Mulch Ado About Nothing by Jill Churchill

over and said, "That's very peculiar, isn't it? If it was a robbery, why go straight to the basement? Did she have a safe or something down there that a repair person might know about?"
    “We don't know," Jane said. "But the man I date is the investigating officer and he didn't mention a safe. I would think if there was one, he would probably have mentioned it.”
    Miss Winstead frowned for a long moment, then said, "You don't think… No, of course not…"
    “What?" Jane and Shelley said in unison.
    “No, it's absurd. But I just wondered if it might have anything to do with her being scheduled to teach this class."
    “How could it?" Shelley asked.
    Miss Winstead shrugged elegantly. "I don't know. It just popped into my mind because you were asking me about the people in the class.”
    Jane and Shelley both looked stunned. "I suppose in the back of my mind, I
was
thinking that," Jane admitted. "For no good reason except it happened so close to her giving a talk to this group."
    “You think she might be in a position to reveal something about one of them?" Shelley asked.
    Jane said, "Maybe. But what could that be? And why wouldn't she sort it out with the person in private instead of in front of witnesses? No, I don't think that would fly."
    “But none of us know her personally," Miss Winstead said primly. "I think it's rash to make assumptions. It just as well could be that one of the escorts took himself too seriously, and she rejected him. A crime of passion that has nothing to do with her job.”
    The younger women felt like they'd been put in their place, and Jane reverted to what little she knew of the investigation. "Mel, that's the man I know who's the investigating detective, says it was a violent attack, and appeared that the attacker might not have expected her to be there."
    “How on earth did he come to that conclusion?" Miss Winstead said with an air of criticism.
    “Only because Geneva Jackson left the house with her husband earlier. The sisters look so much alike that the attacker, if he was watching the house, could have mistaken Geneva for Julie. It's only one theory," Jane said, feeling she had to defend Mel's thinking now that she had stupidly given away something she shouldn't have.
    Miss Winstead nodded. "I suppose that does make sense. Who reported the attack?"
    “I assume Geneva or her husband," Jane said. "They came home and found her injured, I suppose. They were at the house, anyway, when we got there with the misdirected flower arrangement."
    “Jane, would you let me know what you learn of the investigation?" Miss Winstead asked.
    That put Jane on the spot. She was already feeling like she'd dishonored Mel's confidences and shouldn't say any more.
    “I doubt I'll be told any more about the investigation," she fudged. "Mel only mentioned the one idea because he was visiting me a couple hours later to see how badly I'd hurt my foot. Sort of thinking out loud, you know."
    “I understand," Miss Winstead said rather formally. Jane was afraid the older woman understood all too well and was insulted.
    The moment passed quickly, however, as there was a sudden bolt of lightning and the sound of a hard rain coming down on the roof of the restaurant.
    “Nobody predicted this," Shelley said as she pulled aside the little curtain in the booth. "Wow, a real gully washer. I guess we're stuck here for a bit. Does it seem to you that the more technology the weather forecasters get, the more inaccurate they are? It used to be that the weather guy would go out on the roof of the studio and look at the sky and take a guess, and was right half of the time. Now they're wrong most of the time.”
    They spent the rest of the brief storm happily deriding local newscasters who had no training in speaking good English. A subject dear to Miss Winstead's heart. "They think notoriety and famemean the same thing. I've heard so many grammatical errors that make me cringe."
    “The other day, in the chat segment, one of