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THERE WAS a blinking light on e was fro by Donnie Greenhouse’s, you need to do that I took by a chicken casserole thisto take a fruit salad of some kind, and Mark Russell fro a broccoli casserole But no one’s made a dessert I know her mother’s church will take a lot of stuff, but if you could make a pie, that would mean that the realtors had provided a full meal Okay?"
"Make pie," I wrote on my notepad (Despite the fact that I was not a realtor, and I supposed Eileen or Idella kne to make a pie--probably Mackie, too, for that e "I’ll see you tonight at yourvibrate in , kind of like developing rabies, I figured Though they had shots now for that, didn’t they? I wished I could take a shot and be over this thing with Martin Bartell Aubrey was sexy, too, and a lot safer; perhaps, despite my doubts, our relationship was viable With an effort, I dish the freezer to see if I had enough pecans for pecan pie
Not enough pecans Not enough coconut for German chocolate pie (Yes, pie I never make the cake) Not any cream cheese for cheesecake I turned my search to the cabinets Ha! There was a can of pumpkin that must have come out of Jane’s cupboard I would make a pumpkin pie I took offback h, I set to work After I cleaned up and ate urt and fruit--the pie was ready to go to Donnie Greenhouse’s
Tonia Lee and Donnie’s nized Franklin Farrell’s Lincoln parked right in front, and several h I a cars Franklin Farrell’s was the only powder blue Lincoln in Lawrenceton, and had been the subject of ht it
Donnie Greenhouse was right inside the door He looked white and stunned and yet somehow--exalted He tookthe pie, and pressed it with both of his
"You are so kind to couest book"
Donnie had been handsome when Tonia Lee had married him seventeen years before I remembered when they’d eloped; it had been the talk of the town, the high-school-graduation- night elopement that had been "so rooddah school football coach Tonia Lee seemed to have worn Donnie thin He’d been a husky football player when they’d married; noas bony and looked undernourished in every way Tonia Lee’s horrible death had given Donnie a stature he’d lacked for a long tiet my hand back, murmur the correct words of condolence, and escape to put the pie in the kitchen, which was already full of more homemade food than Donnie had eaten in the past sixto bet
The cramped little kitchen, which had probably been ideal for Tonia Lee, a minimalist cook, was full of Tonia’s e ladies in polyester dresses I looked in vain for Mrs Purdy herself and asked a couple of the ladies, who suggested I try the bathrooh the crowd to the hall bathrooh, the door was open and Helen Purdy was seated on the (closed) toilet, dissolved in tears, with a couple of ladies co her
"Mrs Purdy?" I said tentatively
"Oh, come in, Roe," said the stouter of the two attendants, whonized as Lillian Schmidt, my former co-worker at the library "Helen has cried so hard she’s gotten herself pretty sick, so just in case, we careat I made my face stick to its sympathetic lines and nervously approached Helen Purdy
"You saw her," Helen said pitifully, her plain face soggy with grief "How did she look, Aurora?"
A vision of Tonia Lee’s obscenely bare bosoh my head "She looked very"--I paused for inspiration--"peaceful" The bulging eyes of the dead woain "At rest," I said, and nodded emphatically to Helen Purdy
"I hope she went to Jesus," wailed Helen, and began crying again
"I hope so, too," I whispered fro the wave of doubt that washed unbidden through my mind
"She never could find peace on earth, maybe she can find it in heaven"
Then Helen just seemed to faint, and I backed hastily out of the little bathroom so Lillian and her companion could work over her
I saw one of the local doctor’s nurses in the family room and told her quietly that Helen had collapsed She hurried to the bathroo that I’d done the best I could, I looked around for someone to talk to I couldn’t leave yet--I hadn’t been there quite long enough, my inner social clock told ray hair over the heads crowding the room, and "excuse me’d" over to him Franklin, a spectacularly tan and handso to Lawrenceton thirty or arden," Franklin said as I reached his side, giving every appearance of great pleasure "I’h I’m sorry it’s here, on such a sad occasion"
"I’rimly I told him about Helen
He shook his handsome head "She has always been wrapped up in Tonia Lee," he said "Tonia Lee was Helen’s only child, you know"
"And Donnie’s only wife"
He looked taken aback "Well, yes, but as we all know " Here he realized that bringing up Tonia Lee’s infidelities would hardly be proper
"I know"
"I brought a fruit salad with Jezebel sauce," he said, to change the subject Franklin was one of the few singlethat he cooked for himself and did it well His home was also definitely decorated, and beautifully so Despite his flair for interior design, and his penchant for cooking so other than barbecue, no one had ever accused Franklin of being effeht in the vicinity of his house
"I brought a pu ape It was hard to picture Donnie and Helen Purdy appreciating marinated mushrooms
"Terry doesn’t always have a solid sense of occasion," Franklin said, enjoying my expression
Franklin and Terry Sternholtz were certainly the odd pair of the Lawrenceton realty community Franklin was sophisticated, s about hienial And here Terry cath red hair permed and tossed into fashionable disarray Terry Sternholtz said just about anything that entered her head, and since she ell-read, an arinned atsed by the crowd Terry had freckles and an open, all-A at a picture of Tonia Lee that hung over the fireplace It had been taken at one of those instant-glaraphy places that dot suburban malls Tonia was elaborately made-up, her hair sexily tousled and softer than her nor across her neck, and her dark eyes were s it over her fireplace where she could view it constantly meant Tonia Lee had been very pleased with it
"She was quite a woaze "Couldn’t sell real estate worth a da to be e but appropriate epitaph for the uided and horribly dead Tonia Lee Greenhouse, nee Purdy
"You go out running every evening right after work, don’t you?" I asked hi or below freezing," Franklin said agreeably "Why?"
"So you uess so Yes, it hasn’t rained this week, so I ht "So often I see the same people who exercise at the same ti or not I don’t always, because I vary my route There are two I like, and I pretty much alternate them Mackie seems to pick his at random I remember it was Wednesday when I saw Terry and Eileen; they walk together ratulatedhis bike, that new ten-speedI’m sorry, Roe, I just can’t remember about Mackie specifically How co by the police
"I can’t believe they’re so sure another car wasn’t there!" Franklin looked very skeptical "Someone must have shut their eyes for a minute or two, either the woman across the street or the couple behind the Anderton house And it seee to ed But I thought of what the killer had had to do--move Tonia Lee’s car to the rear of Greenhouse Realty, then get home on foot If the killer’s car had been at the house, too, he’d either have had to go all the way back to the Anderton house fro his own car hoet Tonia Lee’s It seemed almost certain so of the killer as "he" because of Tonia Lee’s nudity
Terry Sternholtz returned while I was still thinking it through
"You look awful gri the occasion "
"Sure, sure It’s terrible what happened to Tonia Lee All us feht, Eileen?" Eileen had just appeared at Terry’s elbow, looking especially is
"I’lad we took that self-defense course," Eileen said
"When was this?" I asked
"Oh, a year ago, I guess We drove into Atlanta to take it And we practice the uess, if Tonia let herself be tied up like that, she wouldn’t have had a chance anyway" Terry shook her head
Franklin looked startled Hefact Even worse, Donnie Greenhouse was standing very close, with his back to us, talking to a woray-blue But Donnie didn’t turn around, so apparently he hadn’t heard Terry She, too, had spotted Donnie and was affe Eileen gave her the reproving look you give a close friend, the one that says, "You blockhead, you did it again, but I love you anyway"
Eileen and Terry were apparently closer than I’d realized