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So Arthur came to my apartht another detective with hiett was a homicide detective, and she was as tall as Arthur, which ht then I was confused at the label apparently addressed by nant that so unhealthy, but I was sure that with poisons being so hard to obtain, whatever was in the candy would prove to be soht have caused us to have a few bad hours, but simply couldn&039;t have killed Mother or , and Lynn Liggett asked us questions And more questions I could see the lapel pin on Mother&039;s jacket heave When Detective Liggett bagged the candy and carried it out to Arthur&039;s car, Mother said to me in a furious whisper, "She acts like we are people who don&039;t live decent lives!"

"She doesn&039;t know us, Mother," I said soothingly, though to tell the truth I was a little peeved with Detective Liggett myself Questions like, "Have you recently finished a relationship that left soarden, how long have you known Mr Crusoe?" had not left a good taste in my mouth either I&039;d never before been able to understand why good citizens didn&039;t cooperate with the police - after all, they had their job to do, they didn&039;t know you personally, to theht? Now I could understand Jack Burns looking at , an isolated incident ett, roure in this, soed ett was obliged to ask us these questions and I was bound to answer them And still I resented it

Maybe it wouldn&039;t have bothered ett hadn&039;t been a woman Not that I didn&039;t think women should be detectives I certainly did think woht reat detectives - you should see so down an overdue book, and I&039;ett seeShe looked down at me and found randiven Detective Liggett problems, she automatically assumed I felt superior to her as a woman, since I was so short and therefore more "feminine" Since she couldn&039;t coured she&039;d be tougher,frontier woman as opposed to me, the namby-pamby useless stay-back-in-the-effete-east toy wo, and she couldn&039;t pull that bull on me I was tempted to burst into tears, pull out a lace handkerchief - if I had possessed such a useless thing - and say, "Ar-thur! Little ole me is just so scared!" Because I could see that this had little to do with ht down to the nitty-gritty, Holary Detective Sett saw it, Detective S time to spell out what I sensed in a ett, because I would have liked to be her friend and listen to her stories about her job I hoped she was a more subtle detective than she was a woh I knew, Mother knew, and I believe Arthur knew, that they were a waste of tih his presence was not absolutely necessary once he&039;d told his siarden in the grocery, and asked her if I could come over here to relax a little since my place is such a mess When the candy came, she seemed quite surprised, yes I also saw the hole in the bottoarden held it up No, I didn&039;t know either Roe or Mrs Teagarden until the last two days I arden briefly when I went by her real estate office to rendezvous with the lady as going to show me the apartment next door, and I didn&039;t ht" "And you&039;ve been here since when?" Arthur asked quietly He was standing in the kitchen talking to Robin, while Detective Liggett questioned Mother and me as we sat on the couch and she crouched on the love seat "Oh, I&039;ve been here about an hour and a half," Robin said with a slight edge Arthur&039;s voice had had absolutely no overtone whatsoever (Liggett was not quite that good) but I had the distinct feeling that everyone here was following his or her own agenda, except possibly my mother She was certainly no dummy when a sexual eleavesmiles of approval, which I could have done without since Detective Liggett seemed to intercept it and interpret it as some kind of reflection on her

My mother rose and swept up her purse and terhter is fine and I aine that my former husband sent this candy or ever intended to hurt either of us," she said decisively "He adores Aurora, and he and I have a civil relationship Our little faine our little Christone unre about it We&039;ll be interested to hear, of course, when you all find out what is actually in the candy - if anything Maybe the holes in the bottom are just to alar, and I have to be getting back to the office" I stood up too, and Lynn Liggett felt forced to walk to the door with us

My ot into her car first, while Arthur and Lynn conferred together on the patio Robin was clearly undecided about what he should do Arthur throwing out his e, in however subdued a way, had struck Robin by surprise, and he was squinting thoughtfully atwhat he&039;d gotten into, and if thisto be as much fun as he&039;d anticipated

I was abruptly sick of all of the success because I was a boring person, but possibly it had been because I had linal reading My friend Amina Day loved all this stuff and was practically a professional at it I missed Amina suddenly and desperately

"Coested, having reached soreed "I covered for another librarian when she took her kid to the orthodontist last week, so I don&039;t have to go in Monday until two o&039;clock"

"Are you familiar with the university caton Hall, the English building I&039;ll be finishing up a writer&039;s workshop at 11:45 on the third floor in Room 36 We&039;ll just leave from there, if that suits you"

"That&039;ll be fine See you then"

"If you needready forinside and I turned to get it as Robin sauntered outa casual hand to the two detectives An excited male voice asked for Arthur, and I called hiett had recovered her cool, and when I called, "Arthur! Phone!" her mouth only twitched a little Oops, silly me Should have said Detective Smith

I watered arded ile, and I felt s have you been on the force here?" I asked

"About three years I caot proett and I would have become bosom buddies in a few more minutes, but Arthur ca in every step

"The purse has been found," he said to his co-worker

"No shit! Where?"

"Stuffed under the front seat of a car"

Well, say which one! I alnantly But Arthur didn&039;t, of course, and he and his confrere were out the gate with nary a word for ett, she was too involved in her work to look back at me in triumph

To keepan old wooden two-drawer chest that I&039;d had infor just such a moment After I wrestled it down the stairs and out onto the patio, the sanding turned out to be just the thing I needed Naturally I thought about the candy incident, and wondered if the police had called ine what he&039;d think of all this As I scrubbed , I had a new thought, one I should have had before Did sending the candy to Mother i through all , so this incident wasn&039;t patterned after one of the better-known er personal collection than I, so I called her and told her what had happened "That rings a faint bell it&039;s an American murder, I think," Jane said interestedly "Isn&039;t this bizarre, Roe? That such things could happen in Lawrenceton? To us? Because I really begin to think this is happening to us, to the members of our little club Did you hear that Mamie&039;s purse has been found under the seat in Melanie Clark&039;s car?"

"Melanie! Oh, I can&039;t believe it!"

"The policethat seriously, but Roe, you and I know that&039;s ridiculous I mean, Melanie Clark It&039;s a plant" "Huh?"

"A clubused to divert suspicion"

"You think whoever killed Mamie took her purse and deliberately planted it under Melanie&039;s car seat," I said slowly

"Oh, yes" I could picture Jane standing in her tiny house full of heraory death "But Melanie and Gerald Clark could have had so," I protested weakly "Melanie could really have done it"

"Aurora, you know she&039;s absolutely head over heels about Bankston Waites The little house she rents is just down the street froreat deal" Jane tactfully didn&039;t specify whether that included overnight

"Her car is here a lot too," I admitted

"So," Jane said persuasively, "I a is another old murder case revisited, and maybe the police will find the poison in another club member&039;s kitchen!"

"Maybe," I said slowly "Then none of us are safe"

"No," Jane said "Not really"

"Who could have it in for us that bad?"

"My dear, I haven&039;t the slightest But you can bet I&039;ll be thinking about it, and I&039;ht thisup withspecial to do that night, as hts had tended to run the past couple of years Right after I ate e of pizza and salad, I remembered my resolution to call Amina in Houston Miraculously, she was in Aht in twelve years, and she was going out later, she said ier orked late on Saturday "How is Houston?" I asked wistfully