Hiss of Death: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery Read Online Free Page B

both laughed, for BoomBoom Craycroft never showed much interest in running. She did Pilates and that sort of exercise.
    “She just might. Poor Boom. She’ll have to wear one of those horrible compression bras or she’ll black her eyes,” Harry mused.
    “She is a well-built woman.”
    “You know a man isn’t overly bright about women if he’s talking to you and his eyes never move above your breasts.” Harry shook her head.
    “I lift his chin until his eyes meet mine,” Coop said, smiling. Harry thought a moment. “You remember Fair and I were given those three wonderful Thoroughbred mares?”
    “Do.”
    “Anyway, I did my homework, and we bred them. I love bloodline research, as you know. Three gorgeous foals. You see the two yearlings out there now. They’re at that goofy stage. But the big bay colt, six months old, was following me when I walked out to check my vines. He whinnied. I turned just as he collapsed. That fast.” She snapped her fingers. “Fair opened him up. His aorta burst. Fair said it rarely happens, but the wall of the aorta was very thin in a spot. Boom. He was such agood guy. I miss him. Actually, I miss a lot of people and animals who have gone on.”
    “Me, too.” Coop sighed.
    “I keep going back to the sight of Paula slumped over her table. I feel like I’m missing something. There was the hornet. She didn’t have her kit. Odd, she was afraid to give herself a shot.” She paused. “I just have a funny feeling, a little tinge of fear myself.”
    “People are afraid enough as it is.” Cooper finished her Coca-Cola.
    “The media sells fear daily. Terrorists. Your cholesterol. Pollution. Every syndrome they can think of, make up, or find initials for. Buy this potion or that bottle of prescription pills. It’s all commercially motivated.”
    “I think so, too.” Coop studied the carton. “Want me to help you bag these with the numbers and ID tags?”
    “Coop, that would be great. I always feel better if I’m busy. But this is your day off. I don’t want to keep you from anything.”
    “Mulching the garden. That can wait.”
    As the two gathered the tote bags with
5K Breast Cancer Awareness
printed on them, the bracelets, and the ID tags, they worked in harmony, as those close to each other do.
    “Whose idea was it to tie the ID tags on the outside of the bags so you don’t waste time writing at the check-in table?” Coop inquired. “I mean, for those who have preregistered.”
    “Mine. If someone shows up who has preregistered, we can quickly write their name on the ID tag. Doesn’t look as nice as the printed ones, but that’s okay. Anything to simplify the process.”
    “Good idea. Is Susan running?” She mentioned Harry’s friend since cradle days.
    “Whole family.”
    “That’s great. Poor Susan and Ned, though. One kid in undergraduate school, one in graduate. My God, it must cost a fortune.”
    “Brooks helps by going in-state. Danny,” Harry said, now mentioning Susan’s son, the older child and only son, “is at the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, and he worked to pay his tuition. They help with his rent. Danny is incredibly motivated.”
    “He has to be. The University of Pennsylvania isn’t cheap.”
    “No, it isn’t. It’s a great school. Susan teases him that when he’s rich he can keep her in the style to which she is unaccustomed.”
    Coop laughed. “He’ll go out in the world and be one of the fifty-three percent of Americans who pay for the forty-seven percent who pay no taxes—like you and I, who work our asses off.”
    “That fact isn’t lost on me.” Harry clipped a shiny ID tag to the outside of a tote bag. “Paula used to talk about what healthcare is going to cost. She used to bemoan it and wonder why doctors and nurses had let control of medicine slip out of their hands.”
    “Who knows?” Coop shrugged. “It’s not healthcare reform, it’s insurance reassignment.”
    “Whatever it is,