In spite of Mavis's driving skills, rush hour traffic could not be entirely avoided and by the time Jayne was bounding up the stairs to Katie's apartment, the paramedics were already emerging from her door. Jayne recognized one of them from a seminar and was disturbed by the unhappy look on her face.

"Sandy, what happened? How is Katie?" Jayne asked anxiously.

"Oh, Jayne! Are you a friend of hers?" The paramedic's face brightened somewhat.

"Yes, a very good friend. Please, tell me...."

"Well," said Sandy, "we did everything we could..."

Jayne's heart sank.

"Oh, no!" Sandy realized she had given the wrong impression. "Your friend is fine. I was saying that we did everything we could to test her, but we can't find any sign that she's been poisoned. Her vital signs are all normal. Her reflexes are perfect. Her pupils dilate just fine. She's oriented as to time and space. If she took the poison as long ago as she said she did and if it was as versatile as she described, she should be showing some effects. We could take her to the hospital for more tests, but frankly I don't want to give her a chance to compound, well, her offense, if that's what it is."

"Offense?" asked Jayne.

"Offense?" echoed Mavis, just arriving at the head of the stairs carrying both Jayne's purse and her own, after parking her car.

"Yes. It is a crime to deliberately phone in a false report of an emergency." Sandy was very stern.

"I....I...a crime? Really?" said Mavis, wondering if she wanted to declare that she had, in fact, placed the 911 call.

"But," said Sandy, reassuringly, "seeing that you are a friend of hers makes me more inclined not to suspect that this was some kind of initiation stunt...."

"Initiation?" Jayne wondered if there were a secret society of necrobabes that Katie had joined.

"...and go along with the idea," Sandy continued, "that your friend had a very vivid bad dream. That's what the police lieutenant thinks."

"Police lieutenant? The police are here?" Mavis was a little nervous.

"Yes. Actually, he arrived before we did. He was in the area and heard the call on his radio. He's inside with your friend." Sandy looked more carefully at Mavis and felt her dyke detector go off. "Oh, speaking of friends, Jayne, this is my partner, Harry."

"Glad to meet you." Jayne extended her hand, which was accepted in a manner that triggered her own straight-male detector.

"And who is your friend?? Sandy asked, smiling.

"Oh, I'm Mavis." This was followed by the stammering explanation, "I'm a friend of Jayne's and I just drove her here. That's all I did -- just drove. I didn't make any phone calls or anything."

"Relax, Mavis." Jayne said with amusement. "You're not going to get busted for reporting a bad dream."

"Well, Charlie, we had better get back to the station in case anybody calls who really needs help. Very nice meeting you, Mavis." Sandy's parting handshake included a special squeeze.

"Likewise, I'm sure," said Mavis with a sincerity that caused Jayne to half raise an eyebrow.

"Well, come, my sweet." There was a mild tinge of territoriality in Jayne's voice. "We had better see what's up with Katie."

Mavis followed Jayne but kept an eye on Sandy as she and her partner made their way down the stairs carrying their equipment.

"My! Don't you make a good first impression," said Jayne with mock jealousy.

"Oh, well, when you have our interests, you can never have too many friends who know how to perform resuscitation." Mavis loved having Jayne stake a claim on her.

"Good point, and you don't have to worry about her ability go give the mouth-to-mouth. She's very good at that. I know. I trained her myself."

Jayne let Mavis contemplate possible implications of that statement and knocked lightly on the door of Katie's apartment.

The door was opened, not by Katie, but by a short man with dark curly hair wearing a somewhat wrinkled raincoat (though there was hardly a cloud in the sky) and chewing on an unlit cigar. His eyes, which had an unusual squint to them, brightened when he saw Jayne. That was usually the case with men setting eyes on Jayne, but Jayne sensed immediately that his admiration was innocent and he was probably a very happily married man.

"Hello. You must be Miss Harrison and Miss Burns, the friends the young lady was expecting. Come in. I'm sure she'll be glad to see you." There was a comical gravelly twang to his voice that reminded Jayne of an actor from the sixties and seventies. Peter Finch? No, that wasn't it. Peter F-something.

"Yes." Over the man's shoulder, Jayne saw Katie sitting on the couch and immediately went to her and knelt on the floor in front of her. "Katie, are you all right?"

Still a little upset with Jayne, Katie said, without smiling, "Oh, according to everyone, I'm just fine. I'm not dying." There was disappointment in her voice, but Jayne was not sure if that was because she and Mavis weren't Sarah or for some other reason.

Mavis, still worried about the false report thing, tried her best to charm the scruffy looking policeman and extended her hand saying, "I'm Ms. Burns. And you are...?"

"Oh, I'm sorry. My manners!" He took her hand and said, "I'm Lieutenant Christopho of the homicide division. I was only a couple blocks away when I heard the call on my radio. It's always good to be first on the scene of a crime -- of course, there hasn't been a crime here."

"No, no crime at all." Mavis tried to sound not too vigorous in her agreement.

"Katie, what happened?" asked Jayne.

With a sigh, Katie said, "Well, I guess I just had a very goo -- I mean, bad dream."

"I'm sure that's all it was, ma'am," said the lieutenant. "At least that's how I'm going to put it down in my report."

"Do you have to make a report?" asked Mavis.

"Well, I have to account for my time, ma'am. The commander is kind of a stickler about that. But there won't be any problem."

"Was it a dream, Katie?" Jayne asked, very sincerely.

"Everybody says that it was, but -- Jayne, it was SO real. I mean, I've never had a dream where my eyes were closed and I couldn't see anything. Have you?"

"How about that, lieutenant?" Jayne turned to look at him. "That is unusual. In fact, I've never heard of it."

"Well, you see, ma'am, that's the way she remembers it. That doesn't necessarily mean that's the way the dream was. Her mind might have filled in the memory of the dream so that it would make sense. Trust me, I've questioned plenty of witnesses who have 'remembered' things that never really happened because there were gaps that needed to be explained." Christopho shook his head and chuckled. "I could tell you some stories!"

Jayne looked at the shaken-up necrobabe. "Katie, tell me what happened. Please."

The lieutenant pulled a notebook out of his pocket and checked over his notes to see if there were any significant differences as Katie repeated the story for Jayne, leaving out any mention of the control box or being turned off. Jayne already knew that detail from their phone conversation and was pleased at Katie's discretion in front of the homicide detective.

"Now, as a matter of fact," Christopho said when Katie had finished, "I did hear a radio report of a pizza truck being struck by a hit-and-run driver. Nobody was injured, but the truck was pretty disabled."

"That confirms Katie's story, doesn't it?" Jayne asked.

"It supports her story, ma'am. It doesn't confirm it."

"Katie," Mavis chimed in, "you said the pizza tasted funny and you still have half of it left in the freezer. Now, I know that you're a girl who knows her pizza. Maybe the lieutenant should take it with him and have it tested."

"Sure, ma'am, I could do that," the lieutenant agreed, " but I think this is more a matter for the health department than the police department."

"I'm not saying it tasted bad," said Katie. "Just different."

"Maybe they changed their recipe," suggested the detective. "Now, that could explain the whole thing. My wife, Mrs. Christopho, she's always experimenting with new things in the kitchen and sometimes, well, frankly, her experiments can give me indigestion and I have bad dreams." Laughing, he added, "One night she tried to make chicken Indonesian style -- boy, the dream I had that night -- that was a beaut!

"Another thing," he went on, "this dream had a kind of, well, erotic content, if you don't mind me referring to that. Now, I don't mean to get personal, but if a person has some thoughts along that line before they go to sleep, well, that can lead to them having dreams of the sort. Now, you don't have to answer, ma'am, because you seem like a very nice, decent kind of girl...."

All three women smiled at that.

"...but," Christopho seemed a little uncomfortable as he asked, "if you don't mind me asking, were you having any thoughts of that, um, nature?"

Remembering her time in the shower, Katie nodded meekly. "Yes."

"Well, see? When you add those thoughts to the funny tasting pizza, that could explain the whole thing," Christopho offered.

"But that doesn't disprove Katie's story," argued Mavis.

"No, ma'am, I'll admit that it doesn't," he agreed. "But what comes real close to doing that is the one major fact here: She isn't dead. She doesn't even seem a little bit sick. Now, you ladies have to see my point, right?" He spread his hands and looked at each of them in turn.

"Yes," Jayne assented. "That is hard to ignore."

"And," Christopho continued, "there's something that just doesn't make sense."

"What's that?" asked Mavis.

"Well, according to Katie, these men thought she was dead or close to it. Now, I ask you," he appealed to them, "who would want to make love to a dead woman? Have you ever heard of such a thing?"

Katie coughed and cleared her throat.

Mavis was unable to totally suppress a giggle, but covered her mouth.

Only Jayne maintained almost perfect poise, saying, "Uh, yes, Lieutenant. You may have a, uh, valid point there. Although, I have, ahem, heard of some, uh, rare cases in which people do, uh, at least have fantasies about that -- or so they say. There is a name for it? Mavis, do you know what that's called?"

Mavis, keeping her hand over her mouth, shook her head and managed to utter, "Um-um."

Christopho turned and started to head for the door.

Then he stopped, turned back and said:

"There's just one other thing that bothers me."

"Oh, what's that?" asked Jayne.

"Well, I can understand that when Katie heard that these men thought she was dead, she would want to play possum as well as she could. But I find it hard to believe that, if they did everything to her she says they did, she didn't react at all. I mean, the ice cube thing and the, uh, other stuff -- how could she feel all that and not react? Now, can any of you ladies explain that?" The lieutenant looked at each woman in turn.

Jayne realized that this was a critical point to establishing Katie's credibility, but it was also obvious that, although several members of the police department knew about the Club and how it worked, it was obvious that Christopho was not one of them. If his superiors had kept him "out of the loop" re the Club, enlightening him on the subject might be a bad idea. Yet, if all this had happened, Katie was in great danger. It might be best to take their story to someone already in the know about the Club.

While Jayne was debating how to handle the matter, suddenly Mavis spoke up.

"Actually, that's very easy to explain."

All eyes turned to Mavis at those words.

Jayne shook her head to tell Mavis to shut up but Mavis ignored her.

"Oh," said the lieutenant with curiosity. "How is that?"

"Well, we all practice a very, very deep form of Eastern meditation," Mavis explained.

Oh, Jeez, Mavis! thought Jayne. You've read one article in Cosmopolitan and seen a talk show on the subject. DO NOT TRY TO FAKE THIS!

"I've heard that some of that stuff can be very effective. But I've never heard of anything like this. Could you tell me more?" Christopho seemed genuinely interested.

"Lieutenant," Jayne interrupted. "This is a very new practice in this country and we hope to attract a larger following before going public."

"Well, now that the subject's been brought up, I really should find out more about it. I'd be remiss in my duties if I didn't ask you to tell me as much as you can. See, I'm going to have to mention this in my report and I've got a boss who is a real stickler for detail. If he looks at my report and asks, 'What's this about meditation?' and I have to answer him, 'Well, sir, the women didn't want to say much about it,' he's almost sure to ask you to come downtown and explain it to him. He's the type who would get suspicious if someone didn't want to say whether he took cream in his coffee. On the other hand, if I can tell him, 'Oh, the ladies told me all about it, and it's very interesting, but they did ask me to keep it to myself if I could,' he would accept that. I really wouldn't want to see you ladies inconvenienced by having to make a special trip just to answer a few questions." Christopho was being very polite, but at the same time quite serious.

Mavis caught Jayne's looks of warning but wanted to continue. "Jayne, I'm sure that the Lieutenant can be very discreet. Can't you, Lieutenant?"

Christopho raised his hand like a boy scout. "Word of honor, ma'am."

"Well, have you ever heard of..." Mavis paused for a moment and came up with the only name connected with eastern spirituality that she could think of at the moment. "...the Indian spiritual leader Sathya Sai Baba."

Well, at least she came up with a real name, thought Jayne.

"Oh, yes, ma'am, I'm very familiar with him," nodded Christopho.

Oh, shit!

"You, you are?" Mavis was taken by surprise.

"Yes, ma'am. You see, my wife, Mrs. Christopho, she's very big on learning all she can about the Far East, and she talks about it over dinner all the time. She's got several books about Sai Baba at home and she's told me a lot about him. I know he does very good work with orphan children, but I haven't heard about anything like this meditation connected with him."

Okay, Mavis, where do you go from here?

"Well," Mavis faltered and then continued, "our leader is not actually Sathya Sai Baba himself, but rather a relative of his with a much different emphasis in his teachings. That relatative is known as..."

Jayne could see Mavis trying to come up with something that sounded like it went with "Baba."

"Neh Kro Baba," Mavis finally said.

"Now, him I never heard of," admitted Christopho.

I wonder why. Jayne shook her head.

"And we, his followers," Mavis continued, now on a roll, "are known as NehKroBabites, or as some of us prefer, NehKroBabees."

Katie giggled. Jayne bumped her in the knee with her elbow.

"And this Neh Kro, he can teach people to meditate that deeply? You'll have to pardon me, ma'am, but that is hard to believe. I mean, maybe after years and years of practice," Christopho speculated, "but you are all so young and you say this is new to this country."

"Well, yes," admitted Mavis, "using traditional training, it would take years to bring someone to the point Katie is at. But the great Neh Kro has combined modern technology with ancient wisdom to speed up the process ."

"And how does he do that, ma'am, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Mavis," warned Jayne, "you may be about to speak of things that should be only known by initiates."

"I think we can trust the lieutenant." Mavis's confidence seemed to be growing. "You see, there are several ways of meditating. Some ask the student to concentrate on a thought. Others on a design, a pattern. There is a special name for that, but I forget what it's called."

"Oh, I know the kind of thing you mean. Mrs. Christopho has this real pretty Indian wall hanging in the hallway. I think she calls it a mandala." Christopho wanted to show he was knowledgeable.

"Uh, yes, I believe you're right," said Mavis, who, though taken aback, decided to continue with her bluff. "There are other meditation practices use different devices. For example, take trani...transi.."

"Transcendental Meditation," Christopho offered.

"Yes," said Mavis, "In Transcendental Mediation, the student focuses on a sound."

"A mantra." Christopho nodded.

"Yes. A mantra." Undaunted by the fact that the lieutenant clearly knew more about the subject than she did, Mavis went on.. "Well, in our practice, this is technically augmented to make for greater concentration. The mantra is sent from a small transmitter to a tiny, tiny receiver implanted in the initiate's inner ear. While the sound is being transmitted, concentration cannot be broken. After proper conditioning, even though the initiate may be aware of his or her environment, he or she is unable to react to it as long as the sound is heard."

"Now that is something I really would like to see." Christopho was very eager.

Ignoring the daggers coming from Jayne's eyes, Mavis said, "Well, I myself have not yet had the implant procedure and Katie probably does not want to go back into the deep state again already. Jayne, however,..."

"UNFORTUNATELY, I did not bring my transmitter with me." Jayne spoke through slightly clenched teeth.

"Oh, nonsense," laughed Mavis. "You never leave home without it. I can feel it right here in your purse." Mavis dipped her hand into Jayne's purse and came up with the control box. "See. Here it is."

Christopho turned to Jayne, appealing, "Please, ma'am, if it isn't too much trouble. I really would like a demonstration."

"I would rather not," said Jayne.

"Well, I can't force you, of course," admitted Christopho, "but it would help me to believe your friend's story."

Katie nudged Jayne.

"I'm not nearly as good as my very enthusiastic friend makes me out to be," muttered Jayne.

"Oh, Jayne! You know that the great Neh Kro teaches that, while humility is a virtue, modesty to the point of bearing false witness is wrong behavior."

"Yes." Jayne glared at Mavis. "Neh Kro teaches that lying about anything can entail great karmic penalties!"

"True enough." Mavis was very cheerful. "Now, you get up off the floor and sit on the couch beside Katie." Mavis started to pull Jayne to her feet.

"Horrible penalties," said Jayne, rising.

"Yes, dear. Now, just sit down." Mavis encouraged.

"Penalties that may not be limited to this lifetime." Jayne allowed herself to be pushed down on the couch.

"Uh huh. Now make yourself comfortable." Mavis seemed oblivious to the tone of Jayne's voice.

"Penalties that may follow one into death itself!" Jayne folded her hands on her lap and tried to smile.

"Yes, of course, they can." Seeing Jayne was composed, Mavis pressed the off switch on Jayne's control box.

Or until you get your own control box. Mavis, you bitch, Jayne said to herself, I am going to get you for this!

"Now, observe, Lieutenant, how impossible it is to get a reaction from the initiate." Mavis snapped her fingers in front of Jayne's eyes and made as though she was going poke her ala the Three Stooges.

Mavis, when you get an implant, I am going to switch you off and use you for a lawn ornament.

"You can stimulate with sight or with sound. You get no reaction." Mavis clapped her hands loudly beside each of Jayne's ears.

And leave the sprinkler system on all day and all night!

"Nor is stimulation of the other senses able to provoke a response." Mavis picked up the wastebasket containing the results of Katie's vomiting, held it under Jayne's chin, and tilted Jayne's head into it. "Even the olfactory sense can not cause her to so much as wrinkle her nose."

Mavis, I am going to dress you in grey and take you to whatever park in this city has the most pigeons!

"That is amazing!" Christopho was impressed. "Still that isn't quite what happened to Katie."

"Well, as for that ice cube thing...oh, good, there's still a little chunk left in the glass. Now watch while I put it on the back of her neck. See. No reaction, just like Katie." Mavis seemed to be having fun. "Oops! I dropped it down the back of her blouse."

When Rick and I get married, you bitch, I am going insist that he offer you as a door prize at his bachelor party!

"Even actual physical pain can't provoke a response. Observe." Mavis grabbed Jayne's right breast and squeezed so hard it made Katie wince. "Now, lieutenant, you could try this yourself, if you don't think I'm really squeezing. Jayne won't mind. She's a nurse and very comfortable with her body. She's even been known to let paramedic students practice mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her."

Is that what this is all about? Oh, you bitch! I am going to clean the toilet bowl with your hair!"

"No, ma'am, that won't be necessary. Mrs. Christopho doesn't even squeeze fruit at the super market that hard. I'm convinced that Katie here could have stayed perfectly still during all that she described."

"Oh, good," said Katie. "I'm so glad. Uh, Mavis, I think you can let go of Jayne's breast now and turn her back on."

"Oh, yes, I suppose so. Are you sure you don't need a further demonstration, Lieutenant?"

"No, ma'am. That will do."

Mavis picked up the control box and restored Jayne's ability to move. "See, Jayne, the lieutenant is convinced that Katie is telling the truth."

"Now, I didn't say that, ma'am," Christopho corrected. "This is consistent with everything Katie said but it doesn't prove it."

"Well," said Jayne, rubbing her sore breast. "I hope this has at least opened your mind to the possibility that things may have happened the way they did."

"Yes, ma'am. It has done that. And I want to thank you for your cooperation."

"Oh, glad to be of help." Jayne pulled the back of her blouse out of her skirt to let the ice cube fall out. "It gave me a chance to think about how much fun Mavis and I can have after she's had the implant, too."

"But, Lieutenant," Katie asked, "what would it take to convince you that this wasn't all a dream?"

Scratching above his eyebrow, Christopho said, "Well, some way to explain the fact that you are still alive would help, ma'am."

Suddenly the door burst open.

Katie's lover Sarah rushed in and threw herself at Katie's feet, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Katie," she sobbed, "forgive me. It's all my fault. I didn't mean to make you sick. I just wanted to help you stay healthy."

While Sarah cried, everyone else exchanged puzzled looks and the lieutenant stood with his notebook and pen poised.

After a few moments, Jayne gently touched Sarah's shoulder and asked, "What do you mean, it's your fault?"

Looking up and sniffling, Sarah said shakily, "I made Katie sick. I didn't mean to. I was only trying to help. I switched a pizza that I made for the pizza from Tony's while Katie was in the shower. I didn't mean to hurt her. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She looked up at Katie and pleaded, "Please forgive me, please."

Katie patted her lover on the head. "Sure. But why?"

"Well, when you brought Bob down to the...."

Quickly, Jayne leaped in, "Oh, Sara, before you explain, let me introduce Lieutenant Christopho of the police department."

Sarah had not even noticed him when she came in. "Oh, hi. What are you... oh, I'm not in trouble am I?"

"No, ma'am. Just go on with your story."

"Well, that night I met Bob, I asked him how he got to know you and he said he had been delivering pizzas to you every day. Well, I didn't want to tell you how to eat -- we've had that discussion before." Sarah lowered her head a little. "Anyway, I thought that if I made you a pizza that was like, uh..."

"Low in calories?" Jayne suggested.

"Yeah, uh, what you said." Sarah gulped and went on. "I thought maybe you would enjoy that just as much. So, the next day, I baked a pizza and brought it over. You didn't answer the door, so I let myself in and heard you in the shower. Well, I saw the pizza on the coffee table, still in its box, so I decided to just put mine in its place. I figured that if you didn't notice the difference, I could tell you what I had done, and you would see that low-cal pizza was really okay. I was going to tell you the first time you mentioned what you had been eating, but you never did, so I just kept on doing it -- except on days when Bob, uh, stayed around. I kept making the ingredients more and more low cal."

"Did you do anything differently today?" Jayne asked.

"Well," Sarah said, "today was the first day that I went from low fat cheese to fat-free cheese and also I, uh, well, in place of some of the sausage used a soy-substitute. But that isn't supposed to make you sick. I hoped you wouldn't even notice the difference."

"I guess that explains everything." Christopho laughed. "Mrs. Christopho has tried to fool me with some of that soybean stuff. It's never given me bad dreams, but I can tell the difference."

"Bad dreams?" Sarah was puzzled.

"Yes, Katie seems to have had a very unusual dream after she ate your pizza. We'll tell you about it later." Jayne didn't want to discuss necrobabe dreams in front of the police.

Katie was beginning to fume a bit that everyone was so quick to dismiss her experience as a dream. Well, maybe they're right. Maybe I'm like soybean-intolerant or something.

"I guess that clears everything up." Christopho started to put his notebook away but stopped and said, "Oh, just one more thing, and then I'll be going."

All of the women looked at him.

"It may be none of my business, Sarah," Christopho apologized, "but how have you been able to get into the apartment all these afternoons? Is the door always unlocked?"

"Sarah has her own key," Katie said, answering for her.

"Yes," said Sarah. "But I didn't use my key today. The door was unlocked when I got here."

Everybody exchanged glances.

"Did you leave the door unlocked when you left?" Jayne asked.

"Well, sure. I figured there was a reason why Katie left it unlocked, although I can't imagine why. I thought she might have been expecting someone." Sarah's manner showed that she had experienced a moment of jealousy.

"But I swear the door was locked when I went to unlock it for the paramedics," Katie insisted. "And I know I heard somebody knock on the door and try to open it after my so-called dream."

"And," Mavis put in, "you were just saying, Lieutenant, that an explanation of how Katie could still be alive would help you believe that Katie's story wasn't a dream. Sarah's switching of the pizzas explains Katie being alive perfectly."

Sarah looked from Katie to Mavis to Jayne, wishing that somebody would explain what was going on.

"Ma'am -- Sarah, is there any chance that you could have locked the door by accident or force of habit?" the lieutenant asked.

"I might have, but I did check the door twice to make sure it was still unlocked." Sarah was very firm about that.

"It sure seems like there could be some truth in Katie's story," Mavis observed.

The lieutenant seemed lost in thought for a moment and then suddenly seemed to remember something and glanced at his watch. "Oh, gee! Look at the time! I've got to check on the progress of a case I've been working on. Ma'am -- Katie -- is there a telephone in your bedroom or kitchen that I could use? I try to avoid using my cell phone for official business because it's so easy to easy to eavesdrop on wireless conversations."

"Sure. If you don't mind a mess and you want privacy, you can use the one in the bedroom. Otherwise, there's one in the kitchen."

"I'll take privacy." As he headed for the bedroom, Christopho turned and said, "This will only take a moment, but while I'm gone, would you ladies all please write down your names and addresses and phone numbers?" He closed the bedroom door behind him.

"You know, that thing about cell phone conversations being easy to overhear could explain why they knew my routine so well. I always placed my pizza order by phone." Katie opened one of her notebooks to a blank page and handed it, along with a pen, to Jayne first, hoping she would not notice that the front cover said "Elementary Life Sciences."

As she wrote, Jayne said, quietly, "Okay. Everybody just give home phone numbers and addresses. If he asks for work numbers, Mavis and I will give numbers for our day jobs, but you two just say that your employer doesn't like to have you get phone calls at work. And that's really true. Your employer -- ME -- doesn't want you getting any calls from police at work. Okay?" Seeing Katie and Sarah nod, she handed the notebook and pen to Mavis.

"What's this all about?" Sarah wanted to know.

"Oh, we'll tell you about it later," Jayne assured her. "Katie has reason to believe that there are some men who want to see her dead."

"Well, duh! I mean, who doesn't want to see her dead? That's why she's so popular at the Club," Sarah laughed, taking the notebook and pen from Mavis, who had simply written "Same as above" after her name.

"That was my reaction, too," said Jayne. "No, this is different. This is for real."

"You mean, DEAD dead! Like dead for real?" Sarah looked at Katie. "Why would anybody want to kill you?"

"I don't know. It seemed like I knew something about something that would screw something up if I told somebody. But I don't have any idea what they were talking about."

"Can you remember what they said?" Mavis asked.

"Oh, sure. Word for word -- I mean, you get used to listening to people carefully at the Club. When you're turned off, you can't do anything but listen." Katie took the notebook from Sarah and began to write.

"Well, maybe if you tell us what they said, we can figure out what it is that you're supposed to know that you shouldn't know," Mavis suggested.

Oh, geez,, thought Jayne, Nancy Drew is on the case!

"Sure. Just as soon as I finish writing," Katie said.

However, Lieutenant Christopho emerged from Katie's bedroom before she could begin relating what she had heard. "Ladies, I'm sorry, but I have to get back to the station. There has been an arrest in the case I mentioned. Now, you ladies will sort of stay together, won't you? I mean, Katie probably doesn't want to be alone tonight."

"Yeah, I might have another bad dream." Katie tore the sheet bearing the contact information out of her notebook and handed the sheet to the lieutenant.

"We'll all be together most of the night. We'll be meditating," said Jayne.

Sarah was puzzled by this, but a gentle kick from Katie helped her decide not to ask any questions.

"Now, here's how you can reach me." Christopho gave each of the women a business card. "Oh, and about the pizza that you took, Sarah -- you didn't eat any of it or throw it away, did you?"

"No. I...."

"Well, I think it would be a good idea if you took it down to the station so that our lab people can have a look at it. If you show them my card, the man at the reception desk will know what to do with it." Christopho moved toward the door, but before opening it, turned and said, "Oh, and just one more thing...."

All of the women looked at him attentively.

"Katie, you might give some thought to why somebody would want to kill you."

Katie gulped. "I will."

"I'll be in touch." Christopho opened the door and said, "It's been a pleasure to meet all of you. I sure would like to hear more about this meditation thing. And don't forget to drop that pizza off at the station."

"Thank you. We won't forget," Jayne assured him. "Good-bye, Lieutenant."

Katie, Sarah, and Mavis echoed Jayne's farewell as Lieutenant Christopho departed.

"Now, somebody tell me what this all about!" Sarah demanded.

"We'll fill you in on the way to your apartment to pick up the pizza," Jayne said.

"Oh, I didn't take it home," Sarah corrected her. "I took it down to the Club."

"The Club?" all three of the others exclaimed in unison.

"Yeah. I always take it down there and put it in the refrigerator for Jimmy. You know how he likes....."

"Oh, my God! Jimmy," Mavis quickly grabbed the telephone and punched in the number of the Club. "We've got to make sure he doesn't eat any of it.

Jayne and Katie waited with anxiety while Sarah wondered what the problem was. They all had affection for the huge bouncer, but Mavis's feelings for him were special.

"Jayne, there's no answer! What can we do?" Mavis's voice trembled.

"Well, don't panic." Jayne looked at her watch. "It's only six-twenty. Jimmy may not be there yet and, even if he is, he doesn't always pick up the phone before business hours. I'll drive your car down to the Club and you keep trying to reach him on your cell phone."

"I'll drive. I'm faster." Mavis was already out the door.

"Wait! I'm calmer!" Jayne yelled, but seeing it did no good, quickly turned to the other two women and said, "Katie, get dressed and you two get down to the Club as fast as you can."

With that, Jayne took off after Mavis.