Rita Braun - Murder She Meowed

MURDER, SHE MEOWED

A Bantam Book / December 1996

All rights reserved.

Copyright 1996 by American Artists, Inc.

Illustrations copyright 1996 by Wendy Wray.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in anyform or by any means, electronic or

mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by anyinformation storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the publisher.

For information address: Bantam Books.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Brown, Rita Mae.

Murder, she meowed / Rita Mae Brown Sneaky Pie Brown;illustrations by Wendy Wray.

p.cm.

ISBN-0-S53-09604-4

1. Montpelier Hunt Races, Montpelier Station, Va.Fiction. 2. Haristeen, Harry (Fictitious

character)Fiction. 3. Murphy, Mrs. (Fictitiouscharacter)Fiction. 4. Women detectives

Virginia Fiction. S. Women cat ownersVirginia Fiction. 6. CatsFiction. I. Title.

PS3552.R698M89 1996

813'.S4dc20 96-20727

CIP

Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada

BantamBooks are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday DellPublishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "BantamBooks" and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in U.S. Patent andTrademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540Broadway, New York, New York 10036.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

BVG 109 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dedicated to Pooh Bear and Coye who love and guard Mrs.William O. Moss

Cast of Characters

Mary Minor Haristeen (Harry), theyoung postmistress of Crozet, whose curiosity almost kills the cat and herself

Mrs. Murphy, Harry's gray tiger cat,who bears an uncanny resemblance to authoress Sneaky Pie and who is wonderfullyintelligent!

Tee Tucker, Harry's Welsh corgi.Mrs. Murphy's friend and confidante; a buoyant soul

Pharamond Haristeen (Fair),veterinarian, formerly married to Harry

Mrs. George Hogendobber (Miranda), awidow who thumps her own Bible!

Market Shiflett, owner of Shiflett'sMarket, next to the post office

Pewter, Market's fat gray cat, who,when need be, can be pulled away from the food bowl

Susan Tucker, Harry's best friend,who doesn't take life too seriously until her neighbors get murdered

Big Marilyn Sanburne (Mim), queen ofCrozet

Rick Shaw, Albemarlesheriff

Cynthia Cooper, police officer

Herbert C. Jones, Pastor of CrozetLutheran Church, a kindly, ecumenical soul who has been known to share hissermons with his two cats, Lucy Fur and Elocution

Arthur Tetrick, distinguishedsteeplechase officer and lawyer

Charles Valiant (Chark), young to bea steeplechase trainer but quite talented

Adelia Valiant (Addie), she turnstwenty-one in November, catapulting her and Chark into their inheritance. She'sa jockeyheadstrong and impulsive

Marylou Valiant, Chark and Addie'smother, who disappeared five years ago

Mickey Townsend, a trainer muchloved by Addie and much deplored by Chark

Nigel Danforfh, recently arrivedfrom England,he rides for Mickey Townsend

Coty Lamont, the best steeplechasejockey of the decade

Linda Forloines, vicious lying whitetrash whose highest value is the dollar

Will Forloines, on the same ethicallevel as his wife but perching on a lower intelligence rung

Bazooka, a hot 'chaser owned by MimSanburne

Orion, Mim's hunter, who displays anequine sense of humor

Rodger Dodger, Mim's aging gingerbarn cat, newly rejuvenated by his girlfriend, Pusskin. Rodger likes to dothings by the book

Pusskin, a beautiful tortoiseshellcat, she dotes on Rodger and irritates Mrs. Murphy

Dear Reader:

Thank youfor your letters. While I try to answer every one I can answer some of the morefrequent questions here.

Do I use atypewriter? No. Mother does. I use a Toshiba laptop that costs as much as aused Toyota. I like the mouse.

Do I write every day? Only when thereal mousing is bad.

Do I livewith other cats and dogs? Yes, and horses, too, but I'm not giving them anyfree advertising. After all, I'm the one who writes the books therefore Ideserve the lion's share of the attention.

Is Pewterreally fat? Well, parts of her have their own zip code. And I just saw her eata mushroom not ten minutes ago. A mushroom is a fungus. What self-respecting cateats fungus? She drinks beer, too.

Is Motherfun? Most times. She slides into the slough of despond when she has to paybills. She had a lot to pay this year because floods washed out part of ourroad and bridge. The insurance didn't cover it but I could have told her that.She's been working very hard and while I sympathize it does keep her out of myfur.

Am I aDixiecat? Well, I was born in the great state of Virginiaso I believe we're not here for a long time but we're here for a good time. Isure hope you're having as good a time as I am!

Love,

SNEAKY PIE

Murder,She Meowed

Theentrance to Montpelier, once the home of Jamesand Dolley Madison, is marked by two ivy-covered pillars. An eagle, wings outstretched,perches atop each pillar. This first Saturday in November, Mary MinorHaristeen"Harry"drove through the elegant, understated entrance asshe had done for thirty-four years. Her parents had brought her to Montpelier's 2,700 acres in the first year of her life,and she had not missed a race meet since. Like Thanksgiving, her birthday,Christmas, and Easter, the steeplechase races held at the Madisons' estate fourmiles west of Orange, Virginia, marked herlife. A touchstone.

As sherolled past the pillars, she glanced at the eagles but gave them littlethought. The eagle is a raptor, a bird of prey, capturing its victims in sharptalons, swooping out of the air with deadly accuracy. Nature divides intovictor and victim. Human-kind attempts to soften such clarity. It's not thathumans don't recognize that there are victors and victims in life but that theyprefer to cast their experiences in such terms as good or evil, not feaster andfeast. However she chose to look at it, Harry would remember this crisp, azureday, and what would return to her mind would be the eagles . . . how she haddriven past those sentinels so many times yet missed their significance.

One thingwas for sureneither she nor any of the fifteen thousand spectators would everforget this particular Montpelier meet.

Mrs.Miranda Hogendobber, Harry's older friend and partner at work, rode with her inHarry's battered pickup truck, of slightly younger vintage than Mrs. Hogendobber'sancient Ford Falcon. Since Harry had promised Arthur Tetrick, the racedirector, that she'd be a fence judge, she needed to arrive early.

Theypassed through the gates, clambering onto the bridge arching over the SouthernRailroad tracks and through the spate of hardwoods, thence emerging onto theemerald expanse of the racecourse circling the 100-acre center field. Brush andtimber jumps dotted the track bound by white rails that determined the width ofthe difficult course. On her right, raised above the road, was the dirt flattrack, which the late Mrs. Marion duPont Scott had built in 1929 to exerciseher Thoroughbreds. Currently rented, the track remained in use and, along withthe estate, had passed to the National Historic Trust upon Mrs. Scott's deathin the fall of 1983.

Straightahead through more pillared gates loomed Montpelier itself, a peach-coloredhouse shining like a chunk of soft sunrise that had fallen from the heavens tolodge in the foothills of the Southwest Range of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Harry thought to herself that Montpelier, builtwhile Americalabored under the punitive taxes of King George III, was a kind ofsunrise, a peep over the horizon of a new political force, a nation made up ofpeople from everywhere united by a vision of democracy. That the vision haddarkened or become distorted didn't lessen the glory of its birth, and Harry,not an especially political person, believed passionately that Americans had tohold on to the concepts of their forefathers and foremothers.