“No, you can’t. For once you’ll do as I say.”
BoomBoom didn’t argue. She felt shakier than she wanted to admit. In fact, she’d never felt so terrible in her life. She loved Kelly, in her vague fashion, and he loved her in return.
Rick glanced up to see how the body removal was progressing. It wasn’t easy. Even Clai Cordle, stomach of iron, was green around the gills.
Rick opened the door, blocking BoomBoom’s view. “Clai, Diana, hold up a minute, will you? Officer Cooper’s going to run BoomBoom home.”
“Okay.” Diana suspended her labors.
“Officer Cooper.”
“Yo,” Cynthia called out, then opened the door.
“Carry BoomBoom home, will you?”
“Sure.”
“Find anything in there?”
Marie followed behind Officer Cooper.“Everything’s filed and cross-filed, first alphabetically and then under subject matter. I did it myself.”
As BoomBoom and Officer Cooper left, Rick went into the small, clean office with Marie.
“He believed in ‘a place for everything and everything in its place,’ ” Marie whimpered.
Rick scanned the top of Kelly’s desk. A silver-framed portrait of BoomBoom was on the righthand corner. A Lamy pen, very bulky, was placed on a neat diagonal over Xeroxed papers.
Rick leaned over, careful not to touch anything, and read the top sheet.
My Whig principles have been strengthened by the Mexican War. It broke out just as I was preparing to depart for Europe; my trunks were actually ready; that and the Oregon question, made me unpack them. Now my son is in it. Some pecuniary interest is at stake, the political horizon is clouded and I am forced to wait until all this ends. Since I have had my surfeit of war, I am for peace; but at this time I am still more so. Peace, peace rises at the top of all my thoughts and the feeling makes me twice a Whig. As soon as things are settled I cross the Atlantic. I might do it now, of course, but I do not wish to go for only a few months and my stay might now be curtailed by events.
Very respectfully, Y’r most obed’t.
C. CROZET
“I don’t recall Kelly being interested in history.”
Marie shrugged.“Me neither, but he’d get these whims, you know.”
Rick put his thumb under the heavy belt again, taking some of the weight off his shoulder and waist.“Crozet was an engineer. Maybe he wrote about paving or something. Built all our turnpikes, you know. Route 240, too, if I remember Miss Grindle’s teachings in fourth grade.”
“What a witch.” Marie had had Miss Grindle too.
“Never had any disciplinary problems at Crozet Elementary when Miss Grindle was there.”
“From the War Between the States until the Korean War.” Marie half giggled, then caught herself. “How can I laugh at a time like this?”
“Need to. Your emotions will be a roller coaster for a while.”
Tears welled up in Marie’s eyes. “You’ll catch him, won’t you? Whoever did this?”
“I’m gonna try, Marie. I’m gonna try.”
4
“Are you sure you want to do this?” Susan peered into Harry’s face.
“You know I have to.”
Not paying her condolences to BoomBoom would have been a breach of manners so flagrant it would be held against Harry forever. Not actively held against her, mind, just remembered, a black mark against her name in the book. Even if she had more good marks than bad, and she hoped that she did, it didn’t pay to play social percentages in Crozet.
It wasn’t just facing the jolt of a shocking death that caught Harry; it was having to face the entire social spectrum. Since asking Fair to leave, Harry had kept pretty much to herself. Of course, Fair would be at the Craycrofts’. Even if his big truck was not parked in the driveway she knew he’d be there. He was well brought up. He understood his function at a time like this.
The gathered Crozet residents would not only be able to judge how BoomBoom held up during the hideous crisis, but they’d also be able to judge the temperature of the divorce, a crisis of a different sort. Behaving bravely was tremendously important in Crozet. Stiff upper lip.
Harry often thought if she wanted a stiff upper lip she’d grow a moustache.
“Are you going to leave me here?” Tee Tucker asked.
“Yeah, what about me?” Mrs. Murphy wanted to know.
Harry looked down at her friends.“Susan, either we take the kids or you’ll have to run me back home.”
“I’ll run you home. Really isn’t proper to take the animals to the Craycrofts’, I guess.”
“You’re right.” Harry shooed Mrs. Murphy and Tucker out the post office door and locked it behind her.
Pewter, lounging in the front window of Market’s store, yawned and then preened when she saw Mrs. Murphy. Pewter’s countenance radiated satisfaction, importance, and power, however momentary.
Mrs. Murphy seethed.“A fat gray Buddha, that’s what she thinks she is.”
Tucker said,“You like her despite herself.”
Mrs. Murphy and Tucker glanced at each other during the ride home.
Tucker rolled her eyes.“Humans are crazy. Humans and ants—kill their own kind.”
“I’ve had a few thoughts along those lines myself,” Mrs. Murphy replied.
“You have not. Stop being cynical. It isn’t sophisticated. You’ll never be sophisticated, Mrs. Murphy. You came from Sally Mead’s SPCA.”
“You can shut up any time now, Tucker. Don’t take your bad mood out on me just because we have to go home.”
Once in the house, Mrs. Murphy hopped on a chair to watch Susan and Harry drive off.
“You know what I found out at Pewter’s?” Tucker asked.
“No.”
“That it smelled like an amphibian over behind the cement mixer.”
“How would she know? She wasn’t there.”
“Ozzie was,” Tucker matter-of-factly replied.
“When did you find this out?” the cat demanded.
“When I went to the bathroom. I thought I’d go over and chat with Pewter to try and smooth over your damage.” Tucker enjoyed chiding Mrs. Murphy.“Anyway, when Bob Berryman stopped by the store, Ozzie told me everything. Said it smelled like a big turtle.”
“That makes no sense,” Mrs. Murphy paced on the back of the chair.“And just what was Ozzie doing over there, anyway?”
“Didn’t say. You know, Murph, a tortoise scent is very strong.”
Not to people. The tiger thought.
“Ozzie said Sheriff Rick Shaw and the others walked over the scent many times. Didn’t wrinkle their noses. How they can miss that smell I’ll never know. It’s dark and nutty. I’d like to go over there and have a sniff myself.” Tucker began trotting up and down the living room rug.
“It probably has nothing to do with this … mess.” Mrs. Murphy thought a minute.“But on the other hand …”
“Want to go?” Tucker wagged her tail.
“Let’s go tonight when Harry’s asleep.” Mrs. Murphy was excited.“If there’s a trace, we’ll pick it up. We can’t leave now. Harry’s upset. If she comes back from the Craycrofts’ and finds us gone it will make her even more upset.”
“You’re right,” the dog concurred.“Let’s wait until she’s asleep.”
Cars lined the long driveway into the imposing Craycroft residence.
Josiah and Ned parked people’s cars for them. Susan and Harry pulled up.
Josiah opened Harry’s door. “Hello, Harry. Terrible, terrible,” was all the normally garrulous fellow could say.
When Harry walked into the house she found enough food to feed the Sandanistas, and was glad she’d brought flowers for the table. She was not glad to see Fair but damned if she’d show it.
BoomBoom sat in a huge damask wing chair by the fireplace. Drained and drawn, she was still beautiful, made more so, perhaps, by her distress.
Harry and BoomBoom, two years apart in school, were never close but they got along—until last year’s Hunt Club ball. Harry put it out of her mind. She had heard the gossip that BoomBoom wanted to catch Fair, and the reverse. Were men rabbits? Did you snare them? Harry never could figure out the imagery many women used in discussing the opposite sex. She didn’t treat her men friends any differently than her women friends and Susan swore that was the source of her marital difficulties. Harry would rather be a divorc?e than a liar and that settled that.