Рита Браун - The Tail Of The Tip-Off

"Mr. Mulcahy, thank you."

"I'll send the full report out FedEx Ground."

"I'll read every word but this phone call is what I've been waiting for."

"Glad I could be helpful." Joe hung up.

Rick motioned for Cooper to come to his desk. She did and he told her what he'd just heard.

"Damn, how can we trap him?" Cooper, like most everyone in town, knew about Matthew's rain forest. It wasn't a stretch to figure out he could provide a wonderful place for poisonous frogs. Who would know?

"Could be someone in the biology department at UVA. Don't forget, Anne is a botanist."

"It could be her but it isn't. It's Matthew."

Rick held up his hands, palms outward, a gesture of supplication and in this case a bit of frustration. "Yes, I think he's our man. It's not Anne. I just don't yet know how to prove it."

"Gut feeling-Mychelle?"

Rick knew what she meant. He nodded. "Yes, I think he killed her, too. Different MO but somehow she got in the way."

"Maybe he was having an affair with her or had in the past?"

"Possible." He tapped the side of his cheek with a pencil. "Something cold about these murders. If it were sex or love, it'd be different. I just think it would be different."

"He's close to Anne."

"That worries me. In fact, it all worries me. We've got our killer. All my instincts tell me that and the donkey work is leading us right to him, as well. But why? Why?" He threw up his hands.

51

Friday night the girls played North Carolina State. Harry, Little Mim's noisemaker tucked into her blazer pocket, sat next to Fair.

In front of her, Cooper sat between Greg Ix and Peter Gianakos in H.H.'s seat. Irena Fotopappas, back in uniform, was home with Anne and Cameron. Rick had given the young officer strict orders not to allow Matthew or his wife, just in case, into the house.

Harry had a handful of dried peas in her pocket along with the noisemaker which she had altered by running a small peashooter inside the paper.

Everyone else sat in their usual spots with Bill Langston taking Dr. Hayden McIntyre's seat. Little Mim had once again invited Tazio. Bill leaned back quite a bit to talk with Tazio. BoomBoom on Little Mim's right side noticed. Blair sat on Little Mim's left next to Tazio. Usually he sat where BoomBoom now sat and she was one seat away from Little Mim but both women had cooked up the idea that Blair should be next to Tazio. It would make the new man in town pay more attention to her, even if he'd heard that Blair and Little Mim were an item. BoomBoom and Little Mim, great believers in testosterone, figured Bill would have to be more attentive, more clever, simply because there was another very handsome man there.

Aunt Tally from time to time would look backward and observe. She kept a keen interest in anything that might involve sex.

Big Mim, on the other hand, focused on romance.

Tally told her she should know better.

Harry kept her noisemaker in her pocket. Matthew, jovial as ever, handed out drinks, blew his noisemaker. The boys struck the cowbell.

Susan Tucker sat next to Matthew. Harry told her what she thought about Matthew, and Susan believed her. As for sitting next to the man her best friend decided was a killer, Susan shrugged. Why would he kill her? She didn't think she had anything he would want if in fact Harry was right.

Fred Forrest scowled behind them all.

The game, tight, turned into a nail-biter.

At one point, Harry looked up at the scoreboard and wondered if she shouldn't have used it. Maybe put a message on it to scare Matthew, but then she'd probably scare everyone else, too.

In the last two minutes of the game, Mandy Hall, Virginia's center, blocked a shot under the basket and Isabelle Otey stole the ball right out of the North Carolina State forward's hands. Isabelle streaked down the center of the court to soar up for an easy layup. That was the game.

Harry turned around just as Isabelle scored and she hit Matthew with a pea. His hand slapped his cheek but he didn't see that Harry was the perpetrator so she fired off another. He saw her this time. She smiled.

He smiled back.

After the game the fans piled out. Fred Forrest hurried down the steps to the court where he upbraided Tracy for a call he felt was wrong.

Harry, full of herself, blasted Fred with a pea. He turned around and she shot another one which bounced off his head.

"You stop that, Harry."

"Fred, you're a crab." She pocketed her noisemaker.

While Fred's attention was on Harry, Tracy adroitly slipped away and was halfway to the locker room before Fred had turned back to lambaste him.

Harry walked out to the parking lot, waving to everyone. She retrieved her pets and returned to the Clam, making certain Matthew saw her.

She returned to the basketball arena as the last stragglers filed out. She sat in her seat firing peas at H.H.'s seat.

Pewter couldn't resist leaping up to bat away the peas.

Mrs. Murphy, vigilant, watched the doors as did Tucker, who kept sniffing, overwhelmed by fresh odors. There were still too many people around and too much noise.

Sure enough, as the tail end of the fans walked out BoomBoom walked back in.

"BoomBoom, what are you doing here?"

"Lost my gloves." BoomBoom bounded up to her seat and found her trampled black gloves. She joined Harry.

Harry explained her theory.

Tucker barked, "Someone's here."

Fred Forrest, lurking in the top shadows, came down from the upper levels. "Explain that to me, Harry."

Both BoomBoom and Harry regarded Fred with suspicion, but Harry willingly explained her theory and demonstrated.

"And who have you told this theory to, Harry?" His voice was shaky.

"Anyone who would listen."

"I'm behind him," Tucker told the girls.

"We'll stay in front. Do you think he has a gun?" Mrs. Murphy asked her canine friend.

"I don't know."

"You really think Matthew killed H.H.?" Fred's eyebrows darted upward.

"Do you?" BoomBoom flippantly asked.

"If I did, I wouldn't tell you or anybody. How do I know he wouldn't kill me?"

The doors swung open on the court level and Matthew sauntered back in.

"Ask him." Harry reached in her blazer pocket, filling her hand with peas. She did not withdraw her hand.

"What are you all doing here?" Matthew, wreathed in smiles, walked over.

"Damn," Mrs. Murphy hissed. "Mother did this without telling Rick or Cooper."

"I'll watch Matthew." Pewter moved toward the large man.

"We were talking about you," Harry brazenly said. "Fred won't tell us why you killed H.H."

"Fred, what's the matter with you?" Matthew didn't change his expression.

"I don't give a damn about H.H.," Fred snarled. "Whatever happened to him, he deserved, but Mychelle-that's another matter. I'd like to hear your answer, Matthew."

"What's good for the goose is good for the gander." Matthew moved closer but not within striking range.

Harry wondered if she could knock him over. His heavy coat might slow him down. If he was armed it wouldn't matter.

BoomBoom played dumb. "Where's Sandy and the kids?"

"On their way to Duner's for a late supper."

"Are you on foot?" Harry noted the exit doors.

"We're a two-car family." He smiled, then turned his focus back on Fred. "What kind of bullshit are you peddling today?"

"Nothing. Harry has a very interesting theory about how you killed H.H. I wondered myself how he could be murdered in front of everyone but her idea makes a lot of sense."

"No murder weapon." Matthew clapped his hands together as though rounding up his children.

"Ice." Mrs. Murphy spoke.

"An ice dart," Harry said as though mimicking the cat.

"What are you doing here?" BoomBoom asked.

"I could ask you the same thing." Matthew became less upbeat. "I'm here to inspect that hairline crack up there. I'll send a man over Monday morning."