Renie looked at her cousin with some alarm.
“What’s wrong? Did you cut yourself on something?”
“No,” Judith said slowly as she brought her hand out
of the freezer. “But I did find these.”
She opened her palm to reveal four black rubber spiders, stiff as boards and covered with frost.
FOURTEEN
“GIVE ME A clean piece of freezer wrap,” Judith said
to Renie. “I’ll put the spiders in it just in case there
might be fingerprints or fibers or something on them.”
After securing the evidence, the cousins worked
quickly to store the rest of the food. It was almost
six by the time they returned upstairs to find the
guests in the entry hall, awaiting their limousine.
On a whim, Judith approached them. “Hey, anybody lose some fake spiders?” She held them out in
their shroud of plastic wrap.
Ellie, Winifred, and Dade all gave a start. The
others looked mildly curious. Judith’s eyes darted
around the gathering, trying to assess the individual
reactions.
“Where’d those spiders come from?” Ben Carmody asked. “They look like the ones in Bruno’s
bed and over the sink.”
“I’m glad they’re fake,” Ellie said. “Those things
creep me out even if they are phony.”
“They devastated Bruno,” Winifred noted. “Why
do they look like they’ve been frozen?”
“Because they were,” Judith responded. “Nobody
wants to claim them, I see.”
“Gosh, no,” Chips said. “Why don’t you put them
around the door for the kids who come trick-ortreating?”
“I don’t think so,” Judith said, trying not to show
disappointment at the lack of a revealing reaction.
“We shouldn’t be late,” Winifred said as a knock
sounded at the front door. “By the way,” she informed
Judith, “we heard from the hospital. Angela is going to
pull through, but it was a near thing. Dirk will be joining us at Capri’s for dinner.” Along with the others, she
moved toward the door, where their chauffeur awaited
them.
Joe ambled over to the entry hall after the guests had
left. “What was that all about?”
“This,” Judith said, showing him the frozen spiders.
“You should have Woody check them out.”
“Hidden in the freezer?” Joe cocked his head to one
side. “Not a bad place, I suppose. Nobody twigged
when you showed them off?”
“No,” Judith admitted. “Oh, Ellie and Winnie and
Dade gave a start, but that doesn’t prove anything. I
was hoping that either all of them except one, or none
