So what would explain it? Think logically, she told herself. Like yesterday, when she and Shelley were discussing reasons for murder. And was there any connection between the missing pearls and the missing screwdriver? How could there be? Rummaging in her purse for the scrap of paper with Shelley's hotel number on it, she dialed.
“Shelley, are you doing anything?"
“My nails. Paul is taking me downtown for dinner. He's in the other room in the suite right now making some business calls.”
The other room of the suite… Jane didn't comment on how the Nowacks spent a night away from home. The last time she and Steve had spent a night alone together it had been in a Holiday Inn room, next to the elevator shaft.
“Shelley, I understand you can't talk about the pearls, but I want to discuss something odd with you. Just to sort out my own thoughts."She explained about the unlocked desk drawer and her suspicions. Throughout, Shelley made no comment. There was only the occasional whhh as she blew on her nails.
“You think Edith did it, then?" Shelley asked when Jane was through with her recital.
“I think so, yes. But for some reason, I don't want to believe it — or there's something wrong with the assumption. I just want to eliminate all the other possibilities."
“Hmmm, I guess you have to consider that someone else might have gone through the desk drawer."
“But who?The kids?"
“Not very likely suspects, I agree," Shelley said.
“Mike's too moral and upright. I'd never dream of accusing him of that to his face — it isn't what teenagers want to be called — but it's true. He's always the one who makes me go back and fess up when I accidentally get too much change from a clerk."
“There speaks a proud mother," Shelley said with a laugh.
“No, it's not that I have any illusions about his faults; he has plenty, including his cavalier attitude toward my mental health and wellbeing when in a car. But he utterly lacks any sneakiness. If he wanted to look in the drawer, he'd have just asked for the key — and I'd have given it to him, and he knows it."
“One down and two to go. Eliminate Katie. Whhh—" Shelley said, blowing on another nail.
“Katie? Katie can be sneaky. It goes with the age and gender."
“Doesn't it just!"
“I think the urge to experiment with the truth to see just how far it can be bent is part of the growing-up process. But Katie wouldn't have broken into the drawer — she's already stripped me of all my valuables. If she thought there was anything she might want in there, she'd have just nagged until I gave it to her. That's how she got the little pearl pinkie ring away from me."
“The one she lost in the swimming pool?"
“That's the one."
“All right, what about Todd? Whhh—"
“He's very good at mechanical things, and sheer curiosity might have made him pick the lock just to see what was in there, except he was the one who helped me last time I cleaned out the drawer. Back in March, when he had the chicken pox. He was driving me crazy, fetching things for him, so I made him help. He knows everything that's in it, and found most of it real boring. All he liked was some Mexican coins I had in there, and I gave them to him. So he had no reason to get into it."
“What about you? Couldn't you have gone through it and just forgotten about it?”
No, Jane thought. A year or two ago it might have been possible. When the kids were smaller and she was more harried and hadn't adjusted to the maternal necessities of balancing five schedules in her head — then, it might have been possible. But since last winter, this quiet little office had become a special haven, and she simply didn't allow the rush of daily life to interfere. It was a little like self-hypnosis; she'd conditioned herself to the state that the very act of stepping in the door served to make her think calmly. She could picture herself doing any sort of loony, scatterbrained thing almost anywhere but here.
“I'm certain I didn't leave it unlocked or mess up the drawer, and even if I had, why is the eyeglasses screwdriver missing?"
“Whhh — So, if it wasn't one of you — and temporarily assuming it wasn't the obvious Edith, just for fairness — who else could it have been? Who else came in the house? What about the kids' friends? You haven't had that Stringer child in, have you?"
“Lord, no! Didn't they put him away for the Brinks robbery in fifth grade?"
“No, I think they may have moved to Cleveland."
“Same thing. There are armies of kids through here all the time, but very few since last week because of school starting. Besides, they're in the kitchen pillaging the refrigerator or in the living room with the video games when they visit. None of the kids' friends would be caught dead in the basement family room."
“Not wishing to speak ill of the dead — Jane, now that Steve's gone, why don't you give up calling that a 'family room' and just refer to it as the dank, hideous cave it is?"
“Steve worked so hard on it—"
“Yes, and if he'd been a carpenter or electrician — or better yet, a foundation specialist — instead of a pharmacist, it might have turned out nicely. But that's beside the point. You feel certain it wasn't a kid who got into the desk drawer?"
“Shelley, it seemed too — I don't know how to put it — too cunning and careful to be the act of a kid. Someone looked for a good tool without any obvious rummaging in the center drawer. And they didn't root around violently in the other drawer either. The disturbance was subtle; I probably wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been suspicious to begin with because the lock was wrong. It's like with your pearls. Somebody seemed to know exactly where to go without messing anything else up."
“Bad subject."
“I know you can't talk about it at your end. I was just mentioning it.”
Shelley went on as if jewelry had never been mentioned. "Well, I think you've pretty well cleared all the other possible suspects, unless you've had any service people in lately. Had anything repaired in the basement?"
“Nobody."
“Then I think you're stuck with assuming it was Edith."
“But why? She didn't steal anything.”
“Maybe she was just checking out what there was to steal later on, when you're used to her being around."
“I don't know — I'm reluctant to believe badly of her. But I think I'm going to fire her anyway, because she depresses the hell out of me."
“Don't worry, Jane. There are plenty of people who will be delighted to sign up for her. Her customers speak so highly of her."
“Not everybody." Jane repeated Dorothy Wallenberg's remarks.
“That's funny. Dorothy's not real fussy. I dropped an earring between her sofa cushions at a party once, and when I reached down, I found an Easter egg. It was a Christmas party. I wouldn't think she'd demand perfection. Do you know what? I think we've both gone a little nutty because of the murder. A week ago we'd have never had a conversation this long over something so trivial."
“Who are you trying to kid? We once spent a whole hour analyzing Mary Ellen Revere's makeup. Remember?”
Shelley laughed. "Paul's through with his calls. Gotta go — whhh — I'll think of you over my shrimp salad and raspberry torte."
“What kind of thing is that to say to a friend who's planning hot dogs and baked beans for dinner?”