Whispering Pines Mysteries Box Set 3

by Shawn McGuire

  “That’s a no, then?”

  “No. We never thought to call you.”

  I added notes to my notebook. “Were the threats true?”

  “You mean,” she lowered her voice to a whisper, “did Rourke do it?”

  “That’s what I mean.”

  After a clearly agonizing internal debate, she admitted, “He swears it was only a time or two, and I believe him.”

  I didn’t mean for it to happen. It was an accident. It was only a couple times. It didn’t mean anything. The war cries of every cheating partner. My ex included.

  “Must’ve made you angry.”

  “All of it made me angry. I was so mad at Rourke I made him sleep in the basement for a month. On the floor. And it’s not finished down there.” She shivered. “Spiders and things. I swear I saw a snake down there once.”

  “And angry at Suzette.”

  “Of course.”

  “Angry enough to kill her?”

  April slumped into the chair, and I gave her all the time she needed to consider her answer. It took two long minutes. “I’ll be honest, Sheriff. Yes, I was angry enough to kill her. Rourke used her service two years ago. He confessed to me then, and we worked on our problems. We’ve been on the right track for nearly a year and figured it was all behind us. Then she started calling. Angry enough to kill her? Yes. But I didn’t do it.”

  She waited for me to respond this time, but I was far more patient than she was, and she spoke first.

  “Rourke and Sutton can tell you I was here all night. We left The Inn around nine and came straight home. Had no choice since everything was closed. Rourke and I had a rather loud discussion until about ten thirty. That’s when Sutton came out of his room and told us to knock it off.” She shook her head as though shocked. “Those were his actual words. ‘Will you two knock it off?’ Then to make up for the night of partying with the villagers we should have had, we had a movie marathon night. Like I said, Rourke hasn’t been sleeping much, so he can tell you I only left his side long enough to make more popcorn and go to the bathroom.”

  When she took a breath, I stepped in before she said more. “All right. I would like to verify your alibi with Rourke and Sutton.”

  She called them into the living room. It took them about a millisecond to arrive since they’d been huddled around the corner listening to us. They both swore that after leaving The Inn, all three of them were here watching movies all night so there was no way April could have killed Suzette.

  I sent them away and turned back to her. “I believe you.”

  She nearly fell out of her chair with relief.

  “Dr. Bundy, the medical examiner, is doing an autopsy. If it comes back suspicious at all and points to you in any way, I will be back with more questions. Do you understand?”

  “I do.” As I was putting on my jacket, she added, “You know no one liked her.”

  “I’m not sure she was ever given a fair chance. Alan told me she was fired for stealing drugs from her last employer.”

  April immediately took on a hoity-toity I’m not surprised expression.

  “She’d been in an accident,” I informed her. “Broke her shoulder and ended up addicted to the pain medication. She had to move here because there was nowhere else for her to go. In her fifties and unable to return to the only work she’d ever done, she started up that sex line.” I stared at April for a beat. “Even if I knew for an indisputable fact that something like that was my only option for supporting myself, I’m not sure I’d have the strength or courage to do it. Would you?” Before she could respond, I continued, “Not saying she made a morally right choice, but she took care of herself without having to depend on anyone else. I’m blown away by what people are willing to do to survive.”

  If Suzette’s son or any of her family members . . . or the members of this village, for that matter, had been a little more understanding of Suzette’s plight, maybe that would have made a difference. Even in Whispering Pines, the most accepting place I knew, people could be quick to judge and jump to the worst possible conclusion.

  Was that what Donovan was doing? Assuming that because my dad and his friends were there the night Priscilla died, they must have been in on it? Was that what Flavia had been telling him? As far as I knew, Donovan had never spoken with anyone else about this.

  Or maybe now I was the one jumping to conclusions.

  Chapter 22

  Reed, my father, Morgan, Briar, and River were all waiting for me in the station’s main room.

  “Has anything become clear in the light of the new day?” I asked them as I entered my office and hung my jacket on the back of my door. They followed me in, bringing the chairs from around Reed’s desk, and made themselves comfy. I placed the box with the Jayne doll in it on my desk and quickly spun the whiteboard around so details of the Suzette Thibodeaux case weren’t visible to them.

  While I was back there, I studied the list and drew lines through Gil’s and Oren’s names. With my marker hovering over Lorena Maxwell’s name, I called Reed over to me.

  Conscious of the fact that four other people were in the room, I placed a finger beneath her name. “You spoke with her and decided she’s not a suspect, right?”

  “Right. I honestly believe her mouth is the only violent part of her. How did your interview go?”

  I crossed off Lorena and then April and Rourke O’Connor. Sutton never officially made it onto this board, so I mentally drew a line through his name on the whiteboard in my head. “I’ll fill you in on the details of that decision when we don’t have an audience.”

  He tapped his finger next to Alan and Nina Thibodeaux. “They’re the only suspects we have left.”

  “And they left the village. Alan is supposed to be back this afternoon. Regardless, we’re flying blind until Dr. B calls. Let’s focus on the Donovan situation for now.”

  We emerged from behind the whiteboard to find Dad, Morgan, Briar, and River looking expectantly at us.

  “You know we could hear you,” Dad said.

  “But you didn’t hear any names.” I took a seat at my desk.

  “Are you going to tell us what’s in that box?” Briar pointed at my desk. “Or should we guess?”

  With gloved hands, I removed the little Jayne doll and held it up to them. “There’s a full stop mark over the heart but no indication of how he plans to kill me.”

  River raised his hand. “What is a full stop mark?”

  Dad didn’t know either, so I took a minute to explain it. Then I asked, “Anything else new in the harlequin world since we left Hearth & Cauldron last night?”

  Reed went to the stainless-steel table in the far corner of my office and retrieved one of two boxes sitting there. “That other box is the one Laurel got. This one was delivered to Aunt Reeva’s sometime between when she went to bed at around midnight and when she woke at five thirty this morning. She didn’t even open it, so I don’t know what’s inside.”

  My stomach clenched as I took the box from him. The Dad doll was a drowning victim. Laurel was strangled or hanged. Briar was shot. I was simply marked as dead. What manner of death did Donovan have planned for Reeva?

  I opened the box and found a doll with strawberry-blonde pixie-cut hair. Where the other harlequins were dressed in more traditional pajama-style clothing, this one was a little more stylish. It wore slim pants and a tailored blouse. It took me half a second to figure out the proposed manner of death.

  I looked at Reed. “You asked me the other day about the dolls I’d found before. I forgot to mention the Sheriff Brighton doll.”

  He frowned. “Uncle Karl?”

  “Remember how I brought you to the hospital that day?”

  Reed grimaced, recalling his bout with ricin poisoning.

  “You told me,” I continued, “you thought he might have been involved with Yasmine’s death. After dropping you off, I came back to Whispering Pines to look for him.”

  “I remember that,” Morgan sai
d. “You came to Shoppe Mystique first and told me you wanted someone to know where you were going in case you didn’t come back. I gave you a protection rune with an Algiz on it.”

  I looped my thumb behind the chain around my neck and pulled not only the talisman from beneath my shirt, but a tiny vial filled with various crystal chips as well.

  She smiled. “Do you have your spell bag too?”

  I pulled the little purple muslin bag from my front pocket. “It’s been a little weird around here. Figured I could use all the protection I could get.”

  Briar clapped her hands softly. “Good girl. We should clear and recharge those for you.”

  “Back to Uncle Karl,” Reed prompted.

  “Yes, sorry. After leaving Shoppe Mystique, I looked for him at his house first. Meeka found a harlequin in the bushes by his front door. The doll was positioned on its side with a hand clutched to its heart as though it was having a heart attack.”

  I remembered finding the doll in the bushes, but until seeing the Reeva doll in the box, I’d forgotten about the rosy-pink tint of Sheriff Brighton’s skin after he’d committed suicide in front of me. I pulled the Reeva doll out of the box and showed it to them.

  “One of the aftereffects of cyanide poisoning is a pink tint to the skin.”

  “He’s planning to give her cyanide,” Reed concluded through clenched teeth, his professionalism failing him. He’d become extremely close to his aunt since she’d returned to the village. In fact, he was almost closer to her than his mother.

  Before I could say another word, the phone rang. I answered it and Dr. Bundy’s voice came over the receiver.

  “Hang on for one minute, Doc.” I turned to the others. “Can you give me a few minutes please? It’s the medical examiner.” Once they’d left, I settled into my desk chair. “You know it’s Sunday, right? And you haven’t even had the victim for twenty-four hours. You said it would take days for her to thaw enough to do an autopsy.”

  “You want to know a really strange fact about the universe?”

  “Of course.”

  “Sometimes, wives can exert more power than nature.”

  I chuckled. “What does that mean?”

  “It means we’ve got plans to leave in the morning to visit our son, daughter-in-law, and grandkids for Christmas. She told me that if I was going to get any answers for you before we return on January second, it had to be today. More specifically, this morning.”

  “You didn’t rush the thaw, did you?”

  “Heavens, no. I haven’t started the autopsy and won’t until I return. I was able to obtain a urine sample, however, and did a rapid drug test on that.”

  “How . . . Wait. She was wearing an adult diaper, wasn’t she?”

  “Very good, Sheriff. She was indeed. That thawed quickly. I’ll rerun the tests to verify, but I was able to obtain some interesting initial results.”

  “Which were?” He loved torturing me this way.

  “Large amounts of morphine, diazepam—also known as Valium—and propranolol—a beta-blocker that slows the heart.”

  I scribbled the three names in my notebook. “You found all of that in Suzette Thibodeaux’s urine?”

  “I did. Do you know what it means?”

  I pondered the question for a few seconds. “Her nephew told me she used to be addicted to opioids. My first guess is that she was still using.”

  Dr. B made a humming sound. “That’s a possibility. There was also a large amount of pain killers in her system. That’s not where I was going, though. The combination I mentioned is often used in physician-assisted deaths.”

  Reed was right. It was a mercy killing. Or death with dignity as it was more commonly called. “That’s not legal in Wisconsin.”

  “No, it’s not. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.”

  My mind spun. Where would she have gotten the drugs? Alan told me the only prescription drugs Suzette had been taking were pain killers. All three of these medications were fairly common. Had Suzette blackmailed her “customer list” as a way to get the drugs?

  “Like I said,” Dr. B continued, interrupting my thoughts,” I’ll rerun these tests when I’m able to do the autopsy. I think you’re at least safe to use this for reasonable suspicion or whatever you call it.”

  “You emailed this information to me?”

  “I did. And unless you have more questions, I need to finish up a few things here before I can get ready to see my kids.”

  “One question. How long would this concoction take to kill her?”

  He hummed some jazzy tune while he calculated. “I’d say a minimum of four hours.”

  I wrote down “4+” and circled it.

  “One more question. Where do your kids live?”

  “They bought a place in Prairie du Chien this summer.”

  “Near the Mississippi.”

  “Right on it.” He gave a happy sigh. “My son has a hut set up and ready for us. Going to do some ice fishing while I’m there.”

  “Sounds like you’re going to have a great time.”

  “Doesn’t it? Have you got plans?”

  Other than trying to catch two killers? “Sort of. My dad and sister are here.”

  “Fantastic. Always good to have family around over the holidays. You have a merry Christmas, Jayne. Let’s hope things settle down up there in the new year.”

  “That would be wonderful, wouldn’t it? Merry Christmas, Doc.”

  I walked around to the Suzette Thibodeaux side of the whiteboard across the room while contemplating the fact that she had not died from her cancer. There were only two names left on our list. I picked up the phone extension on my desk and called Pine Time.

  “No,” Tripp replied, “Alan hasn’t returned yet. He didn’t give a specific time.”

  “I need to check that room. Holly hasn’t been there to clean yet, has she?”

  “She has, but someone put a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on that door, so she didn’t go in.”

  “Good. I’ll be there in a little while.”

  I went into the main room, momentarily surprised to find so many people out there.

  “What’s going on?” Reed asked. “What did Dr. Bundy say?”

  I glanced around at everyone. “Nothing you’re about to hear leaves the station.”

  This directive was met with head nods, hands over hearts, and vows of, “No need to worry about that.”

  Satisfied, I explained, “Unless there’s someone else in the village we haven’t spoken with, it looks like either Alan or Nina gave Suzette a lethal dose of drugs. A ‘physician-assisted death’ cocktail, according to Dr. Bundy.”

  “A mercy killing?” Dad supplied, surprised.

  “Maybe,” I said. “Or there was something more sinister going on. Suzette had been blackmailing others in the village.”

  “You think she was blackmailing Alan and Nina?” Reed woke up his computer by wiggling his mouse. “What could she have on them?”

  A very good question. “Her nephew wouldn’t have been one of her customers.”

  “Customers?” River asked, and Morgan explained it to him. “Ah. No, I would sincerely hope her nephew wasn’t on that list.”

  We all mulled that disgusting thought for a moment and then moved on.

  “What did Suzette need badly enough,” Morgan wondered, “that she’d blackmail her nephew to get it?”

  “Pain medication,” Briar said without hesitation. “Or the drugs for that cocktail?”

  “I might have something here.” Reed pointed at his computer. “I found Alan Thibodeaux. Says he owns a contracting company.”

  “I don’t think I knew that.” I thought back through our interview and any other discussions we’d had. I never asked his profession. That’s what I got for investigating while exhausted.

  Reed clicked around a little more and pointed again. “This is his wife, isn’t it?”

  I went around to look, and there was Nina Thibodeaux in a medical jacket.
<
br />   Reed stared me in the eye, as if about to deliver a blow, and read from the screen. “Says here that Nina Thibodeaux is a pharmacist. She works for a compounding pharmacy in the Minneapolis area.”

  “What’s a compounding pharmacy?” I asked him but Morgan responded.

  “Pharmaceutical compounding is the specialized blending of medications. Standard doses or some medications in general aren’t right for every patient, so a pharmacist will alter a prescription according to the physician’s directives.”

  “A pharmacist with these skills,” I mused, “would be able to make one of these physician-assisted death blends.”

  “In the states where that’s legal,” Reed said.

  “Doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen where it’s not legal,” I echoed Dr. B’s words and started pacing the room. “So Nina got the drugs from her pharmacy.” I shook my head. “That’s a safe assumption, but I have no proof that she’s guilty. I never even interviewed her because Donovan and his freaking dolls distracted me.” I threw my hands in the air. “And I’m only assuming that Donovan is behind that.”

  Suddenly River was standing in front of me with his hands on my shoulders.

  “Relax.” He started breathing in and out dramatically, nodding his head for me to mimic him. “You know more than you think you do.”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t talk to her.”

  “That doesn’t matter,” he insisted. “Relax and let’s talk this through.”

  River asked Dad to retrieve a chair from my office. When he did, I sat and River knelt in front of me. “Walk us through the timeline as you know it. We’ll help you fill in the gaps.”

  His voice was so soothing. I felt like I had no other choice than to obey him. I closed my eyes and thought of the discussion I’d had with Alan the morning Suzette died.

  “My notebook.” I reached into my cargo pocket. “My voice recorder’s battery was dead, so I wrote everything down.” I flipped through to his interview, specifically the parts where we talked about Nina. “She made them tea when they got home from the Midwinter Celebration.”

  “Nina could have put the drugs in Suzette’s tea,” Briar suggested.

  “She could have,” I agreed and scanned my notes. “Alan got really tired after the tea and was ready for bed by ten forty-five.”