The Big Cat Nap

shifted around a curve, sliding nicely. “Show-off.”
    “Couldn’t help it.” Harry laughed. “Ever go into the café at Fresh?”
    “Couple of times. He’s done a nice job. Sometimes I see friends. Sometimes I don’t. I think Yancy hoped it would be a central place, but who goes into an organic market? People with some money. Nobody poor can pay those prices.”
    “Got that right. I really don’t like Yancy. Can’t put my finger on exactly why he rubs me the wrong way.”
    “Me, too.”
    “You play golf with Barbara. You like her.”
    “I do. But she’s a nervous type. And she never talks about him. Not one word, which I think is a bit strange. It’s not as if you and I and the rest of us don’t occasionally discuss our significant others.”
    “Or insignificant others.”
    “That, too.”
    They were still laughing when Harry pulled in front of the barn.
    “Why didn’t you take me?”
Tucker asked as the two women disembarked. Harry leaned down to pick up the cigarette lighter, reminding herself to call Victor, since it must be his.
    “ ’Cause you rolled in horse poop,”
Pewter helpfully suggested.
    “Do you know, Pewter, when you talk, your belly sways from side to side?”
    “Do you know, Tucker, when I’m behind you, tailless thing, I see things I’d rather not?”

H arry and Susan had just set foot in the kitchen when the wall phone rang.
    Harry picked it up. “Hello.”
    “You’ll never guess,” Franny breathlessly spoke. “They found my tires.”
    “Where?”
    Susan helped herself to iced tea, then moved next to Harry to hear better.
    “A warehouse at Zion Crossroads.”
    At the junction of I-64 and Route 250 in Louisa County was Zion Crossroads. For so many years it had been sleepy and nondescript, but in the last ten, it had morphed into a hotbed of business, food, and gas. I-64 could carry one all the way to St. Louis if traveling west. Then it turned into I-70, rolling through until the Rockies. Even those drivers on a short hop to Richmond pulled in, grabbed a Coca-Cola or coffee, and stretched their legs.
    The old lumberyard was still there, but to the locals it seemed yet another storage business appeared every day. Good for the coffers of Louisa County.
    Susan offered Harry a sip as she got her ear close to the receiver.
    “Susan’s with me. A real eavesdropper.” Harry smiled. “How did they find the goods?”
    “Well, Rick put out a report, went all over. Computers really are amazing, and one of the girls at the cash register at McDonald’s remembered a semi stopping. Nothing unusual there, but she looked out as the driver pushed up the big door in the back and two men jumped out. She saw the tires. Didn’t think anything of it. An officer from the Louisa County Sheriff’s Department mentioned to her that the storage units popping up were great places for contraband. She’d read about the robbery in the paper, remembered it, and told the officer. Anyway, they managed to convince the U-Store-It owner to open the bigger units.”
    “Thought they had a double lock. The storage key plus the unit owner’s key.”
    “Harry, they do, but we all know those units aren’t that hard to break in to. The storage owner checked his books first, discounting anyone he personally knew, then cut the locks off the others. Presto! Bingo!”
    “Isn’t that something? So whose name was on the unit?”
    “That’s just it. False name. Paid cash. We can hope they come back at some point to remove the tires, when the contraband is not so hot, but that presupposes no one will talk. A big hope.”
    “True.”
    Susan said into the receiver, “When do you get your tires back?”
    “Don’t know, but they’re in Albemarle County now, wherever Rick puts stolen goods. Bet he had to rent a big unit. I can’t imagine the sheriff’s department routinely has enough space for stolen goods as large as mine. But isn’t that something? One alert citizen. I’m going out there and giving that girl a new set of tires.”
    “What a nice thing to do.” Harry was always impressed by Franny, who unfailingly did the right thing.
    “Anyway, couldn’t help myself. Had to call my group support buddy.”
    “We’ll celebrate after this week’s meeting.” Harry took another sip of Susan’s cold tea. “Franny, do you know where totaled cars go?”
    “To auto heaven, where else?”
    “Smarty. I assume that when a vehicle is written off as totaled bythe insurance company, it’s