Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Vol. 105, Nos. 3 & 4. Whole Nos. 640 & 641, March 1995

They’d opened the shop three years ago. Sarah had never let on that she knew of Valerie’s affair with Jim, and as a result she talked about him as little as possible. They saw one another every weekday, but went in different directions on weekends. Valerie played tennis and Sarah had her own things to do. A few times a year they went into New York and stayed the weekend. They went to the theater and window-shopped along Madison and Fifth Avenues, staying in touch with the latest fashions. This August they were planning to take a trip together to Bermuda.

The shop was doing well and they enjoyed working together. Everything seemed to be going along fine, and then Jim had come after Valerie again.

Sarah saw it first in Valerie’s eyes, that drawn and haunted look of torment and despair. It was in Valerie’s face on Saturday, after they had closed the shop and stood in the parking lot behind the bank. There were no customers to distract them, only the intermittent glare of the sun in their faces as it shifted through the branches of a tall oak tree.

Sarah leaned her head back against the sofa cushions and wondered when Valerie had decided to do what she had done. Had it just happened, or had she made a careful plan? Had she gone with Jim or had she followed him there?

None of that mattered. What did was what would happen now. Would the detectives turn up evidence that would lead to Valerie? Sarah shuddered to think what that would mean.

The questions kept piling up and Sarah felt as though her head was about to burst. There was Jim’s death to deal with. She’d already told Pastor Bicks she wanted a simple burial, no service in a church that Jim had never attended. The minister hadn’t tried to persuade her otherwise.

What she needed now was sleep. She rose and went into the kitchen and stood by the sink. She switched on the garbage disposal and turned the water on. Then she tore the sheet of paper with all the names into tiny pieces and pushed them down the drain.

In Tony’s Pizza Palace, across from the police station, the two large pies Player had ordered arrived and took over the table. Kentucky surveyed them. “Any chance I get to take a slice home?”

“Only if I hold back,” Player said with a grin, popping a can of beer. “What do you think? Will we find out who did it?”

“It’s hard to tell,” Kentucky answered.

“Well, what would you guess?”

“I’m not much good at guessing. I talked to the lab. They said they’ll have something interesting to tell us tomorrow morning.”

“That’s cute. Why not tonight?”

“They’ve got their own way of handling things, and besides, the big boss is away. They may feel a little insecure.”

Player reached for a slice of pizza and Kentucky saw the steam rise. “Count to twenty,” he said. “My sister always did. She never burned her mouth, not once.”

“Thanks. I wish I’d had a sister. Three brothers is what I had, all bigger than me. They played football.” He let the slice dangle in his hand. “Any guesses on what the lab has?”

“I told you, I’m no good at guessing, but that doesn’t stop me from thinking. I don’t know how they could find much in those woods, not with all the rain last night. I suppose that love nest will be just like Fullerton’s car — another beauty parlor. Only God knows how many women he took there.”

Player tipped back his head and opened his mouth. Half the slice disappeared. When he’d, finished the rest of it, he looked at Kentucky. “Let me ask you something. Have you ever done it in the woods?”

“What kind of question is that?”

Player shrugged. “It’s just a question. It’s hard not to think about it, considering what we’ve been dealing with all day.”

Kentucky reached for his beer. “Well, suppose I answer you this way. You’ve got kind of a short season up here in the North. Where I come from the dogwoods bloom earlier and the season stays warmer a lot longer.”

Player let out a guffaw.

Sarah had awakened at six. She’d had her breakfast, taken a shower, and blown her hair dry. She listened to the weather report and decided on a dark-green suit and a silk blouse. She was putting on a pair of gold earrings when the phone rang. She picked it up on the second ring, trying to anticipate who it would be — Valerie, the police, or Pastor Bicks.

His voice had a deeper twang on the phone than in person. He started out by apologizing for calling so early.

“It isn’t so early,” she said. “I’ve been up for some time.”

He said he had something to tell her, and that she might want to sit down.

Sarah took his advice and sat on the edge of the bed. For the next two minutes she listened and didn’t say a word. When Kentucky was finished, her heart was racing so fast she thought it would fly right out of her chest.

She didn’t know where she managed to find her voice, but it came from somewhere. He’d said he couldn’t come over right then, which is why he called, but he wanted to stop by in the afternoon. She told him three o’clock would be fine.