Cat on the Scent Read Free Page A

come by, don't say a word.”
    â€œGot his nose out of joint again?” Harry casually asked.
    Rick grunted. “He's a little different.”
    â€œDifferent!” Harry giggled. “He's got more money than God and he acts like he
is
God.”
    â€œHe and Archie Ingram pester me with more calls than anyone else in the county, and this is a county full of nutcases.”
    Archie Ingram, one of the county commissioners, a handsome man, courtly to women, was so violently opposed to most development schemes that he had attracted radical detractors and equally radical supporters.
    â€œH. Vane is a big noise in the environmental group. I guess he and Archie have to work closely together.”
    â€œIdeas are one thing. Temperament's another.” Rick hooked his thumb in his gun belt. “I predict those two can't stay on the same team for long.”
    â€œSheriff, would you like to drive?” Blair asked.
    â€œWell—”
    â€œGo on.”
    Rick slipped behind the wheel.
    Blair winked at Harry, then folded his six-foot-four-inch frame into the passenger side. “That button will push the seat back or forward. There you go. And you can raise or lower the seat, too.”
    â€œIsn't that something?” Rick's seduction would be complete once he touched the accelerator. He reached to the right for the key.
    â€œOn the left.”
    â€œThat's weird.”
    â€œA leftover from the great racing days when drivers had to sprint to their cars. If the ignition was on the left it gave them a split-second advantage. The driver could start the car and shift into gear simultaneously.”
    â€œI'll be damned.” Rick turned the key. The pistons awakened like Sleeping Beauty.
    Rick stalled out.
    â€œTakes a while to get used to the clutch. Everything is much more sensitive than you or I are accustomed to—it's not so much about technology, it's about feel.”
    â€œYeah.” Rick engaged the clutch and touched the gas, then shot down the road.
    Harry folded her arms across her chest, watching the car lurch into second. It would take Rick a few more tries.
    She walked back to the squad car, sat down, and clicked on the two-way radio.
    Milden Hall, the estate of Sir H. Vane-Tempest, was immediately behind her. The overlarge sign, emblazoned with a gold griffin on a bloodred field, swung slightly in the breeze.
    Harry turned off the radio, swung her legs out, and closed the door. The day was too pleasant for sitting in the car. She walked back toward the sign. A car cruised around the corner, having turned off 250.
    Harry waved and Susan Tucker pulled her Audi to the side of the road.
    â€œWhat are you doing out here?”
    Harry walked over to her best friend. “Joyriding. Blair bought a Porsche Turbo and as luck would have it, Rick Shaw came out of H. Vane's driveway just as we slowed down to eighty-something.”
    â€œWhere's Blair now? In jail?”
    â€œNo. He's letting Rick drive the Turbo.”
    Susan laughed. “That's a good one.”
    â€œWhat are you doing out here?”
    â€œOn my way to drop off books for Chris Middleton. I want to persuade him to give a talk at the high school for career day.”
    Chris was a small-animals veterinarian, one of the best.
    â€œGood idea.”
    â€œAnd then I have to meet Mim, Her Royal Pain in the Ass, at the club. She's fussed up about this board meeting over the water supply. The county's been fighting about the reservoir so long I don't know why she still lets it get to her.”
    â€œWe've got to do something with the development in the northwest corner of the county. They need water.”
    â€œExactly, but the reservoir plan is already outdated and it hasn't been built yet.” Susan pouted for a minute. “Archie Ingram, as usual, wants to turn the clock back to 1890.”
    â€œMake it 1840. Then he could own slaves.” Harry approved of conservation but Archie Ingram took it too