shoulder and
ear, and loaded the dishwasher.
“You’re late,” Renie snapped. “I was ready to drive over
to see if you’d died.”
“Just busy, coz,” Judith replied in a listless voice. “Anyway,
the answer is no. I’ve got a full house this week-
end and I’m really beat. Today’s Tuesday, and if this event
is set for Friday, that doesn’t give me much time to put together a menu that’ll last through the long weekend.”
“Oh. Okay. Bye.”
“Wait!” Annoyed with herself for letting Renie goad her,
Judith slapped a hand against the dishwasher lid. “I mean,
you’re not mad?”
“Huh? No. That’s fine. See you.”
“But what will you do?” Judith asked anxiously. “You said
you were in a bind.”
“I’ll kill myself. I’m getting a noose out of the broom closet
even as we speak.” Renie’s voice was unnaturally placid.
“Now where’s a box I can stand on?”
“Dammit, you’re making me feel guilty.”
“That’s okay. You’ll forget all about it when Bill keels over
from grief and you and Joe end up with our three kids. They
may be adults legally, but they’re still a financial drain. Unlike
you, we haven’t been able to marry ours off.”
Judith’s mind flashed back to Mike and Kristin’s wedding
the previous summer. It had been wonderful; it had been
terrible. Judith had felt the wrench of parting with her only
son, and had somehow temporarily buried her feelings by
trying to help her homicide detective husband catch a murderer. But during the months that followed, the sense of loss
had deepened. Even though Mike hadn’t lived at home for
several years, his marriage had been a major life change for
Judith. He and his bride worked as park rangers some four
hundred miles away in Idaho, but they were due to be
transferred. The new posting could take them almost anywhere in the fifty states, and Judith feared she wouldn’t see
her son and his wife more than once a year. The hollow
feeling wouldn’t go away, and Judith knew it was another
reason she felt not only tired, but suddenly old.
“When do you make your presentation?” Judith asked,
forcing herself out of her reverie.
“Friday,” Renie answered, no longer placid. “I told you,
it’s just for a day. Can’t Arlene Rankers help you
throw some crap together for these bozos? Bring her along.
You’ll be up at the lodge for about six hours, and they’ll pay
you three grand.”
“Arlene’s getting ready for her annual jaunt to Palm Desert
with Carl, and…
“Right.” The smirk in Renie’s voice was audible. “OTIOSE
pays well. Why do you think I’m so anxious to peddle my
