A Farewell to Yarns

men were conversing over an open notebook. One of them was a big, late-middleaged man in a somewhat wrinkled gray suit and a fedora hat right out of the forties.
    He was Jane’s Uncle Jim—not a real uncle but an honorary one, her father’s lifelong best friend. Formerly of the army, for many years with the Chicago police department, he remained close to Jane, especially since Steve died and left her “a helpless widow“ in his words. She turned off the television, went to the kitchen, and dialed his precinct telephone number. He’d gone for the day, she was told. There was no answer at his apartment yet.
    While she waited, she got out some ground beef and onions to brown. Ten minutes later, when they were nearly done, Shelley came over. “Jane, did you see the news? Your friend was all over it.“
    “I know. Did you see my Uncle Jim in the background? I’m waiting for him to get home so I can pump him for information.“
    “He’s not crazy about giving you inside information, is he?“
    “I want ‘outside’ information,“ Jane said, carefully draining the meat and onion mixture and adding beans and tomato sauce. “John Wagner was here. Shelley, it was weird. He was nice. Nice!“
    “Jane, have you considered getting psychiatric help? You’re going to clog up your disposal if you don’t run cold water.”
    Jane turned on the water. “I mean it about John Wagner. He even apologized for being so hateful about volleyball.“
    “He must have really wanted something.“
    “From me?“ Jane asked, shaking chili seasoning into the pot and stirring. “All he asked was that I help him look over Phyllis’s things to see if anything was there that shouldn’t be. Of course, he’d barely gotten here when the news came on, and he dashed off. I’ve never seen a man look so upset. He even seemed genuinely sorry about Phyllis, and then there as that picture of Chet being led away, and John turned the color of cauliflower.“
    “I’ve got to go back to fixing dinner,“ Shelley said. “Call and tell me what you find out from your Uncle Jim, will you?“
    “Say, Shelley—what are you doing after dinner?“
    “Nothing planned. Why?“
    “Well, I’d like to do what John Wagner was asking—look through Phyllis’s things—and get it over with. He made me feel horribly guilty, saying I’d know what was hers just because I knew her so well. The fact is, you and I might know if something isn’t hers just because we’re women. I mean, Steve once saw me using a nail whitening pencil and said he’d always wondered what they were. His mother always had one around. He thought it was some secret feminine hygiene thing you don’t talk about. I guess that’s sort of an opposite example of what I mean, but—“
    “I get it anyhow. I don’t think you’ll find anything interesting, but sure—I’ll come along. How do you plan to get into the house?“
    “Last I heard, Bobby was staying there.“ Shelley shuddered. “I forgot about him. Do you think we ought to get near him? What if he is the murderer?“
    “There’s safety in numbers. Besides, he’d have no reason to do anything to us.”
     
    Jane fed everybody, drove Mike to band practice, dropped Todd at a friend’s house, and took Katie to her pal Jenny’s, whose mother had offered to take them to a teen fashion show at the mall. Certain they all had rides home, Jane came back for Shelley. “Let me give Uncle Jim one more try,“ she said, stamping the snow off her boots at Shelley’s kitchen door.
    This time she got him.
    “Hey, Janey. You calling to uninvite me to Saturday dinner?“ he asked.
    “Don’t get your hopes up. Mike is counting on you coming to his concert, and I’ve already got the sauerbraten marinating. I’m calling because I saw you on television this afternoon.“
    “Oh, yeah. The Wagner thing. VanDyne is in charge. Did you know that?“
    “I not only know it, I’m a suspect. Phyllis was a friend of mine. In fact, she’d come to Chicago to visit me.“
    “My God, Jane! The things you get into.“
    “I didn’t get into it. It came looking for me. Uncle Jim, what do you know about this?“
    “Up until now, nothing. I was just asked to have a man or two at the exits in case there was trouble. There wasn’t. Jane, if I’d known you were involved—“
    “Don’t get upset. I’m not involved. But I want to know what’s happening. Have they actually arrested Chet Wagner?“
    “Not that I know of. Like I say, I