Talon shook his head steadily back and forth. “Regrettably, he is still a suspect. Booth Jackson was poisoned by painkillers added to his personal custom-made bottle of liquid vitamins,” he said. “By his own admission, Leland retrieved his toupee from the box where those vitamins had been stored. And the tow-truck driver overheard bits and pieces of Booth and Leland’s argument. Blackmail was spoken twice.”
“So your hunch was right, Rylie. Booth’s cash cow was Leland,” Solo said and told Talon what we had overheard at the Hye house. “Can’t you charge Booth with blackmail?”
“Only if someone admits to being blackmailed,” Talon said.
“No, no,” I said, remembering something. “I was wrong. Happy Hye said Leland was broke ass this morning at the station, so she knew, which means Booth had to have known.”
“Possible. But it’s just as possible Leland mentioned it to her—shall we say, in a conversational moment after intimacy,” Talon said.
“We need to find out who this cash cow is. I think it’s the key,” I said. Paul Desmont’s words came back like an echo. “Was it codeine in the vitamins that poisoned Booth?”
“No confirmation yet, but it looks like it. Codeine is in on his list of allergies,” Talon said. “I’m awaiting a search warrant to search the Desmonts’ house.”
“It’s a crime scene,” I said. “Do you need a warrant?”
“Booth collapsed in their garage, and the house is a hundred feet downhill. A fine line, but I can’t take the chance of the evidence being deemed inadmissible,” he said.
“Lilith Desmont takes codeine,” I said. “Paul said she buys the liquid form from Canada.”
“And she has no alibi. Paul was asleep, possibly drugged last night,” Solo said.
“And her motive for poisoning Booth is what?” Talon asked.
I searched my mind, shrugged. “I got nothing.”
“Still it bears some thought,” he said. “Her books are riddled with deviant sex, one act in particular uses near suffocation to enhance the sexual experience. Motive outstanding, she could have gone too far and caused Otto’s heart attack.”
“And tried to frame Leland and me.” I said it more as a statement than question.
He nodded. “Leland’s fingerprints were on the plastic bag used to cut off Otto’s air. It looks to have come from his garage office. It’s the same ones used to wrap his liquid vitamins. I’ll call in to see if I can find out if Lilith knows CPR.”
“She was a Girl Scout leader. It’s required even though she quit soon after—” At a sudden thought, I slapped my hand over my mouth. “Mt. Rainier. That’s why she did it.”
“Quit Girl Scouts?” Solo asked, looking lost.
“Poisoned the vitamins,” I said. “Lilith must have wanted to bankrupt Leland so he couldn’t build a Mc-mansion and block her view of Mt. Rainier.”
Talon’s lean face darkened in a frown. “Kill for a view of a volcano?”
“How about a two million dollar view,” I said. “And I don’t think she meant to kill Booth or anyone, just dose the vitamins enough to cause fatigue,” I said. “Lilith is well-known, so if she let it leak that Leland’s vitamins caused fatigue, no one would buy them. And those vitamins are all that is between Leland and bankruptcy.”
I had expected Talon to ask for clarifications or more details as he had earlier at dinner, but instead he looked down, lips curved as he read a text message. “It was codeine in the vitamins.” He showed us the text. “Not enough to kill Booth, but almost.”
“Almost?” I said, stunned. “Booth isn’t dead?”
“For crying out loud, hasn’t anyone died today?” Solo asked.
I reminded him of the Oleys.
“Oh yeah, I forgot about them,” he said.
“That was the second thing on my list of truths to tell you,” Talon said, grinning like a confronted naughty boy.
I laughed. “Where is Booth now?”
“He refuses to go to hospital, so he’s inside your house, resting. Hope you don’t mind. He is weak, but willing to talk if I promised to retrieve the watch. Though the few things he has said so far have had no obvious relevance. Rylie, you should really lock your front door.”
I will once I find the key. “He can’t actually keep the watch, can he?”
“Hardly likely, considering its history. But there isn’t any reason he should know that just yet,” he said. “Quite fortuitous, but not altogether unexpected considering his health issues, but he carries a nasal atomizer of Naloxone for just such a reaction. It saved his life.”
“You don’t find that a little too convenient?” I certainly did.
“Aye, lass, it is rather opportune, which is why I’ve asked the medical examiner to keep him busy with health and safety inquiries as he rests.”
“So let me get this straight, you’re saying Lilith poisoned Booth’s vitamins before Leland gave the box to Gilad last night to deliver,” I said.
“That’s the working theory,” he said. “Leland said he retrieved the box from his garage office during the bonfire.”
“And Booth left near the end of the bonfire,” I said, thinking hard. “Is it too wild to think he saw Lilith poisoning the vitamins? It isn’t dark, dark until well after ten. Leland’s balcony is easy to see from my driveway.”
“I don’t see Lilith tampering with the vitamins outside. In the garage, yes,” Solo said.
My eyes popped wide. “But he could have seen her throw Otto’s body over the rail,” I said. “Mr. Singh said that after Otto couldn’t get Leland’s tram to work, he entered the garage. Omigod, what if he saw Lilith tainting the vitamins?”
“So then, Lilith is Booth’s cash cow,” Solo said.
Talon slipped his hand into mine and squeezed softly. “There’s her motive. Great work putting it all together. Now I have the beginnings of a case against her.”
I wanted to speak and couldn’t. I wanted to smile. “I think it’s time I had a heart-to-heart with my grandfather,” I said.
“Aye,” he said. “’Tis time.”
“How about the muffin we heard Booth ate a little while ago?” Solo asked. Then he relayed what Tita had said about it being on the hood of Lilith’s car.
Talon looked thoughtful. “I don’t think Booth would have eaten a muffin. His medical alert bracelet says he has Celiac disease, intolerance to gluten, but I’ll check it out.”
I squeezed his hand. “I’ve gotta ask, what was the first truth on your list to tell me?”
He frowned at Solo. “Is she always this persistent?”
“Like a mule,” Solo said and dodged my playful slap.
“I didn’t track you via your phone,” Talon said. “Though Alistair Barkley did keep me aware of your whereabouts.” His eyes found mine. “I was concerned.”
I smile at him in appreciation.
“I just had a thought,” Solo said. “Was it codeine that also poisoned the Oleys?”
Talon shook his head. “Preliminary report says foxglove seeds masked as poppy seeds.”
A soft gasp escaped my lips. “Foxgloves?”
Unease crossed his face. “Rylie, I did run over your flowers. But to be honest, I was relieved when you openly admitted they were your favorites, even mentioned collecting seeds. Not the behavior of the guilty, which was enough to convince Lipschitz to ease up on you.” One dark lock fell onto his forehead. “Of course, Lilith could have collected the seeds from your plants. Once I receive their genetic profile, I’ll know which plants they came from.”
“Lilith has used poisons and potions in her books,” I said.
“Foxgloves?” he asked.
“Not that I recall, but I don’t really read them. More like skim. They’re a little—”
“Saucy,” he said and laughed.
I nodded, my cheeks burning.
“Booth has foxgloves at the house he shares with Happy Hye and his stepdaughter Queenie,” Solo said matter-of-factly.
“From what I g
ather, foxgloves are grown widespread in this area,” Talon said.
“True,” Solo admitted.
“You know Lilith mentioned knowing someone at Dragon, and it was a Dragon truck that ran me off the road last night. She said that she asked this person to remove a bad book review.”
“The Oley’s son is a Dragon programmer,” Solo said. “He could remove a review, maybe even steal a truck.”
“Well, then. I have enough to charge her,” Talon said.
Well behaved girls rarely make history
The three of us stood alongside the fire engine and surveyed the scene below. As previously mentioned, a tow-truck with Lilith’s sparkly Mercedes chained to its flatbed had broken down in front of my house. Two firefighters kept their eye on a steel rope suspended between the tow-truck’s front-mounted wench and the hook under the fire engine’s front bumper. They seemed untroubled as they discussed whether the roof would be closed during tonight’s Mariner baseball game and whether Anderson would pitch.
A typical Lilith was inspecting the Mercedes for damage. She gave us a narrowed glance, but said nothing. Instead, she harassed the firefighter tinkering with the engine underneath the tow-truck, whirling around in fury, her caftan ballooning like a jellyfish.
Paul Desmont stood in his above-garage office window, on the phone and wiping his sensitive eyes as he watched Mackenzie standing outside at the railing near their tram platform. Dressed in the same clothes as this morning, she frowned across the lake to Mt. Rainier.
“She must have found out they’re broke,” Solo said.
“I think she already knew.” I reminded him of her insistence this morning that Lilith write, as well as her peculiar irritation at Lilith’s prediction of a new BMW in her future.
“Duty calls.” Talon turned back slowly, smiled that smile of his. “We make a good team, Rylie, you and me.”
I thought of how Zach had called Solo and me a team of trouble. I wondered what sort of team Talon and I would be. I couldn’t wait to find out. “You’re adorable when you talk like that.”
I watched him stride downhill toward Lilith. He had such broad shoulders, such long legs. Be still, my little plasma pumper.
When I heard someone call out my name, I looked over to see firefighter Curtis Hobbs climbing from beneath the tow-truck and looking at Mackenzie. The back of my neck prickled when he strode to her, only to pull up short when she turned his way. “Sorry. I thought you were someone else.” He turned uphill and our eyes met. “There you are, Rylie,” he said. “I thought I’d heard your voice. Got a minute?”
He had mistaken Mackenzie for me, and the relevance of that error smacked into me like a tidal wave. I rushed forward, sparing Curtis a speedy promise to talk later as I passed him on my way to Talon. I caught him several feet from an oblivious Lilith, who was now standing beside Mackenzie and looking over the lake. Pulling Talon aside, I told him the significance of what had happened.
“You realize what this means, of course?” Talon said.
“That I should be nicer to Mrs. Bebitch?”
He laughed. “I wouldn’t go that far. I suppose you’re wondering why I’m standing here.”
“It had crossed my mind.”
“It’s time for you to get your feet wet.” He swept a hand toward the two women at the rail. “Go get ’em, tiger.”
He went on looking at me in a captivated way with those stunning eyes. I felt wanted. I felt craved. “You wish for me to tell them?”
“’Tis only fitting. You are the one who reasoned it oot.”
I frowned. “But I’m troubled by how Leland and I were framed. It doesn’t add up.”
“All the same, it will in time,” he said. “Remember that ostensibly unrelated detail I received from Booth. It now has relevance. You start. I’ll jump in later. Now, go on.”
He was ready to trust me. And evading or pleading for help would let him down, so I squared my shoulders, though nerves jumped like grasshoppers. “All right, then.”
“It’s time,” he said, gently urging me forward.
I took a step, searching the driveway. Just as I found what I was looking for, Solo hurried closer and poured the mandala sand the monks had given him into a run-off drain that flowed downhill to the lake.
“For good luck,” he said.
“For good luck,” I repeated.
With twilight in full flush, yet still light enough to see all around, the ample outdoor lighting glittered everywhere gold, the hillside, the foliage, and the homes. Normally I found it magical. Now I saw it as proof.
Lilith turned our way as we approached. The current flower at her ear was a red Zinnia, her earrings diamond chandeliers.
“Was it worth it?” I asked her, pointing to Mt. Rainier tinted rose by the bursting sunset. “If you had it all to do again, would you?”
“What are you saying?” One bruised hand rested at her throat. “I have no time for this. I need to write. I need to make money since others can’t seem to do it.” She threw a hard look up at Paul, who paced across his office window, a phone still to his ear.
It was the panic as much as the anger in her expression that had me remembering words my grandfather often said, “Greed is a type of fear.”
It was ill timed, and utterly amateurish, but I laid a gentle hand on her arm. “I’m sorry.”
“Take your hands off me,” she said. “Just go away.”
“Yes, go away,” Mackenzie echoed. “We should build a fence, block out the riff-raff.”
I laughed as Talon came up behind me, close enough to champion, far enough to set free. “But a fence would destroy your view of Mt. Rainier, much like Leland and Nava’s mansion would do.” I publicized to everyone her plan to bankrupt Leland.
She frowned, but her eyes were amused. “Ridiculous.”
“Completely,” Mackenzie said.
“You love your mother,” I said to Mackenzie, “which is why you tried to protect her.”
She closed her eyes for a moment, barely an instant, but I saw it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.
“I see. But, thankfully, neither of you killed Otto Weiner,” I said.
“Of course we didn’t,” Lilith said sharply.
“Otto Weiner died of a heart attack,” I stated.
Lilith’s expression didn’t change, but Mackenzie gasped.
“This comes as a surprise to you,” I said to Mackenzie. “Not that I’m sure you hadn’t wondered the exact cause of his death, but you knew who was involved.”
Her shoulders tensed. “Ridiculous. This has nothing to do with me.”
I brushed a fingertip over the gooey stain on her cuff, and touched it to the tip of my tongue. “Not marshmallow from the s’more you must have carried uphill for Zach. Only he went into work early and wasn’t home. It’s tacky, much like toupee glue. I guess some got on you when you covered Otto’s head with the plastic bag, only to leave a s’more inside,” I said. “An easy mistake, of course, considering your hands were probably shaking. Witnessing a murder would do that.”
“There was no murder.” Mackenzie tossed her head. “You just said so.”
“But you didn’t know that last night,” I said. “All you could think about was the murder you believed your mother had committed.”
“You have no proof,” she said. “No proof!”
I smiled. “Funny thing, Mrs. Bebitch saw you at Zach’s door.” I said. “She thought you were me since our hair color is close, only your hair is longer since I recently cut mine. I didn’t catch on until that firefighter mistook you for me. You see, I also knocked on Zach’s door.”
“Yes, I know. Zach and I were together—intimately,” she added smugly.
I pushed my hair back, my eyes on her. “Mrs. Bebitch went to five o’clock mass. She never saw me since I was at his door just after five, but she saw you later on, during the bonfire. It isn’t dark at ten, and his front door is easy to see from her house.”
“Yo
u’re guessing.”
I held up the half-eaten licorice. “It’s yours from this morning. You tossed it aside. Saliva on it will match the saliva on the half-eaten s’more. I’m curious, though. Did you bite into it at finding Zach not home, or as you watched Lilith seduce Otto in order to buy his silence?”
Mackenzie clapped a hand to her mouth. “She didn’t!”
“Ah, you missed the seedy part,” I said. “That explains why you missed Otto’s heart attack. You wouldn’t have tried to frame Leland had you known Otto died of natural causes.”
Lilith was pale. “Lies. All lies.”
I turned, studied her. “I gave someone CPR today. Only problem, I did it wrong. The coroner noticed the imprint of my hands. Otto’s chest bears the hand imprint of the person who gave him CPR. Yours, Lilith.” She looked at me as if expecting more. I grinned confidently and explained that Otto had been shirtless. “It’s like a fingerprint. Forensics will match it.”
“But I don’t know CPR,” she said quickly.
“Try again,” I said and reminded her of her Girl Scout leader days. “You didn’t have to try to save him. That will go in your favor at sentencing.”
Lilith looked away, her bottom lip quivering. “Sex with Otto isn’t a crime.”
“It is to me,” Paul Desmont said as he approached. “Tell me you didn’t drug me last night. Never mind, I know you did.”
Lilith rushed to him. “I—I had to do something. I cannot lose my Mt. Rainier view. It wasn’t so wrong. I take codeine all the time. Fatigue, that’s all that happens.”
He said nothing, just turned his back on her, staring out over the lake.
“But I didn’t go through with it, Paul,” Lilith pleaded with him at his shoulder.
“Because you got caught,” he murmured.
“I had only doctored two bottles when Otto came in to use the phone. If Leland’s damn tram had been working, none of this would’ve happened.” She squared her shoulders, hissed. “So what if I used sex to silence him.”
“He didn’t want money?” Solo asked.
She bristled, whirling. “You think sex with me isn’t enough.”
Solo went fuchsia.
I was thinking fast, weighing my chances for more evidence since I wasn’t certain the forensics would hold up. Mackenzie might not have eaten the s’more. She could have merely broken a piece off. And, of course, the impressions from Lilith’s hands could prove indistinct upon further analysis. I needed to loosen some tongues.
Malicious Mischief Page 23