Cozy Mystery Boxed Set: Rare Catch Cozy Mystery

by Liz Turner

  Max laughed at the comparison. “Any chance you can let me in on that bread?”

  “No problem,” Veronica agreed.

  “And then can we finally go to sleep?” Sakura jested, and the other two laughed.

  “Okay,” Max said. “Just tell me what you’ve learned and then you two can get some beauty sleep. Not that you need it!”

  Chapter 12

  Veronica almost expected a rooster crow to wake her up the next morning. Instead, it was the sound of Sakura rummaging through her backpack in search of something to use as a makeshift hairbrush. Sakura never had to worry about how her hair looked, considering her Japanese heritage made it straight and shiny no matter what. Veronica was actually quite jealous of her friend’s hair sometimes, and this day was no exception. Veronica’s hair on the other hand never cooperated with her in the mornings. Without a shower and extensive washing and conditioning, her hair seemed to have a mind of its own. Even its relatively short length didn’t help.

  As such, Veronica decided to give up on her hair and covered it with a bandana for the day.

  The other thing that was strange that morning was the absence of her puppy. Amber was about six months old, and she acted how Veronica expected a pup her age to act. She always wanted to get up early in the morning, not only so she could get outside to do her business but also so she could play with her owner. Veronica had grown accustomed to Amber sleeping in bed with her, despite her parents’ warnings that the dog should be on the floor. She couldn’t help how she loved to cuddle with the puppy in the morning before she got up for the day!

  Veronica heard Sakura curse. “Wish we had a shower around here.”

  “There’s a bathroom not far down there,” Veronica said. “I saw Max had extra porta-potties placed up and down the paths.”

  “Yeah, but I’m talking about running water,” Sakura complained. “A shower or sink or something.”

  “That would be harder than I think the police are able to do,” the older woman deduced. “Just remember we’re camping. It’s not a big deal.”

  “I guess not,” Sakura conceded with a sigh. “Well, it’s not like anyone else has a shower either, so we can all stink together.”

  Veronica held her stomach as laughter took over, and she nearly rolled off her cot.

  The two finished getting ready for the day, and it wasn’t even quite seven in the morning when they exited their tent. Breakfast was being served for the early birds, but most people forced to remain at the Fair were lined up at the various bathrooms scattered around the grounds. Some had children desperate for a toilet, and a few parents even went to the front of the line to beg for a turn in the bathroom stalls. Thankfully most people quite understood their plight.

  “Should we check on Sandra?” Veronica suggested, bypassing the breakfast buffet as well. “Make sure she’s doing all right?”

  “Shouldn’t we eat first?” Sakura said, her nose clearly distracted by something else.

  “We can do that after. This won’t take long.”

  Sakura shrugged and followed her friend to Sandra’s tent. As they approached, they saw the officers from the previous day had been shifted out with new ones, who clearly had a good night’s sleep and were bright-eyed for the day. The other thing the two chefs realized when they arrived was the amount of yelling coming from inside.

  “I can’t believe you would think I’d do something to Julia!” Sandra’s voice cried out.

  “Looks like Chief Maerune decided to start interviewing people after all,” Veronica said snidely.

  “A little late for that, isn’t she?” Sakura asked.

  Sandra’s voice shouted again. “What would I gain from killing Julia?”At this Veronica and Sakura looked at each other before sprinting towards the tent. Unlike last time, the officers didn’t stop them from entering. They found Sandra standing in the middle of the tent, with both Max and Erica in front of her.

  “I’m still figuring that out, but you are the most obvious suspect,” Erica declared.

  “How am I obvious?” Sandra demanded. “I haven’t done anything except to be the scapegoat for everything Julia did wrong!”

  So Liana’s description of Sandra wasn’t completely wrong, Veronica concluded silently.

  “Your fingerprints are all over Julia’s belongings, including the bottles for her antidepressants,” Erica presented. Max remained quiet at her side, but he turned his head when he saw Veronica and Sakura enter the tent. “It would be easy for you to overdose your boss because you hated your job.”

  “I hated my job, sure, but not enough to kill Julia!” Sandra yelled, her face turning red, and not from embarrassment. “And of course, my fingerprints are everywhere! I was her assistant! I did practically everything for her!”

  “Including giving her medication on time?” Erica asked, her tone still flat and dark.

  “Including that,” she argued. “Julia refused to keep track of it. Had better things to do, she said. She was just lazy and didn’t want to think about taking a medication four times a day!”

  “That would just give you more opportunities to poison her,” Erica announced.

  “Do I seem to be the kind of person who would murder someone?” Sandra protested. Her hands clenched into fists and shook as she held them at her sides. “Even someone like Julia?”

  Oh, that’s not going to help, Veronica thought. She walked forward and put herself between Erica and Sandra, holding a hand up to each. “Okay, wait a minute. Everyone calm down.”

  “I am calm,” Erica insisted.

  “Throwing around accusations is not going to help, and neither is ignoring the police,” Veronica tried to reason with both of them. “Okay, Chief Maerune, what proof do you have to support the idea that Sandra is guilty?”

  “Like I said, the fingerprints...”

  “Which you would find on all her things since I was around her all the time!” Sandra proclaimed. “You know what? I don’t have to answer anything right now. I know my rights. I’m not saying anything until my lawyer is present.”

  “That will only slow down the process,” Erica said.

  “She’s right, though,” Max announced. “She does have the right to a lawyer before we interview her.”

  “And I’m too tired to think about this now,” Sandra declared. “I didn’t sleep well, with everything going on.”

  “I bet,” Erica said. “With the guilt of murder plaguing your mind.”

  Sandra glared at her and nearly snarled. “You can contact my lawyer when you want. Until then, leave me alone.”

  She stomped out of the tent, pushing back the canvas with a flurry as she left. Erica watched her go, but only once the woman had left did her blank face turn into one of annoyance, and she crossed her arms across her chest in defiance.

  “Great. Now we need to wait for this lawyer.”

  “You could try to be more understanding,” Veronica lectured her, and Erica stared at her. “She’s been under a lot of stress, even before Julia died. She wasn’t kidding when she said that Julia had her doing everything.”

  “How do you know that?” Erica inquired.

  “I asked her,” Veronica replied, and the Chief stared at her as if the idea never occurred to her. “And I talked to her before any of this happened. Sandra knows she’s going to be the first person blamed. You don’t need to rub it in.”

  Erica continued to stare at her for a moment before she sighed and looked at the grass on the ground. “You’re right. I’m just used to dealing with tight-lipped criminals.”

  “How long have you been Chief of Police?” Sakura inquired.

  She didn’t receive an answer because a gargled scream rang through the air from the entrance to the tent. The four inhabitants jumped and spun around to the origin of the sound. Max immediately rushed through the canvas wall to see what was happening. Veronica and Erica were about to follow when he rushed back into the tent and held out his palms to stop them.

  “Don�
��t go out there!” he demanded. “Call an ambulance! Sandra’s been shot by an arrow!”

  “What?!” Veronica shouted. “Is she all right?”

  She rushed to pass her boyfriend to see if she could help Sandra, but Max grabbed her by her shoulders and put himself between her and the exit. Veronica looked him in the eye with shock, mentally wondering why he was keeping her back.

  “I don’t want you to see this. It’s not pretty,” he informed her, and she stopped struggling against him. “Call an ambulance. I’m going to help Sandra.”

  Max spun around and left the tent again to see to Sandra, while Erica pulled out her cell phone to dial nine-one-one. Veronica and Sakura both stepped back, staring at each other.

  “What do we do now?” Sakura asked.Veronica could do nothing as she listened to the commotion outside.

  Chapter 13

  Veronica watched the sight before her with tears threatening to fall from her eyes. She hadn’t seen this sort of thing since her grandfather was taken away by paramedics after complaining of chest pain. She was seven when that occurred, and she had been terrified.

  The doors to the ambulance closed. The paramedics weren’t even in a rush since sadly the person they came for had already passed by the time they arrived. There wasn’t anything they could do to help Sandra. She had lost too much blood. Even with all the medications and equipment in their ambulance, the paramedics didn’t have what they needed to save her.

  Veronica kept her eye on the ambulance driving down the road away from the Fair until it was out of sight. They were still taking Sandra to the hospital so her death could be confirmed. Then she was going to be taken to Doctor Lansome for an autopsy, although Veronica wasn’t sure why that was necessary.

  “Why do they need to do an autopsy?” she wondered out loud to Sakura. “They already know how she died.”

  “Procedure I guess?” Sakura offered, her voice shaky from the events of the last hour. “I’ve never read of this happening in any of the murder mystery books I’ve seen.”

  “It’s probably out there. You just haven’t read it yet.”

  “Probably.”

  Veronica turned her head as her ears picked up the sound of footsteps, and she saw Max walking towards them. He had spent the last twenty minutes cleaning up as best as he could. He had tried to save Sandra with his limited medical knowledge. He refused to see either Veronica or Sakura until he was clean again. His suit jacket was gone, leaving his white shirt for all to see, and his tie was also missing. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, and Veronica noticed that the bottom edges were still wet. Max gave her a slight smile as he approached.

  “Are you all right?” he questioned the two chefs.

  “We should be asking you that.” Veronica walked up to him and took his hands in her. “That was very brave of you, to try to help Sandra like you did.”

  “I couldn’t help in the end.” He squeezed her hands and then pulled her into an embrace. “I hate cases like these.”

  “I bet.” Veronica pulled back and looked him in the eye. “You wouldn’t let us see, so we don’t know what happened.”

  “Sandra was shot in the neck by an arrow,” he explained, leaving as little description as possible. Given the nauseated expression on Sakura’s face, she could imagine what it was really like. “She wouldn’t stop bleeding.”

  “An arrow?” Veronica said.

  “You always hear about someone being shot with a gun,” Sakura commented. “But an arrow this time…”

  “I was able to get it from the paramedic team. Take a look.”

  Max pulled out a large evidence bag. Inside it was a long arrow; the same kind Veronica had seen used during the Archery Contest the previous day. Unlike the typical triangular arrowhead Veronica expected to see on an arrow, the tip was a small bit of black metal that narrowed to the tip. The feathers at the opposite end were teal green with stripes of black. They were smooth until the very end where there was a sharp edge close to where the arrow would be attached to the bowstring. The long shaft was made of wood and painted a cream color. Halfway down the length of the shaft there were diagonal stripes of light blue. There was still a bit of blood on the black tip, and Veronica immediately looked away from it.

  “Someone shot that at Sandra, and it killed her,” Sakura summarized. She sighed and shook her head. “What a way to go.”

  “So now we’re dealing with two deaths?” Veronica asked.

  “Which just makes me more positive that Julia’s death was a murder. Sandra’s obviously was,” Erica spoke up from behind Max. She joined the trio and crossed her arms. “I hate having to deal with two bodies.”

  “Is there any chance the two murders are related?” Sakura asked her.

  Erica nodded her head. “I don’t want to believe it, but I can’t rule it out yet.”

  Max’s back pocket began to shake, along with a ring. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone.

  “This is Bernard,” he answered. His eyebrows rose. “Okay, Doctor. Chief Maerune is also here. I’m going to put you on speaker.”

  “That’s Alex?” Erica asked. Max nodded as he pushed a button on his phone and then held it out for everyone to listen. “Hi, Doctor Lansome. What do you have for us?”

  “I’ve finished Julia Palmer’s autopsy,” a voice replied from the phone. “And I want to update you.”

  “You’re the guy doing the autopsies?” Sakura asked, and Erica gave her an exasperated glance.

  There was a pause from the phone. “Who is this?”

  “Sorry, Alex. Let me introduce everyone,” Max said. “I have Veronica Koche here...”

  “Hello,” Veronica said.

  “...with her friend Sakura Yamouchi,” the detective continued. “They’re helping us with the investigation.”

  “Sort of,” Erica corrected.

  “And this is Alexander Lansome, Meloda PD’s medical examiner,” Max introduced. He stopped for a second. “Or his voice anyway.”

  “Nice to meet you two,” the doctor said. “I’ve heard a lot about you, Veronica.”

  “Only good things, I hope,” she replied with a smile he couldn’t see.

  “Oh, believe me, only good things,” Alex replied. “The annoying thing is that he doesn’t shut up about you.”

  “Alex!” Max protested.

  “Can we get to the autopsy please?” Erica requested eagerly, putting her hand against her forehead.

  “Okay, so after going through everything in Julia’s files and looking at everything in her body,” Doctor Lansome reported. “I can definitively say Julia died from serotonin syndrome.”

  “She died from what now?” Sakura asked.

  “It’s a syndrome that occurs with excessive serotonergic activity in the nervous system,” the medical examiner explained. “Basically, that means there’s too much serotonin in the body’s system.”

  “What exactly did you find on autopsy that led you to that conclusion?” Max inquired.

  “In layman’s terms, her lungs were full of fluid, and she had muscle rigidity,” Alex continued. “Greater than rigor mortis would normally be in a body that died so recently.”

  “That doesn’t sound very specific,” Veronica commented.

  “True, it’s not. Most were non-descript findings,” he resumed. “But what really convinced me was the toxicology results.”

  “You got those already?” Sakura asked.

  “Just the preliminary findings, but it’s enough to support my theory of serotonin syndrome.” They heard him take a deep breath. “There was an excessive amount of the amino acid tryptophan in her body.”

  “What does that have to do with it?” Veronica asked. “There’s tryptophan in nearly everything we eat. It’s a basic amino acid.”

  “It’s the thing in turkey that makes you drowsy at Thanksgiving,” Erica contributed.

  “Actually, that’s not true,” Veronica corrected her. “There’s not enough tryptophan in turke
y to make you that drowsy. It’s actually the huge amount of food that’s eaten during Thanksgiving dinner that makes you tired. The same thing would happen with any excessively large meal, whether tryptophan is present or not.”

  “Whatever the case of that, tryptophan is a vital amino acid that is a precursor to neurotransmitters like serotonin,” Doctor Lansome resumed. “And there was a lot in Julia’s system…I mean, a lot.”

  “So that would mean that there was a lot of serotonin in her too, right?” Sakura inquired.

  “That’s right,” the medical examiner stated. “And Julia was taking Isocarboxazid, right?”

  “That’s right,” Veronica confirmed.

  Erica stared at her. “How do you know that?”

  “Sandra told us,” Veronica answered. “She said Julia was taking it for depression.”

  “It’s a MAOI, and what is does is keep serotonin in the cells, thus elevating mood,” Doctor Lansome described. “It’s actually a little strange that she was on it, since it can have bad side effects, interact with many foods, and there are much better antidepressant choices out there.”

  “Well, Julia did mention needing to be very careful about her diet,” Veronica recalled. “She could only eat certain things…most of which were not served during the Renaissance period.”

  “So basically what you’re saying is that Julia had too much tryptophan, which was then converted to serotonin, in her body,” Max summarized. “And her antidepressant was keeping it in her body longer than it should?”

  “And that’s what caused the serotonin syndrome,” Alex said. “With medical care it doesn’t necessarily result in death, but in this case, I believe Julia was feeling the symptoms for a while but didn’t do anything about it.”

  “Wait, does that mean Julia was purposely taking tryptophan?” Veronica asked. “Why would she do that? She was so careful about her diet. Surely she would know what kind of reaction that would have with her meds?”

  “That’s what makes me think this was a poisoning,” the doctor concluded.