She scrunched the paper up again, stuffed it back into her pocket, and tucked the purse in the drawer.

Then she pulled something off her hands. Clear plastic gloves. She shoved those in her pocket, too.

She looked around and scurried over to push the elevator button.

I needed to keep her there till I could tell the chief what she'd done. And I also needed to keep an eye on the drawer containing Vivian's purse.

I waited until Louise wasn't looking my way. Then I began walking toward the elevator and called out to her.

"Hey, Louise!"

She started, then turned and put on a shaky smile.

"Hello, Meg," she said. "I dropped by to see your grandfather but I understand he's asleep."

"Dad's down there right now, checking to see if he's awake," I said. "And if he is I'm sure he'd love to see you. Do stay, please."

"I don't want to be a bother," she said.

"To tell you the truth, he pretends to be grouchy when people stop by, but I think it's really helping his morale, having some of the Corsicans visit. And morale is the key thing at this point. So stay, please; Dad will be back in just a minute."

She smiled uneasily, and perched on the edge of one of the benches by the elevator. I sat down beside her, racking my brains for some way to keep her there.

She gave me the perfect method.

"How are the babies?" she asked.

"Great!" I exclaimed. "Want to see some pictures?"

I'm sure there are people rude enough to say no to that question, but Louise wasn't one of them. Considering that she was probably dying to make her escape, she cooed and exclaimed over the boys with remarkably good nature. I found myself hoping she was only guilty of jealousy and trying to frame her rival, not the murder itself.

After what probably seemed like several decades to her-it certainly did to me-we heard footsteps in the hallway. We both whirled to see who was coming.

The chief, accompanied by Vivian.

Louise and I both stood. She glanced toward the elevator.

"Thanks for letting me see those photos," she said. "I should be going now."

"Hang on a second," I said. "I've got one more thing to show you."

"Ms. Langslow," the chief said. "Isn't it getting rather late? I thought you were going home."

"I was waiting to give Dad a ride," I said. "And I saw something that I think I should tell you about."

Louise flinched as if I'd struck her.

"Something related to the murder?" the chief asked.

"Possibly," I said. "You know by now that Louise and Vivian were both involved with Parker Blair."

"He got tired of her months ago," Vivian said.

"Tramp!" Louise countered.

"As you see they don't like each other very much," I went on.

"Yes, I'm aware of their ... involvement with Mr. Blair," the chief said. "They're not the only ones."

The women, who had been glaring at each other, turned to glare at him.

"Although they do seem rather suspicious of each other," he went on. "They each tried to convince me that the other was the most likely suspect in Mr. Blair's murder."

"You lying tramp!" Louise exclaimed.

Vivian contented herself with a superior sniff.

"So maybe it's just jealousy that made Louise put something in Vivian's purse," I went on.

"What?" Louise and Vivian exclaimed in unison.

"Did you see what it was?" the chief asked.

"No," I said. "It was small enough to wrap in a tiny scrap of white paper or cloth that she still has in her pocket. And if you search her, you'll also find the gloves she used to handle the purse."

"What was it?" Vivian demanded. She took a step toward Louise, and reached out as if to shake her, but I stepped between them.

"Sammy," the chief was saying into his phone. "Get up here. And have Debbie Anne send Horace Hollingsworth over."

"We'll see about this," Vivian said. She strode over to the nurses' station.

"Ms. Forrest," the chief said. "Don't touch that."

Vivian ignored him. She yanked open the drawer, pulled out her purse, opened it, and poured the contents onto the counter.

"Leave that alone," the chief snapped.

"I didn't plant anything," Louise said. "She's making it up."

"Oh, my God!" Vivian said. She was pointing to something.

"What is it?" the chief asked.

"Parker's earring," Vivian whispered. "What's it doing in my purse?"

"Don't touch anything," the chief said.

This time it looked as if Vivian would follow his orders. She was backing away from the clutter on the counter, both hands covering her mouth.

Just then the elevator dinged. Louise turned toward the doors. The chief and I both moved toward them. If Louise tried to make a run for it ...

The doors opened. Sammy stepped out and almost bumped into Louise.

"Detain her, Sammy," the chief said. "Detain both of them."

Sammy looked around in confusion. Counting me there were three possible detainees.

"Ms. Dietz and Ms. Forrest," the chief added. "Ms. Langslow is assisting me."

Sammy looked relieved. He crossed his arms, frowned at his two detainees, and stood in front of the elevator doors.

The chief walked over to look at the clutter Vivian had spilled onto the counter. I followed and peered over his shoulder. The interior of Vivian's purse was probably the one less-than-chic part of her life. She had a slender, elegant wallet and a sleek black cosmetic bag, but around them the counter was littered with bits of cotton and tissue, loose change, pens, individually wrapped mints, empty gum wrappers, and any number of indistinguishable bits of paper and plastic junk. Glittering in the midst of the clutter, like an ill-omened red star, was the ruby earring. I wasn't an expert on gems, but I had a feeling it would turn out to be a ruby, not a red spinel or a garnet. Surely nothing but a real ruby could burn with such a poisonous red fire.

"This does appear to resemble the missing earring," the chief said. He had drawn a pair of gloves out of his pocket and was pulling them on, his eyes fixed on the ruby.

"Complication," I said. I grabbed a pencil from the selection in a plastic cup on the counter and used it to lift up one of the shreds of tissue. The chief glared at me, then glanced down and raised one eyebrow at what I'd uncovered. A second ruby earring gleamed back at us. For a few seconds, the scattered contents of Vivian's purse seemed to form a wizened gnome face, peering up at us from the counter with glowing red eyes.

Then the spell broke, and it just looked like a pile of junk around two glittering red earrings.

Vivian was the first to react.

"Why you ... you ... AAAHHH!" She sprang toward Louise, fingernails extended. Louise tried to run, but Vivian caught her, and the two of them began a vicious tussle, complete with hair-pulling, shin-kicking, and fingernail-clawing. Vivian was shouting abuse at Louise in language so blue it would probably have astonished Parker's parrot, while Louise contented herself with shrieking nonstop.

After a brief moment of surprise, both Sammy and I leaped to part the combatants. I didn't have much trouble shoving Louise to the floor and sitting on her, probably because, unlike Sammy, I had no qualms about hitting a woman. And I'd tackled her because she was the smaller of the two. Maybe I should have gone for Vivian. Sammy took quite a lot of damage from her nails before he managed to follow my example.

The chief started around the counter when the fight began, but Sammy and I had things under control by the time he reached the field of combat.

"Good job," he said, glancing from me to Sammy. Then he peered at Sammy's bleeding face and shook his head.

"Can you two ... people be trusted to keep the peace now?" he asked, frowning down at our prisoners. Normally he'd have called them ladies. Under the circumstances, "people" was as close as I'd ever heard him come to a direct insult.

"Ow!" Sammy shouted. "She bit me!"

"We'll have to cuff her." The chief did the honors himself, retrieving the handcuffs from Sammy's belt and applying them expertly to Vivian's wrists as she continued to spit insults at them. Once Vivian was safely cuffed, Sammy came over and took charge of Louise.

"Meg, this is a hospital," the chief said. "Do you think you can find some surgical tape, in case Ms. Forrest cannot be persuaded to hold her tongue?"

"Sure," I said. I went into the nurses' station to rummage. A thought hit me.

"Shouldn't we find a replacement for Vivian?" I asked. "Assuming you're probably going to take her away for questioning. Because she seems to be the only nurse on duty on this part of the floor."

"Good point," he said. "Who do we call?"

I pulled out my cell phone and dialed the police station. If Debbie Anne didn't already know who to call, I'd bet she could find out in no time.

I was still filling Debbie Anne in on events here at the hospital when the elevator dinged again. We all whirled to face the elevator, which opened to reveal another deputy peering out, his gun at the ready.

"Put your weapon away, Fred," the chief said. "You can cuff the prisoner Sammy is restraining. Then get some more help up here. Sammy needs medical attention."

"What's wrong with Sammy?" Dad had finally returned and was standing on tiptoes to peer over Fred's shoulder.

"He was assaulted by one of my murder suspects," the chief said. "Are we any closer to getting a nurse for this floor?"

"Debbie Anne's working on it," I said.

"Good job," he said.

Dad hurried out of the elevator. I noticed he was carrying his black bag.

Fred set about handcuffing Louise in a reassuringly businesslike fashion. Of course, he had the easy job. Louise wasn't putting up much of a fight. She was crying softly, and I noticed that the tears she was shedding over her own plight were falling much faster than the ones she'd shed for poor Parker.

Dad exclaimed over Sammy's wounds and patted him on the shoulder.

"She planted those earrings in my purse," Vivian said, appending a few choice words about Louise's character.

"None of that, young woman," the chief said. "Meg, have you found that tape?"

"Here," Dad said, handing me a roll from the medical supplies he was using to patch up Sammy.

Vivian glared at him and fell silent.

"I planted one," Louise said, through sobs. "And only because she planted it in my purse."

"I did not!" Vivian said.

"Did, too!" Louise said. "I was just putting it back. I have no idea where the other one came from."

"You're lying!" Vivian shrieked.

"Quiet!" the chief bellowed. "Hand me that tape."

"I'll be quiet," Vivian muttered.

I handed the chief the tape anyway. He held the roll in his left hand and tapped it slowly against his right palm. Vivian pursed her lips as if to show that she wasn't even thinking of talking.

The elevator dinged again and Horace and yet another deputy stepped out.

"Excellent!" the chief said. "Jasper, you and Fred take these prisoners down to the station ... er, over to Dr. Langslow's barn and hold them. Separate stalls."

"You can't arrest us!" Vivian yelped.

"We both decline to press charges," Louise said, frowning at Vivian. "You can't arrest us if we both decline to press charges."

"Yes, I can," the chief said. "Disturbing the peace. Assault and battery on poor Sammy here. Interfering with a police investigation. I'm sure I'll think of a few more when I get down to the station. Horace," he said, turning to my cousin, "we have new evidence. Look at this."

The two deputies herded their charges toward the elevator and one pressed the call button.

Horace trotted over to the counter and looked down at the clutter. His face lit up.