CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Cait had spent her life with men, so working with Coop, as he told her to call him, seemed natural. But still, it was extraordinarily easy. They agreed on every aspect of what to do.

Their first thought was to rearrange the contents of the drawers while making a minimum amount of mess.

“Betty covered all three exam tables,” he said. “I assumed she knew what she was doing.”

“Pompous know-it-alls project that image.”

He looked at her and it was like mind reading. They knew what they had to do. “Floor or tables?”

“Floor!” Caitlyn said. “Unless you’d rather not do all that bending.”

“Try me.”

They dumped the hundreds of cards into a pile, then started twenty-six categories by the first letter of the last name of the owner.

She stood back and looked at the piles. “This does need to be put on a computer. I’d want to be able to search how many dogs were dewormed in 1991.”

“That would help us find out if they were eating something that was infected. Know any high schoolers who could do the data entry?”

“I know the principal and maybe he could give extra credit for the job.”

“Good idea,” he said. “But you set it up.”

The way he said it made her feel good.

They went back to the boring task of separating hundreds of cards.

Cooper started the conversation. “I was at the diner and I kept hearing that a woman named Vera was back in town. I didn’t pay much attention until I heard it was Vera Exton they were talking about. Did they mean the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist?”

“Yes. She’s Kelly’s sister.”

“Wow. I’m impressed. Does she come home often?”

“The only time she’s been in Mason since she left in the seventies was for her mother’s funeral.”

“Uh-oh. Is that caused by one of those small-town feuds?”

“Not at all. Kelly meets her sister somewhere in the world every year. Sometimes with the family and sometimes just her and her sister.”

“Right. You would know because of Kelly’s son.” He stopped and looked at her. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to step out of bounds. I don’t usually get involved in gossip, but I do go to the diner, and people talk. I swear, when they were talking about Vera Exton, they were extra loud. They seemed to want to make sure I heard them.”

“That’s probably true. We are proud of her.”

“So tell me what she’s like.”

“I have no idea. I’ve never met her.”

“Was your dad living in Mason when she was here?”

“Yes, but I doubt if he knew her. He’s never spoken of her. But then, Hattens and Montoyas weren’t exactly in the same social whirl.”

“But you must have heard some gossip.”

“Why all these questions?”

“I admire her work very much. Her reporting is honest and forthright, but she tells the human side of everything. She seems to be afraid of nothing. That book she wrote about Joe Harding... I shouldn’t say it, but I bawled.” He was looking at her, waiting for her to reply.