War and Peas

and she’s decided she’s not ever going on a plane again and we’ll have to visit her instead. That scenario has its drawbacks, but on the other hand, she’d never know that I’ve cleaned this stuff for the last time, wrapped it in airtight plastic, and put it away. So what do you want to work on?“
    “Shelley, your house is going to look empty without all this.“
    “Yes! Won’t it be wonderful?“
    “Give me a platter. I’m good with platters. Mel just called. We were right about someone overhearing the elderly gentleman’s discussion with Sharlene about the Little Beauty pea. It was Caspar and his fingerprints were all over the pea-bin drawers.”
    Shelley handed Jane a platter, a rag, and a bottle of silver polish. “Do the police think he killed Derek?“
    “Mel doesn’t. Rolly, who’s the officer in charge, does. Mel isn’t happy. They haven’t arrested Caspar yet, but have him in for questioning.“ Jane went on to recount her conversation with Mel as best she could remember it, including Caspar’s skills at initiating frivolous but profitable lawsuits.
    Shelley put a tiny buffing pad on a miniature electric drill, smeared the pad with silver polish, and plugged in the drill, but didn’t turn it on yet. “I’m inclined to agree with Mel,“ she said thoughtfully. “It seems to me that a person who knows how to use and abuse the legal system as well as Caspar can would be unlikely to simply ignore it and resort to violence. Not that Caspar couldn’t be driven to violence by something, but not, I think, by the faint possibility of those peas being able to grow and him being able to someday make money on them.“
    “I agree, but if he were furtively rummaging around in the pea bin and Derek took him by surprise—? Remember, Derek was already very angry over his conversation with Jumper. Derek might have gotten very nasty with him.”
    Shelley turned on the little drill and applied the whirling buffer pad to some elaborate scrollwork on a serving fork. “Yes, but what was Derek doing down there?“
    “Good question. I have no idea.“
    “I can’t think of any reason, either, except that somebody asked to meet him down there. And that suggests a plan, not an accidental meeting. So if you eliminate the element of surprise, what possible reason would Caspar have for killing Derek?“
    “And Regina,“ Jane added.
    “Yes, and Regina. But for the moment, let’s consider Derek’s murder alone. We don’t even know when Caspar was in the basement, do we? He might well have gotten his hands all over the pea bin any time this week. In fact, he was probably the one who messed things up down there a couple days ago. Before Derek was killed.”
    Shelley got up and rinsed the silver polish off the fork at the sink and held up the result proudly. “Are you impressed?“ she asked.
    “Enormously,“ Jane said dryly. “How come you get a power tool, even if it is a wimpy little one, and I’m the slave labor with the rag and the toothbrush?“
    “I think it’s just because Life Isn’t Fair.“
    “Mel says Caspar’s being very defensive about the pea thing,“ Jane went on. “He’s claiming he has every right to try to find and develop it since it was originally grown by his great-grandfather. I guess the legality of that would depend on Auguste’s will. But the fact is, Caspar has convinced himself of it. All the more reason to discount the theory of Guilty Surprise.“
    “So if we eliminate Caspar and assume someone asked Derek to meet them down in the basement, who have we got?“
    “Practically anyone,“ Jane said.
    Shelley was working on another serving fork. “Isn’t it most likely it was a spur-of-the-moment thing having to do with the nasty things he’d just said to Jumper? Who did he go after? Babs, Georgia, and Jumper himself.“
    “Right. Plus a crack about Regina and one about Jumper’s friend the anchorwoman.“
    “I think we can probably eliminate the anchorwoman,“ Shelley said with a smile. “And Regina was dead by then.“
    “All he said about Jumper was that he dressed funny—and Jumper does dress funny. Apparently it’s deliberate. Besides, it’s inconceivable that anyone would kill somebody because of a comment about their wardrobe.“
    “Right. Otherwise that guy who does the Worst Dressed List would have been blown away years ago. So that leaves Babs and Georgia, both of whom were around and could have heard what Derek said.“
    “Yes, and Babs