Shelley shrugged and honked at an inoffensive man trying to cut in on her traffic lane. 'I don't know. Maybe he reminds me of somebody, or maybe it's just instinct.'
“You think he's the murderer?'
“I think it's possible. Or at least not impossible.'
“Then here's the rest of what Sharlene said. She mentioned that he'd referred to the incident again yesterday afternoon when he came to the museum to pick up something.'
“He was at the Snellen yesterday? When Derek was killed?'
“Good God, Shelley! Keep your eyes on the road! We don't know when Derek was killed, but if it was yesterday, your favorite suspect is still a suspect.'
“And he was there today when Babs was locked in the closet,' Shelley said.
“So, it appears, was everyone else,' Jane reminded her. 'What were Georgia and Caspar doing there?'
“I'm not sure. I got the impression someone had called and told Georgia about Derek and she had brought Caspar along with her to find out what was going on.'
“Was she genuinely upset, do you think?”
Shelley nodded. 'I think she was. But still careful not to cry off her mascara and eyeliner. Probably five on a scale of ten.'
“So it all could have been for show?' Jane asked. 'What about Lisa? I thought she'd gone home for the day.'
“Sharlene called her at my urging,' Shelley said. 'The director and acting director were dead, Babs was missing, and Jumper hadn't arrived yet. I figured Lisa was the logical person to represent the museum. And it didn't seem the kind of thing she should learn about on the evening news.'
“And were they all there in time to have locked Babs up?'
“Probably. I just thought Babs was in the bathroom or using the phone or something, so I didn't have any reason to pay attention to when people arrived,' Shelley said. 'There was a police officer outside the front door letting people in, but once they were inside, I don't imagine there was anyone watching just where they went. Mind if I stop at the grocery store?'
“Nope. I need to make a hit-and-run stop, too.”
Jane had a longing for chili and crackers, but that was merely a reflection of her longing for it to be fall. She dashed through the store and grabbed hamburger patties, baked beans, a head of lettuce, some chips, and — after some mental agonizing — hamburger buns. She probably had the remains of three packages of buns in various stages from fresh to mildewed beyond recognition, but if she didn't buy some, there wouldn't be any at home. She left Shelley having a conversation with a clerk about coupons that looked like it might become acrimonious.
“She finally saw it my way,' Shelley said when she was back in the car.
After Jane arrived at home, she discovered that she did indeed have an unopened bag of hamburger buns, so she put the new ones in the freezer, knowing full well they'd be freezer-burned by the next time she noticed them. She glanced at her watch. It would be a good hour before she had to start dinner. Notes on the refrigerator door indicated that Mike and Katie would both be back by five-thirty, and the sound of her big yellow dog, Willard, tearing up and down the stairs chasing a ball told her that Todd was home.
“Todd, stop letting that dog tear up the carpet!' she bellowed. 'I'm going next door.'
“Uh-oh, Willard-billiard, you're in
Shelley was on the phone and gestured silently at Jane to come in. Jane sat at Shelley's kitchen table and waited patiently while an elaborate car-pool schedule was negotiated. When Shelley got off the phone, she said, 'Someday we'll look back on car pools and laugh. Not any day soon, but someday I'll bash you with my walker and cackle, 'Jane, weren't those car pools fun?' '
“And I'll poke you in the ribs with my cane and say, 'If only we could go do some more work for the PTA.' And then the nice young nurses will come give us our meds.'
“Yes, and say what dear old things we are.”
“I'm feeling sort of old-dearish right now,' Jane said. 'Overwhelmed and confused.'
“Let's sit on the patio, where I can pretend not to hear the phone,' Shelley suggested. 'Want something to drink?'
“Anything but coffee. I'm caffeined out.' Jane wandered outdoors and sat down under the shade of Shelley's picnic-table umbrella. She slipped off her shoes and put her feet up on an empty chair.
When Shelley emerged, she had two clear, iced drinks with her. Jane took a gulp of hers and exclaimed, 'What in the world is this!'
“Black-cherry-flavored spring water,' Shelley said, taking a cautious sip. 'Hmm. I think it's better in theory than for real. It came in such pretty cans, too. Pity.'
“Shelley, tell me what we know about this business at the museum. What we really know, not what might be.'
“Not much,' Shelley admitted. 'Two people are dead, the director and the acting director. Somebody is or was looking for something in Regina's office and in the basement. Somebody locked Babs in a closet. That's about it. Oh, and somebody threatened Regina. No, come to think of it, we don't know that for sure. It could have been a joke.'
“I don't think so. We'll have to ask Mel about fingerprints on the note. If nobody but Regina and Lisa left prints on it, I think we can assume it was a threat. Nobody goes to the trouble of wearing gloves to write a note that's a joke.'
“Okay,' Jane said, 'let's assume for a minute that the same person is responsible for all of this. I'm not sure that's a legitimate assumption, but it does mean one thing. That the unknown person is intimately involved with the museum.'
“Because—?'
“Because he — or she — knew there would be an opportunity to shoot Regina for real in the midst of the fake shooting. Because he knows or thinks there's something valuable or threatening in Regina's office and in the basement. Unless he was familiar with the museum, he wouldn't even know there was a basement, much less be able to lure Derek down there.'
“Maybe Derek wasn't lured,' Shelley said, taking another sip of her drink. 'Maybe he went down for some reason of his own and caught someone who shouldn't have been there.'
“Possibly. But why would he have gone down there? The last time anybody saw him, he was stomping off with a box full of resumes to look for another job. Why would he detour to the basement?'
“The only reason I can think of is that he was meeting someone — maybe someone who said they needed to speak to him privately. Anything you say in the staff area seems to echo all over the place.”
Jane nodded. 'On the surface, this looks like it had to do with the job of director. Regina was the director and was killed; Derek was appointed acting director and he was killed. But that's the end of that chain of reasoning. Nobody else wanted the job.'
“Maybe Lisa did, despite saying otherwise,' Shelley said without much conviction.
“But she had a good job that she'd done very well. She probably could have gotten a better-paying, more prestigious job in another museum if money and prestige were what she wanted,' Jane said.
“That leaves all the people in the file the board is considering,' Shelley said. 'And presumably none of them knew enough about the museum and the people there to have pulled this off.”
They sat in discouraged silence for a few minutes before Shelley said, 'As much as it annoys you, let me go back to my favorite suspect for a minute. Suppose Whitney Abbot had made some horrible mistake with the plans, something even more horrible than leaving out bathrooms. And Regina found out—”
Jane rolled her eyes and said, 'Go on.'
“Well, if he had a reason like that to kill Regina to save his reputation, then Derek could also know about it. Didn't you say that he mentioned something to Jumper about looking through Regina's files?'
“The job-applicant files, yes. But, Shelley, do you really believe Regina would have had a file labeled 'Terrible Architectural Errors?' '
“Okay, okay. It was just a thought.'
“Shelley, I don't think it has anything to do with the job.'
“Why not?'
“Instinct? A wild guess? All these people are highly qualified, respected professionals who could have gone
