Tea and Sympathy

by Carol Cox

  “Not a bit. He invited me in, and we had a nice visit. After hearing what Livvy said, I steered the conversation around to him being a former professor. He really opened up then, even offered me a tour of the greenhouse.”

  “Really? What does he have in there?”

  “It’s more a question of what he doesn’t have. He really knows his stuff and loves the challenge of growing things.” He pulled a paper from his pocket. “Here, I wrote down the names of everything he showed me when I got back to my truck. I knew I’d never remember them all if I didn’t.”

  Kate spread the paper open. “Orchids and plumeria? Those sound lovely.” She ran her finger down the list. “Uh-oh. I remember seeing some of these other names in my books. There’s angel trumpet and castor bean and”—her finger stopped at the bottom of the page—“datura?”

  “Oh yeah. That one was growing against the side of his garage. I commented on it on my way out, and he told me what it was, so I thought I’d add that too. Why?”

  “It has a few interesting side effects,” Kate said dryly. “Delirium and death are a couple that spring to mind.”

  She looked up from the list and stared at Paul. “Good grief. He’s got a regular poison factory there.”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Livvy stopped by late in the afternoon. “It took a while to track everybody down, but I finally finished my list.”

  “Anything of interest?” Kate asked.

  Livvy sat in Kate’s rocking chair. “I didn’t pick up on anything of significance. I wish I had. I’d really like to do something to move this investigation forward.”

  “You may have already done that.” Kate related Paul’s visit to Clayton Miller and showed Livvy the list she’d made of the plants he grew that were poisonous, along with the symptoms they caused.

  Livvy’s eyes grew wide. “So that’s one more person on our suspect list.” She picked up one of the books lying open on the floor near Kate’s feet. “Still reading up on elderberries?”

  “I was just checking the effects again. I wanted to see if any of the books mentioned anything about elderberries causing hallucinations.” When Livvy gaped at her, Kate filled her in on her experience that afternoon.

  When she finished, Livvy nodded slowly. “So what do you think? Was it a hallucination, or did you actually see an intruder?”

  Kate sighed. “At this point, I simply don’t know. I was so sure someone was here, but there’s no evidence to back that up, and no way to figure out how he got in.”

  “Did you get any indication of who it might be?”

  Kate shook her head, and a smile tugged at her lips. “I guess the question of the day is, who was that masked man?”

  The phone rang. Kate looked around for Paul, but he had gone into his study. Still laughing, she went to the kitchen to answer it.

  Renee’s voice came over the line. “I’m just calling to give you an update on my findings. None of the people I’ve talked to gave any useful information. I’ve completed the list, with one exception. Evan Sheppard wasn’t home, but I spoke to his wife. She told me to check back later, but I’m on my way to a manicure appointment at the Hamilton Springs Spa. I’ll try to catch him tomorrow. I’ll be out of touch for a while, but I wanted to check in and let you know the current status.”

  When Kate turned from the phone after hanging up, she saw Livvy checking her watch. She looked up at Kate apologetically. “I’m just thinking it’s about time to start supper before choir practice tonight. Unless, of course, you’d like me to stay. Is there anything else you want me to do tonight?”

  “You’ve done plenty, and I’m eternally grateful. Go on home and enjoy dinner with your family. We can talk this over again tomorrow.”

  Paul came out of his study as the front door closed. “That was just Livvy leaving,” Kate told him. “It was time for her to go home and fix dinner for Danny and the boys.”

  Paul walked to the front door and checked it, then rubbed his midsection. “My stomach is saying it’s time for dinner too. Let me check the cupboard and see what’s left after I emptied the freezer and fridge last night.”

  The phone rang again, and Paul picked it up. He listened for a moment, then a line formed between his eyebrows. “Where did you hear that?”

  He waited for the caller to respond, then said, “That might be a little premature. She is making progress, though. When we have something conclusive, you’ll be the first to know.”

  “Who was that?” Kate asked after he hung up.

  “Lucy Mae.” Paul’s face was a study in bewilderment. “She was all excited because she’d heard a rumor that you were ready to wrap up the case and name names.”

  “What! Where on earth did she hear something like that?”

  Paul grimaced. “Betty’s Beauty Parlor. No surprise there. I think half the gossip in Copper Mill filters through that place.”

  “Oh, great. If that rumor has hit Betty’s, it’s probably spread all over town by now.” Kate caught her breath, and she stared at Paul. “I just had a thought. You may be right, and that whole masked marauder thing could have been a trick of my mind. On the other hand, what if he was real?”

  “But nothing was missing, nothing was disturbed. What purpose would he have for being here?”

  “Think about it.” Kate’s certainty grew as she spoke her thoughts out loud. “If that rumor is making the rounds, then the person who framed Lawton has probably heard it too and believes I’m getting close to identifying him. What if he didn’t come to take anything? What if he came to leave something? Is there anything left in the fridge?”

  Paul opened the door to the refrigerator, and she peered over his shoulder. “Just a pitcher of iced tea,” he said. “Why? You don’t think...”

  Kate rubbed her hands along her arms to ward off the sudden chill. “It’s possible, isn’t it? He got to me once at the diner, and again in this very house. Maybe he came back for round three.”

  Paul held the pitcher up and looked at it. “Either way, it’s an easy fix.” He poured the contents down the drain. “I’m inclined to think this was just a nasty dream. On the other hand, you were right about the whole poisoning scenario, and I know better than to discount your opinion. I think it will ease both our minds if I go get something to eat from the Mercantile. At least we can be reasonably sure the food there hasn’t been tampered with.”

  He patted his pockets and pulled out his truck key, then he frowned. “That’s funny. I seem to have misplaced the ring that has my house key on it. I know I had it with me. I had to let myself in the house earlier.”

  He thought a moment. “Let me check the front door. Maybe I left it hanging in the lock in all the excitement.” He opened the door and checked the outside knob. “Nope.”

  “I’ll look for it while you’re gone,” Kate said. “Take my keys, they’re in my handbag on the dresser.”

  Paul came out of the bedroom holding up Kate’s handbag. “Maybe I’m just not spotting them. Things are in kind of a jumble, and I hate to go pawing through all your stuff.”

  Kate reached for the purse. “That’s because everything spilled out while Camille was here last night. She just threw it all back inside. Let me dump it out on the counter.” She sifted through the pile and looked up at Paul. “They aren’t here. Oh, wait a minute. Everything landed next to the bed. Maybe they slid underneath, and we just didn’t notice.”

  They went into the bedroom, where Paul got down on his hands and knees and peered under the bed. “Nothing here,” he reported.

  They shook out the bed covers and looked under the pillows. Paul scooted out the chair that hid Renee’s time line so they could check behind it, but to no avail.

  “That doesn’t make sense.” Kate put her hands on her hips. “They have to be somewhere.”

  Paul stared at her thoughtfully. “Unless Camille palmed them when she was picking things up last night.”

  Kate caught her breath. Her mind raced, considering the po
ssibility. “I suppose she could have. Spilling my handbag like that gave her ample opportunity to go through my things. I wonder if that was an accident after all.”

  Paul’s expression hardened. “Do you think she could have been your afternoon visitor?”

  Kate played the scene back through her mind. “No, Camille is a very petite woman. This person was much bigger, more like...” The words caught in her throat. “More like Lawton Briddle, now that I think of it.”

  Paul reached out and squeezed her shoulder. “I don’t want to sound like a naysayer, but you’ve had this case on your mind a lot lately. Maybe you were dreaming about Lawton, and so he was in your mind when you woke up.”

  “Maybe,” Kate said, but she didn’t really think so.

  “I’m sure your keys will turn up soon, but in the meantime, let me retrace my steps.” Paul went back to the front door, then walked through his actions after he came home. He stopped at the couch and ran his hands between the cushions, then he stood up grinning, with the key ring in his fingers. “Ta-da! It must have slipped out while we were talking.”

  He tossed the ring into the air and caught it again. “Do you feel comfortable staying here alone while I run into town?”

  Kate nodded. The intruder—if there had been one—had already done whatever it was he’d intended to do. She didn’t expect a return visit anytime soon. “Sure. But I’m going to stay awake this time.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Kate sat alone in the house with all her senses on the alert. The longer she sat, the more jittery she felt.

  Ridiculous, she told herself. Sitting like a statue wasn’t going to make her any safer. All she was accomplishing was making her case of nerves even worse.

  Her mind went back to a time when she was twelve years old and her parents were going to an antique show. Young Kate didn’t want to go with them. She begged to stay home alone, and they had eventually agreed. But the quiet of the house on that long-ago day affected her much like it did on this one. Kate remembered the way her uneasiness grew and how every sound had seemed like a harbinger of danger.

  That day, though, she had come up with a solution. Instead of cowering in the house, she had chosen to take action instead. Despite her current case of nerves, Kate chuckled at the recollection of her parents’ amusement when they came home several hours later to find she’d barricaded the front door with a stack of chairs and set up an elaborate booby trap that would have thrilled Rube Goldberg.

  The memory brought a smile to Kate’s face and broke the spell cast by her isolation on this gloomy day. Enough of sitting around like the heroine of a gothic novel! She needed something to occupy her mind.

  Kate looked around, and her eye fell on her notebook. Pulling it over to her, she opened it. Time to get back to work. There had to be something significant she’d overlooked before, a connection she hadn’t made yet. Kate riffled the edges of the pages. Camille was right; Kate had added a lot of material to this notebook in the short time she’d had it.

  She turned the pages one by one, going back over the accumulated Internet articles, photos, and handwritten notes, paying special attention to the page of notes about the plants Clayton Miller grew in his greenhouse. He had some fascinating specimens there—beautiful, but potentially deadly. Aside from the fact that he was a botanist, was there another reason why he had such an affinity for plants that could cause such harm? She needed to know more about Clayton before she could make an assessment on that score.

  Was there any mention in some of the articles about people on the chamber-of-commerce membership list Paul brought home? She took her time examining each item as she went through that section. She finished the last of the articles but discovered nothing new. Kate leaned back with a sigh.

  Next she turned to the divider marking the section of plastic sleeves that held the photos she’d collected from the Chronicle article. The first one showed Lawton standing on the steps of Town Hall, fists clenched, decrying the low character of anyone who would use the chamber as a vehicle for fraud. Even in gray scale, Kate could tell that his face was suffused with color.

  Kate turned to the next plastic sleeve. Two photos there, both of Lawton fielding questions about his involvement in the fraud. Kate examined them in minute detail. Everything she could see corresponded to the body-language book’s depiction of honesty.

  She flipped the page again, and her breath whooshed from her lungs when she saw the color photo of Lawton coming out the door of some building. The stern look on his face made him look like he was angry at the world. To all appearances, it bore a resemblance to the other photos in her collection, except for the fact that Kate had never seen it before.

  When Paul returned with his purchases from the Mercantile, Kate had pulled the photo from the plastic sleeve and was studying it through a magnifying glass.

  “That rain is really coming down.” Paul shook his head, scattering drops of water. “It looks like it’s settling in for a spell. I got some hamburger and one of those skillet mixes. Is that okay?”

  “Did you by any chance put this photo into my case notebook?”

  Paul set the bag he was carrying down on the counter, returned to the living room, and took the photo from her. “No, I can’t say that I did. I don’t remember it, anyway.”

  “Then we have a problem,” Kate said. “I don’t remember it either.”

  “Come on out and sit at the table while I fix dinner. We can talk while I work.”

  “Did you take a good look at that picture?” Kate asked while Paul browned the ground beef and added the other ingredients.

  “Not really.” Paul stirred a small can of tomato sauce into the mixture. “Just enough to know I hadn’t seen it before.”

  “I had to look closely to make out the lettering on the window behind Lawton. That door he’s coming out of belongs to a travel agency.”

  The spoon slipped from Paul’s grasp. He fished it out of the skillet and rinsed it off. “You don’t say?”

  Kate got out the telephone directory and checked the Yellow Pages. “There isn’t a travel agency by that name in this area. How soon will dinner be finished?”

  “I’m ready to put it on the plates now,” Paul said.

  “Okay, let’s eat first, and then I’ll see what I can find out about this place online.”

  Paul carried their plates to the table. After saying grace, he picked up his fork and took a bite. Then he said, “I told Sam Gorman a bit about what’s been going on while I was at the Mercantile. I hope you don’t mind.”

  “No, that’s fine with me.” Kate knew Paul needed someone to confide in, and she also knew that Sam could be trusted.

  “He asked how you’ve been feeling, and I told him you were improving. I also hope you don’t mind if I asked him about Ruby Merton and her remedies.”

  Kate stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth. “Why would you ask Sam about that?”

  “He’s been around here for a long time, and people talk while they’re in the store. I figured he’s probably heard of her and her homemade medicine before.” Paul shrugged. “To be honest, I wanted to find out if she’s some kind of quack. I mean, dispensing elixirs like that without any medical training makes me a little nervous.”

  Kate swallowed a mouthful of the savory blend of meat and pasta. “What did you find out?”

  “It sounds like she has a pretty good track record. From what Sam says, he knows plenty of people she’s helped.” His face grew thoughtful. “Then I mentioned that I’d heard she was a distant cousin of Lawton’s.”

  Kate eyed him. “Why the solemn expression?”

  “They may be related, but those family bonds aren’t as close as we thought. I’m not sure just what Lawton did, but he managed to offend Ruby’s branch of the family quite a while ago. They’ve been on the outs for years.”

  Kate set her fork back on the plate. “Then she wouldn’t be wanting to protect him.”

  “That’s right. And the wo
man does know an awful lot about plants.”

  After dinner, Kate went to the bedroom and went online while Paul washed the dishes. When she came back into the kitchen, he asked, “Did you find anything?”

  Kate nodded. “The Great Escape Travel Agency is located in Chattanooga.”

  Paul looked up from the plate he was drying. “You think Lawton’s planning a trip?”

  “I don’t know what to think. It’s too late to call them today. I’ll see what I can find out tomorrow.”

  LIVVY CALLED LATER that night while they were watching a nature program on TV. Paul answered the phone in the kitchen, then he brought the cordless handset from the bedroom so Kate could talk without having to get up.

  “How was choir practice?” Kate asked.

  “It went well. Everyone missed you, though. They all said to tell you they hope you’ll be back with us again soon.”

  “So do I!” Kate chuckled. “By the way, I’m glad you called. I need to ask you something. Do you remember filing a photo of Lawton in my notebook?”

  “I think I put a couple of them in there. Which one are you talking about?”

  “It’s one that shows him walking out of a storefront.”

  The phone line was silent, then Livvy said, “It doesn’t ring a bell. I’d have to look at it to be sure. Do you want me to come by?”

  “Not tonight, but if you get a chance tomorrow, that would be great.”

  “I’ll stop by during my morning break,” Livvy promised. “But that isn’t the reason I called you. Betty’s car died in Renee’s driveway after choir practice, so I gave Betty a ride home. On the way back, I was in the area where Clayton Miller lives, so I decided to drive past his house.

  “It was getting dark, but there was still enough light to see someone walking up to Clayton’s front door.” Livvy paused, then added, “It was Ruby Merton.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  True to her word, Livvy stopped by during her morning break the following day. She ducked inside the front door and shook the raindrops off her umbrella before she set it beside the coat tree. “Let’s take a look at that photo. I can stretch my break to about thirty minutes if I need to, but not much longer than that.”