A Quiche Before Dying

big, homely woman, and he adores me.“
    “Of course he does!“ Jane said sincerely. “How could he not?“
    “I imagine you’ve told Shelley.“
    “ ‘Fraid so. I was so stunned. Why haven’t you gotten married? Oh, I forgot. You’ve got a husband.“
    “Not anymore. He finally found someone else and divorced me about six months ago. No, the problem is Grady’s wife.“
    “Grady has a wife? I didn’t know that. Where is she? I’ve never met her.“
    “You don’t hang around nursing homes. They were in a car accident the first year they were married. She suffered enormous brain damage. She’s been in a coma ever since.“
    “I had no idea.“
    “No, and I hope you won’t blab it. For all his outgoing personality, Grady’s a terribly private person. He can’t afford to divorce her. The bulk of her bills are paid by some insurance policy that would be canceled if they weren’t married. It would take virtually every penny he makes to care for her. I’ve told him many times we could live on my money, but he’s an old-fashioned frump who won’t hear of it. That’s part of the reason he’s so careful about our relationship. The insurance company would, needless to say, love to unload him. He’s afraid if we lived together or even made our arrangement official or public, they’d claim common-law marriage, bigamy, anything to cut off the benefits.“
    “They couldn’t do that, could they?“
    “They’ve already tried a couple of other stunts almost as nasty. He’s had to drag them to court twice already. So now you know.“
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snoop—well, it’s exactly what I meant to do, but I was just wondering if he had any connection to Mrs. Pryce.”
    Missy sighed. “Actually...”
    She stopped and looked hard at Jane as if making an appraisal, then said, “His wife is her great-niece. Mrs. Pryce never made the connection; Wells is a common name, and none of the family had any more to do with Mrs. Pryce than they had to. And since the community doesn’t know about his wife, he didn’t bring it to her attention. And before you ask, yes, the police know. Grady told your detective everything. Well, everything except about me, that is.”
    Jane sat back for a long moment. “You’ll be glad to hear that Mel didn’t breathe a hint of this to me. Can I tell Shelley? She won’t say anything to anyone else. She’s very happy you and Grady have each other, by the way.“
    “Just so long as she understands not to talk to anyone else.”
    They were quiet for a long moment, then Jane said, “It isn’t an important connection, is it? Mel told me the money all goes to the grandchildren. Grady wouldn’t benefit.“
    “Not a red cent. Jane, Grady had nothing to do with this murder.“
    “I believe you.“ And it was true. At least, she believed that Missy believed in his innocence. Jane herself wanted to think about it a little more before she checked Grady off her private list of suspects. She’d already drawn a light mental pencil line through his name, and nothing would make her happier than to dismiss him entirely. Unfortunately, she’d already penciled off everybody but Bob Neufield, and she had the strong feeling that, much as she’d like to cast him as a villain, he wasn’t one.
    “Jane, if we’ve hashed this over enough, I’d like to know if you’ve been working more on Priscilla’s story. That’s what I really came over about.”
    Jane started to tell Missy about the wolf idea, but Missy stopped her. “Bit of advice, Jane: Don’t talk about an idea until it’s already written. You’ll use up all your fire on the telling, and the writing will be boring when you get to it.“
    “Oh—yes, I see. You’re probably right. Well, yes, as you can see, I’m still working on it. Missy, do you really think I might end up with a published book? It seems impossible.”
    Missy chose her words with care. “I think you might end up with a publishable book. Whether it will get published is another thing. See, Jane, successful writing is made up of forty-nine percent discipline, and forty-nine percent talent, and two percent dumb luck.“
    “I don’t even think I’ve got the discipline or the talent I need, let alone the luck.“
    “But those can both be nurtured and practiced and developed. The luck can’t be.“
    “Don’t you think I might do better to write a romance?“
    “Good heaven’s, no! Everybody thinks a romance is the easiest thing in the