Yesterday's News

Couldn’t tell. They must’ve cut across the lawn or was wearing sneakers or something, cause I didn’t hear any clicks like from the women’s shoes or taps like from the men’s. Jane knew whoever it was, though.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “Jane knows somebody, she tells them... sorry, told them not to ring the bell. Needs fixing and can wake me out of a sound sleep, so she’d warn them not to use it. Considerate that way, like I said.”
    “No idea otherwise who the person was?”
    “No. There were a lot of them, though.”
    “A lot of them?”
    “That didn’t use the doorbell. Jane got more than i her share.”
    “Her share of what?”
    Mrs. O’Day’s eyes seemed to move independently behind the lenses as she leaned forward in the rocker. — “Of what? Of sex, what the hell do you think, pardon my French again.”
    “Did you... were you under the impression that it was more than one man?”
    “Was I... sonny, all I know is I heard a lot of ] different doors slam out in that driveway, if you get my drift. The Church says we’re not supposed to sit in : judgment of each other, but even without the suicide,
    I doubt she got to spend much time before Saint Peter last night.”
    “How long did this person stay?”
    “Hours. Didn’t really pay attention to when, I was focusing on my planning here. But they must have been going at it pretty good, because her phone rang four or five times for five rings without her answering it.”
    “Was that typical?”
    “Typical of her going at it, you mean?”
    “Typical for her not to answer her phone when she had a man, not a woman visiting.”
    “Sonny, I don’t for one moment believe Jane was that way.”
    “I didn’t mean to imply anything, Mrs. O’Day. I just... look, was Jane’s failure to answer her phone something she’d do only when she had a male visitor?”
    “That I don’t know. Like I said, I didn’t try to spy on the woman.”
    “Right. So you don’t know when her visitor left.”
    “No, I don’t. Wasn’t too long before another one came by, though.”
    “Another?”
    “Right. After the first one left. Another car door, different sound to the motor and the door both.”
    “Different how?”
    “Motor sounded bigger, door more solid. Don’t know much more about cars than how they sound. Never got my driver’s license. The husband was always after me about that, said I’d regret it some day. But I ask you, how can I regret never learning to drive when I’d be a menace out on the roads with this eyesight? I mean, if I can’t keep track of my distance specs in this house, how would I ever remember them each time before I cranked up a car?”
    “You’ve got a point there. Did you hear anything about this second person?”
    “No. Except Jane must have been expecting this one.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “Because this one didn’t even knock. Door downstairs just opened and closed.”
    “How long did this one stay?”
    “Minute, maybe. Then out, banging the door shut and off into the car and tearing up the street to beat the band.”
    “And no idea whether this second one was a man or woman?”
    “Nope.”
    I thought about it.
    Mrs. O’Day said, “I found her, you know.”
    “You did?”
    “Yes. It was the victrola. Like I said, usually she was real good about playing it low, but I was finished with my planning, and I wanted to get four hours of sleep before Store Day. You know, so I’d have plenty of energy. Funny, four hours is enough now, even when I let the planning slide till the night before and I have to stay up most of the night to plan when I had all the week before to do it. Of course, you never know for sure what you really need till just before you go out to buy, and it’d be crazy for me to just stock up at the prices they’re getting these days, although when did you ever know the prices on anything to go down?”
    “ Never. You mean her stereo was still on when you tried to go to bed?”
    “That’s what I said. It was, oh, two-thirty maybe? I tossed and turned for a while, but it was no good, I could still make out the words the radio announcer was saying. If it was just music, I might have been able to ignore it, but you know how it is when somebody’s talking, you sort of strain to make sense of the sentences even if you’re hearing only a few words from each.”
    “What did you do then?”
    “I went to the telephone to call her. It’d happened before, she’d fall asleep with