Рита Браун - Pawing Through The Past

"Mark, forgive me. I know this is trying." Cooper sat next to him on a bench. "You think you came back here at eight?"

"Yes." Mark struggled for composure.

"You noticed no one."

"Nobody."

She flipped through her notebook. "I think I've gotten everything. If I have other questions I'll call you at the office. I'm sorry your dinner was disturbed." She called to Rick, "Any questions?"

Rick wheeled around. "Mark, who was Charlie's latest conquest?"

Mark blushed and stammered a moment. "Uh-anyone new and pretty?"

Rick nodded. "Go on. I know where to find you. If you think of anything, call me."

"Will do." Mark straightened his tie as he hurried out.

"He'll have nightmares," Cynthia remarked.

"H-m-m." Rick changed the subject. "Charlie's four ex-wives. We'll start there."

"They all moved away, didn't they?"

"Yeah." He whistled as he walked through the men's locker room to fix the layout in his mind.

A knock on the door revealed Diana Robb, head of the Crozet Rescue Squad. "Ready?"

"I didn't hear the siren," Cynthia said.

"Didn't hit it. I was coming back from the hospital when you called, not more than a mile away." She looked at Charlie as she walked back into the lockers. "Neat as a pin. Even his tie is straight."

"Mark DiBlasi found him."

Diana called over her shoulder, "Hey guys, bring in the gurney and the body bag." Her two assistants scurried back out for the equipment.

"Mark said he was warm when he found him," Rick informed her.

"Fresh kill."

"We've already dusted. He's ready to go." Cynthia watched as the gurney was rolled in; the quarters were a bit tight.

"Put on your gloves and let's lift him up, carry him out to the sitting room," Diana directed. "Sucker's going to be heavy."

"Any ideas?" Cynthia asked Diana.

"Too many."

"Yeah, that seems to be the problem." Rick smiled.

"I do know this." Diana wiggled her fingers in the thin rubber gloves over which she pulled on a pair of heavier gloves. "Charlie always was a snob. If you didn't have money you had to have great bloodlines. There were no poor people involved."

9

The post office buzzed the next morning. As it was the central meeting point in town, each person arrived hopeful that someone would have more news than they had. Everyone had an opinion, that much was certain.

"Can't go sleeping with other men's wives without expecting trouble," Jim Sanburne, mayor of Crozet and husband of Mim, announced.

As Jim, in his youth, had indulged in affairs, the elegant Mim eyed him coldly. "Well said."

"This is getting good." Mrs. Murphy, whiskers vibrating, perched on the counter between the mailroom and the public room.

Pewter, next to her, licked her paw, then absentmindedly forgot to wash herself. Tucker, mingling out with the people, believed she could smell guilt and anger.

"Will even one person lament his death?" Mim asked.

Jim Sanburne rubbed his chin. "Whoever he was carrying on with at the time, I reckon."

The Reverend Herb Jones growled, "He was a rascal, no doubt. But, then again, he was a young man in his prime-never forget redemption."

Miranda nodded her head in agreement with the Reverend.

"Something wrong with that boy." The massive Jim leaned over the counter so close that Pewter decided to rub against his arm to make him feel loved.

"Male version of nymphomania," Big Mim said as her daughter, Little Mim, blinked, surprised at her mother's bold-ness.

Fair, who'd walked in the door, picked up the word "nymphomania." "I came just in time."

Marcy Wiggins and Chris Sharpton also pushed open the door. Fair stepped aside. The small space was getting crowded.

Chris shyly blinked. "It's so shocking. I mean, we were all watching the superlative shoot and then this."

"Chris, don't waste your time feeling sorry for that s.o.b.," Susan Tucker told her. "You didn't know him well enough to be one of his victims-yet. He would have tried."

"Charlie should have been shot years ago," Fair laconically said, then turned solemn. "But still you never think something like this would happen to someone you know."

Noticing the look on Marcy's face, Harry added, "We're not as cold as you might think, Marcy. But ask E.R. about Charlie's past. He upset too many applecarts without giving a thought to what he was doing to people's lives. He remained unacquainted with responsibility for his entire life."

"Oh," Marcy replied, looking not at all comforted.

"'The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.' Proverbs. Twelfth chapter, fifteenth verse," Mrs. Hogendobber quoted. "Charlie Ashcraft was told many times in many ways by many people that he had to change his habits. He didn't. Someone changed them for him; not that that's right. No one has the right to take a life. That power belongs only to God."

"Tucker, smell anything?" Murphy called down.

"No, although Jim Sanburne has dog pee on his shoe. Bet Mim's dog got him and he doesn't even know it," the corgi gleefully reported. "Of course, I haven't sniffed everyone yet. There's too much coming and going."

BoomBoom flounced through the door, breathlessly put her tiny hand to her heart. "Can you believe it? Right after our superlative shoot."

"Aren't you glad you shot yours first?" Harry dryly commented. "As it is we'll have two people missing in our shoots. This way you would have had three."

"Harry, I can't believe you said that." BoomBoom folded her arms across her chest. "Do you really think I would be more concerned about our senior superlative photographs than a man's life?"

"In a word, yes." Harry also folded her arms across her chest.

"This is getting good," Pewter purred with excitement.

"Our classmate is dead," BoomBoom nearly shrieked. "After that damned letter you sent."

"I didn't send that stupid letter!" Harry lowered her voice instead of raising it.

"Harry would never do anything like that," Fair curtly said.

"She likes to stir the pot."

"Look who's talking." Harry squared off at BoomBoom.

"Pipe down," Big Mim commanded. "You aren't solving anything. This is about Charlie's murder, not your history with one another." She turned to her ex-husband. "If every man in Crozet were shot for infidelity, who would be left?"

"Now, honey, let sleeping dogs lie." His basso profundo voice rumbled.

"It's not sleeping dogs we're talking about," Mim snapped.

Little Marilyn tugged at the ends of her white linen jacket and suppressed a smile.

"We're all upset." Herb smoothed the waters. "After all, every one of us here, with the exception of the two lovely young additions to our community"-he nodded toward Chris and Marcy-"has known Charlie since childhood. Yes, he was flawed, but is there anyone standing here who is perfect?"