Whiskers In The Dark

17

April 20, 2018

Friday

Sitting in the tack room, Harry checked her email. A missive from Mary Reed appeared announcing that the Hounds F4R Heroes would go on as scheduled: Bassets Friday, April 27; Beagles April 28 and 29. She mentioned that no new information was available concerning the murder of Jason Holzknect. The board decided the cause was too important to postpone, and it appeared that his demise was not related to the Institute.

Harry picked up the old phone and dialed Susan.

“Hey.”

“Hey back at you. Did you read Mary Reed’s email? I just did.”

“Me, too,” Harry replied. “She sent it out last night, but I was making up lists of ideas for homecoming and didn’t check until this morning.”

“Same here. I was at a fundraiser,” Susan clarified. “Not for Ned. We’ve got another year before that, but for the Emily Couric Cancer Center. I didn’t invite you because you give to the Women’s Center. If I wrote checks to every organization asking for money, I’d be in the poorhouse.”

“Wouldn’t we all? There are good organizations out there. I pick what’s closest to me, like Hounds for Heroes.”

“Ditto,” Susan agreed. “I’ll call Liz Reeser. I’m assuming we can rent the cabin again. I sure hope so.”

“If not, let me know. I’ll call around. I think the Institute will be pretty full. Maybe that was one of the perks of the job,” Harry replied.

A deep breath later, Harry asked, “I Googled Jason. Did you?”

“No.”

“More information about his career, how important his work was in Ankara. There was a photo of him, maybe in his early forties, at a conference table. He was standing just behind our ambassador. The other men at the table, all men, represented different countries, and they, too, had a primary assistant behind them.”

“He didn’t talk much about it,” Susan remarked.

“Probably because the rest of us wouldn’t understand it or because we all talked about hunting, as did he. On his Facebook page, still up, he appeared in white tie at a Paris hotel, obviously another big conference, some of the same faces appearing in the background. He certainly ran in rarefied circles.” Harry stared into the distance for a moment.

“Switch gears. Homecoming,” she stated.

“I put Mags Nielsen and Janice Childe as cochairs of the hospitality committee, hoping that will direct their energy and they won’t be, shall we say, so questioning,” Susan told her.

“Good idea.”

They chatted some more. Then Harry hung up and dialed Cooper, who was driving to work.

“You’re the early bird.” Her neighbor teased her.

“Both are. But there’s more light in the mornings now.”

“Is, but I still get up in the dark.”

“Will you do me a favor?” Harry’s voice rose slightly.

“Depends on the favor. If it involves my work, again depends.”

“It does, but let me explain. You know a man was killed Sunday up at Aldie and Susan and I were there.”

“I know what you told me.”

“Coop, is there any way you can nose around as one law-enforcement officer to another? We have heard not one thing. Maybe the sheriff’s department up there has found something. The reason I ask is Susan and I will return there Friday the twenty-seventh and stay through the thirtieth. We’ll be helping with Hounds for Heroes and I, well, I’m not afraid, but I believe whoever killed Jason was working that day with all of us.”

Cooper braked for a stoplight, the morning rush hour in full swing. “I’ll see what I can do.”

The sheriff’s department in Loudoun County put Cooper through to the chief investigator for the county on the case. Cooper told the deputy, her counterpart, about her neighbor and asked forthrightly, as she should, was Harry in danger concerning the upcoming Hounds F4R Heroes?

“There’s always the possibility of danger,” Mark Jackson replied. “But we don’t anticipate it during Hounds for Heroes.”

“Given what my neighbor Harry Haristeen told me about finding the victim near the tractor, confirmed by her best friend who was there clearing trails also, this seems to be someone who was there or who knows the ground intimately.”

“Right. This is in the initial stages, but the one question we return to is his business. Jason Holzknect operated and owned a very successful Maryland Toyota and Lexus car dealership outside the D.C. Line. He was negotiating to buy a Volvo dealership and he had the funds, had the backers.”

Cooper mused. “The car business is ruthless, but I don’t think it’s that ruthless.”

“As I said, he had the money. What we’re focusing on is potential investors. We think there’s a connection. There was the drug-running conviction some years ago concerning a salesman. The money is interesting.”

“So often comes down to money, doesn’t it?”

“That or someone’s fried on drugs or drunk and starts throwing punches.”

“Deputy Jackson, thank you. I assume some law-enforcement people will be at Hounds for Heroes?”

“Actually, we would be there anyway and our armed forces recruiters will be there, too. Veterans of Foreign Wars will be there and the American Legion.”

“Sounds like everyone will be safe, including the hounds.” She joked and he appreciated her humor.

No sooner did she end the call than the dispatcher called her. “Officer Cooper, St. Luke’s Lutheran Church.”

“Right.” Cooper turned on the siren and lights.

“Attempted break-in just discovered when the pastor unlocked the door, which was 7:50 A.M.”