The Big Cat Nap

a morsel of fresh-baked bread.
    “Blue jays don’t like bread. They like seeds,” Susan, a birder, said.
    Fair laughed. “He hasn’t read Audubon.”
    The blue jay then opened his beak, letting the bread drop.
“I can do anything. You can’t catch me.”
    “Did you see that?” Harry’s mouth fell open.
    “Cheeky fellow,” Reverend Jones roared, then held up his hands. “Lord, is this your way of telling us we aren’t the crown of creation?”
    “Listen to him.”
Pewter sat upright.
“He gets it.”
    The blue jay jumped off and flew sideways, one wing toward the ground, right in front of the gray cat. Pewter’s whiskers moved with the air current. Then he returned to the table, this time plucking a seed off one of the special biscuits.
    Harry, hands on hips, stood up. “What good are you cats? This is your job.”
    “You get upset if we kill birds,”
Mrs. Murphy fired right back.
    The blue jay, sitting a bit too near Matilda, swallowed the seed. Matilda opened her jaws and flicked out her tongue. The saucy bird dropped a few branches below. He wasn’t done yet, but he wanted that juicy seed to settle for a moment.
    “You two look lame,”
Tucker ever so helpfully said.
    “Well, you try to get him.”
Pewter was incensed.
    “I’m not a cat. Not my job.”
The corgi dropped under Fair’s chair.
    “We wouldn’t have you,”
the gray cat snidely spoke.
    As the three animals complained to one another and about one another, the blue jay began to imitate other birds for the joy of irritating everyone.
    He was successful.
    Ignoring the racket, Reverend Jones asked, “Coop, what have they confessed to?”
    “That’s why I drove out here, to find out,” said Franny. “Did Victor and Latigo steal my tires along with their other crimes?” She gleefully shoved divine barbecue into her mouth.
    “No,” Cooper replied. “It’s going to take time to crack your case. Is it a large interstate ring or is it local? We’ll get it, Franny, just give us time.”
    “Bet you will.” Alicia licked her fingers, while BoomBoom rose to get her a small little wet towel at the end of the table.
    “The three remaining mechanics, Jason Brundige, Sammy Collona, and Lodi Pingrey, want to save themselves, and they want to prove they didn’t kill anyone, so they’ve been singing like canaries.”
    “Do you think they did kill their co-workers?” Reverend Jones asked the tall deputy.
    “No. I’m pretty certain Victor and Latigo did the killing. And that’s what Jason Brundige is saying. The murders weren’t professionalgrade, if you will, but they were clever, bold, and left no fingerprints. These two thought they were clever by using a different M.O. for each murder. Jason said they killed Bobby together, just like they tried to kill Harry together.”
    “The killings were messages to the others,” Harry simply said.
    “Yes,” Coop replied.
    “Messages about what?” BoomBoom had returned to her place at the table.
    “ ‘Shut your mouth. Don’t get greedy.’ The mechanics knew what Victor and Latigo were doing. And they were well paid to shut up.” Cooper swung one leg over the long wooden seat so she now sat at the end of the table facing all of them. “The mechanics received big payoffs to keep quiet about the substandard parts. In return, they received a cut of the action. Now that we have forensics accountants in law enforcement, we can find the holes in anyone’s books eventually. Walt started the ball rolling. He wanted more money to keep silent. Not only did he try to shake down Victor and Latigo, he tried to shake down his co-workers. No love lost there.”
    “How much do you think the whole scheme made?” Franny inquired, ever interested in profit.
    “Millions. We can only work off percentages—in other words, the cost of genuine manufacturing parts versus the cost of knockoffs—but the profit is huge.”
    “So Latigo sent clients to Victor?” Fair finished his steak, thinking he’d done a great job, which he had.
    “He did. Both men profited handsomely, obviously. Jason indicated that first Walt got greedy, then Nick and Bobby wanted more. Nick stupidly threatened to tell the media about the Chinese parts, the whole scam. A collision-repair shop is under no obligation to identify whether parts are from the original manufacturer or aftermarket. All Victor had to do was undercut his competition by fifteen percent. Latigo referred everyone to Victor. Both made a lot of