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An hour after I’d gotten hoain I’d huddled wrapped in an afghan, with Madeleine the cat purring in my lap (an effective tranquilizer), while I watched CNN to feed s for a while I was in my favorite brown suede-y chair with a diet drink beside etting cat hairs all over the afghan and my lovely new dress; I’d had to resist the iot ho, costu iven away the last kitten, and the scar still showed through her shorter tummy hair She had quickly adjusted to the switch frory at not being let outside

"A litter box will just have to do until I find a house with a yard," I told her, and she glared at h to think I pushed the OFF button on the remote control

I was horrified at what had happened to Tonia Lee, and I was trying very hard not to picture her as I’d last seen her It was far more typical of Tonia Lee to re our last conversation--her hair e iron, her long oval nails perfectly polished by theto frame an impolite query politely, her dissatisfied faceinformation from me I was sorry she’d had such a dreadful end, but I’d never liked the little I knew of Tonia Lee Greenhouse

Over and above being tangentially connected to her nasty death, I had a personal situation on oing to happen--between me and Martin Bartell?

I should call Ah she lived in Houston now, it would be worth the long-distance daytime call I peered at the calendar across the room by the telephone in the kitchen area Today was Thursday The wedding had been five weeks ago Yes, they should have gotten back froo, and Ao back to work until Monday

But if I called A

So as this feeling? Love at first sight? This didn’t seem to be centered around my heart, but somewhere considerably lower

And a--that it was , I was seriously in danger of being swept away by so I couldn’t control

Oh--sure I could! I slapped htly on one cheek All I had to do was never see Martin Bartell again

That would be the honorable thing I was dating Aubrey Scott, a fine man and a handsome one, and I should count myself lucky

Which introduced a drearily faht

Where wasfor severals Of course, someone had told Aubrey about my involvement in the Real Murders deaths--due toold otten killed--and we’d talked about it a little But on the whole, other people see

We found each other attractive, ere both Christians (though I was certainly not a very good one), neither of us drank lass of wine, and we both liked reading and popcorn and going to thekissed by him We were fond of each other and respected each other

But I would be a terrible minister’s wife, inwardly if not outwardly He ht for me even if he was a--well, a librarian But I hated to do anything fast and drastic Aubrey deserved better than that My het-up feelings for Martin Bartell ht disappear as suddenly as they’d appeared And at least half of s would vanish There was so terribly exciting, the other half adh ht?" Aubrey was so concerned it hurt uess my mother called you"

"She did, yes She was very upset about poor Mrs Greenhouse, and worried about you"

Maybe that wasn’t exactly what Mother had been feeling, but Aubrey put the nicest interpretation on everything Though he was certainly not naive

"I’"

"I hope the police can catch whoever did this, and do it fast," Aubrey said, "if there’s so on lone woo into this real estate business?"

"No, actually I’m not sure," I said "But not because of Tonia Lee Greenhouse My mother has to carry a calculator all the time, Aubrey"

"Oh?" he said cautiously

"She has to know all about the current interest rate, and she has to be able to figure out what someone’s house payment will be if he can sell his house for X amount so he can put that down on the next house, which costs twenty thousand dollars more than the house he has "

"You didn’t realize that was involved in house-selling?" Aubrey was trying hard to sound neutral

"Yes, I did," I said, trying equally hard not to snap "But I was thinkinginto people’s houses and just looking" And that was the long and short of it

"But you don’t like the nuts and bolts part," Aubrey proure out if I was nosy, childish, or just plain weird

"So e

"You have tiht?" My being co to any coht arise from the townhouse tenants in Mother’s cole women worked full- time, and for somebody other than their mothers

"Sure" He was not the only one who found the concept of a wo

"Did your ht to you?" Oh, dauess we could tell her we had already made other plans"

But Aubrey sounded wistful He loved the food Mother’s caterer served "Caterer" was a fancy terood living "cooking for people who are too lazy," as she put it Lucinda also got extraa "character," a factor of which she was fully aware

Oh, this was going to be awful And yet, o"

"Okay, honey I’ll pick you up about six-thirty"

"I’ll see you then," I said absently

"Bye"

I said good-bye and hung up My hand stayed on the receiver

Honey? Aubrey had never calledwas happening with Aubreyorsenti?

Suddenly I saw Tonia Lee Greenhouse as she had been in that huge bed I saw the elegant e color of Tonia Lee’s body against the white sheets, the red of the dress folded so peculiarly at the foot of the bed I wondered where Tonia Lee’s shoes were--under the bed?

And speaking of e of my mind so insistently thatthings Or so at least not included in ht tables

There it was The night tables My mental camera zoomed in on their surfaces I picked up the phone and punched in seven familiar numbers "Select Realty," said Patty Cloud’s On-the-Ball voice

"Patty, this is Roe Let me speak to my mother if she’s handy, please"

"Sure, Roe," said Patty in her Warm Personal voice "She’s on another line--wait, she’s off Here you go"

"Aida Queensland," said ave me a jolt

"When you first listed the Anderton house," I said without prea in the bedroom with Mandy"

"Okay, I’ht tables"

A few seconds of silence

"Oh," she said slowly "Oh, I see what you ht away The vases areroom, too There was a crystal boith crystal fruit in there that cost a fortune"

"I’ll call her right away"

We hung up at the same moment

It had been years since I was at the Anderton house, but I still remembered how impressed I’d been that instead of tissues or bed lamps, Mandy’s parents had Chinese vases on their bedside tables In her chared about how much those vases had cost But she had never liked theone, I didn’t for an instant think she’d had theeles She would have left thehher parents’ house would not want to steal vases, right?

I dunant Madeleine fro at thestaring out atin my outdoor chairs and table and store the weekend, when the phone rang I reached out to the kitchen wall extension

"It’sthis afternoon for everyone on the staff, two o’clock You’re going to need to come, too"

"Did the police question Mackie?"

"They took him to the police station"

"Oh, no"

"It turns out Detective Liggett--I mean Detective Smith--was already here when I was on the phone with you I’m sure this all happened as a result of what I told Jack Burns, about Mackie taking Tonia Lee the key I was only thinking of Mackie having possibly seen as at the house with Tonia Lee It didn’t occur to ht pick up Mackie as a suspect"

"Do you think it’s because he’s--?"

"Oh, I’d hate to think that I hope our police force is not like that But you know, being black one to bed with Mackie She didn’t like blacks at all"

"Theypause while Mother digested this "You know, somehow it didn’twell, I can’t say why And I only looked for a second But it didn’t look like a rape, did it?"

I paused in turn Tonia completely undressed, the sheets pulled back as if two people had actually gotten in the bed togetherMother was right, it looked like a seduction scene, not a hasty rape, even though the leather thongs ht had been consensual kinky sex Butin Tonia Lee’s known reputation for infidelity When I suggested this to Mother, she agreed

"Anyway, I’m sure Mackie is not involved," she said staunchly "I like him a lot, he’s a hard worker, and for the year he’s been here, he’s been totally honest and aboveboard Besides he is too s up, I wondered about that Why had the Anderton house key been put back on the hook so mysteriously? That key had enabled us to enter and find the body

I thought a nu questions depended on the answer to that riddle

The office

I ate an apple and a left-over chicken breast while flipping through Jane Engle’s copy of The Murderers’ Who’s Who I read the entries for some of my favorite cases and wondered if an updated edition would include our local murderous duo whose dreadful but brief career had made national headlines; or perhaps our only other claiht rate an entry, the disappearance of an entire family from a house outside of Lawrenceton That had been--what?--five or six years ago

My familiarity with old murder cases was my mother’s despair Now, since the disbandment of the Real Murders club, I had no one to share it with I sighed over spilt lu For one thing, I had to brush all the cat hairs off ray and blue carpeting and walls, peaceful prints, and comfortable chairs, exuded calm and profitable efficiency That was Mother’s essence, and she and the office designer had captured it when they renovated the building Mother had insisted on a conference roo for Mother had to attend thisShe’d planned to expand, and the rooh for the whole staff

I saith interest that one of John Queensland’s daughters-in-law had been brought in to answer the phones and takeI knew htly, and as I nodded to Melinda Queensland, I tried to figure out what my relationship to her was Stepsister-in-law? It looked toto be a stepaunt in a few es and I wasn’t going to ask

Melinda was sitting at Patty Cloud’s desk, which of course was not only orderly but also decorated with a tidy plant and a picture in an expensive fra, Debbie Lincoln, had a desk at right angles to it, in effect for the start of the corridor down to the conference room and Idella’s and Mackie’s offices In the square created by talls and the desks, firmly screwed to the wall behind Patty, was the key board, a large pegboard striped with labeled hooks The more popular letters of the alphabet claimed two or even three hooks A person of even the feeblest intelligence could figure out the syste similar

I snapped out offorstrained as I stared at the wall behind her I gave her a brisk nod and started down the hall to the conference room I was in time to sit at Mother’s left, a chair left vacant deliberately for me, I presumed All the realtors expected me to inherit this business from Mother, and saw my presence in the office this week as the first step insecond-in- command

This was far from true I had quit retted it more than I ever would have believed possible (Of course, even regretting it mildly was more than I ever would have believed possible)

Idella Yates, a frail-looking fair woman in her mid-thirties, divorced with two children, slid into the chair at the end of the table and put a briefcase on the table in front of her as if building a barrier between herself and the roorass Eileen Norris bustled in, carrying a large stack of papers and looking abstracted Eileen was Mother’s second-in-coone out on her own Eileen was big, brassy, loud, and cheerful on the surface; underneath, she was a barracuda Patty Cloud, the receptionist/secretary, groomed to a tee, had perched her bottom dead in the center of the chair next to Idella’s Patty, as maybe all of twenty-four, baffled and irritatedperfect, and she had damned near succeeded She was always helpful on the phone, always turned out high-quality work, never forgot anything, and never, never ca fru for her realtor’s license She would probably pass at the top of her group

Patty’s underling, Debbie Lincoln, was a rather diured black with hair expensively corn-rowed and decorated with beads Debbie was quiet, punctual, and could type very well

Other than that, I knew little about her At thequietly by Patty with her eyes on her hands, not chatting back and forth like the others