The Merchant of Menace

Fourteen

Two of the older ladies on the block were at the door, looking rather alarmed by Jane's excessively enthusiastic welcome. Jane saw Mel pulling into the driveway to deliver his mother. Jane ushered in the two neighbors and took their coats and cookie boxes and heard Shelley, in the kitchen, introducing Addie VanDyne to Thelma Jeffry. Wonder what they'll make of each other, Jane thought. Mincemeat, most likely.

Mel left without even coming in the house. Jane hurriedly set more cookies out on trays and waited at the front door for the next guests. A clump of ladies all converged at the same time. One of them was Sharon Wilhite. Jane was eager to get her aside and question her about Lance King, but not in front of the mob of cookie-bearing neighbors.

The party showed every sign of being a grand success. The dining room table was laden with trays of cookies — everybody's most elaborate recipes. Spritz cookies with fancy shapes and Christmas colors, date-roll cookies, tiny iced nutmeg logs, gingersnaps, rum balls — a cornucopia of sugary delights. The house smelled of pine boughs and hot cinnamon cider and the rich scent of the Godiva coffee Jane practically had to take a loan out to purchase.

It put last night's disastrous party out of Jane's mind. This was a good neighborhood party, a celebration of the holidays without a threat in their midst. Unless, of course, one of these women had hoisted herself up the ladder — no, she wouldn't let herself think about that right now.

Tiffany Johnson arrived by herself, clad in an ill-fitting red organdy-over-taffeta frock that was obviously expensive and totally inappropriate. Jane went out of her way to make Tiffany welcome, although the woman obviously hadn't clued in that she was seriously overdressed for the occasion. She'd brought along exquisite puff pastries with a dusting of powdered sugar, which surprised Jane. She'd expected Tiffany to turn up with something heavy, filling, and distinctly 'down home' instead of something so fine and delicate.

Shelley strolled into the dining room, looking over her shoulder at Tiffany. 'I don't get it, Jane.'

“Don't get what?'

“The Johnsons. That's a very pricey dress Tiffany's wearing. Awfully mother-of-the-bride-ish, but good quality. Where do they get the money? How do they afford the rent on their house? Do they do something for a living?'

“I have no idea,' Jane said. 'The only thing I can figure is that they inherited a wad from some distant relative.'

“Or maybe Billy Joe sold out a highly successful hog-butchering factory,' Shelley said. 'They aren't as ignorant as you'd think,' Jane said. 'I meant to tell you about this. I went over to invite Tiffany to the parties and Billy Joe was working away at a computer.'

“Probably just playing a game.'

“No, I don't think so. I caught a glimpse of the room before Tiffany hastily closed the door. There were shelves of books and computer manuals.'

“Jane, when you're past this entertaining binge, we have to try to find out more about them. You can't entirely overlook the fact that Lance was killed at their house. Could just be a random roof he chose, or it could be more.'

“You mean Lance knew about them?'

“Possibly. He was even nosier than we are.'

“But Shelley, that doesn't make sense. If he were setting up a 'spy station' to spy on them, he'd have been on someone else's roof, wouldn't he?'

“Let me think that over,' Shelley said as the doorbell rang.

Another group arrived together and the noise level went up significantly. Of course, they were having to compete with Billy Joe Johnson's Christmas music which was once again blasting the neighborhood. Jane was strolling through the living room, greeting friends and feeling smug when a relative silence fell over the room. Everybody was gazing at the doorway to the kitchen, where Sam Dwyer stood, looking very awkward.

“You must be Sam Dwyer. How nice that you could join us,' Jane said. 'Ladies, this is Sam Dwyer. Pet's dad. You'll all have to introduce yourselves.”

The noise level gradually climbed again as Jane took the box Sam had brought along. 'Oh, what lovely fudge,' she said. It was a huge improvement on the fudge Pet had brought the day before.

“Thank you,' Sam said quietly. 'Where should I put it?'

“Come along to the dining room,' Jane said, leading the way and handing him one of the brightly colored plastic serving trays. While he moved the squares of fudge onto the tray, she studied him. She'd never gotten a close look at him before, just a general impression from down the block. He was better-looking than she would have guessed from a distance. His hair was too short to be stylish and his glasses were a bit on the Buddy Holly side, but his features were strong and handsome. He wore a charcoal gray tweed jacket with suede elbow patches, a light gray shirt and tie, and black dress slacks. Very well turned out for a computer nerd.

“I appreciate all you've done for Pet,' he said, setting the last piece of fudge in place.

“I haven't done anything for her. Except enjoy her. She's a nice little girl. A credit to you.'

“You're more important to her than you know. She's shy around most people, but feels comfortable coming to your house and beingfriends with your son. She told me you even let them use your computer.”

Jane was surprised at the compliments. 'They both know more about computers than I do. I don't worry that they'll wreck it as much as I worry that I will.'

“Well, I still want to thank you for making her feel that your house is sort of a second home. We don't have family here and it's pretty lonely for her at home sometimes. I'm her only companion there and my work takes a lot of my time and concentration. She really enjoys your family. She's always telling me about how busy and interesting everybody in the Jeffry family

“Listen, Sam, any man who is able and willing to do tidy French braids is a fine dad.”

He laughed. 'I keep hoping she'll get interested in doing them herself!”

Thelma came into the dining room just then. She gave them an appraising look and said, 'Jane, is there anything I can do to help?”

Jane introduced Thelma to Sam and said, 'No, I think everything's under control. There are two more people I believe are coming. We'll give them another five minutes before turning everybody loose on the cookie distribution.”

Thelma gave Sam another close look. She appeared to be faintly disapproving of his presence as an invited guest, but since she was faintly disapproving of most things Jane did, this wasn't surprising.

“You live here on the block, Mr. Dwyer?' Thelma asked.

“Yes, in the blue house down the street and across. My daughter Pet is a friend of Todd's.”

He was smiling slightly and Jane suspected that he knew Thelma was dying to grill him about his presence among the women on the block. 'I think maybe I should meet some more of my neighbors,' he said.

When he'd left the room, Thelma said, 'What is he doing here? I didn't think men were invited.'

“He's a single, stay-at-home parent, Thelma. A widower. He hasn't been very sociable until now. I think it's nice that he came.'

“I suppose it is, but it's certainly odd. What's this I hear about Lance King?' she asked with an abrupt shift. 'I heard some of your other guests talking about his death. I didn't have time to read the paper this morning and didn't know.'

“He fell off the roof next door and died,' Jane said bluntly.

“But someone said he'd just been here. In your house.'

“Unlike Sam Dwyer, Lance King was not here at my invitation, Thelma.'

“What was he doing on the neighbors' roof?'

“Snooping, apparently. Scouting for a place for setting up a camera or listening device possibly.'

“Dreadful man!' Thelma said. 'Not that one wishes dreadful people to die, of course. Still, he was a terrible person. Always going after people who couldn't defend themselves against him. I lived in fear—' She stopped.

“That he'd go after the family pharmacies?'

“No, of course not.' She paused. 'Well, yes. Not that we had anything to really fear, but he seemed to just make things up, just to stir the pot.'