Рита Браун - Catch As Cat Can

“Does he know we're coming?” BoomBoom asked.

“I called ahead. He's working. I called Ida first”— Susan mentioned Sean's mother—“she said he'd be at the yard. Work helps him.”

“So many memories of Roger.” Harry thought it must be painful, for she knew how it felt after her parents died and she took over the farm. Before that she'd lived in a small apartment in town.

“Well?” Susan raised her eyebrows.

The three trudged together to the main building.

“I'm going to strangle Pope Rat.” Tucker scampered off to the garage.

“She's a quart low.” Pewter indicated the dog. “Why tangle with a rat? I'm going inside with the humans.”

“I'm going to sit here and think.” Mrs. Murphy padded over to the marble section.

When the three women opened the door, Sean glanced up. “Hi.”

“Hi,” they said.

“Can I help you?”

BoomBoom spoke first. “We don't want to intrude but we want you to know that if you want to move the Wrecker's Ball from here, we've found a place to have it. The salvage yard in Louisa County agreed to do it and we'll do the work, send out a mailing.”

He smiled. “Thanks. That's good of you and good of Jonathan.” He mentioned the owner of the salvage yard in Louisa County. “But I'll have it here. Roger loved that party. I thought I'd have it in his honor and accept donations to establish a scholarship in his name at Virginia Tech.”

“That's a wonderful idea.” Susan meant it, too.

“Do you need extra hands?” Harry asked.

“No, thanks. My crew can handle it. We've got ten days. We're okay.”

As the three women left the building, Harry saw Tucker streaking from the garage to the caboose on the siding. The corgi raced around the caboose because the first step was so high she couldn't climb up.

“Pope Rat,” Murphy told Harry.

“Vermin!” Tucker shouted.

“Nipshit!” the rat taunted from inside the caboose.

“Susan, I'm going to have to pick her up. She won't come voluntarily.” Harry ran over to grab her dog before the barking offended Sean and the customers. “Tucker, come on.”

The dog's soft brown eyes pleaded, “I can get him.”

“Come on.” Harry, curiosity aroused, stepped on the platform. The door was locked and the shades drawn. “Make a neat restaurant or even a place to live.”

Pope Rat put his eye to the opening he'd chewed in the door. “Another nipshit.”

Harry scooped up Tucker, returning to the station wagon, where Susan and BoomBoom were talking. “Wouldn't you love to have that caboose? They've got wood-burning stoves in them and I don't know, I'd sure like to have one. Wonder why he locks it up.”

“Going to clean it up, paint it, and use it as a coffeehouse, I think. At least that's what the plan was before Roger—anyway, I guess it's locked so people don't troop through and damage it.” BoomBoom thought it would be a good place to gather. “And liability. I'm sure he needs to get everything perfect. What if someone fell off the steps before they're finished? Stuff like that.”

“Yeah, I'm expecting someone to sue the post office if they get a paper cut opening their mail.” Harry grimaced. “Hey, here comes Coop.”

As she pulled the squad car next to the Audi, Tucker squirmed out of Harry's arms, tearing back to the caboose.

“Damn you, Tucker.” Harry ran after her, grabbing her again as the dog challenged the rat.

“You're supposed to herd cows, not rats,” Murphy dryly laughed.

“He called me a nipshit. Called Mom one, too.” Tucker heaved, indignant.

“He's like the blue jay. Born trouble.” Pewter harbored a plan to dispatch her tormentor. She wasn't telling anyone.

“So?” Everyone expectantly looked at the lean, long deputy.

“Can't tell you. Not until I speak to Sean.” She picked her hat up off the passenger seat, then decided not to wear it.

Harry opened the driver's door for her. “I've been thinking.”

“That's scary.” Cooper laughed.

“Who knows that we opened Don's safe?”

“His mother and father. The sheriff. You. BoomBoom. I know his mother and father won't speak of it. At least, not for a while. It's too overwhelming. Who did you tell?”

“No one,” BoomBoom truthfully replied. “Harry told Miranda and Tracy but I was there. I guess in a way I told them, too.”

“Susan. I told Susan,” Harry stated.

“No one else?” Cynthia Cooper stretched her arms over her head. “Kinks.”

“The older you get, the more getting out of bed in the morning becomes an athletic event.” Susan shook her head in surprise at how rapidly the aches and pains mounted up and she was only in her late thirties, as were the others.

“What's your idea, Harry?” the officer inquired.

“Well, first let me ask you a couple of questions. Who had the combination to the lock? There wouldn't be a key to a lock like that, right?”

“Right. I thought when I first saw the safe that maybe there would be a key, you know, the big handles could be for show, but it really was a combination lock.”

“A tough one,” BoomBoom added.

“How do we know someone else didn't have the combination? The press doesn't know about the money. Rick withheld that information. Can it really be possible that all that money was Don's? And even if it was, whoever he was in business with had to know he wouldn't put a sum like that in the bank. That would be like waving a flag in front of a bull. So his partner or partners had to know Don's share would be in that safe. Which is exactly why Rick didn't tell the press even though they're hounding him for a development concerning the murder. He's hoping to flush them out,” said Harry.

“Possible,” Cooper drawled as BoomBoom and Susan stared at Harry.

“I think I know what comes next.” BoomBoom, no slouch, put her hands together.

“Put the lock back. Fill the safe with fake money. Maybe we can flush them out faster.” Harry beamed.

“His partner will come back to take Don's share,” Susan thought out loud. “Yeah, but how are you going to know when he comes back or if he comes back?”

“Can't we put a small surveillance camera in the shop, the kind they use in the bank? It can't be too expensive. I know Rick is worried about the budget.” Harry warmed to the task. “No one needs to be there. You'll see who it is and nab him later.”

“In the best of all possible worlds, yes, but what if he comes in with a mask? Or she? I shouldn't assume it's a man.” BoomBoom rubbed her hands together. The talk of aches and pains made her joints hurt.

“Yeah, but any picture is better than no picture and whoever this is knows no one is at Don's house. He won't even have to pretend to be a thief,” Harry sensibly said.

Coop held up her hand. “Let me run this by the Boss. BoomBoom, can you weld the lock back?”

“If you all help me, I can. It's so heavy someone has to hold it in place. It's going to take a couple of hours to do it right. You don't want the seam to show, that's a big tip-off.”

“How about Friday night? I have it off. Chinese.” Coop meant bring Chinese food.

“I'll get the food.” Susan thought this exciting. “We shouldn't park there.”

“I've got to back up and drop off the oxygen. I need help with that, too. Harry, you're the strongest.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“We can park at the high school and walk over. There's so much activity there that our cars won't be noticeable,” Susan said.

“Seven,” Cooper said, then nodded toward the building. “I've got to get in there.”

“Will you tell us later?” Harry couldn't stand not knowing something.