"Yes, all right," Jane said. "Edgar, you better tell me what to do and show me where the skivvy stuff is."

They toured the broom and vacuum cleaner closet and the linen closets, then Edgar said, "Now come out to the carriage house. The rags are there."

"A whole house, just for rags?" Jane asked as they hurried through the drizzle across the driveway and into the carriage house through the ground floor garage doors. Hector sensibly remained behind in the warm, dry house. There was, his expression suggested, a limit to what one would do for guests.

There was a jumbled heap of fabric in the middle of the floor. "These, ladies, were all the old rotten curtains and drapes in the house. I took out the hardware, washed them, and threw them in here to turn into rags as I need them. All the yard stuff's here, too, and extra cleaning supplies. I got a by-the-crate bargain on bathroom cleaner and dishwasher soap and over there is a mountain of toilet paper." He pointed into the gloom at the back of the triple garage.

"Is there more stuff upstairs here?" Jane asked.

"No, we haven't done anything to that yet. It's a relic of a boy's room. Sort of poignant, really — that the people left it. Posters, football trophies, a battered desk with school homework papers still in the drawers.

Sort of chokes you up to think of pitching it all."

"That's Ted's room," Shelley said.

"Dead Ted?" Jane asked.

"Dead Ted! That sounds like a rock group," Edgar said, laughing uneasily.

"Ted Francisco," Shelley said. "I guess I better explain to both of you — just in case anything awkward happens."

"Are you anticipating 'something awkward'?" Jane asked.

Edgar looked distinctly unhappy at this turn in the conversation.

Shelley didn't answer directly. "This house belonged to Judge Francisco. He and his wife had a son Ted, who was in our class in high school. He was handsome, smart, athletic, everything. We were all madly injlove with him. He had everything going for him." She paused for a moment before finishing. "The night of our senior prom, he committed suicide." ',