“How do you know all this stuff?”

“I’m friends with one of her best friends from back then, a girl named Jessica. I hardly spoke to Shirley Ann in high school. I was too intimidated. The summer she came back, I ran into Jess at church, and now it’s like the three of us are best friends.”

“Interesting sequence of events. Run it by me again.”

“What, about her mom? Norma got sick. Shirley Ann flew out to take care of her. This was five or six years after we graduated. Ned found out she was back and he’s falling all over himself, trying to fan the flames. You’d have thought not a day had passed. All moony and mopey. Every time she turned around, there he was. And he was serious about getting into her underpants. He gave her one red rose a day. I mean, for crying out loud! How corny is that? Sentimental greeting cards with all this glitter on the front. He called every day, sometimes two and three times, to see how she was doing. He just about drove her insane.”

“You think Lenore was aware of it?”

She gave a half shrug. “He made no big secret of it. Lenore probably hoped she could palm him off on Shirley Ann and good riddance.”

“How’d she dispatch him the second time around?”

“Well, that was the problem, wasn’t it? She couldn’t reject him outright without setting him off. He’d have turned into a python and squeezed the life out of her. She told him a relationship was out of the question. Never happen in a million years. She was happily married and so was he.”

“Was he happily married?”

“No, but it wasn’t her lookout. She was skirting the truth, but what else could she say?”

“I got the impression Lenore was teetering on the brink by then.”

“If she was, Ned drove her to it. I know Shirley Ann felt bad when she heard, you know, what Lenore did. Like if she’d been nicer to him, he wouldn’t have been so mean to his wife.”

“When you found out Lenore killed herself, did you question the story?”

“I didn’t know her well enough to form a strong opinion. I can see where it was the answer to Ned’s prayers. He was suddenly a free man, and wasn’t that convenient? Didn’t cut any ice with Shirley Ann. He’d always be a creep as far as she was concerned.”

“She’s still living back east?”

“She is.”

“Do you have a phone number for her?”

“I don’t, but Jessica does. If you’re interested in talking to her, I’d be happy to call first and tell her what this is about. That way you wouldn’t have to go through some long-drawn-out explanation.”

“I would love that. I’m hoping it won’t be necessary, but I’d like the option,” I said.

I went on to quiz her on a minor point or two, but essentially she’d given me the gist. I took down her phone number in case I had questions later and then gave her one of my business cards. “If Shirley Ann would prefer to have me call her, just let me know.”