using scissors to cut the strong paper wrapping. “In
fact, I guess this was supposed to arrive yesterday. The
driver apologized, but explained that because it came
from overseas—” He stopped cold as he saw the box.
“It’s French truffles.”
Judith stared at the embossed gold lettering. “Perigord truffles. Dare we?” She cut away the tape that
sealed the box and lifted the lid. “Yuk! No wonder
Mother threw the other box out!”
Renie peered around Judith’s arm. “Oh, for heaven’s
sake, it’s just a bunch of brown truffles! I wouldn’t
mind tasting one.”
“Bleah!” Judith stuck out her tongue. “Go right
ahead. I wouldn’t touch those things with a ten-foot
pole.” But even as Renie picked up a paring knife, Judith smacked her hand. “No, you don’t! These are for
the guests, and now that they got here, Joe can pretend
he found them.”
“Hey,” Joe cried, “that would be a lie! I’m not accepting a fee on false pretenses.”
“Ooh . . .” Judith ran an agitated hand through her
salt-and-pepper hair. “It just seems to me that after all
the—” She stopped and sighed. “You’re right, we’ll
tell them the truth. The truffles got held up because
they came from”—she looked at the mailing label on
the wrapper—“Bordeaux.”
“Makes sense,” Renie remarked.
Judith turned to her cousin. “What does?”
Renie held out her hands. “That it would take longer
than if they came from Butte, Montana.”
Judith blinked at her cousin, then looked at Joe.
“True,” she said in a distracted voice. “But would they
send two boxes? I wonder what was in the package that
Mother flushed down the toilet?”
Judith offered up a prayer of thanksgiving when Joe
brought the costumes back from Arlecchino’s at threefifty. The Scarlett O’Hara costume had been mended,
if not restored. While Judith and Renie were examining it, Angela La Belle wandered into the living room.
“Oh,” she said in a disinterested voice, “that’s mine,
isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Judith replied. “I had the costume shop put
on a different skirt. It looks rather nice, doesn’t it?”
Angela barely glanced at the costume. “I guess.
Where’s Dade? Bruno’s looking for him.”
Judith said she hadn’t seen him, but understood that
he was the only member of the Zepf party who hadn’t
gone out that afternoon.
“Well, he’s not down here, and he’s not in his
room,” Angela declared. “Maybe he flew back to Malibu.” With a languid toss of her long blond hair, the actress wandered out to the front porch.
Renie gave Judith an inquiring look. “She doesn’t
seem very upset about her costume, does she?”
