Рита Браун - Hotspur

“Camargo and Rocky Ford Headley were founded in 1925,” Shaker added.

“How do you remember all that?”

“You tend to remember what you like. I just thought you might have seen hunting in Ohio.”

“No. Not until I got here.”

“Well, it’s a way of life in Virginia.”

“A way of death, too,” Ben commented, a wry tone to his voice. “You don’t need to hunt the fox, you’re so busy hunting one another.”

Sister exhaled, which brought Doughboy’s ears up. He looked at her quizzically. “These truly are extraordinary circumstances.”

Shaker murmured his agreement with that statement.

After Ben drove away, the two walked the puppies back to the puppy palace, as they called it.

“Want to hear my plan?”

“Can’t wait.”

CHAPTER 38

“Janie, are you sure?” Tedi’s lovely blue eyes were sorrowful.

“Yes. But I can’t prove a thing yet.”

Tedi, Edward, Walter, Shaker, and Sister sat around Sister’s kitchen table. She had thrown together a quick dinner for them. Each had come with the express instructions to tell no one where they were going that night. Not a soul.

Sister started the bowl of peas around to the left. “Tedi and Edward, I know this is most disquieting.”

“We’ll handle it.” Edward spoke with authority.

“The killer has to be Sybil, Ken, Xavier, or Ron. If you think about each one, each has benefited since Nola’s and Guy’s deaths. When Ron first hung out his lawyer’s shingle, you used him and you also switched insurance over to Xavier. Right?” Walter asked.

“Right.” Edward nodded. “Ken encouraged us, and both men gave us very good service.”

“They all ran around together,” Tedi added. “Our support in the early stages of their business lives was beneficial.”

“And would it be possible for Sybil to divert some of her monies to either Ron or Xavier without either of you knowing about it?” Sister added.

“Up to a point,” Edward succinctly replied. “If the sums were excessive, I think I’d know.”

“I’ve been thinking about Hotspur.” Sister changed the subject. “The only way that Henry IV could defeat him was to divide and conquer. He picked Hotspur off before he could join up with his father. Had the two been united, Sir Henry Percy’s father would have sat on the throne. They were much better soldiers than the king. I believe our killer separated Nola and Guy. She’d been unfaithful to Guy.”

Edward interrupted, “But it’s not like she was married to him!”

“No, but love isn’t rational. It would seem to me that both Nola and the killer had something to lose. Nola would lose Guy, and she had finally fallen in love with Guy. What the killer would lose, I don’t know. If we knew the answer to that I think we’d solve this.” Sister looked at Walter; she couldn’t stop staring at him, but she made sure he didn’t see her doing it. “Well, perhaps I make too much of this Hotspur thing. My mind works in fits and starts. They don’t all lead in the right direction, but they do fire me up.”

“Me too.” Shaker reached for the fried chicken, then handed the plate to Tedi on his left. “And I find the older I get the more wood I need to get fired up. Sister, let’s get down to brass tacks here.”

“Well, yes. I digress. I want Walter to grow a military mustache or paste one on and play a key part. And I want us to find two actors who can ride who resemble Guy and Nola.”

“Have you lost your mind?” Edward sat up straight in his chair.

“Maybe there isn’t much of it left to lose. Now hear me out before you become ruthlessly logical, Edward. I believe our killer is still in love with Nola or Guy. We’ve got to shake him or her out of the covert. Bolt our fox.”

“Ah.” Walter was getting it, as was Tedi.

“Perhaps you have noticed how much Walter resembles Raymond. With a mustache, the resemblance will be impossible to miss.”

All eyes were on Walter, who blushed.

“Uncanny.” Tedi blinked.

“Remember Raymond’s big hunter, A. P. Hill? Found a horse who looks much like him and is very kind.” She smiled at Walter. “We’ll take care of you, Walter.” She said to the others, “I want to place Walter far enough away so when he is glimpsed—and it will be just a glimpse—people won’t really know if they’ve seen him or not. And I want Nola and Guy together down by Cindy’s two ponds at Foxglove Farm. There’s got to be someone we can use—call Central Casting, if we must. I want to blast this murderer into the open. Let us resurrect our dead. They’ll beckon to the killer. However, we can’t use a Ralph stand-in. We can’t do that to Frances.”

“It’s lunacy.”

“Edward, we have no hard evidence. I’d rather be a lunatic than do nothing,” Tedi said, touching Nola’s ring.

Sister softly said, a bit of humor in her voice as she hoped to defuse Edward’s resistance, “I know, Edward, you won’t overestimate my faculty for constructive thought. I’ve had to resort to imagination.”

“Well, I’ll do it,” Walter said with determination.

“You lead the field. What are you going to do when people see these apparitions?” A note of sarcasm dripped into Edward’s voice.

“Maybe I won’t see these apparitions.”

“Ah. You’ll be up front. By the time someone tells you, they’ll fade away.” Tedi was catching on.

“Sybil will be whipping-in that day.” Edward could not believe for one instant that his daughter was a killer.

“I’ll put her in the field and let Jennifer whip. She doesn’t know but so much, but she knows enough to keep the hounds between her and the huntsman. Can’t ask for more than that. Will you all help me?” She touched Shaker’s forearm as they had discussed it. She knew he would do it, and Walter had just agreed.

“I will. I’ll do anything to get Nola’s killer, and this will clear Sybil’s name. I know people suspect her. The gossip eventually seeps under the door.”

“Impossible! Sybil would never have killed Nola.” Edward’s face turned crimson. “I can’t believe anyone would say something like that about Sybil.”

“I’m willing to try anything.” Tedi leaned toward Sister. “I’ll help you find our Guy and Nola. I have all of Nola’s clothes.”

“And we can all pray,” Sister breathed in. “A bit of mist. Just a bit.”

CHAPTER 39

Sister and Tedi worked like demons.

Tedi, thanks to friends in the film business, found two physically appropriate actors who could ride a little. She flew them to Richmond. Her friend, senior master of the Deep Run Hunt, Mary Robertson, put them up so no one would see them back in Jefferson Hunt territory. She also, prudently, worked with them a bit on their riding.

Actors, eager for employment, regularly overstate their credentials. The young lady, Melissa Lords, had ridden once or twice in a Western saddle.

Mary had her work cut out for her. But she’d managed to get the beautiful Melissa somewhat comfortable at the trot.

When Tedi drove down to check on their progress, she burst into tears at the sight of Melissa.

The actor, Brandon Sullivan, had more riding experience. His fabulous looks kept the barn girls in a twitter.

Mary would deliver the horses, Melissa, and Brandon to Roughneck Farm early in the morning of the hunt. She’d ride as a guest that day. This would stir no suspicions, as Sister often drove down for a day’s sport at Deep Run and Mary Robertson, Tom Mackell, Red Dog Covington, and Ginny Perrin, the joint-masters, returned the favor.

Walter would park in the hay shed to hide his truck that morning.

Sister chose the day by calling Robert Van Winkle, the weatherman, a local celebrity who had a genuine passion for studying weather.