From Here to Paternity

hound, to put it bluntly. Years ago she was invited to do a little local talk show, and as a splashy way of showing off, she hunted down a bunch of information on the host of the show and surprised him by tracing his family back to George the Third or somebody. It was a huge hit, word got around, and she got invited to do other shows. It was like getting a taste of blood. She discovered the celebrities have lots of money and not much time, but are often obsessively interested in their own background. She’d actually solicited customers that way, which is frowned on in genealogical circles.“
    “You mean she’d look up stuff about them, show it to them, and ask if they wanted more, instead of waiting for them to come to her?“ Shelley asked.
    “Exactly. And it usually worked. The payoff, of course, was that she got to be on first-name terms with famous people, which she loved. The downside of it was, sometimes she’d find stuff they weren’t happy to know—illegitimacy and such—or much more often she’d prove they sprang from very common stock. Of course, almost all of us do, but lots of famous people don’t like hearing that. Only politicians bother to pretend they like being common. Everybody else secretly wants to be able to brag that they are a cousin of Queen Elizabeth or Albert Einstein.“
    Jane’s mind was clicking along. “Lucky, I hate to ask this, but I must. If she had found out something horrible about someone—“
    Mel put his hand on her knee warningly.
    “Blackmail!“ Shelley breathed.
    “I was trying to come up with a more tactful term,“ Jane chided her.
    Mel was shaking his head as if to say, I tried to head off this discussion .
    Lucky was also shaking his head. “Absolutely not! Not in a million years. The few people who were insulted or angry about her information, and said so, devastated her. She had no judgment about what would offend people, but she positively bristled with moral fiber. She would have been shocked to the core at the very thought of blackmail.“
    “You’re quite certain?“ Jane asked.
    “I’d literally stake my life on it. God knows Doris had a lot of flaws, but greed for money wasn’t one of them. Greed for attention, or for professional recognition, yes. But not for money. In fact, the more rich and famous a client was, the less she’d charge for her work. It was the connection to celebrity that really intoxicated her.“
    “Speaking of intoxication, would anybody else like a drink?“ Mel asked.

Chapter 18

    When the band finally took a break, lowering the noise level, Jane turned to Shelley and asked, “Do you think we can believe him? Lucky, I mean.“
    Lucky’s wife had collected him a few minutes before.
    “I think we have to,“ Shelley said with regret.
    “But blackmail would be a nice way of explaining Doris’s death.“
    “I know, but he was so adamant and he knew her very well for years and years. And it’s not as if he exactly minded finding fault with her. I think if blackmail was even the most remote possibility, he’d have said so.“
    “I’m afraid I agree,“ Jane said reluctantly. “Phooey.“
    “Besides, it wouldn’t connect with Bill Smith’s death, even if it were the case.“
    Jane nodded. “There’s Tenny. She’s looking for somebody.“
    Tenny glanced toward them and waved.
    “Us, apparently,“ Shelley said. “I wish she didn’t feel like she had to go out of her way to be friendly to us at such a hard time in her own life.“
    Tenny was weaving her way through the crowd toward them and sat down heavily in the chair Lucky had vacated when she finally reached them. “What a mob!“ she said.
    “It’s a nice turnout,“ Shelley said. “How are you and your aunt getting along?“
    “Fine. Really. Just fine. I’m starting to think Uncle Bill had the right idea. If you force yourself to pretend someone isn’t really gone, pretty soon you start believing it. This is about the best crowd we’ve had for a dance all winter,“ she added, glancing toward the lines at the cash bars in a professional manner and no doubt doing a little mental calculation of profits. “We might have to try having a second dance night in the middle of the week, too. We used to have bingo games on Wednesday and they were very popular, but the law came down on us.“
    “Why?“ Shelley asked.
    “Oh, the gambling laws in Colorado are strict. Of course, we were pretty stupid about it and had no idea anybody really considered