“That’s exactly what I mean about women, son. They think of all kinds of things at that precise moment because they want to create a diversion.” His father shoved a log into the wood stove and sparks flew up in protest. “Your mummy knew exactly what she was doing when she brought up the cat.”
Since then, Bedford Crimm not only hated cats, but he also carried a pain in his heart and was deeply insecure because his mummy had committed interruptus during his conception, thus spilling much of his vitality on the quilt. She could not possibly have loved her quickening son much, Bedford mused unhappily as he picked at a poached egg he could scarcely see and groped for the pepper mill and continued to tune out his wife, who was having a stressful conversation with Pony about people who have been struck by lightning. Crimm believed he had put his unfair childhood behind him when he had become powerful in politics, and now Trooper Truth had brought it all back.
A miasma of paranoia and anger leaked through Crimm like a noxious gas, and his submarine went into alert. Somehow Trooper Truth knew the truth about the mighty governor’s shameful start in life and the last thing Crimm needed was for others to find out. Oh, of course Trooper Truth knew! He knew everything. Why else would he have mentioned mummies in his essay?
“This is an outrage!” He slammed his fist down on the table and a silver candlestick toppled over into the butter dish.
The breakfast room froze in silence.
After a moment, a startled Maude Crimm said to him, “My goodness! It’s a good thing that candle wasn’t lit, dear, or the butter might have caught on fire. Real butter is animal fat and will burn just as easily as lighter fluid.”
“Not quite as easy as that, ma’am,” Pony voiced his opinion. “But don’t want to take no chances.” He picked up the candlestick and wiped it off with the napkin draped over his arm. “Don’t want no fires in the mansion. This place would go up in flames quick as a dried-out broom, old as it is.”
“Here we are talking about lightning and people’s homes and clothing burning up, and then a candlestick lands in the butter,” the First Lady said in a hushed, ominous tone. “I hope that’s not a sign.”
“Emmm emm.” Pony shook his head and clucked his tongue. “I sure do hope you’re right. Don’t need no sign like that.”
“What sign?” the governor came to and instantly thought of VASCAR and the signs Major Trader intended to post throughout the Commonwealth. “Get Trader on the phone,” Crimm ordered Pony. “Tell him I want a briefing immediately on how things are going on Tangier Island. We should have that speed trap painted by now. And ask Trooper Macovich if he’s figured out who Trooper Truth is yet. I’m going to find that scoundrel and silence him before he does any more damage! I don’t give a hootenanny about the First Amendment!”
He pounded the table again, and Pony caught the candlestick just in time.
T.T. had not caught on to anything just in time, and Unique was certain T.T. had been more than dead by the time Unique had walked back across the footbridge last night and eventually driven off in her Miata. Even so, Unique felt a strong urge to check things out. Her memory of what had transpired after she and T.T. had gotten to the island was patchy and vague, but based on the amount of blood on her clothing she saw when she finally returned to her shabby downtown apartment, Unique had a pretty good idea of what she had done to that presumptuous, ugly woman who had been so bold as to think Unique would be interested in her or was her type at all.
She parked near Belle Island and set off in tennis shoes, carrying a Polaroid camera for what would appear to be a brisk morning nature walk. In the light of day, the island looked very different, and it took Unique a good twenty minutes to find the brick ruins where she apparently had dragged T.T.’s nude body, although Unique had no recollection of having done anything after she slashed the young woman’s throat from ear to ear. Unique’s pulse picked up and she felt a surge of power, excitement, and sexual arousal as she stood just inside crumbled brick walls and stared at the mutilated, bloody body lying face up in the mud.