“Thanks!" Dorothy said, easing the pan onto Jane's waiting arms.

“You're coming tonight, then?" Jane asked. Dorothy had previously claimed a schedule conflict. A former nurse, she volunteered in a free birth control clinic several nights a week.

“Sure," Dorothy answered with a grin. "Life isn't all vaginas."

“Mostly, though," Jane answered.

Dorothy laughed and got back into the car. "All settled, kids? Jane, there's a donut on your driveway."

“I know. Flocks of ravenous birds are due any minute.”

Her hands occupied with the big cake pan, Jane stuck out her leg and waved good-bye to Todd with her foot. He rolled his eyes and looked away.

A bad sign, that. A symptom that the beginning of the end was in sight.

TWO

Keeping a firm grip on the sheet cake, Jane went to the side entrance of Shelley's house next door and leaned her elbow on the doorbell. Just then a van pulled up in front. Across the side of it in blue letters was the message: Happy Helper Cleaning Service. A thin woman in her thirties with frizzy blond hair got out and waved good-bye to the driver and other passengers. She was wearing something polyester that looked like a nurse's pantsuit dyed light blue. Across the breast pocket it said Happy Helper.

“You must be Edith," Jane said as the woman joined her on the porch.

“No, I'm Ramona. Are you Mrs. Nowack?"

“No, but this is her house. I'm Mrs. Jeffry from next door. Ring the bell again, would you?”

Shelley, immaculately turned out as always, opened the door a moment later. Her sleek, dark hair looked like she'd just stepped out of a very expensive beauty shop, and her navy-blue sweats — which Jane had seen her purchase at K mart — looked like something a designer had whipped up especially for her. Shelley had a way of doing that to clothes.