The Class Menagerie

Jane!“
    “Maybe—“
    “Look, as obnoxious as she was to the Ewe Lambs, Lila didn’t get that way overnight. She’s had long years of practice making people miserable. And being made miserable. She could have had an enemy who followed her here and bumped her off where it could be blamed on someone else.“
    “That seems sort of baroque.“
    “Oh, I didn’t tell you—Trey Moffat, he’s our class president, said at the cocktail party tonight that he knew somebody who knew Lila. Interesting gossip. Apparently she married some no-neck bodybuilder and set him up in business as a private detective. She was assumed to be the brains of the outfit. Anyhow, he learned just enough about snooping to get some kind of goods on her, then divorced her. Trey wasn’t sure what the compromising stuff was, but it must have been good. He cleaned her out. The bodybuilder. Not Trey.“
    “What do you mean?“
    “The husband kept everything. The house, the agency, the bank accounts. That’s why she was so hard up. The family money is gone, if there ever was much. I don’t think there ever was a whole lot of money, just illustrious ancestors.“
    “You’ll have to tell Mel that.“
    “I already did. He was at the cocktail party. Put a bit of a damper on things, in fact.“
    “I take it that you wouldn’t be here if the party had been fun.“
    “Oh, it wasn’t so bad. I was just sick of smiling and nodding. And I haven’t had a real chance to talk to you for days.“
    “Has Constanza broken into your safe yet?“
    Shelley giggled wickedly. “She made a big deal of telling me how she’d spilled something and was looking for a tablecloth and just happened to notice that we’d gotten a safe. I tried to make her explain why she was looking for a tablecloth in an upstairs closet when there’s a whole stack of them in the laundry room. That made her squirm. That safe has already paid for itself in satisfaction.“
    “Did she try to get the combination?“
    “Repeatedly. She called Paul in Singapore with a cock-and-bull story about having brought along a valuable bracelet and she’d feel so much better if she could put it away safely.“
    “And?“
    “Paul told her he doesn’t know the combination. Which is true. I told her I’d lost the combination, which isn’t true, but said I’d take her straight down to the bank and she could put her terribly valuable bracelet in our safe deposit box. Then she decided the bracelet wasn’t so valuable after all and she’d just keep on wearing it. Anyway—the party wasn’t so bad. Trey Moffat looks like the Pillsbury Doughboy. Has a cute little wife and roly-poly baby along.“
    Jane had no interest in the class president. “Did you pick up any other gossip?“
    “Not much. The guy Pooky was bringing the pen set to is a nerdy, single plastic surgeon. They seemed to be hitting it off awfully well. Maybe there’s a romance in the air.“
    “I hope so. I’ve gotten to really like Pooky. I know she’s got the IQ of a kitchen appliance, but she’s a good-hearted person.“
    “Is she? I didn’t really get a chance to talk to her much. And when she did talk at the fund-raising meeting, I wanted to smack her. Her suggestions were so dumb. Good-hearted, as you say, but criminally stupid. A telethon fashion show, for God’s sake!“
    “I never asked-----does she have children?“
    Shelley thought a moment. “I think there was a child in one marriage. But it didn’t belong to either of them. Avalon was talking about it in the car. The husband had married before, this was his stepchild and the wife died, then he married Pooky. They later divorced and the child went with him. Apparently it’s a source of great grief to Pooky.“
    “Poor Pooky. Was everybody impressed with Crispy at the party?“
    “Stunned senseless.“
    There was the sound of a key in the kitchen door then Katie calling good-night before stomping into the living room. “Mom!—Oh, hi, Mrs. Nowack.“
    “Katie, did you have fun?“ Shelley asked.
    “Fun? Fun! What a couple of dweebs!“
    Neither Jane nor Shelley, to their credit, cracked a smile.
    “It was a horrible, dumb movie. All these stupid car crashes. And Johnny didn’t even offer to share his popcorn with me. What mega-losers! And we went out for ice cream after and all they talked about was cars, cars, cars. Even Jenny’s dad! Bo-o-o-ring! I’ve got to go call Jenny.“
    “You’ve just been with Jenny for three hours.“
    “But we