Рита Браун - Rest In Pieces

“Honey, you aren’t going to improve Fitz. Nobody is. He’s going to drift through life surrounded by things. Besides, if he did something useful like, say, taking over the Easter Seal drive, it would mean he couldn’t play with his wife. Work might conflict with deep-sea fishing in Florida and skiing in Aspen.”

“Just an idea.” Taxi chipped onto the green.

He waited, then spoke: “Do you have any idea who killed Ben?”

“Not one.”

Cabell let out a long, low breath, shook his head, snatched what he thought was his putter out of a bag. “I swear I’m going to put all of this out of my mind and concentrate on golf.”

“Then I suggest you replace my putter and use your own.”

39

Late that night Harry’s telephone rang.

Susan’s excited voice apologized. “I know you’re asleep but I had to wake you.”

“You okay?” came the foggy reply.

“I am. Ned got home from his office about fifteen minutes ago. He was Ben’s lawyer, you know. Anyway, Rick Shaw was at the office asking him a lot of questions, none of which Ned could answer, since all he ever did for Ben was real estate closings. It turns out that after the sheriff and the bank inspected their books they checked over Ben’s personal accounts. Spread among the bank, the brokerage house, and the commodities market, Ben Seifert had amassed seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Even Cabell Hall was amazed at how sophisticated Ben was.”

That woke up Harry. “Seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars? Susan, he couldn’t have made more than forty-five thousand a year at the bank, if he made that. Banks are notoriously cheap.”

“I know. They also called in his accountant and double-checked his IRS returns. He was clever as to how he declared the money. Mostly he identified the gains as stock market wins, I guess you’d say. Well, the accountant reported that Ben said he’d get his records to him but he never did. He figured he’d alerted Ben plenty of times. If the materials weren’t there, it was Ben’s problem come audit day. Assuming that day ever came.”

“Funny.”

“What’s funny?”

“He didn’t cheat on his income taxes but he must have been cheating somewhere. Actually, it doesn’t sound like cheating. It sounds like payoffs or money-laundering.”

“I never thought Ben was that smart.”

“He wasn’t,” Harry agreed. “But whoever was in this with him was, or is.”

“Smart people don’t kill.”

“They do when they’re cornered.”

“Why don’t you come into town and stay with me?”

“Why?”

“You know what Cynthia Cooper told us about Blair. I mean, about his girlfriend.”

“Yes.”

“He seems awfully smart to me.”

“Does your gut tell you he’s a murderer?”

“I don’t know what to think or feel anymore.”

Harry sat up in the bed. “Susan, I just thought of something. Listen, will you come over here tomorrow morning before I go to work? This sounds crazy but I found a little possum—”

“No more of your charity cases, Harry! I took the squirrel with the broken leg, remember? She ate my dresses.”

“No, no. This little guy had an earring in his nest. It’s kind of bent up, but well, I don’t know. It’s a very expensive earring, and he could have picked it up anywhere. What if it has something to do with these deaths?”

“Okay, I’ll see you in the morning. Lock your doors.”

“I did.” Harry hung up the phone.

Mrs. Murphy remarked to Tucker, also on the bed, “Sometimes she’s smarter than I think she is.”

40

Simon heard Harry climbing the ladder. He anticipated her arrival, since she’d put out delicious chicken bones, stale crackers, and Hershey’s chocolate kisses last night.

Mrs. Murphy sank her claws into the wood alongside the ladder and pulled herself into the loft before the humans could get there. “Don’t fret, Simon. Harry’s bringing a friend.”

“One human’s all I can stand.” Simon shuttled farther back in the timothy and alfalfa bales.

Harry and Susan sat down in front of Simon’s nest.

“Do you charge him for all this?” Susan cracked.

“If it isn’t nailed down, he takes it.” Mrs. Murphy laughed.

“I only take the good stuff,” the possum said under his breath.

“See.” Harry reached in and retrieved the earring.

Susan held the object in her palm. “Good piece. Tiffany.”

“That’s what I thought.” Harry took the earring, holding it to the light. “This isn’t yours and it isn’t mine. Nor is it Elizabeth MacGregor’s.”

“What’s Mrs. MacGregor got to do with it?”

“The only women out here on this part of Yellow Mountain Road are me, you when you’re visiting me, and formerly Elizabeth MacGregor. Oh, and Miranda drops by sometimes but this isn’t her type of earring. It’s more youthful.”

“True, but we have no way of knowing where this came from.”

“In a way we do. We know that this nest is home base. At the largest, a possum’s territory is generally a rough circle about a mile and a half in diameter. If we walk north, east, south, and west to the limit of that perimeter, we’ll have a pretty good idea of where this earring might have come from.”

“I can tell her,” Simon called out from his hiding place.

“She can’t understand but she’ll figure it out,” Mrs. Murphy said.

“Is that other one okay, really?”

“Yes,” the cat reassured him.

Simon peeped his head up over the alfalfa bale and then cautiously walked toward the two women. Harry held out a big peanut butter cookie. He approached, sat down, and reached for the cookie. He put it in his nest.

“What a cute fellow,” Susan whispered. “You’ve always had a way with animals.”

“’Cept for men.”

“They don’t count.”

Simon shocked them. He reached up, grabbing the earring out of Harry’s hand, and then dashed into his nest. “Mine!”

“Maybe he’s a drag queen.” Harry laughed at Simon, then remembered one of those odd tidbits from reading history books. During Elizabeth I’s reign in England only the most masculine men wore earrings.

They were still laughing as they climbed down the ladder.

“Well?” Tucker demanded.

“We’re going to have to make a circle following the possum’s territory.” Harry thought out loud.

“Let’s run over to the graveyard and see if they follow,” Tucker sensibly proposed.

“You know Harry—she’s going to be thorough.” The cat walked out the barn door and Tucker followed.