Bell, Book, and Scandal

clearly.“
    Shelley dropped wearily onto a sofa. “We don’t have to! All we have to do is go to this last ceremony or game or whatever the closing event is, and then go home and return to our own lives.“
    Jane sat down across from her. “So you don’t care if we ever know the truth?“
    “I do care. I just don’t want us to be the ones who waste our time and effort hunting it down. Unless the part of your brain that produced Frederic Remington comes up with something new. We put two and two together, you working on Zac and me working at the computer, and found out that Vernetta had plagiarized Zac, and let the proper people know about it. We’ve done a good job there.“
    She went on, “With Felicity’s help, we’ve put that awful Miss Mystery in her place. We don’t have to unravel something else that we don’t truly need to care about.“
    Jane was hard-pressed to argue any of these points. Shelley was right. They hadn’t truly needed to do any of these things. They’d come here to have a good time and learn interesting information that would be valuable to Jane.
    Eventually someone else would have pointed out that the book was plagiarized. Felicity had already half believed she knew who Miss Mystery was and would have described the woman and warned her friends if Shelley hadn’t taken that picture of her.
    What’s more, Jane had annoyed Mel by making him find the page Zac had been holding. Just when their romance was going so well. She didn’t dare alienate Shelley as well.
    Jane sighed, smiled, and said, “You’re absolutely right. Let’s forget it and survive the rest of the conference and put it out of our minds. I’m feeling better and a bit hungry. May I raid some of those snacks in the cabinet in the mini-kitchen?“
    Shelley hauled herself off the couch and said, “You’ve come to your senses. Let’s see what goodies are in there.“
    They found lots of good things in the cabinet. Fancy little bags of chips, many tiny bottles of excellent booze, pretzels the shape of stars, itsybitsy peanut butter sandwiches. They stayed away from the many chocolates stashed in there, but Jane suggested they each have a bottle of brandy with their snack.
    “We don’t want to be tiddly for the final event, Jane.“
    “The bottles hold hardly more than a tablespoon. We can’t become drunk on them.“
    Shelley agreed but said, “We could if we drank all of them.“ And they sat down at the big table with their snacks, sharing little packets. Both women knew they’d been dangerously close to making each other seriously angry for the first time in their long, satisfying friendship, and put all thoughts of plagiarism, publishing, writing, mingling, and the other participants’ problems out of their minds.
     

Twenty-eight
     
    Before the conference’s final activities, Jane called home again for the umpteenth time, this time to ask Katie to keep the washer and dryer free because she had so much clothing to wash when she came home.
    “Oh, Mom, can’t it wait a while? I’m washing all of Todd’s bedding already. He’s been eating in his bed and it’s full of crumbs. And yes, I’ve already vacuumed his room, if that’s your next question.“
    Jane was astonished at this display of domesticity, and agreed that her clothing could wait until the next day. “I’ll be there before two.“
    When Shelley and Jane entered the meeting room a little bit late for the closing ceremonies, the first thing Jane noticed was that it was an enormous room. Shelley, who knew a lot about hotels, understood. Jane didn’t.
    “Isn’t this where the small rooms were yesterday? Or wasn’t I paying enough attention to know where we are?“
    “Those rooms for the seminars are this room. Look at the breakdown walls where the former walls have been hidden.“
    “What a great idea! I’d never have guessed. And look at that food!“
    Shelley swiveled around and gawked. The back of the room was lined with draped tables that bore an almost alarming assortment of food: sandwiches, chips, dips, salads, desserts, and drinks.
    “We really should have read the brochure!“ Shelley exclaimed. “Now we’ve already ruined our appetites for all this gorgeous stuff.“
    “I haven’t,“ Jane admitted. “We only snacked. Why are these people dressed so weirdly?“
    Studying the crowd, Jane felt as if she were at a Halloween party for grown-ups. A great many of the attendees were in costume. Jane and Shelley stood in