Jane thought back to Lisa's suggestion that Derek might be responsible for Regina's death and then trying to deny it. "Has she never gotten along with him?" she asked.
“Oh, not to say didn't get along. But they've never been friendly."
“Did he make passes at her, too?" Shelley asked.
“Maybe. I don't know. She never mentioned it. I think she just found him distasteful. And being friends with Ms. Palmer, I'm sure she knew what trouble he'd been to her."
“Trouble. I hear the word and think of Derek," Babs McDonald said from the doorway. "Jumper isn't here yet, is he?"
“No," Sharlene said. "Is he supposed to be?"
“I'm meeting with him this morning, but I'm terribly early. Jane. Shelley." She smiled greetings at them. "Did you get the rest of the paperwork I asked you for, Sharlene?"
“Yes, but I don't want you to trouble yourself with it right now," Sharlene said. "Everybody has much more important things to worry about than what classes I'm going to take in the fall. I'm awfully grateful for your taking an interest, now that Ms. Palmer's gone, but—"
“No buts, my dear. Just bring me the folder. Were you discussing Derek when I came in?" She turned to Shelley to ask this question. Sharlene hastened away.
“I wasn't discussing anything," Shelley said with a grin. "For once. But Sharlene and Lisa were talking about him. He apparently failed to return a bunch of phone calls yesterday and hasn't shown up yet today."
“Doesn't surprise me a bit," Babs said. "If he has any sense at all, he's home phoning for job interviews. Still — it's irritating that he can't even return calls. I guess I'll do them instead. For all I know, he's quit and simply hasn't bothered to tell us."
“You don't seem especially distressed about that," Shelley observed.
“I'm not," Babs said frankly.
“Won't it be hard on everyone until you can find another director?" Jane asked.
“I don't think so. I believe we have a line on an excellent candidate already. And I've reached the other board members and they're FedExing proxies to Jumper. If Derek's quit on his own, it will be easier to replace him. Meanwhile, I'll go do his job."
“What's this, Jane?" Shelley asked when Babs had left. She was holding up an old, flat book.
Jane looked at it for a minute. "I don't know. Oh, yes, I do. I picked that up in the basement the other day when we were thinking about starting to inventory. I didn't have a clipboard. I thought it would make a good substitute. What is it?”
Shelley set the book on the table and opened it. She flipped a few pages. It was a handwritten ledger of some kind, done in an old-fashioned, somewhat florid style of writing. Some pages were filled out. Others had only a line or two on them.
“Hard to read," Jane said. "I wonder what it is. Oh, I see why it's hard to read." She laughed. "It's in German. At least parts of it are." She looked more closely. "Shelley, I'll bet. .”
Shelley nodded. "Yes. Auguste Snellen's genetic experiments. Look, some of the pages have the same kind of numbers that are on the little labels on the pea cabinet. And some have a name, too. Here — Snellen's Early Spring, and here's one called Daisy's Favorite. How sweet. He named a pea for his granddaughter."
“This is a treasure," Jane said. "And I was using it just as a flat surface. I'll put it up safely. Remind me to give it to Sharlene when things settle down.”
They put their purses away, poured themselves coffee, and as Shelley gathered her paperwork, Jane booted up the computer and sat down, after sliding the ledger book in under the board the stuffed cat was mounted on. Shelley started to leave the room, but hesitated and came back. "Jane," she said quietly, "you don't think — no, that's too stupid."
“You can say stupid things if you want," Jane said, grinning. "I don't have a secret tape recording going."
“Smart aleck. I was thinking. . could that book be what somebody was looking for in the basement?”
Jane looked at her for a minute. "I wish I did have a tape recorder now. Why would anyone care enough to be sneaky about it?"
“You're right. Its only value is probably sentimental and historical. Forget I asked.”
Shelley had been gone only a few minutes when Sharlene came back into the boardroom. "Babs, I just — oops. Where'd she go? Tom called and said he was tied up in court for a while."
“She said she was going to make some of Derek's calls," Jane said over her shoulder. "Maybe she's in his office."
“Thanks. I'll look for her there. Isn't that sweet of her?" Sharlene said, bustling out of the room.
Jane smiled at the cat. "Heidi, would you have the nerve to call Babs McDonald 'sweet'? I wouldn't.”
Babs was back in an hour. "Any sign of Jumper yet?" she asked Jane.
“Not that I know of," Jane said. She joined Babs at the board table and said, "Since you've been so frank with Shelley and me, do you mind if I ask you a question?"
“Fire away," Babs said cheerfully. "If I don't know the answer, I'll make one up."
“Well, I have the impression that the board of directors thought that Georgia Snellen was helping herself to some of the funds she collected for the museum.”
It would be too much to say Babs looked surprised, but she was mildly startled. "I believe 'think' is the operative word. There was never any evidence of cheating. Merely suspicions. For example, the cash collected at any given activity always slightly exceeded the number of receipts—"
“I don't understand."
“Then think back to your work at the booth at the Pea Festival. We're a nonprofit organization — a 501 (c) (3) in IRS talk — and if somebody buys an item from the booth, the person working there is supposed to offer them a receipt for the difference between our actual cost and the amount we sell it for, and the purchaser can take it as a tax deduction."
“Oh, dear. We didn't do that," Jane said.
“You were working under emergency conditions. I don't imagine anyone thought to tell you. Anyway, most times people don't want to wait for a receipt, or it's such a small amount they don't think it's worth figuring into their taxes. And lots of times, because it's a charitable institution, people often deliberately overpay or refuse to take their change back. So you end up with more cash than receipts to account for it. And Georgia always did end up with excess cash. But not as much as we'd expect. The gift shop, for example, averages about twelve percent extra cash. Georgia always turned in about three percent extra. And that's not proof of anything. You could postulate that Georgia has such an abrasive manner that people are less likely to be generous with her."
“Yes, but I understood that she's quite good at raising money," Jane said.
Babs looked at Jane with an arched eyebrow. "That is true," she said. "But proof is proof and speculation's quite another thing." She made clear that this was all she was willing to say about the matter and Jane let it go.
“May I ask you something else, then?" Babs nodded.
“Sharlene told me that Regina and Whitney were supposed to be announcing their engagement at the groundbreaking ceremony. But she also hinted that Regina hadn't exactly rushed into committing to marriage."
“Right again," Babs said.
“Do you know why that is?" Jane asked. "What an odd question," Babs said. "Why do you ask?"
“I'm not sure," Jane answered honestly. "I'm just curious about Regina, I guess. I never met her, you know. But from what I hear about her, it's hard to imagine that she'd inspire murderous rage in anyone.”
Babs laughed softly. "That's perilously close to damning with faint praise."
“I didn't mean it that way," Jane said.
“No, dear, I know you didn't. I can't really answer that. If Regina had confided in me whyshe was hesitant about marrying, I wouldn't feel I could break that confidence. As it happens, she didn't. She wasn't a confiding sort of woman. Frankly, I have a theory about it, but it's merely theory and it would be irresponsible to put it out as anything else—"