Mim roared back:“I came to the marriage with my own money.”
In saying that, she said it all. Her life was about money. Love had nothing to do with it.
She slammed the door, leaving Little Marilyn and the bodyguard running to catch up.
Bad enough that Harry had lost her temper, she had criticized Mim in front of Officer Cooper.
Mim, entombed as she was in the white sepulcher of her impeccable lineage, was jarred by a person of low degree, Harry. Oh, she’d made allowances for Harry. After all, Fair had little money but the Haristeens had bloodlines. They’d once had money but lost it in the War Between the States. Never bounced back financially, but then that was the story of the South. It took vulgarians like Jim to make money again.
Mim about ripped the door off her Volvo. She was calling Mignon Haristeen the second she got home.
Courtney breezed in as Mim blew out.“Hey, what’s the matter with her?”
“Change of life,” Harry said.
Officer Cooper laughed. Courtney didn’t get it. She banged open the postal box.
“Courtney, be careful. You’ll twist the hinges if you keep that up.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Haristeen. Officer Cooper, what are you doing here?”
“Guarding your post box from fraud and bent hinges.”
Mrs. Murphy stuck her paw in the opened box from the inside. She could reach most of the boxes if the mail cart was underneath, which it was. Courtney touched her paw. Mrs. Murphy had performed this trick for Mrs. Hogendobber, who screamed when she saw the hairy little paw. Here she was, brave about her nasty postcard but scared of a cat’s paw. Well, she wasn’t used to animals. Mrs. Murphy thought about that as Courtney played with her.
Danny Tucker opened the door and carefully closed it, a change from his usual slam bang. Ever since the credit-card episode, he had walked on eggshells.
“Hello, Harry, Officer Cooper.” He glanced at Courtney. “Hello, Courtney.”
“Hello, Danny.” Courtney shut the box, thereby depriving Mrs. Murphy of a great deal of satisfaction.
Danny leaned over the counter.“Mom says you should come over for supper tonight,” he told Harry. “Dad’s staying over in Richmond.”
“Thank you. Officer Cooper will accompany me.”
“You in trouble?” Danny half hoped Harry was, so he wouldn’t be the only person with a black cloud hanging over his head.
“No.”
“Terminal speeding tickets,” Officer Cooper said laconically.
“You?” Danny exclaimed. “That old truck can’t do but fifty full-out.”
“The condition of my truck is much to be lamented but the condition of my bank account is even sorrier. Hence the truck. And I do not have a speeding ticket. Not even one.”
“Why don’t you drop a new engine in it or a rebuilt engine? My buddy Alex Baumgartner—he can do anything with an engine. Cheap, too.”
“I’ll give it my bright regard.” Harry smiled. “And tell your mom we’ll be over about six-thirty. Is that all right with you, Coop?”
“Great.” Officer Cynthia Cooper lived alone. A home-cooked meal would be a little bit of heaven.
Danny’s eyes twinkled. He wanted to appear suave but he still resembled the fourteen-year-old he in fact was. “Courtney, you come too.”
“I thought you were grounded.” Why seem eager?
“I am but you can visit me. It’s only for supper, and Mom thinks you’re a good influence.” He laughed.
“You can ride in the squad car with us,” Officer Cooper offered.
“Let me ask Daddy.” She rushed out and was back within seconds. “He said it’s okay.”
Josiah came in.“I heard you were being watched, and I was nearly run over by Mim, Little Marilyn, and that bodyguard. Hello, kids.” He noticed Courtney and Danny.
“Hello, Mr. DeWitt.” They left the post office to talk outside.
Josiah’s lower lip protruded; he pretended to be serious. “I vouch for the character of this woman. Pure as the driven snow. Clean as mountain water. Honest as Abe Lincoln. If only we could corrupt her.”
“Try harder.” Harry smiled.
He got his mail and yelled around the corner:“Is there anything I can do to relieve you of Officer Cooper’s presence? Not that we don’t think you’re wonderful, Officer Cooper, but you’ll ruin the poor girl’s sex life.”
“What sex life?” Harry said.
“My point exactly.” Josiah returned to the counter. His tone was more serious. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“I’ll take your word for it then.” He hesitated, lowered his eyes, then raised them. “Any word from Stafford?”
“Not that I know of, and Mim let me know I wasn’t winning any personality contest, but then she isn’t winning one with me either, the stuck-up bitch.”
Josiah’s eyes opened wider. He’d rarely seen Harry angry. “She exhausted every adjective in describing to me her feelings about ‘the Stafford episode,’ as she calls it. Mim and I have an understanding of sorts. She doesn’t meddle in my personal life and I don’t meddle in hers, but she’s quite wrong about this. Of course, just why Little Marilyn selected Fitz-Gilbert remains a mystery. Any quieter and the man would be in a coma.”
“When’s he going to show his face?” Harry inquired.
“Mama plans a small ‘do’ at Farmington Country Club but she keeps moving the date. She’s more rattled than she lets on about … things.”
“Aren’t we all?” Harry pushed around the rubber-stamp holder.
He smoothed his salt-and-pepper hair.“Yes—but I prefer not to think about it. I can’t do anything about it anyway.”
33
Mrs. Murphy, ear cocked to catch mouse sounds, prowled in the barn. It had been a long day at the post office. When they arrived home Mrs. Murphy hurried toward the barn, accompanied by Tucker. High in the hayloft she caught sight of a black tail hanging over the side of a bale. She climbed up the ladder to the loft.“Paddy?”
He opened one golden eye.“You gorgeous thing. I’ve been waiting for you. It’s a good thing you woke me up or I would have slept right through until tonight.” He stretched.“I remembered our brief conversation under a full moon and a canopy of stars… .”
She twitched her tail. His flowery speech made her impatient. He continued.
“And spurned though I was, your words were engraved on my heart. I saw something odd. I didn’t think about it at the time and I wish I had, because I would have investigated, but my blood was up and you know how that is.”
“What?” Mrs. Murphy’s ears pitched forward; her whiskers swept forward. Every muscle was on alert.
“I was hunting out near the old Greenwood tunnel. A rabbit shot out of the tunnel and I chased him clear down to the Purcell McCue estate. That damned golden retriever of theirs lumbered out, mouth running, and I lost my rabbit.”
“Go up a tree?”
“Me? That toothless old hound. No, I dashed right in front of his nose and walked on home. Then I remembered what you said and I came here.”
“The tunnel’s sealed.”
“But I saw the rabbit come out of it.”
“Do you remember exactly where?”
“He moved pretty fast but I think it was near the bottom. It’s covered with foliage. Hard to see.”
“How do you know he wasn’t hiding in the foliage and you flushed him out?”
“I don’t, but I swear I saw him pop out of a hole at the very bottom. Can’t be sure but, well—I thought you’d like to know.”
“Thanks, Paddy. I don’t know how I can make it up to you.”
“I do.”
“Not that way.” Mrs. Murphy cuffed his ears.“Come on, let’s tell Tucker.”
The two cats joined Tucker. Conversation grew excited.
“We’ve got to get up there!” Tucker shouted above the voices.“That’s the only way we’ll ever know.”
“I know we’ve got to get up there but it’s a good day’s journey, and we can’t leave Harry now that she’s in danger.” Mrs. Murphy spat, she was so vehement.