Рита Браун - Sour Puss

Blacksburg, home of Virginia Tech, was in the Shenandoah Valley, a good two-and-a-half hours away.

"I'll take some to the USDA office, then," Patricia said. The agency kept a small office off Berkmar Drive in Albemarle County.

"I'm going back to my peach orchard. Maybe I can trap whoever is doing this. Put up a sticky strip for a human."

"Harry, don't do that," Bill commanded. "I mean it. You don't know who did this. Considering everything that's been happening, it could be dangerous."

"Killed for a peach." Harry rolled her eyes.

Bill's brows furrowed. "People have been killed for less. Until we really know who killed Professor Forland, we'd better be as vigilant around people as around these sharpshooters."

Patricia punched a button on her cell phone for a prerecorded number. As she waited she asked Harry, "Are you going right home?"

"Yes."

"Sixty-four?" Patricia named the interstate.

"Yes."

Patricia diverted her attention from Harry. "Hello, this is Patricia Kluge. Is Deputy Cooper there?"

Within seconds, Cooper picked up. "Deputy Cooper here."

"Coop, will you meet Harry at her farm in a half hour? Apart from last night's grisly discovery, someone has been tampering with her peach orchard, and it could have disastrous consequences for many of us. She'll explain when you get there."

"I'll be there."

"Harry, get moving." Bill kissed her on the cheek.

As she drove out, Harry noted that Kluge Estate sat at the same elevation her farm did, from eight hundred to one thousand feet. That elevation was perfect for apples and certain grape varieties.

Virginia ranked sixth in the nation for growing apples, and the state was moving up in the grape-growing numbers, too.

When Harry arrived home, two disgruntled cats and one joyful dog greeted her.

"You left without me."Pewter coolly received Harry's hug.

Mrs. Murphy wasn't much better. "We should be with you at all times!"

"Hi, Mom. Hi, Mom."Tucker ran in circles.

"She is so obsequious,"Pewter remarked.

"Dogs—" Mrs. Murphy didn't finish her sentence, as she heard the squad car coming down the drive.

As soon as Coop pulled in, Harry hopped into the squad car along with her three animals. She told the deputy about the sharpshooter as they drove.

They had to drive back out, turn right on the state road, and go a mile to the old Jones driveway.

"You going to rent this place?" Coop asked as the gray number-five stones rattled off the skid plate.

"Up to Herb. He owns ten acres and the house."

"When's he moving out?"

"Well, that's the thing. He swears he will retire next year, but we all know that's not going to happen."

"Think he'd rent it to me?"

"What a good idea!" Harry's countenance brightened, as she was happy to have her mind off events if even for a moment. "Ask him."

"I will."

As they passed the house, turning left by the cattle barns, the dust from the road kicked up behind like a rooster's plume.

"After all the rain we've had this spring, I can't believe how dry this road is."

"That's central Virginia, isn't it? Walk ten paces and you're standing on a different kind of soil. One type drains well and another doesn't."

"I didn't think you were interested in such things," Harry replied.

"I'm not a farmer, but I am observant. Part of my job." She smiled as she pulled over. "Wish these squad cars had four-wheel drive. Wouldn't be as good in a car chase, I guess."

They got out then walked the rest of the way to the orchard. Yellow tape cordoned off the grave site. It would be removed and the dirt filled back in once Rick felt certain they hadn't overlooked anything.

"How many strips did you say there were originally?"

"Twenty." Harry touched Cooper's arm. "Coop, you know I'm not a scaredy cat."

"/ resent that," Pewter complained.

"You're tough as nails."

"I'm afraid."

Cooper carefully held the bottom of a strip, examining the sharpshooter. "Someone has snuck onto your land. Maybe two someones: one to bury the body, the other to bring in insects."

"I feel like they know my schedule. Fair's, too."

Cooper considered this. "It's possible, but your house and barn are two miles away as the crow flies. And you can't see the peach orchard. You can't even see it from the old Jones house."

"I know." She interlocked her fingers. "I feel like I'm being set up."

"Fair," Cooper replied. "It's more like Fair is being set up."

28

Twilight lingered in the spring. An hour of fading light enlivened by brilliant sunsets brought many Virginia residents outside to watch. Cloud wisps looked as though painted with a flat brush swirling upward, turned white then gold. After ten minutes the horizon line over the farther mountains deepened, but over the Blue Ridge themselves a brilliant turquoise line appeared as outlining on what were once the highest mountains in the world.

Fair noticed the sky, streaks of pulsating scarlet mingled with gold and copper, as he walked back from the barn with Harry. "My God, that's beautiful."

Harry looked up. "Sure is."

"When that sun goes down the chill comes on fast, doesn't it? Always amazes me."

"Yeah, but then we get into summer and the nights are languid. I love that feeling of warm nights with a light breeze to keep the bugs off."

"Girl, you've got bugs on the brain." He wrapped his arms around her waist as they watched the sky.

"I do, Fair. I'm baffled. And I can't help but think, two men are dead, both of whom had a great deal of knowledge about pests, about black rot, about grapes."

"I still don't see those deaths being connected."

"If Professor Forland were studying insect-borne diseases, he could have told Toby."

"He probably did. But all the vintners or their managers are scientists of a sort. Hy, Arch, Bill, and Patricia know how to look through a microscope to identify diseased tissue or what chemicals to use to kill their fungus on that."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Isn't that something about Toby's sister refusing to claim his body? What's wrong with people?" Fair shifted the subject. "Doesn't matter if they weren't on good terms. He's still her brother."

"Maybe she killed him," Harry flippantly replied.

"At this point, honey, I'm ready to believe anything."

"Inheriting a large farm under intense cultivation isn't a slim motive." Harry watched a great blue heron fly overhead, croaking as she headed for her nest.

"What an awful voice. You think she'd shut her bill,"Pewter remarked.

"Ever notice how ugly people are often more vain than good-looking ones? Maybe it's the same with birds. She thinks she has a lovely voice,"Tucker observed.

"I'd feel better if I didn't think the two murders were related." Harry wasn't giving up on this idea.

"Suppose this was about bioterrorism: wouldn't it be easier to send out anthrax?" She flipped up her coat collar. "You've been to seminars about this. Professor Forland certainly scared people at the panel. Maybe he was working for our government."

Fair thought awhile, then took her hand as the twilight faded, heading back to the warmth of the house. "Anthrax can be contracted through a cut. The bacterium enters the skin. If I handle a contaminated hide—not even the animal itself—I could contract anthrax if I have a break in my skin. You can breathe it in and you can get it from contaminated meat."

"What are the signs?"

"Do I have to listen to this?"Pewter wrinkled her nose.

"If a human ingests the bacterium, the intestinal track becomes acutely inflamed. Vomiting and fever, followed by vomiting blood and severe diarrhea, occur. And this kind of infection usually results in death in a very high number of cases, from twenty-five to sixty percent."