Everyone was subdued and feeling awkward in the presence of the others. Miss Winstead looked downright haggard and was the first to bring the subject out in the open. 'What a perfectly horrible way to die,' she said.
When no one else replied, she continued, 'I had a long, highly unpleasant relationship with the man, but I wouldn't have wished this on anyone.'
“It was a shame,' Arnie contributed.
Geneva Jackson, who had come this morning now that her sister was comfortably settled back in her own home, murmured a vague agreement with Arnie.
“We're all under suspicion, you realize,' Ursula said bluntly. 'The police will pick one of us at random to persecute and perhaps even prosecute.”
A bleak silence fell over the room and it grew darker by the coincidence of a storm front moving in front of the sun just as she spoke. Nobody bothered to turn on the lights.
“I think we should all just go home,' Charles Jones said. 'There's no point in finishing our tour or the class.”
Shelley spoke up. 'I disagree. Jane and I would welcome you to see our yards and give us the benefit of all your experience. We've been looking forward to you coming. And nothing will bring Dr. Eastman back. His death was a tragedy, of course, but none of us are quitters, I hope.”
Remarkably, they were all so cowed by the situation and Shelley's remarks that they went along with what she said.
Charles Jones grudgingly agreed. 'We'll have to make them short visits and put this all behind us.'
“Not entirely put the experience out of our minds,' Ursula said rather sensibly given her normally extreme views. 'No matter what else happens, I for one have learned a great deal of useful information from the rest of you. And I agree that the last two gardens deserve to be seen.”
It was turning into a bleak day, with the sky darkening and death discovered yesterday. Jane would have been perfectly content if they didn't come to see her yard, except for the fact that she'd called Mel late the night before and told him about the conversation she and Shelley had with Arnie and how he was willing to tell what little he'd observed, but only if he could meet Mel privately at Jane's house.
But secretly she was in agreement more with Charles Jones than with Shelley. A fine twist of fate. She'd rather go home and spend a day that threatened to become rainy and dark in her cozy, safe bedroom mindlessly watching her television than have all these people to her house.
She still wasn't entirely convinced, in spite of the coincidences, that the attack on Dr. Jackson and the murder of Dr. Eastman had been committed by one of the class. She recognized it was a possibility, but so were a lot of other scenarios that nobody but Mel was aware of.
But she couldn't betray Shelley's wishes and opt out. 'Let's go to my house first and Shelley's after mine. Her yard is nicer than mine,' she said as Shelley was jingling her car keys meaningfully.
The rest of them dragged themselves out of their chairs and followed Shelley and Jane to the parking lot. Everyone but Jane had driven their own cars, in anticipation, probably, of being free to bolt when they wished to.
When they all reassembled at Jane's house, she did her best to be cheerful and welcoming. She'd noticed Mel's little red MG parked up the street where he was waiting to tactfully pluck Arnie out of the crowd and have a talk with him. She doubted that Arnie's information would be helpful, but was in too deeply to back out.
Nobody had much to say about Jane's yard, although they all tried to be polite about her clearly recently imported plants around the patio in tubs. Ursula asked about the nice little rocks that covered Willard's damage to the yard. 'It's an odd but appealing curve from one side of the yard to the other, but what are you planning to do next?' she asked with abnormal social grace.
“I thought I'd line both sides of the path with some low-growing ground cover,' Jane improvised. 'Can you suggest something suitable?'
“Let me think about it. I'll give some starts of several of my ground covers you could try out. It's a little late in the season to start them, but you might as well give it a try.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mel signaling to Arnie, who moved unobtrusively and unwillingly toward him.
Miss Winstead caught Jane's attention and said, 'I envy the view of the field behind your house. It's rare to find a big open area like that in a well-developed suburb.”
This gave Jane the chance to explain how it had happened to be there. 'It was the last block of houses in this division that were planned. The developer got in trouble with the financing of the building project, and for some reason nobody knows, a multitude of lawsuits have dragged out for years, preventing anyone else coming and building. The homeowners' society has taken over temporary responsibility for keeping it attractive. Part of our dues are spent on mowing it early in the spring and scattering wildflower seeds on it.'
“What an excellent solution,' Miss Winstead said.
“Over the last five years or so the wildflower plants seem to have finally beat out the weeds. Otherwise it would really be a blight,' Jane agreed. She was blathering along on autopilot. 'Frankly, I hope the lawsuits drag out for the rest of my life. I'd hate to lose this view. And my cats enjoy the field enormously. They'd be heartbroken if houses went up back there, and so would I.”
Geneva had joined them and had been listening. She said, 'Someone ought to write an article about this. It might be very encouraging to other communities that have open land that's left to be a blight.”
Miss Winstead had been considering the view with head slightly tilted and eyes half-shut. 'Jane, you know what would make this even better? If you replace that fence across the back of your yard with something rustic. A simple split-rail fence would fit in better with the wildness and beauty of the field.”
As they left Jane's yard for Shelley's, Arnie slipped back into the group. Nobody seemed to notice he'd been missing. Jane was dying to speak to Mel, but didn't dare disappear.
Shelley had gotten their girls to cooperate with her plans. An enormous pitcher of iced tea and a plate of tiny iced cakes were sitting out, lightly covered with plastic wrap. Colorful plates and glasses were ranged around her patio table.
“You just did this to show me up,' Jane hissed.
“I did it to misdirect their attention from my store-bought garden,' Shelley replied in a whisper.
No one was fooled. It was obvious to the real gardeners that Jane and Shelley's 'gardens' had recently been trucked in. 'You should keep these things,' Ursula said, 'instead of sending them back to the nursery.'
“How did you know?' Jane asked with a laugh.
“They're too perfect and they're all in brand-new pots. But that's okay. You might learn some things by caring for them.”
The group made serious inroads on the tea and cakes, until there was a flash of lightning and distant thunder. Threatening weather gave the guests a legitimate reason to flee.
“I've enjoyed meeting all of you,' Shelley said hurriedly as everyone headed for their cars. This didn't seem an appropriate way to end a class, everyone running for cover and probably hoping they'd never meet again.
“That wasn't too bad,' Jane said when they were all gone. 'At least we showed that we cared about our yards enough to make an effort to spruce them up.'
“They knew we cheated,' Shelley said bluntly. 'We should have done what Stefan did — let them see it in the raw and make suggestions.”
When Jane went back to her house, she was surprised to see Mel still sitting at her kitchen table, eating a ham sandwich. 'Sorry, but I've missed lunch for three days in a row. Hope you don't mind that I raided your refrigerator.'
“Not in the least,' Jane said, sitting down next to him. 'Was Arnold Waring helpful?”
Mel shook his head. 'Not at all. It was all so vague. He wasn't sure of the color, make, or age of the car he claims he saw in front of Dr. Jackson's house.'
“Claims?'
“My instinct tells me he made it up,' Mel said. 'He's a lonely old man, wanting to look helpful and cooperative, I think. We'd already questioned everyone else on the block about strange vehicles or unfamiliar people on the street during the early morning of the attack on Dr. Jackson. Nobody could think of anything unusual.'
“Maybe they were all just busy with their own lives and didn't notice,' Jane said. It was a feeble excuse, but she felt honor-bound to make it.
