Wish You Were Here by Rita Mae Brown Read Free Book Online Page A

“I’ll have Officer Cooper drive you home.”
    â€œI can drive.”
    â€œNo, you can’t. For once you’ll do as I say.”
    BoomBoom didn’t argue. She felt shakier than she wanted to admit. In fact, she’d never felt so terrible in her life. She loved Kelly, in her vague fashion, and he loved her in return.
    Rick glanced up to see how the body removal was progressing. It wasn’t easy. Even Clai Cordle, stomach of iron, was green around the gills.
    Rick opened the door, blocking BoomBoom’s view. “Clai, Diana, hold up a minute, will you? Officer Cooper’s going to run BoomBoom home.”
    â€œOkay.” Diana suspended her labors.
    â€œOfficer Cooper.”
    â€œYo,” Cynthia called out, then opened the door.
    â€œCarry BoomBoom home, will you?”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œFind anything in there?”
    Marie followed behind Officer Cooper. “Everything’s filed and cross-filed, first alphabetically and then under subject matter. I did it myself.”
    As BoomBoom and Officer Cooper left, Rick went into the small, clean office with Marie.
    â€œHe believed in ‘a place for everything and everything in its place,’ ” Marie whimpered.
    Rick scanned the top of Kelly’s desk. A silver-framed portrait of BoomBoom was on the right-hand corner. A Lamy pen, very bulky, was placed on a neat diagonal over Xeroxed papers.
    Rick leaned over, careful not to touch anything, and read the top sheet.
    My Whig principles have been strengthened by the Mexican War. It broke out just as I was preparing to depart for Europe; my trunks were actually ready; that and the Oregon question, made me unpack them. Now my son is in it. Some pecuniary interest is at stake, the political horizon is clouded and I am forced to wait until all this ends. Since I have had my surfeit of war, I am for peace; but at this time I am still more so. Peace, peace rises at the top of all my thoughts and the feeling makes me twice a Whig. As soon as things are settled I cross the Atlantic. I might do it now, of course, but I do not wish to go for only a few months and my stay might now be curtailed by events.
    Very respectfully, Y’r most obed’t.
    C . CROZET
    â€œI don’t recall Kelly being interested in history.”
    Marie shrugged. “Me neither, but he’d get these whims, you know.”
    Rick put his thumb under the heavy belt again, taking some of the weight off his shoulder and waist. “Crozet was an engineer. Maybe he wrote about paving or something. Built all our turnpikes, you know. Route 240, too, if I remember Miss Grindle’s teachings in fourth grade.”
    â€œWhat a witch.” Marie had had Miss Grindle too.
    â€œNever had any disciplinary problems at Crozet Elementary when Miss Grindle was there.”
    â€œFrom the War Between the States until the Korean War.” Marie half giggled, then caught herself. “How can I laugh at a time like this?”
    â€œNeed to. Your emotions will be a roller coaster for a while.”
    Tears welled up in Marie’s eyes. “You’ll catch him, won’t you? Whoever did this?”
    â€œI’m gonna try, Marie. I’m gonna try.”

4
    â€œAre you sure you want to do this?” Susan peered into Harry’s face.
    â€œYou know I have to.”
    Not paying her condolences to BoomBoom would have been a breach of manners so flagrant it would be held against Harry forever. Not actively held against her, mind, just remembered, a black mark against her name in the book. Even if she had more good marks than bad, and she hoped that she did, it didn’t pay to play social percentages in Crozet.
    It wasn’t just facing the jolt of a shocking death that caught Harry; it was having to face the entire social spectrum. Since asking Fair to leave, Harry had kept pretty much to herself. Of course, Fair would be at the Craycrofts’. Even if his big truck was