LOVE, HOPES, & MARRIAGE TROPES

by Abby L. Vandiver

  “Was he sick before he left?” I asked.

  Her face went blank, her mouth opened. She titled her head to the side. “He wasn’t sick at all, I thought,” she said, her face twisted in confusion. “Wasn’t that the conclusion that you came to? You said he’d been poisoned at the wedding.”

  Way to turn my words around on me, I thought. That finished her conversation with me after that. Her smile and pleasant demeanor disappeared and so did she. She walked off and got into her car and drove away without so much as a wave or backward glance.

  Finished pumping the gas, I shook the nozzle and replaced it back onto the pump. I screwed in the cap and slammed the door to the gas compartment. I climbed into the car and blew out a breath.

  I certainly hadn’t meant to upset her. I was getting as bad as Auntie in trying to ask questions. I guess I should have phrased it better. She had no reason to know it had been a slow acting poison. Most times you’re poisoned, you die, right then and there. And I’m sure Pogue hadn’t released that information.

  I slammed my hand on the steering wheel. I could have kicked myself for being so insensitive.

  I checked my GPS and pulled off, my tires screeching behind me.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Delphine Griffith looked like a bird. Round chest, long nose and spindly arms and fingers. Gray haired, she had gentle bright eyes. Round and blue. They reminded me of someone I knew, but I couldn’t figure out who that could be.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  “Hi,” I said and smiled. “I’m Romaine Wilder—”

  “Aren’t you Babet’s Romaine?” she asked, barely letting me get my words out.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “The doctor?” I nodded. “Oh, please come in,” she said.

  God bless, Auntie, her popularity could be a big help. I had wondered what I was going to say to Delphine Griffith for her to let me in the door. Now all I needed was a way to get her tell me about the ricin.

  “Thank you, Mrs. Griffith,” I said, and walked inside the door.

  “Oh, please, call me Delphine,” she said, “Everyone does.”

  “Okay, Delphine,” I said.

  “Come in. Come in,” she said. “Sit.” She pointed to a chair. “Would you like something to drink? I have tea, juice, coffee. Oh, and bottled water, I know how you young people like bottled water.”

  Letting her get me something seemed like the right thing to do. And, I thought, keeping her distracted might make it easier to get information from her.

  “I’ll have a cup of coffee, if it won’t be too much trouble,” I said, sitting where she’d directed.

  “No trouble at all,” she said, smiling. “I’ll just be a minute.” She scooted off to the kitchen.

  I stood up, peeked into the kitchen at her. She had busied herself making me feel welcomed. I walked around her small living room, it was cozy and filled with charms. Then I spotted a mum. “You going to Homecoming?” I asked.

  “I’m going to the one at Angel’s Grace. Riding over with some family to see other family.” She laughed. “We’re going to leave early, make a few stops on the way. A little day trip for us. A couple were complaining about leaving so early for an event that doesn’t start until six p.m.”

  “I was afraid I might be visiting too early,” I called after her. “I wasn’t sure if you were an early riser.”

  “Oh my. Not me. It’s ten o’clock,” she said from the kitchen. “Only way I’d still be sleep would be if I were dead.”

  I laughed. I walked over to the kitchen doorway and poked my head in. “I’m glad I found you up and healthy.”

  “Me, too,” she said and smiled. She was putting coffee into an automatic maker.

  “Is there anything I can do?” I asked.

  “Oh no,” she said. “I’ve got this down to a science. I serve up coffee all day long.”

  “All day?”

  “Yes. I teach classes here at the house.”

  “Oh, really?” I said. “What is it that you teach?”

  “What else, dear? Herbology.”

  “Of course,” I said.

  “I’m not saying anything bad about your profession, mind you, but knowing natural remedies is very important,” she said.

  “I agree with that,” I said. “Do you get many students?”

  “Steady flow,” she said. She sat a cup and saucer on the table. “Come, sit down.” I sat. “I teach everyone. Not so many young people that come, you know they’re not having so many aches and pains quite yet.”

  I chuckled. “They don’t worry about getting sick.”

  “But what they don’t understand is that prevention is worth a pound of cure. Some of my herbs will prevent them from having health problems later on.”

  “That’s true,” I said.

  “Is that what you tell your patients?”

  “It wouldn’t help my patients,” I said.

  “Well, why not?”

  “I’m a medical examiner.”

  “Oh, like Doc Westin.” She nodded. “I think I did hear about you taking his place.”

  “You probably heard that from my auntie.” I shook my head. “I’m not taking his place.”

  “You’re not?”

  “No. But that is kind of what I came to ask you about,” I said.

  “Do you want cream and sugar?” she asked as she poured coffee into my cup.

  “No thank you,” I said. “I like it black.”

  “I guess it just went right past me that you came here to ask me something. I have a lot of people knocking on my door. You know, coming for herbs and remedies, or to take a class.”

  “I’m sure,” I said. I took a sip of coffee. “Mmmm. This is very good.”

  “I ground the beans myself,” she said. “So, now what was your question?”

  “I was wondering if you helped Doc Westin.”

  She stopped what she was doing and looked at me. “Helped him do what?”

  “Well, I know that you grew castor beans, I wondered if he came by to get some from you.”

  “No. Not the castor beans,” she said. “But how did you know about that?”

  “My auntie told me that she had asked you to grow them.” I took another sip of coffee.

  “Oh,” she said. “Because she didn’t know about the ricin.”

  “The ricin?” I said. “You gave ricin to Doc Westin?”

  “I did.”

  “Do you know what he did with it?” Of course I knew, I just wondered if she did because his wife had said not many people knew.

  “I have no idea. He told me Babet was out of town so he couldn’t get any from her, and he’d first tried the only other herbalists he knew.”

  “Who?”

  “The Wilson Twins,” she said. “And they told him about me.”

  “Did he drive out here to get it?”

  “Yes, he did.”

  “I see,” I said. My mind was swirling. What did he do with it? Why wasn’t any in that container? Had Doc Westin taken it? All of it?

  “But I called him and told him that I didn’t think the first batch I gave him was good,” Delphine Griffith said, spilling more information without any prodding from me. “You know there is a process to extracting it.”

  “Yes, that’s what I understand,” I said.

  “And I hadn’t perfected it the first time.”

  “You did it twice?”

  “Oh, more than that,” she said. “I have some in my cabinet now. Would you like to see it?”

  “See it?” I shook my head. “No,” I said. “I don’t want to see it. You know it’s very deadly, right?”

  “Don’t insult me, young lady. Of course I know. But I have it hidden. Right in the back of there,” she said and pointed to one of the uppe
r cabinets. “And it’s not the only deadly herb I have. I’m sure Babet keeps plenty of them as well.”

  “Yes, she does,” I said. “And I apologize if I upset you.”

  “You didn’t upset me,” she said, and smiled. “Why are you looking for ricin?”

  “I’m not,” I said. “I found a notebook with in Doc Westin’s personal things that mentioned it. I just wondered where he might have gotten it from.”

  “Well now you have your answer,” she said and patted my cheek. “He got it from me.”

  I had to come clean to Auntie. Sneaking around behind her back made me feel guilty. We were supposed to be in this together.

  I got back home after one o’clock and Auntie was busy up front. I grabbed a baked chicken out of the fridge and a knife. A chicken sandwich sounded good for lunch.

  “What you up to, Sugarplum?” Auntie said. She came into the kitchen just as I was finishing up lunch.

  “It’s what I’ve been up to,” I said. “Thought, I should tell you.”

  “And what have you been up to?” She got the teapot, filled it up with water and put it on the stove. “Want a cup of tea?”

  “Don’t need any of your truth serum,” I said. “I plan on confessing.”

  “I was just going to make a little lavender tea. I feel a headache coming on.”

  “I went to see Mark and Leonard Wilson this morning,” I said.

  “You did?” she said and went to her spice cabinet.

  “But you knew that, right?”

  “Yes. And I know that you went to see Delphine Griffith,” she said. “If you were planning on telling me that next.”

  I laughed. “So I didn’t need to feel bad about not telling you?” I said.

  “It’s nice that you thought you should.” She smiled. “So what did you learn?”

  “Delphine Griffith made several batches of ricin.”

  “Did she now?” Auntie said. She poured a purple powder into her steeper and placed it inside a cup.

  “Yes, she did,” I said. “And she gave at least one to Doc Westin.”

  “What did she do with the other batches?”

  “I don’t know, although she told me that she has some in her cabinet.”

  “Cabinet?”

  “Kitchen cabinet.”

  “Oh dear,” Auntie said. “She has a lot of people going in and out of her house with the classes she teaches.”

  “Yeah, so she told me.”

  “Someone could have taken it.”

  “A lot of ‘someones’ could have taken it,” I said. “Maybe even some people we hadn’t considered.”

  “So our suspect list just grew?”

  “Exponentially.”

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Auntie and I pulled into her reserve parking space at Angel’s Grace. We were there for the homecoming dinner and awards. That night’s annual activity was going to be a little different though—they were going to do a tribute to Bumper.

  Jorianne, I’d heard, was going to speak and Boone Alouette and LaJay Reid were going to speak. Mrs. Hackett was going to receive the award for her son. According to Auntie Zanne, it wasn’t going to be a somber event, everyone would have on festive mums, smiles on their faces and love in their heart for their friend and loved one.”

  “I thought you said you made new, less festive ones for this,” I said, remember her and Josephine Gail covering the kitchen table, practically kicking me out of the kitchen to redo them.

  “I changed my mind,” Auntie said. “A girl can do that, you know.”

  ‘So, are you the girl in this scenario?” I asked.

  “That I am,” she said and looped her arm through mine.

  “Oh, Auntie,” I said, leaning down to her. “There’s the best man. I didn’t think he’d be here.”

  “He’s one of our suspects, isn’t he?”

  “Our suspects?” I asked and chuckled. “He’s one of mine.”

  “We’re in this together, kiddo, even though you have been sneaking off doing things without me.”

  “How about if we go and talk to him?” I said. I didn’t want her fussing again about me going to see Delphine Griffith.

  “Chase,” I said, as we walked toward him. He’d parked farther back in the parking lot and was trying to make his way inside. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

  “Really?” he said and frowned. “Why shouldn’t I be here? I was still in town and this is a tribute to my friend.”

  “Your friend, huh? From what I’ve learned you weren’t very close with Bumper. I’m wondering how you got to be best man.”

  “I don’t know why that would be any of your business.”

  “Because we’re investigating a murder,” Auntie Zanne said. “And you, sir, are a prime suspect.”

  “Me!” A grin curled up his lip and he shook his head.

  “I don’t see anything funny,” Auntie Zanne said. “Murder is pretty serious business.”

  “It’s laughable to think I killed anyone. That’s why I’m here. Michael,” he pointed to Auntie Zanne, “Bumper as you call him, was going to help me find out who killed someone I loved.”

  “What are you talking about?” I said.

  “Like I told you before, he had information for me.” Chase shook his head. “Maybe I’m being a little over dramatic, but that’s how I felt. Michael wanted to help.”

  “Boy, you’re not making one lick of sense,” Auntie Zanne said. “You need to just come clean with us. We’ve got the sheriff on his way.”

  Of course, that wasn’t true. We hadn’t even come close to figuring out who it was and had no reason to call Pogue. I guess Auntie just thought that would, as she’d say, light some fire under Chase.

  “I don’t know what you want to hear,” he said, that grin fading from his face.

  “How did you know Bumper?” I asked.

  “We met out in California. I’m stationed out there as a recruiter.”

  “Bumper wasn’t going into the military,” Auntie Zanne said. “He was a sure bet for the NFL.”

  “I know,” he said. “I never said that I was recruiting him.”

  “Just go ahead and finish,” I said. I put my hand on Auntie’s arm. “Let him talk.”

  “Well, he’s taking forever.”

  “Go ahead, Chase,” I said, ignoring Auntie’s comment.

  “I was the recruiter at USC. Michael and I struck up a conversation one day and discovered we both were from around the same area.”

  “Is that why he made you his best man? Because you were a hometown boy?” Auntie just wasn’t going to let the boy talk. He was on my suspect list, but Auntie was acting more suspicious of him than I was. “That’s the worst lie I’ve ever heard.”

  “No,” Chase said, “I didn’t say that. He made me best man because he made a promise to me and that was his way of showing me he meant it.” Chase huffed. “My grandmother...” he closed his eyes and groaned. “My grandmother got this telephone call one day.” He shook his head. “It was a scam. These people calling her offering her help with her prescriptions and things and she sent them $500. It was all the money she had and when she found out that she’d been taken, it killed her.”

  “It killed her?” Auntie asked.

  “Not literally, I guess. But that’s how I see it. She was so depressed after that. I found out later that that was her bill money for the month. Her grocery money. Everything she had. She didn’t want to tell anyone so she just figured she’d suffer through the month and she’d be okay. But she got so sick about it. You know, mentally sick.”

  “I understand that,” Auntie Zanne said. “I have a friend who gets that way. They can just waste away to nothing.” That changed Auntie’s tone.

  “And that’s what happened,” Chase said. “She died not long
after that and I just think it’s what killed her. You know, she was sick and old sure, but that scam just seemed to... I don’t know. It took her over the edge. But Michael said he might could help me. That maybe he knew something about it. I told him I just wanted those people brought to justice, they shouldn’t go messing with old people. He said he agreed. Said he’d ‘do the right thing’,” he made air quotes, “when he got home.”

  Chase stuck his hands deep in his pockets. “I didn’t believe him though, because he’d come home before, you know after I’d told him about it, and hadn’t done it. Said he didn’t have the chance to. I told him just to tell me what he knew, and I’d go to the authorities about it. But he didn’t want to do that. So this time, he said I could come with him, be his best man, prove to me he was going to do it.”

  “Your grandmother lived around here?” I asked.

  “She lived in Hemphill.”

  “So why did you lie about not knowing where Bumper’s inhaler was?” I asked.

  “I didn’t say that,” he said.

  “I asked you had you seen it and you said no.”

  He shook his head. “No. You asked me did I know what happened to it, and I don’t. I gave it to that doctor. The one that gave Michael CPR.”

  “Alex?” I said. “Rather, Dr. Hale?”

  “Yeah, that’s the name you said when we spoke at the funeral. Dr. Hale.” He nodded. “I gave it to Dr. Hale when he followed Michael onto the ambulance.”

  “You touched it?” Auntie Zanne said. “Did your fingers turn red?”

  He looked down at his fingers and rubbed them with his thumb. He hunched his shoulders. “I don’t know. I think they were.”

  “You don’t know?” Auntie asked.

  “I remember they got red later that night, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with that inhaler. I just picked it up and put it in my pocket. Then when I saw Dr. Hale. I gave it to him, told him that Michael might need it.”

  “And what did he say?” I asked.

  “He took it and said okay.”

  * * *

  “Well, what do you think about that?” Auntie said as we walked toward Angel’s Grace. She glanced back at Chase.