Tea and Sympathy

by Carol Cox

  Kate heard the crunch of tires and looked outside to see Paul pulling into the driveway. He got out of his truck and waved, then gestured toward the pink Olds in front of the house and gave Kate a questioning look.

  “Oh, Paul!” Renee called. “There’s an easel and a roll of paper in the backseat of my car. Do bring them in, will you?” She followed Livvy to the bedroom.

  Kate returned to her bedroom to find an assortment of markers, an eraser, a roll of masking tape, and a package of Post-it notes scattered across the foot of the bed. The empty plastic sack lay crumpled to one side.

  Kisses surveyed the scene from atop Paul’s pillow. Kate raised an eyebrow but decided not to comment. “What’s all this for?”

  Renee waved her toward the bed. “Settle in there and make yourself comfortable.”

  When Paul arrived, Renee took the roll of paper and directed him to set the easel up at one corner of the bed. Then she hefted the whiteboard and set it in place on the easel. Next she handed one end of the paper roll to Livvy and stepped back, unrolling it across the length of the bedroom. Using the masking tape, she fastened the ends of the paper to the wall.

  “There!” Renee dusted her hands and planted them on her hips in a stance that reminded Kate of a general addressing his troops. “You said you needed help in creating a time line. We’re ready to begin.”

  Paul grinned. “Looks like you’re ready for a locker-room strategy session.”

  “I was thinking more in terms of a war room,” Renee said in a no-nonsense tone.

  Kate smiled. Her perception of Renee as a military commander had been right on target.

  Paul took a step toward the doorway. “Sounds like you have things well under control here. The Braves are playing the Colorado Rockies. I think I’ll see if I can catch the last couple of innings.”

  Renee strutted to the left end of the paper roll and uncapped a marker. “Ready when you are, Kate.”

  “Thank you.” Kate exchanged a quick glance with Livvy, who looked as bemused as she felt. She paused a moment to collect her thoughts, then the words came quickly.

  “There are simply too many confusing elements in this case. We need to get a clear picture of what has been going on. I believe looking at a detailed time line of recent events will help bring things into focus, but I can’t put it together alone.”

  “That’s why we’re here,” Renee said in a crisp voice. “We all want to bring this investigation to a speedy conclusion. Carry on.”

  “As far as I know, the first public knowledge of the fraud was a few weeks ago, when the Chronicle picked up the story, and word leaked out about a fund-raising project that doesn’t exist. Is that right?”

  Livvy nodded while Renee scribbled “Chronicle breaks news of the scandal” on the strip of paper.

  “Soon after that,” Kate went on, “Mayor Briddle issued a call for the culprits to be apprehended and brought to justice.”

  “That’s right,” Livvy said. “And then evidence turned up that connected Lawton Briddle to the crime in a way that made it seem certain that he was the guilty party.”

  “Slow down,” Renee muttered, scrawling frantically. When she finished, she massaged her fingers and asked, “What next?”

  “Lucy Mae asked me to investigate,” Kate said. “That’s all I really remember about that time.”

  Renee made a note about Kate taking on the case, then tapped the marker against her fingers. “Since your memory was slightly impaired and your original notes are missing, we can’t be sure what you turned up in the early days of the investigation.” She took a couple of steps to her right, leaving a blank space on the paper. “But we do know that on Sunday, you ate at the diner and became violently ill.”

  She wrote down that information, then walked farther along the length of the paper, leaving more blank spaces for the next few days. “After being deathly sick for several days, you recovered enough to be involved in the case again. On Thursday, you were ready to climb back into the saddle, so to speak.”

  Kate nodded. “So far, so good. Then on Friday and Saturday, I felt well enough to start looking into the fraud case once again.”

  “And this past Sunday,” Livvy put in, “you suffered a relapse.”

  “Right.” Renee added that to the time line. “Now on Monday—”

  “Just a minute.” Kate raised her hand, cutting off the flow of Renee’s words. “I’m not so sure it was a relapse.”

  Livvy blinked at her. “What do you mean it wasn’t a relapse? Danny and I were here, remember? I know how sick you were.”

  “Oh, I was sick, all right. There’s no doubt about that. But I’m not positive it was a continuation of the first event.”

  Renee narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean ‘the first’?”

  Kate related the steps she had followed in reaching her latest conclusion. When she finished, Livvy and Renee stared at her, aghast.

  “You mean one of the people here on Sunday afternoon is the same person who did this to you in the first place?” Livvy looked as if she might burst into tears.

  “I know it seems like a stretch of the imagination, and I hate to even consider the possibility, but we have to take it into account. Again, I’m looking at the time frame before the onset of the second round of sickness.”

  Livvy stared at her. “Then that would mean a connection between one of those people and the chamber of commerce case.”

  Kate nodded. “I’m convinced the two things—the poisoning and my investigation into the fraud—are related. Therefore, it seems logical to me that the poisoner and the scam artist are one and the same.”

  Renee nodded sagely. “Of course. You and I were discussing that before I left this afternoon. Where are those lists you made? Pull them both out so the three of us can go over them together.”

  Kate reached for her notebook. “Actually, there are three lists now. I also wrote down the names of the people who were here on Sunday as well as anyone who has sent food to the house.”

  Kate pulled the lists out and spread them on the bed. She sat cross-legged while Livvy and Renee sat on either side of her. They all leaned over the papers, studying the names closely.

  “Livvy, you were here on Sunday,” Kate said. “Can you think of anyone I’ve left off?”

  Livvy perused the list of names. “No, I don’t think so.”

  Renee pointed at the second list. “I can think of someone you left off of this one.”

  Kate frowned. “The people connected with the chamber? Who?”

  “LuAnne Matthews.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  LuAnne?” Kate stared at Renee. “She isn’t a member of the chamber of commerce.”

  Renee gave her a knowing look. “Look at the title of that list: people connected with the chamber. Think about it. Where does the chamber hold their meetings? At the diner. Who works at the diner? LuAnne. She waits on them every time they meet, and I’ll bet she hears plenty. She probably knows more about what’s going on with the chamber than a lot of the members do.”

  Kate looked at Livvy, who shrugged, then she leaned forward and wrote LuAnne’s name at the bottom of the page. “If you say so, but I really don’t think there’s any point to it.” They went back to studying the lists.

  “I just wish I knew what we were looking for,” Livvy said.

  “Me too.” Kate’s forehead puckered as she scanned the names. “I guess I was hoping that one name would stand out among the others and— Oh my!”

  “What is it?” Livvy asked. She and Renee leaned forward.

  Kate stared at the papers, unwilling to accept what she was seeing. It took a moment before she could find her voice again. “Look at those lists carefully and tell me if I’m right. Is there really only one name that appears on all three?”

  “Which one?” Excitement tinged Livvy’s voice. “Have you found the guilty party at last?”

  “I hope not.”

  The other two women stared at her in disbe
lief.

  “Don’t you see it?” Kate tried to keep her voice steady. “The only name that shows up on all of the lists is LuAnne’s.”

  “But that’s ridiculous!” Livvy protested.

  “Is it?” Renee raised one delicately penciled eyebrow. “Who has a better opportunity to slip something into your food than the person who serves it to you?”

  Kate stared at Renee and felt her mouth go dry. “You can’t be serious.”

  Livvy’s mouth set in a firm line. “LuAnne is one of Kate’s dearest friends—and ours, for that matter. What possible reason would she have for harming Kate?”

  Renee opened her mouth, then closed it again and shrugged. “I can’t begin to imagine a motive, but Kate just showed us the plain facts. It’s right there, in black and white.” She uncapped one of the markers and walked to the whiteboard. “In the interest of being fair, let’s write down the names of anyone who is on more than one of those lists.”

  They each took a list and called out the names on them. When at least two of the lists had a name that matched, the name went on the whiteboard. Lawton’s and Lucy Mae’s names appeared twice, as did John Sharpe’s.

  Livvy yelped when Renee wrote down her name and Danny’s. “Really, Renee!”

  Renee looked back at her with a steady gaze. “Just in the interest of being thorough. We can’t afford to show any partiality here.”

  She looked at them both solemnly. “Kate is right. There are several names that show up on two lists, but only one that appears on all three.” She wrote LuAnne in big, bold letters and circled her name twice.

  “I’m sorry I ever brought it up,” Kate said. “I just can’t accept that.” She simply couldn’t imagine generous, good-hearted LuAnne capable of anything so underhanded.

  “What about the medicine woman?” Livvy asked.

  Kate looked at Livvy. “You mean Ruby?”

  Livvy nodded. “She’s only on one of the lists—people who were here on Sunday or brought food—but she’s been here twice, right?”

  “That’s true...,” Kate said slowly.

  “And she knows an awful lot about plants and their uses.” Livvy caught her breath. “Do you remember what she said on Sunday? The way she talked about how dangerous some of the plants in your own garden could be?”

  A deathly silence filled the room.

  Livvy frowned. “But would she say anything like that if she was guilty?”

  “She might,” Kate said. “If she was trying to divert suspicion from herself.”

  “Or if it was a veiled threat of some kind,” Renee added in an ominous tone.

  “But she doesn’t even know me,” Kate protested. “Not really, anyway.”

  Then she caught her breath. “But that isn’t the issue, is it? It isn’t a matter of who knows me, but who knows the truth behind the chamber of commerce scandal and wants to keep me from finding out about it.”

  “That’s right.” Renee’s eyes glittered. “If she has an interest in keeping the truth hidden, that might have been her way of warning you off the case.”

  A shudder rippled through Kate. “Good heavens! If I’d ever thought Ruby was involved in this mess, I never would have taken that elixir she brought.”

  “What?” Livvy shot up off the bed and stared at Kate in horror. “What did you drink?”

  Kate felt like shrinking down to the size of a peanut. “It wasn’t much of anything; just an herbal concoction she’d made up. She said it would help me feel better.”

  Renee gaped at her. “And you took her word for it that it would do you good?”

  “But LuAnne was here the first time she came. She said her grandfather used herbal remedies as well...” She let her voice trail off, silenced by the identical expressions of disbelief on Livvy’s and Renee’s faces.

  “They’re in it together,” Renee said, scribbling Ruby’s name below LuAnne’s on the whiteboard.

  “Wait,” Kate said. “The first time Ruby stopped by, she did come with LuAnne, but that was after I’d gotten sick, not before.”

  Renee spread her arms wide and looked up at the ceiling as if appealing for strength. “So LuAnne slipped you something that first Sunday, then Ruby came over a few days later to try to finish the job.”

  “No!” Kate stood her ground. “I didn’t have any ill effects from that at all. Ruby said it might take more than one dose though. Since it hadn’t caused any problems the first time, I didn’t see any harm in taking it again when she stopped by on—”

  “Sunday,” Livvy finished for her.

  Kate raised trembling hands and pressed them against her cheeks. Was she really that naive? Had she played right into the poisoner’s hands? She would have kicked herself soundly if she’d had the energy.

  The doorbell rang, and everyone in the room jumped.

  “Do you want me to go get that?” Livvy asked.

  “No, Paul will take care of it.” Kate shook her head vehemently. “I think we need to be very careful not to jump to conclusions here. I don’t want to be guilty of doing the same thing to LuAnne that the rest of the town has done to Lawton. Just because a few facts seem to fit, it doesn’t mean it’s an unequivocal sign of someone’s guilt.”

  She heard Paul open the door and greet someone. Then he called back to the bedroom, “Hey, hon, LuAnne’s here.”

  Livvy clapped her hands to her mouth. “At this time of day? Oh my goodness! What do we do?”

  “Hide the evidence,” Renee hissed.

  Livvy flew across the room and ripped the ends of the time line from the wall. Wadding the paper into a loose ball, she stuffed it behind a chair. Kate thrust the lists back into the notebook and slammed it shut. Renee looked around as if trying to find someplace to hide the oversized marker board. She swiveled the easel around, turning the white surface to the wall an instant before LuAnne walked into the room.

  Renee draped herself across the back of the whiteboard like a movie actress from the 1930s striking a dramatic pose and thereby drawing more attention to the board she was trying to cover up.

  The moment Kate saw LuAnne, she realized there was no need for an attempt at diversion. LuAnne’s hollow-eyed and anguished expression made her look like a person in deep mourning. Kate had the feeling her friend wouldn’t have noticed if a brass band had been playing Sousa marches in one corner of the room.

  LuAnne sat heavily in the chair that hid the time line. When she hitched the chair forward, Kate heard the crackling of paper. Livvy’s face sagged, the very picture of guilt.

  LuAnne looked up and blinked, as if suddenly aware of the underlying tension in the room. “I’m sorry. I get the feeling I’m interruptin’ something.”

  “No, not at all.” Kate shot a warning glance at Renee.

  “We were talking about the chamber of commerce scandal,” Livvy said.

  LuAnne shook her head. Her horn-rimmed glasses swung from the jeweled holder around her neck. “What a horrible business. Seems like there’s so many awful things happening around Copper Mill.”

  She looked at Kate with tear-filled eyes. “Makes me wonder if it’s ever goin’ to end...”

  Kisses stirred on the pillow and whimpered.

  “It will end when we find out who is behind all this.” Renee watched LuAnne closely as she spoke. “It’s abominable to think that anyone would concoct the idea of a needy village to bilk money out of people.”

  “That town is real enough,” Kate told her. “I couldn’t find much information on it, but Lawton seems to have had an interest in it for some time. He spoke about the clinic as a project that was dear to his heart.”

  “That’s right.” LuAnne smoothed her dress over her knees. “With the chamber holdin’ their meetings there at the diner, I can’t help but hear what’s goin’ on. Lawton has a niece who was in the Peace Corps. She spent some time doing work in that part of Mexico. When she came back, she told Lawton all about it, and I guess it made quite an impression on him.”

  “It must h
ave,” Renee said. “It would have to take something big to get him to notice anything that wasn’t directly connected with Copper Mill.”

  “You’re right about that,” LuAnne said. “That man can be such a stick in the mud when it comes to makin’ any changes or improvements around here, but he got all fired up about that little village. He kept pushin’ the notion of making Chacotepec and Copper Mill sister cities. He had a passel of ideas about improving their way of life, including settin’ up that clinic everybody’s been talkin’ about.”

  Kisses yipped and ran up and down the length of the bed. Kate reached out and pulled him to her, hoping to quiet the little dog.

  Livvy looked as uneasy as Kate felt. “How did the other members feel about it?”

  LuAnne shook her head. “As much as I like ’em all as individuals, when it comes to somethin’ like this, they tend to have tunnel vision. All they care about is what’s right in front of ’em.”

  Kate rubbed Kisses’ head with her thumb. “So none of them were in support of this project?”

  LuAnne snorted. “Not by a long shot. I started feelin’ sorry for Lawton every time he brought it up. They stonewalled him at every turn. I got to wishin’ that I could do something to get the ball rollin’ and help that town out myself.”

  Renee made a choking sound and bobbed her head toward LuAnne in a sharp, jerky movement. It didn’t take an expert in body language to figure out what she was getting at.

  Kate pointedly ignored Renee’s performance, but she couldn’t turn a blind eye to the picture LuAnne’s words had conjured up in her own mind. Lawton had apparently taken the idea of lending aid to this Mexican village very much to heart. It would have been frustrating for a man of his influence to be thwarted in this way. Had he finally decided to take matters into his own hands instead of going through the proper channels?

  Kisses ran down the length of the bed and faced Renee. Bracing his legs, he yapped loudly, the shrill tones blocking out any further attempts at conversation.

  “Oh, my poor Little Umpkins.” Renee picked him up and cradled him in her arms. “You sound like you’re about to starve.”