"You'd be cleaning the kitchen floor with boiling water as penance." Susan laughed, remembering Harry's mother. "But he is just awful. Awful!"
"Isn't it something, though, that Tazio got the job, her design was selected and here she is, her office is in Crozet. We all ought to be proud," Miranda said.
"It's a beautiful design, sweeping glass with beautiful curves. Hey, you know what I've always wanted to do?"
The other two women looked at Harry. "What?"
"Put a deep-sea diver on top of the Clam."
"That would be funny," Susan said. "You'd need a crane to get it up there."
"No. They clean that roof. There has to be a way to get on top from the inside." Harry's mind raced forward.
"Sure and you'd slide all the way off." Susan knew that in Harry's mind she was carrying the deep-sea outfit on her back, going through a trapdoor onto the roof.
"Would not."
"Would, too," Susan sassed in good humor.
"You two."
A frazzled Deputy Cynthia Cooper opened the back door, closing it behind her. "What is wrong with everyone this Monday?"
"We're fine," Harry responded.
"That's why I'm here. To escape for fifteen minutes. Oh, orange-glazed cinnamon buns, where are they?" Disappointment shone on her face.
Miranda baked the most delicious cinnamon buns, drenching them with a thick orange glaze icing.
"Now that you mention it," Miranda checked her watch, tossed on her coat, "they're just about ready."
"Yahoo!" Susan clapped her hands together like a child.
"Need help?" Tucker volunteered.
"I'll be right back." Miranda slipped out the door.
"What's going on?" Harry asked the officer.
"Aunt Tally's missing a cow. She was convinced someone stole it. In a snowstorm? Okay, dealt with that. The cow broke through the fence line and was at the next farm. Then a waterpipe burst on Hydraulic Road in front of the Kmart. Naturally the water froze all over the road, which had been slush. We had to redirect traffic at rush hour. That was a lot of fun. It's raw out there today. What a mess. And then some kid sideswipes BoomBoom at the stop sign at Routes 240 and 250. She came to a stop, a full stop, which you have to do even though it's a pain. And this kid gets impatient and pulls alongside her on the right, loses control since the road is slick, and slides all along the right side of her car."
"That's such a pretty car," Susan commiserated.
Miranda reappeared. "Voilà!"
"Miranda, you're a lifesaver." Cooper plucked one off the tray the second Miranda set it on the table.
An Explorer pulled up outside the post office. Two young blonde women disembarked. The driver opened the back door and out popped a medium-sized, reddish, mixed-breed dog, her tail twirling like a windmill. Right behind her, trying to be more dignified, was another dog, wheat-colored, larger.
"Minnesota plates." Miranda noticed. "Why, those girls will feel right at home."
Harry and Cooper laughed as the door opened and the humans and dogs stepped into the cozy post office.
"Strange dogs," Pewter announced as Tucker's ears perked right up and she scratched open the divider door between the working area and the post box area.
"All dogs are strange," Mrs. Murphy teased as she looked down from the counter as the dogs all touched noses.
"Ignore her. She's grand and airy," Tucker advised the two friendly visitors.
"Excuse me?" Gina Marie, the red-colored Lab/terrier mix cocked her head, questioning.
Casey Jo, the younger of the two visiting dogs, wagged her tail, her body and then lifted her paw for emphasis but she didn't say anything.
"Yankee dogs." Mrs. Murphy glared down at them in mock anger.
"Is that like a cookie? Yankee?" Casey Jo vaguely remembered little cellophane-wrapped doodles called, obviously enough, Yankee Doodles.
Tucker, ignoring Madame Supremacy on the counter, said, "Well, no, it's not a cookie but never you mind. Grand and airy means stuck up. It's a Southern expression and I can tell by your accents that you aren't Southern."
"No. But I thought the South was hot," Gina Marie said.
"Not in the winter. And we're right at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains so it gets right cold here."
"Bet you don't have cats that work in your post office?" Mrs. Murphy, Pewter now beside her, looked down.
"No." Casey Jo, a happy soul, thought the cats amusing.
"Any dogs working there?" Tucker inquired.
"No. St. Paul, where we live is, well, dogs and cats wouldn't be allowed to work in an office or place like this. People pay a lot of attention to rules there and I'm sure it's against the rules or our humans would take us to work." Gina Marie thought the rules were dreadful.
"See, that's what's so great about Virginia." Tucker smiled broadly, revealing her white teeth. "Everyone pretends to obey the rules and then they do what they want. It's all very civilized, of course."
"Well, how can it be civilized if people are breaking the rules?" Casey Jo innocently asked.
"Oh dear, they really are Yankees," Pewter whispered to Mrs. Murphy, nodding in agreement.
Tucker realized this would become a discussion not just of hours but days and weeks, so she prudently changed the subject. "It's very nice that your humans brought you along."
"Our humans take us everywhere they can and they are lots of fun. They play ball with us and swim with us and ski with us. They can't keep up with us so we have to slow down, of course, but they don't sit in chairs while we play. They participate."
"Does your human play with you?" Casey Jo believed humans would be so much happier if they could chase balls all day and chew bones.
Tucker glanced up at Harry, now out from behind the counter to talk to the visiting ladies from St. Paul. "Yes, but my human works all the time. We farm, you see, so I herd the horses and I guard Mom. The cats are supposed to kill the vermin but-she lowered her voice-they are falling down on the job."
"You'll pay for that." Mrs. Murphy's tail lashed.
"Death to dogs!" Pewter crowed, which made Casey Jo bark.
"She's so full of it. Pay her no more mind than if she was a goat barking." Tucker turned her back on the cats.
"I beg your pardon?" Gina Marie's eyebrows raised up.
"Uh, I don't think I can explain that one but just ignore those cats. How come you're in Crozet?"
"Polly Foss," Casey Jo indicated one of the women who looked a lot like sisters, "is here for a management conference so her best friend, Lynae Larson, took off work to come along. They've never seen central Virginia."
"Come on, girls," Polly called to the chatting dogs.
Casey Jo walked over to Harry and licked her hand before leaving.
Lynae laughed. "She loves everyone."
The two pretty Nordic ladies left carrying orange-glazed buns.
"Now isn't it just the most fun to talk to someone from different parts?" Miranda used the Virginia expression "different parts" which, depending on the intonation of the speaker, could mean a wide variety of things.
"Guess they didn't realize we have real winter here." Harry laughed.
Cooper chimed in. "Yeah, but at least ours only lasts three months. They're stuck with it half the year."
"Poor darlin's." Miranda couldn't imagine that much cold for that long.
As Gina Marie and Casey Jo hopped back in the SUV, they inhaled the delicious aroma of those orange glazed cinnamon buns and hoped those two girls in the front seat would share.
"Weren't those cats funny?" Casey Jo leaned on Gina Marie.
"Grand and airy," Gina Marie said as they both laughed.
Casey Jo replied, "Animals are nice here but you know, Gina, I can't exactly understand what they're saying."
Later that Monday when Cooper was back at headquarters, the preliminary lab report came in. H.H. had been killed by a toxin. However, no one in Richmond was familiar with the toxin and they were continuing tests to make a clear identification.