The Tell-Tale Horse

CHAPTER 19

February 29, Leap Year Day, roared through on the teeth of a low-pressure system. Trees bent over, hounds stayed in the kennels, horses stood with their rear ends to the wind. Even loquacious Bitsy hunkered down in her nest.

Sister, fearing the power would be cut off, hurriedly vacuumed the upstairs. That done, Golly reentered social exchange by removing herself from the closet.

“You’re scared of the vacuum cleaner,” Rooster teased her.

“Yeah, you burrow in all of Mom’s cashmere sweaters. Cat hair everywhere.” Raleigh picked up the game.

“Cashmere is goat hair. What’s a little cat hair after that?” Golly sniffed.

“Chicken,” Rooster taunted.

“Bubble butt.” Golly thumped down the carpeted twisty back stairs to the kitchen. Many old houses have a narrow stairwell from the kitchen to the second story as well as the wide stairwell off the center hall.

Rooster, hot on her tail, snapped, “I don’t have a bubble butt.”

“Fatty, fatty, two-by-four.” Golly started the nasty childhood chant.

Raleigh had barreled to the main stairway and taken the steps three at a time and was already in the kitchen when the two squabblers emerged.

Even with the carpet on the back stairs, Sister could hear the two animals thumping down toward her. They burst through the open door, complaining vociferously.

“Pipe down, I can’t hear myself think,” she admonished them.

Raleigh sat there like an adoring angel, which really offended Golly, who walked up to the Doberman, sat right in front of him, and batted his long nose with one lightning strike.

“Ouch.”

“Brownnoser.” She jumped on the counter and pushed around Sister’s tiny cell phone sitting in its recharging cradle.

Sister grabbed the phone and cradle before they clattered to the floor. She looked at the small blue square that read CHARGE COMPLETE, unplugged the charger, put it in a cabinet drawer, folded the phone over, and stuck it in her back jeans pocket. While wearing a cell phone holder on her belt might have proven more efficient, nothing could induce her to do it, just like nothing could induce her to wear a sissy strap under her chin on her helmet. Some things were just too weenie.

She opened the cupboard containing treats, tossing a big pig’s ear to each dog and a large green chewy at Golly. The pigs’ ears remained fresh in large sealed bags. The pungent aroma would fill the kitchen were the bags not sealed.

“I’ll bet you-all don’t know why we have leap year.”

Head turned sideways as she gnawed on her greenie, Golly replied, “Do I need to know? I’ve lived all these years in contented ignorance.”

“The calendar year is different from the equinoctial year so time can move backward.” Seeing that she had only one interested party, Raleigh, Sister addressed this to him. “A calendar year is 365 days. An equinoctial year—that’s the time it takes the earth to make a complete revolution of the sun from equinox to equinox—is actually 365.242199 days so periodic events would slowly move backward. To keep things on time, we had to add a day every four years. We’ve had calendars for thousands of years; humans struggled with this but I think Pope Gregory the Great set things to rights. He switched us off the Julian calendar, which made some provision for this but not enough.” She threw up her hands. “I used to know all this. Anyway, St. Oswald—that’s an English saint from the tenth century—used to have his festival on February twenty-ninth, but in 1930 the Catholic Church moved his feast day to February twenty-eighth. Poor fellow wasn’t getting enough of the party. Of course, now many of the saints have been dispatched, but I still pay attention.”

“See, I didn’t need to know any of that.”

“Dunce.” Raleigh dropped his pig’s ear, which rattled on the heart pine.

“It doesn’t make any difference. What do I care if festivals move backward? What’s St. Oswald to cats? If he grew catnip—well, then I’d pay attention.”

“She knows a lot.” Rooster enjoyed the rich flavor of the pig’s ear.

“Human stuff, most of which is irrelevant. Nature can kill them all if she wants to, and then what of Leap Year?” Golly puffed out her magnificent chest.

“Crab,” came Raleigh’s tart reply.

Golly might have attacked the Doberman again, but the lure of the greenie overcame the desire for violent revenge. The long-haired calico was a great believer in violence artfully applied.

The cell rang. Sister forgot she’d left it on so she retrieved it from her pocket. “Hello, Jane Arnold here.”

Marion’s lilting voice said, “Can’t you just say Hello? Who else would use your cell phone?”

“I’ve been thinking.” Sister launched right in, since Marion was accustomed to her going straight to the point and vice versa. “Well, let me back up and say that there’s a wireless carrier, Leap Wireless International—good name for Leap Year, right? Anyway this company, in which I’ve bought shares, sells service to low-income, young, and ethnic people. They operate under the name Cricket. This particular market is deemed too small for the giant carriers.”

“Sounds pretty smart,” Marion replied.

“It is. Forty dollars a month. No credit check. You sign up and you’ve got service.”

“What’s the catch?” Marion was suspicious.

“Roaming charges are high. The system is designed for people who don’t travel much, so if they don’t use roaming they’ll save money. Cricket requires customers to pay each month in advance. Obviously, in that income bracket they need some protection. But isn’t it a terrific idea?”

“It is. How long before they are absorbed by a huge amoeba?”

“Not long, I expect. Since our Lady Godiva had information concerning this kind of technology, I’ve been investigating in my own small way.”

“How often does your cell phone die on you?” Marion queried.

“At least once a day. I attribute that to dead zones, especially here by the mountains.”

“Sister, I’m a few miles more east of the mountains than you are. Happens to me too.”

“Guess you like your new cell phone.” Sister teased her.

“Better looking than the one I threw in the fire, but I hit those dead spots too. Sometimes I’ll be in the store and nothing. I’ll be in the middle of a conversation yakking away, and suddenly I realize no one’s on the other end. Maddening.”

“’Tis.”

“What if a huge company with extraordinary research facilities goes about buggering—forgive the word—other wireless providers? Meanwhile, it establishes a reputation for reliability. What are most of us going to do eventually? Switch to the reliable company.” Marion paused. “Our beautiful victim could have been a part of a number of illegal activities. If she was, I hope someone figures it out.”

“Me too.”

“I had another thought. This one’s really dark. I know the money involved in gaining hegemony in the wireless market might lead some people to murder. But this would be a direct route to murder. What if our government, fearing an overheated economy and inflation, actually slows business by two percent—just two percent; that would have an enormous effect. The old phone companies and the wireless companies would cooperate in exchange for favorable treatment down the road via tax breaks, protection for outsourcing, or other plums. The deal would be that the phone companies disrupt calls, not an outright break in service but a disconnect like you and I experience with our cell phones. We attribute it to bad signals, dead air space, but what if it is deliberate? It’s possible.”

“Marion, in a million years, I wouldn’t have thought of that.”

“I trust government less than you do.”

“Maybe.” Sister thought a moment. “Maybe, but it comes down to the fact that you’re brilliant and I’m merely intelligent.”

“Bull.”

“Oh, take the compliment and shut up.” Sister laughed at her. “Okay. I’m brilliant, but you know in Hollywood when they want to fire you they first tell you you’re brilliant.”

“A much-used word then.” Sister laughed some more. “No word on who played the prank with the mannequin?”

“No, but if I ever find out, I’m stripping him or her and parading them around town on a horse—or maybe I’ll tie them to the hood of my car, a nice big ornament.” Marion took a deep breath. “Can’t decide if it was a prank or a warning.”

Sister then told her about the old movie being left in the mudroom, which upset Marion too.

“Excuse me…. I do too.” Marion cupped her hand over the mouthpiece, then removed it. “Sorry. My appointment has appeared five minutes early.”

“Go do biz.”

“You too.”

“You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

“You know, the Chinese have this expression: I throw out a brick in the hope that someone else will throw out jade.”

“Got it.” Sister liked the concept. After switching off her cell phone she put it on the kitchen table. “Could it be possible?” A long pause followed. “Kids, this is a case of what you don’t know can hurt you. I haven’t a clue about the technology involved in a scheme like that, but a few people in this world do. I wonder if Aashi was one of them.”