Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris Page A

situation.
    Diane, who had seemed very fond of the boy and in fact had largely raised him—she’d married Joel when Victor was very young—said, “If he needs to talk to me, I’m okay,” as Joel rose to walk a few feet away, his back to the room, to punch in the number.
    â€œHow’s Victor done here in Memphis?” I asked Felicia, just to be saying something. Victor and I had shared a strange moment when I’d been trying to find his half sister. The boy had come into the living room of the Morgensternhome and begun to curse a blue streak, evidently thinking he was by himself. When I’d moved, he’d clutched me, crying on my shoulder, having to bend a little to do so. People weren’t given to touching me, and I’d been startled. But I knew grief, and I knew release, and I’d held him until he was through. When he’d done crying and my blouse was a blotched mess, Victor had drawn back, appalled at his breakdown. Anything I said would have been wrong, so I’d just given him a nod. He’d nodded back, and fled.
    Felicia was giving a surprised look. I supposed she was astonished that I remembered Victor at all. “He’s done…middling,” she said. “Diane and Joel have sent him to a private school. I help them out a little. He’s such a fragile kid, hanging in the balance. At that age, they can go either way, you feel, at any moment. And with this new baby coming…” Her voice trailed off, as if she couldn’t imagine how to finish the sentence without criticizing Joel and Diane for their ill-timed fertility.
    Joel came back and sat down by his wife, and he was frowning. “Victor isn’t holding together very well,” he said to us in general. Diane’s face simply looked exhausted, as if she had no energy to spare for maintaining someone else’s spirits when her own were so fraught with misery. “He came home from school early, after we called. We didn’t want anyone to see it on the news at noon and tell him when they got back to campus,” he explained.
    We all nodded wisely, but my mind was on something entirely different.
    â€œWe never knew you moved,” I said, wanting to get thatabsolutely clear, “so we were astonished when the police said they were contacting you. You don’t have anything to do with the faculty at Bingham, do you? You’re not an alumna, Diane?”
    â€œNo, I went to Vanderbilt, and Joel did, too,” she said, bewildered. “Felicia, didn’t you go to Bingham? With David?”
    Felicia said, “More years ago than I care to remember. Yes, David was in my class. I don’t believe you met him in Nashville, Harper. Joel’s brother.”
    â€œFelicia’s parents are here in Memphis, too,” Diane said. “They both went to Bingham. And so did Joel’s. It was quite a scandal when he decided to go to Vanderbilt. Why are you asking?”
    â€œJust trying to think of some connection between you and the school. Someone put Tabitha’s…Tabitha there, and someone made sure we were hired for this job.”
    The couple sat and looked at me wide-eyed. I had the uncharitable thought that this increased Diane’s resemblance to a lemur. Though the pregnant woman looked as though she were about to bolt, Joel was alert and intense. The man had an overabundance of energy, and it boiled around him, even under these circumstances. Behind them, Felicia was staring at me with an incredulous face.
    â€œSurely it’s just a coincidence,” Felicia said, finally, looking at me as though I were delusional. “You don’t think…you can’t imagine that someone created such an elaborate plot? How could someone have put Tabitha there, and then find you, get you here, make sure you found Tabitha? That’s just incredible.”
    We all spent a second or two staring at each other. Art was looking from me to Felicia,