Рита Браун - Pay Dirt

Cynthia, younger and faster than Rick, was halfway there, when a wobbly Aysha clambered to her feet.

"Goddamned dog!"

"Put your hands behind your head and slowly, I said slowly, walk back to the squad car."

Ottoline, crying uncontrollably, slumped against the white and blue car. "I did it. Really. I'm guilty."

"Shut up, Mother! You never listen."

A flash of parental authority passed over Ottoline's face. "If you'd listened to me in the first place, none of us would be in this mess! I told you not to marry Mike Huckstep!"

"I don't know anyone by that name!" Aysha's whole body contorted with rage.

Ottoline's face fell like a collapsed building. She realized that in her frantic attempt to save her daughter she had spilled the beans.

45

Reverend Jones was the last to join the little group at Harry's farm for a potluck supper hastily arranged by Susan. He greeted Mrs. Hogendobber, Mim, Little Marilyn, Market, Pewter, Ned, Blair, Cynthia, Kerry McCray, and her brother, Kyle.

"What did I miss?"

"Idle gossip. We waited for you," Mrs. Hogendobber told him. "Fair's the only one missing. He'll come when he can."

"Did you ever find out how Aysha transferred the money?" Susan eagerly asked.

"Yes, but we don't know what she's done with it, except for the sum she transferred into Kerry's account. She fully intends to hire the best lawyer money can buy and serve out her jail term if she doesn't get capital punishment. She'll probably be out on good behavior before she's fifty, and then she'll go to wherever she's stashed the money." Cynthia sounded bitter.

"How'd she do it?" Mim asked again.

"There was a rider attached to the void command in the Crozet National computer. Remember all the instructions for dealing with the Threadneedle virus? Well, it was brilliant, really. When the bank would void the command of the virus to scramble files, a rider would go into effect that instructed the computer to transfer two million dollars into a blind account on August first. The money didn't leave the bank. Later Aysha or Norman squirreled it out. For all we know, it may still be in that blind account, or it may be in an offshore account in a country whose bankers are easily bribed."

"Where was Mike Huckstep in all this?" Blair was curious.

"Ah…" Cynthia smiled at him. She always smiled at Blair. "That was the fly in the ointment. She had everything perfecdy planned, a plan she undoubtedly stole from Huckstep, and he shows up at Ash Lawn just before her trap was set to spring. She wasn't taking any chances and she was shrewd enough to know the death of a biker wouldn't pull at many heartstrings in Crozet. She coolly calculated how to get away with murder. She told him she was enacting his plan. He signed the bank cards willingly, thinking the ill-gotten gain would be pirated into his account. They'd be rich. Norman inserted the account information into the system, not knowing who Mike really was. Meanwhile, Aysha told Mike she wanted him back. He didn't know she was married to Norman, of course. She told him how awful she'd felt running out on him, but she was afraid of total commitment, and when she realized her mistake she couldn't find him—he'd moved from Glover Street, where they used to live. She suggested he pick her up on the motorcycle and they could cruise around. Bam! That was it for Mike Huckstep, her real husband. Not only is she a killer and a thief, she's a bigamist."

"How did he find her?" Harry wondered.

"He knew her real name. Aysha got a break when he showed up at Ash Lawn strung out like he was. He called her by the name he knew best. Of course, Ottoline is claiming Huckstep must have been killed by a drug dealer or some other low life—anyone but her precious daughter."

"So, Coop, how did Huckstep find Aysha?" Susan asked.

"Oh," she said, smiling, "I got off the subject, didn't I? He must have tapped into our Department of Motor Vehicle files or he could have zapped the state income tax records. The man seems to have been, without a doubt, a computer genius."

"Imagine if that mind had been harnessed to the service of the Lord," Mrs. Hogendobber mused.

"Miranda, that's an interesting thought." Herbie crossed his arms over his chest. "Speaking of his mind, I wonder what provoked him to look for her."

"Love. He was still in love with her, despite all," Blair firmly stated. "You could see that the day he came to Ash Lawn. Some men are gluttons for that brand of punishment."

"We'll never really know." Cynthia thought Blair's interpretation was on the romantic side.

"Takes some people that way," Kerry ruefully added to the conversation.

"Guess he got more and more lonesome and—" Susan paused. "It doesn't matter, I guess. But what I can't figure out is how he knew to go to Ash Lawn."

"Yeah, that's weird." Little Marilyn recalled his visit.

"My hunch is that Aysha bragged about her pedigree, that old Virginia vice. She probably said she was or would be a docent at Monticello or Ash Lawn or something like that. I doubt we'll ever truly know because she is keeping her mouth shut like a steel trap." Cynthia shook her head. "In fact, if it weren't for the way Ottoline keeps letting things slip, we wouldn't know enough to put together a case."

"Poor Norman, the perfect cog in her wheel." Kerry's eyes misted over.

"Why couldn't Mike put his plan into effect?" Little Marilyn asked.

"A man like that wouldn't have friends inside a bank. He needed a partner who was or could be socially acceptable. I suppose the original plan entailed Aysha working inside a bank," Mim shrewdly noted,

"Aysha decided she could pull it off without him," Cynthia said. "When he showed up she shrewdly told him she'd found a dupe inside the bank. They could be in business pronto. Although Mike probably did love her as Blair believes, she couldn't control him the way she could control Norman. And she definitely had her eyes on the whole enchilada."

"I keep thinking about poor Hogan. There he was in Market's store, telling us he was going to work late that night, telling Aysha." Susan shivered, remembering.

"He scared her for sure. The fog was pure luck." Cynthia glanced over at Blair. He was so handsome, she couldn't keep her eyes off him.

Little Marilyn noticed. "Thank God for Mrs. Murphy and Tee Tucker, they're the real heroes."

" Don't let it go to your head ," Pewter chided.

" You're out of sorts because you missed the fireworks ." Mrs. Murphy preened.

" You're right ." Pewter tiptoed toward those covered dishes in the kitchen.

"Has she shown any remorse?" Mrs. Hogendobber inquired.

"None."

"Ottoline says Aysha is being framed. She insists that Kerry is the culprit while she killed Norman to spare her daughter a dreadful marriage." Mim rose to signal time to eat. "But then, Ottoline always was a silly fool."

"Whose blood was on the saddlebag?" Harry asked.

"What blood?" Mim motioned for Little Marilyn to join her. "I don't know anything about blood."

"A few drops of blood on Mike Huckstep's saddlebags." Cynthia checked her hands and decided she needed to wash them before eating. "Aysha's. She must have had a small cut."

By now the humans had invaded the kitchen. Much as they wanted to wait for Fair, their stomachs wouldn't. Besides, with a vet, one never knew what his hours would be.

Little Marilyn had cooked crisp chicken.

" Don't forget us ," came the chorus from the floor.

She didn't. Each animal received delectable chicken cut into small cubes. As the people carried their plates back into the living room, the animals happily ate.

Miranda asked, "What about Kerry?"

"Aysha was slick, slick as an eel." Cynthia put down her drumstick. "First she used the term Threadneedle because she knew Kerry worked for a bank in London, near the Bank of England, on Threadneedle Street. She figured by the time we unearthed that odd fact, Kerry's neck would be in the noose. Aysha had a fake driver's license made with her statistics and photograph but with Kerry's name, address, and social security number, which she pulled out of the bank computer in Norman's office. She bought the gun at Hassett's that way."