“I found a dead body in the cucumber patch,' I told them.'How very like you,' Ophelia said, and went on preening her eyebrows.”

“Patch leaned back against the booth and arched his eyebrows at me. The gesture said it all: Pay up."You got lucky," I said. "I'm about to get lucky.”

“Love made you admire funny things about a person, like how good she was at remembering to return her library books and at slicing cucumbers very thin. She was a veritable wonder at pulling a splinter out of her foot.”

“It wasn't what you said", he told her."It was how I felt when you said it".”

“She said 'Over my dead body!' so I took her at her word.”

“partially digested. Like someone ate them from the inside out.” The room went silent for a minute, then I said, “That is creepy.” “I’ll say,” Vic said with a nod. “Maybe some kind of animal ate the body parts, after they were dead,” I suggested. “Yeah, sure, I’d say it was a gerbil but it’s the wrong hole,” Tate said.”