The Class Menagerie

couldn’t really talk. ‘Night, Mom.“
    Of unspoken accord, Jane and Shelley hadn’t gotten into really serious discussion, knowing they were going to be interrupted shortly. When Katie had gone upstairs, Shelley leaned forward and said quietly, “So what has Mel told you?“
    “Practically nothing. He’s furious with me. About the notebook.“
    “What notebook?“
    “What notebook! We have fallen behind if you don’t know about the dreaded notebook.“ Jane explained to Shelley about Crispy’s getting her hands on Lila’s notebook, then subsequently having it stolen. “But you know how hectic things have been. I kept meaning to tell him, but other things happened. It wouldn’t have mattered if I’d told him earlier anyway, because it disappeared within an hour of Crispy’s finding it anyway.“
    “Do you think she’s telling the truth? About it not having anything interesting in it? And about it being stolen?“
    -“About what was in it, yes, I think so. But about it being stolen, no. But I haven’t any reason whatsoever for doubting her. It’s just my instinct. I think she’d have held onto it and tried to read something into the notations.“
    “That would be my guess, too. That, or—“
    “Or what?“
    Shelley stood up and paced for a minute, curling her toes into the carpet as she walked. Willard heaved himself to his feet and walked alongside her, looking up expectantly. Shelley .petted his head absently. “Look, Lila was trying to put the squeeze on people. Blackmail them out of money. Right?“
    “It looks like it from what Kathy said.“
    “So whatever she knew about them might have been written in the notebook.“
    “She couldn’t have remembered?“
    “Not if she had specifics to toss at them. Like, maybe she had the exact amount of Kathy’s holdings in some South African company or other, just to convince her that she knew what she was talking about. Blackmail isn’t among my skills, but I’d think you’d have to have some concrete information to do it well.“
    “Okay, I’ll buy that—“
    “She might have made it look like innocent information, just in case she lost the book, as she did. Or in case someone else saw it. You’d hardly expect her to title the pages, What I’m Using for Extortion on Kathy. So Crispy might have genuinely thought it was boring stuff.“
    Jane thought for a minute. “Or, she thought it was boring stuff until she saw the part that pertained to her.“
    “Was Lila trying to blackmail her, too?“
    “She’s never said. She didn’t try anything with you, did she?“
    “I’m too boring to blackmail,“ Shelley said. “But she did give it a shot—I think. She made some crack about Paul and how she imagined with all those franchises, he had a lot of trouble with the income tax people. I said no, he had no trouble at all, which was an outright lie. Paul is constantly fighting them. Anyway, I didn’t get it at the time, but later I realized she probably meant it as the groundwork for a threat. As in, Paul will have trouble with the IRS if you don’t— whatever. Somehow, I can’t imagine her having anything on Crispy that Crispy wouldn’t be thrilled to talk about. She loves scandalizing people.“
    “No, her cracks at Crispy all seemed to have to do with Crispy’s having such a hopeless crush on Ted.“
    “Ted! I’m sick of hearing of Ted. This has turned into the Ted Francisco Memorial Reunion.“
    “What about Ted? Do you think he committed suicide?“
    “What a weird question. Of course he did. Unless you think you’ve seen him lately.“
    “No, I mean Crispy thinks it was an accident. That he started up the car and went back for something, fell over drunk, and died later.“
    “That’s probably wishful thinking on her part,“ Shelley said, “but I suppose it could be true. Interesting—“
    “What do you think? Was Ted the type to kill himself?“
    Shelley laughed. “Oh, Jane. Ted wouldn’t have known me if he’d fallen over me. I was not part of his crowd. I didn’t know him at all, except to adore from afar. But since you ask, on the surface of it, it didn’t seem logical. Of course suicide never does. You don’t think Ted has something to do with this, do you?“
    “Good Lord! I hope not! No, I was just curious. Everybody keeps talking about him,“
    “Let’s get back to the matter at hand,“ Shelley said in her best Madame Chairwoman voice.
    “Okay. Lila and blackmail. Most of the nasty things she