"I don't think we would have."

Jane let it go. She thought back to her own childhood, spent traveling around with her diplomat father and mother. She wasn't a good person to make such a judgment. She and her sister, Marty, had often been placed in boarding schools when it wasn't appropriate to take children along on her father's missions. Both of them had been rigidly trained to always be polite and gracious. It didn't stick with Marty, though, when she got to live her own life.

"Could we stop off just a moment at the project?" Shelley asked. "I forgot to measure the basement. And we haven't even seen the third floor where the gables are."

"Dormers," Jane automatically corrected her. "I guess so. I left dinner with instructions to put it all in the oven at five-thirty. And it's that time now. Won't be ready for at least half an hour."

Everyone had apparently left the job site. No trucks, no sign of lights left on, and plenty of parking space. "I brought along flashlights," Shelley said. "I have no idea if there are light fixtures down there."

The front door wasn't locked. "No wonder anyone can wander in here," Jane said. "Bitsy and Sandra should lock up everything when the workers are gone."

"That's just one of many things they aren't doing right," Shelley said, opening the basement

door and feeling for a light switch along the wall. When she found one, an old-style push-button, light flooded the stairway.

"Oh my God!" Jane exclaimed. "There's a body down there!"

Twelve

Shelley and jane called their homes and let their children know they'd been delayed. "But turn the oven down to 225," Jane said to Todd.

"What's up, Mom?"

"There's been an accident at the place thaf s being renovated. I'll be home as soon as I can. I have to get off the phone now."