"If we do that we might break china," Pewter replied.
"We could pull out canned goods. We don't have to open the china doors. Or we could sit on the floor and pull open the lower cabinet. A little Comet strewn over the kitchen floor will look worse than it really is." Mrs. Murphy wanted to play.
"No," the other two replied.
"Party poopers." The tiger jumped down from the sofa and walked back to the bedroom. She pressed the On button on the television remote control. This would make Harry think she was losing her mind because she'd swear she turned off the Weather Channel before she left home.
Mrs. Murphy watched the curve of a low pressure system now in the Ohio River Valley. It was pointing Virginia's way. More bad weather was due to arrive, tomorrow night most likely.
She pressed the channel changer to the Discovery Channel. The program highlighted elephants. She settled on the bed to watch it. At least the program was about animals. The cat couldn't abide sitcoms. Not enough animals. Many didn't even have one. Heresy to her.
As Mrs. Murphy watched elephants wallowing in the mud, Harry met Cooper at the main doors to the Clam and they walked inside together.
"Anne didn't give the tickets to anyone, so Rick, myself, and Peter Gianakos will be in front." Cooper had met Peter at the New Gate shopping center when she questioned him about H.H.'s work on that project.
"Peter, he's pretty cute."
"Yeah, he is."
They entered the basketball arena, the crowd filling the seats, and the band already playing behind the goal. For all but the big games the band was a smaller version of the marching band, and they wore T-shirts of the same color. Being more relaxed made them play better, or so people thought because the band really got into it. They added a sense of heightened fun to the happenings.
Everyone was in their usual seats. Harry, Fair, Jim, Big Mim, Aunt Tally on one row. Behind Harry sat Matt and to his right were Sandy, Ted, Matt, Jr. To his left sat Susan, Ned, Brooks, and to everyone's surprise, Dr. McIntyre's new partner, Bill Langston, a very, very attractive man. Behind that row were BoomBoom, Blair, Little Mim, and Tazio, whom Little Mim had invited since the seatholder was out of town for two weeks. Four rows behind this happy crew already swapping drinks and nibbles sat a glowering Fred Forrest.
On the opposite side of the court were Tracy and Miranda. Josef P. was reffing with a very tall former college star, Moses Welford, called Mo. Tracy, off duty, wanted to enjoy the game.
From the first whistle the game took off and never slackened. The Wake Forest team played defense like ticks, they stuck close and sucked blood.
Tammy Girond and Frizz Barber, probably the two quickest players on the UVA team, rather than being rattled by the superior defense, rose to meet the foe.
All the Virginia women played well, kept their cool. Isabelle Otey put eight points on the board in the first half. Mandy Hall added four and Jenny Ingersoll, despite being double-teamed sometimes, managed six. At halftime the score was Virginia 26, Wake Forest 24.
The second half was even better. The fans screamed, pounded the seats, stomped the floor, waved pennants and pom-poms because the game was so close, so clean, and everyone in the arena knew they were watching one of the best games of the season.
Coach Ryan would bound out of her seat from time to time. She had a commanding court demeanor without losing her cool. Andrew Argenbright paced on the sidelines. Every time the fast six-foot-three-inch Wake Forest forward rose up to block a shot, his hand would smack his forehead. She was beyond impressive. She was awesome. This year Virginia didn't have one outstanding player. What they had was a team, all talented and well matched. Wake depended too much on that forward. The Virginia team could depend on everyone.
The game went into three overtimes and finally Virginia pulled it out with a three-pointer off the hot hand of Jenny Ingersoll.
Bedlam.
Who was more exhausted, the teams or the fans?
Finally, fans filtered out.
The people Cooper had called stayed behind, and she asked Tazio Chappars and Bill Langston if they would mind filling in for the people usually sitting in their seats.
Fred Forrest, although four rows behind, didn't budge and Cooper didn't ask him to leave. If he wanted to sit through it, fine with her. Maybe she'd learn something. She was suspicious of Fred.
Tracy and Miranda remained on the other side of the court, as Cooper had asked them to stay as well. Tracy, who reffed the game the night of H.H.'s murder, took off his shoes and came out onto the court in his stocking feet.
Rick sat in H.H.'s seat. Peter sat to his left, which was the side of H.H.'s neck that had been pierced. Cooper sat on Rick's right but she stood up and turned around.
"Think back. Does anyone remember seeing anything thrown at H.H.?"
People shook their heads.
Rick slapped the back of his neck.
"Does anyone remember H.H. grabbing or rubbing his neck?"
Again, negative.
Cooper stepped back a row, standing next to Harry on her right. "Harry, you're behind H.H., a little to his left, and Fair, you're right next to Harry. Surely if he had been stabbed or hit with anything, you would have seen it."
"Nothing." Harry shrugged.
"What about Anne putting her arm around him?" Cooper pressed on.
"No," Harry said.
"Our eyes were on the basketball court," Fair concurred.
"Well, yes, but sometimes we see things out of the corner of our eye. A flashing light, the buzzer, and it triggers that memory." She rolled her fingers over a bit, a gesture of thoughtfulness. "Bear it in mind. And let the pictures roll in your head." She then walked in front of Harry and Fair to stand before Jim, Big Mim, and Aunt Tally. "Anything?"
The nonagenarian pointed at Cooper, the silver hound's head of her cane gleaming in her right hand. "You think the deed was committed here, don't you?"
"Still a hunch, Aunt Tally, still a hunch."
"But I don't understand why H.H. wouldn't yell or slap his neck if he was stabbed." Jim puzzled over the obvious stumbling block.
"He didn't feel it," Big Mim replied.
"Because the game distracted him?" Jim asked.
Bill Langston, the new doctor, surprised the others when he spoke. He sat directly behind Aunt Tally. "It's possible for a victim to not feel what pierced his skin-not at first anyway. A painkiller on the tip of a dart would deaden sensation. He would feel it later, whether ten minutes later or a half hour, that would depend on the type of painkiller and the amount injected, naturally. And curiously enough, some wounds aren't as painful as others despite the damage. Cold can also blunt initial pain for seconds or even minutes. If he was attacked outside, the cold might have helped numb the puncture."
"Thank you-"
"Bill Langston." He smiled. "Hayden will get around to formally introducing me."
"We're glad you're here," Cooper smoothly said.
Now the assembled knew what she and Rick had known, there was a painkiller. She hoped this would prove useful and she knew that as she moved from row to row, person to person, Rick was observing everything. He had a tremendous feel for people.
The tall blonde deputy stepped up to the next row. She smiled at Matthew and Sandy's two sons.
"It'd be so cool if we could solve this crime," Matt, Jr., the elder, said.
"Yeah," Ted, a fifth-grader, affirmed.
"That's why we're all here." Cooper turned to Sandy and Matt. "Two rows back but close. Can you remember what you were doing those last, oh say, five minutes of the game?"
Sandy laughed. "Matthew was handing out beers when he wasn't cheering."
"That's why I had the beers. Our throats were raw." He genially put his arm around his wife's shoulder.
"Susan?"
"Oh, I remember being on my feet most of the time. I'd no sooner sit down than I'd jump up again. And noisemakers. We all had noisemakers."
"Kazoos?"
Ned answered Cooper. "Kazoos. Little tin horns. A big cowbell and, uh, you know, those things you blow at New Year's parties."