The chair began wobbling underneath me. I jumped clear as it fell over.

“Who are you?” A neighbor had appeared at the fence next to the Kiel house, a woman around seventy, holding a basket of plant bulbs.

“I’m someone who badly needs to speak to Shirley and Nathan about their daughter. Shirley’s home, but she’s not answering the door.”

“Oh. Poor Sonia. Are you a social worker?”

“Private investigator.”

She suppressed a smile. “Ah, the famous woman from Chicago who is uncovering all the sins and crimes of Douglas County. Shirley was complaining about you when I saw her at the farmers’ market on Saturday. Gertrude Perec also chimed in, but Barbara Rutledge had an opposing view. You’ve provided us with a lot of entertainment. Nathan is probably in his lab, but if you want to wake Shirley, the back door is unlocked.”

The town jester, that was me, racing back and forth between silo and river while the locals lined up to evaluate my performance. “You know all these people, and I don’t. Do you know why Ms. Perec is so angry when Cady tries to ask about her father? I wondered if he was an old graduate student of Dr. Kiel’s, but that made Ms. Perec really blow up at me.”

The woman shook her head. “That’s puzzled me all these years, too. It’s somehow tied up in her great loyalty to Dr. Kiel. However, I don’t know Gertrude well—we used to volunteer together at the League of Women Voters—but Cady’s birth has always been a sore spot. Maybe while you’re here, you can sort that out, too.”

I made a face but thanked her for her advice on the back door, which opened with only a slight groan from the warped wood. The door led through a small mudroom to the kitchen. The Mixmaster was still on the floor, where it had been joined by a large pot.

“Mrs. Kiel!” I shouted, careful not to touch the counters. “Shirley!”

I waited a count of ten, then skirted the appliances and went to the sunporch door. Shirley was straightening her skirt and patting her hair into place.

“Who— Oh, it’s you.” She wasn’t happy, but her rancor was only at half strength.

“Yep. I’m here for the duration.”

“Of what?” she snapped.

“Of Sonia and the attempt on her life. Of the story about Nathan and Matt Chastain. Matt, about his experiment gone bad—” I broke off. “Anthrax. Is that what Matt did that was so terrible?”

“Anthrax?” Shirley was bewildered for an instant, then gave a bark of contemptuous laughter. “If you think Nathan had anything to do with anthrax, you’re going to be here an even longer duration. He’s never worked with it. And neither did Matt Chastain.”