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which brings me to the good news: He’s Lizzy Rice’s husband!”
    As was not unusual when talking with her mother, Jan felt her brain begin to spin. “So what?” she blurted.
    â€œWell, don’t you see? He actually knew my Marc Saastad roses were counted cross-stitch!”
    The spinning continued. Jan gripped the receiver as if it were the single solid object in a too-fluid reality. “I’m afraid I still don’t understand.”
    â€œDarling, he’s one of us ! He understands that we’re nice people, people who don’t go about murdering one another. He really understands .”
    â€œOh. That’s good. I’m so glad you had a meeting of the minds.”
    â€œThat’s exactly right ,” declared her mother, oblivious to Jan’s sarcasm. “He was so easy to talk to, he realizes how upset we were over Aunt Edyth’s peculiar will. He even understood about Stew.”
    Jan’s brain stopped whirling the instant her heart sank into her shoes. She asked in a voice that only vaguely resembled her own, “What did you tell him about Uncle Stewart?”
    Suddenly aware of Jan’s tone, her mother became defensive. “I only said what Aunt Edyth used to say. That he’s not good with money, and that if his daughters were given a share of her money he would find a way to take some of it and lose it on bad business ventures.”
    â€œDid you say that as if you agreed with her assessment?”
    â€œBut I do agree with it! You know very well—”
    Jan interrupted her as a new thought intruded. “So he knows Uncle Stewart doesn’t get any of the money.”
    â€œYes, I think so.”
    â€œDid you tell him how much money was at stake?”
    â€œNo, because nobody knows how much the total will be.”
    â€œBut you told him it was substantial.”
    â€œI…I don’t remember.” She was definitely beginning to sound defensive now.
    â€œWhat else did you tell him?”
    â€œWell, he wanted to know about the family, so I gave him a kind of genealogy. I told him everyone’s name and how they were related—you know, you and Hugs and the boys and Stewart and Terri and the girls. You can’t find any objection to that, surely. And yes, that’s right, I did tell him that Stewart couldn’t possibly be a suspect because he was not in Aunt Edyth’s will.” Amusement crept back into her voice. “I asked him if that meant he would be looking slant-wise at me , and he said of course not—he has no reason to think I’m a murderer.”
    â€œWhat did you say about me?”
    â€œWhat about you?”
    â€œWell, you told him that the two of us are sharing the part of Aunt Edyth’s fortune that she doesn’t give to the U of M, right?”
    â€œWell,” Susan replied, “I explained how strange and unfair Aunt Edyth’s will was, and yes, that of all the family, only you and I would share the money she didn’t give to the university.”
    â€œSo if he agrees that Uncle Stewart has no motive and he’s sure you didn’t murder her for her money, that kind of leaves me twisting in the wind, doesn’t it?”
    â€œJanice Margaret McConnell Henderson!”
    â€œYes?” Jan replied in her sweetest voice, tinged just the merest bit with acid.
    â€œ Why —why on earth do you think I would for one second allow the police to suspect you, my own daughter, of murder ?”
    â€œI don’t think you did it on purpose. I think you were just so enchanted by this policeman’s being one of us that you weren’t thinking very clearly.”
    â€œI didn’t do it at all! Your name just didn’t come into it!”
    â€œBut he will deduce that! Oh, Mother, because he had nice manners and is married to a friend of yours, you forgot he is a police detective looking for a murderer. You thought that because he could