The Tail of the Tip-Off Read Online Free Page A

resisting H.H. in his car.
    â€œReally, Little Mim shouldn't be out in this. The roads will only get worse.”
    â€œBlair took his four-wheel-drive, honeybun. He'll get her home safe and sound.”
    Big Mim said nothing but headed to the Bentley, her husband in tow. She'd have a word with her daughter tomorrow.
    Fair rejoined Harry and BoomBoom, an interesting moment since one was his ex-wife and the other his ex-lover. Life in a small town is filled with such moments and everyone either adjusts to them or gets out. If you got in a huff and declared yourself not on speaking terms, you'd soon wind up with no one to talk to and that would never do. People had to accommodate the messiness of life.
    â€œLadies, can I take you both out for a drink?”
    â€œNo, thanks, I want to get home before the roads get worse. Mim's right and I know I sound like a wuss, but I hate it when it gets like this.” Harry bowed out.
    â€œMe, too,” BoomBoom agreed.
    Fair, disappointed because he'd wanted to see Harry, said, “Next game. Rain check or rather, sleet check.” He laughed.
    Harry thought a moment. “Why not?”
    BoomBoom replied. “Yes, I think it would be—fun.”
    BoomBoom's affair with Fair Haristeen had occurred during his separation from Harry, or so she declared. It provoked Harry to file for the divorce. Fair, then in his early thirties, had been going through a crisis. Whether it was midlife, masculinity, or whatever, it was a crisis and it cost him his marriage, something he deeply regretted. BoomBoom, not one to take relationships with men seriously, tired of the tall, blond, handsome vet soon enough. Her conventional beauty and flirtatiousness always brought her another man, or men, which was perhaps why she didn't take relationships seriously. Oh, she always wanted to be on the arm of either a handsome man or a rich one, preferably both, but she never thought of men as much more than a means to an end; that end being comfort, luxury, and hopefully pleasure.
    As she matured into her late thirties, she was starting to rethink this position.
    Harry, on the other hand, had given her heart and soul to Fair. When the relationship unraveled she was devastated. It took her years to recover, although on the surface she seemed okay. Naturally, Fair's apology and desire to win her back helped this process but she was in no hurry to return to him. She was wondering if maybe BoomBoom didn't have the right attitude about men: use them before they use you. Yet it wasn't really in Harry's nature to be that way about people, and at the bottom of it she didn't differentiate between men and women. People were people and morals didn't come in neatly wrapped gender packages. Living an upright life was difficult for anybody. Once she realized that she did forgive Fair, she wasn't sure she could ever be in love with him again.
    She rather hoped she would fall in love again, if not with Fair then with somebody, but somehow it didn't seem so important as it once was. Losing Fair turned out to be one of the best things that had ever happened to her. She was forced to fall back on her own internal resources, to question conventional wisdom.
    As each party repaired to their vehicle, Miranda and Tracy Raz emerged from the gym. Tracy, freshly showered after the game, had his arm tightly wrapped around his treasure, Miranda.
    Harry waved to them. “See you tomorrow.”
    Seeing Miranda happy made her happy. She now knew that's what love really was, joy in another person's existence.
    She certainly took joy in Mrs. Murphy, Pewter, and Tucker, who greeted her as she opened the door to the 1978 Ford truck.
    â€œSome game, huh, Mom?”
Tucker wagged her nonexistent tail.
    â€œWe heard the word ‘asshole' quite a lot,”
Pewter giggled; she'd had the giggles all day.
    â€œ'Cause Fred Forrest is one.”
Mrs. Murphy pronounced judgment.
“Karma.”
    â€œYou ate a communion wafer