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"Do you knohy they weren’t friends anymore?"

"Clyde ham material," Anne said promptly Maybe there was Sodium Pentothal in the coffee?

"Would you knohy he said that? Why he thought Victor wasn’t appropriate for Bingha man at a cinema," Anne explained "He was sure they were, you know, in a relationship Gay," she elaborated "Though of course, they’re not Gay They’re sad, is what they are"

If Victor was sad, I didn’t think his gayness had ry, and he told Clyde if he ever heard Clyde say anything else about Victor, he’d ain Clyde was mad about it, but sorry, too David had been a friend of his, way back So, he would have done a favor for David, too, to get him back as a friend"

Had this woman had any illusions about her husband? Surely you needed soinal topic like a hoeon, when I’d quite lost track of it "So," she said, "If you’re asking me if I’m sure about Felicia, no, I’mental"

I bit my lip, and Tolliver looked off in another direction entirely I didn’t know if Anne was being one of the mental people I’d ever h

"Have you coements?" Tolliver asked

"Oh, yes, part of Clyde’s belief system was preparation for your funerary rites," she said "He’s got it all written down somewhere I just have to find the file" She pointed to a file cabinet across the hall in Clyde’s home office "It’s in there soy professor, he was really into death rituals, and he put a lot of thought into writing dohat he wanted Most funerals involve a church And aof the clan elders with a feast and distribution of his goods"

"The clan elders being?"

"Professors senior to hiy departments," Anne said, as if it were quite evident

"You would have to provide the feast, I take it?"

"Yes, da And then all his office stuff to give out! As if anyone wanted his old pencils! But that’s what he wanted, the last tied his mind after that He liked to play around with ideas"

I looked across the hall The file cabinet and desk sat in disarray with all the drawers pulled open, and files were scattered here and there on the floor For a crazy moment, I wondered if I should offer to help search for the docu Clyde’s last funerary wishes, but I decided that was too much I didn’t want to knohat Clyde’s instructions had been about the final disposition of his body and possessions

I couldn’t think of anything else to ask Anne I glanced at Tolliver and gave a tiny shrug, to shoas finished Tolliver thanked her for the cookies and the coffee, and then he said, "Do you knoho told your husband that ood person to invite for his course?"

"Oh, yes," she said "I know that"

"Who was it?" I asked, thinking that at least ere getting somewhere

"Why, it was me," she said simply "After Felicia met you in Nashville, she talked about you at a party, and I was so interested She really believed in your powers So I read about you on-line, and I thought that finally soive Clyde so that course for two years now, and he just loved exposing all those people as frauds, or at least as less than reliable It wasn’t that Clyde disagreed with their beliefs, either; he just didn’t want anyone to be able to do anything different But you, I knew you were real I read the articles and I saw some pictures That day you found the child’s body, he was just furious at you The night he died, he went out once, and then he caathered he’d seen you at your hotel?"

I nodded

"So then he ain," she said drearily "I went to sleep in my room And that time, he never came home"

"I’m sorry for your loss," I said after a moment, when I saw she’d said all she wanted to say But I wasn’t sure she wasn’t better off without Clyde Nunley

Anne re down at her hands, and all herher hbor or friend for her "I need to keep looking through Clyde’s papers," she said "And that Seth Koenig said he was coent"

We were both quiet for a few ot in our car

"He was mean to her," Tolliver said "Surely she’ll be better off"

"Oh, yeah, Clyde was rat poop," I said "But she’s going to miss him, anyway"

I couldn’t see any wonderful future for Anne Nunley, but I would have to put that in the file of issues I couldn’t do anything about As we drove, I mentally constructed a future for the hich, at Clyde’s funeral, she reat weakness for thin, needy wo cole back to emotional health They would never have parties

I felt hteen

WE’D learned a lot e talk with his , but I wasn’t sure that e’d learned would be ofthe search for his murderer Not that I cared a whole lot about who’d killed Nunley--but I did care who’d killed Tabitha

There was a basketball gao to it I wanted to look for a house in Texas, a house that wasn’t too far from where my sisters lived So I wanted to be free of this situation, both for the sake of the Morgensterns and forthe valet as I walked through the Cleveland lobby I was so lost in thought that I didn’t even notice Fred Hart until he called my name

"Miss Connelly! Miss Connelly!" His heavily southern voice pulled h I wasn’t happy about it Maybe the look I gave him wasn’t very friendly, because he stopped in his tracks