Dragonfruit and Dread

by Allyssa Mirry

  “Oh my,” she said. “That’s karma, isn’t it? The bad man is killed by a jellyfish, and I, his victim, survived its stings.”

  “You seem pleased by this news,” Lydia said.

  Mrs. Mumflower shrugged. “I won’t pretend that I liked him and don’t blame him for what he did just because he’s dead.”

  “There’s something very strange about this case,” Trina said.

  “Oh, I’m so glad you decided to visit. I missed the gossip from the salon so much. What about it?”

  “The police don’t think that Rusty Smith was killed by a jellyfish in the water,” Trina said. “They think that someone put one in his hot tub so it would kill him when he got inside it.”

  “It wasn’t an accident? It was murder,” Mrs. Mumflower said. “That’s awful.”

  “I imagine they’ll want to talk to everyone that Rusty Smith worked for,” said Lydia. “To see if they have a motive for wanting to hurt him.”

  “I bet they’ll have quite a list of suspects,” Mrs. Mumflower said. “I know that he was doing some projects for some other people at the same time. We all had terrible experiences.”

  Daniel returned to the room with the pillow he had fetched and adjusted it for the woman.

  “Do you think the police will consider you a suspect?” asked Lydia.

  “Me? That’s ridiculous,” Mrs. Mumflower scoffed. “I wouldn’t kill anyone. Especially with a dangerous animal! And I’ve been injured for several days. You can ask my doctor. I haven’t been able to travel. I couldn’t have gotten to Rusty Smith to hurt him.”

  “If you were angry enough with him, you might have found a way,” Lydia said.

  “That’s absurd,” Mrs. Mumflower said, unraveling part of the bandage on her foot to show off her wound. “How would I have been expected to go and kill that man with an injury like this?”

  Lydia stared at the woman’s foot and didn’t know quite what to make of what she was seeing. There appeared to be only a small cut on her heel. It didn’t look like the jellyfish mark she had seen on Rusty Smith’s body. What could this mean?

  15

  Untangling the Tentacles

  Sunny barked, and the three humans around her jumped. Lydia, Trina, and Daniel were seated in Lydia’s living room, but all had been staring off and stewing on their own thoughts about the case. While normally Sunny would be content to snooze through the evening, she could tell that something was bothering the humans.

  Lydia scratched the dog’s ears and said, “I think Sunny is right. There’s no point in all of us being together if we’re going to be quiet. Let’s see if we can figure out what happened by talking it out together.”

  “It’s just such a weird case,” Trina said. “Who uses jellyfish as a murder weapon?”

  “It was very clever,” Daniel said. “The deaths did look like accidents. It was only because Lydia knew Miles Gardner so well that she knew something was wrong.”

  “And the tentacle in the hot tub helped,” said Lydia. “At least, Leo and Detective Grey are treating these cases like murders now.”

  “I wonder if they’re having any luck tracking down where the Man O’War came from,” said Daniel. “If it is so rare for these parts, I don’t think it was caught in these waters.”

  “There’s something strange about these jellyfish,” Lydia said.

  “Besides that they are found in hot tubs where they murder people?” asked Trina. “And wherever it really killed Mr. Gardner?”

  “Yes,” said Lydia. “Because other people seemed to have been stung by the jellyfish too. However, it couldn’t have been by the Man O’War because that’s poisonous. If they were stung by that type of jellyfish, they would have died as well.”

  “Maybe the killer waited until real jellyfish were in the area. Even if they were nontoxic to humans,” Daniel suggested. “People would still have seen the jellyfish and experienced minor stings. The killer might have been waiting for this opportunity to hide his attacks with the real jellyfish sighting.”

  “That could be why he waited until after other people reported their injuries,” Lydia agreed. “Jeff said a few tourists were hurt, as well as a doctor and the man who runs the hot dog truck.”

  “And there’s also Mrs. Mumflower,” said Trina.

  “I don’t know what to make of her,” Lydia said.

  She got up and brought out some dragon fruit taffy. She needed something to chew on as she considered the case. Her friends also reached for a piece.

  “Well, Mrs. Mumflower is not currently hiding a Man O’War in her home,” Daniel said. “I checked pretty thoroughly when I was getting water and the pillow.”

  “But she might have gotten rid of it,” Lydia said. “She could have destroyed the creature or simply thrown it out to sea. After she killed the people she wanted to, she might not have wanted to keep the evidence in her house.”

  “That’s true,” Daniel said. “A lot of killers try to dispose of the murder weapon after they commit a crime, don’t they?”

  “Jules Lester could have also hidden a Man O’War in her house in all that water that flows in there,” said Trina before chomping on a piece of taffy.

  “They both have motives for the murder,” said Daniel. “And weak alibis.”

  “That’s right,” Trina agreed. “Jules Lester only has her cat to corroborate that she was home and Mrs. Mumflower’s excuse is that she couldn’t move properly enough to commit the crime.”

  Lydia sighed. “I don’t know why she’s saying she’s hurt when she’s not.”

  “Maybe she’s a hypochondriac,” Daniel suggested.

  “Maybe she likes faking an injury like Amber did,” said Trina, making a face. “Could it somehow help her flower shop?”

  They all shrugged. Lydia got to her feet and began walking around. She knew that this was a very unusual case, but she felt like they had uncovered many parts of it. If she could just fit the pieces together, she was certain she could discover what the big picture was.

  “You know what still bothers me the most about this?” Lydia asked.

  “What?” asked Trina. “That we’ll never be able to go into a hot tub again without fearing for our safety?”

  “No,” Lydia said, looking out the window toward her neighbor’s house. “It’s that Mr. Gardner somehow got involved in all this.”

  “By all accounts, he was a good man,” Daniel said.

  “You would have liked him,” Trina agreed.

  “We’ve uncovered several reasons for people to be angry with Rusty Smith. We have several suspects for who might have murdered him,” Lydia said. “But we still don’t know anyone who had a problem with Mr. Gardner. Why was he murdered too?”

  “Are we positive it’s the same killer?” asked Trina.

  “Well, I can’t imagine two people using Man O’Wars as a murder weapon in town,” Lydia said. “I think it was the same person who committed both crimes.”

  “Maybe this is the best way to solve the case,” Daniel said. “There are many people who wanted to hurt Rusty Smith, but if we can find the one person with a grudge against Mr. Gardner, then we will find the killer.”

  “I like the idea of it, but I really have no idea who would want to hurt him,” Lydia said.

  They fell silent again as they all wracked their brains to think of who would want to hurt Mr. Gardner and what the connection was between him and the second victim.

  “Maybe he saw something that the killer didn’t want him to?” Lydia said, finally. “Though it was before Rusty Smith was killed.”

  “Maybe Mr. Gardner saw the killer taking his pet jellyfish for a walk,” Trina joked.

  “But he was found early in the morning. That means he was placed on the beach late the night before or before dawn. Why wasn’t Mr. Gardner still at home?” Lydia asked. “And while we’re at it – where was Mr. Gardner killed? He didn’t have a Jacuzzi.”

  “Maybe someone broke in and filled his bathtub?” Daniel suggested
.

  “I would be suspicious if the tub was filled when I wasn’t home,” said Trina. “Carl would never set up a relaxing surprise for me like that.”

  Lydia continued walking around the room, chasing thoughts that she couldn’t quite reach. She couldn’t comment on Carl right now. She needed to figure out who had killed Mr. Gardner.

  “There’s no one that would want to kill him,” she said, finally.

  “So, we’re back where we started,” said Trina.

  Sunny barked again. Lydia looked at the dog, and she found her thoughts drifting to Sunny’s reaction when the expensive car raced by the night before Mr. Gardner was found on the beach.

  Lydia immediately picked up the dog and gave her a big hug.

  “You genius dog!”

  “Did Sunny just solve the case?” asked Daniel.

  “How?” Trina asked in disbelief.

  Lydia continued petting the dog but addressed her friends. “What if Mr. Gardner’s death wasn’t planned like Rusty Smith’s was? What if it was a crime of opportunity to set the scene?”

  “I don’t follow,” Trina said.

  “Who would have visited him that night?” Lydia said. “I think I do know the answer. The pieces are slowly starting to fit together. But we’re going to have to check on a few things. And I’m going to have to figure out a way to prove this. Because a lot of the evidence could be jeopardized.”

  Her friends looked at one another. They still seemed confused.

  “Tell us what we need to do,” Daniel said.

  “Yeah,” Trina agreed. “We want to catch the killer.”

  16

  Appointment with a Killer

  “Thank you so much for seeing me,” Lydia said as she entered the doctor’s office. “And it was kind to do it before your normal operating hours.”

  Dr. Adams gestured for her to sit on the table, and she complied.

  “I haven’t found a regular doctor yet since I moved back,” Lydia explained. “And since I met you at the crime scene, I thought I’d ask you. You seemed so nice, and you said that you wanted to see patients when you could still help them – so I hoped you could help me.”

  “I’d be glad to,” Dr. Adams said. “Now, what seems to be the trouble? You said that you think you were stung by a jellyfish.”

  Lydia nodded. “That’s right. It was stupid of me, but I got close to the water. In fact, I stepped in it. I wanted to find clues to help figure out what happened to my friend, Mr. Gardner. But then I felt something sting my foot. At first, I was afraid that I imagined it. But then I thought I should get it checked out. If people are dying because of these stings…well, I don’t want that to happen to me too.”

  “Why don’t you let me have a look?”

  Lydia removed her sandal and let the doctor examine the foot. Meanwhile, she decided to keep the conversation flowing.

  “What has it been like filling in as the medical examiner?”

  “It’s not my favorite duty,” he said. “But I do try to help when I can. Yes. It does look like you were stung by a jellyfish, but it doesn’t look like you are experiencing any ill effects of a poison. I’ll clean the wound, and then I can write you a prescription.”

  “It must have been hard for you,” Lydia said, “having to examine Miles Gardner’s body.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He was your patient, wasn’t he?” Lydia asked. “He saw a specialist heart doctor, but you were his local doctor.”

  “Yes,” Dr. Adams said. “And it was very upsetting to see him deceased in the manner that he was.”

  “You mean killed by the jellyfish, right?” said Lydia. “It’s awful that he was killed by a venomous one, and other people survived the stings. Like the two of us. You were the doctor who was one of the first people stung in the water, weren’t you?”

  “Yes, I was,” he said. “Bad luck, I suppose.”

  “Can I see your sting marks?” Lydia asked.

  “I beg your pardon,” Dr. Adams said, taking a step back.

  “I want to see what the marks you have from the jellyfish looks like in comparison to mine,” Lydia explained. “I want to make sure that I was stung by the harmless jellyfish just like you.”

  “I don’t think that would be appropriate,” Dr. Adams said.

  “Is that the real reason?” Lydia asked coolly. “Or is that you never were stung at all?”

  Dr. Adams glared at her. “And just what exactly are you implying?”

  Lydia got off the table and faced him. “I’m implying that you were never stung by a jellyfish, but that you started the hysteria in town. You told people about your injury, and everyone who came to you with an injury from the water you told was stung by a jellyfish, and they believed you. Mrs. Mumflower had a tiny cut on her heel, but you convinced her that she was stung. It’s easy to manipulate a hypochondriac. And I bet the tourists were easy enough to scare out of town.”

  “And why would I do all this?” he asked evenly.

  “Because you wanted Rusty Smith dead,” said Lydia. “You orchestrated all of this so that you could murder him and make it look like an accident. You created a jellyfish scare and then provided victims. I guess it also helped you that you got selected as the temporary medical examiner. You could adjust evidence if you needed to.”

  “That was unexpected,” Dr. Adams said as he walked over to the door and locked it. “I had filled in for the medical examiner before, but I didn’t know I would be this time. If I had known, I wouldn’t have had to go to such extreme lengths with my cause of death.”

  “You wanted it to look like an accident.”

  “And it almost did,” Dr. Adams said. “It’s ironic. The reason you found evidence at Rusty’s house was because I had to hurry with my cleanup when I was called to the scene of the supposed murder. That’s why I was late.”

  “He didn’t do the work you wanted at your doctor’s office? That’s why you killed him?” Lydia asked, trying not to panic after being locked in a room with a killer.

  “He ruined my last office,” Dr. Adams said. “I had to move into this building after all the damage he caused. He was a menace to society, and I had to get rid of him.”

  “So, you got ahold of a Man O’War?”

  “It wasn’t the most legal transaction I took part in. But the last time I went to Florida, I found someone with connections to exotic animals from the warm waters. I was able to convince him to exchange the creature from certain prescriptions.”

  “I can understand almost everything,” Lydia said. “By why did you have to kill Mr. Gardner? Was it just to make your crime look more convincing? That there were multiple victims?”

  Dr. Adams looked at the ground. “I didn’t kill Miles Gardner.”

  “Someone else attacked him with a Man O’War?” Lydia scoffed.

  “He died from his heart condition that night. He wasn’t feeling well and asked me to make a house call. He was refusing to go to the hospital, but I cared for the old man. I raced over to his house.”

  “You were the speeding car we saw that night,” Lydia said.

  “I got him into my car and was going to take him for help when I saw the bad shape he was in,” Dr. Adams said. “I didn’t even stop to put shoes on him before we left the house. I knew we only had a little time. But then he died in my passenger seat. I was upset at first, but then an idea occurred to me. I could use him as another victim of the Man O’War. If I acted fast, I could get the poison into his system. No one would have been able to prove that he was killed by poison or a heart attack. The stings could have been the cause of his heart trouble.”

  “Part of me does feel better that you didn’t kill Mr. Gardner,” Lydia said. “But the rest is still disgusting.”

  “Don’t worry. You won’t have those feelings for long,” Dr. Adams said, taking a syringe out of one of his drawers. “This should be relatively painless. I’ll add the stings to you later. And I promise to be kind in what I write in my a
utopsy.”

  Lydia let out a scream. She had planned on getting Dr. Adams to confess, but she had never planned on getting locked in the room alone with him. She thought that without his killer jellyfish in the room, he would be without a murder weapon.

  “There’s no need to scream,” Dr. Adams said. “It will be over soon.”

  Lydia tried to keep the table in between them. When he moved one way to get around it, she countered. She wasn’t sure what was in the syringe, but she knew that she didn’t want to get pricked by it.