Catch As Cat Can

                "Shut up. Don't attract Rick's attention," Murphy counseled.

                "For now, nothing. I told them to run it through an X-ray machine." He turned to BoomBoom, who stopped for a moment, pushing up her protective face guard to check her work."How you doing?"

                "Another five minutes, I hope." She slapped the mask down and resumed cutting.

                "Find anything besides my woodpecker?"

                "A Dallas Cowboys windbreaker just as Sean described it." Cooper squinted when a shower of sparks flew off the safe."And a matchbook from Roy and Nadine's restaurant in Lexington, Kentucky. Very colorful."

                "Any ideas?" Harry asked.

                "That's what I was going to ask you." Rick hitched up his belt."You've known Clatterbuck all your life. Did you like him?"

                "Yeah. Always seemed levelheaded. He didn't run with a bad crowd. Didn't have a lot of bad affairs with women. Stuff like that."

                "Huh." Rick grunted.

                "I guess you looked for the key to the safe?"

                "Yes, we did. Why?"

                "Oh." Harry turned her palms up for a moment as if in supplication."Hate to see the safe ruined."

                "It's not ruined. I can put it back together if Rick wants me to." BoomBoom turned off the torch. She waited a moment, then pushed the heavy lock with her gloved hand."Sheriff, if you grab one handle and I grab the other I think we can pull it out. I'm afraid if I try to do this by myself I'll push it into the safe and that might damage whatever's in there."

                "Good thinking." He grabbed a brass handle.

                They both pulled on the count of three and the heavy lock and spinning handle fell out on the floor with a clunk. Rick stepped aside as BoomBoom, gloves on, reached in and pulled open the door.

                "Oh, my God!"

                Each shelf contained bundles and bundles of crisp new bills, neatly stacked.

                "That's a lot of stuffed deer heads," Mrs. Murphy laconically observed.

                32

                The shock of finding five hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars in Donny Clatterbuck's safe was nearly as great as finding Donny himself.

                Harry and the animals drove to Miranda's, a place of sanity and common sense. To her surprise, BoomBoom wanted to go, too.

                They found Miranda and Tracy playing gin rummy. Tracy was winning.

                "Knock, knock." Harry let herself in, with Mrs. Murphy rushing first through the door."I'm coming unannounced and BoomBoom's about two minutes behind me."

                Tracy rose, as befit a Virginia gentleman."You look a little peaked, Harry, my girl. Some fortification?"

                She shook the rain off in the little back-door entranceway."How about a steaming cup of tea with a drop of Maker's Mark in it?" She mentioned the famous sipping whiskey distilled in Loretto, Kentucky.

                "Why, Harry." Miranda stood up herself, heading to the teapot."I don't remember you ever roping your tea."

                "Well, I'm wet, I'm chilled, and I'm sorely vexed, as my grandmother used to say."

                BoomBoom stepped in tight behind Harry."Miranda, forgive me. I just had to see you."

                "Are you two having another fight?" Miranda turned on the gas stove while Tracy opened the cabinet serving as a liquor chest."BoomBoom, what can I get you?"

                "A straight shot of gin will revive me considerably."

                "What in the world is the matter with you two girls?" He put his hands on his hips.

                Harry hung up her worn Barbour coat. BoomBoom did likewise, only her Barbour coat was new and longer. One couldn't reside in Albemarle without a proper Barbour coat, made in England and the best working raingear in the world. Tucker, anticipating treats, moved over to be near Miranda. Pewter, no fool, headed straight for the table.

                "I don't know where to start." BoomBoom shook her long blond hair, droplets of water falling to the oak floor.

                "I'll start." Harry pulled out a chair at the kitchen table."Rick Shaw and Cynthia Cooper were called up to Culpeper this afternoon because Donny Clatterbuck had been shot through the head."

                Miranda exclaimed, "Oh, no! We haven't heard-"

                "He was in the truck Sean described Wesley Partlow as driving to his salvage yard to sell your hubcaps, and don't feel left out, the only people who know about this are Donny's family. Big Mim probably doesn't know yet unless Rick is calling her now."

                Both Tracy and Miranda sat down at the table to listen to Harry as they waited for the water to boil.

                "What in the world is going on?" Miranda rubbed her cheek with the palm of her hand.

                "Nobody knows. It's scary." BoomBoom also sat down as Tracy rose to pull out a chair for her, then reseated himself.

                "The truck had stolen plates, old ones with new stickers. Coop told me that. The plates are from a Newport News car dealership. The dealer has no idea how the plates were stolen. No cars were missing. Coop asked if he would send over his employee rolls so she could check for criminal backgrounds. Nothing. The truck, as it happens, is Booty Mawyer's old farm truck. He says it hasn't been off the farm. Been moldering in one of his sheds. That's what he