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he’s had a pretty rough life. He never talks about it, but I can tell and it’s a real shame. And I think Grant did something really mean to him, though Barry never said anything. You met Barry at Mr. Booth’s, though you probably don’t remember with all those people. Anyway, I think it would be nice if we were to have him over for dinner sometime.”
    “Sure,” I said. “I have a couple of questions I’d like to ask him.”
    He gave me his one-eyebrow-up, one-eyebrow-down semi-scowl. “I said we should ask him over for dinner, not to an interrogation. I’m sure he’d like to come over—I don’t think he has all that many friends—but I don’t want you dragging out the rubber hose and the brass knuckles the minute he walks in the door.”
    I shook my head solemnly. “Oh, ye of little faith,” I said.
    “What are brass knuckles?” Joshua asked.
    “They’re something I’m occasionally tempted to use on Uncle Dick,” Jonathan answered sweetly. I ignored him, and Joshua didn’t pursue it.
    Despite Jonathan’s probably accurate assessment of my motives, I said, “I know it’s short notice, but why don’t you give Barry a call and see if he’d like to come over tomorrow night?”
    “You’re right.” He looked mildly suspicious. “It is short notice. What am I supposed to tell him?”
    “You don’t have to tell him anything. Just say you’d been thinking of having him over and that we were talking about having pizza tomorrow night…”
    “We were?” The eyebrow raised again.
    “Hey, work with me here,” I said. “It’s a reason. If he can’t, he can’t, but…”
    “Can we still have pizza?” Joshua chimed in.
    “Well, I suppose,” Jonathan said reluctantly. “But I don’t know that I’ve got his number.”
    “I do,” I said. “Roger gave me the numbers of everyone in the chorus. I’ll get it for you right after we finish dinner. And if he can’t come tomorrow, you can set up another night. But I really do want to talk to him as soon as possible.”
    As Joshua and I were doing the dishes, Jonathan called Barry and they talked quietly for several minutes. I heard him say, “Great! We’ll see you then.”
    Coming into the kitchen, he said, “All set. Tomorrow night at seven. He asked if he could bring anything and I told him no.”
    “Good,” I said. “Thanks.”
    While Joshua and I finished cleaning up and Jonathan studied for class, my mind slipped further into my on-a-case mode. I mentally checked Barry off my to-contact list. Next was Eric.
    I knew he worked a nine-to-five and that he often worked on Saturdays as well. Since Barry would be over Saturday night, that left Sunday or a weeknight.
    Returning to the living room, where Joshua was already busy working on several different play projects at once, I said, “I was thinking. Since we’re having Barry over tomorrow, would it be too much to try to get together with Eric on Sunday, maybe?”
    Jonathan looked up quizzically. “Sunday?”
    “Yeah. Does Eric go to church, do you know?”
    “No, he’s a heathen, like you.” He smiled when he said it.
    “What’s a heathen?” Joshua had to ask.
    “Somebody who doesn’t go to church on Sunday,” I said.
    “Oh,” he replied and went back to playing.
    “So, what were you thinking?” Jonathan asked.
    “Well, maybe I could ask him to come over to talk about Grant while you and Joshua are at church, and then we could all go out for brunch.”
    Pursing his lips, he looked at me for a minute before saying, “Well, I don’t know. You think I can trust the two of you alone together? He wants your bod.”
    “Hey, look, I’m the jealous-possessive one in the family. You don’t have a thing to worry about. Though it’s nice to be wanted.”
    He grinned. “What am I, chopped liver?”
    I leaned over to kiss him, then went to the phone and made the call.
    *
    I recognized Barry Legget the moment he showed up at the door Saturday evening. I had met him at Booth’s