"Oh my goodness. " She snapped the compact closed. "Tell me everything. "
"There isn't a lot to tell. "
But she told her what there was, and what she'd begun to do about it.
"This is so exciting! You're like a detective. Maybe your father and I could help. You know how he loves playing on that computer of his. Stella!" She clamped a hand on Stella's arm. "I bet she was murdered, just hacked to death with an ax or something and buried in a shallow grave. Or dumped in the river - pieces of her. I've always thought so. "
"Let me just say - ick - and her ghost, at least is whole. Added to that, our biggest lead is the ancestor who died in childbirth," Stella reminded her.
"Oh, that's right. " Jolene sulked a moment, obviously disappointed. "Well, if it turns out it's her, that'd be sad, but not nearly as thrilling as murder. You tell your daddy all about this, and we'll see what we can do. We've both got plenty of time on our hands. It'll be fun. "
"It's a departure for me," Stella replied. "I seem to be doing a lot of departing from the norm recently. "
"Any of that departing have to do with a man? A tall, broad-shouldered sort of man with a wicked grin?"
Stella's eyes narrowed. "And why would you ask?"
"My third cousin, Lucille? You met her once. She happened to be having dinner in the city a couple nights ago and told me she saw you in the same restaurant with a very good-looking young man. She didn't come by your table because she was with her latest beau. And he's not altogether divorced from his second wife. Fact is, he hasn't been altogether divorced for a year and a half now, but that's Lucille for you. "
Jolene waved it away. "So, who's the good-looking young man?"
"Logan Kitridge. "
"Oh. " It came out in three long syllables. "That is a good-looking young man. I thought you didn't like him. "
"I didn't not like him, I just found him annoying and difficult to work-with. We're getting along a little better at work, and somehow we seem to be dating. I've been trying to figure out if I want to see him again. "
"What's to work out? You do or you don't. "
"I do, but. . . I shouldn't ask you to gossip. "
Jolene wiggled closer on the bench. "Honey, if you can't ask me, who can you ask?"
Stella snickered, then glanced toward the reptile house to be sure her boys weren't heading out.
"I wondered, before I get too involved, if he sees a lot of women. "
"You want to know if he cats around. "
"I guess that's the word for it. "
"I'd say a man like that gets lucky when he has a mind to, but you don't hear people saying, "That Logan Kitridge is one randy son of a gun. ' Like they do about my sister's boy, Curtis. Most of what you hear about Logan is people - women mostly - wondering how that wife of his let him get loose, or why some other smart woman hasn't scooped him up. You thinking about scooping?"
"No. No, definitely not. "
"Maybe he's thinking about scooping you up. "
"I'd say we're both just testing the ground. " She caught sight of her men. "Here come the Reptile Hunters. Don'
t say anything about any of this in front of the boys, okay?"
"Lips are sealed. "
* * *
In the Garden opened at eight, prepared for its advertised spring opening as for a war. Stella had mustered the troops, supervised with Roz the laying out of supplies. They had backups, seasoned recruits, and the field of combat was - if she said so herself - superbly organized and displayed.
By ten they were swamped, with customers swarming the showrooms, the outside areas, the public greenhouses. Cash registers rang like church bells.