A hunched over figure covered head to toe in a white sheet appeared from the back of the room and stopped several feet in front of her. “What you got in them bags?” he asked, pointing at her packages.
Jonelle smiled. “It’s you, isn’t it Luther?”
The shape limped forward and Jonelle could finally make out Luther’s image. “Boy, am I glad to see you.”
“Yeah. Great. What you got in them bags?”
“Oh, right. I’ll show you. Can we go over to where you have your things? This stuff is for you.” Jonelle lowered her voice. “But if you want to share, well, that’s your choice.” He turned around without a word and hobbled toward the back, with Jonelle close behind.
They went deeper into the warehouse. Along the way, Jonelle counted seven misshapen lumps on the ground. A few heads popped up as she passed, but most didn’t stir. After they arrived at the place where Luther had cared for LucieBlu, he turned to Jonelle.
“That girl’s still alive. Good.” He stared at the bags in the cart.
“These are for you,” she said.
Jonelle motioned for him to come closer. Still, he hesitated. She reached down and began taking items out of the first sack. “In this one,” she said, “I’ve got hard cheese, bread, a roast chicken and some green salad from the deli. You can have the bags. They’re insulated so they should keep the food good to eat for a while.” Luther sniffed at the bag and looked up at Jonelle.
“What else you got?” he asked.
“Rolls, crackers, Deli meats and plastic bowels, spoons, knives and forks. I also put in some paper towels, bandages and aspirin. I also got you a few jugs of water.” Jonelle watched his face closely as she said each item. She had no idea what he needed and was just going on gut instinct.
After a moment he nodded his approval.
Pleased, Jonelle now felt confident she could tell him about the investigation. “The two guys who were taking pictures at LucieBlu’s club were arrested in Delaware for attacking a transgender woman. Right now, they’re sitting in a Dover jail. I told the detective working the case, that they needed to get those two guys over here because I think they did this to LucieBlu, and to not bother you. He’s a little hesitant; says he’s waiting until LucieBlu can talk so they can ask her some questions. I don’t know how much weight he put into what I said, so just to be on the safe side, you should stay hidden for a while.”
“You don’t need to tell me that,” Luther said, picking up the bags and taking them over to his spot. “If I want someone to find me, they will. If I don’t, they won’t.”
“Hey, Luth. What you got over there?” a voice called out.
“None ‘a your business,” Luther shouted. “Damn nosey bastards,” Luther said under his breath. He reached in the bag, pulled the plastic top off of the roast chicken container and tore off a leg. He threw the top in one of the many plastic bags. His eyes never left Jonelle’s face as he consumed the chicken. He pulled off several more chunks of chicken, put the meat on plastic plates and wandered around dispensing the food.
When he finished, he picked up the two bags and water containers and put everything in a shopping cart. He covered the whole lot with blankets and plastic bags full of who knew what. “I got to put this stuff in my hiding place before I leave. You stay here and don’t let nobody touch the rest of my things.”
“Uh, okay. Your hiding place isn’t far from here, is it?” She heard Luther laugh as he travelled further into the darkness.
“Lordy,” he said, limping off, his voice growing fainter. “You is somethin’ else, you know that?”
Jonelle kept an eye on his receding back for as long as possible. Behind her, feet shuffled through the trash, plastic crinkled as bags dropped in carts and voices echoed off the walls. For a brief moment the absurdity of the situation she found herself in, amused her. She had to swallow the laughter creeping up from her throat. Here she was, in a warehouse hotel full of homeless people, visiting a man who had to go hide his stash and take the rest of his belongings with him wherever he went. Bedraggled, androgynous people walked past with barely a glance in her direction. No one challenged her and no one threatened her. Jonelle wondered why. As she stood in the middle of the controlled chaos, she thought that maybe in this society of the downtrodden, a hierarchy existed. If so, it appeared as though Luther ranked at the top.
Voice loud with irritation, Luther emerged from the distance. On his way back, Jonelle saw him rouse a few late risers, sometimes with a shove, more often with a kick. “It’s gettin’ late,” he said as he saw Jonelle watching. “We gots to go earn a livin’.” He chuckled at his own joke.
Luther turned, pushed his cart away from her and headed outside.
“Wait a sec, Luther,” Jonelle said. She reached out and touched his shoulder. He frowned at her hand and she took it away. “How do you guys keep the drug addicts from bothering you in here, and messing with your things?”
His face broke into an almost toothless smile. “We got ways of dealin’ with the bastards. Most of the time they just need space to do their thing, so they do it in them junk cars over there. They don’t bother us, we don’t bother them. Besides, I gots you to thank for them bein’ away from here now. Them damn po-leece been hangin’ around so much lately, don’t nobody hardly wanna come in here no more.” He gave a harsh laugh and wrestled his cart through the fence.
Jonelle’s Jeep was where she left it, but it was starting to attract attention from a few skinny young men, so she needed to hurry. “Wait a minute, Luther I have something for you.” Jonelle scanned the area and didn’t see anyone except the two kids staring at her car. Luther’s posse had scattered and were proceeding to their locations for the day.
Luther sighed. “Miss, you are truly startin’ to git on my last nerve. Now what?”
Why she liked this obstinate man, she didn’t really know. But she did and it went beyond the care he provided for LucieBlu. She turned her back to the kids so they wouldn’t see what she was doing and reached in her bag. She took out an envelope. Inside was fifty dollars in small bills and another one of her business cards. Just in case. She handed the package to Luther. “It’s not much, but it might help some.” Jonelle also handed him a pre-paid mobile phone. “Just in case you need to contact me. If you need it for anything else, remember it’s only got 120 minutes loaded, so don’t go crazy,” she said with a smile.
He took the package and phone and tucked both in his pants. Dark, watery eyes squinted at her. He nodded and Jonelle saw the same glimmer of intelligence she’d seen the other day. “You’s a nice lady,” he mumbled, and limped off.
Jonelle’s hand had grasped the handle of the Jeep, when she heard Luther call to her.
“I almos’ forgot,” he said. “I been thinkin’ back on that night. I’m still not sure there was more’n one. All I saw was the one bastard hittin’ and kickin’ that poor soul.”
Jonelle nodded. “I know, but I think that’s because the other one is sort of the follower. You probably saw the leader. The attack was already going on when you stopped it. Is that right?”
“Yeah.” Luther’s gaze drifted upwards. “I been goin’ back to that night in my mind. There was somethin’ else I remember.”
Jonelle held her breath. Luther kept staring at the sky. She didn’t want to interrupt him for fear he’d either forget or decide not to tell her.
He focused back on Jonelle. “See, all you ever asked was what the bastards did to her. What they said. Like that. You never asked what she mighta said.”
“You mean LucieBlu spoke? She didn’t just scream?”
“Oh she screamed all right. She also screamed words. Know what I mean?”
Jonelle nodded, afraid to speak.
“She kept sayin’ ‘I promise I won’t. I swear to God. Stop. Please stop’. Like that.”
CHAPTER 38
The day after her contact with Luther, Jonelle found two messages from detective North, a message from Burt and a message
from Peter Dell on her office phone. She debated who to call first. While she wanted to speak to Peter and felt a little embarrassed at how much she looked forward to hearing his voice, detective North received priority.
The news wasn’t good. “The medical examiner is classifying the death of Hugh Rhys-Morton as a homicide. The condition of the body—the foam, and the discoloration around the mouth—indicates arsenic poisoning,” he said. “She’s running tox scans to be sure.”
Jonelle couldn’t believe it. “Poisoned? But, how on earth…?” No, not Sally. Someone else must have done this. William?
“We don’t know the how or the why, at least not yet,” North said. “However, since the body was discovered in Mrs. Piedmont’s house, we’re bringing her in for questioning. This is a courtesy call in case you want to meet us at the station.”
“Are you arresting her?” Jonelle’s head spun. The agency had several legal firms as clients. She’d find one for Sally if she had to.
“She’s not under arrest,” he said. “At least, not yet.”
“Wait a sec, just hold on. What about her son? I wouldn’t put it past him to do something like this.” Jonelle thought back. When did William last visit Sally? She thought about the note in Hugh’s house and wondered when William last visited Hugh.
She heard North sigh on the other end. “We checked with the son. Seems as if he and his family spent time on the Eastern shore with his in-laws. He was no-where around at the time we found the victim. He’s bringing his mother in so we plan on interviewing him again after we talk to her. Sorry to have to tell you this, but—”
“Can’t you wait a few days? Until I’ve had time to sort this out? I’m sure it’s a mistake. She’s eighty-four for chrissakes. No way she could’ve put his body in that closet. So what if William wasn’t there when Hugh’s body was found. He still could’ve had something to do with it.”
“Sorry, Ms. Sweet. If you’d like to be here, she’s coming in at eleven this morning.” He hung up.
Jonelle stared at the phone in her hand. She replaced the receiver in its base and rose from her chair. Her office was too small to pace around, so she sat back down, reached for her bag and took out the notepad. Before she input facts from each case into the computer, she wrote notes and impressions. She opened the pad to the section with Sally’s notes and read each line looking for some indication of the elderly woman’s complicity in Hugh’s death. Nothing jumped out at her. She flipped to the notes on William.
William had indicated Sally’s husband Percy was abusive. William’s prickly relationship with his mother seemed odd and Jonelle wondered why he was so antagonistic toward Sally. She frowned. She knew Sally liked Hugh. And Hugh looked an awful lot like Percy. “Jesus, Mary and Joseph,” Jonelle muttered. A dull ache formed at the base of her neck.
William also implied Percy had died of natural causes. She shivered and thought back to when she and Adrienne first searched Sally’s house. She had to unlock the closet and even though Sally denied playing music, who else could it have been? And the shoes in the refrigerator? Were the shoes William’s doing? Did Hugh help? Jonelle sat back and played with her necklace. It didn’t matter what the police said. She couldn’t picture Sally poisoning Hugh.
Jonelle needed a break. She called Peter.
After a brief conversation where he inquired about LucieBlu, “she’s the same”, Peter asked Jonelle if she’d be free for lunch. Jonelle told him she had an appointment about her other client, but could see him afterwards. They made a date—no not a date Jonelle insisted to herself—to meet around one-thirty at the theater.
Next, she called Burt’s number, which went straight to voicemail. She left a message that she had an appointment at the station and would check to see if he was available. She grabbed her bag and after a quick word to Rainey to tell her she was on her way to the police station, rushed out of the office.
The trip to the station took forever. Every traffic light shone red; distracted drivers idled through left turn signals. All the visitor’s spaces were taken in the department’s lot and she had to circle around the area several times to find a place on the street. Several minutes later, a frazzled Jonelle rushed to the building and fidgeted in the waiting room, waiting for detective North to escort her upstairs.
After she’d read the entire bulletin board twice, the detective finally appeared.
“Sorry for the delay,” he said. “Mrs. Piedmont and her son arrived early so we’ve already completed their first interviews. We talked to them separately and to tell you the truth, it was slow going with Mrs. Piedmont.”
Jonelle’s heart sank. “Why?” she asked. “Didn’t Sally cooperate?”
The detective nodded. “She’s been very cooperative. The problem is we’re not a hundred percent sure what she’s saying. One minute, she accuses her late husband Percy of poisoning Mr. Rhys-Morton, and then she says his death must have been an accident, and next she goes on about her son being a bigot and just like his father. Hard to keep track of stuff like that.”
Jonelle sat across from North in his cubicle. She hoped Burt would be somewhere in the division so she could ask him later about LucieBlu.
The detective’s voice brought her back. “Sorry,” Jonelle said. “Were you talking about Sally?” Jonelle tried to focus. Sally’s predicament was almost too much to take in.
“We talked to the son again,” North said. “He insists his mother has mental problems. From my conversations with her, I picked up some confusion, which might be part of the ageing process.”
“I agree,” Jonelle said. “And I also don’t believe Sally is capable of hurting anyone. Isn’t it possible the poisoning was accidental?”
Detective North trained blue eyes on Jonelle. “Even allowing for an accident, how did the victim get in the closet?”
“Maybe he was already up there, waiting to pretend to be Percy, got sick and then died,” Jonelle said, warming up to the idea.
The detective looked skeptical.
“Or how about this,” Jonelle continued. “The two were friends, they had tea every day. Maybe, they were getting a little friendlier than we think, and went upstairs to, uh, take a nap.” Even as she said those words, they didn’t sound right. The way North looked at her showed that he didn’t believe it either.
“Yeah, right,” he said, hand over his mouth trying to hide the smile forming there. “Speaking of tea, Mrs. Piedmont kept a very tidy house. All of the cups and saucers were clean, as well as the teapot. We’ve searched her house, and so far we can’t find evidence of any poison.”
Jonelle remembered something. “Hugh sometimes used his own tea service. You might want to check out his place. You know, detective. I never really asked Sally any specifics about her tea time. Do you know if she used tea bags or if she made the tea from loose leaves?”
The detective shook his head. “What difference does that make?”
“Look at it this way. The man was British. It’s possible he made tea by brewing the leaves instead of using bags. That takes a while. He could have easily slipped something into the strong brew. What if Sally was the intended victim here, but something went wrong?” Saying it out loud sounded pretty convincing to Jonelle.
“What reason would he have for wanting to harm her?” North asked.
“I have no idea. I also don’t know that much about him. What’s his background? I never believed his story that he moved here to be close to family. What if he left Britain under some kind of cloud?”
North rubbed his temples with his fingers. “The family story is true. We contacted his relatives up in Westminster and they came and identified his body.” He sat back in his chair. “Also, New Scotland Yard has no record of him ever being arrested. Sorry, but the victim was clean.”
Jonelle had run out of ideas. She thought back to the original reason Sally hired her. Neither spoke for a few moments. North broke the silence first.
“Here’s something else,” he said. “When the M.E
., noted evidence he’d been poisoned, they tested his hair. She said the results showed that the victim had ingested small doses of arsenic over a period of time.”
Jonelle shook her head over and over. She had to face facts. “She hired me because someone took her jewelry, and yes, she thought it was Percy. What if Hugh played tricks on her by pretending to be her husband and moved her jewelry around?”
“Or, she moved the jewelry herself. Her neighbor told me about the shoes in the refrigerator.” The detective stared at Jonelle for several seconds. “We’re not officially charging her yet. We still want to do a more thorough search of Mr. Rhys-Morton’s house. Mrs. Piedmont and her son have been warned not to leave the area.”
Jonelle felt as though she’d failed her client. That if she’d ended everything when the jewels were recovered and not gone poking around, Sally wouldn’t be in this mess. “I can take her back to her place,” Jonelle said, rising from the chair. She wanted to talk to Sally alone. There were too many unanswered questions.
“No need. They both left a few minutes ago.” Somehow the idea of William taking care of Sally didn’t make Jonelle feel any better.
All signs pointed to Sally poisoning Hugh. She thanked detective North for all the information. She refused his offer of an escort out of the division, saying she needed to see Burt.
Jonelle wandered around several cubicles until she found Burt sitting at his desk. He’d just hung up the phone. “Hey,” he said, eyes bright. “I left you another message.”
“Yeah,” she said. “I finished with detective North a little bit ago. He’s got a case that involves another client of mine.”
Burt motioned to the chair next to him. “Sit. I’ve got some news that may cheer you up.”
“I could use some good news right about now,” she said, lowering herself in the guest chair.
“Ms. Bonderant is awake and able to speak, and I’m on my way to the hospital to talk to her,” he said.
CHAPTER 39
Jonelle checked the time and noticed it was already after one. “Will I be able to talk to her?”
Gone Missing: A Jonelle Sweet Mystery Book 2 Page 21