The Tail of the Tip-Off

by Rita Mae Brown

  Aunt Tally from time to time would look backward and observe. She kept a keen interest in anything that might involve sex.

  Big Mim, on the other hand, focused on romance.

  Tally told her she should know better.

  Harry kept her noisemaker in her pocket. Matthew, jovial as ever, handed out drinks, blew his noisemaker. The boys struck the cowbell.

  Susan Tucker sat next to Matthew. Harry told her what she thought about Matthew, and Susan believed her. As for sitting next to the man her best friend decided was a killer, Susan shrugged. Why would he kill her? She didn’t think she had anything he would want if in fact Harry was right.

  Fred Forrest scowled behind them all.

  The game, tight, turned into a nail-biter.

  At one point, Harry looked up at the scoreboard and wondered if she shouldn’t have used it. Maybe put a message on it to scare Matthew, but then she’d probably scare everyone else, too.

  In the last two minutes of the game, Mandy Hall, Virginia’s center, blocked a shot under the basket and Isabelle Otey stole the ball right out of the North Carolina State forward’s hands. Isabelle streaked down the center of the court to soar up for an easy layup. That was the game.

  Harry turned around just as Isabelle scored and she hit Matthew with a pea. His hand slapped his cheek but he didn’t see that Harry was the perpetrator so she fired off another. He saw her this time. She smiled.

  He smiled back.

  After the game the fans piled out. Fred Forrest hurried down the steps to the court where he upbraided Tracy for a call he felt was wrong.

  Harry, full of herself, blasted Fred with a pea. He turned around and she shot another one which bounced off his head.

  “You stop that, Harry.”

  “Fred, you’re a crab.” She pocketed her noisemaker.

  While Fred’s attention was on Harry, Tracy adroitly slipped away and was halfway to the locker room before Fred had turned back to lambaste him.

  Harry walked out to the parking lot, waving to everyone. She retrieved her pets and returned to the Clam, making certain Matthew saw her.

  She returned to the basketball arena as the last stragglers filed out. She sat in her seat firing peas at H.H.’s seat.

  Pewter couldn’t resist leaping up to bat away the peas.

  Mrs. Murphy, vigilant, watched the doors as did Tucker, who kept sniffing, overwhelmed by fresh odors. There were still too many people around and too much noise.

  Sure enough, as the tail end of the fans walked out BoomBoom walked back in.

  “BoomBoom, what are you doing here?”

  “Lost my gloves.” BoomBoom bounded up to her seat and found her trampled black gloves. She joined Harry.

  Harry explained her theory.

  Tucker barked, “Someone’s here.”

  Fred Forrest, lurking in the top shadows, came down from the upper levels. “Explain that to me, Harry.”

  Both BoomBoom and Harry regarded Fred with suspicion, but Harry willingly explained her theory and demonstrated.

  “And who have you told this theory to, Harry?” His voice was shaky.

  “Anyone who would listen.”

  “I’m behind him,” Tucker told the girls.

  “We’ll stay in front. Do you think he has a gun?” Mrs. Murphy asked her canine friend.

  “I don’t know.”

  “You really think Matthew killed H.H.?” Fred’s eyebrows darted upward.

  “Do you?” BoomBoom flippantly asked.

  “If I did, I wouldn’t tell you or anybody. How do I know he wouldn’t kill me?”

  The doors swung open on the court level and Matthew sauntered back in.

  “Ask him.” Harry reached in her blazer pocket, filling her hand with peas. She did not withdraw her hand.

  “What are you all doing here?” Matthew, wreathed in smiles, walked over.

  “Damn,” Mrs. Murphy hissed. “Mother did this without telling Rick or Cooper.”

  “I’ll watch Matthew.” Pewter moved toward the large man.

  “We were talking about you,” Harry brazenly said. “Fred won’t tell us why you killed H.H.”

  “Fred, what’s the matter with you?” Matthew didn’t change his expression.

  “I don’t give a damn about H.H.,” Fred snarled. “Whatever happened to him, he deserved, but Mychelle—that’s another matter. I’d like to hear your answer, Matthew.”

  “What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.” Matthew moved closer but not within striking range.

  Harry wondered if she could knock him over. His heavy coat might slow him down. If he was armed it wouldn’t matter.

  BoomBoom played dumb. “Where’s Sandy and the kids?”

  “On their way to Duner’s for a late supper.”

  “Are you on foot?” Harry noted the exit doors.

  “We’re a two-car family.” He smiled, then turned his focus back on Fred. “What kind of bullshit are you peddling today?”

  “Nothing. Harry has a very interesting theory about how you killed H.H. I wondered myself how he could be murdered in front of everyone but her idea makes a lot of sense.”

  “No murder weapon.” Matthew clapped his hands together as though rounding up his children.

  “Ice.” Mrs. Murphy spoke.

  “An ice dart,” Harry said as though mimicking the cat.

  “What are you doing here?” BoomBoom asked.

  “I could ask you the same thing.” Matthew became less upbeat. “I’m here to inspect that hairline crack up there. I’ll send a man over Monday morning.”

  “They’re on to you, Matthew.” Fred smiled maliciously.

  “Ah, but are they on to you?” Matthew shrugged as though this were of no crucial concern to him.

  “Shut your mouth.” Fred took a step down the stairs.

  Harry elbowed BoomBoom and threw the peas hard in Matthew’s face. The two women hopped over the seats, streaked across the basketball court, and slammed open the doors onto the circular hall.

  The cats and dog followed, scooting out behind the humans.

  “You take BoomBoom, I’ll take Harry,” Matthew ordered Fred as the men ran after them, slipping on the dried peas.

  “Stairwell!” Tucker barked.

  Harry turned when Tucker barked, “BoomBoom, here!”

  The women and animals hurried down the stairwell just as Matthew and Fred entered the circular hall.

  Matthew hesitated for a moment, then ran to the stairwell door, opening it just as the door on the lower level closed with a click and thud. “Here.”

  He and Fred clumped down the stairwell.

  Both men knew the Clam inside and out. They knew that Harry and BoomBoom, while not as familiar with the structure, knew it well enough to know where the doors to the outside were located. They had to cut off those doors.

  Once on the bottom level, Matthew motioned for Fred to move left. He would move right.

  “Try every door,” Fred barked.

  Harry and BoomBoom ran for the outside door but heard Fred’s running footsteps.

  “Shit! He’s closer than we are,” Harry said.

  “Hide. We’ll attack them.” Mrs. Murphy nosed at office doors.

  Now they plainly heard running footsteps from both directions.

  BoomBoom tried the handle on the equipment room door. Luckily, it was open. They slipped in. The lights were off.

  Harry flattened against the wall to one side of the door.

  BoomBoom did the same against the other side so that when the door opened into the dark room, they’d have a chance to be undetected. If Matthew or Fred stepped inside, the women could slip by him or knock him down.

  The cats could see much better.

  “On the shelf!” Mrs. Murphy lost no time in leaping up, then climbing to where the light switch was located. She crouched just behind the switch.

  “Tucker, do your duty,” Pewter, now next to Murphy although her climb was less graceful, exclaimed. />
  All five creatures held their collective breath. The footsteps drew closer.

  Murphy whispered to Pewter, “We’re not alone in here.” She stretched out her paw toward the back of the cavernous room.

  “You’re right,” the gray cat whispered back. A human figure could be seen, barely, in the back but stealthily moving closer.

  “We can’t warn Tucker. We’ll make too much noise,” Murphy whispered.

  But the corgi’s keen hearing and even keener nose picked up the sound and the scent. She prayed she could handle whatever happened next, and she prayed that Harry’s quick wits and courage would spring them from this fix. The dog had confidence in her human and knew Harry had confidence in her.

  The footsteps outside stopped next door. The lacrosse room door opened then closed as did the door on the other side of the equipment room. Matthew and Fred had met in front of the equipment room.

  Matthew made no attempt to be quiet. No reason, he wasn’t the hunted. “They’re in here.”

  “Guess we’ll find them with the soccer balls,” Fred replied.

  The door opened, a shaft of light falling across the floor.

  Matthew reached for the light switch which was located where the shelves were but the space was left clear, naturally.

  Mrs. Murphy bit down hard.

  “Jesus Christ!” Matthew yelled as those sharp fangs sank all the way into the fleshy part of his palm.

  Fred instinctively took a step back and whoever was in the room hurtled past the two shocked women, blocking Matthew so hard the heavy man was picked up off his feet. He hit the floor hard.

  Tucker followed after and savaged Fred’s ankle.

  The unidentified blocker swept past Fred, knocking him flat, then raced down the hall toward the stairwell door. Tucker glimpsed him from the rear, a man, but Tucker had bigger fish to fry. She jumped on Fred’s chest and while Tucker was not a big dog Fred was unprepared for this new assault. The corgi bared her fangs, lunging straight for his throat.

  He threw his forearm up, instinctively, to protect his jugular.

  “Die!” Tucker savagely growled.

  Harry, the shaft of light sliding by her face from the opened door, yelled to BoomBoom, “It’s now or never!”

  Without replying, BoomBoom sprinted beside Harry out of the equipment room and into the hall. The cats bit into Matthew extra hard for good measure, then tore after the two women.

  “We should have taken out his eyes!” Mrs. Murphy fretted as they ran for the stairwell door which seemed so very far away.

  “Not enough time,” Pewter replied.

  Matthew, blood dripping from his right hand, reached into his jacket, pulling out a handgun. He stepped over Fred who had rolled on his side struggling to get up.

  Tucker, hurrying after her friends, glanced over her shoulder. “Gun!”

  “Run!” Murphy flew down the corridor with its curving smooth walls, no right angles giving them a place to hide. Their only hope was to run for their lives and pray Matthew was a bad shot, pray Murphy’s bite had hurt his gun hand.

  He took a few steps, aimed at BoomBoom, the taller of the two women, and fired. The bullet whizzed past her right shoulder.

  “Drop and roll if you have to!” Harry called over to her as BoomBoom matched Harry stride for stride.

  Instead of dropping, BoomBoom swerved toward the wall where there was a fire alarm box. She paused, smashing the glass on the fire alarm. When Matthew fired at her, she dropped. The bullet smashed into the wall above the alarm, then she stood up and grabbed the tiny hammer again, blasting the alarm to life for all she was worth. Then she dropped and rolled as another bullet smashed near her, concrete powder spraying over her and the floor.

  Harry reached the stairwell door. The clanging as she pushed on the long bar echoed down the hall. She held it open for BoomBoom and her animals.

  They raced up the stairs to the main level, the door closing behind them. The alarm seemed even louder there.

  “Boom, good move!”

  “Brave move.” Tucker heard footsteps, then the door opened to the stairway below them. Matthew and Fred would be up the stairs in seconds.

  Harry flattened herself against the wall on the side of the door she knew would open. If she and BoomBoom tried to hold the door closed, Matthew would fire through it. Harry also knew they couldn’t reach the exterior door in time to save themselves. Even if they did, they’d be easy targets in the vast parking lot. They’d have to fight.

  BoomBoom flattened herself against the wall on the hinge side of the door.

  “Turn back!” Murphy shouted to Pewter, who, being far faster than any human, skidded toward the exterior door. As Pewter skidded, her hind end sliding behind her, the stairwell door opened with tremendous force and Matthew, never dreaming the women would fight, stepped through, his arm outstretched, hand bleeding, gun ready to fire.

  BoomBoom, no fool, knew what Harry intended. As Harry, hands folded together, brought down her arms onto Matthew’s forearm with all her might, the gun clattered across the floor. Drops of blood splattered, too, for the deep cat bite had done damage.

  Tucker swiftly picked up the warm gun in her mouth.

  BoomBoom stepped up behind Matthew, wrapping his neck in a painful hammerlock. He was a large, strong man but she was a tall, surprisingly strong woman. He choked, twisting and turning. His windpipe aching, he couldn’t shake her.

  Harry heard Fred, moving more slowly than Matthew, trot up the steps. She brushed behind Matthew and BoomBoom, launching herself at Fred from the top step. She hit him so hard he fell over backwards, cracking his skull loudly against the wall. A thin smear of blood stained the wall. He was out cold.

  Harry kicked him once to see if he was a danger. She realized he was probably concussed.

  The cats joined BoomBoom in subduing Matthew, who bent over in an attempt to toss her over his head.

  Pewter sank her fangs into his left calf while Murphy attacked his right one. He bellowed in pain and frustration.

  Tucker, gun in her mouth, flew past the struggling pair down the first flight of stairs to Harry.

  Harry turned to run back up the stairs to help BoomBoom when Tucker reached her.

  “Thank God!” She bent over to take the gun from the intrepid dog.

  Then she bounded up, two steps at a time.

  The fire alarm seemed inside her head but her mind remained clear.

  “Matthew, stop.” She hurried in front of him now, about three paces away. “Or I’ll give you the third eye of prophecy.”

  BoomBoom did not relax her grip until he stopped struggling.

  “Harry, you’ve got it all wrong. It was Fred. I just kind of got roped in,” Matthew choked out.

  “He’s a liar, Mom, be careful.” Murphy stopped biting his calf.

  “Yeah.” Pewter did likewise as Tucker circled around in front of Matthew in case he did something stupid.

  “You girls know me. We work together on the St. Luke’s Parish Guild. You know I’d never kill anyone.” He took a step toward Harry.

  “Matthew, don’t move.”

  “Ah, come on, Harry.”

  BoomBoom, breathing hard, stepped up behind him ready to grab his arm.

  “Boom, move away,” Harry told her.

  The tall blonde stepped to the side.

  “You’re not a violent person, Harry. I know you.” He smiled.

  The three animals never took their eyes off Matthew.

  “I am as violent as I have to be, Matthew.” Harry prayed the fire department, the sheriff, anybody would answer the alarm. As if in reply, she heard two sirens in the distance.

  Matthew heard them, too. “You know me. You know I’d never hurt anybody. It’s all Fred. He ran away. Isn’t that proof enough?”