Full Cry Read Free Page B

hold on Betty’s waist.
    Betty reached for the phone. “May I?”
    â€œOf course.” Sister then pressed her ear to the earpiece as the women reversed positions, Betty’s arm around Sister’s thin waist. “Ronnie, it’s the Big Betts here.”
    â€œCleavage.”
    â€œAs if you cared.”
    â€œI do care. I’m a highly attuned aesthetic being.” He was proud of Betty losing twenty-five pounds last season, and she was working hard on the last ten. “Knowing you, you’ll pepper me with questions.”
    â€œRight. Since I haven’t heard a breath of this, and I know you didn’t either or I’d already know, shall I assume Crawford didn’t talk to any of the gang?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œDid Marty say how he hired Sam?”
    â€œShe did. We must have talked twenty minutes. The landscape business always slows down to nothing in winter, so she had all kinds of time. Anyway, madam, what she said was, and I quote, ‘Crawford called trainers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina, all the big names. They swore that Sam had oo-scoobs of talent.’ ”
    â€œDid she really say ‘oo-scoobs’?”
    â€œYes.”
    Betty replied, “I thought only Southerners used that expression.”
    â€œShe’s acclimating. Anyway, I asked her if she knew about Sam’s history.” He paused. “She said she knew he’s fought his battles, hit the bottom, but he’s recovered.”
    â€œRecovered?” Sister spoke into the phone.
    â€œHis brother, Gray, who made all that money in Washington, D.C., put him in a drying-out center. He was there for a month.”
    â€œSo that’s why we haven’t seen him passed out on a luggage cart down at the train station?” Betty mentioned one of the favorite hangouts of the county’s incorrigible alcoholics. The downtown mall was another.
    â€œHow long has he been dry?” Sister again spoke into the mouthpiece.
    â€œDo you want the phone back?” Betty asked.
    â€œActually, you ask better questions than I do.”
    â€œAccording to Marty, Sam has been sober four months. She said that they extensively interviewed him. They also spent two hours with Gray, and they’re satisfied that Sam’s the man for the job. Crawford intends to get into chasing in a big, big way.”
    Betty took a long time. “Well, I hope it all works out.”
    â€œBut you don’t think for a skinny minute that it will, do you?” Ronnie sounded almost eager.
    â€œUh, no.”
    Sister took the phone back, “What do you think?”
    â€œI think there’s going to be hell to pay.”
    Sister sighed, then brightened. “In that case, let’s hope Crawford’s bank account is as big as we think it is.”
    After they hung up the phone, Sister and Betty just looked at each other for a moment.
    Betty finally said, “He
is
good with a horse, that Sam.”
    â€œAnd with a woman.”
    They said in unison: “Jesus.”

CHAPTER 2
    Heavy snow forced Sister to drive slowly to the Augusta Cooperative, usually just called the co-op. Since the Weather Channel predicted this storm was going to hang around for two days, she figured she’d better stock up on pet food, laying mash, and kerosene for the lamps, in case the power cut. She also took the precaution of putting the generator in the cellar. Shaker did likewise for the kennel, as well as for his attractive cottage, also on the property of Sister’s Roughneck Farm. In these parts, such a structure was called a dependency.
    Last year, Sister broke down and bought a new truck for her personal use. The truck used to haul the horses and hounds, an F350 Dually, could pull a house off its foundation, but those Dually wheels proved clunky for everyday use. Installed in her new red half-ton truck was a cell phone with a speaker so she didn’t have to use her