Рита Браун - Tall Tail

Fair thought about that, then replied, “It is hard to imagine him stooping that low.”

“Could he be protecting someone else?”

Fair put down his book. “If he would protect anyone, it would be Penny. Even if he caught Eddie with his hand in the till, he’d turn him in.”

“Exactly. Eddie has the most to lose. I know Eddie is behind this somehow. If he’s been on the take, he’s darn good at hiding it. Of course, he could have an offshore bank account.”

“That would come out sooner or later. Look at how our government browbeat the Swiss bankers.” Fair thought allowing some crime is better than criminalizing many activities.

“Putting money in offshore accounts does not necessarily signal a criminal,” Harry replied.

“Honey, are you thinking that the governor did not die a natural death?”

Stroking Mrs. Murphy’s cheek, Harry thought for a moment. “Why take the risk? He was close to death and his decline has been sadly apparent. Maybe he was pushed along but not actually killed? The only reason to kill him would be if he were planning to spill the beans before he died, make a clean slate of it. If our killer knew the governor’s condition, maybe he provoked his death with overexertion, something like that. He goaded the governor, who would die without a mark on him other than his needle marks from all the shots. It could happen. What I really think is that whatever it was he knew or wanted us to know, maybe he wanted it to come out after he died. Maybe to spare Penny. Fair, something’s just beyond reach.”

“If it is as you might think, then who is in danger now?”

“No one, I would think, unless someone else knows or has an idea. The computer is gone. Whatever was at Crozet Media might be gone. Barbara Leader is gone.”

She thought for a moment. “But Mignon found her thumb drive. She could be in danger, but only Cooper and I know.”

“Then it’s medical. If that’s your list.”

“Huh?”

“The one person killed is the one person with medical knowledge.”

“The man was dying of leukemia. How could that affect anyone else?”

“Maybe it was more. Who knows? Maybe he had AIDS. Something like that could be a bombshell. And you know, more and more older people are contracting HIV.”

“Now I’m more confused than ever.”

“Maybe that’s for the best, honey.”

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

“I can’t ask her that.” Susan shook her head. “I know she won’t do it.”

Harry walked over to Susan’s bay window as they retreated inside due to the heat. “It would be terribly upsetting to exhume the governor, but what if he was killed?”

“Given his tenuous hold on life, whoever did it would be stupid,” Susan countered. “Again, given his deterioration, why kill him?”

“If I knew that, I’d have this figured out. Okay, what if he wasn’t directly murdered? But whoever was in the house, whoever knocked Mignon over the head, knew that violent exercise or even a brisk walk, given his state, would hasten his death. I talked about that to Fair, and the more I think about it, the more I think I’m on the right path.”

Susan rested her chin in her hand. “Well, given how quickly he was failing, I’d think any extreme exertion would stop his heart.”

“It’s possible that G-Pop heard Mignon get hit. Think about it. He tries to protect her, chase down the culprit, but his heart gives out.”

“It would be like him to protect her.” Susan turned this over. “It might be, but we shouldn’t say anything to G-Mom, or my mother, for that matter. They’re really feeling the loss. Give them time. I take that back. Until you or I find something, we shut up. They’re going through enough.”

“But what if your mother and grandmother find out whatever it is that created this mess? Then they’re in danger.”

“Harry, if they were in danger, we’d know by now,” Susan resolutely said.

“Not necessarily. Let’s try this. We go through his office.”

“Harry, I can’t go over there and root around my grandfather’s office at a time like this. You expect me to ask G-Mom and Mom? Come on, now, be reasonable.”

“She’s right,” Mrs. Murphy, sitting on the floor with Owen, Pewter, and Tucker, affirmed.

“There is another way. G-Mom and your mother run errands, have lunch, sometimes even play a few holes of golf on Tuesdays. Let’s drive by and see if their cars are gone. We go in and see what we can find.”

“I don’t know about that.”

“We aren’t stealing anything, we aren’t harming anything. We’re double-checking in a way that won’t disturb them. I’m willing to bet your grandmother wants to keep to her routine. It’s consoling.”

“And what if they come back while we’re there?”

“First, we go to Ivy Nursery, buy a lilac, his favorite bush. If they come, we run out back and begin planting it.”

“The lilacs have bloomed.”

“So we’re planting for next spring. Buy some mums for now. They won’t think anything of it, and it’s better than flowers from the florist.”

Susan smiled. “Have you ever seen so many flowers?”

“Overwhelming, and your grandmother sent them all to cancer wards for both adults and children here and in Richmond.” Harry’s voice softened. “Here she is losing her partner of—”

“Sixty-eight years.” Susan filled in the number.

“Sixty-eight years and she’s thinking of others.”

“Flowers can be shredded or chewed, but people should have sent more food. Mrs. Holloway would have given some to Harry,” Pewter opined.

“Doesn’t mean she’d share with you.” Tucker raised her eyebrow.

“The kitty-in-distress routine. Works every time,” Pewter bragged.

Noticing that Pewter was preparing to flop on her side and utter piteous cries, Owen ordered, “Don’t you dare. Not in my house.”

“Spoilsport,” Pewter said and huffed.

“Susan, come on. Let’s hit up the nursery. It’s ten o’clock, hot, and will get hotter. If we do have to plant because they’re in the house, it will be tolerable. If we get to go through his desk and they return, we’ll be doing it in a full furnace, but it’s worth it.” Harry made this decision for Susan.

“Well—”

“Susan, it can’t hurt!”

“All right. All right.”

Susan complained the entire way to Ivy Nursery and the entire way to Big Rawly.

“They aren’t here!” Harry jubilantly remarked. “Let’s take the lilac and the mums out back, pull out the shovels, so if they return all we have to do is zip out back.”

“Why do I let you talk me into these things?” Susan said, carrying the mums.

“Because you know there is something. I’m right. We just have to figure it out.”

“Yeah. Yeah.”

They put the lilac and the mums under the shade of a large old poplar, then scurried back inside.

The governor’s library office smelled like his cologne with a dash of bourbon. The two cats and two dogs followed them into the office. Wendell had gone with Penny and Millicent.

Harry took charge at the desk. “You cruise the side drawers, I’ll pull out the large center drawer.”

Susan pulled out a double drawer, two front handles, but it was one big drawer inside. Down on her knees, she sifted through hanging file folders.

Harry lifted out a blueprint for a new potting shed. Underneath that were car and truck titles.