'Two gross of canning jars?'
'Well, maybe, yes. That's a lot of jars, but...'
'Two hundred and eighty-eight, to be precise. Priced at four dollars each. And how many classes in canning? None. Zero. Zip. As Chef Jean Paul so elegantly put it when I questioned him - zis is not ze Betty Crock. And what about one gross of Doritos? Three cartons of Miracle Whip? Skippy peanut butter, Rice Krispies Treats, Stove Top stuffing... I don't need to go on, do I? And what have we got to show for forty thousand dollars' worth of electrician's bills this year? As you see...' He waved one hand at the dark room behind them. 'She's been earning a lot more than her salary here, Miss Quilliam. Give Linda Longstreet her job back? I don't think so. At least Verger isn't going to prosecute. I talked him out of that.'
'Next stop, drinks and bridge with Cressida Houghton,' Meg said. She tossed her tote in the comer of the leather couch in the condo's living room and the Bloomingdale's shopping bag after that. She sat down with a sigh. 'What a day. I tell you, Quill. Everything seemed to be going well this morning. Do you know who was; in my class?' She grinned. 'Not only Cressida - she asked me to call her Cressida, by the way - but that; actress, Ellen Kale? It was hard to recognize her without all her makeup and stuff. She says she hates being recognized on the street. Those two, plus a couple of women whose net worth could buy a small African country. You know who else came in, after you left? Ernst Kolsacker and Franklin Carmichael. No kidding. Turns out they're avid amateurs. And Ernst was a hoot.'
'Until the lights went out.'
'Yep. It's going to last a couple of days - so its phhhtt to the cooking classes. But the banquet's still on. This is a great vacation, Quill. Can you believe we had time to go shopping?' She poked at the Bloomingdale's bag with her toe. 'What a place Florida is, Quill. I mean, the weather's fantastic. Just fantastic. But did you see those bumper stickers in the parking lot at the mall?'
'The one that said, 'When I get old and sick I'm going to move up north and drive real slow'? Yeah.'
'Or how's about my favorite: 'Florida. We love it You leave it.' '
Quill went to the French doors and opened them to the sea breezes. 'There's a lot of hostility here.'
'I'll say. I wanted to disguise myself as a native. Lie and tell people in a cracker accent that I was born in Okeechobee. And they shoot tourists in Miami.'
'I didn't mean that sort of hostility. I meant all the hostility toward Verger Taylor.'
'That's nothing new. I think the guy thrives on it.'
'Do you know how many people want to get rid of him?'
'Well, Tiffany, for one.'
'And Dr. Bittern. And poor Chef Jean Paul. And I overheard Linda Longstreet threatening his life.'
'Linda Longstreet? She couldn't threaten a moth with a flyswatter.'
'I'm not so sure.' Quill curled up in the chair across from her sister. She pulled reflectively at her lip.
Meg lowered her head, raised her eyebrows, and said, 'No.'
'No, what?'
'I recognize that lip-pulling. It's your investigative detective mode. No corpses. We left all the corpses behind in HeinIock Falls. This stuff is just nice nasty group dynamics.'
'I'm not so sure, Meg. If anyone's ever ripe for murder, it's Verger Taylor.'
'You said Myles and Doreen are coming in Thursday morning, right?'
'Yes. And I'm sorry Andy's not going to make it. But why did you bring that up now? We've got a nice little murder shaping up here, Meg. I can feel it.'
'When Myles and Doreen show up, you'll be too busy to think up reasons why someone is going to murder Verger Taylor.'
Quill regarded her curiously. 'You aren't sorry that Andy's not coming with Doreen and Myles?'
'Well, I miss him, of course. But I'm worried about the marinade. And you know what happens just before 1 have to cook big. I get a bit worked up.'
'And you have to cook really, really big this time.' Quill smiled. 'How's the marinade going?'
'I'll know tomorrow.'
'Did you bring the stuff back here with you?'
'Of course not! I'll just have to take a flashlight into the Institute. It's a good thing they have all those windows. The hares are hanging in the bread closet, because that's the airiest, driest place, and the marinade's in there, too. To tell the truth, I'm a little worried. The climate's different here, Quill. The air pressure and everything. That affects cooking. You can't tell me it doesn't. I'm afraid it's going to throw the timing off. What do you think?'
'I think that odd clock in the kitchen says a quarter past five and that we should get ready to visit Cressida Houghton.'
'How long does it take to get there?'
'An hour. And I'm going to wear that new lime-green cotton dress I bought this afternoon.'
'Does it take an hour by cab?' Meg asked suspiciously.
'No, Meg. By borrowed Mercedes. I looked it up on the map.'
'The last time you looked a destination up on a map you turned a ten-minute drive into a marathon. I think we ought to talk to Luis and his handy-dandy computer. Either that or leave at least an hour early. It'd be horrible to
