Fear of Frying

just had with him. Liz kept shaking her head, looking enormously distressed. “I see they’re putting dinner out. I’ll take plates to Marge and Eileen. I’m sure they aren’t interested in eating, but they might want to just nibble a bit. Al, come along. We’ll get some plates and foil from the kitchen and take them some food. Poor Marge.“
    “Marge is nuts,“ John repeated.
    Liz dashed off on her errand of mercy, and Al hung back for a minute, rumbling his own condolences in a low tone and adding that if there was anything the bank, or he himself, could do to help out, John wasn’t to hesitate to call him. Then, at Liz’s shrill summons, he ambled off.
    “So the car dealership does business with Al’s bank?“ Shelley asked.
    John shrugged. “I don’t know.“
    “You don’t know?“ Jane said, thinking he’d misunderstood the question.
    John’s face, which had grown pale during Liz’s forceful expressions of sympathy, turned red again. He scratched at his neck nervously. “No. See, I’m not a partner. I’m just head of sales. Sam owned the dealership lock, stock, and barrel. Now I guess I work for Marge,“ he added bitterly.
    “Oh,“ Shelley said. “I’ve always assumed you were partners.“
    “Most people do. And Sam let them. I’d rather it didn’t get around, really. God, I’m going to miss him. He was a tough guy to get to know, I guess. Kinda cold. I was the one always flapping my mouth and making jokes. But he was a good brother.”
    A heavy silence fell over the table. What was there to say?
    “Let me get you some dinner,“ Jane suggested.
    He waved away the idea. “Naw, I’m not hungry.“
    “But you should eat,“ Jane said. “You’re going to need all your energy to cope with everything.”
    She dashed off to fill a plate for him. Liz and Al were just staggering away from the buffet table under a heavy load of food for his wife and sister-in-law. Sheriff Taylor and Edna reentered the dining room from the Tituses’ private quarters. Edna’s face was blotchy and her manner stiff and angry. Taylor must have read her the riot act, Jane thought.
    “I need to question you ladies about discovering the body,“ Taylor said.
    “Okay, but I don’t want to leave John Claypool eating alone. Just a minute,“ Jane said. She found Bob Rycraft chewing on a chicken wing and trying to look unobtrusive, and ordered him, in the nicest possible way, to take his plate over to the table where John was sitting. She left the two men staring at each other and signaled Shelley to join her. They and the sheriff found a quiet, deserted corner in the lobby.
    Taylor sighed wearily as they sat down. “Okay, tell me the whole thing, from the time you arrived at the campsite.”
    They told their story, jumbling it a bit and no doubt frustrating him to near frenzy. He kept asking about times, about weather, about where people were sitting. Now that he realized the importance of their information, he wanted every detail. But so much had happened in the interval that Jane and Shelley were no longer sure of their impressions.
    “We had no reason to keep track of time,“ Jane explained, “and I’d lost my watch anyway. As for the weather, it had been drizzly all evening, but we were under a canopy and warmly dressed, so it didn’t really matter to us.“
    “Okay,“ Taylor said. “Tell me about leaving the site.“
    “Sam Claypool had been singing—he had a great voice—and there was a big crack of lightning and a sudden downpour,“ Shelley said. “The young men who were helping with the dinner put their instruments away and started helping the Tituses pack up. It was frantic. Jane and I offered to help, but they insisted we were guests and shooed us away.“
    “Were you the first to leave?“
    “I think maybe we were,“ Jane said. “I don’t remember anybody in front of us. I do remember hearing Eileen behind us, complaining about getting her slipper wet.”
    Taylor refused to be sidetracked with slippers. “And when did you come back to look for your watch?”
    Jane thought for a minute. “Not long at all. Maybe ten minutes?“
    “More like fifteen, I think,“ Shelley said.
    “Didn’t give somebody much time, did it?“ Taylor said, more to himself than them. “On the other hand, it didn’t require much of an alibi time.
    “Now, describe exactly what you saw when you found the— What is it?“ he said to the deputy who’d come striding over and was waiting