“She’s never done anything like this before, and she didn’t do it this time, either.”
Tim shrugged. “People can surprise you.”
She felt her temper rising again. “What does that mean?”
“How well do we even know anyone?” said Tim. “Even the people we’re closest to can keep secrets from us. And the darker the secrets, the more they try to conceal them until the truth comes to light. You see this pattern all the time. A serial killer is discovered with body parts in the basement, and his family, neighbors and co-workers are completely shocked. Maybe they didn’t know. Or maybe they suspected something was wrong, but didn’t want to ask. We all wear a mask, Scarlett. If there’s one thing I’ve learned on this job, it’s that no one is who you think they are.”
“And what’s your mask?” she huffed.
He smiled. “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a mask. But the truth is, most of us—the normal people, not the killers—most of us don’t even realize we’re wearing a mask. We make the mask, we put it on, and then we think that’s who we are. It’s only during a trauma or tragedy that the mask slips a little. Usually others see it before we do.”
He finished his first beer, then set the glass aside to make room for the second.
I never knew Aunt Tabitha was a witch, Scarlett thought. She had only discovered that part of her aunt’s identity recently. Still, she knew Tabitha was no killer.
“I know my aunt,” Scarlett said. “She doesn’t have any dark secrets like that.”
He sampled his fresh beer and didn’t try to refute her.
“So tell me what happened.”
“I was there.”
“When she was arrested?”
Scarlett nodded. She had a hard time looking at him, so mostly she looked at her glass as she spoke.
“We were having tea in her backyard when the police pulled up. They took her away in cuffs.”
“For murder?”
“Suspicion of murder. They said they were pressing charges. But they can’t have any evidence, because she didn’t do it.”
He studied her. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“That’s what happened,” she protested.
“Maybe. But that’s not all that happened. Why were you at your aunt’s house?”
“We were having tea.”
“Why else?”
“I’m round there a lot,” Scarlett said, her brow furrowing. “Nothing unusual about that.”
“Except that you’re involved with a murder investigation, a possible suspect, then you have tea with your aunt, and then your aunt is arrested on suspicion of murder. My guess is, you’re leaving something out of your story.”
Scarlett could see no good reason to hide the truth any longer. She needed his advice, and his help. He had suspected her of murder once before, and that had been cleared up, with a little help from some witches, vampires, and werewolves.
Can’t tell him about that.
“Monkshood,” she said, not wanting to use the term wolfsbane. It might give him some ideas.
“The flower?” he asked.
“Yes.”
He nodded. “Wolfsbane. That might explain it.”
“Explain what?”
“Clearly, Jade was poisoned. I knew that from the moment I saw her collapse.”
“Your back was turned,” Scarlett pointed out.
“Right. I heard her collapse and saw her on the floor. She was writhing and foaming at the mouth. Clearly poisoned. I made a list of possible poisons, and wolfsbane is certainly on that list. I tried to get a definitive answer from the detectives working the case, but they consider me a possible suspect in this case, and are naturally reluctant to share too much information with me. It makes my own investigation somewhat complicated.”
“And mine,” she added sullenly.
He sipped his beer, the returned the glass to the table. “So you admit that you went to your aunt’s house as part of your investigation.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“No, but it’s what you were trying not to say. Which means it’s probably close to the truth.”
Scarlett sighed. “I went there to ask her some questions.”
“About wolfsbane?”
“Yes.”
“Why did you think she would know about a lethally poisonous plant?”
“She knows a lot about plants. She’s obsessed with gardening, always has been. You’ve seen her allotment. You broke into her shed once, as I recall.”
“Only doing my job,” he said.
“Well, you could do your job and investigate Ronnie and Tarquin.”
“Why them?”
“Because Tarquin runs a bookstore that sells books on all sorts of esoteric topics.”
“Like poison?”
“Exactly.”
“That’s hardly conclusive. Lots of bookstores sell books about plants. Most bookstores do, I imagine. That doesn’t mean the bookseller is poisoning people. Where’s the motive?”
“Tarquin knows Ronnie, and Ronnie had a motive, as we’ve already discussed.”
He shook his head. “Tabitha is the main suspect,” he said decisively.
“How can you say that? You don’t even know her. You don’t know anything about her.”
“I know quite a bit, in fact. I investigated her on my last case.”
Scarlett felt surprise, and then, a twinge of panic. Of course Tim had investigated Tabitha. He had investigated Scarlett, and had broken into the shed at Tabitha’s allotment, so it only made sense that he had put Tabitha on his list of suspicious people.
Cliff and Karl had assured her that Tim’s memories of the investigation were altered. They had compelled him to obliterate most of his memories, and had stolen most of his case notes.
If Tim remembered investigating Aunt Tabitha, then what else did he remember?
“Why would you investigate my aunt?” she asked.
“You know why. She owned the allotment. That was one of my primary leads, even if it came to nothing. I had to pull that thread, see where the clues would lead. I still have the files.”
“On Aunt Tabitha?”
“And you,” he said.
“You should shred those, then. You know I had nothing to do with Bill Knight’s disappearance, or his death.”
“Don’t worry, you’re in the clear on that one. The coroner’s report ruled that it was an animal attack. The evidence against you and your aunt was circumstantial at best. But I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t investigate every possible avenue to the truth.”
“That’s what I’m asking you to do here.” She was pleading with him now. “Investigate Tarquin and Ronnie.”
This time, he seemed to consider her suggestion more seriously. “Not everyone would know how to make wolfsbane into a poison. An amateur is as likely to poison themselves as they are their intended target. That’s how dangerous this plant is, even to the touch. So who would have that knowledge?”
“Tarquin,” Scarlett said.
“Possibly,” he allowed. “But also your Aunt Tabitha. You said yourself that she has years of experience dealing with all kinds of horticultural things.”
“That’s not what I said,” she protested.
“Close enough,” he countered. “My notes from the last case corroborate it.”
“But that’s why I think Tarquin is the most likely suspect. He has shelves full of books on horticulture and poisons and who knows what else.”
“And yet the police arrested your aunt. I did some looking into her—”
“You have no right!” she said, her voice raised, drawing some glances from the other people in the pub.
“It’s my job,” Tim reminded her, firmly. “And besides, everyone knows that poison is a woman’s weapon.”
“That’s sexist.”
“But it’s also true.”
Scarlett couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“My aunt
has no motive! She didn’t know Jade. They’d never even met. Why would she kill some random person she doesn’t even know?”
He considered that a moment. “It’s possible she wasn’t acting alone,” he said.
“It’s also possible she had nothing to do with it.”
“Maybe she just supplied the poison?”
“How?”
“Growing it at the allotment or at her house, then advertising online. Like old wives’ cures.”
Scarlett had heard enough. She stood, leaving her glass half full.
“Thanks for the beer,” she said bitterly, then turned on her heel and headed for the door.
She could hear Tim calling after her, but ignored him. She was out on the street before he’d gathered his things and caught up with her.
“Wait, Scarlett! Don’t go, please.”
She stopped and faced him. “You’re wrong.”
“Then let’s figure this out. Come back inside. Let’s sit down and talk it over.” As far as she could tell he seemed genuine. “Can we?”
She looked around, trying to decide what to do next. She didn’t want to finish her beer. She needed to keep her wits sharp and her temper under control. More than that, she needed to walk off her anger.
“I’m going to get some tea,” she said. “You can do what you want.”
She walked off in the direction of Costa Coffee, with Tim keeping pace one step behind her.
+++
Costa Coffee, Bicester, England
By the time they arrived at the coffee shop, Scarlett had calmed down. Her heart was pumping fast, but not from rage, and her nerves had settled.
They ordered tea and sat down at one of the open tables.
“I’m sorry,” he said again.
Scarlett ignored him. “We’re missing something,” she said. “Let’s think this through.”
“Okay.”
“You’re working from the assumption that Tabitha is guilty,” she said.
“I don’t assume that,” Tim replied. “I look for evidence.”
“But that’s your theory.”
“My working theory, yes. Until it’s verified or refuted by the facts.”
“And I was thinking it could be Tarquin, or Tarquin and Ronnie working together.”
“I’ll grant you that possibility,” he said.
Scarlett glared at him. “You’re too kind.”
Then, she sipped her tea, sifting through the possibilities.
“What other possible suspects are there?” she asked.
“You, for one.”
“And you, for two. We were both there when she died.” Scarlett remembered a thought she’d had when interviewing the husband. “Let’s go back to Frank.”
“The husband?” asked Tim.
“Yeah. What if he was slow-poisoning her?”
“Seems unlikely,” Tim said.
“Why?”
“According to the police report, there was no evidence of wolfsbane in the house.”
“He might have kept it at some other location,” she said. “Maybe he removed all traces of it after his plan worked knowing he’d be a suspect.”
Tim shook his head. “If he had poisoned her in the house, it would have left some residue. Without the proper equipment he couldn’t have known for sure he’d cleaned it all up completely and covered his tracks.”
“What do you think about the slow poison hypothesis?”
Tim shook his head. “I don’t think the husband could have pulled it off. He didn’t even fix their meals. She did.”
“I mean, without Frank. Could someone besides the husband have poisoned her?”
“You could,” he pointed out. “You gave her the cup of water.”
“But I didn’t poison her. It was just water. I was getting some for myself and then she asked for a cup of water, and I got it for her.”
“That’s right,” he said, thinking back. “She said she was thirsty. It was kind of odd the way she said it too.”
Scarlett tried to remember exactly what Jade had said. “She was thirsty, probably from something salty at lunch.”
“She might have been poisoned at lunch,” Tim suggested.
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”
“At lunch, she said? So it wasn’t a sandwich at her desk. Did she eat alone?”
“I don’t know. I don’t think I asked…” Scarlett rubbed her temples, trying will herself to remember. “Ronnie might know.”
She took out her phone and texted Ronnie.
“Any idea if Jade went out for lunch? Where she went? Who she was with?”
It took a few moments, but Scarlett could see that Ronnie was typing a message back to her. “I don’t know where they went, but Alexis - BFF - came in to pick her up for lunch”.
“Alexis,” she said out loud. She showed Tim the message.
A new theory began forming in Scarlett’s mind. “If it was her best friend, then they might have eaten lunch together.”
Tim’s expression brightened. He seemed to agree with her.
“Her best friend had access,” he said.
“If they ate lunch together she could have poisoned Jade,” Scarlett pointed out. “She had opportunity.”
“True.”
“But did she have a motive?” Scarlett wondered aloud.
She texted Amanda and Ronnie, asking them to meet them at Costa Coffee and explained to Tim what she was doing.
Fifteen minutes later, Amanda and Ronnie arrived together. They sat down at the small table across from Scarlett and Tim. Scarlett was on her second tea, and knew that she probably had blown all chances of sleeping that night. She didn’t care though. This was important, and they were getting close.
Close to solving the murder.
Close to clearing herself and her Aunt Tabitha.
“So,” Ronnie said, pulling up a chair and putting on an overly jovial tone. “Tim, you’re ready to buy that house, I take it?”
Tim laughed, humoring him. “Apartment actually. And no, I think I’ve changed my mind.”
Ronnie’s mood seemed to darken. “Sorry to hear that.”
“We wanted to talk to you about Jade,” Scarlett said, cutting to the chase.
Amanda nodded and glanced at Ronnie for reassurance. “Yeah, we figured as much.”
“Did you find out anything?” Ronnie asked.
Scarlett wondered how much Ronnie and Amanda had heard. They seemed to both be fairly oblivious about the events of the day, but Scarlett suspected Ronnie knew more than he was letting on.
He must have talked to Tarquin already.
“The police did their toxicology tests and they think Jade was poisoned,” she explained.
Ronnie seemed keenly interested. “Did they say what the poison was?”
“Wolfsbane.”
Ronnie’s expression darkened further and his jaw tensed. He looked away, as if trying to calm himself and hide whatever emotions might be boiling up inside him.
Amanda sensed his change of mood, and linked her arm through his.
“That’s terrible,” she said. “Do they have a suspect yet?”
“Tabitha.”
Amanda’s jaw dropped. “Your aunt?”
Scarlett nodded.
Tim cleared his throat. “The police think she may have had access to wolfsbane in her home garden or on the allotment. They’re questioning her now, and probably going over the property, if they haven’t already.”
“That’s impossible,” Amanda said. “Tabitha wouldn’t hurt a spider.”
“It’s obviously a mistake,” Scarlett said. “But if we don’t find the real poisoner, my aunt could be framed for this. The police need to pin this on somebody.”
“That’s not how it works,” Tim objected. “They’re just following the evidence.”
“Don’t argue with me on this, Tim,” Scarlett said sharply. “We’re talking about my aunt, the woman who raised me. She’s the most important person in the world
to me, and I’m not going to let her rot in some jail cell on a trumped-up charge.”
“I’m sorry,” he said. He’d been saying that a lot today. He turned to Ronnie. “The point is we need your help.”
“With what?” Ronnie asked.
“Information. We had a theory, Scarlett and I, that Jade may have been poisoned slowly over time. Many days or weeks, even.”
“By Frank?” Amanda asked.
“That was our first suspicion,” Tim said. “However, the police searched his property and found nothing suspicious. He also didn’t prepare their meals. Jade did.”
“And poison is a woman’s weapon,” Ronnie said knowingly to Scarlett’s irritation.
Amanda addressed Scarlett. “What do you need to know?”
“Before she died, Jade had lunch with her BFF according to Ronnie,” Scarlett explained, indicating to him.
“Alexis?” Amanda asked, glancing at her boyfriend.
Ronnie nodded. “Alexis, yeah. She and Jade used to have lunch together several times a week.”
“Used to?” Scarlett clarified.
“Yeah,” Ronnie murmured thoughtfully. “It’s been less recently,” he said, as if just realizing.
“What’s her last name?” Scarlett asked.
“Higginbottom,” Amanda interjected. “Alexis Higginbottom. They’d been friends for years.”
“How well do you know her?” asked Tim.
“Not well. I saw her sometimes with Jade, but it’s not like the three of us ever hung out much together. Come to think of it, I suggested it a few times, but it never seemed to happen. Whenever she saw me with Jade, she seemed a little jealous. Possessive, even. Like she didn’t want Jade spending time with me. And Jade just went along with it.”
“I’m sure Jade didn’t mean anything by it,” Ronnie assured her. “Jade and Alexis probably just had more in common, I’m sure. Like you said, they’d been close a long time.”
“Where did they go to lunch?” Tim asked Ronnie.
“Well, let me think. She may have told me.” Ronnie’s eyes looked about, as if searching for the memory. “She must have mentioned it. I do know that she’d often meet Alexis after work for shopping in the village.”
“What did Alexis do?” Scarlett asked.
“You know, I don’t think she works,” said Ronnie. “She was married. Her husband did well out of a storage unit business.”
A Very British Witch Boxed Set Page 39