all, walked inside, too. They had to stay in the mudroom.
The kitchen, completely remodeled by a New York interior-design firm, dazzled Harry and Fair.
"This is beautiful. The cabinetwork looks original." BoomBoom noted the white-oak cabinetry.
"It is. Came from England." Christy was pleased by the compliments.
Harry had other things on her mind. "Excuse me while I call the sheriff, then Fair, will you?"
As Harry gave Rick the particulars, then called Fair, Christy showed BoomBoom the downstairs of the house. The whole interior was English country. The floors had been sanded, stained again. The walls glowed with subtle colors. The patina on the furniture whispered "money."
BoomBoom couldn't wait to tell Alicia.
The two women reentered the kitchen.
"Perfect timing." Harry smiled. "The sheriff told me to take Jed. I'll go back home and bring the rig over."
"Harry, why don't you let me take Jed? Your horses aren't accustomed to looking at or smelling a donkey. Mine have at least gotten used to Burly."
"What's going to happen to Jed?" Christy folded her hands together.
"I don't know. Toby has a sister in Charlottesville, but they didn't get on. I doubt she'll want Jed. We'll work something out. He'll be safe and sound."
"It's upsetting." Christy shivered involuntarily. "This dreadful murder next door."
"They hated each other. It's a sad end."
"Scares all of us," BoomBoom replied.
"It will take me about an hour and a half. Will you still be here?" Harry inquired.
"I'll be here."
Harry and BoomBoom opened the back door to the mudroom.
Christy offered, "Let me drive you back to Pittman's."
"We'd better walk, because we have the cats and the dog. Muddy paws," Harry said.
"That's what station wagons are for."
She smiled, grabbed a Buffalo plaid jacket off the hook by the back door, and walked out to lift the hatch on her red Volvo XC70.
Within minutes they were back at Pittman's farm.
"Thanks, Christy," Harry said.
"I'll look for you all later."
As she drove off, BoomBoom turned to Harry. "Why would Toby lie about Jed?"
Why, indeed?
22
Fair had left the house at four in the morning without a cup of coffee. He delivered a healthy filly out on Route 810 and was now glad to be pulling into the coffee-shop parking lot.
The three men emerged from their vehicles simultaneously. Bo took one look at Arch, then at Fair.
"You sorry son of a bitch!" Bo growled.
"What the hell did I do?" Fair kept levelheaded.
"Not you. Arch." Bo stepped in front of Fair toward Arch, who wisely came up next to Fair.
"Bo, it wasn't my idea."
"Bullshit!"
"It wasn't my idea."
"Arch, you are the most competitive piece of shit I know. You cover it up. You're worse than your goddamned arrogant, idiot boss!"