The Litter of the Law by Rita Mae Brown

Author:Rita Mae Brown [Brown, Rita Mae]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780345538574
Google: Lzlsn3y3ZlYC
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 17162347
Publisher: Bantam
Published: 2013-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Sunday afternoon, Harry and Fair, accompanied by Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker, tackled laying out all the heavy-duty extension cords, hooking them up at various places, and running them out to large water troughs in the smaller fenced pastures. The water troughs had heaters in them, and though conditions were mild, it was best to do this before heavy frosts arrived.

The largest pasture, seventy good acres, lay along the creek between Harry’s farm and Coop’s, so it didn’t need a trough.

The horses happily drank from the clear flowing mountain waters, for Harry had extended some fencing onto Coop’s side so they could easily wade around, which they enjoyed. Coop thought that was just fine. Most country people worked at accommodation. The trouble began when an outsider bought an old farm and for whatever reason felt no need to share. They seemed to think that people wanted to take advantage of them and that boundary lines were sacrosanct. Naturally, this created problems and often the newcomers found they had few friends except for other newcomers. Then something awful would happen and their neighbors would show up to help out. It usually changed their attitude. They figured out why their neighbors, whom they had usually disturbed or offended in some fashion, showed up to help. It was the country way. Most learned to be a little country themselves. A few did not and returned to where they had originated or moved on, looking for the next wondrous place. Perhaps this happened all over the country, but it happened in Virginia a lot, probably due to the state’s great beauty. People wanted to live there.

Harry thought all this as she checked her lines. If Coop couldn’t eventually buy the old Jones place and if Reverend Jones one day had to sell, she could be facing this problem.

There were problems enough for now.

She and Fair finished the day’s work, ate supper, then took a sunset walk all the way back to the vast walnut groves Susan owned on this side of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

A barred owl flew from one tree to another.

“So silent,” Harry noted.

“And such an efficient hunter,” Fair added.

“I’m just as good,” Pewter bragged from below, never one to tolerate compliments of others.

From a perch high above, the owl looked down at this groundling. “Dream on.”

“I’ll show you,” Pewter sassed, “and furthermore, you don’t come around the barn because Flatface is bigger than you.”

Flatface, the great horned owl, lived in the cupola. She was two and a half feet high. The barred owl was about a foot and a half, with a wingspan just under four feet, impressive enough on his own terms.

“Pewter, I wouldn’t start a fight with an owl, even a screech owl,” Tucker wisely admonished.

“Hoo!” the barred owl replied.

And down below, Harry, once again thinking of who could have killed Hester, thought, “Who, indeed?”

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