Set immediately after "Allegory of Love"
Care Package
Jean Innocent can't remember the last time she'd felt so miserable. Of course, she had a legitimate excuse. It wasn't every day that one found out one's best friend was a mentally unstable murderer.
She wonders how she could've been so wrong about Ginny Harris. Normally, she's such a good judge of character, but this time…
Eventually Innocent reasons that she was just seeing what she wanted to see, believing what she wanted to believe—blinding herself to the fact that this Ginny is not the same Ginny she knew at uni just as she is not the same Jean she used to be. Time changes people—sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse.
She hurries to her car, wanting to get home as quickly as possible so that she can fling herself in her loving husband's arms. And then she remembers that he won't be at home after all; he doesn't get back from that damned conference until tomorrow afternoon. She supposes she could jerk his arm into coming back early, but she knows she'd feel guilty about it. This conference is very important, and besides, he'd never really been all that crazy about Ginny anyway—often wondering exactly why Jean was friends with someone who was so different from her in temperament.
The chief superintendent arrives home ten minutes later—head still swimming with horrific images of her old friend crashing a mirror over an innocent girl's head. She parks the car, exits it, and goes up to the door, beside which sits a medium sized cardboard box with her name written on it in a messy but still somewhat familiar script. There's no postmark or stamp on the package, indicating that it hadn't been formally mailed, but merely left on her doorstep for her to find.
A trifle confused, Innocent picks up the package, places it under one arm, and unlocks the door to her house. Once she's inside, she brings the box over to the kitchen table and looks around until she finds a reliable pair of scissors. Once she's disposed of the thick layer of packing tape binding the box shut, Jean pulls back the flaps.
Inside are: a new paperback from her favourite crime novelist, two of trashy celebrity gossip magazines Jean professes to dislike but secretly enjoys, lilac-scented bubble bath, and a box of gourmet chocolate.
There's also a note at the bottom in the same familiar, slightly untidy handwriting as her name on the front of the box. Innocent picks up and reads.
Jean,
Robbie told me what's happened. I'm very sorry and I thought you could use a little pampering as a result. If you need to talk or even just want a distraction, don't hesitate to call. I don't have anything planned for the rest of the week.
- Laura—
The chief superintendent smiles to herself, picks up her mobile, and dials the pathologist's number. " Hi, Laura. It's Jean…. Yes, I just got your package. …It was lovely. … Thank you so much… Anyway, the reason I was calling is that…Mr Innocent is out of town tonight…and so I'm on my own, which is the absolute last thing in the world I want right now… Also, I'd feel guilty eating an entire box of chocolates by myself much as I may want to. Would you care to join me…Okay, what time should I expect you? All right, I'll see you in an hour then. Thank you, Laura. And goodbye."
It seems like one good thing has come of this whole Ginny Harris mess after all. In the process of losing a friend, Jean seems to have found one that she didn't know she had.