A Quiche Before Dying

something at hand and hoped like hell that it would work. Maybe it wasn’t even meant to kill her. Just to make her sick as a ‘punishment.’ “
    “Could it have been in her house? In a prescription?“
    “Unlikely. A lot of things that are poisonous in large amounts are used in minute portions for medication. But you’d have to eat a bowlful of pills. It was in the quiche or the tea. More accurately, in Mrs. Pryce’s quiche or tea. The maid didn’t serve herself, she just ate and drank what was left of her employer’s food. I guess it was a habit of hers. She says she had a bite or two of the quiche, but thought it tasted strange and left the rest. Unfortunately, she’d already put all the plates in the dishwasher and run them through by the time we got there.“
    “Why didn’t Pryce taste it?“
    “I don’t know, except the pathologist says some elderly people lose their sense of taste. Or maybe she was just a glutton who didn’t care.“
    “Oh, she cared. She made nasty remarks about every dish in front of her. She said there was too much mayonnaise in the potato salad and too much oil on the green salad, and Missy’s cake was too dry. But those are texture things, not taste, I guess. And it seemed she put away a lot of food in spite of her complaints.“
    “Run through what she’d come down on everybody about again, would you?“ Mel said. “Aren’t you going to eat that sandwich?”
    He’d managed to wolf down his share of the dainty edibles. “I’ll give you half,“ Jane said. While she wasn’t very hungry, she’d heard great things about the caterer he’d gotten this stuff from, and didn’t want to miss her chance to at least taste their work. “Let’s see—she accused my mother of being an embassy hanger-on, which Is a really nasty remark from an insider. She called Desiree a drunk and Grady an embezzler and Missy a pornographer. She wouldn’t sit by Naomi Smith because she was afraid Naomi would give her some disease, and at the end she made a crack about Bob Neufield being too depraved to serve his country.”
    Mel was taking notes with one hand and eating with the other. “Uh-huh. So she didn’t go after you or your friend Shelley or Ruth Rogers.“
    “Yet, you mean?“ Jane asked, thinking about Shelley’s theory that they were better suspects because they might have killed her to keep her from getting around to them.
    “Not exactly,“ he said around the last bite of her pasta salad, which he’d liberated without her noticing. “I’m just trying to get a relative fix on this. Embezzlement’s a pretty strong accusation. Thinking somebody’s going to give you a cold is nothing.“
    “Oh, but it’s not a cold. Mrs. Pryce accused Naomi of having cancer and asked her to move. Ruth Rogers came tearing in and told her off. Said her sister had a rare blood disease that wasn’t contagious.“
    “Still, it’s rude as hell, but not really damaging. Not like accusing the mayor of stealing the city’s money.“
    “I agree, but when you get to know Grady, you’ll know how crazy the accusation is. He’s a really nice man.”
    He looked at her pityingly. “Jane, really nice people have embezzled money. The two are not mutually exclusive.“
    “But I don’t want it to be Grady—or anybody in the class!“ Jane said.
    “No? But it was, and I don’t want anybody to get away with it. Do you?”
    It was a stupid question and it made her mad. “Why did you ask me out yesterday?“ Jane asked, surprising him with the question only slightly more than she surprised herself.
    “Why? I don’t know. To apologize for disappearing. To see how you were. To thank you for Christmas dinner—“
    “Out of duty?“ she asked.
    “No!“ he snapped. He started gathering up the paraphernalia of lunch and stuffing it into an empty sack. “But I’ve got a duty right now, and I better get back to it. Are you through?“ His voice was cold and formal.
    “It appears I am,“ she said, taking a bite of the sandwich she’d managed to save from his cleanup. It was so trendily wholesome that it tasted like’ sawdust with a little basil. It was probably just as well that he’d hogged hers.
    They got in the car and rode silently. As Mel pulled into her driveway, he said, “Sorry about that. I’m tired, and murder pisses me off. Do I get another chance? How about a late dinner tonight after your class?“
    “On two conditions.“
    “Yeah? What are they?“ he asked suspiciously.