A Knife to Remember

that somebody dead was perfect. And I hadn’t really been remembering him. I’d been remembering, I dunno, I guess what I wanted him to be like.“
    “That’s probably okay,“ Jane said softly.
    “Yeah, for me. But not for you. You’ve been letting us think he was completely cool and all that time you must have really had your feelings hurt—like I did today.”
    Jane felt tears welling in her eyes. This was one terrific kid.
    Mike saw the tears and started talking briskly. “So anyhow, I was thinking about it and decided why shouldn’t you have a boyfriend? And why shouldn’t you get to go on a trip with him if you want? You’re a grown-up.“
    “Not nearly as grown-up as you think. I haven’t told Katie either. Or your grandmother Jeffry.”
    Mike smiled. “I’ll tell Katie if you want me to, but Gramma’s your problem. Jeez! She’s gonna go ballistic! I hope you’ll let me hang out nearby when you tell her. I might invite Scott over to watch, too.“
    “Mike, I can’t tell you what it means to me that—“
    “Aw, Mom. Don’t get mushy,“ Mike said, moving away before she could hug him. One hug a week was already beyond his limit. “If you’ll give me money to put gas in the car, I’ll pick up dinner.”
     

11
     
    “ What are you looking so gloomy about? The food wasn’t that bad,“ Shelley said when they were through eating.
    The kids had gone into the living room to play with the Nowacks’ new Super Nintendo. Outside in the near darkness the last of the movie people were finally clearing out after a thirteen hour workday. Shelley and Jane were looking over the wreckage of dinner. There were at least a dozen little white cartons with dabs of leftovers in them. Shelley set out three covered glass dishes. “All rice in one, all fried stuff in another, and everything else in the last one,“ she instructed as she set about loading plates and silverware into the dishwasher.
    “Mel called just before I came over,“ Jane said. “I told him I’d had a talk with Mike and things were sorted out so that I could still go with him this weekend. I told him about my conversation with Mike, including the part about Steve leaving me. I’d never mentioned that to him before. I guess I was afraid of him knowing I was a reject.“
    “And...?“
    “And I was sorry I’d talked about it on the phone. I wanted to see his face. He was real noncommittal and cool. For all I know, he already knew about it. I had to tell the police where Steve was going that night, so it’s in a report he could look up if he wanted.”
    Jane’s mature son’s voice wafted in from the living room saying, “Use your Moon Sword, butt breath!”
    Jane shook her head in dismay. “Mike’s walking a thin line between kid and adult and I never know which side he’s going to slip over. I guess he doesn’t either...“
    “Jane! About Mel?”
    Jane studied the last crab Rangoon, wondering if she could eat it without blowing up and decided she couldn’t. “He said that was too bad because now he couldn’t go because of this murder.“
    “Why not? There are other detectives who could take over,“ Shelley said.
    “I know. I asked that too and he said since he was the person who actually found the body, he couldn’t unload the case on somebody else. He was sounding cranky, like it was my fault he found the body.“
    “Jane, if he can’t get away until this is solved, it could be months. You know how slowly the police work. Lab results alone can take weeks.“
    “I know.“ Jane dumped a half carton of shrimp fried rice into the proper bowl. “But there’s nothing I can do about it.“
    “Except solve it for him,“ Shelley suggested. “Shelley, you know how it pisses him off for us to butt in.“
    “Yes, but unless you want to take a walker and a case of Geritol along on your weekend of sin, we’d better.“
    “I don’t know, Shelley. Those people might as well come from another planet for all we know about their lives. It’s such a weird world they live in. We have no idea what makes them tick.“
    “They’re still people, Jane. Same motivations as anybody else, just different frills.“ She started rinsing out empty paper cartons and putting them in the trash masher.
    “You clean your trash before you throw it away?“ Jane asked in wonder. Shelley was, hands down, a better housekeeper than Jane, but this surprised her.
    “Sometimes. The masher takes so long to fill up that things can get awfully