“What does?" Jane dropped the cats and they sat looking up at her expectantly. "As if I've ever fed them in the living room," Jane groused.
“The knife," Shelley said. "Somebody needed a weapon that wouldn't be missed immediately, so they trashed your kitchen in the hopes that you wouldn't notice it was gone. Which is exactly what happened."
“Whoever it was obviously has no idea of my housekeeping," Jane said. "Even if I had missed the knife, I wouldn't question it. I lose things all the time. And the kids take them for projects." She paused, thinking out just how to express a thought that was troubling her. "Shelley, it makes me furious that somebody 'invaded' my house at all, but absolutely livid that they did it in order to get a weapon to kill somebody with. I'm outraged at being made a part of this, even a small part."
“But you aren't a part of it. The knife was just an object that happened to be in your house."
“I know that, but I'm still angry. And it's screwed up my whole week. I was all prepared to be the guilty mother and cook a series of extraordinary dinners for my children before going off on my weekend of sin.”
Shelley grinned. "I hope this weekend can live up to your expectations."
“But I can't even cook now! The kitchen is full of police."
“That's fine," Shelley said. "Paul's gone and I was going to get Kentucky Fried for my kids. We can just get more and all eat it at my house."
“I don't know about that. Katie's social studies class watched a horrible documentary about chicken processing and she doesn't consider them politically correct. The only kind she'll eat is 'free range.' That sounds to me like some tough old bird you'd run over in Arizona. I didn't mind veal going out of style; I could never afford it anyway, but I hate losing chicken."
“Then how about carryout Chinese? Nobody can tell what's in Chinese food."
“Can I have a whole order of crab Rangoon to myself?"
“To eat, or to apply directly to your thighs?" "Are we having Chinese tonight?" Mike said from the doorway.
“Mike! I didn't hear you come in," Jane said as Mike and his younger brother Todd came into the living room and took up positions peering out the back window.
Todd was making repressed jabbing motions. "We're practicing being burglars," Todd said. "What are they doing out there?"
“I have no idea," Jane admitted. "How was the movie you went to?”
She regretted having asked this, as she was treated to a blow-by-blow description of the martial artsfilm they'd seen. Todd enthusiastically demonstrated some of the better kicks and punches, almost knocking over her best lamp. Willard loved the performance, but the cats disappeared in the face of the violence and even Shelley tiptoed away, mouthing "One hour" as she went.
“It was great, Mom!" Todd finished up. "Is that the kind of movie they're making in the backyard?" "No! Certainly not."
“I'm going to go call Elliot," Todd said. As he got to the doorway, he stopped. "Oh, yeah. Mike says you're going to New York this weekend. Could you get me some baseball cards? I'll make a list of what I want."
“Sure," Jane said weakly. When he was out of earshot, she said to Mike, "Does he know I'm going with Mel?"
“Sure. I didn't know you hadn't told him yet or I wouldn't have said anything."
“How'd he take it?"
“Fine, Mom. Don't worry."
“And you, Mike. How are you taking it?”
Mike smiled sheepishly. "Well, to tell the truth, I didn't much like the idea at first. My own mom, going off and shacking up with some guy. It didn't seem like a 'Mom thing.' But I didn't pay much attention to the movie this afternoon. I just sat there in the dark and thought about — about Dad and things. I guess it's pretty easy to think that somebody dead was perfect. And I hadn't really been remembering him. I'd been remembering, I dunno, I guess what I wanted him to be like."
“That's probably okay," Jane said softly.
“Yeah, for me. But not for you. You've been letting us think he was completely cool and all that time you must have really had your feelings hurt — like I did today.”
Jane felt tears welling in her eyes. This was one terrific kid.
Mike saw the tears and started talking briskly. "So anyhow, I was thinking about it and decided why shouldn't you have a boyfriend? And why shouldn't you get to go on a trip with him if you want? You're a grown-up."
“Not nearly as grown-up as you think. I haven't told Katie either. Or your grandmother Jeffry.”
Mike smiled. "I'll tell Katie if you want me to, but Gramma's your problem. Jeez! She's gonna go ballistic! I hope you'll let me hang out nearby when you tell her. I might invite Scott over to watch, too."
“Mike, I can't tell you what it means to me that—"
“Aw, Mom. Don't get mushy," Mike said, moving away before she could hug him. One hug a week was already beyond his limit. "If you'll give me money to put gas in the car, I'll pick up dinner.”
1 1
“What are you looking so gloomy about? The food wasn't that bad," Shelley said when they were through eating.
The kids had gone into the living room to play with the Nowacks' new Super Nintendo. Outside in the near darkness the last of the movie people were finally clearing out after a thirteen hour workday. Shelley and Jane were looking over the wreckage of dinner. There were at least a dozen little white cartons with dabs of leftovers in them. Shelley set out three covered glass dishes. "All rice in one, all fried stuff in another, and everything else in the last one," she instructed as she set about loading plates and silverware into the dishwasher.
“Mel called just before I came over," Jane said. "I told him I'd had a talk with Mike and things were sorted out so that I could still go with him this weekend. I told him about my conversation with Mike, including the part about Steve leaving me. I'd never mentioned that to him before. I guess I was afraid of him knowing I was a reject."
“And…?"
“And I was sorry I'd talked about it on the 87 phone. I wanted to see his face. He was real noncommittal and cool. For all I know, he already knew about it. I had to tell the police where Steve was going that night, so it's in a report he could look up if he wanted.”
Jane's mature son's voice wafted in from the living room saying, "Use your Moon Sword, butt breath!”
Jane shook her head in dismay. "Mike's walking a thin line between kid and adult and I never know which side he's going to slip over. I guess he doesn't either.. "
“Jane! About Mel?”
Jane studied the last crab Rangoon, wondering if she could eat it without blowing up and decided she couldn't. "He said that was too bad because now he couldn't go because of this murder."
“Why not? There are other detectives who could take over," Shelley said.
“I know. I asked that too and he said since he was the person who actually found the body, he couldn't unload the case on somebody else. He was sounding cranky, like it was my fault he found the body."
“Jane, if he can't get away until this is solved, it could be months. You know how slowly the police work. Lab results alone can take weeks."
“I know." Jane dumped a half carton of shrimp fried rice into the proper bowl. "But there's nothing I can do about it."
“Except solve it for him," Shelley suggested. "Shelley, you know how it pisses him off for us to butt in."
“Yes, but unless you want to take a walker and a case of Geritol along on your weekend of sin, we'd better."
“I don't know, Shelley. Those people might as well come from another planet for all we know about their lives. It's such a weird world they live in. We have no idea what makes them tick."