Rita Brown - Whiskers in the Dark

“No one is going to kill me.”

“Humor me.”

“I am.”

“No, really humor me. Meet me at the Institute and let’s walk through where the bodies were found, what we know, and what we don’t know.”

“Why don’t you come to Hume? You’ve never been to my place. I think you’ll like it. Bring your animals. We can talk here.”

“No, thank you. I would like to see it, but I would like to walk through the Institute grounds with you. Maybe between the two of us, we’ll hit on something.”

Knowing this was a losing battle, Arlene asked, “When?”

“How about tomorrow at noon? If that doesn’t work, next Wednesday.”

“Sooner is better.” A pause. “Have you run these ideas by Susan?”

“Not fully.”

“Good. No point scaring her to death. Noon at the Institute building. If we don’t find anything, will you let this go?”

“I will. I promise, but if we do figure this out, we can both go to the authorities.”

“All right,” came the unenthusiastic reply.

A half hour later, as Harry totaled up the barn expenses for the first two weeks of May, the phone rang.

Reverend Jones’s deep voice announced, “Did you know that some members of the Dorcas Guild had an unscheduled meeting here this morning?”

“No.”

“Janice called it to prepare for homecoming. In this case a true mailing, an invitation card.”

“That’s probably not a bad idea, but I wish they’d included Susan or myself.”

“When I came into my office I found Mags and Janice going through my files! I told them never to do that without asking permission.”

“Right.”

He continued. “They said they were looking for an updated address book.”

Harry murmured, “None of us has one, but it was rude.”

After a bit more discussion, Harry hung up the phone. She felt she’d need to keep an eye on Janice and Mags. Something wasn’t right, but that something was going to have to wait, for Aldie commanded her complete attention.

40

May 12, 2018

Saturday

Light fragrances filled Harry’s nostrils. Finally a true spring. Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, Tucker, and Pirate sat on the Institute porch. Arlene drove in on time, for Harry, per usual was early, parking at the stone building.

Harry leaned over the porch railing. “Perfect timing.”

Arlene shut the door to her Subaru Forester, looking up. “I was in the Army, remember. Zero dark forty and stuff like that.”

They both laughed as Harry came down the stairs to greet her, her four friends behind her. “It’s good to see you.”

“It’s good to see you, too, Harry, although I truly believe I am safe.”

“Let’s walk a bit.” She started away from the Institute, passing the stables, the canary cart visible as only yellow can be. “The ground isn’t soggy. Feels good.”

“Does.”

“My neighbor and dear friend is a deputy for the Albemarle County Sheriff’s Department, Cynthia Cooper. I bedevil her. I’ve asked her, since she can procure information that I can’t, would she keep me informed if there’s a development here or with the medical examiner before anything is made public, if it is. She told me yesterday that Clare’s autopsy showed she had been poisoned with tetrodotoxin. From blowfish liver, can you believe it? Just a small amount, one to two milligrams, can kill. Causes paralysis, slow at first, just a little woozy, a little numbness. Then the nerve systems begin to fail, then the throat muscles, finally asphyxiation.”

“Tetrodotoxin?” Arlene looked skeptical. “How can you test for that? It can’t be detected.”

“So you’ve heard of it?” Harry watched Arlene.

Arlene dropped her head. “You were right. Two deaths, connected most likely.”

“This isn’t about selling cars.”

“No,” Arlene replied evenly.

“Let’s go to where Jason was found.”

They walked up the farm road, crossed the creek burbling along, reached the top of the hill, pastures on both sides, woods at the edge of the pastures. Good bunny territory, as there was cover.

Arlene, hands on hips, looked around. “Odd, isn’t it? Cavalrymen buried out here. Jason dropped here. Not that we know exactly where those men are, but sometimes I think Aldie truly is haunted.”

“Me, too. You don’t seem especially worried about Clare being poisoned.”

“I told you. I don’t think I’m going to be murdered.”

“But you knew them for years.” Tucker nudged closer to her as Ruffy bounded up to join them.

“In a professional capacity and not that well. Jason more than Clare because I was assigned to the State Department for a time.”

“But you liked Jason and Clare?”

“I got along with them. I enjoyed hunting with them. I hunted with them at their territory, but I wouldn’t say we were close, which is why I’m not worried.”

Harry swept her eyes over the pleasant land, heard some birds chirping loudly.

Bud the chickadee swooped low near the dogs but not too close to the cats. “Six eggs!”

“Congratulations.” Tucker praised the bird, who swooped again, then headed for a bird box at the woods’ edge.

The Beagle Club had put out quite a few bird boxes to encourage all manner of them.

“Saucy.” Harry grinned.

“They are.” Arlene also swept her eye over the area. “He was just off the road, over this little rise here.” She stepped to the place that they had revisited with Clare. “I don’t think he suffered.”

“I’m not sure either one did, Arlene. Quick deaths. He knew who killed him. I’m convinced of that.”

“Yes, me, too.” Arlene inhaled the fresh odor of spring. “I wonder how many are out there. Who? When? Where?”

“We know the when,” Harry posited. “Back to our time. I have racked my brain and I know this language stuff matters. So hear me out. What if they had discovered someone or someones here who were working against our country’s interests? We know that Clare was CIA. As to Jason, no, but he surely had access to sensitive information as he advanced in his career. They would suspect before the rest of us. Maybe they got too close.”

“No,” Arlene replied emphatically.

“Well, why not?”

“Neither of those two had that kind of courage. I know Clare was a captain in the Navy. I don’t doubt she was good at what she did, but she wasn’t on anyone’s front line.”

“She listened.”

“That she did, and I don’t doubt that over time she could recognize voices, as could Jason. Jason, of course, was expected to contact people in the Turkish government. He had an easy way about him. He made friends, I bet.”

“The other thing I’ve thought about is Paula Devlin. She, too, had a sensitive career and she disappeared. Three people.”

“Two were married. They ran a business. Paula wasn’t tied in to them.”

“But they knew her.”

“We all knew one another. Paula was a bubbly person, always up for something. She knew French and German. Think I got that right. I could understand basic French conversation, you know, stuff like ‘May I have a glass of water?’ I’m not too good with languages.”

“Me neither, except for Latin. Started in middle school. You could then and I went straight through. Helped me at Smith.”

“I forget you attended Smith. That’s probably why you’re so smart. Let’s sit on this log here. My legs are tired. I walked for miles yesterday with my Blastoff kids.”

“Maybe Paula knew something or maybe she was selling secrets?”