BAD PICK

by Linda Lovely

  Ruth looked over at Danny. “Recording on? Should I begin?”

  He nodded. “Please state your name and address for the record.”

  Danny’s protocol included naming everyone present and getting Ruth on tape waiving her right to legal counsel. Finally, he nodded. “Go ahead, Ruth.”

  The woman locked eyes with Amber. “After you contacted me, I told my fiancé, Jack Ford, I had a half-sister. Jack was convinced your contact was a prelude to blackmail. I disagreed and begged him not to tell Dad or Mom about you. Mother’s always been emotionally unstable. Often so depressed she couldn’t sleep and wouldn’t eat.

  “Jack promised,” she continued. “In his mind, he kept that promise. He talked to my grandmother, figuring if there’d been a ‘love child’ she’d know who the mother was. Too bad Harriett Quinn dropped by the church. When she overheard a snatch of interesting conversation, she hid and eavesdropped. The blackmail started a few days later.”

  Danny interrupted at this point. “Who did Harriett contact? You or your father?”

  “The first letter was mailed to Dad at home,” Ruth answered. “Mom opened it. Every so often, Mom would stop taking her prescribed anti-depressants and go on a self-medicating binge. This was one of these times. She became extremely paranoid.”

  Ursula rapped on the table to get Ruth’s attention. Guess she was missing her gavel. “Back up. Did your mother keep the letter or give it to your father?”

  Ruth nodded. “She gave it to Dad. He decided to pay off Harriett, who only heard the bastard child’s name was Amber. She never learned Ursula was the mother.”

  I saw Amber flinch at Ruth’s use of the term “bastard”.

  “What did your mother do?” Danny asked.

  “She killed Harriett.” Ruth answered as calmly as if she’d said her mother’d baked cookies. “Mom may have been psychotic, but she was smart. She tuned into Ardon County gossip, learned Harriett suffered from heartburn and practically bought cimetidine by the case.”

  Danny interrupted again. “Esther didn’t have any medical training. How did she know how to poison Harriett?”

  “She’d listened to me rave about drug interactions, so she looked up cimetidine to see if someone taking it might die if they ingested another drug. She found theophylline would do the trick. Brie’s tasting provided a perfect opportunity. On her blog, Harriett bragged about when and where she’d be stuffing her face.”

  Danny’s eyebrows practically crossed when he scowled at Ruth. “Theophylline’s a prescription drug, right? How did your mother get her hands on it?” he asked.

  I silently applauded the question. Working at an urgent care facility, Ruth could easily have forged a scrip.

  Ruth shrugged but had a ready answer. “Mom often visited me at work. She could have easily stolen a prescription pad or even palmed a bottle of theophylline when I wasn’t looking.”

  My turn to grill Ruth. “Does your mother own a truck? How did she break into Summer Place? Was she alone?”

  Ruth looked peeved by my interruption. Her hazel eyes held no warmth as she focused on me. I was the first to play chicken and blink.

  “My mother acted alone,” she said. “I have no idea how she broke in. She did say she borrowed my cousin’s truck. Told him reporters knew her car and wouldn’t quit pestering her once Dad gained celebrity status.”

  Ruth finally broke eye contact and stared at her twined fingers. “When Harriett died, Grandmother Jeannie suspected Mom had killed her. To encourage the investigation veering off in a different direction, Grandmother promoted Brie as the killer. The goat incident and Karen’s death made Brie a convenient suspect. She wound Grandfather Nickles into a rage. He actually believed Brie killed Karen and Harriett.”

  What a loving Christian woman. What was her motto? Screw the innocent.

  Ursula cleared her throat. “So your mother only intended to poison Harriett?”

  Ruth sipped her coffee, and made a face either at its taste or temperature. “Oh, I’m sure Mom would have tried to poison you, too, had she known you were Amber’s mother. She didn’t learn that tidbit until Dad left for D.C. Mom overheard Jack and me arguing over Amber. That’s when she found out you and Amber were staying at the Summer Place cottage.”

  Ruth held up her hands in a stop motion. “Mom’s suicide post only says she watched until she was certain mother and daughter were inside the cottage before she set fire to it.”

  This admission of guilt stunned us silent. No one said a word. The only sound was Danny’s pen scratching paper as he scribbled notes. When he finished writing, he studied Ruth. Frowning, his eyebrows knotted, Danny no longer appeared the gregarious deputy.

  We all jumped when a deputy opened the door to the conference room. “Danny I really need to see you,” he said.

  Danny didn’t look pleased by the interruption. “I’ll be right back.”

  We sat in complete silence until Danny returned five minutes later and resumed his questioning. “Earlier you said you drove to Ardon County to try and save your grandmother’s life. What made you believe Jeannie needed saving?”

  Ruth propped her elbows on the table and dropped her head into her hands. “Granddad Nickles called. Back before Grandmother married him, Granddad suffered a brain injury. Sometimes he gets very confused. Before she left tonight, my grandmother tried to explain she was about to do something dangerous and she might die. Told him if she succeeded, all the family’s worries would vanish, and she’d save their daughter from jail.

  “I don’t know any more than that. I have no details about the arson. I do know Grandmother Jeannie saw that newspaper picture of Brie wearing a gavel earring. She called and asked if I’d lost one. When I said no, she must have figured it belonged to Mom.”

  “Wait,” I said. “Your father commissioned three sets of earrings. You and your mother had two sets. Who had the third? How could Jeannie leap to the conclusion the lost earring belonged to your mother?”

  Ruth’s dismissive laugh was mocking. “Easy. Dad gave the third set of earrings to his mother. Grandmother Helen is in a wheelchair.”

  She tapped her finger on the copy of the suicide post that sat on the table in front of Danny. “Mom’s confession—it’s all there. Though Dad was paying the blackmail, he knew nothing of Mom’s or Grandmother’s actions. And I only discovered the truth after the fact.”

  “After the fact?” I piped up. “Then why did your fiancé say Amber and Ursula should have gotten the message after Harriett died?”

  Ruth’s face flushed as she glared at me. “I’m sure it was just a figure of speech that all blackmailers get their just due.”

  Yeah, right.

  “Grandmother’s actions were in a way heroic,” Ruth said, changing the subject. “She must have believed if she died with Ursula, Amber, and Brie, everyone would assume she’d set the cottage fire. Who would think to check and see if a charred corpse had pierced ears?”

  Ruth looked around the table. “I’ve told you everything I know. Again, I’m sorry for your pain. But my father and grandfather need me. I have to go.”

  “I’m afraid not,” Danny said. “You’re under arrest for attempted murder. Your mother’s alive. You set out pills for her to take, told her to take all of them. She felt nauseous, decided to wait and take the pills later. Esther was quite confused when the EMTs arrived. She also denied scheduling a Facebook post to go live hours after it was written. Said she had no idea anyone could even do that.”

  Ruth swallowed. Tried to look unruffled. “Mother’s just confused. Thank heavens she’s still alive.” Ruth’s expression wasn’t exactly one of joy.

  FIFTY-THREE

  I kept my promise and drove directly to my parents’ house when we left the Sheriff’s Office. Well, not directly. I took a small detour past Summer Place to assure myself it hadn’t burned to the ground. Seeing firefigh
ters standing watch boosted my optimism.

  Eva opened the door at my parents’ house and gave me a crushing hug. I wasn’t surprised that Dad had called Aunt Eva and invited her to sit in on the mystery wrap-up.

  Mom kept her side of the bargain, pouring hot coffee with liberal additions of spirits, and setting out a cold buffet with something for every diet. I was quite content with peanut butter on toast, an apple, and Oreos—yes they are vegan fare. No animal products. But I do avoid scanning the list of unpronounceable chemicals in the ingredient listing.

  “Do you think Ruth will get away with trying to murder her mother?” I asked Ursula and Amber. “Esther may well recant to save her daughter. Claim she contemplated suicide and wrote the Facebook post before she chickened out. Ruth spun a good tale painting herself and her dad as innocent victims. In her version, her father’s only offense was failing to report the blackmail.”

  “She’d hoped all the parties painted as guilty would be conveniently dead,” Aunt Eva offered. “Hope there’s some way to prove Ruth used her mom’s computer to schedule that Facebook post.”

  “I really wanted to believe her.” Amber sighed. “But I’m a cop. Healthy suspicion comes with the territory. It’s unclear when Ruth became involved, but even if her mother did poison Harriett and light the cottage fire, she has to share in the guilt. And trying to murder her own mother. Wow.”

  “I’ll urge the Sheriff’s Office to check out Ruth’s and Ford’s alibis for the night the food was poisoned and the cottage torched,” Mom said.

  “Ruth could be telling the truth about that part of the story or it could be a total fabrication. Maybe Jeannie was trying to protect her granddaughter, not her daughter.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Amber bite her lip. Her eyes closed for a minute. She straightened. “Even if we’re never able to determine the truth, the guilty will suffer.”

  Ursula nodded.

  Mom squeezed Ursula’s hand. “Are you still planning to confront Toomey?”

  “No need. The powers that be will politely tell him that he needs to bow out. Too much baggage. His daughter’s being tried for attempted murder; his mother-in-law died in the act of attempted murder. The reason one of the Toomeys killed Harriet—blackmail about a ‘love child’—can’t be kept secret.

  Mom patted Ursula’s arm. “You’re okay with this? Your goal from the start was to stymie Toomey’s nomination while protecting Amber’s privacy. It looks like you’ve succeeded, just not how you planned.”

  Ursula smiled at her daughter. “I just hope the next time Amber and I get together neither of us has to visit a hospital, flee a fire, or outwit a murderer.”

  “Amen to that,” Dad said.

  I had my own reason to smile. “Whatever information does or doesn’t become public, Danny promised to repeat ad nauseam that I, Brie Hooker, an innocent, was callously framed as a food-poisoner and killer.”

  My aunt, who’d been exceptionally quiet, had the evening’s last word. “It’s way past time for my niece and me to head home to Udderly. I left Billy in charge, and danged if he didn’t just call with the news we have five new baby kids.”

  FIFTY-FOUR

  I called Andy mid-morning and asked if he could drop by Udderly sometime during the day. I didn’t mention anything about the evening, though we were supposed to have a standing date since it was Animal Passion week.

  My breath caught when I saw him arrive with a dozen roses. How could I tell this sweet man my decision? You have to do it, Brie. It isn’t fair to lead him on.

  Andy bowed slightly from the waist as he presented me with the flowers. He kissed one cheek, then the other like it was a formal occasion.

  “I appreciate you wanting to break the news to me in person and in private.” He grinned. “I brought the flowers to say I’m happy for you and Paint.”

  The veterinarian chuckled at my open-mouth astonishment. “Hey, Brie, you’re no better than I am at hiding emotions. I’ve known for weeks how the winds of fate were blowing, and I couldn’t help but notice you practically pushed me into Cindy’s arms.”

  “Oh, Andy. You do know I love you, it’s just…”

  “Say no more.” He put two fingers against my lips. “Let’s leave it at that. I love you, too, and we’ll always be friends. Say, does Paint know yet? He’s not as intuitive as me.”

  “No, I haven’t told him.”

  “Well, make sure you torture him a little. He’s my best friend, but he does deserve a bit of torment before he’s declared the winner.”

  I told Paint I knew it wasn’t Brewing Trouble week, but hoped he might be free to stop by late afternoon.

  When he reached the Udderly cabin, I kissed him.

  He wagged a finger at me. “Hey, that’s not allowed. While I’m all for breaking the rules, Andy will call foul.”

  “No, he won’t,” I answered. “He already knows I planned to give you a surprise Valentine’s Day present.”

  Paint arched an eyebrow and grinned. “Oh, yeah, and what might that be?”

  I handed him a Valentine’s Day card. He opened it and looked a bit puzzled as he studied the gift certificate inside.

  “A certificate for a Couple’s Massage at some posh Greenville spa? I’ve never been to a masseuse.”

  “Well, let me tell you what happens.” I smiled. “When you arrive, you have to take off your clothes…And so do I.”

  He grinned as recognition dawned. “Ah, you’ll be neckid with me on a date?”

  I laughed. “You’ve got the picture.”

  “So, from now on, every week is Brewing Trouble week?”

  “That’s exactly what it means.”

  About the Author

  Linda Lovely finds writing pure fiction isn’t a huge stretch given the years she’s spent penning PR and ad copy. Linda writes a blend of mystery and humor, chuckling as she plots to “disappear” the types of characters who most annoy her. Quite satisfying plus there’s no need to pester relatives for bail. Her newest series offers good-natured salutes to both her vegan family doctor and her cheese-addicted kin. She’s an enthusiastic Sisters in Crime member and helps organize the popular Writers’ Police Academy. When not writing or reading, Linda takes long walks with her husband, swims, gardens, and plays tennis.

  The Brie Hooker Mystery Series

  by Linda Lovely

  BONES TO PICK (#1)

  PICKED OFF (#2)

  BAD PICK (#3)

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