It was my turn to laugh. Fred has a very nice, full head of hair that used to be ash blond and has gradually become gray blond. It's hair. What can I say? But every morning he stands before the mirror examining the width of his forehead. And every two weeks he goes to a barber named Edna who tells him

all her female problems. He swears she is the only one who can cut his hair right, but after hearing the ordeal of the third miscarriage, he was shaken for days. Mary Alice, of course, knows all this.

Fred turned and walked back to the den. We followed him, Mary Alice carrying one of the tapes.

"Did you get in touch with Meg's family?" I asked.

"Her sister."

"Which one?"

"Trinity. She said she'd be here tomorrow to make arrangements and have Bobby Haskins arrested."

"The judge?" Fred stepped over Woofer.

"She says he killed her." Mary Alice knelt by the VCR. "How do you turn this thing on?"

"That button on the left. But wait a minute," I said as Sister put the tape in. "She said the judge killed her? Did she say why she thought so?"

Mary Alice shook her head no. "I'm staying out of it." She pushed the Play button and the wedding music from St. Mark's blared out, making us all jump. "Too loud!" Mary Alice adjusted the volume.

"Look, Fred," I said, pointing to us sitting in the front row. "There we are."

"And I'm fixing to come down the aisle." Mary Alice got up from her knees, groaning, and sank down on the sofa.

Fred reached over and pushed Stop. Both Sister and I looked up in surprise.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"A woman you had lunch with either committed suicide or was killed a few minutes after she left you. Her sister says it was the guy you met, the guy who tried to steal her computer." Mary Mice and i looked at him and nodded yes.

"Well?" He looked from one to the other.

"Well, what?" Mary Alice asked.

"Don't you think you ought to talk about it?"

"Okay," she agreed.

The three of us sat and looked at each other.

"I know," Sister said finally. "You know that book, The Tenth Good Thing About Barney, or maybe it's thirteenth. Anyway, we could do that about Meg."

Fred looked at me like what the hell is she talking about. "It's a children's book," I explained. "About a cat that dies and they make a list of the good things about him. I cry every time I read it."

"I'll start," Sister said. She looked down at her hands. "Meg Bryan was clean. The whites of her fingernails were so white they didn't look real." She nodded to me.

"Meg Bryan was smart," I said. "She knew how to work a computer. Even how to write her own programs." I nodded to Fred.