Рита Браун - Pay Dirt

Ottoline stood off to die side of the doors.

"Tucker, these old windows are pretty low. Think you can crash through?"

"Yes."

They ran back fifty yards, then turned and hurtled toward the old hand-blown window. Tucker left the ground a split second before Murphy, ducking her head, and hit the glass with the top of her head. Mrs. Murphy, her eyes squeezed tight against the shattering glass, sailed in a hairbreadth behind Tucker. Broken glass went everywhere.

Aysha whirled and fired. She was so set on a human opponent, she never figured on the animals. Tucker, still running, leapt up and hit her full force, and she staggered back.

Ottoline screamed, "Shoot the dog!"

Mrs. Murphy leapt up and sank her fangs into Aysha's right wrist while grabbing on to her forearm with front and hind claws. Then she tore into the flesh for all she was worth.

Aysha howled. Harry threw a block into her and they tumbled onto the floor. Tucker clamped her jaws on a leg. Ottoline ran over to kick the corgi.

Mrs. Murphy released her grip and yelled, " The hand, Tucker, go for the hand ." Tucker bounded over the struggling bodies. Ottoline's kick was a fraction of a second too late. Aysha was reaching up to bludgeon Harry on the head. Tucker savaged Aysha's hand, biting deep holes in the fleshy palm. Aysha dropped the gun. Ottoline quickly reached for it. Tucker ran quiedy behind her and bit her too, then picked up the gun.

Harry yelled, "Coop! Help!"

Mrs. Murphy kept clawing Aysha as Tucker eluded a determined Ottoline, her focus on the gun.

Coop held her service pistol in both hands and blew out the lock on the doors. "It's over, Aysha." She leveled her gun at the fighting women.

Harry, a bruise already swelling up under her left eye, released Aysha and scrambled to her feet. She was struggling to catch her breath. Ottoline ran up behind Coop and grabbed her around the neck, but Coop ducked and elbowed her in the gut. With an "umph" Ottoline let go.

Aysha started to spring out the door, but Harry tackled her.

Coop shoved Ottoline over to where Aysha was slowly getting up.

"You were so smart, Aysha, but you were done in by a dog and a cat." Harry rejoiced as Tucker brought her the gun.

"It's always the one you don't figure that gets you." Cynthia never took her eyes off her quarry.

Rick Shaw thundered in. He grasped the situation and handcuffed Aysha and Ottoline together, back to back, then read them their rights.

"Ow." Aysha winced from where Mrs. Murphy and Tucker had ripped her hand.

Harry squatted down and petted her friends. She checked their paws for cuts from the glass.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"Why not?" Aysha insouciantly replied.

"Well, then how?" Cynthia queried.

"I have a right to remain silent."

"Answer one question, Aysha." Harry brushed herself off. "Was Norman in on it?"

Aysha shrugged, not answering the question.

Ottoline laughed derisively. "That coward. He lived in fear of his own shadow." Ottoline turned to Rick Shaw. "You're making a big mistake."

Aysha, still panting, said, "Mother, my lawyer will do the talking."

Harry picked up a purring Mrs. Murphy. "Aysha, your letters to Marilyn from St. Tropez and Paris and wherever—you faked the postmarks and did a good job. But it's much harder to fake the inks."

Ottoline grumbled. "You can't prove that in a court of law. And just because I delivered fake postcards doesn't make my daughter a criminal."

Aysha's eyes narrowed, then widened. "Mother, anything you say can be used against me!"

Ottoline shook her head. "I want to make a clean breast of it. I needed money. Stealing from a bank is ridiculously easy. Crozet National was very sloppy regarding their security. Norman was putty in my hands. It was quite simple, really. When he weakened, I strangled him. As he slowed by the canning plant I popped up out of the back seat and told him to pull over. He was harder to kill than I thought, but I did have the advantage of surprise. At least I didn't have to hear him whine anymore about what would happen if he got caught."

Mrs. Murphy reached out with her paw, claws extended. " Aysha, are you going to stand there and let your mother take the rap ?"

"I hate cats," Aysha spat at the little tiger who had foiled her plans.

"Well, this one was smart enough to stop you," Cynthia sarcastically said.

"That's enough." Rick wanted to get mother and daughter down to the station to book them. He pointed toward the squad car. As they were handcuffed back to back, walking proved difficult.

"Did you kill Hogan Freely too?" Harry asked Ottoline.

"Yes. Remember when we were in Market Shiflett's? Hogan said he was going to work late and bang around on the computer. He was intelligent enough that he might have—"

"Mother, shut up!" Aysha stumbled.

"What if Hogan had figured out my system?" Ottoline said, emphasizing "my."

"There is no system, Mother. Norman was stealing from the bank. Hogan threatened him. He killed Hogan and his accomplice inside the bank killed him. Kerry was his partner. He betrayed me."

"He did?" Ottoline's eyebrows jumped up. She thought a second, then her tone changed as she followed Aysha's desperate line of reasoning. "What a worm!"

"Aysha, we know you worked at the Anvil. You can't deny that." Harry, still quietly seething with anger, argued as she followed them to the squad car.

"So?" .

Ottoline went on rapidly, babbling as though that would get the people off the track. "I had to do something. I mean, my daughter, a Gill , working in a place like that. She was just going through a stage, of course, but think how it could have compromised her chances of a good marriage once she returned home, which she would do, in time. So I begged her to write postcards as if she were still in Europe. I took care of the rest. As it was, she had drifted away from Marilyn and Kerry so they didn't know exactly where she was. Sending fake postcards wasn't that hard, you see, and her reputation remained unsullied. I don't know why young people have to go through these rebellious stages. My generation never did."

"You had World War Two. That was rebellion enough."

"I'm not that old," Ottoline frostily corrected Harry.

"Ladies, these are good stories. Let's get to the station house and you can make your statements and call your lawyer," Rick prodded them.

Frank Kenton followed Cynthia. As he opened the door to her squad car he gave Aysha a long, hard look.

Defiantly, she stared back.

Til live to see you rot in hell." He smiled.

"I like that, Frank. There's a real irony to that—you as a moral force." Aysha laughed at him.

"Don't lower yourself to talk to him," Ottoline snapped.

"She lowered herself plenty in San Francisco," Frank yelled at Ottoline. "Lady, we'd have all been better off if you hadn't been a mother."

Ottoline hesitated before trying to get in the back seat of the squad car. Rick held open the door. The way the two women were handcuffed, they couldn't maneuver their way into the car.

"This is impossible." Aysha stated the obvious.

"You're right." Rick unlocked her handcuffs.

That fast, Aysha sprinted toward the trees.

"Stop or I'll shoot!" Rick dropped to one knee while pulling his revolver.

Cynthia, too, dropped, gun at the ready. Aysha made an easy target.

Tucker dug into the earth, flying after Aysha. Passing the human was easy for such a fast little dog. She turned in front of Aysha just as Rick fired a warning shot. Harry was going to call the dog back but thought it unwise to interrupt Tucker's trajectory.

Aysha glanced over her shoulder just as Tucker crouched in front of her. She tripped over the little dog and hit the ground hard.