On her left, Mica, teary and shrouded in black, her shorn hair covered with a dramatic hat—she'd sworn them all to secrecy until she and her agent could figure out what to do. Next to Justine was Pete Shadowen, scratching and sporting full deputy regalia. Next to Mica sat a local news reporter in a jumper who now looked as if she desperately wished she hadn't come, especially since they had all declined to speak to her. And on the other side of Jumper sat an elderly woman wearing huge spectacles and a silvery suit who, she'd told Regina, had come on the wrong night for a distant relative and decided that sitting in on a memorial for a cremated person was better than going home to watch The Price Is Right.Speaking of home, Cissy was still bedridden, now with a summer cold; real or manufactured, Regina wasn't sure. Uncle Lawrence was doing double duty by reading to his sister and posting his bodyguard in front of the house to thwart the throng of reporters that had descended upon the Metcalf home after their juicy story leaked and no other regional news had developed that was more titillating.She and her sisters had endured the humiliation of taking a polygraph test at the sheriff's office this morning.
