Poker Chips and Poison

by Rodney Strong

  ‘At a guess, about ten kilos of gold.’

  ‘That’s a hell of specific guess.’

  ‘It seems our mild-mannered Betty was a gold tycoon,’ Alice told Vanessa. ‘Recently anyway.’

  Vanessa looked thoughtful. ‘That’s a hell of a motive for murder,’ she said, looking around the room. ‘What would ten kilos of gold look like?’

  Owen shrugged. ‘It depends on the form it takes. It could be in bars or coins or nuggets....’

  ‘Or one big piece?’ Vanessa asked.

  ‘Well,’ Owen scratched his cheek and adjusted his tie, ‘the largest nugget ever found weighed 78 kilograms, so it’s not unheard of.’ He saw Alice’s expression. ‘I was curious when Betty told me about the gold so I did some research. Anyway that was found in Australia. The heaviest nugget ever found here was only three kilos. I’d be surprised if it was all in one piece.’

  ‘Could it be flat?’ Vanessa looked over at the bookcase. ‘Like in a book?’

  ‘A very big book perhaps,’ Owen conceded.

  Alice had visited Betty several times, but had never paid close attention to the titles on display, assuming they were romances or the cosy mystery books most people her age read. She was basing this on the two women she’d seen in the dining room reading books with topless men on the cover.

  When Alice stepped closer to inspect the bookcase, she was surprised to see that Betty preferred the horror genre (unless romance had changed considerably over the years). All of the titles on Betty’s shelf included either blood, death, or vampire (and in one case all three).

  ‘That’s unexpected,’ Vanessa said as she pulled one of the books off the shelf. ‘Too Many Vampires, mmm the movie was better.’

  ‘I guess you never really know someone until they’re dead,’ Alice replied.

  ‘Don’t tell me you have books like this,’ said Vanessa as she replaced the book.

  ‘I prefer stories that make you think rather than blink.’

  Vanessa smiled. ‘I like that. I’m going to use it.’

  ‘Be my guest,’ Alice muttered as she ran a finger along the tops of the books. There didn’t seem to be any missing and none felt different to her touch, like their pages might be glued together. She checked the other shelves but they all appeared unremarkable as well.

  ‘I’m not sure I feel comfortable with this,’ Owen said. ‘We shouldn’t really be going through Betty’s things.’

  Alice turned to face him. ‘Then wait outside, because we need to figure out if the murderer got what they came for and the only way to do that is to search for it.’

  The troubled expression on his face increased.

  ‘Owen,’ Alice said with a sigh. ‘You knew Betty, as well as anyone did. She was very pragmatic so do you honestly think she would mind us doing this?’

  Owen took his time replying before finally nodding. ‘I suppose she wouldn’t. What can I do to help?’

  ‘You search out here. Vanessa and I will take the bedroom. Call out if you find anything.’

  With Vanessa doing all the heavy lifting, it took them 30 minutes to search the entire apartment. There was no sign of the gold. Vanessa even checked the freezer, although Alice advised that it was traditionally diamonds that were hidden in the ice tray. And just to be certain the gold wasn’t hidden in a tub of cookie dough ice cream, Alice tasted several spoonfuls.

  Alice stood in the middle of the lounge, while Owen straightened the couch cushions and Vanessa nudged the coffee table back into place.

  ‘They must have taken it,’ Owen said.

  ‘It looks that way,’ Vanessa replied.

  Alice wasn’t convinced. She had more faith in her friend’s sneakiness. The question was, if it wasn’t hidden here, then where was it.

  She turned to Owen. ‘You said you recommended that Betty put it in the office safe. Do we know that she didn’t? Vanessa?’

  Vanessa shook her head. ‘She would have asked Tracey.’

  ‘Can you find out?’

  ‘I could say I need to do a complete inventory of Betty’s belongings before her children get here and did she have anything in the safe.’

  ‘Good. Off you go. We’ll regroup at my place at dinner time and compare notes.’

  ‘What are you going to do?’ Vanessa asked.

  ‘We have the motive, now I need a suspect. It has to be someone who was in the room during the tournament. With all the residents and staff, I think there were thirty names on the list.’

  ‘You suspect the staff?’

  ‘The only two people I don’t suspect, apart from myself, are you and Owen,’ Alice told her.

  ‘But I know the staff.’

  ‘Do you? Or do you just chat to them at work?’ Alice said. ‘How well do you actually know them?’

  She could tell she was making Vanessa uncomfortable, but now that she was sure it was murder, and why, Alice was more determined than ever to get revenge for Betty’s murder. Justice, she corrected herself.

  ‘I’m not particularly happy with the idea that it was one of the residents either,’ Alice said. ‘These are people we see every day and though they are many things (liars, thieves, boring), I never pegged any of them as killers.’

  ‘Right, well let’s hope it’s one of the residents.’ Vanessa’s face took on a panicked look as she realised what she’d said. ‘I mean—’

  ‘It’s alright, dear, we know what you meant, don’t we, Owen?’

  Owen nodded.

  Vanessa left the apartment looking more troubled than ever.

  ‘That girl seems more upset now that the murderer could be someone she works with than the very idea that there was a murder in the first place,’ Owen remarked.

  Alice looked around Betty’s apartment one last time, trying to identify the nagging feeling she had that there was something she was overlooking.

  She nodded absently. ‘No one likes to think that their colleagues are capable of killing. It could make staff morning teas quite awkward.’

  They closed the door and Alice checked that it had automatically locked behind them. She thought about installing one of her old tricks so that she’d be able to see if the door was opened again, but decided against it. For one thing she didn’t have a match, and secondly it looked like the apartment had already been searched so it was unlikely the person would come back. Unless there was more than one person after Betty’s gold, but that thought made her head ache. Briefly she wondered if she was up for all this investigating business. Her legs hurt, her head hurt. She was exhausted.

  ‘If I’m hurting I’m breathing,’ she murmured to herself.

  ‘What’s that?’ Owen asked.

  She flapped her hand to indicate it was nothing. What she needed was to talk to her granddaughter.

  ‘I’ll catch up with you later, Owen,’ she said as they stopped outside Stumpy. The sun sat low in the sky casting long shadows over the lawn. ‘In the meantime don’t talk about this with anyone.’

  ‘Don’t worry. It’s not the sort of thing that casually comes up in conversation.’

  She nodded grimly. ‘We don’t know who did this and until we do, assume everyone is out to kill you.’

  ‘What?!’

  ‘I’m kidding. But let’s just say someone has already killed for the gold. If they hear you talking about it they might assume you know more than you do. Best to keep quiet.’

  She left Owen wearing a troubled expression. It seemed she was dispensing fear everywhere she went today.

  As she walked past the café she glanced in and happened to see Nanci sitting at a table by herself.

  Alice changed direction and stepped through the open door.

  ‘The usual, Alice?’ Connor asked from behind the counter.

  ‘Takeaway, please,’ She pointed at the table where Nanci was sitting.

  ‘Alice, join me,’ Nanci said with a wave at the seat opposite her. She waited until Alice was settled in her seat before asking, ‘How are you holding up?’
<
br />   ‘Oh, it’s never easy to lose a friend, is it?’

  Nanci shook her head. ‘Lord knows I’ve lost enough people close to me over the years. It always gets to you.’

  Alice hesitated then decided to press ahead. ‘Nanci, I think you and I are similar, at least in our previous working lives.’ She paused to watch Nanci’s response.

  ‘I’m flattered that you think we’re in the same league,’ Nanci replied.

  ‘So you know who I am,’ Alice said with narrowed eyes.

  Nanci sipped her coffee. ‘Let’s just say if you’re who I’m pretty sure you are then you were the gold standard in our business.’

  Alice snorted dismissively, but couldn’t help inwardly flinching at the mention of gold.

  ‘My reason for talking to you is twofold,’ she said, ‘although perhaps they’re the one and the same. Teresa is my friend, and she can be a pain in the behind, but I’d hate to see her get taken in. If she is part of your long game then it’s best you stop now.’

  ‘I’m retired,’ Nanci said.

  ‘So am I,’ Alice replied. They both waited to see who would twitch first.

  Nanci sighed. ‘Alright,’ she said. ‘Teresa is a fool and I could easily take her for everything she’s got. But I really am retired. This is where I’m planning to live out the rest of my hopefully long life. I’m not going to mess that up. That thing with the poker tournament was a favour. For a new friend. That and I wanted to see if you were as good as I’d heard.’

  Alice decided to accept her words at face value, or at least give the woman that impression. Her tea was delivered to the table and Alice stood up.

  ‘Just out of curiosity, what would you have done if I was up to something?’ Nanci asked.

  ‘You’ve done your research on me?’

  Nanci nodded.

  ‘London 1972.’

  Nanci’s face paled. It was a satisfying response.

  SIXTEEN

  ALICE READ THE LIST of names again. It was pointless trying to strike anyone off it, because every time she did a nagging doubt surfaced and she immediately put the name back on again. The trouble was that none of them struck her as a cold-blooded killer. Or a warm-blooded killer for that matter.

  The only two people she could cross off the list with any certainty were herself and Vanessa. In theory she should also remove Owen as a suspect because he was in love with Betty and because he’d told her about the gold, but then love was also a powerful motive.

  Moodily she watched Maddy, who was lying on the other end of the couch. As if sensing she was under scrutiny the cat opened one eye.

  ‘Who did it?’ Alice asked her.

  ‘Rowl,’ Maddy replied.

  ‘Are you sure?’

  ‘Mraw.’

  ‘That’s not helpful. Now if this thing could translate cat,’ she waved her phone.

  Maddy closed her eye again and Alice went into the kitchen in search of inspiration. A couple of sips from one of her many hidden flasks later and she had no more answers but was feeling calmer.

  There was a soft knock at the door and the camera revealed Vanessa standing outside with several containers of food.

  ‘I thought pizza two nights in a row would be bad for my figure,’ she said when Alice let her in.

  ‘What on earth are you talking about? You’re gorgeous.’

  ‘Well thanks, but I’m not going to stay that way if I stress eat and pizza is my stress-eating go-to. Even now I’m craving a chicken and bacon pizza with camembert.’

  Alice began unpacking the food onto the kitchen bench, opening the first container to find noodles and vegetables.

  ‘What do you have to be stressed about? Well, apart from the whole murder thing.’

  ‘I don’t want to talk about it,’ Vanessa replied as she rummaged in the top drawer and pulled out two forks.

  Alice took one of the forks and began loading wontons onto a plate. ‘What did Ben do?’

  Vanessa gave her a sharp look. ‘Who said he did anything?’

  ‘Because most of the time when people don’t want to talk about something, it relates to what a man has done. Or hasn’t done but was supposed to do.’

  Vanessa chewed a piece of broccoli while Alice waited patiently for her to decide how much she want to reveal.

  ‘It’s Ben,’ she said finally. ‘He texted me to say he wasn’t sure about our relationship.’

  ‘Dump him,’ Alice replied firmly.

  ‘Alice!’

  ‘Do you love him?’

  ‘I really like him and we’ve been going out for a while,’ Vanessa said.

  ‘Right so you don’t love him, and he obviously doesn’t love you or else he’d say something to your face instead of over text. So I repeat, dump him.’

  ‘But—’

  ‘You are a confident, beautiful young woman and if he doesn’t realise what he has then dump him faster than I dumped the Beverley Diamond Ring in ’68.’

  Vanessa tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes.

  ‘Very quickly.’

  ‘You’re right, I know. I do like him though.’

  ‘Does he challenge you?’

  The head tilt was back. ‘I don’t understand. To a duel?’

  ‘No, fool girl, does he challenge you to be a better person? Does he try and be your knight in shining armour or does he push you to be better?’

  Vanessa answered by forking noodles into her mouth, leaving a tiny trace of sauce on her lip which she wiped with a napkin before speaking. ‘I guess... he tries to make everything better.’

  Alice waved her hand. ‘Then dump him. You deserve someone that makes you better, not safe.’

  Vanessa frowned. Then there was a slow nod and Alice wasn’t sure whether her message had got through. She hoped it had.

  ‘I’ve got something for you,’ Vanessa said through a mouthful of food. She dug a slip of paper out of her back pocket.

  When Alice opened it she saw there was a telephone number written on it along with the name Zoe.

  ‘Betty’s daughter. I thought the best way to find out about the gold might be to ask a relative.’

  Alice nodded approvingly and fetched her phone from the coffee table.

  Dialling the number, it connected after one ring. ‘Zoe speaking,’ came a strong voice down the line.

  Alice fumbled with the phone and put the call on speaker.

  ‘Zoe, this is Alice Atkinson speaking. I was a friend of your mother’s at Silvermoon.’

  ‘Yes, Mrs Atkinson. She mentioned you several times. Thank you for calling.’

  ‘I’m sorry for your loss, dear.’

  ‘Thank you. I don’t mean to be rude, but I’m just about to head to the airport.’

  ‘I was at your mother’s apartment today to water the plants and I’m afraid it looks like someone has been in there without permission.’

  ‘Oh hell. Was anything missing?’ Zoe asked in a resigned tone.

  ‘It’s hard to tell. It doesn’t look like it, but I could be wrong.’ Alice paused, wondering how to proceed. ‘There is one other thing...’

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Betty mentioned before she died that she had a quantity of gold in her apartment.’

  There was silence on the other end of the phone line.

  ‘We can’t seem to locate it,’ Alice finished.

  More silence, then finally Zoe asked, ‘How much gold?’

  ‘I think roughly ten kilograms.’

  Still more silence, then a swear word that had both Alice and Vanessa nodding in appreciation.

  ‘She bloody told me it was a family heirloom,’ Zoe muttered.

  ‘The gold was?’ Vanessa asked.

  ‘Who’s that?’

  ‘Sorry, Zoe. My name is Vanessa, I work at Silvermoon and I knew your mother too. I was supervising Alice while she was in Betty’s apartment. Management rules.’

  Alice was impressed and made a circle with her finger and her thumb and held it up to Vanessa.


  ‘Oh, I see. Well I didn’t know it was gold. There was an old locked wooden box that had been in the family for decades. Longer probably. I think it originally belonged to Mum’s grandfather. Mum asked me to send it to her because we’re selling the farm.’

  ‘Do you think she knew what was in it?’ Vanessa asked.

  ‘I’m not sure. I don’t think so, otherwise she wouldn’t have been happy for it to go via courier.’

  Alice felt her mouth open slightly at the thought of a half million dollars bouncing around in the back of a courier van.

  ‘And now you say you can’t find it?’ Zoe asked.

  ‘How big was the box?’ Alice said.

  ‘Uh, a bit bigger than a loaf of bread, I suppose. The proper big loaves, not those little gluten-free things.’

  Alice had never seen or eaten anything gluten-free in her life, and wasn’t even sure what it meant, but she assumed a gluten-free loaf was smaller than a normal loaf.

  ‘I should report this to the police,’ Zoe sighed again.

  Vanessa nodded to Alice who shook her head.

  ‘You absolutely should, although I think it might be better to wait until you get here. It might just be that we overlooked it and I wouldn’t want to waste police time,’ Alice said.

  ‘I suppose so. I’ll be there first thing in the morning. Could you meet me at Mum’s apartment at 9am?’

  ‘Of course,’ Alice replied.

  ‘Thank you. I’ll see you then.’ There was a click followed by silence.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell her Betty was murdered?’ Vanessa asked.

  Alice refilled her plate with more noodles. ‘Is that really the sort of thing that should be done over the phone?’

  Vanessa hid her embarrassment behind a forkful of rice.

  ‘Anyway, we’ve got until tomorrow morning to try and solve the murder and find the gold. Zoe doesn’t strike me as someone who will let the police dismiss our suspicions.’

  ‘Which is a good thing, right?’

  ‘It’s messy.’ Alice sighed. ‘Worst case scenario they ignore her and she kicks up a fuss around the village, panicking the murderer who takes off, probably with the gold. Best case scenario the police believe her and cause a fuss around the village causing the murderer to take off, probably with the gold.’