A Knife to Remember

The treatment didn’t stick. In fact, she might have been worse than ever. The watch, the ring, the money, the religious medallion. Olive was being run ragged trying to keep track of the things Lynette was lifting whenever she got a chance. That’s what Jake realized and it led to his death. He had a phenomenal memory for objects. He knew the watch wasn’t on the table when he looked for it. A moment later, after Olive had been there getting tea for Lynette, the watch appeared. To someone with a suspicious mind like his, it didn’t take any more to make him realize what had happened.“
    “How did he know Olive hadn’t stolen it herself?“ Maisie asked Jane the question, but was looking at Olive, who still had not acknowledged the conversation.
    “We’ll never know,“ Jane said. “Maybe it was a lucky guess on his part. But he knew all the gossip in the business and maybe he put together some information we don’t have to come to the conclusion that it was Lynette, not Olive.“
    “Speaking of lucky guesses, isn’t that what you’re doing?“ George Abington said. He hadn’t spoken before and his voice now was tired.
    “No, we have a film record of him trying to blackmail Lynette into helping Angela get the vacant role. Remember? The public relations man who taped the lunch? Jake had been hand signing to Lynette, telling her he knew that she was a kleptomaniac. I took the film home to throw it away, but I had—I had other things on my mind and I ended up accidentally keeping it. That’s why my kitchen was vandalized. Lynette probably didn’t understand signing, but Olive did.“
    “I’m sorry, Jane, but this doesn’t make sense,“ George Abington said. “Kleptomania? That’s just a mental illness. Not a very attractive or appealing one, I’ll admit, but—“
    “Didn’t you know, George?“ Jane asked him.
    He didn’t answer for a long moment, then he sighed and said, “I suspected. We were married only a very short time and my life was in a turmoil for the duration, but things did keep disappearing and turning up someplace else. I tried to talk to Olive about it, but she acted so offended that I backed off. Then Roberto came along and it didn’t matter to me anymore.”
    Olive had looked up for a minute while he spoke and gazed at him sadly, but then she went back to studying her hands in her lap.
    Talk, Olive! Jane thought frantically. It doesn’t mean anything unless you talk. She heard someone behind her clear his throat and she glanced back to. see Mel. He nodded his encouragement.
    “But it mattered to Olive,“ Jane said. “Olive knew that taking drugs or having affairs or fighting with the I.R.S. were acceptable foibles in the publicity mill. But kleptomania? No, Lynette would have been a figure of fun for that. It isn’t, as George says, a very sympathetic ailment or one that most people can identify with. There would have been jokes, suspicion, maybe even arrests, if she’d pinched something valuable and gotten caught with it.”
    Shelley was gently patting Olive’s shoulder now.
    “More important,“ Jane went on, “Lynette might steal something that did someone genuine harm. She almost did when she took somebody’s medicine.“ “It was in a gold box. A gold pillbox...“ Olive said in a near whisper.
    It isn’t a confession, but it’s a step in the right direction, Jane thought. She felt Mel’s hand, warm, on the back of her waist.
    “So Olive had to silence Jake,“ Jane went on. “She knew that George suspected the truth, but she also knew he was a good man who wouldn’t gossip. But Jake was a different matter, wasn’t he, Olive?”
    No response.
    “Jake had to be silenced before he could tell everybody. And then fate intervened.“ Jane could have bitten her tongue for saying something so trite, but she had the rapt attention of her small audience and plunged on. “The next day Lynette gave the performance of her life. A performance that would be a classic, that would save and enshrine her reputation. And not only was it a superb performance, it was the last scene of the movie that she was in. It was the perfect time to save her from herself. That’s what you did, wasn’t it Olive? You saved her from ruining her reputation. You locked her in amber at her peak.”
    Jane stopped speaking and waited. The silence around the table was as real as a block of ice with them all frozen into its cold grip. Those at the adjoining tables, sensing the tension,