Later, in bed, waiting to fall asleep, Betsy thought the conversation over. Margot had been furious with Hud for dumping his wife, Margot’s best friend. That was interesting, but it didn’t seem relevant. If anything, it might have been a motive for Margot to murder Hud, rather than for Hud to murder Margot. But not all these years later. Of course, it spoke ill of Hud, behaving that way. Hud’s face, that confidence man’s grin all over it, swam up before her, then Margot’s face appeared, with a disapproving look. So Margot had spoken to Hud about her? How dare Margot think Betsy couldn’t take care of herself!

She rolled away from the faces, seeking sleep—and after a bit, found it. In a few minutes she was dreaming that she and Jill were in a sinking boat, and she was frantically knitting a new paddle for the broken oar while Jill bailed.

Chapter 16

16

Betsy woke with a start. Something energetic was playing on the clock radio, Groucho Marx being greeted as Captain Spaulding by the gritty sound track from the old movie. Betsy had first heard that song as the theme from Groucho’s TV show, You Bet Your Life, and had been surprised when she heard it in the movie Animal Crackers. Or was it Cocoanuts? Never mind, it was a delightfully silly song to wake up to.

She had been surprised by KSJN’s Morning Show because that radio station played classical the rest of the day, which in Betsy’s opinion was the genuine, authentic, real stuff for easy listening. Still, she left her clock radio set to wake her to the Morning Show, because she was rarely annoyed by the music they offered. On the other hand, she never knew what they would play next. In this case, it was Glenn Miller’s “Pennsylvania 6-5000.” Betsy smiled; she could remember her parents dancing to this; it had been one of their favorites.

What was more, the sun was slanting brightly through the window, it looked to be another pretty day. On those two happy notes, she began her morning stretches. Pennsylvania stretch, stretch, stretch!

The song ended. Dale and Jim Ed began one of their faux commercials—this being public radio, and they apparently felt a need to make up for the lack of real ones. They touted a company that, for a price, thought up weird excuses for why you could not come to work. Their current offering involved a rare mildew infection, and included a scientist who would call your boss to confirm the infection and give the recipe for the powerful cleaning solution needed to wipe down anything you had touched. “This way,” concluded Dale, “when you go to work the next day, not only have you convinced everyone you had a legitimate excuse for being off work, you will find your work area spick-and-span!”

And Betsy had thought California had a lock on weird!