Catch As Cat Can

                "It depends on whether we find the suspect or not. If we do and he comes up for a hearing and then a trial, it could take months-many months." Cooper sighed, for the dogging of the courts wore her out as well as her sister and brother

officers. She often thought to herself that people would be far better off trying to solve problems themselves instead of running to the sheriff's department or a lawyer to do it for them. Somehow Americans had lost the ability to sit down and talk to one another, or so it seemed to her.

                "Oh, dear, what will the girls at church say?" Miranda worried about driving around undressed, as it were."Well..."

                "Maybe we can solve this together." Cynthia focused on Sean, low removing the hubcaps from the line."The obvious question: who sold you the hubcaps?"

                "Usually Roger takes care of the car end of the business but he's lot here at the moment," Sean said."I just happened to be outside when a kid drove up with the hubcaps."

                "Know him?"

                "No. Never saw him before in my life. I knew the Falcons were are so I paid fifty dollars for them, wholesale. I priced them at one hundred and twenty and hung them right on the line. If I'd taken moment to think about it, I might have realized they were Miranda's but the kid said they came off his grandmother's Falcon hat had breathed its last."

                "What did he look like?"

                "Slight. Early twenties. Sandy hair, a pathetic attempt at a mustache." Sean sported a red mustache and closely clipped beard of luxurious density but the curly hair on his head was black and long, He tied it in a ponytail at the nape of his neck. Harry called this a dork knob behind his back.

                "Any distinguishing features? Do you remember his domes or his car?"

                "1987 GMC truck. Gray. Virginia plates. Uh, a Dallas Cowboys windbreaker maybe as old as the car and-yes, there was one distinguishing feature. His left eye sagged, an old wound. It was half-dosed and a small red scar ran from over the eyebrow to below the eye it self."

                "Runny nose? Jumpy?' Cynthia was looking for a fuller picture of the "perp," as she called him.

                "No. Calm. Didn't smell alcohol either."

                Miranda took out her checkbook as Harry held the hubcaps that Sean had handed to her. The older woman fished around in the bottom of her purse."I've got a pen in here, I know it."

                "Put that away," Sean chided her gently."I'm not having you pay for what's yours."

                "But you paid the thief."

                "My problem. I mean it, Miranda. You put that checkbook away right now."

                Cynthia thought a moment."Why don't we do this? You put the hubcaps back on your car. I'll fill out this report and I'll look for the kid. If Rick Shaw"-she mentioned her boss, the sheriff- "wants to see the evidence, I'll send him to you. I just don't see the point of impounding your hubcaps where they'll sit until God knows when. Just let me handle this."

                "I don't want to get you in trouble." Miranda appreciated Cynthia Cooper's concern. She had become friends with the young deputy over the last few years.

                "A little trouble won't hurt me." She smiled.

                "I'm sorry about this." Sean genuinely liked Miranda, as did most people in Crozet.

                "Times change and it would appear not for the better. You had nothing to do with it." Miranda smiled back at him.

                "If you all don't need me anymore I'll get back to the store. Saturdays are always our busiest day." He took a few steps, then stopped."You all are coming to the Wrecker's Ball, aren't you? First Saturday in May. It's our fund-raiser for the project Building for Life, which helps poor people who need homes."

                "Wouldn't miss it." Cynthia dosed her notebook.

                "My ex-husband asked me to your ball months ago. I was so proud of him for planning ahead but," Harry laughed, "it's foaling reason so for all I know right in the middle of the dance his beeper will go off. The perils of veterinary medicine, I guess."

                Fair Haristeen, Harry's former mate, was a much-sought-after equine practitioner. He'd built up a fine practice, constructing a modern clinic with an operating room.

                "Eradicating vermin. Ha," Pewter cackled, trying to direct Harry to her furry pals.

                Harry looked down at the gray cannonball of a cat. She would have scooped her up but her arms were full of hubcaps.

                Miranda whistled for Tucker.

                A yip told them where Tucker was and also that the dog was in a hurry to return to the humans.

                "Let me put these by your car, Miranda. I'll even put them on for you but I'd better find those two first. Do you mind?"

                "Of course not. I'm taking up your Saturday afternoon."

                "I was coming here anyway, really I was." Harry walked briskly back to the Falcon, parked in front of the new main building. She tacked the hubcaps by the driver's door.

                "Hey, I'll put the hubcaps on. How do we know someone else won't pick them up or try to buy them?" Cynthia came over."You get the kids."

                Harry put Pewter in the truck cab, careful to roll down the window partway even though it wasn't that warm, only in the low fifties. She then hurried back to the garage."Tucker!"

                "I've got a rat!" Tucker crowed.