Рита Браун - The Tail Of The Tip-Off

"I resent that." Matthew took a step toward the slighter man.

"Maybe you were the one? Huh?" Fred stuck Matthew right back.

"Not my type."

Fred paused a moment. "That's true. For once you told the truth."

"But I'll tell you who was sleeping with Mychelle. H.H.," Matthew said.

"Know that for a fact?" Fred didn't want to believe that since he hadn't liked H.H., either.

"Two and two make four."

"Prove it," Fred immediately responded.

"She could meet him at his construction sites. Nothing untoward about that. Right? She maybe got inconvenient. He dumps her. She kills him. Anne kills her or maybe Anne killed them both. Justice is served."

"You are so full of it." Fred laughed loudly.

"Okay. Your version then."

"I don't have a version. I don't know." Fred looked at Tazio. "Maybe she told you something. Women talk."

"No, Fred, we don't all talk. I knew her from the job and that was it."

"Yeah," Brinkley supported Tazio. He would have agreed with her no matter what.

Fred waited a few moments. "Matthew, you shut your filthy mouth. Remember that."

As he strode away Matthew chuckled to Tazio, "Buffoon."

28

The pale sunlight illuminated the thin, low clouds, lining the bottoms with gold. Thicker clouds hovered on the horizon, their majestic curling tops hinting at another change in the weather.

Cooper questioned Sharon Cortez at Dr. Shulman's office, but sensitive to the social currents of country life, the two women went back to the operating room. The stainless steel table, the sink, everything shone. The operating table was the color of the low afternoon clouds.

Dr. Shulman's wife, Barbara, took over the reception duties while Sharon was in the back. Apart from a squad car being parked out front, no one need know what was going on and Barbara was quick to point out that Deputy Cooper was a great friend to animals.

The light, changing fast, threw shadows onto the floor.

"Now, Sharon, I have to ask these questions. Everything you tell me I'll tell Rick, as you know, but that's as far as it goes."

"What if there's a trial?" Sharon was no fool.

"I'll give you a heads up. Your question tells me you know why I'm here."

"Good police work." Sharon ruefully smiled.

"Some. Want to tell me about your relationship with H.H.?"

Sharon ran her finger along the rounded lip of the operating table. "Started a year and a half ago. Ended at Easter."

"Were you in love with him?"

"Oh." She hesitated, glanced out the window, then said, "I was. I hate to admit it, but I was."

"He must have been special."

"I guess that was it, Coop, he made me feel special. He didn't mind spending money on a girl, you know what I mean? He'd never see me without bringing flowers or earrings, something. He bought me a gorgeous leather coat, three-quarter length so you know that wasn't cheap, and anything I wanted done around my little house, he did it. Of course, he could fix anything. His business, I guess." She shrugged.

"Were you angry when you broke up?"

"Yes. He broke it off. Said his marriage couldn't take the strain and he loved his daughter."

"You were never tempted to wreck it for him? To call Anne? To take your revenge?"

"Sure. All that ran through my mind. Couldn't do it." Sharon curled her fingers inward, then relaxed them. "It wasn't that I didn't want to hurt him, I did. But you know, I couldn't do that to his kid."

"That speaks well of you."

"Thanks, but if I'd had a grain of sense I'd never have gotten involved with a married man. It's a sucker play."

"I'm not sure that sex and love are amenable to logic." Cooper smiled.

"I think they are. I think it's like alcohol if you're an alcoholic. No one puts a gun to your head and says, 'Take that drink.' Same with attraction. You don't have to give in to it." Sharon put her hands in her pockets. "That's what I think. I was stupid. And you know why I was stupid? Not just because he was married but because I knew he played around."

"Did you know any of the other women?"

"Not well. But, sure. And I suppose you've questioned them, too."

"Yes."

"Any of them look like killers to you?" Sharon sarcastically said.

"Looks are deceiving."

"Ain't that the truth." Sharon looked outside the window again. "Front coming in. See it?"

Cooper walked to the window. "Bet the warm weather will march right out with it, too. Jeez, it's been a hell of a winter and there's three months to go."

"We've had the peepers come out in February."

"Sharon, this isn't going to be that kind of year," Cooper remarked. "But I admire your positive attitude. Tell me, can you think of anyone who would like to kill H.H.?"

"Sure. All the women he wined, dined, and ditched. But they didn't. I mean, how often do women kill?"

"I don't know because I think women are much smarter about it than men. I don't think they get caught. But having said that, I think women don't kill as often."

Sharon snorted, "Right. We get some poor sap to do it for us."

Cooper turned from the window. "Mychelle Burns."

Sharon lifted her shoulders. "Nada."

"What about Paula Zeifurt?"

"Oh, Paula. She brings her Yorkie here. Isn't she one of Anne's friends?"

"Uh-huh." Cooper nodded her head.

Sharon whistled. "That's cutting it close. You know, it really pisses me off, excuse my French. I would have liked to have been special. Truly special and not just one more filly passing through the stable."

"You said he made you feel special."

"He did, the bastard!"

"Then you were at the time." Cooper thought for a minute. "Some people deal with stress by drinking or drugging or running away. H.H. needed the excitement of an affair. That was his avocation."

"You're probably right. Maybe it was my avocation, too."

"Well, I'm not a moralist, I'm just a law enforcement officer, but it seems to me we make life awfully hard for people. We expect them to be perfect. I don't know one perfect person on this earth."

"I'm not a candidate." Sharon smiled, her good humor returning somewhat.

"One last question. You must have stuff in here that can kill people. Like the stuff you use to euthanize a dog, for instance?"

"Yes. But for a human you'd need a lot. What I'm saying is you couldn't administer the dose surreptitiously."

"Thanks." Cooper shook her hand and left waving goodbye to Barbara who called after her.

"The Opera Guild is performing Verdi next week. You ought to go."

"Thanks, Barbara. I'll try." And much as Cooper appreciated the offer she thought she'd seen enough tears for the time being.

29

The January thaw ended at six on Tuesday evening. Harry got home at five-fifteen, thrilled to be able to blast out of the post office so early. She brought in Tomahawk, Poptart, and Gin Fizz and put on their blankets, leading each to her or his stall.

The barn doors facing the drive were wide open. The chill became persistent. When she walked to the doors she noticed a scattering of low clouds with darker cirrus clouds high above. She smelled the moisture in the air and rolled the barn doors shut.

She swept out the center aisle. Mrs. Murphy and Pewter argued in the tack room over the most efficient way to lure the mice out from behind the walls. Tucker sat in the aisleway. If her mother would avoid some pet project, like sewing a rip in a blanket, she and the cats could be snug in the house in another twenty minutes. Tucker loved being in the barn but hearing the herbivores munch hay made her long for her bowl of boiled hamburger mixed with crunchies, the hamburger juice poured over the goodies. Harry liked to prepare special dishes for her animals about once a week. The rest of the time she used high-quality commercial foods but she thought the canned cat foods contained too much ash. Once she brought home fresh crabmeat for the cats and Pewter passed out from overeating. Harry, horrified, paid much more attention to the rotund gray kitty's portions after that.