A Quiche Before Dying

weren’t any. But they checked all his postings against General Pryce’s, and there’s no overlap whatsoever. Mrs. Pryce couldn’t have met him before coming here.“
    “So why did she make that crack about him?“ Cecily wondered aloud.
    “The police are going on the theory that she was just raving. After all, it was nearly the last thing she said, and she was dying. They figure she was hallucinating and mixed him up with someone else. I can see that. He has a very anonymous military look even in civilian clothes. Imagine him in a uniform. He’d look like a hundred other fair, fit, short-haired, middle-aged military men.“
    “You think they’re right?“ Cecily asked.
    “I hope they are. We’ve pissed him off, and if he’s a killer, that was real stupid,“ Shelley answered. “What else?“ Cecily asked.
    “A lawyer turned up with Mrs. Pryce’s will, which didn’t have anything particularly interesting in it. It was a moderate estate, all the cash assets neatly put in trust for grandchildren. The maid, you’ll be surprised to learn, gets the house and all that junk in it.“
    “She must have something on the old girl,“ Shelley said. “I can’t imagine Pryce giving her a penny out of the goodness of her heart.“
    “She must have a lot on her,“ Jane said. “Mel says the maid’s been with her since 1940. Just imagine fifty-some years with La Pryce. It’s unthinkable!“
    “What about the rest of the class?“ Shelley asked.
    Jane shrugged. “Nothing much we don’t already know.“
    “Nothing!“ Shelley said, outraged. “Can’t the police do better than that?“
    “They only know things about people if it’s on an official record. Arrests, lawsuits, that kind of thing. And military records.“
    “Then we ought to turn crime investigation over to the IRS,“ Shelley said. She was still chafing over having been audited some months earlier. “They know everything. I imagine in some dusty file there’s a record of what brand of toothpaste we all use.“
    “He did tell me that Grady once got a speeding ticket,“ Jane said. “To be fair, they probably could get more information if they knew exactly what they were looking for.“
    “Oh—so we’re suddenly bending over backwards to be fair to the police,“ Shelley said. “Must have been some date.“
    “I was only out for an hour,“ Jane said.
    “A lot of exciting things can happen in an hour,“ Shelley said.
    Jane ignored her and turned to her mother. “Did you tell Katie I was out with Mel?”
    Cecily nodded.
    “What did she say? How did she react?”
    Cecily sighed. “Just what you’d expect. She’s a little jealous, a little embarrassed, a little understanding.“
    “I’ve been a widow for a year and a half,“ Jane said.
    Cecily put up her hand. “Darling, you don’t have to justify anything to me—or to Katie, for that matter. I think Detective VanDyne is a nice young man, and you deserve a life of your own. But you know we never think about our parents as real people. Think yourself back to that age. Imagine if your father hadn’t been around and I’d have dated.”
    Jane drew back. “I’d have been appalled.”
    Shelley took a second sweet roll and buttered it. “It must be harder, too, for children whose parent has died. If it’s divorce, they’ve undoubtedly seen a bit of the worst of both parents and can understand why they don’t like each other, but Katie has no idea there was anything wrong between you and Steve—“
    “She’s not alone. Neither did I until he was packing to leave me for that bitch—“
    “Don’t get fired up. I just mean, she doesn’t know that. She thinks that traffic accident was a sudden stop to a perfect marriage and took away a perfect daddy. She’s bound to feel that you’re betraying his memory.“
    “So what do I do about it?“ Jane asked, instinctively turning back to her mother.
    Cecily smiled. “Nothing. She’ll adjust. Children are resilient, and so are mothers. Besides, at her age, her own life is much more interesting to her than yours.“
    “Sad but true,“ Shelley said with a laugh. “To get back to the subject at hand, what are we going to do? There are only two more classes, and I’m beginning to think that if we don’t know anything by the end, we won’t ever.“
    “I feel the same way,“ Jane said, “though I don’t know why we should.“
    “So what’s next?“ Cecily asked.
    “I thought maybe we could go visit Desiree. Just to