The Case of the Poisoned Eclairs

by Howard Fast

  She didn’t respond. As if she had only this moment realized it, she whispered, “Someone is trying to kill us. All of us. Isn’t that what you’re telling me?”

  “No!” he said sharply. “That’s not what I’m telling you. At this moment, I have no idea what is going on, whether this is some stupid joke, some monstrous prank, or whatever.”

  “No, no, no.” She took a deep breath and got hold of herself. “I am not going to be hysterical, Sergeant Masuto, but if you want me to be frank and open with you, then you must be quite frank with me. For all I know, you may be convinced that I am behind all this, that I poisoned Ana and that I sent the candy to Alice. After all, you have only my word about the pastry being delivered here.”

  “Did you poison Ana Fortez?” Masuto asked matter-of-factly.

  “No! Of course not!” Masuto looked at her with a slight smile. “Don’t you believe me?” she demanded.

  “It’s of no consequence whether I believe you or not. If it makes you feel better, I will say I believe you. That doesn’t help us. I must find out who is doing this, whether it is you or someone else.”

  “That’s very comforting.”

  “I think Ana’s death was an accident. That lets you out, doesn’t it? If you had known that the pastry was poisoned, you would not have given it to her.”

  “Yes, that makes sense—thank God. Why didn’t you say that before?”

  “I was making a point. I want you to help me, and you can help me better if you have no predetermined notions. Now tell me about your bridge partners.”

  “You know their names, Alice Greene, Nancy Legett, and Mitzie Fuller. Alice is a tall, beautiful blonde—”

  “Please, forgive me,” Masuto interrupted. “Let me ask direct questions. Then it will not take so long. I will see them,” he explained, “so I will know what they look like.”

  “Yes, of course you will.”

  “First—age?”

  “Yes. Alice is thirty-six. Nancy goes on being thirty-nine. She’s forty-two. And Mitzie—well, I really don’t know. I would guess twenty-seven or twenty-eight.”

  “Why the uncertainty about Mitzie? You’re so sure of the others.”

  “The others are old friends. I hardly know Mitzie.”

  “Oh? Then how did she come into the bridge game?”

  “I got to talking with her at the hairdresser. She was in the next chair, and she appeared to be a nice kid, and we needed a fourth—as a matter of fact she’s a very good player, and she’s played a lot of duplicate.”

  “What hairdresser?”

  “Tony Cooper’s on Camden.”

  Masuto jotted it down. “You said you were divorced. May I ask when?”

  “Two years—well, only a year since I filed. Before that it was a separation. You didn’t ask my age. I’m forty-five.”

  “I would have thought younger,” Masuto said. “Your first marriage?”

  “My second. My first husband died of a heart attack twelve years ago. I married Arthur Crombie three years ago.”

  “The real estate man?”

  “Yes, do you know him?”

  “I know about him—just the things one hears and reads. I have to be indelicate. How much alimony does he pay you?”

  “None. Anything Arthur Crombie touches comes up gold. Six months after we were married, my father died. I was the only heir, and the estate was worth millions. I gave Arthur half of it. It was a stiff price to pay to get him out of my life, but well worth it.”

  “You’re not fond of him?”

  “He’s a bastard, period. But if you’re thinking that he’d want to kill me, well, no way. He has the money and he knows he’s not in my will. He couldn’t care less whether I’m alive or dead.”

  “Where is your will?”

  “You mean, where do I keep it? Somewhere in the study. Does it matter?”

  “Perhaps. Tell me about the others. Are they all married?”

  “All divorced. Does that surprise you?” She had reacted to the expression on Masuto’s face. “You see, we’re all in the same boat—shock, boredom, frustration. Certainly four divorced women in Beverly Hills are not that unusual.”

  “Could you give me the names of the husbands—the ex-husbands?”

  “Yes—”

  He had his notebook ready.

  “You think—one of them?” she asked slowly.

  “I don’t know what to think—yet.”

  “But why all of us? If we had eaten the pastry, it would have been all of us. Why? What sense does it make?”

  “I don’t know. Suppose we start with Mrs. Greene.”

  “She was married to Alan Greene. He operates a chain of clothing stores. The big one is down on Wilshire.”

  Masuto nodded.

  “Nancy,” Laura Crombie went on, “was married to Fulton Legett, the film producer. That’s a rotten story. They were married in New York about twenty-two years ago. He was a gofer at ABC television. Nancy worked as a secretary at the same company. Then he quit to try TV production. For years she supported him and took his garbage. He’s one of those angry, aggressive, ambitious little bastards. Then Nancy’s mother died and left her sixty thousand dollars, and she gave it to Fulton and he used it as seed money to produce Flames—”

  “Seed money?”

  “Start-up money—to option the property and pay a writer to do a screenplay. The film was a hit, and suddenly Fulton was a millionaire. They moved out here and bought a house on Lexington Road. Then two more big hits, and Fulton was a millionaire and Nancy was forty and not very attractive anymore. At that point, you trade the forty for the two twenties. Fulton dumped her. The wages of virtue.”

  Masuto nodded and scribbled in his notebook.

  “And then there’s Mitzie. She’s a beauty and a doll. You can’t feel too sorry for her. She was married to Bill Fuller, the director. It lasted six months. She doesn’t talk about it or him, but from what I’ve heard he’s a louse.”

  She was hardly reticent in her judgments, Masuto decided, and said thoughtfully, “You don’t like men very much, do you?”

  “Don’t misjudge me. We’re not talking about the genus. We’re talking about four men. I don’t like any of them.”

  “Do you know where Fuller is working now?”

  “I think Mitzie mentioned he’s doing a film at Metro.”

  “I see.”

  Masuto closed his notebook and stared at Laura Crombie thoughtfully. “Suppose I said that all four of you are in very great danger.”

  “I’d believe you.”

  “Would the others?”

  “I could convince them.”

  “Could you be convincing enough to have them all here tonight?”

  “If they haven’t made other plans.”

  “Even if they have, I want them here. It’s very important.”

  “At what time?”

  “Say ten o’clock—and if I’m late, please wait for me. And until then, I’d like them to stay indoors and not to let any strangers into their homes. I’d like you to do the same. And again remind them about the food. Will you do that for me?”

  “All right. But this is crazy—absolutely crazy.”

  “I know,” Masuto said gently. “Much of the world is crazy, but this is where we are.”

  Chapter 3

  Omi Saiku

  When Masuto walked into police headquarters on Rexford Drive, the city manager was there talking to Wainwright, and Wainwright nodded for Masuto to join them.

  “What I want to know,” Wainwright was saying, “is how the hell this stuff gets out. There are no blabbermouths here. Masuto and Beckman are on it, and they don’t talk.”

  “Frank Lubie called me. He smelled something in Beckman’s questions. He was sore as hell at even the implication that something could be wrong with his candy. You know, he has a point. If what you tell me gets out, it could ruin him. He’s not only a sizable taxpayer, but his factory’s here in town.”

  “Can we put
a lid on it?” Wainwright asked Masuto. “What do you think?”

  Masuto shrugged. “The vet knows. Mrs. Greene knows. They know down at L.A.P.D. It’s not just a question of the candy. It’s a lot more than that.”

  “What’s a lot more?” the city manager asked.

  “We have a poor Mexican kid murdered by some lunatic who seems determined to kill four other women. Ana Fortez was a mistake. If any of the others die, I don’t think it will be a mistake.”

  “Four women!” Wainwright exclaimed. “What the devil are you talking about?”

  Briefly, Masuto summed up his conversation with Laura Crombie.

  “I know Mrs. Crombie,” the city manager said. “You’re making an inference, Masuto. It could all be some kind of accident. What’s the point in scaring these women to death?”

  “They won’t die of fright. Other things are more deadly,” Masuto replied.

  “I think you’re out of line—way out of line.”

  “Hold on,” Wainwright said. “I’ll agree that Masao is guessing. But I’ve had experience with his guesses. Usually they come off pretty good.”

  “You mean you agree with this notion that some lunatic is trying to kill these four women? Why? Because they play bridge together? For Christ’s sake, Wainwright, this is Beverly Hills!”

  “That doesn’t give us any exemption from crazies,” Wainwright said.

  “All right. If you buy it, what do you intend to do about it?” the city manager asked.

  “I don’t know. We could put cops at their houses. What do you think, Masao?”

  Masuto shrugged. “For how long? A week, a month? You get something like this with no reason and no motive and no direction—well, I don’t know. I think those women are in danger, terrible danger. But I don’t know why or how.”

  “If we don’t and something happens,” the city manager said, “I get the backlash.”

  “And if they go out of their homes, if they go shopping or on a date, does the cop follow them?” Masuto asked. “We don’t know what we’re dealing with, and until we know something more, it’s not going to help to put cops outside their houses. Anyone who is crazy-smart enough to get hold of botulism toxin is smart enough to get around a cop standing outside a house.”

  “All right, get on it,” the captain said to Masuto. “You’ll be talking to those women?”

  “Tonight.”

  Beckman was waiting in Masuto’s office. His broad, heavy face had what Masuto thought of as his “mission accomplished” look.

  “You found the bakery?” Masuto asked.

  “Right. La Consoler on Third Street,” Beckman answered.

  Masuto couldn’t help smiling.

  “The owners of the bakery don’t think it’s funny. They’re sore as hell. They’re going to sue the city,” Beckman said.

  “I was smiling at the name. It means to console, to comfort.”

  “Well, that’s what they do. You could eat yourself into an early grave at the place. They’re the only outfit in this part of the city that makes those feul—what do you call them?”

  “Feuilletés.”

  “Right. First they couldn’t be bothered, and then I had to lean a little and tell them about the Fortez kid.”

  “I wish you hadn’t.”

  “Masao, there was no other way. They just brushed it off until I got serious. There were maybe twenty customers in the place. My God, don’t they eat nothing but cake in this town? Then the manager took me behind the store, and we called the clerks in one by one. One of them was an old lady of about seventy, and, believe it or not, she remembered. Do you know why?”

  “Why?”

  “Because it was a Mexican kid and he just handed her a slip of paper which specified the pastry. It came to seven dollars and seventy-five cents for eight pieces of pastry, would you believe it? He gave her a ten-dollar bill.”

  “A Chicano kid. Just that. What did he look like?”

  “Maybe fourteen, fifteen years old. What does a Chicano kid of that age look like? Blue jeans, tee shirt, dark skin, dark eyes, black hair—”

  “There are at least a thousand like that within five miles of here,” Masuto said with annoyance.

  “Can I help that, Masao? At least the old lady remembered.”

  “I’m sore at myself, not at you.”

  “They’ll be calling the city manager,” Beckman said.

  “He’ll have a busy day. Did the saleswoman keep the slip of paper on which the order was written?”

  “I thought of that. No. The kid asked to have it back. It’s open and shut, Masao. X drives up in his car, sees the kid, gives him the paper and a ten-dollar bill. Buy the cake and keep the change.”

  “It could be. And that might just mean that the kid hangs out in the neighborhood. So get over there, Sy, and ask around. One Chicano kid knows another. Take a couple of bills from expenses, and buy a little information. It’s the only thread we have, and a damn thin one.”

  “I’ll try,” Beckman agreed. “Where will you be?”

  “Downtown with Omi. I’m curious about botulism.”

  Beverly Hills, like many other small cities in Los Angeles County, has limited police resources. The country tends to regard Los Angeles County as a single metropolitan area, but in reality it encloses more than seventy towns and cities, as well as a considerable unincorporated area. Most of the small cities in the county have their own police forces; some depend on the sheriff’s office, which polices the unincorporated areas of the county; and then to one degree or another, many of the small towns depend for additional resources on the police force of the city of Los Angeles, the largest metropolitan area in the county. Omi Saiku ran the poison laboratory for the Los Angeles Police Department. He was a small, cheerful man whose dark eyes peered out of heavy glasses. He welcomed Masuto into his tiny room, a single table, a single chair, and shelves of mysterious bottles.

  As Masuto entered, Omi rose from the microscope into which he had been peering and said, “Ah, estimable cousin, you deign at last to visit my house of horrors.”

  “Wainwright calls that kind of talk my Charlie Chan routine,” Masuto replied sourly.

  “Ah so. He does not distinguish between the Chinese and the Japanese. A Western failing. Did you know that Roshi Azuki is in Los Angeles? Tomorrow he will attend za-zen at the Zen Center. Can you join us?”

  “Tomorrow I’ll be looking for a homicidal maniac.”

  “Yes. Of course. Your botulism man.”

  “Man?” Masuto demanded. “Why man? Why not woman?”

  “Because no woman would kill in such a manner.”

  “Why not?”

  “I have been in this room for twelve years,” Omi said. “The poison homicides and suicides of the whole state reach me eventually. There are patterns. Strychnine is the most common and the most frequently used by women. Now what is a poison, Masao? Strictly but generally speaking, it is any substance that causes change in the molecular structure of an organ. That’s not difficult. It’s less a question of substance than of quantity. Alcohol, morphine, cocaine, nicotine are all deadly in sufficient quantity. But according to my records, ninety-five percent of women murderers do not plot bizarre poisonings. Driven to desperation, they take whatever is at hand, arsenic, found in Paris green, phosphorus in rat poison, and of course strychnine, easily come by. The fancy poisoning is done by men, and by golly this botulism of yours is the fanciest I’ve seen in a long while. Now take this bacillus botulinus. Why do we see so little of it? Why are whole populations not ravaged by its poisonous toxin? Thank mother nature, who always gives with one hand and takes away with the other. In other words, bacillus botulinus is anaerobic.”

  “Which means what?”

  “Simply that it will not grow in the presence of air. It requires low temperature and airlessness. Now don’t think that you can take a piece of meat, let it putrefy, exclude the air, and grow a botulin. Maybe yes, maybe no—most likely no. To grow a botulin, you require the
botulism bacillus, and since it cannot live in the presence of air, the likelihood is that you won’t get it. The only place it seems to turn up these days is in canned goods, and even there it’s only one out of a thousand bad cans that produces a botulinus. But here, honored cousin, here we have something unique—not the putrefaction which produces the botulinus, which in turn produces the deadly toxin, no indeed—here we have the toxin itself, no putrefaction, no source, simply the deadly poison. And that, my dear Masao, is the work of a chemist. Find the chemist and you find your murderer.”

  “Thank you,” Masuto said without delight.

  “Or conceivably a pharmacologist.”

  “I am most grateful.”

  Masuto bade his cousin good-bye and descended to the floor below, moving through the vast machinery of the Los Angeles Police Department, wondering how it might be to work for an organization like this rather than for the police force of a small town of thirty thousand population. He found Lieutenant Pete Bones at his desk, painfully pecking out a report on his typewriter. Bones, a heavy-set, thick-necked man in his forties, turned his pale blue, suspicion-clouded eyes on Masuto and then grinned.

  “Ah, my favorite Oriental sleuth. How goes it in the pastures of the rich?”

  “Too much time on their hands. The result is murder most foul.”

  “That’s a quote from somewhere. I retire in two years. The wife and I have a cabin, if you can call it that, up at Mammoth. I’m going to read all the books I never read being a cop. You’ll come and visit us, Masao.”

  “With pleasure.”

  “And what can I do for you now?”

  “Can you set the machinery to work? I’m looking for a chemist or a pharmacologist with a criminal record, probably in this area, but maybe upstate.”

  “Masao, you can make a San Francisco request as easy as we can. I can put it into work here. I’ll tell you this. We got to come up with at least ten names, maybe more.”

  “I can narrow it,” Masuto said. “The one I’m looking for—well, I think he’ll be killed, either today or tomorrow or the next day.”

  “What!”

  “Possibly yesterday, but more likely today or tomorrow.”

  “Wait a minute, wait a minute! You’re asking me to look for a chemist with a criminal record who’s going to be murdered? Come on, Masao, come on! Who’s going to kill him?”