After we'd eaten in silence for a few minutes (the minestrone was excellent, and there was more of the bread as well), Jan said, "Christy, that was a very good point. It reminded me of something from when I was young. I was raised by my father, as you may know. My mother had some... difficulties, and she left us when I was very young.
"But it wasn't until much later, when I was in college, that I thought back and remembered how careful my father had always been about what he said about my mother in front of me. They were high school sweethearts, they ran away together when she got pregnant, and then she... well, she became unstable, and she ran away. Leaving Vinnie and me. But he never complained, he never blamed her. It meant a lot to me when I figured out what he'd been doing all those years. And I have not been careful enough about what I have said to Ron, and in front of her. Thank you for pointing that out."
The servers were removing the empty soup bowls and bringing on the entrees. Christy either didn't care for Italian food or wasn't in a mood for it, because she'd ordered a steak, and the minute I smelled it I wished I'd ordered one as well.
"So, Christy," Jan said as Christy took her first bite, "you've had a while to think. Have you come to any conclusions?"
"Yes. Either I'm crazy, or you flimflammed Claudia. You had no idea who killed that boy, but somehow you thought that Claudia knew, so you tricked her into telling Erika."
I smiled. I had been rooting for Christy to figure this out. I had known it from the beginning, but I had some advantages over Christy.
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