The Class Menagerie

but said, “Hello, Mrs. Nowack.“
    They hadn’t much liked each other from the time they’d met and it was Shelley who’d insisted on being Mrs . Nowack.
    “Come in, Detective VanDyne,“ she said. “And tell us all you know.“
    It wasn’t a request, it was an order.

- 19 -

    Shelley must have seen Jane’s back stiffen, because she quickly said, “If you don’t mind telling us, that is. And I think maybe we should be Mel and Shelley to each other. For Jane’s sake, if nothing else.“
    Mel glanced at Jane, who gave him a “don’t you dare be sarcastic“ look.
    “I think that’s a good idea, Shelley,“ he said politely.
    Mel sat down at the kitchen table across from Shelley and they made excruciatingly courteous small talk while Jane searched frantically through her cabinets and refrigerator to find other snacks. Hoping they couldn’t see what she was doing, she sliced a tiny spot of mold off the end of a nice rectangle of sharp cheddar cheese. She dumped some Wheat Thins that were so stale she could practically bend them onto a cookie sheet and popped it into the oven.
    “Jane was telling me about discussing the practical jokes with you and the method you used of looking at them in different ways,“ Shelley said, sounding rather formal. “We were trying it out on the murder, but Jane’s imagination ran amok and we ended up with Colombian drug kings in the hills of Arkansas.“
    “Oh?“ he said, not laughing.
    Shelley recounted the theories they’d been discussing. Jane thought Shelley was trying to give him, if not information, at least a facsimile of facts, in order to persuade him to share information in return. A hopeless cause. Mel would tell them exactly as much as he wanted to and no more.
    “But we started with two assumptions that I question,“ Shelley finished up. “The first was that Lila was killed because she was blackmailing someone and the second was that it was one of the Ewe Lambs who did it.“ There was query in her tone.
    “On the second point, I think you can assume that,“ he said to Shelley’s obvious displeasure. “The lab people have crawled over the house and found evidence that someone put a rock in the opening of the utility room door to hold it open. The door must have struck the rock pretty hard and there’s a clear match between the door and a decorative rock.“
    “But—“
    He put up a hand to stop her. “The door was only installed a week earlier. Edgar and Gordon had no reason to ever prop it open before your people arrived. They had the key to it, remember. So it appears that somebody went out after lockup and needed to be sure she could get back in without being detected doing so.“
    “There isn’t an alarm that would go off?“ Jane asked.
    “There will be when they’ve got the place ready to open officially, but since you needed the space before that, there were several things undone.“
    Jane rescued the crackers, which were beginning to smell a little singed.
    “So that means she was killed between ten-thirty when Edgar locked up and twelve-thirty or whenever the boys saw her body,“ Shelley said in a defeated voice. “And it means that somebody staying in the bed and breakfast did it.“
    “Probably,“ Mel said.
    “What do you mean, probably?“ Shelley demanded. “I thought that was your whole point.“
    “No, you’re leaping to conclusions. Probably the right ones, I’ll admit. All that this proves is that somebody went outside after ten-thirty, somebody who came back, threw or kicked the rock back into the garden, and let the door close and lock. Now, Lila obviously went out, but she didn’t come back. But somebody else, in theory, could have gone out to meet her, found her already dead, and come back in.“
    “—or gone out for some other reason entirely,“ Jane put in. “Maybe didn’t even go to the carriage house.“
    Mel nodded. “—and couldn’t afford to admit it the next morning. Although I can’t see why anybody would need to sneak out for any other reason. We’re not talking about kids with a curfew.“
    Jane set the tray of crackers and cheese down and sat next to Mel. “Are you telling us you think that’s what happened? That somebody went out for another reason and found her?“
    “No, I think it’s extremely unlikely. But it is possible. I’m just pointing out that the physical evidence doesn’t conclusively have to do with the murder.“
    Putting us in our imaginative places , Jane