“Naw. Auntie Red Bird is holding a quill-embroidery class and she said she’d do his costume stuff as the demonstration. So he’s saved again.” Robert snickered. “One of these days Mom is going to call his bluff, and I’m gonna be there with a camcorder.”

“Do that, and I get the popcorn concession,” she replied. “So what does he want for this piece of Osage haute monde?”

Robert read the list and she made careful notes on the back of a plea for money from a televangelist. She always saved her junk mail to use for notepaper, especially the stuff from televangelists. She figured that it ought to serve some use before she recycled it.

“Okay, young buck, is there anything more I need to know?” The last of the receipts went into the “it might be deductible but I’m not going to take it” pile—the one she intended to present to the IRS with all the rest if that audit ever came. The way she had it figured, they’d probably end up owing her money.

For the entertainment value alone.

“Not a thing. Don’t talk to strange men, sis.”

“I’m talking to the strangest one I know right now,” she countered. “I’ll pick the stuff up some time tomorrow, okay?”

“That’ll be great. Watch your back.”

“I will,” she said, and only after she’d hung up did she wonder why Robert, the least disturbed about her job of any of the family, had chosen to say that.

CHAPTER THREE

IT WASN’T EXACTLY an appointment, but Jennifer wanted to catch both of the Ambersons home. According to her research, Ralph Amberson usually arrived home at about 4:30; his wife Gail, who had a part-time job with an advertising firm, got home just before her children did. If she didn’t catch them before dinner, she might not be able to get them to answer the door. The neighbors said that Ralph was something of a martinet, and insisted that the phone be unplugged and the doorbell ignored at dinnertime. And after dinner—well, the neighbors said that only business would pry Ralph out of his home office.

It was Gail who most interested Jennifer, for Gail’s maiden name had been Gentry.