The Class Menagerie

school,' Mimi said, obviously surprised at Kathy being so on-target. 'Not only in competition, but thinking she was winning every round and constantly talking about her imagined victories. She had better clothes than anybody, a better hairdresser, better grades — except for Beth, of course — and far better breeding.'

'All those Adamses she was always shooting off her mouth about,' Kathy said, reaching over and polishing off Jane's drink.

Mimi smiled. 'I remember. She was always trying to knock us out with the fact that she was related to John Adams and we couldn't have caren't less. Now, if she'd been related to Mick Jagger—'

'Lila?' Kathy laughed.

Mimi went on, 'Naturally, Beth drove her wild. Beth was not only genuinely better at everything, but she was gracious about it and Lila coudn't stand it. They both decided to run for president of the Ewe Lambs our senior year and when Beth found out, she withdrew, saying she didn't like to compete with a friend. Lila, of course, thought she was being patronized and Beth really meant she didn't want to embarrass her by beating her. Which was probably

true. It infuriated Lila. She was such a fool.'

'Is that why she was niggling at Beth about that Supreme Court thing last night?' Jane asked.

'That and general nastiness,' Mimi said. 'She was really a very bitter, unhappy person. God knows ___ She had every advantage you'd think anybody could want. Yes, she probably still felt she was in competition with Beth and as it looked like Beth was way in front, she had to drag her back. I'd like to meet the person who could really find out anything bad about Beth. It's just not possible.'

'Oh, I don't know. She probably has some skeleton in her closet. Everybody does, ' Kathy said.

'You're just saying that because she's a judge and you're a rebel,' Mimi said with a smile.

'Yeah, sure I am—' Kathy sat up and looked straight at Jane. 'I've been meanong to mention to you that you did a nice job of cleaning up my room. Even the contents of my purse are neat and tidy.'

10

'I didn't want all of you to know how I'd failed,' Kathy was weeping noisily five minutes later.

Mimi sat on the arm of Kathy's chair, patting her shoulder and making sympathetic noises. 'You're hardly a failure, Kathy. We all grow up and change. There's nothing shameful about that. In fact, it's a good thing we don't have to stay what we were as teenagers all our lives.'

'But most of you changed for the better. All I accomplished was to just marry a man who invented a gadget that made us rich. Beth's a big-deal judge, probably going to end up on the Supreme Court someday, for God's sake! Crispy got pretty and stylish and funny. You're gorgeous and happy with yourself.'

'I don't mean to be catty, but there is Pooky,' Mimi said with a smile she obviously hoped would help diffuse Kathy's emotions.

'Pooky!' Kathy snorted. 'She's too stupid to walk and chew gum at the same time. Nobody'd expect anything of her. Why, even that strung-out loser Avalon's got a mob of foster kids, with handicaps yet, and she's kept her looks, too, dammit. It's not fair. All I've got is thirty extra pounds, a seven-bedroom house, and four spoiled brats. My oldest son has his own Ferrari. Hell! I should have made something of myself. Of my kids. Of the world. I wanted to, I really did. I had the brains and the drive and the ideals. And then Harold patented that damned computer hardware thing—'

'What kind of computer thing?' Jane asked..

Kathy wailed. 'I don't even know! A chip conductor or a floppy cable or something stupid! At first I tried to talk him into giving the money away. There was so damned much of it. Set up an environmental trust, I said. Make your name live in history. Like Edison, but with a social conscience. But he told me we had to think of the kids and he was right. I could see the justice in that. So he told me if I'd invest for them for five years, then he wouldn't object if I gave the rest away. And so I learned all about the stock market—'

'And you were good at it?' Jane guessed. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Beth had come inside and was standing quietly by the doors to the patio. Hector was still with her, but when he spotted Jane, he made a Decline for her lap. He landed with a solid thud. Jane obligingly scratched the top of his head.

'Good at it?' Kathy said, 'I'm a goddamned wizard! I couldn't lose money if I tried. I don't invest in South Africa though!' She looked around at them defiantly.

'No, of course not,' Mimi murmured, smiling over Kathy's head at Jane.

'— and pretty soon the five years had become six and I couldn't stop. I can't even blame Harold. It wasn't his fault. It was my own! I got greedy! I sold out! And I'm nothing now but your average rich bitch. I've turned into my mother!' Her voice rose to nearly a shriek.

'You're hardly average, Kathy,' Beth said from where she'd been listening at the French doors. She

came in and sat down, but kept a safe distance, probably for fear of being cried on. 'You don't know this, but you and I have a friend in common who's kept me up on you. He tells me that you know more about the pharmaceutical industry than anybody he's ever heard of. He says Barton's and the Wall Street Journal consult with you before they comment on medical matters.'

'You knew all along?' Kathy said, smirking a little at the compliment and sniffling revoltingly into a tissue that Mimi had handed her.

'I'm afraid so.'

'So did Crispy,' Jane said softly. 'At least she knew you were rich.'

'What did she do, help you search my room?' Kathy asked nastily.

'I wasn't searching your room. I explained that to you.' No point in adding that Crispy had, indeed, gone through her billfold. It wasn't relevant. 'She knew because of your hands.'

'My hands?' Kathy looked at them as if they didn't belong to her. 'So damned near everybody knew. Beth, Crispy, Lila—'

'Lila knew?' Mimi asked.

'Oh, sure. That snoopy bitch knew everything. She used to be married to a private detective, she said. She bragged about how she was able to find out practically anything about anybody. Give me that cat!'

Hector allowed himself to be transferred and hugged fiercely.

'She told you this here?' Jane asked.

'Yes, yesterday afternoon,' Kathy said, petting Hector in a manner that almost qualified as mauling. Hector brbrmeowed happily. 'She was leading up to a little ever-so-ladylike blackmail. Her with her frumpy clothes and her DAR membership.'

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Jane leaned forward. 'What did you tell her?'

Kathy looked genuinely surprised at the question. 'I told her to fuck off. What do you think? I'm not stupid about what I do with my money.'

'— and?' Jane prodded.

'And she backed off. But it was temporary. She minced about how embarrassing it would be for everybody to know my real life and how she'd just let me think about it a while and she was certain I'd see the sense in giving her a little help over a rough spot.' Kathy had lapsed into imitating Lila's precise, slightly Boston accent with chilling accuracy.

'And then somebody killed the bitch,' Kathy added in her own voice. 'And I'm glad!'

'Kathy, that's a reckless thing to say,' Beth warned her.

'It's the truth. And we're having a goddamned sloppy moment of truth here, aren't we? Well — shit! The charade's over. I'm going to take a shower and get out of these dumb clothes.'

She dislodged Hector, got up, and stomped off, nearly upsetting Mimi, who was still perched on the arm of the chair. Hector ambled over to the French doors and went back outside.

Beth, Mimi, and Jane looked at each other for a long moment before Beth said softly, 'Oh, dear.'

Mimi and Jane started giggling from sheer nerves.

But they stopped abruptly when Pooky came into the room, still looking confused and lost. 'I'm sorry to interrupt you,' she said.

'You're not,' Beth said. 'What's wrong?'

'Well, I hate to say this, but my room's been ransacked and something's missing,' she cast a half-apologetic glance at Jane.