Seven Minutes to Noon

little Sylvie?” Pam said ominously. “An angel, she’s not.”
    Everyone listened as Pam told them the story of what happened to her on the morning of her staged suicide.
    “I was trying to find out who your landlord’s partner was,” she told Alice, “like I said I would. No biggie. I asked around the office and no one knew anything. Judy was gone for the day and since she’s the boss, her files go back farthest, so I thought I’d take a look in her computer. I was poking around and I accidentally got into the network that links her up to her home computer.”
    “Accidentally on purpose, you mean?” Esther said. “Just like I taught you.”
    Pam grinned. “Judy works a lot at home.”
    “Works.” Ray rolled his eyes. “Drinks, is more like it. Pam’s been carrying that office for years.”
    “Well,” Pam continued, “so I was poking around a little and I saw a few very interesting things. There was a lot on Metro in Judy’s home files, let me tell you, a lot. Turns out she not only does business with those jokers, but she’s got a personal connection that’s about as strong as it gets.”
    Of course, they had all figured by now that Sal Cattaneo had had an adulterous relationship with Judy, but in silent agreement they let Pam continue as if nothing had happened in all the time she’d been asleep.
    “The partner,” Pam said, “is none other than Sal Cattaneo, our local butcher.”
    They held their silence, allowing Pam the satisfaction of delivering a surprise.
    “And my spinster boss, Judy, turns out not to be such an angel herself.” Pam paused for dramatic effect. “Turns out Judy and Sal are an item. And they’ve been an item for a long, long time.”
    This was news to Alice. But possibly not to Frannie; her expression remained steady as she asked, “How long?”
    “At least thirty years, the whole time Sal’s been married. It started before he even got married. Judy’s a real piece of work. She’s got it all written down in her computer like it’s some kind of heartbreaking romance novel. I couldn’t stop reading once I started.”
    “Why should you?” Esther said. “She had it there for anyone to see.”
    “It was in her personal journal on her home computer, Esther.” Ray clamped his lips tight; clearly he didn’t agree with Pam and Esther’s policy of random investigation.
    “Anyhow, Sal was engaged to his childhood sweetheart, Angie, but he got involved with Judy when she was new to the neighborhood. That was when people who weren’t from here were outsiders, big time.”
    “It still feels that way,” Alice said.
    “Oh no, honey, back then it was ten times worse. Judy Gersten was an independent woman, and she was Jewish, and she came all the way from Michigan. She was a foreigner.”
    “Hurry up,” Esther said. “Get to the good part.”
    “You already know this story?” Ray asked Esther.
    “No, I’m hearing it for the first time, just like you.”
    “Then how do you know there’s a good part?”
    “Because I know how to tell a story.” Esther nodded. “And so does my Pammie.”
    “Will you two let me talk?” Pam said with a twinkle of love in her eyes for her husband and mother and their aggravating yet comfortable routine.
    “So, talk,” Esther said.
    “So Sal’s engaged to Angie, and along comes Judy Gersten, who opens up a real estate office on Court Street. An outsider. By now Sal’s already started buying up neighborhood real estate. He likes Judy, so he gives her some of his business, then he gives her all of his business. Wink wink. By the time he hooks up with JuliusPollack, buying up tenement buildings together as Metro Properties, Judy gets a big chunk of their business. She’s profiting big time from them. So the three of them, they’re all getting rich together. And Judy and Sal? They’re in love.”
    “But the guy marries Angie anyway?” Ray asks.
    “You bet.” Pam nodded with a wobble of skin that used to house her double chin. “Angie told him she was pregnant.”
    “But I thought Sal and his wife don’t have any children,” Alice said.
    “They don’t.” Pam nodded decisively.
    “She miscarried?” Esther guessed.
    “Nope,” Pam said.
    “Just tell us,” Ray said. “What happened?”
    “Angie told Sal she was pregnant, but she wasn’t.”
    “Why?” Ray asked.
    Pam savored this moment, looking from face to face before telling them, “Because Judy was pregnant.”
    There was silence as everyone