Scones and Scofflaws Page 18

  “Evan, that’s it!”

  “What’s it,” Evan asked cautiously.

  “Tough Cookie was right. We need to dig through the trash.”

  39

  “You want to dig through the trash?” Evan eyed the bins in front of them warily. “Why?”

  Anna wrinkled her nose but nodded. “Sorry. There’s a bag in there from George’s room.” She lifted the lid of the first of three large cans that stood behind her house. “I’m not sure which bin I threw it in.”

  “Okay…” Evan opened the lid of another one. “So what am I looking for?”

  Anna leaned over her can and poked around in it gingerly. They both wore plastic gloves, but she still didn’t enjoy the prospect of digging through the trash. “I guess all the trash bags look the same, don’t they?”

  Evan laughed. “Yeah. They look like trash bags.”

  Eoin, on the other hand, looked like he couldn’t wait to dive in. “Which one do I get to dig in?” he asked, his eyes wide in anticipation. Anna had offered Sammy the chance to stay and join them, after she brought Eoin back home, but unsurprisingly she declined the offer.

  “There’s no easy way to do this. I’ll take this one. Eoin, you can look through that smaller bin,” Anna said, pointing to the gray bin at the end of the row. She really didn’t like how much he was enjoying this. She could only imagine what he was going to tell his mother next time he spoke to her — and what kind of earful she’d get from her mom in return.

  Anna took a breath and started hauling bags out of the bin and dropping them on the ground around her. Evan shrugged and followed her lead, digging into the second bin. Eoin dove headfirst into his bin, his skinny legs dangling briefly before he pushed himself back out, dragging a trash bag after him.

  “Well this is clearly from the kitchen.” Evan held up one bag. “Are you sure the bag we’re looking for is just from George’s room?”

  Anna nodded, so Evan put the kitchen trash in a separate pile. “One down.” He looked around them. “About eleven more to go.”

  It didn’t take long to empty the bins and discard the trash bags that were definitely not what they needed. That left them surrounded by six bags of trash, spread around them on the ground.

  Anna gave Evan her most appealing look. “I’m really sorry. But there’s a good chance the poison was in that bottle. We need to find it.”

  Eoin reached for a bag, but Anna put a hand out to stop him. “Sorry, buddy, but we need to be careful with this. We really don’t want to miss it. In fact, what I need you to do,” she added when she saw Eoin’s face drop, “is double check, each of us ― two sets of eyes are better than one. And I know you don’t miss a thing, do you?”

  “It’ll be me pleasure,” Eoin replied proudly as he moved to the center of the pile where he could easily see what the two adults were pulling out of the bags.

  Evan pushed his already rolled up his sleeves farther up and opened the first bag. “Remind me what I’m looking for.”

  “It’s a white, plastic tub. Not labeled. About yay big.” She held her hands in a circle to show the diameter of the tub. “It held a cinnamon-scented lotion.”

  Evan nodded and looked into the bag, poking around with a gloved hand. “There are a few things in here that might fit that description.”

  Anna stopped her search through the bag she’d torn open. “Pull them all out. I’ll need to look at them.”

  “And why this particular bottle of lotion?” Evan asked.

  “It’s the smell. You’ll see.”

  They kept digging through the bags, creating a line of white bottles and tubs along the path.

  “Cousin Anna, look,” Eoin called out in a surprisingly loud voice.

  Anna glanced at the bottle Evan held. “Yes! I think that’s it.”

  Evan held up the bottle, turning it in his hands to examine it. He removed the lid and held it a few inches from his face and sniffed. “I smell cinnamon.”

  “Exactly.” Anna stood up excitedly. “That’s the one.”

  She kneeled down next to Evan to get a whiff of the near-empty bottle. “I don’t know a whole lot about nicotine, but I heard a story about parents almost killing their teenage son by accident.”

  “With nicotine?” Evan asked incredulously. “How can you accidentally kill someone with nicotine?”

  “They were using what they thought was an herbal remedy. I know,” she said, seeing the look of astonishment on Evan’s face. “Nicotine does have some positive qualities and there was a time — a lot of years ago — when tobacco leaves were one ingredient used to help with skin rashes, things like that.”

  “You mean like what George had?”

  “Not exactly, no. But anyway, these parents put this 'herbal‘ cream all over their son, hoping to help him.” Anna made air quotes with her hands to make clear her opinion of this particular remedy. “The doctors who ultimately saved the boy’s life determined later that if they hadn’t put him in the bath right after applying the cream, he wouldn’t have been in so much danger.”

  “But they did,” Evan said.

  “They did.” Anna nodded. “And it turns out that nicotine is most lethal in a warm, humid environment.”

  “Like when George took a hot shower in the morning,” Evan said.

  Anna nodded. “But the problem is, when it gets warm it smells kind of fishy. No way anyone would put that on them without noticing it.”

  “Hence the smelly lotion,” Evan finished the thought.

  “Was the boy all right?” Eoin asked, his eyebrows raised and his forehead furrowed.

  “Oh yes, don’t worry, the boy was fine.” She smiled brightly, immediately regretting having shared that horrific story in front of Eoin. “The doctors figured out what was wrong and treated him. He was fine. But everyone involved knew what was going on… the parents, the boy. They weren’t trying to trick him, so they didn’t need to mask the smell of the poison.”

  Anna looked at the mess around them as she thought through her idea. “If George was used to using this smelly lotion for his eczema, he might not have noticed that it smelled a little off that morning. He said he used it all over. If the killer put enough liquid nicotine in there…” She chewed on her lip. “Typically, it would be hard to get a dose large enough to be lethal. But in the heat of the bathroom, it just might have worked.”

  She started grabbing the bags, retying them and tossing them back into the bins with Eoin’s help.

  Evan went into the kitchen and returned with the bottle in a plastic sandwich bag. “I’ll take this to the department, see what they can make of whatever’s left in there.”

  Anna turned toward him, a trash bag in one hand, a stray hair blowing across her face, and grinned. “Thank you, Evan. For listening to me, and taking me seriously.”

  He raised the sandwich bag in a sort of wave and left through the kitchen.

  Anna went back to tying and tossing the bags into the bins. Now she knew how George had been poisoned; she just needed to figure out who had done it. And the best way to figure out who, was to figure out why.

  40

  Anna closed her laptop with a frown. She slipped off the tall stool, grabbing her and Eoin’s dirty cereal bowls and dropping them in the dishwasher. She’d hoped a little research would help her pinpoint who might have had access to liquid nicotine, but it was, sadly, too easily available. Even once the police confirmed the lotion as the source of the poison, that still wouldn’t prove who had spiked it.

  “Come on, Eoin, we’re going out.”

  He slid off his stool and looked up at her. “Eoin. Where are we off to?”

  “Eoin,” she repeated.

  He shook his head.

  Anna let out a huff. “We’re going to the library.” She had intended to say more, to explain why they needed to go, but his squeak of pleasure made any further explanation unnecessary. By the time she was ready to go, he was waiting in the front hall, jacket on and library books in hand. />
  The short walk to the library gave her a few minutes to work though her plan of attack, using what she did know to figure out what she was missing.

  “Felicia,” she greeted the librarian with a whisper as she entered the library. “I’m glad you’re here. I could use some help.”

  “Of course, dear. Hello, Eoin. What do you — oh, hello BethAnne.” Felicia cut herself off as she took the pile of books from the girl who’d approached the desk while they were talking. “You all prepared for today?”

  BethAnne took a deep breath and let it out. “I’m pretty sure, Ms. Keane. We have a group reading first, then a game based on the book, then lunch, then the art project, then the other game.” She counted the activities off on her fingers as she described them, but frowned when she reached the end and wiggled her shoulders to shift the weight of the large backpack she carried. “We may have too much, actually. We might have to skip the last game.”

  “What’s going on?” Anna asked. Eoin had stepped behind the corner of the desk and was peering out at BethAnne, his eyes wide. Anna recognized the look. She’d seen it every time he looked at Sammy.

  “BethAnne and some of her classmates run a program for the elementary school students,” Felicia explained.

  “It helps gets young kids interested in reading, by making it fun,” BethAnne added.

  “You mean more fun than it already is, right?” Felicia asked with a mock frown.

  BethAnne laughed, causing the beads at the end of her braids to bounce around.

  Eoin let out a squeak from his hiding place behind the reference desk.

  BethAnne leaned down toward him. “Hello, who are you?”

  He squeaked again, but this time he reached out to tug on Anna’s arm.

  “BethAnne, this is my cousin Eoin, from Ireland.”

  “Eoin,” he corrected her in a high-pitched whisper.

  “Eoin,” Anna repeated, knowing she still wasn’t saying it right. She looked back and forth between Eoin and BethAnne, the young boy practically blushing as he stared at the high school student smiling down at him. “BethAnne, I don’t suppose you have room in your group for one more student, do you?”

  Eoin inhaled sharply as she asked, so she looked down at him. “Would you like to join the reading group BethAnne is running?”

  Eoin nodded eagerly. “I would, yes, please, thank you.”

  BethAnne laughed again. “We can find room for him, no problem.” She stood on her toes as she looked around the library, then waved at another teenager, who trotted over. “Theo, this is Eoin.”

  “Eoin,” he piped up.

  BethAnne frowned. “Oh, sorry. Anyway, Eoin wants to join the group today. Want to show him where everything is?”

  “All right, have fun and be careful. Maybe you’ll make some friends.” Anna tried to give Eoin a hug but he was already pulling away and following Theo to the back of the library.

  “You’re on the debate team, right?” Anna asked before BethAnne followed them. “That means you spend a lot of time learning various facts?”

  BethAnne nodded proudly. “Ask me anything. Go ahead, try it.”

  “It’s true,” Felicia said. “As I told you, they have to be prepared to debate whatever topic the moderator chooses, and they don’t always know in advance what the topic will be.”

  “See?” BethAnne struggled with her backpack, finally pulling out a box of index cards. “With enough data, I can be ready to argue any point.”

  Anna laughed out loud, then slapped a hand over her mouth, remembering where she was.

  “Okay then, what do you know about liquid nicotine?”

  BethAnne looked surprised, but thought about it. “Well… I know that nicotine is a poison. It used to be used as an insecticide because it’s so poisonous.”

  Anna nodded, already impressed.

  But BethAnne had more to add as she warmed to her subject. “People who work in tobacco plants get poisoned because of their contact with the tobacco leaves. They get Green Tobacco Sickness. And I know that when it’s heated up, nicotine decomposes and produces nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, and…” she furrowed her brow. “And some other toxic fumes.”

  “That’s right,” Anna said. “It’s a lot more dangerous when heated. Then it doesn’t require as much to kill a person.”

  BethAnne’s eyes lit up. “I remember current guidelines say that as little as six milligrams could be deadly, but recent research has found that it might be a lot more than that.”

  “BethAnne, I’m impressed,” Anna told her with feeling. “You’re a walking encyclopedia.”

  “I can still do more research,” BethAnne said. “Resolved”—she held up a finger, intoning the resolution set to be debated—“that nicotine is a lethal poison.”

  Anna didn’t know if she should be impressed by BethAnne or horrified that she’d set the girl on to this disturbing topic. Oh well, surely it was something she could use in a future debate about the risks of smoking.

  “She’s going to be president one day,” Felicia said with a smile as the girl returned to her group.

  “I suspect you’re right. Very impressive.”

  “So, what are you up to today?” Felicia turned her smile onto Anna.

  “Well”—Anna took a breath—“I plan to do a little more poking around in my neighbors’ business.”

  “Anna,” Felicia chided her. “I thought you’d learned your lesson about that.”

  “I know, I did. But this time it’s different.” She glanced around the library to make sure there was no one else within earshot, then lowered her voice even more. “This time, I know how George was killed.”

  “You do?” Felicia’s eyes narrowed. “How?”

  “Someone put poison into George’s toiletries.”

  “They did?” Felicia asked, surprised. “How do you know?”

  Anna thought about their adventures in the trash cans the evening before, and the fact that the police hadn’t yet confirmed the lotion as the source of the poison. “Never mind that, just listen. George’s lotion was poisoned—”

  “With liquid nicotine!” Felicia interrupted her.

  “Shh.” Anna looked around again. “Yes, that’s right. So my question is, who had access to his room to put the poison into his lotion?”

  “Well, you can cross Paul Murphy off that list,” Felicia said as she bent to stack some books under the desk, waiting their turn to be re-shelved.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I did some snooping of my own.” Felicia stood and Anna saw she was grinning widely.

  “Felicia, you didn’t.”

  “It just came up in conversation. And maybe I asked a few questions.” Felicia didn’t make eye contact, returning instead to organizing the books under the counter. “But anyway, the point is, Paul was in Atlantic City the day George Hedley checked into Climbing Rose Cottage.”

  “Okay, but what about later that night? He could have sneaked in.” Anna pictured the muscular man pulling himself up the side of her house and climbing in a window.

  “Really?” Felicia looked up skeptically. “I guess so… but no, actually, he couldn’t have. Because he spent the evening with Janet Turner.” Felicia widened her eyes as she spoke.

  Anna didn’t have to pretend to be shocked. She really was. “What?”

  Felicia nodded. “They were seen together. Dinner at the Red Taverna then walking hand in hand toward her house. And if I know anything about Janet…” Felicia paused to offer a dramatic voice clearing. “He was there all night.”

  Anna laughed. “He has an alibi. And someone who can vouch for him. That’s great.”

  “Well, it is for him, anyway.”

  “So there’s no way he could have messed with George’s lotion.” Anna chewed on her lip. “That still leaves Richard Gormley.”

  “Anna, we’ve been through this. I just can’t believe that of Richard.”

  “I know, I know.” Anna agreed. “But he was there, it wou
ld have been easy for him.”

  “You’d be better off trying to find someone angry enough to actually commit murder. Richard simply isn’t that angry.”

  “Angry? You’re right. I do know someone angry enough.”

  41

  The room smelled of sweat and testosterone. Mostly sweat. The stench attacked Anna’s nose as soon as she entered the small gym. Frankly, calling it a gym seemed overblown. It was basically a basement room filled with weights, workout equipment, and a bunch of sweaty, smelly, grunty men. Anna wrinkled her nose and looked around.

  Success. Jason had his back to her, holding a weight bar over his shoulders as he did squats. She could see his expression in the mirror in front of him as he squeezed his eyes shut with each repetition, clearly pushing himself to his limit.

  She’d checked out two other locations before finding him here, using the few comments his aunt had made on Sunday to develop her short list of where he might be this afternoon. She’d also put off searching for him until after an early lunch at her favorite cafe. She was not eager to confront him again. Or to make him angry.

  Fortified with potato leek soup and half a chicken breast sandwich, Anna took a deep breath and walked toward Jason.

  His eyes shifted as she approached, watching her. She gave him a friendly wave in the mirror and pointed to the side of the mat to indicate she’d wait for him. He grunted and did another set of squats. She watched him strain against the weight, pushing himself particularly hard for the last few. His hands shook when he finally dropped the bar back into its stand and turned toward her.

  He grabbed a towel off the rack and wiped himself off as he approached her.

  “What do you want?” he asked gruffly.

  Anna smiled, trying to keep calm. The last thing she wanted to do was make him angry again. “You’re pretty good at that,” she said. “Impressive.” Was she overdoing it?

  He glanced in the mirror, flexing his muscles more than seemed strictly necessary just to wipe the sweat off his arms. “I have to be in shape for the season,” he said, his eyes still on his reflection. “The beach opens next month.”