Whisker of Evil Read Online Free PDF Page B

They were now all huddled around the table.
    â€œI found this in the creek not far from where I found Barry.” Harry reached into her pocket and removed the ring, which she’d wrapped in her handkerchief. She’d shown it to Cooper before, and both women decided to go straight to Aunt Tally.
    â€œMmm.” Tally picked up her magnifying glass as Mim’s face registered recognition.
    â€œHoly Cross, Aunt Tally.”
    â€œI know that,” Tally snapped. “I want to see what’s inside. M.P.R. 1945.”
    Mim’s face turned white. “Mary Patricia Reines.”
    â€œWhat?” The nonagenarian’s light-blue eyes opened wide. “Mary Pat’s been missing since 1974.” She turned to Deputy Cooper. “You should know.”
    â€œThat was before my time, Miss Urquhart. It must be an inactive file.”
    â€œInactive? Unsolved is more like it.” Aunt Tally’s white eyebrows drew together.
    â€œThis is Mary Pat’s high-school ring. She wore it on her left pinkie. I’d know it anywhere.” Mim, hands shaking, put the ring down. “Exactly where did you find this?”
    â€œIn Potlicker Creek where the dirt road heads toward the mountains, the road that goes over to Augusta County ’cept no one uses it. Can’t really get through anymore. Well, you could on a horse.” Harry amended her statement.
    â€œPotlicker Creek? Where you found Barry Monteith, you say?” Big Mim had heard about that because Sheriff Shaw called once the body had been removed. He notified the Sanburnes for two reasons. One, Jim was mayor of Crozet. Two, Big Mim ran this end of the county and it wouldn’t do to get on her bad side.
    â€œDownstream a little bit. I fell in the creek and picked up a rock to throw at a rogue stag. Tucker chased him off.”
    Aunt Tally plucked up the ring from the table where her niece had placed it as though it were a hot coal. “Worn. Wonder if it’s been tumbling around in that creek for all this time.”
    â€œIt was pretty much worn when she disappeared,” Mim quietly said. “She wore it every day since her graduation in 1945 and it’s ten-karat gold, thin as it is. Oh, dear, but this stirs up memories. Aunt Tally, if you will forgive me, I’m going to drink some roped coffee.” Mim, slender and elegant, pushed away from the table and walked over to the counter where a huge, gleaming automatic coffeemaker, shipped over from Italy, kept a perfect brew steaming. “Can I fix anyone else a shot?”
    â€œI’ll have one.” Aunt Tally leaned back in the ladderback chair.
    â€œJust coffee for me, thanks,” Cooper said.
    â€œYou aren’t on duty, are you? No uniform,” Big Mim noted.
    â€œNo, but I’ll stick to coffee.”
    â€œHarry, tea for you?” Mim clicked on the electric teapot.
    â€œThank you.”
    Big Mim opened a cabinet, pulled out a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black, and poured a shot into two large mugs of coffee. No point in using single malt in coffee. Some folks used bourbon, others rum, or even a flavored brandy, but Mim and her aunt stuck to good scotch. She placed the mugs on the table along with sweet cream and brown sugar. She poured a plain mug for Cooper just as the teapot clicked off—perfect timing. Then she put down a few treats for the animals and sat down herself.
    â€œI dimly remember Mary Pat’s disappearance, but I was in grade school,” Cooper commented.
    â€œMe, too. She bred Ziggy Flame, a big flaming chestnut thoroughbred—beautifully bred, I remember that. The mare was one of the Aga Khan’s best mares, a daughter of Almahoud. His sire was Tom Fool, used to stand at Greentree Stud in Kentucky, one of the greats.”
    Big Mim smiled. “Harry, what a memory.”
    â€œIf I could recite bloodlines my mother would give me a quarter,” Harry replied. “But I don’t remember