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steps.“
    “I’m going to splint your wrist, just so you don’t accidentally move your hand around and pull those bandages loose,“ Maisie said.
    Maisie was just finishing this when Mel came back inside. “This Jake... he’s got long hair? Dark red? Wearing a blue shirt?“ he said briskly to Butch.
    “Uh-huh. That’s him.”
    Mel reached for Jane’s phone, dialed, and, while waiting for an answer, said, “I’m sorry to tell you, he’s dead.”
    There was a collective gasp from Maisie, Butch, and Jane.
    “Murdered,“ Mel added.
     

9
     
    “I go away to do my library volunteer stint for three hours and when I come back all hell has broken loose!“ Shelley exclaimed.
    “And you don’t yet know the half of it,“ Jane said.
    They were sitting at Jane’s back window again, but this time the activity outside was different. The property truck, just barely visible from their perspective two doors up the street, had been roped off with yellow plastic ribbon and police cars mingled with the movie vehicles. But, remarkably, the movie set was still busy. A scene was being filmed at the farthest end of the area from the police business.
    A uniformed police officer and a police secretary had taken over Jane’s hastily tidied kitchen and were questioning people one by one on their movements for the afternoon. Shelley and Jane had eavesdropped for a while, but the questions and answers were exceedingly dull routine ones and Jane assumed Mel was questioning the “important“ players, because the officer in the kitchen was working his way through the list of extras and the most minor of the technical workers, getting names, addresses, accounts of movements. As almost nobody had paid attention to the time, he must have been getting frustrated. But he kept patiently plodding through his list.
    “I assume you told Mel about overhearing the blackmailing conversation,“ Shelley said. “What did he say about that?“
    “ ‘Just the facts, ma’am.’ You know how stuffy and efficient he gets when he’s on duty. He wanted to know where I was standing, when it happened, how loud the voices were, whether I recognized who was speaking, that kind of thing. I think he was already mad at me before this happened.“
    “Why?“
    “Because I threatened to back out on our weekend away.“
    “After buying all that new underwear? Why? Did Thelma scare you?“
    “No, it’s got nothing to do with Thelma.”
    Jane explained about the lunch in her yard and Lynette Harwell’s devastating bit of information about her affair with Jane’s late husband. “Poor Mike just unraveled. He stormed out of the house, hurling accusations at me. When he got back, he’d calmed down some, but you could tell he was crushed. Then, before we could even thrash it out, he mentioned what happened to the kitchen.”
    Shelley held up her hands. “Kitchen? Hold it! What are you talking about? Has this unhinged you completely?“
    “I just hadn’t gotten to that part yet. Somebody came in while I was showering and trashed my kitchen.“
    “Probably trying to find your recipe for cheese bread to destroy it before you destroyed the world with it,“ Shelley said with a smile, which faded quickly. “You aren’t serious, are you?“
    “ ‘Fraid so. Drawers jerked out and rummaged through, cabinets partly emptied. A few broken dishes. There were trash and pots and pans all over the floor and counters and flour everyplace. I managed to just sweep everything into the guest bathroom and close the door on it before the police took over the kitchen. That’s why Mel was here. Mike called the police and so we were sitting here with Mel when Butch came in with his hand gashed—”
    Shelley’s mouth dropped open. “Butch? Who in the world is Butch?“
    “Jake’s assistant. A really nice kid. About twenty, New Jersey accent, no neck. He’d cut his hand pretty badly and Maisie brought him in here to wash it off and fix him up. He got all panicked that