“This is so cool.” Cheerful, she popped another grape. “I can pick it up. Can we keep it under fifty?”

“Under fifty. Tell him to pick up a nice crisp white wine. Now if you had a picnic hamper . . .”

“We’ve got one somewhere.”

“Perfect. Bring that by and we’ll pack it up. You’ll be set, foodwise. The bone-jumping portion of the evening is up to you.”

“I can handle that. You know, if you want, I can ask around, see if anybody’s got a secondhand computer they want to sell.”

“That would be great. I’m glad you came by.” She rose, got out two glasses. “I was afraid you were annoyed with me.”

“No, not with you. That particular subject annoys me. It’s a bunch of bullshit, just like . . .” She scowled through the screened door. “Well, speak of the devil.”

“I try not to. Why borrow trouble?” Mia sailed in, laid a note on the counter. “Phone message for you, Nell. Gladys and her newest party brainstorm.”

“I’m sorry. You don’t have time to run over here this way. I’ll speak to her again and I promise I’ll see about getting a phone.”

“Don’t worry about it. I wanted a walk or I’d have left it for tomorrow. And I’ll have a glass of that lemonade.”

“She needs a computer,” Ripley said flatly. “She won’t use the one at the store because she doesn’t want to hassle you.”

“Ripley. Mia, I’m perfectly fine working this way.”

“She can certainly use the computer at the store when it’s free,” Mia said to Ripley. “And she doesn’t need you running interference between her and me.”

“She wouldn’t if you weren’t trying to push your psychic hooey on her.”

“‘Psychic hooey’ sounds like the name of a second-rate rock band and has nothing to do with what I am. But even that’s better than blind, stubborn denial. Knowledge is always better than ignorance.”

“You want ignorance?” Ripley said, getting to her feet.

“Stop! Stop it.” Jittering inside, Nell put herself between them. “This is ridiculous. Do you two always go at each other this way?”

“Yes.” Mia picked up a glass, sipped delicately. “We enjoy it, don’t we, Deputy?”

“I’d enjoy popping you one more, but then I’d have to arrest myself.”

“Try it.” Mia angled her chin. “I promise not to press charges.”

“Nobody hits anybody. Not in my house.”

Instantly contrite, Mia set down her glass, rubbed a hand down Nell’s arm. It was rigid as steel. “I’m sorry, little sister. Ripley and I irritate each other, a long-standing habit. But we shouldn’t put you in the middle. We shouldn’t put her in the middle,” Mia said to Ripley. “It isn’t fair.”