The Madness of Mercury

by Connie Di Marco

  Dorothy turned and watched him carefully. Finally deciding that Reggie was no threat, she replaced the cap on the gasoline container and carelessly threw a few rags onto the floor near a stack of lumber and some paint cans.

  My mouth was dry, I could barely get my tongue to move. “They’ll

  … know.”

  “Know what? Nothing. That’s what they’ll know. When they examine what’s left of you, there’ll be no trace of the belladonna seeds.”

  Reggie pulled at the skin of his face. He howled madly and rushed toward Dorothy. She was smiling as she watched him in the dim light. By the time she saw the pitchfork in his hands, it was too late. The only sound she made was a gurgle as blood spurted from her neck. Reggie continued screaming, wheeling madly with the pitchfork. Window glass shattered as he struck at the windows.

  I rolled over and pushed myself forward onto my hands and knees. I crawled to the doorway and through the plastic sheeting. I kept moving until I felt the grass beneath my hands. Light from the kitchen windows fell in trapezoidal shapes across the damp lawn. I remembered I had a phone. Somewhere. Yes, pocket. My peripheral vision was fading … I was losing consciousness. I lay on my side on the grass and felt the smooth plastic. I couldn’t be sure I’d hit the right numbers. I felt the numbers by touch, dialing 911. When a voice responded, I croaked, “Gamble … Filbert … ”

  The phone dropped from my hand. I could still hear a voice but wondered if I was imagining it. I rolled over onto my back. The sky was clear. The wind had swept away the fog and the stars overhead were wheeling through the heavens. It was the most beautiful sight I’d ever seen. I was sure I could see all the way to the Milky Way. Warmth flooded my body and I was overcome with a sense of well-being. I felt a soft brush against my cheek and could have sworn I smelled gardenias.

  FORTY-FIVE

  I WOKE IN A hospital bed, a small box clipped to my cotton gown and a white plastic bracelet was on my wrist. I stared at the bracelet. My name was on it. How strange. It should be Eunice’s name and not mine. Christmas carols were playing somewhere. I wondered what day it was.

  The door opened and a nurse stepped in. “Welcome back, Ms. Bonatti.”

  “Where am I?”

  “St. Francis. You were admitted last night.”

  “Last night?”

  “The doctor says you’ll be fine. There’s still some medication on board, but I think we’ll be able to take you off the heart monitor today. The doctor might let you go home tomorrow. Your friends are here too, right down the hall.”

  “Friends?” I sounded like an echo chamber.

  “A young man and an elderly lady … uh … ” She searched her memory. “Carrington and Gamble, that’s it. They’ll be fine in a day or so too. I’ll come back to help you if you’d like to visit them. By the way, next time you decide to get high, stay away from the alkaloid poisons, okay? Good way to get dead.”

  The nurse left, her shoes squishing on the shiny tile. I heard carts being wheeled in the corridor outside my room and the clatter of trays and pottery. I was starving. A good sign, I guessed. I tried to remember the last time I’d eaten and couldn’t. I did remember the crunchy cookies that Dorothy had packed for me. The special ones she’d helped Richard prepare … poor unsuspecting Richard.

  I looked hopefully at the doorway, expecting a hospital worker to arrive with a tray, but instead I saw a tall, powerfully built woman. She wore a sensible navy wool skirt and jacket and her fair hair was cropped short. She approached the bed.

  “Ms. Bonatti. I’m Detective Ursula Williams with the San Francisco Police Department.” She opened a small leather wallet to show me her badge. “I wanted to catch up with you before you were released. We found your belongings in your car, but I’ll need to talk with you later as the case develops.”

  “Call me Julia, please.” I gave her my home number. “I don’t have a cell anymore. I was using one the sheriff in Mendocino County gave me.”

  “Yes, we know. We found the phone and contacted him. He’s told us about the events in Ardillas. I understand you had quite a time up there.”

  I felt a sudden frisson of fear. “Is Eunice all right?” Like a dream poorly remembered, everything was flooding back to me.

  “That’s the other Miss Gamble? Yes, she’s just fine. Sheriff McEnerny has been to see her today and has agreed to break the news to her about the death of her niece.”

  I groaned in response, thinking of the effect this would have on both the sisters. Perhaps Evandra might feel vindicated in her suspicions of Dorothy, but Eunice was a far more delicate soul.

  “I had a long talk with the sheriff, and I believe he’ll be very gentle with her. He and his family have taken Eunice under their wing. The hospital is releasing her, so she’s spending the holiday with them and after that he’ll drive her back to the city.”

  I tried to imagine the Gamble house without Dorothy, and the sisters without their companion. As if she’d read my mind, Detective Williams replied, “The husband—Richard Sanger, I believe—is pretty torn up, as you can imagine. But he’s agreed to stay at the house for the time being and look after the two ladies, at least until suitable arrangements can be made.”

  “Thank you for letting me know. What about … ?”

  “The Prophet’s Paradise?”

  “Yes.”

  She smiled widely. “You’ll be happy to hear several arrests have been made and more to come. This has blown the whole organization wide open. Local emergency services have transported the … uh … residents to area hospitals, as needed.”

  “What about the Reverend Roy?”

  “He’s in custody.”

  “Good.”

  “Your doctor warned me to keep my visit short, but I’ll be calling you in a few days to fill in some blanks.” Detective Williams smiled and placed a card on my nightstand. “Give me a call if you have any concerns.”

  She turned toward the door and then hesitated, turning back to me. “One more thing.”

  “Yes?”

  “What do you know about the young man who was admitted with you?”

  “Reggie Carrington? He told us he’s Australian and related to the Gamble sisters.”

  The detective nodded. “Well, it seems he was carrying a ‘borrowed’ passport. We think he’s a Canadian citizen and we’ve been in touch with Homeland Security about him.”

  I nodded and collapsed back on my pillow. Why wasn’t I surprised?

  FORTY-SIX

  GALE AND CHERYL SHOWED up at my hospital room that afternoon bearing food, wine, and flowers. Gale leaned over and kissed my cheek. “Honey, I was worried sick.”

  “How did you find me?”

  “Don called the Mystic Eye. He’d been trying to reach you and panicked when your cell phone went dead. I went to your grandmother’s house and talked to Kuan and then I drove up the hill to the Gamble house. When I got there, the police were cleaning up. They told me where you’d been taken. And I wormed most of the story out of them.”

  Cheryl grasped my hand, “I’m so sorry about Dorothy.”

  “It was … horrible.” I fought back the tears. “I was so blind. I didn’t realize until … it was something the sheriff said that made everything clear. We were speaking of fate, of crimes committed when two disturbed individuals hook up. Crimes that either person alone would more than likely never commit. I was so suspicious of Richard’s being in the household, I simply couldn’t see it was the effect of that relationship on Dorothy. But by the time I realized this, I’d already eaten the cookies she’d given me.”

  “If it’s any consolation, I don’t think she wanted to hurt you. She just wanted you out of the way.”

  “No. She never intended for me to come back in one piece.” I leaned back against the pillows. My chest ached more from emotional injury than physical. Dorothy’s desperation and obsessiveness, Richard’s focus on money. Had she married anyone else, would she have taken the actions she did? Richard, for all his fault
s, would never have condoned murder. But the combination of their energies had convinced Dorothy there was only one path to take—she could not wait for her aunts’ natural deaths.

  So she had turned a blind eye to Gudrun’s proselytizing of Eunice. If Eunice was foolish enough to be lured to Prophet’s Paradise, Dorothy knew her aunt would never survive for very long. Perhaps she’d planned to have Evandra committed, based on the psychotic behavior caused by the belladonna seeds she’d substituted for caraway seeds in Evandra’s cookies. All it took was a few thrown into the batter. The final catalyst was Reggie. His arrival meant that because of the stipulation of Elisha Gamble’s trust, Dorothy would lose her inheritance to a male heir.

  I was certain her shock over Luis’s death had been genuine. The belladonna seeds—the coatings of which delayed symptoms for several hours—were meant only for Evandra. It was strictly an accident that Alba had unwittingly delivered the wrong snack to Luis.

  Dorothy had succumbed to the madness of Mercury: a skewed, single-minded obsession that brooked no delay or impediment, an ability to warp reality to fit a desired outcome. She refused to see that all the money in the world would not make a flawed relationship work. I cast my mind back to all our meetings. Had I missed clues that would have warned me she was crossing the line into unthinkable acts? Were my perceptions so blinded by my affection for her?

  “Why don’t you get some rest now?” Gale said. “We’ll be back tomorrow to pick you up and, no arguments, you’re staying with me for a day or two.

  “Oh, no. Wizard. I’ve been so worried about him. I don’t know if I can—”

  “Not a problem. I stopped by to see Kuan. Wizard’s fine, and Kuan says to tell you not to worry. You can pick him up when you’re feeling better. Oh, before I forget, I had your car towed to my mechanic’s. They’re fixing everything. My present to you for the holidays.”

  Cheryl spoke up. “We’ll get you some fresh clothes tomorrow, and I’m cooking a big dinner.”

  I smiled in response. “I have presents for both of you too. Can we stop by Castle Alley tomorrow and pick them up?”

  Reggie arrived at my bedside later that afternoon. My involuntary muscle spasms had lessened. I’d eaten almost three small meals and was feeling closer to normal. Best of all, the room wasn’t spinning around and I no longer heard strange voices.

  “I hope you don’t hate me, Julia.”

  “Why did you lie?”

  “I … I never meant for anything like this … If Dorothy hadn’t been so threatened … none of this would have happened.” I noticed the down-under twang of his speech had vanished.

  “There’s a good chance that’s true,” I said. “I think it’ll take me a long time to sort this out. What did you hope to accomplish?”

  Reggie shrugged. “I figured the little old ladies had bags of money. Why shouldn’t I get some of it? After all, I could have been Jonathan’s grandson. They wanted to believe I was.”

  I was speechless for a moment. “What are you going to do now?”

  “Head home. They told me there’ll be an inquest, but they said under the circumstances they wouldn’t be pressing charges. After that I should be able to go.”

  “And where’s home?”

  He smiled mischievously. “Toronto.”

  “Tell me something. How did you know the family history?”

  “Well, here’s the true part. My great-grandfather was one of the people the Gamble family hired to locate Jonathan in Australia. When my grandfather died, we had to clean out his house. In the attic, I found all the notes his father had kept from his investigation. He did find Jonathan, by the way.”

  “He did?” I was hardly ready to believe him.

  Reggie nodded. “He did, he really did. Jonathan never had any children. He died in a … let’s say a house of ill repute. Heart attack. He was broke and was buried in a pauper’s field. My great-grandfather interviewed witnesses who knew him. But here’s the thing. He sent his report to the Gamble family, but I don’t think they ever accepted it as true. Either their mother refused to believe it, or if she did, she never told the sisters.”

  “Pretty risky, what you did.”

  Reggie shrugged and smiled sheepishly. “Worth a try. Why shouldn’t all that money come to me?” He brushed a blond lock from his forehead. “Besides, what I did? It wasn’t illegal. Not really.”

  Handsome, young, and completely amoral.

  I didn’t feel any anger, though. Only a wave of indescribable sadness. If Reggie had never discovered the information about Jonathan Gamble … if he had stayed in Canada … if he had not decided to con the family … if Dorothy had never married Richard. All those if’s, and now two people were dead, one of whom I’d cared for and trusted. It was only by the grace of the universe the rest of us were still alive.

  Don showed up that evening carrying a steaming box of pizza and settled in a chair next to my bed.

  “Julia, I was worried sick about you. I kept calling your cell but never got an answer. I got in touch with Gale, and, well … you know the rest.”

  “I’m sorry. I never meant to cause everyone all this worry.”

  “Well, damn it, you did. Now shut up and have some pizza.” He tucked a large napkin under my chin and opened the box. The smell was indescribable. “I’m sure you’re getting crap food in this place. By the way, the paper’s running a story on this tomorrow. Wait till you see the headlines!” Then he saw the expression on my face and hesitated. “I heard about your friend. I’m really sorry, Julia. This must be hitting you hard.”

  “A story about Dorothy and her aunts?”

  “No, not at all. Although I’m sure that will eventually come to light. No, it’s much better. You’ll be happy about this. The Prophet is now persona non grata.” Don chuckled. “The politicians, the mayor, the chief of police are tripping over themselves trying to put some distance between themselves and the Reverend Roy. Never seen anything quite like it. They’re all going on record to say they never really supported him. It’s enough to make you sick. Bunch of disgusting hypocrites, worried about their own skins.”

  The events at Ardillas, as chilling as they were, weren’t uppermost in my mind. I was gratified that the Prophet’s days were numbered, but I couldn’t share Don’s excitement. The sight of Dorothy staggering, gasping in her own blood, would haunt me for a long time to come.

  “Julia, this is big, real big,” Don went on. “Major scandal, major investigation—there’ll be finger pointing all over the place. The Reverend’s finished in San Francisco, and anywhere else in the U.S. He has a lot to answer for.”

  I leaned back against my pillows and breathed a sigh of relief. “That is good news. Thanks, Don.”

  “Hey, you look tired. I’ll leave the pizza and let you get some rest. Oh, by the way, we found the culprit.” I must have looked blank. “At the newspaper. We found the guy who leaked your info. He worked, past tense, in the Accounting Department. You don’t have to worry anymore. He’s toast. I’ll give you a call … do you have your cell?”

  “No. It’s gone. The sheriff in Ardillas loaned me one, but the police have it now.”

  “Well, call me as soon as you get a new one. Come over and have dinner with us, okay? And get hold of me if you need anything at all.” Don leaned over and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “I’ve got to do some shopping for the little guy. I promised Kathy I’d pick up a couple of things he wanted for Christmas.”

  I waved goodbye to Don as he left. I pulled the rolling tray closer and opened the pizza box. One slice remained. How did he do it? How did he manage to talk the whole time and still devour almost the whole box?

  FORTY-SEVEN

  THE NEXT MORNING, I walked—very carefully, I might add—down the hall to Evandra’s room. She was sitting up in bed with the TV remote in her hand, channel surfing through morning talk shows, her complexion quite pink and healthy. I hoped I’d look as good in a few days. I’d had a glimpse of myself in the bathroom mirror and
was horrified. My face was gray and gaunt and my eyes were bloodshot. When she spotted me standing in the doorway, she waved me over.

  “Julia. How can I ever thank you? You saved us all.”

  “I’m so sorry, Evandra, that I didn’t believe you about Dorothy.” I felt close to tears.

  “There, there, dear.” She patted my hand. “I know you loved her. I did too, but as I told you, it happens more often than you’d think. I’m just so grateful her mother wasn’t alive to see this. So grateful.” She heaved a sigh. “As soon as we’re all out of this place, come and visit, anytime you like. You know Richard will be staying with us, hopefully for a good long time.”

  “Yes, the police told me. I think they’re letting me go today, but I’ll stay in touch. There’s one thing, though.”

  “What’s that, dear?”

  “I promised Eunice that I would talk to you about letting her keep bees. And growing some lavender bushes for them to feed on.”

  Evandra snorted and rolled her eyes heavenward. “If that will keep her happy, then fine. I’ll arrange it for her.”

  “Thank you.” I smiled, relieved I had kept my promise.

  The doctor was waiting for me when I shuffled back to my room. He checked my vital signs and agreed to release me as long as I made sure someone was around to keep an eye on me. To tell the truth, if he hadn’t let me go, I would have climbed out a window to be free. Gale and Cheryl arrived an hour later. Gale was lugging a Macy’s bag with a pair of very fashionable skinny jeans, a sweater bedazzled with little gems, and a pair of boots.

  “You shopped for me?”

  “Sure. I didn’t want to bring you home for Christmas dinner in a cotton hospital gown with a plastic bracelet on your wrist. Besides, the clothes you were wearing when they brought you in need to be burned. There’s some underwear in there too.”

  “I’m paying you back for all this stuff.”

  “Like hell you are. I refuse to be repaid.” Gale smiled. “Besides, I didn’t have a key to your apartment.”