“You don’t work here no more,” he said. “You can come in the front door like everyone else. And you don’t get to use the parking lot no more either.”
“Will do,” I answered. “Just returning my uniforms.”
He tapped a pen on the corner of his desk. “Put them there.”
I’d never paid much attention to Reed’s appearance, his big attitude always got in the way. I took the time to now as I set the uniforms on the corner. There were freckles across the bridge of his nose. Time to dive in head first.
“What is it, O’Shea?”
“Flavia Reed is your mother.”
“Yep.”
“I also learned that Yasmine Long is your sister.”
He jumped to his feet. “Who told you that?”
“Doesn’t matter. You just confirmed the truth.” He was sweating, but it wasn’t hot, and I didn’t think it was from my statement. Something was wrong. “You okay, Reed?”
He put both hands on his desk, as if he was dizzy and steadying himself. “Must be coming down with something. Started feeling sorta sick this morning.”
He reached for his bag of trail mix. A bag with pink Valentine hearts on it. Pink hearts. Why was that detail important?
“Hang on.” I yanked the bag away from him.
“What the hell, give me that.”
He reached for it, and I pulled back.
“Give me one minute. I want to check something.”
I pulled out my phone and flipped through the pictures I’d taken of the contents of Yasmine’s tent. About twenty pictures through, I found what I was looking for. Among the takeout containers from various places around the village were two plastic zip-top bags with pink hearts on them.
“Cute bag,” I said, trying to keep my heartrate steady.
Reed shrugged. “The sheriff says they’re leftover from the Valentine celebration a few months ago.”
Despite my efforts, my heart raced. “Sheriff Brighton gave you the trail mix?”
“Yeah, there were two bags sitting here on my desk last night.” Reed put a hand to his stomach like it was upset. “We had a disagreement yesterday. Guess this is a peace offering or whatever. I ate one bag last night, kept one for today. You wanna give me that now?”
That must have been the discussion I witnessed when I saw them standing between Treat Me Sweetly and Shoppe Mystique yesterday. “What were you arguing about?”
Reed looked at me, clearly debating if he should tell me. He wiped the sweat from his forehead and gave in. “Two things. First, that I gave you access to the computers and you hacked my email.”
“I didn’t hack. You gave everyone the same password.”
“Whatever.”
“What was the other thing?” I asked.
“When Yasmine got here, Sheriff said I couldn’t let anyone know she was my sister. He didn’t even want me to talk to her.”
“But you went to dinner with her at The Inn.” I investigated the contents of the bag and froze.
“How do you know that?” Reed shook his head. “Never mind. Keko Shen. Yasmine told that freak Keko everything. Then Keko told you and who knows how many other people. Sheriff is pissed.”
And I was getting way too close to the truth. “I need you to stay right here, Reed.”
“I ain’t going nowhere. Unlike some people, I got a job.”
“This is serious, Martin. I think you’ve been poisoned.”
His face went blank and a bead of sweat ran down from his temple.
I held the bag out. “I need to confirm something with Morgan. Please, stay right there.”
I sprinted to Morgan’s shop and found it full of customers. Morgan was helping two teenage girls who were squealing over the amulets and talismans. This time, I couldn’t wait patiently for her to finish with her customers.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, this will just take a second.” I pulled her off to the side and showed her the contents of the plastic bag, pointing out one ingredient in particular. “Is that what I think it is?”
Morgan’s brow furrowed. “It’s a castor bean. Where did you get that?”
“Martin Reed said the sheriff gave it to him.”
“He ate them? They’ll be quite bitter; didn’t he wonder what they were?”
“How many does it take to poison someone?”
“Someone Martin size? Two or three is all it would take to bring on symptoms if not kill him.”
“I’ve seen him eating different varieties of trail mix since I got here. He shovels it in by the handful. One or two beans in a full bag? He wouldn’t even notice them.” I glanced around us to make sure no one would hear. “I found two bags identical to this one in Yasmine’s tent. I can’t say for sure, but it’s possible that the sheriff gave the same mix to Yasmine.”
“You think the sheriff killed her?” Morgan asked, looking as shocked as I felt by this revelation.
“Maybe, I don’t know. I need to get Martin to a doctor.”
Chapter 33
The healing center in Whispering Pines could deal with minor illnesses, sunburns, and bumps and bruises. They could even set a broken bone. They had no way, however, to deal with ricin poisoning. The nearest ambulance was an hour away. The nearest hospital of any decent size was also an hour away. Simple math told me to drive Reed myself. Morgan called ahead to let them know we were on the way.
I tapped the button on the voice recording app, clipped the phone into the holder in the vent between us, plugged in the charger, then sped for the hospital.
“I’m recording your statement,” I said.
“Good,” Reed croaked.
“Tell me the story. What was going on between you and Yasmine?”
“Nothing was going on between us. Like I told you, the sheriff and I argued because he thought I was telling people Yasmine was my sister. The sheriff and my mother said no one was supposed to know.” Reed groaned. “Pull over. I’m gonna puke.”
I did and when we were back on the road I said, “This is beyond family secrets now, Reed. Your sister is dead.”
“Like I care.”
The air left my lungs. Was he really that heartless?
“I didn’t mean it like that,” he said, leaning his head back against the headrest. “I barely knew her. I didn’t even know Yasmine existed until she showed up here.”
“Do you know the story? If you do, you should tell me.” How should I say this without coming off coldblooded? “I think you’ll be fine. But in all honesty—”
“I could die,” he concluded, blinking rapidly. “I don’t wanna die.”
For the first time since meeting him, I felt a genuine connection to Martin Reed.
“I don’t want you to die either. I also don’t want the killer getting away with this. Tell me what you know.”
He stared out the window for a few minutes. I said nothing, giving him time to think. Also, silence made people uncomfortable. If I waited long enough, he’d talk. Sure enough, after another minute, he rolled his head along the headrest to face me.
“It was almost a month ago. Mother and I were eating dinner and Yasmine showed up.”
He got quiet again. This time I prompted. “You didn’t know her?”
“Not a clue. She looked sorta like my mother, though. At the time, she was dressed in jeans, red Converse, and a Marquette University sweatshirt.” He motioned with his hands at the back of his head. “Her hair was tied up in a knot, and she didn’t have no makeup on. She didn’t look nothing like the Yasmine that appeared a few days later.”
“Did Flavia let her in the house?”
“Yeah. She came in, Mother offered her some tea, and they talked for a half hour or so.”
“They talked,” I echoed. “You didn’t talk to her?”
“Not that night. They sat at the table and talked, while I cleaned up the dinner dishes. I never heard the words ‘daughter’ or ‘sister.’ Well, not in any way that made me think Yasmine was my sister. Mother asked abo
ut her own sister, my Aunt Reeva. That’s where Yasmine lived, with Reeva. I knew I had a cousin, but I never met her. Or my aunt, for that matter. Mother and I have never left Whispering Pines. Reeva and Yasmine never visited.”
I slowed for a deer crossing the road up ahead and then sped up again. Anxious to get Reed to the hospital, but equally anxious to give him time enough to tell his story. “What else did they talk about the night Yasmine arrived?”
He didn’t answer me and when I looked over at him, his face was a grimace of pain.
“Reed? You all right?” I flipped on the windshield wipers as the expected rain started to fall.
He held up a finger for me to wait a minute. Finally, whatever pain he’d felt had passed.
“Yasmine said she was moving to the village because things weren’t going so well for her in Milwaukee.”
“Your mother told me that she was being sexually harassed because of her physical appearance,” I said for the recording.
“Yeah,” Reed agreed, his voice getting weaker.
As I’d told Flavia, Yasmine’s appearance wasn’t a justification for harassment, but at the same time I couldn’t help but think that Yasmine had turned herself into this creature. If the stories of her car washing were true, and many people had corroborated them, she flaunted her pinup-girl sexuality. Oh, what a nasty circle she had created.
“She wanted to stay with us.” Reed clutched his belly but kept talking. “Mother laughed and said not only did we not have room, Yasmine couldn’t stay even if we did.”
“That’s when Yasmine went to the campground.”
“Yeah. Aunt Reeva must’ve warned her that her plan might not work. She had camping stuff, the tent and sleeping bag, with her. She kept coming over every few days, trying to work her way onto Mother’s good side.”
I literally bit my tongue. I couldn’t for one minute imagine Flavia having a good side.
“Anyway,” Reed started and then doubled over. “You better pull over again.”
He threw up alongside the road as the rain, steady but not heavy, fell on him. I worried that the effect of the ricin was speeding up. Reed must have thought the same thing because he went right back to telling his story without a prompt from me.
“I saw Yasmine in the village one day.” He barked out a little laugh. “She was washing someone’s dog. She saw me coming her way and leaned in close, being all sexy for the men standing around watching her. She asked if her and I could get together and talk. I nodded and told her The Inn was quiet on Wednesday nights.”
“That’s how you ended up at The Inn together.”
“Yeah. I wasn’t even thinking about it being a public place. We could’ve met at the station or somewhere in the woods. Anyway, she said that for her twentieth birthday, Aunt Reeva told her the truth about who her parents were.”
An icy tingle spread over my body. Whatever he was about to say, it was going to be big. I glanced at my phone to verify that it was still recording.
“You don’t have the same parents?”
He blew out a breath, winced and moaned with pain, and shook his head.
“My parents are Flavia and Horace Reed. My father was the original sheriff. Constable Reed, the villagers used to call him. He died when I was three. Bear attack.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “What a horrible way to die.”
Reed frowned and nodded. “I don’t remember him at all. Yasmine claimed, from what her mother told her, that after Father died, Karl . . . Sheriff Brighton would come over to check on us, help Mother with chores and such.”
I had a sick feeling of where this was going.
“Karl’s comforting got carried away one night and, well—”
“Sheriff Brighton is Yasmine’s father?” Even though I knew that’s what he was going to say, it was still a shock.
“That’s what she claims.” Reed stopped talking to fight off another wave of nausea.
“Hang in there, Martin. We’ve got about ten miles to go.”
I depressed the accelerator as he nodded and spoke faster.
“I asked Mother if it was true. She didn’t deny it but also wouldn’t confirm it. I think it’s sorta obvious though. All that talk about Yasmine being impure. She was born out of wedlock to a new widow and a married man.”
“Who was Sheriff Brighton married to?”
“Reeva.”
My mouth fell open. “Okay, let me get this straight. Flavia and Reeva are sisters. That’s how Karl Brighton is your uncle.”
“Right.”
“Karl has an affair—”
“A one night thing,” Reed corrected. “According to Yasmine.”
“Karl and Flavia have a one night stand resulting in Yasmine. How long has Yasmine been living with Reeva?”
“Her whole life, I guess,” Reed said. “I don’t know the details, Yasmine wasn’t too clear on them either, but she and Reeva ended up in a small town north of Milwaukee after Yasmine was born.”
“Why didn’t the sheriff go with them?”
“Couldn’t tell you.”
“Did Yasmine ever try to live with him?”
“Don’t know. Nobody in town knew who Yasmine was.”
“And when Yasmine came to town, looking to reunite with her parents, Flavia freaked out and poisoned her.”
“No! Mother didn’t do it. I told you, the sheriff gave me the trail mix. He must’ve given it to Yasmine, too.”
If that was true, and assuming the sheriff knew the castor beans were in the mix, that would explain why he didn’t investigate the break-in at Shoppe Mystique. If he stole the beans, he obviously wouldn’t implicate himself, and even though it would have been believable that a local had done it, he wouldn’t falsely accuse anyone. Easiest to blame it on a random tourist.
The hospital was just up the road; I could see it on the right.
“Sure hope they’re ready with a treatment for you,” I said, more to myself than Reed. “Morgan said she’d explain everything to them. She was going to call your mom, too.”
Reed seemed to give in to the ricin then. He’d held it together long enough to make a statement. Thankfully, I was able to record the whole thing.
Two nurses were waiting at the ER doors for us. One with a gurney, the other with a clipboard and forms.
“Hang on,” I said before they took Reed inside. “Martin, do you have any idea where Sheriff Brighton is now?”
“Haven’t heard from him all day.” His voice got weaker with each word. I had to lean in close to hear him. “Check his house. Or the shooting range. He likes to shoot when he’s upset.”
I gave him a few words of encouragement, and he thanked me. After I told the nurse with the clipboard everything I could about him, including the contact information for his mother, I headed back down the road to Whispering Pines to find the sheriff.
Chapter 34
Sheriff Brighton had taken the Glock and my tool belt from me yesterday. My personal Sig Sauer was in Madison. This meant I had no weapon. What I did have were Reed’s keys. He gave them to me to lock his gun in the sheriff’s credenza and to lock up the station before we went to the hospital. I had no intention of shooting Karl Brighton, and I didn’t really even want to bring a weapon with me, but it would be irresponsible not to. There were tourists everywhere now. If the sheriff went off, I needed to protect them.
The rain had started falling harder, so I borrowed a raincoat from the back of the sheriff’s office door. Before beginning the search for him, I stopped at Shoppe Mystique to give Morgan an update on Martin.
“Thank the Goddess you got him there in time,” she said and then her smile faded. “You’re distracted. What’s going on?”
I hadn’t planned to tell her yet, I didn’t want her to worry, but someone should know where I was going. Just in case. I gave her a very quick recap of Reed’s statement.
“I need to find Sheriff Brighton and bring him in.”
Morgan sighed as though I’d just put
the weight of the world on her shoulders. “Jayne, you need to be careful. Take someone with you. What about Tripp? He’d surely help you look for him.”
“Tripp is a civilian. I won’t put him in danger. This isn’t his fight.”
“It’s not yours either.”
Her meaning came through loud and clear. In four words, she stopped me cold. “Because I’m an outsider.”
“That’s not at all what I meant.” She looked as hurt by my words as I’d been by hers. “You’ve only been here a week and look at all you’ve gone through and done for the village. Everyone here loves you.”
“Not everyone. Flavia clearly has issues with me. Donovan, too. A couple others were giving me the evil eye at the ritual Wednesday night.” I shook my head. No time to go there right now. “Someone needs to track down the sheriff. I’m currently the most qualified.”
“Do you have your spell bag?”
I patted my pocket. I may not believe, but it wasn’t causing any harm to carry it around.
“And your amulet?”
I hooked my thumb beneath the chain around my neck to show her that the vial full of stone chips was still in place, too.
“Got anything else for me?” I was joking, but she plucked a necklace with a pewter pendant from the talisman collection. The pendant was about the size of a quarter, with a pentacle on one side and a “Y” with a trunk that went all the way to the top on the other.
“It’s not a Y,” Morgan said, reading my mind. “It’s called Algiz. Not only does it symbolize beginnings, it’s a powerful protection rune.”
“As long as I don’t wear it upside down, right?” Again, I was joking, but the look Morgan shot at me said she wasn’t amused.
She held it in her palms, closed her eyes, and chanted silently. Then, loud enough that I could hear, she said into her cupped hands, “Protect my precious Jayne from all who wish to do her harm.”
As she slid the leather cord over my head and dropped it inside my T-shirt to join the amulet, I felt like I should say something. The only thing I came up with was, “Precious?”
With absolute sincerity, Morgan said, “Over this past week, I have come to care a great deal for you. Not only because of the bond between our grandmothers, but because you are a wonderful person. Our friendship has only just begun. There is much more for us to learn about each other.” She blinked. “So, yes. Precious.”
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