Smoke in Mirrors

a leaky faucet in the bath that has gotten so loud it’s keeping me awake at night.”
    “Oh, those tools. Sure, I’ll bring some of them, too.”
    Half an hour later, freshly showered and dressed in abutton-down shirt and chinos, he went into the workshop. He selected a wrench and some other odds and ends he figured he might need to fix a leaky faucet.
    When he emerged, Wrench was waiting for him at the front door, leash in his mouth.
    “Sorry, pal, not this time.”
    Wrench looked pathetic.
    Thomas crouched in front of him and rubbed his ears. “Here’s the situation. There’s a possibility that I might get asked to spend the night at her place. I don’t think I’ve got a chance in hell if you’re there with me. It’s one thing to ask a man to stay over. It’s another thing altogether to invite him and his dog to spend the night. See what I mean?”
    Wrench remained unconvinced.
    Thomas gave him one last pat, rose and went out the door. The wrench was heavy in the pocket of his jacket.

    “Care for some hors d’oeuvres, Deke?” Cassie said.
    She offered him the bowl of steamed and salted soybean pods. He eyed them closely and then took a small handful.
    “These are interesting,” he said. “Tricky looking, but interesting.”
    “You’ll get the hang of it after a while,” Leonora assured him. “Watch me.”
    She put the end of one of the salted pods into her mouth, held on to the other end with her fingers and winkled out the soybeans with her front teeth. She dropped the empty pod into a small bowl.
    Deke tried the same process. There was a loud sucking sound.
    “Got ’em,” he announced. He tossed the empty pod into the bowl.

    “If you can do it, so can I,” Thomas said.
    He put the tip of a soybean pod into his mouth and scraped lightly with his front teeth. When he was finished he held up the empty pod in triumph.
    Everyone laughed and reached for more.
    Leonora exchanged a look with Cassie. So far, so good. The evening was off to a promising start.
    Thomas sniffed the aromas emanating from the kitchen. “Smells good. What’s for dinner?”
    “Spinach and feta cheese lasagna,” Leonora said. “Cassie made an apple pie for dessert.”
    “Lasagna?” Thomas got a dreamy expression. “Oh, man. I really, really like lasagna.”
    “I can’t even recall the last time I had homemade apple pie,” Deke said. “It’s my favorite.” He looked at Cassie. “Didn’t know you could cook.”
    “You never asked,” she said sweetly.
    He blushed furiously, reached for his beer and changed the topic. “Good news, bad news from the grad student who ran the tests on that sample of Rhodes’s nutritional supplement.”
    “What’s the good news?” Thomas asked.
    “It’s just colored sugar and cornstarch.”
    Leonora raised her brows. “And the bad news?”
    “It’s just colored sugar and cornstarch.”
    Thomas grunted. “In other words, we’re not going to get him for selling drugs.”
    “Not this easily, at any rate,” Deke said. “He’s a phony but I don’t think you can say he’s doing anything that’s dangerous or illegal with that nutritional supplement he’s selling.”
    Leonora looked at him. “Anything new on the old Eubanks murder?”
    He swallowed more beer and slowly lowered the bottle. “Like I told Thomas, nothing that would explainBethany’s interest in the case. According to the old records, it was just one more interrupted burglary in progress.”
    Thomas picked up another soybean pod and put it between his teeth. “Eubanks was in the math department. Bethany was a mathematician. Are you sure there’s no connection?”
    Deke shook his head. “Not that I can see.”
    “You know, she was your wife, but I knew her, too,” Thomas said. “If you ask me, there’s only one reason why Bethany might have taken an interest in an old murder case. And that’s because it somehow impacted her own work in mathematics.”
    Deke stiffened. “You make it sound like she didn’t care about people.”
    Thomas shrugged. “I’m not sure she did. Not in the way you care about them. Oh, she liked to have people take care of her so that she could focus on her work, but she didn’t go out of her way to help anyone else. You know that, Deke.”
    There was a short, strained silence. Leonora met Cassie’s anxious eyes. She knew they were both wondering if Deke would explode into a furious defense of his dead wife.
    End of dinner party.
    But to her amazement, Deke just