The door had opened again as she was speaking. 'You could get out of the way,' Grady said. He was propping the double doors open. Jane expected the ambulance attendants to be just behind him, but Missy, Bob Neufield, and Desiree Loftus came out next. Neufield's face was white and set in a grimace, and Desiree looked suddenly old and vulnerable. She had her hand on his arm lightly.
“Gather around,' Missy said in her best schoolteacher manner. 'Are we all here? Yes, I believe so. In spite of this tragic and terribly upsetting occurrence, I believe the class should go on. We won't, of course, reconvene tonight, but I suggest we meet tomorrow night at the usual time and go an hour extra. I have a lot of material to cover, and you've all paid good money for it. Is that satisfactory? Everyone?”
There was a faint chorus of agreement.
“Your teacher's a sensible woman,' Mel murmured to Jane.
“Very well,' Missy said. 'I suggest we all go home and try to put this out of our minds as best we can. It's not acceptable to speak ill of the dead, but Mrs. Pryce was not a valuable addition to the class, and I genuinely look forward to seeing the rest of you tomorrow.' She smiled at Jane. 'See? I don't believe in
They were all drifting away from the front doors when Jane suddenly said, 'Mrs. Pryce's maid! She ordered the poor old thing to pick her up after class. Somebody should tell her.”
? Missy sighed. 'I guess it's my responsibility. I'll run by there.'
“Do you want Jane and me to go with you?' Mel said.
“Yes, that would be nice—who
“A detective?' Missy said, alarmed.
“Off duty. Jane and I had a date after class.'
“Well, well, well,' Missy said, smiling at Jane like a fond auntie. 'How nice. I don't mean to ruin your evening, but I would appreciate it if you'd run by there with me for a minute. The maid will probably be pleased to know that her bondage is over, but who knows? I wouldn't know what to do with her if she went to pieces on me.”
As they were getting into Mel's car, the ambulance attendants were maneuvering a gurney out through the doors. The figure on it was completely covered. Jane knew she should feel sadness at Mrs. Pryce's death, but could only be sad about her life—her wasted, empty, mean-spirited life, filled only with souvenirs. Jane suddenly realized that in all the trash and treasures, there hadn't been a single picture of a person.
They rang the bell three times. Finally the maid opened the door. Although it was nearly dark, she was shading her eyes and squinting. 'Yes? Who are you? Misses, she's out.'
“I'm the teacher. Mrs. Jeffry and I were here a while ago at dinner,' Missy said. 'May we come in?'
“Yes. But misses not here.' She fished a handkerchief from her pocket and seemed slightly unbalanced by the action. She steadied herself against the doorframe for a moment, then stood aside.
They followed her into the front hall. 'I'm afraid we have bad news,' Missy said. 'Mrs. Pryce became ill during class—'
“Yes, yes. I pick her up.'
“No, you don't have to pick her up. She's been taken to the hospital—'
“Keys. Car keys. Don't know where—the lawn.
Yes. Water the lawn—storm coming,' she said, then lapsed into babbling in a foreign language.
Mel was looking a question at Missy and Jane. 'Is she crazy?' he seemed to be asking.
“—and then we go to market,' the maid said. She staggered, and Jane grabbed her to keep her from falling.
“Mel, there's something wrong. This is how Mrs. Pryce was acting—sensitive to light, raving, off balance.”
The woman was leaning against the doorframe, clutching at her chest.
“Where's the phone?' Mel demanded.
Missy tried to calm the maid down while Mel and Jane searched for a phone. When he found it, he dialed quickly, identified himself, and gave Mrs. Pryce's address. 'Send an ambulance and seal off the city hall. I think it may be a crime scene.”
He hung up and looked at Jane, who was helping Missy get the maid to sit down on a settee in the front hall. 'You sure are a fun date,' he said wryly.
8
Missy came by at ten the next morning. Jane had been up since eight but still felt blurry. It had been a late night.
“Can you stand company?' Missy said. She was looking a little haggard, too.
“Sure. Come in. Want some iced tea?'
“Only if you throw it in my face to wake me up.' 'Were you up late, too?'
“There were policemen questioning me until nearly two, then I couldn't get to sleep. Gee, it's quiet. Where is everybody else?'
“Katie's still in bed, and my mother's gone to visit an old friend in Evanston. I couldn't sleep last night either. Then when I finally dropped off, Mel called around four to let me know that the maid—her name's Maria Espinoza, by the way—is probably going to recover. They pumped her stomach right away on the assumption that it might have been something they both ate.'
“And what did they find?'
“I don't know. Mel says the pathology people say the symptoms could point to any number of poisons. But they won't know until they've done an autopsy on Mrs. Pryce and analyzed Maria's stomach contents. Ugh! Imagine doing that for a living.'
“So that's why they kept asking me about the dinner.'
“I guess so. The man who interviewed me wanted to know who'd brought what.'
“I assume they're considering it a deliberate poisoning?' Missy asked.
“I don't know what else it could be. I mean, if a poison had accidentally been in any of the dishes, more than two people would have gotten sick. We were all pretty polite about trying a little of everything. And if it had been some weird allergic reaction, it probably would have affected only one person. But it's crazy anyway.'
“What do you mean?'
“Just that she was a first-class bitch, but so are lots of people, and they don't get killed. If this was poisoning and it was deliberate, it means one of the people in the class might have done it, and that's unbelievable.'
“Unlikely, I'll grant,' Missy said. 'I think I will take you up on that tea offer, if you don't mind.'
“Okay. Let's take them outside while it's still nice. It's supposed to be in the nineties later today.”
It was already warm, but still just barely pleasant outdoors. There had been a little rain overnight, and the garden looked refreshed. Willard came out with them for a little romp in the vegetables before he got on with the doggy business of barking at birds.
“It's more than just unlikely that it was someone in class,' Jane continued as they settled themselves under the patio umbrella. She yelled at Willard, who reluctantly came back and flopped down under her chair. 'Killing somebody must be a huge thing in a person's life. If you were given to murdering peoplejust because they were annoying as hell, you'd give in to the urge early in life, wouldn't you?'
“I'm not sure I follow this,' Missy said.
“Well, forgive my frankness, but nobody in the class, including us, is exactly a spring chicken. And I think we can assume that none of us has ever killed anybody before.'
“Not to my recollection. Except maybe Bob Neufield,' Missy said, pushing her hair back out of her eyes and fishing in her purse for her sunglasses.
“Why him in particular?'
“Just because I assume from his manner that he was in the military or law enforcement or one of those immaculately ironed professions. The man has ramrod posture, and his clothes never have so much as a wrinkle. So if he were military, he might have killed someone in war. He's probably old enough to have been in Korea and Vietnam.'
“I see what you mean,' Jane said. 'Did you hear Mrs. Pryce yell something at him about serving his country?'
