"Where are we off to?" Jane asked.

"I thought a Coke at McDonald's?"

"My kind of date," Jane said, then wondered if that had been the wrong thing to say. This wasn't exactly a date. It was more a casual pickup. She smiled at the thought of being picked up on the cusp of forty.

They got their drinks, then Mel drove to the mall, closed and deserted now, and stopped and turned off the car in the middle of the huge parking expanse. "Just thought I'd fill you in a bit," he said.

Jane very nearly said, "Gee, I hoped we were going to make out," but thought better of it for several reasons, the primary being that it was too close to the truth. The other thing that stopped her was the realization that they probably didn't call it that anymore, and he'd feel as if he were out with his mother. Instead, she asked, "Any more word on the poison?"

"Not yet," he said. "I guess once you get past the usual things to test for, you've got a lot of weird stuff to work through. But I did find out a few things I thought might interest you. Ah ... Jane, you do realize this is highly irregular, don't you?"

"What is? Sitting in a dark parking lot with a possible suspect? Taking an older woman out for a Coke?"

"Talking to you about this case. I hope you'll keep anything that I tell you in strict confidence."

Jane considered seriously. "Except for Shelley. She's my Watson. Or maybe I'm hers. I haven't figured that out yet."

He didn't answer for a long moment.

"You don't like Shelley, do you?" she asked.

"It's not that--"

"She's very blunt. She not only says what she thinks, lots of times she says what I think and didn't know," Jane said. "I know you feel we're being terribly callous about all this, and we probably are, but women are tough, Mel."

He turned and smiled at her, condescendingly, she thought.

Maybe it was because she reached some turning point in her life, but she suddenly threw caution to the winds.

"Look here, Detective VanDyne, I know you're a big, macho cop. You think you've seen the real nitty gritty of life, and housewives are just dust-bunny-brains worrying about trivialities, but you've got it wrong. Any woman who's had to turn a baby upside down and smack it nearly senseless to dislodge a penny stuck in its throat knows as much of life and death as you do – and in a much more personal way. We learn a lot about life, because mothers live it over again in each of their children. You've only been through teenage angst ones. I've been through it three times and still have one to go."

She was on a roll and couldn't seem to stop. "You think cleaning and cooking and vacuuming are stupid, but they're important. They make a safe haven. Those dumb, boring activities create a place where kids know they're loved, and no matter how badly life kicks them around, there's a place where somebody's doing her best to take care of them. You wouldn't be the person you are if it weren't for a caring mother. Men think they're so damned strong, but haven't you ever stopped to think who raised those strong men? Who taught them to be what they are? Women, that's who! Ordinary women who clean up the cat shit and peel potatoes and make damned Halloween costumes and still manage to do the most important job in the world – raising the next generation!"

Jane stopped raving, shocked at herself.

She cleared her throat, took a reckless swig of her drink that nearly made her choke and said, "Sorry. I must have suddenly been under the impression I was running for office."

Mel reached over, took the waxed cup from her hand, and dropped it out the car window onto the pavement. Then he put his hand on her cheek, leaned forward, and kissed her.

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