The House of Seven Mabels

'So do I.' His words ended in a yawn. 'Janey, I'm falling into bed in three seconds.'

'Sleep well,' Jane said softly.

She rang up Shelley to report what Mel had told her.

'I'm glad we were there before it got out of hand,' Shelley said.

'Why are you talking funny?' Jane asked.

'I'm putting this new gunk I bought for wrinkles on my face and I don't want to get it all over the phone,' she explained.

'Did you get me some, too?'

'I did. I'll give you your bottle tomorrow.'

'Do you still want to go on with this job?' Jane asked.

'The wrinkle project? Of course.'

'No, I mean the House of Seven Mabels.' Jane realized she'd fallen into Shelley's habit of calling it that.

'I've been thinking about it,' Shelley said thoughtfully. 'I wish Bitsy would hop to it and show us the revised contract. If it's too good to pass up, which I doubt, we'd make a lot of money to spend on ourselves.'

Jane was silent for a moment. Shelley's husband made tons of money and wasn't the least bit stingy with it. So that wasn't the real reason Shelley was sticking with this idiocy. Jane wondered if Shelley truly looked forward to the whole shopping thing that much or if she was doing it for her. Jane was comfortable with her income from the pharmacies but probably could be more financially secure with a real job and more money. Was that on Shelley's mind as well?

'I guess we'll just have to see what happens next,' Jane said. 'You don't suppose Bitsy would

ever consider just giving this up and selling it back to the township to tear down?'

'I wouldn't think so,' Shelley said. 'Think of all the costs she's already paid. I think she'll hold out to the bitter end.'

'Unless—'

'Unless what?'

'I can hardly bear to say it, but if she's insured the project, she might be better off if it had burned down tonight.'

The silence now was on Shelley's end. Finally she said, 'It's possible. She's changed a lot in the years we weren't in touch with her. I bet she hasn't bought so much as a single roll of crepe paper in five years. Who knows how desperate she is to close this bad experience? It's worth thinking about. Has Mel ever mentioned the possibility?'

'Not to me,' Jane said. 'But maybe I'll suggest he give it some thought.'

Jane could hardly get to sleep that night. She tried forcing herself to think about the book she was writing and what Priscilla would do next. But her thoughts kept coming back to Bitsy. She'd never seriously suspected Bitsy until a second before she spoke the words to Shelley. If Sandra's death was an accident, which she didn't think for a moment, then what was the point of all the nasty pranks afterward?

Maybe it really did come back to Bitsy's ex-

husband. The single time she'd seen him, Jane had taken an instant and intense dislike to him. He'd been clearly gloating over Bitsy's apparent failure to get on with the job. Was it possible he had nothing to do with Sandra's death, but was responsible for the other incidents?

The house had been fully accessible to anyone who wanted to get in to put the shrimp in the ducts. He could have done it or hired someone to do it for him. After Joe Dudley took over as contractor and the locks were changed and windows boarded up, the 'pranks' took place outside. Salting the concrete. Starting the fire.

But if Budley had nothing to do with Sandra's death, who climbed through the dense shrubs, went down the virtually invisible coal chute, and brought the purse back?

As she thought back, she was wrong. The toolbox with the fake bomb showed up at the house, and so did Sandra's purse, after Budley took over.

Did it really have to be one and only one person? Or was it some sort of conspiracy? Maybe even several people, unknown to each other, grinding their own axes?

When Shelley and Jane had both finished their morning car pools, Jane went over to Shelley's house with a legal pad and pen. 'We're going to make a timeline. Maybe that will show us something we've forgotten.'

But Shelley sidetracked her with the anti-wrinkle cream. 'Try it.'

'Not now. I've already put my makeup on.'

'No, you haven't.'

'I thought I had,' Jane said, trying to remember the morning rush. The kids had both gotten up late and both their schools took tardiness seriously. 'Smells good,' she said, rubbing a little bit of it under her eyes.

'They say within a week you'll see a difference. If this house thing doesn't pan out, maybe we could become reps and sell the stuff,' Shelley said with a laugh.

'Yeah, right. Door to door, I assume. No thank you.'

'So, we're making another of your legendary lists?' Shelley asked. It was a running joke. Jane was a compulsive list maker.

'Not exactly a list. More like a couple of charts. Okay, let's start with everyone involved in the renovation and what we know about them. First is Bitsy. I'll make a note across from her name regarding possible motives. An insurance scam, for one.'

'Don't you need another column for reasons these people aren't the ones responsible?' Shelley suggested.

'Good idea. See? You're already contributing. We mark Bitsy as the one who stands to profit the most in the last column.'

'Are you considering Sandra?'

'I suppose we could list her, but she was already dead before most of the things happened.'

'Put her down anyway. The object is to be thorough, right? To jar us into some conclusions or things to find out.'

Jane put Sandra's name down. Under Sandra, she also added the thugs who collected the rents for the previous owners. Not by name, of course.

'We know nothing about them and never will,' Shelley objected.

'But they could be behind everything that's happened. Wanting to get their lucrative jobs back.'

Shelley just shrugged. 'It's your list.'

'Jacqueline Hunt is next. What motive could she have?'

'None,' Shelley said. 'She was one of the victims, remember. She got a shock when she plugged in the planer.'

'That doesn't necessarily exclude her from things that happened later. Maybe revenge for someone she thought set her up for the shock.'

'Jane, don't you think it's unlikely that several people are vandalizing the house and endangering others?'

'Unlikely, but possible. Just go with the flow, Shelley. If we're wasting time, we'll know it when we get the charts done.'

'Charts? Plural?' Shelley groaned.

'The second one is going to be the order bad things happened. So we'll put possible revenge for getting shocked.'

'Jane, that doesn't make sense. Which stunt do you imagine she did? It could only be some of them aimed at Bitsy. Jacqueline is proud of her work and certainly would want to see it completed. She's also making money from Bitsy. Why would she jeopardize a good job?'

'Okay, okay,' Jane said grumpily. 'I'll cross out revenge. I guess we mark nothing for Henrietta Smith, either. You could say the same for her. They work as a pair. What about Wesley Woodly, the furnace guy? He certainly had nothing but contempt for both Bitsy and Sandra.'

'But the furnace and air conditioning are working now. And he's been paid and is no longer on the job. Why would he care what happens to the project?' Shelley objected again.

'Because there's the other side of the upstairs still to be done and the whole downstairs. He's only temporarily off the job. Maybe he's so desperate to avoid coming back, he'd sabotage the whole deal,' Jane said