Tall Tail

Friday, August 5, 2016

Piled against the inside wall of the equipment shed, the siding was held in place by vertical stakes so it wouldn’t slip. Although the boards and the metal sides weren’t heavy, they weren’t that light, either.

Harry and Fair painted the woodwork on the shed July 31 as planned. However, taking down the siding took longer. Working outside in summer tired Harry more quickly than working outside in the other seasons, although a deep snow could wear her out.

“We did a good job.” She admired it as she walked outside, followed by the barn swallows. “Hey, that’s too close.”

A female flew right to her face, then darted away. “Zap.”

Mrs. Murphy crouched down as the bird returned for another pass. The tiger cat launched herself straight up, hoping to catch the saucy bird between her paws. Thin air was her reward. She came down on all fours.

“Barn swallows aren’t worth it.” Pewter, as always, generously gave of her opinion.

Sitting on her haunches, licking her front paw as though this was of no concern, Mrs. Murphy responded, “Maybe not, but they taunt me.”

On cue, Luciano flew over Pewter and turned upside down like a jet plane, joyfully screaming, “Fatty.”

Huffed up, Pewter took a swat at the devilish bird.

Paying no attention to the catcalling, Harry trudged back to the house.

The two cats shot ahead of her, separated, ran in a beeline to each other, leapt straight up in the air, bumped chests, and fell back.

“That’s a show!” Harry laughed, always delighted to see animals play.

Asleep, Tucker didn’t lift her head when the three walked into the kitchen.

Harry sat down in the house office, turned on the big computer that Fair had specially made for his work. He didn’t mind Harry using it. She actually liked looking at the big screen.

The two cats followed her in.

“Don’t bat at the screen. You’ll push her into a bad mood,” Mrs. Murphy warned the gray cat.

Already next to the screen, Pewter called down. “Just words. Nothing good.” She then settled down, dozing.

Harry read, then typed other things in. Read again.

“Hmm. Leukemia first appears in the English language in 1873 in an English pathology text describing an overproduction of white blood cells, which the author, a Dr. Green, thought often attacked the spleen.”

Mrs. Murphy jumped up to sit on the other side of the computer screen. Harry kept reading, clicking on more stuff.

Pushing back in her chair, she rubbed her chin for a moment. “Leukos means white in Attic Greek. You know, Mrs. Murphy, we’ve known about many diseases for thousands of years. We can describe them. Physicians to the pharaohs described cancers, heart attacks accurately. But no one knew what to do. We still don’t. Here I’m reading about all kinds of new drugs. You can prolong life, ease the worst of the pain, but the truth is the stuff is going to kill you.”

“You have to die of something,” the tiger cat sensibly said.

Harry reached over, rubbed the cat’s cheeks. “Governor Holloway doesn’t have but so much time.”

Pewter opened an eye, closed it again. “He’s old.”

Mrs. Murphy laughed. “Doesn’t mean he wants to die.”

Impulsively, Harry picked up the office phone, dialing Cooper. “Hey.”

“Hey back at you.”

“Work?”

“Long day. I’m on my way home.”

“I know you received the medical examiner’s report on Barbara Leader or you wouldn’t have been on your way to Big Rawly yesterday.”

“She was murdered. The odd thing was she had ingested the thallium chloride. They aren’t a hundred percent sure how, but the consensus is she took a gelatin tablet, like a gelatin Motrin or vitamin, and it was inside the tablet. Once the outside dissolved, the drug could take effect.”

Harry considered this. “Someone knew her routine if it was in a vitamin tablet or even a Motrin tablet. Do you think someone at Big Rawly did this?”

“No idea, although she was traveling toward Big Rawly.”

“Right.” Harry then asked, “Maybe the governor was the intended victim?”

“Given all the pills he’s taking, you’d think he’d be long gone by now if that was the intent,” said Cooper. “As it is, not to sound heartless, he will soon be gone.”

“Right,” Harry simply replied. The thought of the beloved old man’s death saddened her.