The House of Seven Mabels

do. Everybody has gripes they want to get off their chests. It helps them show off their admirable traits.“
    “Hmm,“ Shelley said. “Not everyone feels that way, though. Neither you nor I like sharing our personal lives with strangers. And how do we untangle those who are telling the truth from those who are lying through their teeth?“
    “Instinct?“ Jane suggested. “It’s worked for us before.“
    “You’re just trying to get me to forget this other chart you have in mind,“ Shelley said.
    “No, I’m not. The other chart is pure fact. No speculation yet. Just a list of what’s happened in chronological order before we start getting the timeline wrong.“ She flipped to the next page and wrote “shrimp.“
    “You already have it wrong,“ Shelley said with a laugh. “The shrimp episode was just the first thing we knew about. Jacqueline getting shocked happened before we even heard from Bitsy. And Thomasina’s toolbox was stolen before we were involved as well. We only heard about it later.“
    “You’re right,“ Jane said, amending her list. “So what was next?“
    “Sandra’s death, of course. Then the bomb scare with the toolbox, I think.“
    “Are we sure it wasn’t Thomasina’s toolbox coming back?“
    “Yes, I forgot to mention that Mel told me so. Thomasina’s was a big yellow plastic one. This one was steel.“
    “That didn’t necessarily involve breaking in, then,“ Shelley said. “Someone could have easily taken it in to work and put it in the basement. There’s nothing much going on on the ground floor or in the kitchen yet.“
    “And then there was the wrecked Sheetrock soon after,“ Jane said.
    “The return of the purse and the wrecked concrete on the sunporch were apparently the same night a few days later. Or was it the next day?“ Shelley pondered. “I’ve already lost track of how long we’ve been on this job.“
    “Those two things had to be done by the same person, don’t you imagine?“ Jane asked. “Sneaking into the house with the purse. Probably through the coal chute. Then salting the concrete on the way out, or the other way around. I can’t quite imagine two people discovering the coal chute and also being there the same night without running into each other.“
    “But the person who salted the concrete didn’t necessarily know about the secret opening behind the bushes. All he or she had to do was go around the back at the other end of the house and dump the salt,“ Shelley commented. “And bringing back the purse makes no sense at all.“
    “Maybe it did,“ Jane replied. “It was the main thing the police were concentrating on when Sandra died. The mystery of what became of the purse she always wore strapped across her shoulder so firmly. Everybody noticed that.“
    “But why bring it back at all? What was the point of that?“
    “I don’t know. It’s the weirdest part of the whole scenario. Maybe whoever took it was nervous about disposing of it, and thought it would take the heat off if the police got it back intact, with everything that was in it. For all the person knew, the police have some kind of arrangement with the city to hold and examine the trash that suspects put out.“
    “Pretty thin theory,“ Shelley complained.
    “Got a better one?“ Jane asked.
    “Not right now,“ Shelley admitted.
    Jane thought a moment, then wrote down the fire in the Dumpster. “So what do all these have in common?“
    “Nothing that I can see,“ Shelley said.
    “Not one single thing, but maybe two tilings. The toolbox didn’t really have a bomb in it. Nobody was in danger. It was a scare tactic. The destruction of the Sheetrock is the same. It made more work for Carl and Evaline. It didn’t harm anyone. The shrimp was the same. More work for Wesley, more cost for Bitsy. Except, of course, for Bitsy’s lady friends who got sick from the smell.“
    “But the fire in the Dumpster was a real threat,“ Shelley said.
    “Only to property, not people,“ Jane pointed out. “Nobody had any way of knowing you, Mel, and I would be in the house that night. Or anyone else, for that matter.“
    “So what does this chart tell us?“ Shelley asked.
    “That we need more coffee to get our minds working,“ Jane replied. “Let’s look at this chart in different ways.“
    “What different ways?“
    “Like how much physical strength the events we’re considering took. How much expert knowledge? What sort of reach did they require? I’m