The older cat checked the clock. "What do I get if I win?"
"My catnip sockie."
"That old thing?" Cazenovia nonetheless added, "Two thirty-seven on the clock. What do you want of mine?"
"Two bites of your special chow."
Being older, the large calico cat was on a senior diet and Elocution liked the taste of Cazzie's food better than her own.
"All right."
A rap on the front door drew all their eyes.
"Bother," Herb muttered but he rose, walking to the door, the two cats marching behind him. He opened the door and Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker raced in.
"Did he find it? Did he?" Pewter's hair was puffed out because it was cold outside.
"Not yet." Cazenovia wanted to hear his shouts but she didn't want to be too close, either.
"Isn't communion tomorrow?" Tucker just knew the blowup would occur when they were all there and she, like Cazenovia, didn't want to be too much in evidence because she was the evidence.
"No. We had communion on Epiphany Sunday. We won't have it again until the first Sunday in February." Elocution used "we" since she felt she and Cazenovia were part of the service.
"Rats." Pewter was disappointed.
"Haven't got any." Cazenovia followed the humans into the office as did the other animals.
"You should see Pope Rat, that huge fellow over at the salvage yard." Tucker loathed that rat.
"Yeah, he could start the bubonic plague all by himself." Pewter hated him, too.
"Wrong kind of rat," Mrs. Murphy advised them. "A European type of rat caused the plague. Pope Rat is American."
Cazenovia checked the time when they all gathered in the office. It was two forty-five.
The humans sat opposite one another in the two wing chairs flanking the fireplace, a long low coffee table made from an old ship's door between them.
"Rev, I just wanted to drop off the books I borrowed," Harry said.
"I know that, I know that, but I'd like a little company on this gloomy day. Started out sunny enough."
"Finished your sermon?" She knew his routine.
"Half. You'll like it because it's about discovery and I start with the discovery of the New World. Actually it's been discovered successively over the centuries. And by New World, I mean North America, not Iceland or Greenland."
"Can't wait." She placed the books on the table.
An extra one was on the pile. "What's this? The Voyage of the Narwhal."
"You'll love it. Apart from being an incredible story, it's well written."
"Oh yes, she wrote Ship Fever. I'm sure I'll like this. Thank you, Harry." His eyes scanned his shelves. He stood up. "While I'm thinking of it, let me give you that book about Byzantium I mentioned the other day at the P.O." If he were blind, he could have found his books, he knew their placement so well. He tapped the spine with his forefinger then slid out the book, returning to his chair and placing it before Harry.
"Fat book."
"You need it for these cold, dark nights." He sighed. "Coffee? Tea?"
"I win!" Elocution shouted.
The clock read two fifty-two.
"Elo, control yourself." Herb laughed, not knowing his youngest cat, who was only two, had just won her bet as the first large snowflake twirled by the window.
Cazenovia explained the bet to the other animals while the humans talked.
"When do they start laying the carpets?"
"Wednesday, if all goes well. But hopefully this week no matter what. It should take two full days. We couldn't have done this without Matthew." He rubbed the old carpet with his shoe. "In a way I agree with Tazio, it'd be so handsome to have the floors done and, say, a nice Oriental carpet in here but there's too much traffic."
"Even in your office?"
"If I sand the floors in here the dust will be everywhere so I might as well just rip it up and do the wall-to-wall thing. It will be just fine." He changed the subject. "Called on Anne Donaldson this morning. She's pretty broken up."
The Donaldsons weren't Lutherans but Crozet was a small enough town that everyone knew everyone else and Herb, quite naturally, paid his respects.
"I dropped by, too. I must have just missed you. Susan and I were out running errands and-"
"Where's Susan? I saw your truck but no Susan."
"Oh well, we started out in her car. We went to the Clam and then I wanted to go up to the New Gate shopping center and she ran out of time. She dropped me back home and I realized I hadn't returned your books, so I'm here. Before the storm. The clouds were hanging on the mountains." She looked out the window. "Aha."
Herb looked at Harry, whom he had known for most of her life. Her curiosity was both a good and a bad quality. She had a lively mind, read voraciously and indiscriminately, but she could also get herself into trouble. She wasn't always as smart as she thought she was. If Harry had gone to the Clam and then up to New Gate shopping center, it meant something was up.
Herb decided not to tip his hand. "Forget something at the Clam?"
"No, I just wanted to review events and, my luck, Rick Shaw was sitting at the timekeeper's table. So much for my sneaking around."
Herb had his answer. "Harry, hear me out."
The tone of his voice made her sit up straight. "Yes, sir."
"I know you. Everyone in this town knows you. Their cats and dogs know you. You are as curious as a cat and you think you're a detective. Because of your curiosity I know H.H.'s demise might be, shall we say, suspicious? There's nothing in the paper. Anne said nothing to me. The sheriff hasn't been by but I know you. You took yourself to where he died and then to the shopping center he was building. Am I correct?"
"Well-" She'd promised Rick not to tell.
"I thought so." He crossed his arms over his chest. "Who else knows?"
"Fair and Ned because they went back to the Clam Friday night. They were there all night with Rick and his crew."
"I see." Herb softened somewhat. "They won't tell. What provoked this? I mean, what led Rick to believe H.H. was killed?"
"The autopsy. It was done while the body was still warm, perfect conditions, I guess."
"How?"
"Well, I don't think anyone knows, but there was something odd at the autopsy. I don't know what it was. When the lab tests come back the sheriff will know for certain if it was murder."
"He wasn't shot. He wasn't stabbed. He wasn't run over. That leaves poison." Herb made a steeple out of his fingers, leaning forward. "Who knows you were at the Clam?"
"Rick."
"Pass anyone in the halls?"
"No. It was really quiet."
"The only place you can hide a car is at the service entrance. Did you?"
"No. It was Susan's station wagon."
"Harry." He was upset.
"Well?" She held up her palms in supplication.
"And then you went up to the New Gate shopping center. Who saw you there?"
"The men working to finish the discount store. Rob Collier's moonlighting. Uh, Peter Gianakos is the foreman. I don't know the other guys. Oh, the assistant building code inspector, Mychelle Burns. She and Peter were at it so maybe she noticed me and maybe she didn't. Uh-"
"Harry"-his voice lowered-"the murderer, if there is one, thinks that no one knows yet."
"Not necessarily. Rick had his crew at the Clam. The person might know that."
"But it is not public knowledge at this point and Sheriff Shaw's wily. He could have told people at the auditorium that this was strictly routine. They may or may not have believed him but late Friday night no one is there. The roads did not invite cruising around. By Saturday morning, okay, a few more people might have noticed the squad car and other official vehicles, but still, it's not public knowledge and no one is talking about it because our phones would be off the hook. People are all saying he dropped dead of a heart attack. People in their twenties can drop dead of a heart attack. There hasn't been word one about a questionable death. So-"
"You were stupid, Mom. I love you but you blew it." Mrs. Murphy hopped into Harry's lap.