Jill Churchill - The House of Seven Mabels

"Not to me," Jane said. "But maybe I'll suggest he give it some thought."

Jane could hardly get to sleep that night. She tried forcing herself to think about the book she was writing and what Priscilla would do next. But her thoughts kept coming back to Bitsy. She'd never seriously suspected Bitsy until a second before she spoke the words to Shelley. If Sandra's death was an accident, which she didn't think for a moment, then what was the point of all the nasty pranks afterward?

Maybe it really did come back to Bitsy's ex-

husband. The single time she'd seen him, Jane had taken an instant and intense dislike to him. He'd been clearly gloating over Bitsy's apparent failure to get on with the job. Was it possible he had nothing to do with Sandra's death, but was responsible for the other incidents?

The house had been fully accessible to anyone who wanted to get in to put the shrimp in the ducts. He could have done it or hired someone to do it for him. After Joe Dudley took over as contractor and the locks were changed and windows boarded up, the "pranks" took place outside. Salting the concrete. Starting the fire.

But if Budley had nothing to do with Sandra's death, who climbed through the dense shrubs, went down the virtually invisible coal chute, and brought the purse back?

As she thought back, she was wrong. The toolbox with the fake bomb showed up at the house, and so did Sandra's purse, after Budley took over.

Did it really have to be one and only one person? Or was it some sort of conspiracy? Maybe even several people, unknown to each other, grinding their own axes?

When Shelley and Jane had both finished their morning car pools, Jane went over to Shelley's house with a legal pad and pen. "We're going to make a timeline. Maybe that will show us something we've forgotten."

But Shelley sidetracked her with the anti-wrinkle cream. "Try it."

"Not now. I've already put my makeup on."

"No, you haven't."

"I thought I had," Jane said, trying to remember the morning rush. The kids had both gotten up late and both their schools took tardiness seriously. "Smells good," she said, rubbing a little bit of it under her eyes.

"They say within a week you'll see a difference. If this house thing doesn't pan out, maybe we could become reps and sell the stuff," Shelley said with a laugh.

"Yeah, right. Door to door, I assume. No thank you."

"So, we're making another of your legendary lists?" Shelley asked. It was a running joke. Jane was a compulsive list maker.

"Not exactly a list. More like a couple of charts. Okay, let's start with everyone involved in the renovation and what we know about them. First is Bitsy. I'll make a note across from her name regarding possible motives. An insurance scam, for one."

"Don't you need another column for reasons these people aren't the ones responsible?" Shelley suggested.

"Good idea. See? You're already contributing. We mark Bitsy as the one who stands to profit the most in the last column."

"Are you considering Sandra?"

"I suppose we could list her, but she was already dead before most of the things happened."

"Put her down anyway. The object is to be thorough, right? To jar us into some conclusions or things to find out."

Jane put Sandra's name down. Under Sandra, she also added the thugs who collected the rents for the previous owners. Not by name, of course.

"We know nothing about them and never will," Shelley objected.

"But they could be behind everything that's happened. Wanting to get their lucrative jobs back."

Shelley just shrugged. "It's your list."

"Jacqueline Hunt is next. What motive could she have?"

"None," Shelley said. "She was one of the victims, remember. She got a shock when she plugged in the planer."

"That doesn't necessarily exclude her from things that happened later. Maybe revenge for someone she thought set her up for the shock."

"Jane, don't you think it's unlikely that several people are vandalizing the house and endangering others?"

"Unlikely, but possible. Just go with the flow, Shelley. If we're wasting time, we'll know it when we get the charts done."

"Charts? Plural?" Shelley groaned.

"The second one is going to be the order bad things happened. So we'll put possible revenge for getting shocked."

"Jane, that doesn't make sense. Which stunt do you imagine she did? It could only be some of them aimed at Bitsy. Jacqueline is proud of her work and certainly would want to see it completed. She's also making money from Bitsy. Why would she jeopardize a good job?"

"Okay, okay," Jane said grumpily. "I'll cross out revenge. I guess we mark nothing for Henrietta Smith, either. You could say the same for her. They work as a pair. What about Wesley Woodly, the furnace guy? He certainly had nothing but contempt for both Bitsy and Sandra."

"But the furnace and air conditioning are working now. And he's been paid and is no longer on the job. Why would he care what happens to the project?" Shelley objected again.

"Because there's the other side of the upstairs still to be done and the whole downstairs. He's only temporarily off the job. Maybe he's so desperate to avoid coming back, he'd sabotage the whole deal," Jane said smugly.

"I'll reluctantly give you that one."

"Will you also give me the two women who were throwing up in the front yard?"

"No."

"Okay. Then we come to my favorite. Bitsy's ex-husband, Neville."

"Put him down," Shelley said. "He's got the best motive to wreck Bitsy's project. A man scorned, and thinking it's really his hard-earned

money that's funding this project. Now, are we done with this chart?"

"We've hardly begun," Jane said.

Shelley put her head down on the kitchen table and pretended to weep.

Twenty-four

Next are the people doing the sheetrock. Carl Stringfield."

"We know nothing about him. We've only been introduced to him once," Shelley countered.

"So he's blank for now. But we need to speak to him. Or find out about him from Evaline. She's next on the list, and we know a lot about her."

"She did term papers for other people," Shelley huffed. "I don't know if that's illegal, but it's immoral."

"We've been through that already. But she's one of the brightest, most competent, and most imaginative of any of them — as far as we know."

"But what would be her motive? You're back to what we said about Jacqueline and Henry. She's landed a job she's good at and being paid for. Besides, she and Carl are victims, too. Someone wrecked their work and they had to do it again."

"Okay, okay. You're right again. But we have to list them. And now another of my favorites. Joe Budley."

"That jerk," Shelley said. "Yes, put him down. But as much as I dislike him, I don't think he's responsible for the things that have happened since he took the job as contractor. There's nothing in it for him. Quite the contrary. If what we've heard is true, he has a deadline and a budget he has to adhere to."

"But he could have been the one who planted the shrimp and niggled with the wiring before Sandra died. He might even be the one who killed Sandra. Didn't Thomasina say he really wanted that job before Bitsy got tangled up with Sandra?"

"That's true, I guess. But you can't imagine he'd sabotage himself." Shelley got up from her kitchen table and started to unload the dishwasher.

"We're back to having two or more suspects," Jane said, feeling discouraged.

"I find that hard to imagine," Shelley said, stacking plates. "My money's still on Bitsy's ex-husband."

"I guess the last on the list is Thomasina, the electrician. Suppose she herself accidentally made the wiring error that resulted in Jacqueline being knocked out?"

"Interesting question," Shelley admitted, almost dropping a handful of spoons. "She might have. Maybe her generosity about paying Jacqueline's medical costs was more than to make sure it didn't go on her record with the insurance com-