Grime and Punishment

herself. Like yesterday, when she and Shelley were discussing reasons for murder. And was there any connection between the missing pearls and the missing screwdriver? How could there be? Rummaging in her purse for the scrap of paper with Shelley’s hotel number on it, she dialed.
    “Shelley, are you doing anything?“
    “My nails. Paul is taking me downtown for dinner. He’s in the other room in the suite right now making some business calls.”
    The other room of the suite... Jane didn’t comment on how the Nowacks spent a night away from home. The last time she and Steve had spent a night alone together it had been in a Holiday Inn room, next to the elevator shaft.
    “Shelley, I understand you can’t talk about the pearls, but I want to discuss something odd with you. Just to sort out my own thoughts.“ She explained about the unlocked desk drawer and her suspicions. Throughout, Shelley made no comment. There was only the occasional whhh as she blew on her nails.
    “You think Edith did it, then?“ Shelley asked when Jane was through with her recital.
    “I think so, yes. But for some reason, I don’t want to believe it—or there’s something wrong with the assumption. I just want to eliminate all the other possibilities.“
    “Hmmm, I guess you have to consider that someone else might have gone through the desk drawer.“
    “But who? The kids?“
    “Not very likely suspects, I agree,“ Shelley said.
    “Mike’s too moral and upright. I’d never dream of accusing him of that to his face—it isn’t what teenagers want to be called—but it’s true. He’s always the one who makes me go back and fess up when I accidentally get too much change from a clerk.“
    “There speaks a proud mother,“ Shelley said with a laugh.
    “No, it’s not that I have any illusions about his faults; he has plenty, including his cavalier attitude toward my mental health and wellbeing when in a car. But he utterly lacks any sneakiness. If he wanted to look in the drawer, he’d have just asked for the key—and I’d have given it to him, and he knows it.“
    “One down and two to go. Eliminate Katie. Whhh—“ Shelley said, blowing on another nail.
    “Katie? Katie can be sneaky. It goes with the age and gender.“
    “Doesn’t it just!“
    “I think the urge to experiment with the truth to see just how far it can be bent is part of the growing-up process. But Katie wouldn’t have broken into the drawer—she’s already stripped me of all my valuables. If she thought there was anything she might want in there, she’d have just nagged until I gave it to her. That’s how she got the little pearl pinkie ring away from me.“
    “The one she lost in the swimming pool?“
    “That’s the one.“
    “All right, what about Todd? Whhh—“
    “ He’s very good at mechanical things, and sheer curiosity might have made him pick the lock just to see what was in there, except he was the one who helped me last time I cleaned out the drawer. Back in March, when he had the chicken pox. He was driving me crazy, fetching things for him, so I made him help. He knows everything that’s in it, and found most of it real boring. All he liked was some Mexican coins I had in there, and I gave them to him. So he had no reason to get into it.“
    “What about you? Couldn’t you have gone through it and just forgotten about it?”
    No, Jane thought. A year or two ago it might have been possible. When the kids were smaller and she was more harried and hadn’t adjusted to the maternal necessities of balancing five schedules in her head—then, it might have been possible. But since last winter, this quiet little office had become a special haven, and she simply didn’t allow the rush of daily life to interfere. It was a little like self-hypnosis; she’d conditioned herself to the state that the very act of stepping in the door served to make her think calmly. She could picture herself doing any sort of loony, scatterbrained thing almost anywhere but here.
    “I’m certain I didn’t leave it unlocked or mess up the drawer, and even if I had, why is the eyeglasses screwdriver missing?“
    “ Whhh—So, if it wasn’t one of you—and temporarily assuming it wasn’t the obvious Edith, just for fairness—who else could it have been? Who else came in the house? What about the kids’ friends? You haven’t had that Stringer child in, have you?“
    “Lord, no! Didn’t they put him away for the Brinks robbery in fifth