The Class Menagerie

asked. 'Did you ever remember what it was?'

'Oh, yes. As Beth was ruining my sweater with that knife. It was her self-control. Legendary, almost. Everybody, including us, kept saying how she never lost her cool in her.life. But I saw her go entirely to pieces.'

Z IU — … — -.

'The deodorant!' Edgar said, crinkling his nose in remembrance of the smell.

'Right. She was running around in the upstairs hall, practically naked, having hysterics. I'm not sure that even I would have gone that nuts. So there was a gaping hole in her legendary self- possession.'

'You think she just went berserk when she killed Lila?' Shelley asked.

'Maybe. It was a very violent act, hitting her with the paint can. And hitting Crispy with that stick.'

'What was Mrs. Morgan doing letting herself be caught alone with a killer?' Gordon asked. So far he'd been silent throughout dinner and their discussion.

'We don't know,' Shelley said. 'Maybe she just went there early to meet Jane and Beth caught up with her.'

'But it still doesn't make sense. The place had two doors. Why didn't she just run like hell?' Shelley asked.

'Possibly because she'd made the same leap I did from the fake recommendation to Bern's killing Ted to keep it secret. Crispy loved Ted,' Jane said. 'Not just a crush like the rest of the Ewe Lambs, but real love, I think. In fact, I would guess that deep down inside, she still loves him and may have cast off all those husbands for the simple reason that none of them were Ted. Imagine, all these years she's probably beaten herself up over his 'suicide.' Thinking that if she'd been a better friend, she could have seen it coming, or talked him out of it, or something. People do that when somebody they love takes his own life.'

Shelley nodded. 'And if she figured out that Beth had killed him—'

'She'd have been so furious that she might have thrown caution to the winds. Maybe she forgot or ignored the threat to herself in her eagerness to tell Beth what a vile person she was.'

'But keeping the notebook was so stupid,' Edgar said. 'Why didn't she just turn it over to the police?'

Shelley spoke up. 'My guess would be because she wanted to have the leisure to ferret out what it all meant first. It probably didn't occur to her that there was a copier right in the house. She'd only been in the library for our meeting and she sat with her back to it.'

'It still doesn't make sense,' Gordon put in. 'Why would she need to figure it out herself? The police were already working on the case.'

'I think it was partly because she honestly believed she was smarter than the police,' Jane said.

'A trait shared by a number of people,' Mel said.

Jane ignored his sarcasm. 'I think it was mainly because she was basically an extraordinarily snoopy person. She wanted to know what Lila had on people. She might or might not have ever used the information to humiliate them, but she just had to know.'

'Like my sister-in-law, Constanza,' Shelley said.

'Exactly. Mel? Do you know yet what the notes about Mimi meant?'

'Yes, that was an easy one. Her first child is institutionalized. He's severely retarded.'

'Was^Lila trying to hold that over her?'

'She might have intended to, but she never got around to it or she didn't get her facts lined up in time,' Mel said. 'She would have been unpleasantly surprised if she had. Mrs. Soong was very open about it. She said she doesn't bring it up because it upsets other people, who don't know what to say to her, but it's never been a secret.'

Edgar pushed the cream puff tray closer to Jane,

who snatched another one. Edgar asked, 'I know you and Shelley had the notes Lila had made, but how did you guess what the ones on Beth meant?'

Much as Jane was enjoying the chance to show off her cleverness, she wished they'd quit asking questions so she could apply herself seriously to the cream puffs. 'I heard Trey Moffat make a joke about bribery being a means of getting his baby into a good college.'

'I certainly wouldn't have made that leap of logic,' Edgar said.

'That's because you're not deep in the agony of getting a kid into college. Just the other day my son Mike was bemoaning the fact that he didn't have anybody important and influential to write him a recommendation and he said, as a joke, that he didn't need to know them, all he needed was some of their stationery. Both Trey Moffat and my son are highly honorable people, but even they recognize that it may 'take less than honorable means to get into a good school.

'Then I remembered a conversation with Mimi. She'd said Lila mentioned that Beth had gotten a great college recommendation letter from Judge Francisco. Mimi was surprised by that, saying that the Franciscos hadn't really approved of Beth.'

'I didn't know about a letter of recommendation. Not at the time,' Shelley said.

'No, none of you would have. Beth wasn't a brag-ger and she was very close with information about herself. She wouldn't have told any of you about the letter then, even if it had been legitimate. So, I reasoned that if Lila knew about it, she had to have found out by herself as part of her blackmail campaign preparation. Then the notes she'd made about Beth made sense.'

'I guess so,' Edgar admitted. 'But why the silly

practical jokes? Why would someone like Beth play such stupid tricks?'

'Only two of them were her doing. And they weren't jokes at all.'

Mel looked at her with surprise. They'd talked about the murder the night before, but not the practical jokes. 'What do you mean?'

'This is just a guess, mind you, but Beth was worried about that picture Avalon drew.'

'The picture she gave me?' Edgar asked uneasily.

'Avalon said she did it the night Ted died. And it was full of little secret figures. I think Beth was terrified that she was in the picture someplace. That Avalon might have seen her leaving after she started Ted's car. Avalon said she heard the car start and ran away. But what if she hadn't gone immediately? So Beth wanted to find and destroy the picture.'

'That's why she searched Avalon's room!' Shelley said. 'But why did she wait so long to do it?'

'Because she searched Pooky's room first. Remember how determined Pooky was to have the picture? I was surprised when Edgar showed it to me. I assumed Avalon had caved in and given it to Pooky. Beth probably made the same assumption. So she tore up Pooky's room looking for it.'

'And stole the antique?' Mel said doubtfully.

'Just to make it look like it was part of the spate of jokes. Keep in mind that she 'hid' it where we could hardly keep from finding it.'

'And by the time she got to Avalon's room, she was getting frantic enough not to bother,' Shelley said.

'Probably.'

Gordon got up and started stacking plates to take to the kitchen.

'And which of the Ewe Lambs did the other jokes?' Mel asked. He still looked skeptical.

'Gordon, don't take those dishes just yet,' Jane said. 'Come back. You'll find this interesting.'

'You think so?' he asked with a smile.

Jane spoke to Shelley. 'Who in your high school class was a practical joker?'

'Why — nobody that I know of.'

'You're sure? What about Gloria Kevitch?'

'Gloria who? Oh, yes. I do remember. She was always in trouble over something. How do you know her name?'

Edgar mumbled an exclamation and looked at Gordon. So did Mel.

'Is this another Ewe Lamb we're talking about?' Mel asked.

'No, she wasn't a Ewe Lamb,' Shelley said.

'She's the girl the high school yearbook was dedicated to,' Jane explained. 'Mimi said Gloria Kevitch had applied to be a Ewe Lamb but was turned down. Later on, she died in a car accident. Maybe a suicide, maybe an