got up and sighed. "Well, at least she had a good lunch."

"Things do tend to balance out, don't they?" Sarcasm is totally lost on Sister. She agreed that yes, indeed, they do.

Four

You mean," Fred said that night, "that you and Mary Alice had lunch with this lady, that she didn't seem at all upset or suicidal, and yet she went over to the courthouse and jumped out of the ninth-floor window?"

"Maybe the tenth. She passed Judge Raskins's window and he thinks she said, 'Goood-byyeee.' Really shook him up, her sailing by the window like that."

' 'Gooood-byeeeee?''

I nodded. "That's what he said."

"Where were you and Mary Alice?"

"At the library, Fred, and damn it, don't lay a guilt trip on me. She didn't say, 'I'm going to go jump out of a tenth-floor window. Splat.' She seemed fine. And if we'd been there, face it, it's not like we could have given her CPR."

"I'm not trying to lay a guilt trip on you, honey. I'm just having a hard time believing Meg Bryan would commit suicide that way. Remember how she wouldn't even sit on the wall at The Club on Saturday? Said she was scared of heights."

I shivered. "Damn, I'd forgotten about that." I got up from the table to pour some more tea. "Shook the hell out of the judge. That's for sure." I handed Fred a packet of Sweet'n Low. "I didn't tell you he tried to steal her computer."

"What?"

"He had it under his arm and was hightailing it out of the park. I just happened to see it, and snatched it away from him. He said he was so upset he didn't know what he was doing. But he knew. I think it's got all kinds of genealogy research stuff in it that he wants."

"What did you say his name is?"

"Judge Robert Haskins. You ever heard of him? Looks sort of like a weasel."

"Nope." Fred stirred his tea., "Where's the computer now?"

"Mary Alice has it. The other briefcase, too. She was going to call the family in Fairhope."

"I'm surprised she didn't make you do it."

"She tried." We smiled at each other. I hesitated, and then asked, "Did you hear anything from Universal Satellite today?"

Fred shook his head no. "They won't return my calls." He pushed his chair back and stood up. "I'm going to go watch Jeopardy."

Well, so much for that conversation. I looked out into the lighted backyard. Several years ago, we had had a bay window put in the breakfast nook, and it immediately became our favorite place to sit. My sweet Fred placed some lights in the shrubbery, creating just the soft effect I wanted. The incentive for his doing it was the estimate a couple of landscape architects gave me. Fred hit the road to Wal-Mart run-

ning. But that was okay. Tonight I could see how pretty the forsythia and quince were.