“Expensive.”
“Yes.”
“How deep do you think the cache is?”
“Three feet perhaps. The frost came back hard, so I could just get a whiff of meat.”
“Could have been the mountain lion. They’re around. They leave a big mound, and they mark boundaries with their caches.”
“I told you, the earth was packed. Not like a cache. Humans pack down that way.” Aunt Netty, seated, was cross that he didn’t instantly agree with her.
“No Lorillards died.” Uncle Yancy, like all the foxes, knew the events of humans in their hunting territory.
“Hadn’t thought of that.”
“Netty, this isn’t a good thing. It’s clever, too.”
“Well, it’s none of our affair.” Drowsy, she closed her eyes.
He viewed his partner, instantly asleep. “Damn. Double damn,” he said under his breath.
Another fox of sorts considered the facts before her. Sister now knew Iffy was missing. The radio and television newscasters had asked anyone who had seen her to report it. The newscasters didn’t speculate on why she might be missing. That would come in the ensuing days.
She sat at Big Ray’s partner’s desk in the warm den and speculated plenty.
Finally, she called Ben Sidell. A yellow legal pad filled with scribbled notes testified to her attempts to put the pieces together.
“Sister, how are you?”
“Fine. Ben, here I am again coming out of left field. Allow me to make a suggestion. Exhume Angel Crump.”
“Who’s Angel Crump?”
“She was Garvey’s assistant since the earth began. She died last year, age eighty-four, of a heart attack. Garvey walked into her office and found her slumped over her desk.”
“Why do you want her exhumed?”
“She hated Iffy. In the best of circumstances they would have clashed—personality differences—but I have to wonder if Angel harbored suspicions. Maybe the animosity was based in fact.”
“Garvey hasn’t mentioned this.”
“Ask him if Angel ever accused Iffy of wrongdoing. And mind you, I don’t know what’s going on down there. Gray can’t tell me, but I hear the strain in his voice. Iffy’s missing. I’m not a genius, but I can put two and two together.”
“I appreciate your idea. Let me talk to Garvey first. If Angel did come to him with suspicions, then I’ll put the machinery in motion. As you know, if relatives oppose an exhumation it can take some time for the legal process to sort it out.”
“I know. And it’s just a hunch but perhaps Angel’s death proved quite convenient.”
She hung up the phone, cupped her chin in her hand, fiddled on the legal pad.
Golly batted at the pencil. She liked commandeering the desk because the dogs couldn’t get on it and because she could see everything Sister was doing.
Raleigh and Rooster stretched out on the leather couch. Rooster’s head rested on Raleigh’s flank. They were dead to the world.
“January 11. You know, Golly, no saint today? That’s particulary interesting. Odd.” She’d checked her Oxford Dictionary of Saints.
“I’ll take the day, then.” Golly stopped the pencil with both paws, held it to bite the eraser.
“Golly,” Sister laughed.
“There are cat saints.” Golly managed an indignant stare as Sister wiggled the pencil from her grasp. “Who do you think kept the mice out of Little Lord Jesus’ crib? A cat.”
Sister listened to these determined meows, then burst out laughing.
CHAPTER 21
Riding down from their stable, Tedi and Edward heard the mighty rumble of the Chevy Duramax 6600 before they reached their covered bridge.
Sister and Shaker, double-checking the hound list by the trailer, also heard it.
“He wouldn’t.” Sister held the clipboard to her chest as large snowflakes began to fall. Even though Jason had apologized profusely, she thought he’d allow some time to pass for emotions to cool.
“Only one engine sounds like that.” Shaker was as surprised as Sister.
The small field assembled this Thursday morning turned their heads. The girls from Custis Hall, Bunny Taliaferro, Henry Xavier, Ronnie Haslip, Lorraine Rasmussen, and Bobby Franklin glanced at one another.
Betty Franklin walked around the trailer as her husband tightened his horse’s girth. “Do you hear what I hear?”
“I do.” Bobby frowned, a snowflake falling on his nose.
“The man must be out of his mind.”
“Arrogant.” Bobby clipped down his words. “But he did express his regrets. Sister made sure we all knew that.”
Sybil, who had ridden down ahead of her parents in order to help with hounds, leaned down to Sister. “Would you like Dad to throw him off?”
“No. Landowners can’t refuse a hunt member the right to hunt their land with the hunt. A landowner can refuse the hunt but not an individual. This isn’t to say it doesn’t happen, but it’s counter to proper practice. It’s the master’s responsibility to send a member home. The problem really gets ugly if you have a weak master.”
“Why can’t a landowner refuse permission?” Sybil, intent on being a good whipper-in, didn’t pay too much attention to MFHA policies not related to actual hunting.
“Because that member’s dues built jumps on the landowner’s land. And because every time someone gets into a spat it would affect who hunts where. Eventually you’d see fields of two people until one of them pissed off the other.” Sister pulled off her old gloves, cut off at the fingertips, to put on white string riding gloves. “Let’s say you and I had a fight. A big one. One would assume you wouldn’t come on my farm to hunt. You’d steer clear of that fixture because it makes life easier for everyone. But some people like being the center of attention. That kind of person would show up.” She shrugged as Jason’s rig came into view.
Sister mounted Aztec, ready to go and eager to prove to Rickyroo how good he was. He would tell all back at the barn. As the youngest hunter in the barn Aztec endured a lot of ribbing.
All the horses were keen to see how Matador would pan out. He was in work but had yet to hunt, since Sister didn’t want to hunt a new horse on bad ground. This pleased Lafayette, Keepsake, Rickyroo, and Aztec because it showed how much she trusted them.
Tedi and Edward clattered through the covered bridge and rode over to Sister.
Tedi raised an eyebrow.
Edward, a gentleman, quietly said, “Would you like me to go over there with you?”
“All clear,” she replied. “As you know, he apologized to me. I’ll give him credit for that.” Looking up into her old friend’s gray eyes, she shrugged. “You know how I think.”
He smiled. “I do.”
Tedi smiled as well, keeping her peace.
Sister gathered the small group to her. “Good morning.”
“Good morning, Master,” came the reply, the same as it had been for centuries.
“As we have such a small field today, I would like to invite the Custis Hall girls to ride up front. Also, they are being allowed to come out weekdays with us if they each write a paper for their environmental studies class. Perhaps if they have questions after the hunt, you would answer them.”
Tootie on Iota, Val on Moneybags, and Felicity on Parson all glowed. To ride behind the master was a singular honor.