“Harry!” Susan threw up her hands.
“Listen to me. I know I am nosey and maybe too suspicious, but this is suspicious. And what if she knew and trusted her killer? Jason did. So maybe whoever gave her a pill, she was tired, she had a headache, she was a little tipsy, say. It is possible.”
“Well, if that’s the case, it will show up in toxicology.” Arlene thought it through. “Then what we do, I don’t know.”
“Here are the facts. Two people who owned a company together are dead. One murdered. One, we don’t know. But here’s what I come back to and I thank Geoff and Jan Ogden for this. Jason was in the foreign service. He was posted to Ankara. Okay, Geoff was general counsel of Istanbul. Jason was moving up the ladder. Turkey is a very important ally. So what was Clare doing at this time? She was in the Navy, right?” Harry asked.
“Right,” Arlene answered.
“And she was in the Gulf of Finland. That’s a critical area.”
“And potentially dangerous. She knew Russian. I don’t know really what her duties were, but I expect because of her language skills, she had important ones and, then again, she made captain,” Arlene remarked.
“Jason spoke fluent Turkish,” Susan remembered from an old conversation. “Of course, they all spoke French. In the old days everyone in the foreign service who wished to rise or was in diplomacy spoke French.”
“Whatever for?” Harry asked.
“For centuries it was the language of diplomacy,” Susan, good with languages, replied. “I wish it still was, as we need two or three languages that can span the world.”
“Well, English sure does.” Harry felt quite smug about her own language.
“It’s not the same,” Susan fumed. “French can be marvelously subtle. English, well, you can be subtle but you have to work at it. We need French. We also need Chinese. If those two languages could be taught and taught early, it would help those who go into government and it would help business.”
“Russian,” Arlene said. “Maybe not as important, but Russian and Chinese. And I would have to say today, Arabic.”
“So if someone knows at least one of those, they’ll have a good career?” Harry wondered.
“They will if they keep their nose clean.” Arlene exhaled. “So Harry, what you are saying is that this goes back. Somehow this isn’t really about a car dealership or the onetime employee who smuggled drugs inside hubcaps.”
“Well, drugs can always be a motivator. So much profit.” Harry lowered her voice. “But I think this goes back to their thirties. I am missing something, but I believe Clare was murdered and I believe it is connected to Jason getting his throat slit.”
Arlene exhaled loudly again. “Remind me never to underestimate your brainpower. You could be right.”
“Don’t tell her that!” Susan nearly shouted. “I have to live with her.”
“Lucky you.” Harry half giggled despite all.
Susan pleadingly looked at Arlene. “We were placed in the same cradle together by our mothers. I can’t get away from her, and let me tell you, she has always gotten me into trouble and she can be bossy, too.”
“I am not. I am clear thinking most times.”
“I need a drink, a real drink,” Susan complained.
“I’ll drive. There’s bourbon in the cooler,” Harry volunteered.
“No.” Susan shook her head. “What truly pisses me off is now you’ve made me think there is a connection. I just want to go home and forget it.”
“We can’t forget it,” Harry replied.
“Perhaps for a night. I need to drive home and so do you. I’ll take Clare’s beagles with me and call Chesapeake Beagles tomorrow. Little things probably want to know why everyone has left the kennels but them,” Arlene told them.
“We’ll help you load them up,” Harry offered.
“Harry, you go help Arlene. I’ll load up our stuff. It’s about a two-hour drive and now it’s dark. I mean, we could stay the night, but it feels creepy.”
“Does,” Arlene agreed as she and Harry left the cabin to drive Arlene’s truck to the kennels.
The four sweet beagles wiggled because they were going to ride in a truck like house dogs. Big deal.
As Harry returned, Susan had everything organized, including pouring water on the fireplace coals and swooshing them about.
Ruffy sat by the station wagon as Tucker was lifted in. The two cats jumped in, making a beeline for the comforter.
“We’ll be back. I don’t think it will be too long,” Tucker called down.
“I hope not,” Ruffy replied, and as Susan pulled out the beagle felt hope for the first time since he had been killed with his human.
34
October 25, 1787
Thursday
Ewing would be finished with his breakfast, filled with Bettina’s wonders and rich, fortifying coffee. The two sisters slowly walked to the big house. They’d put this off as long as they could.
“Father,” Catherine called as she opened the back door.
“Me, too.” Rachel’s light, liquid voice followed her sister’s. Already in his library, Ewing nearly sang with delight. “My angels. Both of you.”
Catherine stuck her head in the kitchen. Bettina had been using the winter kitchen since the beginning of October, as the nights proved cold. “Wish us luck.”
Bettina came to the sisters, held each one’s hands for a moment, her kind face bright. “Bless you. No matter what, I bless you.”
“Oh, Bettina.” Rachel impulsively kissed her on the cheeks, cheeks she had kissed since infancy.
Catherine, less demonstrative, squeezed the good woman’s hand. “We really will do our best, but Bettina, this might take Father some time.”
Bettina nodded, letting go of Catherine’s hand.
The two sisters, nearly equal in height, took each other’s hands to walk down the hall. As unalike as they were in their abilities, they shared their mother’s kindness and their father’s hopefulness and the deep reverence for life that Bettina had taught them as children.
Just before they reached the open door of the library, Rachel turned to her stunning sister. “Catherine, I pray Mother is with us.”
Catherine, searching her equally beautiful sister, but beautiful in a classically feminine fashion, nodded. “She will be.”
As they walked into the library, Ewing stood up, strode to his daughters, kissing them. “Both of you at the same time. What a wonderful way to greet this frosty morning. Come, come, sit by the fire. You both wouldn’t be here if this were not important.”
He was hoping one would tell him she was with child. Ewing had turned into a predictably besotted grandfather.
“Coffee? Tea? Anything?”
“No, Father. I have actually learned a bit of cooking and made a breakfast today that even my husband gobbled.” Rachel laughed.
“Rachel, you’re a good cook.” Catherine meant it.
“Well, before you tell me whatever it is, I can tell you, Catherine, I received an inquiry yesterday—you were at the stables all day—from a London firm inquiring about tobacco. Now, if we can reach an accord, it will somewhat offset our French losses.”
Rachel, at the edges of European doings, mostly listening to her husband, said, “No one likes to lose money. And imagine what Maureen is thinking? No more fabrics from Paris.”
“Oh, I think Maureen will compensate. She has a cleverness.” Ewing stretched out his legs.
Apart from being a bit portly, he was in good health, but his knees ached a bit, as did his finger joints.
Catherine took a deep breath. Best to get on with it. “Father, we are here to ask a boon.”