Puss 'N Cahoots

Saddlebred place and now breeding Thoroughbreds, covered a century of ups and downs, after each down rising again like the phoenix.
    “I’m so happy the grapes are flourishing. Alicia said I won’t believe how big they’ve grown when we get home.”
    “It will be interesting to see if the crop proves profitable.”
    “Not for three years,” she quickly replied.
    “I know that, honey. Remember, I heard the lead-up to this, then the purchase of rootstock, and, well, I’m probably as excited as you are.” He inhaled the refreshing morning fragrance of dew, grass, horses in rich limestone-enriched fields.
    “You’re right. I get nervous about my grapes. I’m starting to wonder if I shouldn’t have put more in when I did, but I could only afford a quarter of an acre. An acre would have cost fourteen thousand dollars. Of course now, given the hideous spike in oil prices, the cost would be fifteen thousand dollars. Every item that is transported by truck just goes up in price. Scares me.”
    “I told you to plant an entire acre. You’re too conservative,”
declared Pewter, who really had tried to reach her human when Harry prepared the ground for her rootstock.
    “She’s brave about some things and cowardly about others.”
Mrs. Murphy also breathed in the wonderful summer odors.
“She gets scared about money, and that’s not going to change.”
    “But she has Fair, and he makes a good living.”
Pewter was quite happy that she didn’t have to balance checkbooks.
    “Years of living off a postmistress’s salary.”
Tucker left it at that.
    “Sunflowers look good, everything looks good. I’m so glad the girls are out there. Alicia said that Miranda has been the biggest help.” Harry beamed at mentioning the older woman, a surrogate mother. “But then, Miranda is such a natural with plants.”
    Fair laughed. “She really is, and it plucks Big Mim’s last nerve. All the thousands of dollars she spends on her gardens and gardeners, yet Miranda’s outshines hers every year.”
    Big Mim, also known as the Queen of Crozet, had grown up with Miranda. They adored each other, but when it came to their gardens, each burned with competitive fire.
    They reached Paris, passing the large courthouse. One could gauge the wealth of a county by the size of its courthouse in Kentucky. In Virginia, the telling detail was the size of the monument to the heroic Confederate dead.
    Claiborne, a few minutes away, made Harry’s heart skip a beat. Fair drove around the perimeter.
    “Well?”
Pewter, already bored with sightseeing, thought it was time for a crunchy treat, something with fish flavor today.
    “Well what?”
Mrs. Murphy, on the other hand, loved sightseeing.
    “Did she see a horse for Alicia?”
Pewter turned a circle on Harry’s lap.
    “No. Great horses in those pastures. Great prices.”
Mrs. Murphy, paws on the dash, noticed a redwing blackbird as they passed a low creek bed. She even spied a tanager in a bush by the same creek bed.
    “Then why are we doing this if the horses are so expensive? Why can’t she find one in Virginia?”
    “Oh, she likes looking around.”
Tucker did, too.
    “And you never know.”
Mrs. Murphy sounded hopeful.
    “Got behind on this project.” Harry stroked Pewter with her right hand; her left rested on Tucker’s silky head as the corgi wedged between her and Fair.
    Mrs. Murphy, hind paws on Harry’s knees, intently watched everything.
    “Extraordinary events.” Fair headed west out of Paris.
    “Sure have been, but it’s starting to make sense, vaguely—I emphasize vaguely.”
    “What?” He turned a moment to stare at his wife.
    “Renata succeeded. Publicity up the wazoo, and when she rides tonight, her class will be covered by news channels, entertainment channels, you name it. No fool, that one. But, no, that’s not what I’m thinking about. It’s Jorge.”
    “Ah.” He, too, had fretted over the murder.
    “I think it’s connected to the raid, but I don’t know why.”
    “How do you come up with that?”
    “So far nothing has turned up—the usual causes of murder, you know, thwarted love, greed. The only thing I can think of is that he was somehow connected to the illegal workers.” She bit her tongue, because she wanted to tell him about the diesel motor she’d heard in the middle of the night when she slipped out to the fairgrounds. The next day when Joan questioned Jorge he said he hadn’t heard it. However, Fair still didn’t know