Jane laughed. "You're not nearly as sweet as you look! Shelley is going to love knowing you, Patsy. I can't believe you model yourself on Henry VIII."
“I'm getting his figure, that's for sure, and if I didn't keep up on my estrogen, I'd probably have his beard by now," Patsy said. "Still, it's worked out pretty well as a committee philosophy. And if you ever tell anyone but Mrs. Nowack that I said this, I'll deny ever speaking to you," she added with a smile.
“This is your last child graduating this year, isn't it?" Jane asked.
Patsy nodded. "Last of five. I'm going to start backing off and spend more time on my own business, which is coming along nicely."
“You do all this and have a business, too?"
“Yes, with four of the kids gone, I was driving my husband crazy trying to reorganize him," she said with a laugh. "So I started a billing company. Saves small businesses the cost of a full-time employee for what is really a half-a-day-a-week job. I haven't gotten into medical offices because that's too complex, what with Medicare and insurance, but I have a florist, an office supply store, a secretarial service, and an attorney. Well, I had an attorney until yesterday, but he died."
“Was that Robert Stonecipher?"
“Yes, it was. Did you know him?"
“No, but my son works at the deli where he died and I was there."
“Terrible thing to have happen," Patsy said. "I hear he was killed.”
Mel hadn't told Jane the information about Stonecipher having died of natural causes was a secret, but she still didn't feel it was up to her to blab.
So she kept quiet and Patsy went on. "I can't say I'm too shocked, though. I think the man's life was in terrible disarray."
“What do you mean, disarray?"
“With all due respect to the dead, Robert Stonecipher was a nut case. So discontented and angry at everything. None of us can remake the world to suit ourselves and that's what he seemed to be trying to do. All those 'causes' of his! And he always took the line that it was for somebody else's own good. I think most people are like me — they want to make their own decisions about what's to their own benefit, not have some priggish holier-than-thou jerk tell them. He tried it on me. Once! Tried to slither into a discussion about how much healthier I'd be if I lost weight."
“No!”
Patsy smiled. "Oh, by the time I got through with him, he knew better than to ever mention it again. I have children to provide me with gratuitous personal critiques. I don't need them from others.”
Patsy and Shelley are going to be soul mates, Jane thought.
“And his personal relationships were just as bad, it seems," Patsy went on. "You know, I presume, that his wife had filed for divorce."
“I saw the notice in the paper.”
Patsy was quiet for a minute, then said, "You know, I've been wondering about something — it's pure gossip, which I don't approve of unless I'm the recipient, but since you're dating that detective, I wonder. .”
This hesitancy was unlike her. "What's this about, Patsy?"
“I'm only telling you this so you can pass it on to your friend the detective, you understand. I went in Stonecipher's office Thursday afternoon to pick up some checks, and he and Emma Weyrich were having a terrific row. I guess they didn't hear me come in and nobody else was around."
“What was the row about?"
“Them. I came into the middle of it and left as fast as I could, but it was about his divorce. I had the impression from what I overheard that he and Emma had been having an affair and she thought now that he was going to befree, she'd be the next Mrs. Stonecipher. He brushed her off."
“I'd heard he had a girlfriend," Jane said. "It never crossed my mind that it was Emma. But it should have. So she was taking the news badly?"
“Very, very badly. Apparently he'd strung her along for years and years. It was really ugly, Jane. I don't like to run off and be a tattler myself, but I wonder if the police ought to know—?"
“I'll pass this along to Mel, but I don't think you need to worry."
“Good. I didn't want to be one of those old biddies who look like they're out to get somebody. I've never liked Emma, but I don't want to go around sounding like I think she killed him. She was mad, but not that mad. At least, I don't think so."
“Patsy, you were right to pass this along and I'll tell Mel about it, but I think I can assure you that it won't matter.”
Patsy gathered up the party bible and rose. "Thanks, Jane. I'll give you a call Monday about getting together with you and Mrs. Nowack and getting the two of you on a committee."
“Why aren't I surprised that you didn't forget that?" Jane asked.
As she watched Patsy leave, she smiled to herself. She thought she'd so cleverly guided Patsy into talking about Robert Stonecipher when, in fact, Patsy had been pulling her along on a leash. Yes, Patsy and Shelley were going to get along well.
10
"Shelley, I've got to run some errands. Ride along? I have very interesting things to tell you."
“I'm amazed. It's only ten in the morning and you were up all night and you're still able to speak English fairly fluently?"
“I found a cot in the nurse's room at school and got a lovely three-hour nap, then came home at six in the morning and slept till nine. I'm actually pretty close to human today. If you don't count my hair," Jane replied.
“Jane, I never consider your hair. Give me five minutes to gather up some dry cleaning I need to drop off.”
A few minutes later, Shelley, nearly buried in a pile of Paul's shirts and suits, was sitting in the passenger seat as Jane backed out of the driveway, carefully avoiding the pothole the family was affectionately starting to call the Grand Canyon.
“I have a ton of interesting stuff to tell you," Jane said. "But the most interesting is that Robert Stonecipher died of a heart attack a good five or ten minutes, at least, before somebody pushed that rack of hams over on him.”
Shelley whipped her head around and looked at Jane as if she were crazy. "What? You mean this?"
“The coroner or pathologist or whoever swears to it. Mel told me last night. He'd just found out. Stonecipher wasn't murdered."
“But somebody made it look like he had been!" Shelley said. "I'm dumbfounded. Why would anybody do that?"
“I've been brooding on it for a while and I can think of two reasons," Jane said. "One sort of reasonable, one sort of goofy. If he had life insurance like my husband did, it would pay double if he died by accident. Double jeopardy — I mean, double indemnity. I always mix those up."
“Pointing to Rhonda," Shelley said.
Jane shrugged. "If he had life insurance with that provision and if she were the beneficiary. But he might have other policies as well. You can have more than one life insurance policy, can't you, if you're willing to pay the premiums?"
“I don't know. I would guess you could. So he might have had one for the girlfriend you heard about. Or even one that paid to his business."
“Oh, that's something else I learned. The girlfriend is Emma Weyrich and I have lots more about her. What I wonder is, can you insure somebody else's life with yourself as beneficiary?"
“I'm pretty sure you can," Shelley said. "But I don't really know a lot about insurance."
“Then you probably won't know what else I was wondering about which is, if you can insure someone else, can you do it without their knowledge? But this is all wandering from the main point, which is that an accidental death might pay off a lot better than a heart attack."