“Okay.”
Rob sailed through the front door. He dropped the mail sacks like lead when Harry told him the news. He absolutely couldn’t believe this was happening, but who could?
Tucker and Mrs. Murphy overheard Harry reveal the location of the murder.
“We can’t get there by ourselves unless we’re willing to be gone an entire day.”
“Can’t do that.” Tucker pulled at her collar. The metal rabies tag tinkled.
“So, how are we going to get out there? We need Harry to take us in the truck.”
“Half of Crozet will go out there. People have a morbid curiosity,” Tucker observed.
“When she gets in that truck, no matter when, we’d better pitch a fit.”
“Gotcha.”
Mrs. Hogendobber was stopped by Market Shiflett as she ascended the post office steps. She emitted a piercing yell upon hearing the news.
Josiah, crossing the street, hesitated for a split second and then came over to see what was amiss.
“This is the work of the Devil!” Mrs. Hogendobber put her hand on the wall for support.
“It’s shocking.” Josiah tried to sound comforting but he never would like Mrs. Hogendobber. “Come on, Mrs. H., let me help you inside the post office.” He swung open the door.
“When did you hear?” Mrs. Hogendobber’s voice sounded even.
“On the radio this morning.” Josiah fanned Mrs. H., now sitting by the stamp meter. “Would you like me to take you home?” Josiah offered.
“No, I came for my mail and I’m going to get it.” Resolutely, Mrs. Hogendobber stood up and strode to her postal box.
Harry and Josiah followed her as Fair screeched up out front, killing the engine before turning off the key as his foot slipped off the clutch.
“You could have come right through the window,” Mrs. Hogendobber admonished him.
Fair shut the door behind him. “I thought I’d give the taxpayers a break and not do that.”
“This old building could use a rehab.” Josiah turned the key in his box.
“Do you know about that sweet Maude Bly Modena? Murdered! In cold blood.” Mrs. Hogendobber breathed heavily again.
“Now, now, don’t get yourself overexcited,” Josiah warned her.
“Quite right.” Mrs. Hogendobber controlled herself. “So much evil in the land. Still, I never thought it would come home.” She touched her eyebrow, trying to remember. “The last bad thing that happened here—apart from the drunken-driving accidents—why, that would be the robberies at the Farmington Country Club. Remember?”
“That was in 1978.” Harry recalled the incident. “A gang of high-class thieves broke into the homes there and took the silver and the antiques.”
“And left the silver plate.” Mrs. Hogendobber didn’t realize how funny that was and couldn’t understand why, for a moment, Harry, Fair, and Josiah laughed.
“The theft wasn’t funny, Mrs. H.,” Harry explained. “But on top of being robbed, everyone would find out who had good stuff and who didn’t. I mean, it added insult to injury.”
Mrs. Hogendobber found no humor in it and made a harrumphf. “Well, this has been too much for one morning. I bid you adieu.”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to see you home?” Josiah offered again.
“No . . . thank you.” And she was gone.
“Didn’t they find that stuff stashed in a barn in Falling Water, West Virginia?” Fair asked.
“They did, and that was a stupid place to put it too.” Josiah shut his mailbox.
“Why?” Harry asked.
“Putting exquisite pieces like that in a barn. Rodents could chew them or defecate on the furniture. The elements could expand and contract the woods. Just dumb. They knew good stuff from bad but they didn’t know how to take care of it.”
“Maybe they packed them up or crated them.” Fair wasn’t very knowledgeable about antiques.
“No, I remember the TV reports. They showed the inside of the barn.” Josiah shook his head. “No matter, that’s small beer compared to . . . this.” He walked over to the counter where Fair was leaning. “What do you think?”
“I don’t know.”
“What about you, Harry?” Josiah’s face registered concern.
“I think whoever did this was one of us. Someone we know and trust.”
Josiah instinctively stepped back. “Why do you think that?”
“What’s the killer doing? Flying in and out of Charlottesville to murder his victims? It has to be a local.”
“Well, it doesn’t have to be someone from Crozet.” Josiah was offended at the idea.
“Why not? It’s not so strange when you think about it.” Fair ran his fingers through his thick hair. “Something goes wrong between friends or lovers; the hurt person blows. It can happen here. It has happened here.”
Josiah slowly walked to the door and put his hand on the worn doorknob. “I don’t like to think about it. Maybe it will stop now.” He left and for good measure circled around the post office to Mrs. Hogendobber’s house to make sure she arrived home safely.
“What can I do for you?” Harry, even-toned, asked Fair.
“Oh, nothing. I heard on the way to work and I thought I’d see if you were all right. You liked Maude.”
Harry, touched, lowered her eyes. “Thanks, Fair. I did like Maude.”
“We all did.”
“That’s it. That’s what I need to find out. We all liked Maude. We mostly liked Kelly Craycroft. To the eye, everything looks normal. Underneath, something’s horribly wrong.”
“Find the motive and you find the killer,” Fair said.
“Unless he or she finds you first.”
12
Harry paused before knocking on BoomBoom Craycroft’s dark-blue front door. She’d brought the cat and the dog along because when she left for her lunch break the animals carried on like dervishes. First the ficus tree, now this. Must be the heat. She glanced over her shoulder. Mrs. Murphy and Tucker, good as gold, sat in the front seat of the truck. The windows, wide open, gave them air but it was too hot to be in the truck. She turned around and opened the truck door.
“Now, you stay here.”
The minute Harry disappeared through the front door of the Craycroft house, that order was forgotten.
BoomBoom’s West Highland white shot around from behind the back of the house. “Who’s here? Who’s here, and you’d better have a good reason to be here!”
“It’s us, Reggie,” Tucker said.
“So it is.” Reggie wagged his tail and touched noses with Tucker. He touched noses with Mrs. Murphy, too, even though she was a cat. Reggie had manners.
“How are you?”
“As good as can be expected.”
“Bad, huh?” Tucker was sympathetic.
“She’s just grim. Never smiles. I wish I could do something for her. I miss him too. He was a lot of fun, Kelly.”
“Do you have any idea what happened? Did he take you places that humans didn’t know about?” Mrs. Murphy asked.
“No. I’m supposed to be a house dog. I’ve seen the concrete plant a few times but that’s it.”
“Did he seem worried recently?”
“No, he was happy as a dog with a bone. Every time he made money he was happy and he made lots of it. Bones to them, I guess. He wasn’t home much but when he was, he was happy.”
Inside, Harry wasn’t getting much from BoomBoom either.
“A nightmare.” BoomBoom snapped open her platinum cigarette case. “And now Maude. Does anyone know if she has people?”
“No. Susan Tucker offered to put up the relatives but Rick Shaw told her that Maude had no siblings and her parents were dead.”