A Quiche Before Dying

should feel sadness at Mrs. Pryce’s death, but could only be sad about her life—her wasted, empty, mean-spirited life, filled only with souvenirs. Jane suddenly realized that in all the trash and treasures, there hadn’t been a single picture of a person.
     
    They rang the bell three times. Finally the maid opened the door. Although it was nearly dark, she was shading her eyes and squinting. “Yes? Who are you? Misses, she’s out.“
    “I’m the teacher. Mrs. Jeffry and I were here a while ago at dinner,“ Missy said. “May we come in?“
    “Yes. But misses not here.“ She fished a handkerchief from her pocket and seemed slightly unbalanced by the action. She steadied herself against the doorframe for a moment, then stood aside.
    They followed her into the front hall. “I’m afraid we have bad news,“ Missy said. “Mrs. Pryce became ill during class—“
    “Yes, yes. I pick her up.“
    “No, you don’t have to pick her up. She’s been taken to the hospital—“
    “Keys. Car keys. Don’t know where—the lawn.
    Yes. Water the lawn—storm coming,“ she said, then lapsed into babbling in a foreign language.
    Mel was looking a question at Missy and Jane. “Is she crazy?“ he seemed to be asking.
    “—and then we go to market,“ the maid said. She staggered, and Jane grabbed her to keep her from falling.
    “Mel, there’s something wrong. This is how Mrs. Pryce was acting—sensitive to light, raving, off balance.”
    The woman was leaning against the doorframe, clutching at her chest.
    “Where’s the phone?“ Mel demanded.
    Missy tried to calm the maid down while Mel and Jane searched for a phone. When he found it, he dialed quickly, identified himself, and gave Mrs. Pryce’s address. “Send an ambulance and seal off the city hall. I think it may be a crime scene.”
    He hung up and looked at Jane, who was helping Missy get the maid to sit down on a settee in the front hall. “You sure are a fun date,“ he said wryly.
     

8
     
    Missy came by at ten the next morning. Jane had been up since eight but still felt blurry. It had been a late night.
    “Can you stand company?“ Missy said. She was looking a little haggard, too.
    “Sure. Come in. Want some iced tea?“
“Only if you throw it in my face to wake me up.“
    “Were you up late, too?“
    “There were policemen questioning me until nearly two, then I couldn’t get to sleep. Gee, it’s quiet. Where is everybody else?“
    “Katie’s still in bed, and my mother’s gone to visit an old friend in Evanston. I couldn’t sleep last night either. Then when I finally dropped off, Mel called around four to let me know that the maid—her name’s Maria Espinoza, by the way—is probably going to recover. They pumped her stomach right away on the assumption that it might have been something they both ate.“
    “And what did they find?“
    “I don’t know. Mel says the pathology people say the symptoms could point to any number of poisons. But they won’t know until they’ve done an autopsy on Mrs. Pryce and analyzed Maria’s stomach contents. Ugh! Imagine doing that for a living.“
    “So that’s why they kept asking me about the dinner.“
    “I guess so. The man who interviewed me wanted to know who’d brought what.“
    “I assume they’re considering it a deliberate poisoning?“ Missy asked.
    “I don’t know what else it could be. I mean, if a poison had accidentally been in any of the dishes, more than two people would have gotten sick. We were all pretty polite about trying a little of everything. And if it had been some weird allergic reaction, it probably would have affected only one person. But it’s crazy anyway.“
    “What do you mean?“
    “Just that she was a first-class bitch, but so are lots of people, and they don’t get killed. If this was poisoning and it was deliberate, it means one of the people in the class might have done it, and that’s unbelievable.“
    “Unlikely, I’ll grant,“ Missy said. “I think I will take you up on that tea offer, if you don’t mind.“
    “Okay. Let’s take them outside while it’s still nice. It’s supposed to be in the nineties later today.”
    It was already warm, but still just barely pleasant outdoors. There had been a little rain overnight, and the garden looked refreshed. Willard came out with them for a little romp in the vegetables before he got on with the doggy business of barking at birds.
    “It’s more than just unlikely that it was