"Don't worry about it/' Henrietta said. "Bitsy

speaks well of your tastes. She'll go along with what you want, I'd guess. She's known you both for a long time, hasn't she?"

"Yes," Shelley said. "We go back years to PTA work."

That made everyone laugh.

When their food arrived, they fell to eating, and conversation was solely about the food. As they were considering dessert, Jane asked, "Did anyone truly hate Sandra?"

"Hate? I wouldn't go that far," Jacqueline said. "She was seriously annoying and not very good at what she was trying to do. I think the only person who genuinely disliked her was Thomasina."

"We haven't met Thomasina yet," Jane said. "She's the electrician, isn't she?"

"And she's very good," Henrietta said. "But she had her toolbox stolen and went haywire because Sandra was responsible for making sure any tools that couldn't be hauled home every night were securely locked up. And there was that time Jackie got a serious shock when she turned the planer on."

Jacqueline objected. "It was nothing. Just a jolt that knocked me off my feet."

"It knocked you out, Jackie! Don't be shy about it," Henrietta said. "You were lucky it didn't kill you."

"I'm fine. And I'm sure it wasn't anything Thomasina did wrong. The planer worked fine the day before and she was off sick the day before

that. It was just another of those nasty tricks someone was playing. And I wasn't knocked out by the shock. It was because I jumped back, tripped, and hit my head on one of the saw-horses."

Jane and Shelley looked at each other with alarm.

"We hadn't heard about this," Jane said, any thoughts she'd had about dessert completely forgotten.

Fourteen

Thomasina is the one we need to meet next," Shelley said as they were on their way home.