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person to talk to, even though I’d promised not to talk to anybody. That didn’t include Sam, though. I took it as a given that anything anybody told me would be shared with him. And here I’d told someone else.
    Well, in for a penny…
    â€œLillian, can you believe that Leonard Conover had the gumption to just up and move out? As concerned as I am about Helen, that has just floored me. And LuAnne is a wreck. She’s over at the church right now telling the pastor, but what he can do about it, I don’t know.”
    â€œWhere he move out to?”
    â€œI forgot to ask. But, Lillian, you won’t believe what she told me about him.” I leaned across the table and whispered to her what LuAnne had said about Leonard’s needs.
    â€œNo!” she said, rearing back. “Mr. Conover? Why, he seem like a shy kinda man. I guess still water do run deep.”
    â€œWell, something does. But don’t you tell that, Lillian. LuAnne would have my neck if word got out. Of course,” I went on, looking off at the ceiling, thinking it through, “if he starts showing up with another woman, people’ll know it wasn’t himself he was trying to find.”
    â€œLaw, law,” Lillian said, shaking her head, “people do the foolishest things sometimes. But I don’t know what you can do to help ’em, they start leavin’ they wives an’ stealin’ folkses’ money an’ suin’ they best friends.”
    â€œI don’t know, either, Lillian, but,” I said, rising from the table, “I’m going to try to get Helen again. Seems to me that she’s the one who needs help the most. But I want to talk to Sam first.”
    I went to the phone and dialed Sam’s number. It rang and rang without an answer. “Where is he?” I mumbled. “James ought to be there, even if he’s not.”
    Shrugging it off, I dialed Helen’s number, getting nothing but a busy signal. I hung up and turned to Lillian. “It’s busy. Either she’s left the phone off the hook, or her message machine is full. I don’t know what to do, Lillian. I really want to talk to her and let her know I care about her.”
    â€œYessum, and you want to get yo’ money back.”
    I nodded. “That, too.”

Chapter 6
    â€œHere you are,” Hazel Marie said, as she pushed through the kitchen door the next morning, a cheery smile on her face. “I just dropped Lloyd off at the tennis courts, where he’ll probably be all day. Any coffee left?”
    â€œYessum,” Lillian said, pushing herself up from her chair. “I get you some.”
    â€œYou stay right there,” Hazel Marie told her. “I’ll get it. Listen, y’all, this town is buzzing with talk. I mean, even at school yesterday morning all the teachers were talking about Richard Stroud. I hadn’t seen the paper, so I didn’t know a thing about it until I heard what they said.” She pulled out a chair at the table and joined us. “And what about the mayor? From what they were saying, people’re ready to impeach him or recall him or something. Nobody wants to tear down the old courthouse.” She grinned. “But nobody wants to put up money to fix it, either.”
    â€œWe’ve been talking about the same things,” I said. “I don’t know what this town is coming to. It just beats anything I’ve ever seen, what with New Jersey developers coming in with bulldozers and the mayor having no sense of history. To say nothing of what’s going on with the Strouds and the Conovers.”
    Hazel Marie’s head jerked up. “What’s going on with the Conovers?”
    Lillian said, “Uh-oh.”
    â€œOh, me.” I leaned my head against my hand. “Looks like I can’t keep anything to myself. I don’t know what’s the matter with me. Hazel Marie, you can’t tell a soul, but