Thirteen Diamonds

the shellfish. You're still a member of the Housekeeping Committee, aren't you?”
    “Yes,” Tess admitted.
    “So you know Joe Turner.”
    “Yes.”
    “Could you talk to him about safety procedures? Ask him how the fire alarm system works and whether it's possible to tell which switch set it off.” I wanted to add that I would go with her to ogle Joe, but decided not to push my luck.
    “You don't want much, do you? It's a good thing I like you.”
    I stopped pacing and put a hand on Tess' shoulder. “You know you want to solve this as much as I do. I can tell you one thing. Ellen didn't set off the alarm. I remember I saw her using her cellular phone at the time the alarm went off.”
     
                       *    *    *
     
    Albert was running around like a chicken with its head cut off, as my mother used to say. If you're not a farmer you don't want to know the story behind that saying. He had just come home from the university. I was making dinner, like a good housewife.
    “Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked.
    “I can't find Carol's beeper number,” he said. “I'm supposed to take her to the symphony tonight but we've called an emergency department meeting. She's not in her office and she's not at home.”
    Of course I couldn't tell Albert about the suspicions Wesley and I had about Carol. I didn't want to be the one to do it, anyway, because he would say I was prejudiced against her. He would be right.
    Albert doesn't have a pocket computer with names and phone numbers, or even an address book. He depends on slips of paper. He probably inherited his organizational skills from me, although I at least have an address book.
    He finally found the correct slip sitting beside the kitchen telephone. I glanced over his shoulder at the paper as he punched in the number: 248-3186. I memorized it in my inimitable way: two, two-squared, two-cubed, the two lowest odd digits in descending sequence and the two highest even digits in descending sequence. After a pause I watched Albert punch in his home phone number and hang up. Five minutes later Carol called.
    After a hasty dinner Albert dashed out, leaving me alone again. I washed and wiped the dishes, eschewing the use of Albert's dishwasher since there weren't many of them and I have never owned a dishwasher, myself. When I had finished I was faced with an evening with nothing special to do. In spite of making a show of moving ahead, with Tess and Wesley, I didn't have a plan for continuing the murder investigation.
    I had possibly contributed to nailing Carol as an embezzler. I should be glad about that because with her gone I could probably return to Silver Acres. Still, it was too soon to award me a Nobel Prize for scam-busting. I pulled out my copy of Carol's code. Wesley had made his own copy on the machine at Silver Acres.
    I looked at the number scribbled in the corner of the sheet. Was it a telephone number? I picked up the phone and punched it in. On the fourth ring I heard a hello from a voice I recognized. I waited for the hello to be repeated, to make sure. Then I hung up.
     

CHAPTER 25
     
    The timing had to be perfect. I don't usually sweat very much, but my skin was clammy and I felt the kind of excitement I hadn't felt since riding on the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland many years before.
    I waited outside the door to the recreation room as the bridge players strolled in. I greeted most of them. A few looked surprised to see me; Ellen didn't look at me at all. After she passed me and entered the room I surreptitiously followed her with my eyes. She picked up her table assignment from Wesley, just as we had planned, and went directly to her table. She placed her handbag on the seat of her chair, as was her custom, and stood talking to Ida, her partner.
    I glanced at my watch; the time was three minutes past one. I got more nervous with each second. Maybe Tess couldn't be able to do her part. Wesley liked promptness, but he had said he would give me until five after one before he kicked off the activities.
    It was important that we do this today because the bridge club had been cancelled for next week. The residents had received a notice that some renovation was going to take place in the room—something about the heating system. Joe must have been taking measurements for that last week.
    I watched the minute hand creep around my watch dial. Four minutes past one. We would have to cancel the show for today.