A Farewell to Yarns

he was missing.“
    “They were all probably too relieved to question a good thing.“
    “Jane, do you mind if I drop you off at home? I’ve got to get back to the coroner and see what he’s found out.“
    “Far be it from me to keep a man from his coroner,“ Jane said. Did he mean he would have otherwise offered her lunch or something semidatish?
    When he’d left, she called Shelley. “I saw you come back with VanDyne,“ her friend said. “You look smashing, by the way. Want to go someplace fancy for lunch before deterioration starts to set in?“
    “I’d love it. Shelley, Bobby was murdered overnight.“
    “I know. Suzie told me.“
    “It wasn’t even in the paper. How did Suzie know?“
    “She had to run down to the mall early this morning to set up for a lingerie sale. It was the talk of the town. Who did it? Why there? When? Where do we send out thank-you notes?“
    “Shelley, you don’t mean that.“
    “I know I don’t. But he’s a hard person to feel sorry about. Was the funeral hideous? What about lunch? We can pick the whole case apart.”
     
    Over crab quiche and white wine, Jane told Shelley what little she knew about Bobby’s death. “So nothing at the scene helped them?“ Shelley asked.
    “Apparently not. Unless VanDyne is concealing information from me—which is entirely possible. The only reason he was being chummy with me was so he could go to the funeral ‘disguised’ as a friend of a friend of the family. Shelley, there is such a thing as an unsolved crime—“
    “Probably many more of them than we’re led to believe,“ Shelley agreed.
    “I have this awful feeling Bobby and Phyllis are going to end up in that category. The thing that scares me is the thought that whoever killed them may not be through.“ She took a last bite of her quiche. “Suppose it was somebody like Mr. Finch—not that I think it was—but if he killed them for something he imagined was an insult to him, he might just go right on and bump off Fiona or somebody. On the other hand, suppose it was Chet or John Wagner—“
    “Then it’s a domestic matter, not likely to go any further,“ Shelley said firmly.
    “Not necessarily. If one of them did it, they might think somebody else had a clue—maybe even us—and is a danger to their getting away with it.“
    “Us? What do we know?”
    Jane paused. “We might know lots of things we don’t realize are significant.”
    Shelley waited while the waiter came and took their plates and dessert orders. When he’d gone, she crossed her arms and leaned forward. “Jane, what’s on your mind?”
    Jane lowered her voice. “Shelley, this little memory jiggled through my mind during the service. Remember when Chet and John came over that night and we went to the door because Bobby didn’t? Picture what happened.”
    Shelley frowned. “Nothing happened. They came in the door. That’s all.“
    “No, they came in a locked door...“ Shelley leaned back in her chair. “... that we didn’t open.“
    “Right. John Wagner had a key.”
     
    The waiter hovered until they were done and the shopping mall was too crowded for further conversation. They left the restaurant, and Jane got out a little notebook she carried in her purse. “Let’s see. I’ve got Mike’s CDs to get and something for Thelma and Dixie Lee. That ought to finish it up.“
    “You’re not buying Mike a CD player, are you?“
    “Good Lord, no! I can’t afford a thing like that. Thelma’s getting it. I hate for her to give the kids such expensive gifts. She only does it to put me in a bad light.“
    “Come on, Jane. That’s not fair. They’re her only grandchildren, and she’s got plenty of money to spend, so why shouldn’t she?“
    “Yes, you’re right. But I wish Steve’s brother Ted and his wife, Dixie Lee, would get on with having kids, so she could disperse her interest a little. I should be grateful she didn’t buy Mike a car. I was afraid she was going to.“
    “All right. Let’s get the CDs first,“ Shelley said, glaring dangerously at a group of women who had jostled her.
    Standing over a rack full of Billy Joel CDs, and finding themselves momentarily alone, Shelley said, “There are lots of reasons he could have had a key. Phyllis might have given it to him. She probably did.“
    “Yes—it’s not really the key itself that’s bothering me. I just meant it was something like that. Or several somethings skittering through my brain—Shelley,“ she