Gingerdead Man

by Maya Corrigan

  “What was your work schedule as a live-in?” he said.

  “I was there every night and most days. I had one full day free on the weekend. That’s usually when his family would visit. On the other days I was always there for meals. I had a few hours off afternoons or evenings during the week.”

  “Was that your most recent job?” Granddad said. Iska must have nodded because he continued. “Why did you leave it?”

  “Something went wrong with the man’s heart, and he died. That is what I heard. I was not working that day.”

  “You must have felt terrible,” Bethany said. “Did this happen recently?”

  After a long silence, Iska said, “Yesterday.”

  “Yesterday! Oliver Naiman died yesterday. Were you taking care of him?” Granddad didn’t wait for an answer. “Yesterday was Monday. Why weren’t you working?”

  The silence in the room told Val that Iska hadn’t expected that question.

  “I will explain,” Iska said. “On Sunday evening the man’s daughter told me I was not needed to take care of him anymore. She wanted him to move to the retirement village where he would have doctors and nurses nearby.”

  “Did you hear about Oliver’s death from his daughter?” Granddad said.

  “No, my friend who works at the retirement village told me. Some of the people who live there knew Oliver and were talking about what happened to him. I was very sorry to hear he died. I hope his daughter was with him.”

  “She wasn’t,” Granddad said. “I heard that his aide was at the house yesterday morning and gave him a gift.”

  “That is not true.” Iska emphasized each syllable. “I still have the gift I bought for Oliver’s birthday. A scarf. He will never wear it now.” Her voice broke. After a moment she said, “Bethany, when can I meet your uncle?”

  “I’m not sure. I . . . I don’t feel good. Excuse me.”

  Val peeked into the sitting room as Bethany rushed to the front hall and turned toward the first-floor bathroom. Was she really unwell? Or had she decided to stop playing along with Granddad’s deceit? Val was losing patience with it too. Granddad had dangled a possible job to get Iska here. But if she figured out she’d been tricked, she might leave before Granddad wheedled any information from her.

  Val opened the door from the vestibule to the outside and slammed it closed. “I’m back.” She walked into the sitting room. “Hello, Iska. Remember me?”

  “Yes.” The aide frowned. “What are you doing here?”

  “Mr. Myer is my grandfather. Did I just hear Bethany’s voice in here?” When Granddad nodded, Val turned to Iska. “Bethany is my best friend. I didn’t expect to see you here, Iska, but I’m glad you are. Some questions came up about Oliver’s death that you might be able to answer. Someone left, uh, food for him yesterday morning. Elaine is convinced it was bad for him, and she believes you left it.”

  Iska’s eyes grew round. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t go near the house after Sunday night.”

  “That’s good. Were you with anyone that night and the next morning?” When Iska nodded, Val continued. “My grandfather has a good friend who would like to talk to you about what happened.”

  Iska frowned in confusion. “Why?”

  Granddad said, “He’s trying to find out how Oliver died.”

  “A doctor?”

  “No, my friend is in charge of the police in Bayport.” Granddad must have noticed Iska turn rigid. “Don’t be afraid. You can trust him. He has nothing to do with immigration. He needs to talk to all the people who knew Oliver, including you. If you don’t mind answering a few questions, I’ll call him, and he’ll come here to meet you. That way you won’t have to go to the police station.”

  Iska stared at Granddad, possibly wondering if she could trust him. “And then we can speak more to Bethany about her uncle?”

  Granddad nodded and gave Val a stern look, a silent warning not to contradict his nod. Then he stood up. “I’ll call my friend. Sit and talk to Iska, Val.” He pointed with his thumb toward a side chair halfway between the hall and the sofa, where Iska sat rigid.

  Val sat on the edge of the chair. Granddad apparently expected her to tackle the aide if she tried to bolt. It would be better to convince Iska that she had nothing to fear. “When the police chief was a boy, his father died. My grandfather acted like a second father to him. The chief owes my grandfather a lot and promised not to give your name to ICE, and he won’t.” Though Chief Yardley wouldn’t hesitate to arrest Iska if he had proof she’d murdered someone.

  “Thank you. I am happy to hear that.” Yet she looked more tense than happy, lacing and unlacing her fingers.

  “Oliver’s death must be hard on you, Iska, after all the years you were with him.”

  “I will miss him.” Her eyes filled with tears. She wiped them away and looked nervously at Val. “You were there when Elaine fired me. I want you to know I didn’t do anything wrong. Please don’t say to Bethany that her uncle shouldn’t hire me. Elaine was always happy with my work until a few days ago. I believe she changed because Oliver said something that wasn’t true.”

  “About what?”

  “Last month he started asking me to marry him. I would never marry such an old man, but I couldn’t say that to him. I pretended he was joking. I think Elaine fired me because he said he would marry me.” Iska sniffed. “She shouldn’t have blamed me for that.”

  Val could believe that Oliver proposed to Iska and, after not hearing a definite no, might have assumed it was a done deal. Possibly, though, she really had agreed to marry him and was now lying so she’d have a chance at working for another older man. “Did Oliver often lie to his daughter?”

  “No, but sometimes he got mixed up and said crazy things, especially in the last year. My grandmother was like that too when she was very old.”

  And yet weird comments could have a basis in facts. “What do you mean by crazy things?”

  “Like what he said about the woman down the street who gave him shots. Holly. Nobody likes to get shots, but he was okay with her until last month. Last month he got sick after she gave him a shot. He told Elaine that Holly tried to poison him and he didn’t want her near him. Once Oliver got a silly idea in his head, he said it over and over until he believed it himself.”

  Oliver must have known that Holly had worked at a poison center. Connecting his sickness with her, he’d come up with a bizarre theory to explain it, but the accusation made no sense. Holly was smart enough not to put poison in a hypodermic needle she herself wielded. “I’ve met Holly. I’m sure she would have been upset by what Oliver said. Did she know about it?”

  “I didn’t tell her because it would hurt her feelings. Elaine wouldn’t either. She didn’t want people to think Oliver was getting funny in the head.” Iska rubbed her hands along her thighs, still nervous.

  Val came up with a story that might create some rapport with her and yield more information about Oliver’s family and friends. “My grandfather doesn’t say crazy things, but I had a friend whose grandfather did. When he was really old, he decided his daughter’s husband was a bad man and told her to divorce him. Did Oliver do anything like that?”

  “No, he said Kevin was better than Cyndi’s last husband.”

  So Kevin didn’t have a hard act to follow. Val hoped the give-and-take between her and Iska would continue. “Oliver was lucky to have you helping him and to have good neighbors like Franetta and Thatcher looking after him.”

  “Franetta is a good neighbor. She brought Oliver cookies and cupcakes. He liked her, but not her husband. Oliver said Thatcher was like all politicians. He looked out for his own good and covered up things he didn’t want people to know.”

  “Did Oliver ever say what kind of things Thatcher covered up?”

  “A couple of times, but I didn’t understand the words he used. He said something about the drowning business. I don’t know what a drowning business is.”

  Val wasn’t sure how to interpret those
words either. Oliver could have meant a business on the verge of bankruptcy or a literal drowning. At the birthday party, when he talked about helping his neighbors’ son, Franetta had shut him down. Iska might know something about the son.

  “The police might want you to give them a list of people who came to see Oliver,” Val said. Maybe that was even true. “Did Thatcher and Franetta’s son ever visit him?”

  “Not while I was with him.”

  Val had one more name on her list of Oliver’s possible contacts. “Did Oliver ever have a visitor called Jake or Jack? Or even talk about anyone with a name like that?”

  Iska frowned in concentration. “No. Is that the name of Franetta’s son?”

  Telling her that Jake was a recent murder victim’s name might add to her jitters. “I’m not sure.”

  Granddad came into the sitting room. “My friend is on his way here to talk to you, Iska. Would you like something to drink?”

  “No.” Iska glanced toward the hall as if she wanted to make a run for it.

  “Don’t be worried, Iska. He’s a good man.” Val stood up. “I’m going to check on how Bethany’s feeling.” Val went to the hall bathroom and knocked. “Are you okay, Bethany? Can I get you anything?”

  Bethany opened the door. “I was nauseous. I stayed here rather than be sick somewhere else. I’m feeling a little better now.” She lowered her voice. “Did your grandfather get Iska to tell him what he wanted to know?”

  Val whispered, “He coaxed her into talking with Chief Yardley, but I don’t understand how Granddad made contact with her.”

  “I helped him. I got to know some Filipinos through a church fundraiser. One of them works in home health care. I called her and asked if she knew anyone who could cook and run errands for an older man. She got back to me right away, and we set up this meeting. Your grandfather told me Iska might suspect a trap if you were here because she’d met you. That’s why he needed me to play along with him.”

  “I’m sorry he dragged you into this. I can see that it upset you.”

  Bethany looked down at her trembling hands. “I don’t know why I’m so shaky. I wasn’t that nervous about playing the part.”

  Val was getting concerned about her friend. Bethany’s pale complexion verged on white. “You might have the flu. I’ll drive you home.”

  “Good idea. I walked here, but I’m feeling a bit light-headed.”

  The chief arrived at that moment. He and Iska went into the study and closed the door so they could talk in private. When she came out, Granddad would have to break the news to her that Bethany was sick and the job interview over.

  After Val backed out of the driveway, she saw that Bethany was taking her own pulse. “Why are you doing that?”

  “I felt like my heart was pounding and then slowing down. With my fingers here I can feel it skipping a beat, and then pounding again.”

  A pang of fear shot through Val. “Instead of driving you home, Bethany, I’d like to take you to the hospital to get checked.”

  “Why? I catch all kinds of bugs from my first-graders. This is probably just a twenty-four-hour virus.”

  “You can’t be sure. And your symptoms—nausea, light headedness, irregular heartbeat—could be a sign of something serious. I’m not trying to scare you, but even young women can develop heart problems.”

  Bethany wrapped her arms around herself as if warding off frigid air. “Okay. I’ll go, just to be on the safe side.”

  Val made the turn toward Treadwell and the hospital. As she left town for the two-lane highway, a less frightening explanation for Bethany’s symptoms occurred to her. Maybe she’d gone on a new fad diet, and it was wreaking havoc with her system. “Did you have a chance to eat before you came to our house?”

  “I had a bowl of chili and a salad. I skipped dessert because I’m trying to lose some weight before Christmas. But I did indulge in a piece of chocolate.”

  Val gripped the steering wheel tightly. After yesterday, the word chocolate was enough to cause her anxiety. “A chocolate bar?” she said hopefully.

  “No, a bonbon. Someone left a small box of them on my doorstep, probably a neighbor.”

  Val froze for a moment and then pressed hard on the accelerator. The car lurched forward. “Sorry.” She let up on the pedal, but not much.

  She decided against explaining why she’d sped up. With Bethany’s heart beating erratically, hearing about possibly poisoned chocolates would give her a jolt she didn’t need.

  Despite Bethany’s fidgeting in the passenger seat, Val tried to stay calm. Even if the worst was true—that Oliver had died because of poisoned chocolates and Bethany had eaten similar ones—Bethany had consumed less than half as much chocolate. She was young and robust. His age and health had doubtless contributed to his death. She’d survive. If she didn’t—no, Val couldn’t bear to think about losing her best friend.

  She stared at the dark road ahead through misty eyes. Bethany would make it. She had to.

  Chapter 15

  Val stopped in front of the hospital’s emergency room entrance, took Bethany inside to the registration desk, and then cruised the hospital’s lot for an empty space. Parking was tight with two rows blocked for construction. A car backing out of a space hit her front fender. The damage was minimal to her ancient Saturn and the other car, but the driver insisted on following protocol, exchanging contact and insurance information with her.

  Twenty minutes later, Val returned to the emergency waiting room and looked around. She saw a few people she’d noticed when she’d gone in there earlier, including a man with a listless-looking child and a woman with a teenage boy clutching his wrist. Bethany wasn’t there. Fear gripped Val. Had her friend taken a turn for the worse and been rushed inside?

  Val stood in line at the registration desk while people needing emergency care were checked in. When she finally got to the front of the line, the man behind the desk would give her no information because privacy rules prohibited it. He asked for her name and the name of her friend. He’d relay the information and, if the patient and the patient’s doctor permitted it, she could go to the treatment area. He told her to have a seat in the waiting room until someone called her name.

  Val was too nervous to sit and paced the room. Granddad called to find out why she hadn’t returned home yet. She explained where she was and shared her fear about the chocolate Bethany had eaten.

  He questioned her about Bethany’s symptoms and expressed his concern. “Do you want me at the hospital to wait with you?”

  “No, I’ll call you when I find out what Bethany’s problem is. It might have nothing to do with the chocolate she ate.” Val guessed what he’d do next. “Don’t alert the chief yet. He can’t do anything here. By the way, how did the meeting between him and Iska go?”

  “I didn’t get a report from either of them. Earl didn’t stick around, and she left after finding out Bethany had gone. I’m glad you were here when Bethany needed your help, but why did you come back so early from the dinner you were catering?”

  Val briefly described what had happened at the Naiman house.

  “I understand the daughter balking at an autopsy for her father,” Granddad said. “But you gotta wonder why she doesn’t want the chocolates tested.”

  “Because she resented my interference. I don’t think Cyndi would kill her father, if that’s what you’re suggesting.”

  “Maybe she suspects her husband did.”

  “If I thought my husband poisoned my father, I’d get the chocolates tested. Anyway, Kevin didn’t have the opportunity to leave them at the doorstep. Neither of them did. He and Cyndi left Oliver’s house to drive home even before I did. Elaine didn’t leave until later, but she would have noticed if there was a gift bag by the door.”

  “Where do Cyndi and Kevin live?”

  “Outside Baltimore.” Val heard her name called. “Gotta go, Granddad. Someone’s calling me. I hope they’re taking me back to see Bethany.”

&nb
sp; “If the doctors don’t know what’s wrong with her, tell them she might have been poisoned.”

  “I will.”

  Bethany was propped up in bed. Her tiny room was filled with equipment tracking her vital signs. One finger had a plastic clip on it and one arm was encircled by a blood pressure cuff.

  Val hugged her first and then took a good look at her. “I think you have more color in your face. Are you feeling any better?”

  “Yes. As you can see on the monitor, my heart rate is steady. I’ve had all kinds of tests, but they haven’t told me the results.” Bethany adjusted her bedclothes. “I’ve been lying here feeling bad about tricking Iska. What happened with her?”

  “Granddad succeeded in his goal. She talked to Chief Yardley.”

  “But she went away with no job.”

  A fortyish woman bustled into the room. She introduced herself as the ER doctor and said she had good news for Bethany. Her blood tests and EKG were normal, and her heart rate had stabilized during the time she’d been in the ER.

  Tears of joy filled Val’s eyes. She squeezed Bethany’s hand.

  The doctor continued. “I recommend you schedule a stress test to make sure you have no underlying problems that didn’t show up in the EKG.”

  “I’ll do that,” Bethany said. “Was this just a random thing?”

  “Maybe. Occasional episodes of arrhythmia can occur when the heart’s electrical system gets out of whack. If it happens again, make an appointment with a cardiologist, who’ll run additional tests.” The doctor flipped through pages on her clipboard. “Your symptoms could have been caused by a stimulant. Did you have a lot of coffee, colas, or energy drinks today?”

  Val stiffened. Those drinks all contained caffeine.

  Bethany said, “I drank two coffees in the morning and one around noon, same as always.”

  The doctor made a note on the chart. “Did you take any diet or stay-awake pills, like college kids do when they pull an all-nighter?”

  Bethany looked offended. “No, not today or ever. I don’t like swallowing pills.”

  “I wasn’t talking only about pills. Dietary supplements to enhance weight loss, athletic performance, and alertness are also sold in powder form for dissolving in liquids. Some of those are highly concentrated caffeine, particularly dangerous because it’s easy to overdose.”