Max’s eyes widened. Joy said it first. “Nightshade.”
“Or worse. I need your key card!”
The secretary took it from around her neck.
Max grabbed it. “Call 9-1-1 and get an ambulance. Tell them it’s hemlock poisoning.”
“Hemlock?” The secretary picked up the phone. “Not again!”
Max bolted to the stairwell and ran down the stairs. Joy stayed right behind him. Their chests heaved. Their hearts raced.
They exited the stairwell at ground level and ran across the lobby. Max ran the keycard across the reader. The door unlocked. He yanked it open. He raced to reach the garden door, almost sliding past it. He used the key card again and ripped the door open.
They didn’t see Alice.
Max walked along one path, Joy the other.
Joy screamed, “Max, she’s here!”
Joy knelt down beside Alice and lifted her head into her lap. “What did you take, Alice?”
Alice’s arms jerked. “Hemlock laced wine, same as my father.”
Max reached her side. “You’ll be okay, Alice. Help is coming.”
“Too late,” said Alice, already struggling to breathe.
“Did you poison Sally?” Joy’s brows knit in despair at interrogating her now. But should Alice die, at least they’d have a confession. Max saw it. He nodded in agreement.
Alice rasped as she spoke. “Her favorite. Death cap mushroom soup for lunch. Hemlock with dinner. Her eyes cringed with pain, ‘Sorry, salad meant for…’”
“What else?” asked Max, ignoring her feeble apology.
Alice drooled. “Nothing.” She sucked in a breath. “Many mushrooms.”
“But she ate belladonna,” said Joy.
“And foxglove,” added Max.
Alice sucked in air with great effort. Her brows wrinkled. “No.”
“Did you kill Todd?” asked Max.
Alice sucked in a breath. She fought hard for it. Her eyes fluttered and she smiled. “Hemlock—just desserts.” She grinned. Drool ran from the corner of her mouth. Her head fell to the side. She lay there, dead among the beautiful flowers and sweet scents.
Joy stroked her cheek. “She’s gone.”
“And Kate is innocent.”
The door flew open and emergency technicians rushed in.
Max gave Joy a hand up. Joy rose to her feet and let the technicians work.
“Let’s get to Alice’s apartment while it’s still light out,” said Max.
Joy cast one more look at the garden before leaving.
“She planned this for a very long time,” said Max. “It was kismet that she was assigned to work for Sally, but I don’t think it would have mattered. She would have found a way to get to her no matter where she worked in the company.”
Max parked the car. “Since Alice didn’t poison Sally with foxglove or belladonna, it looks like Todd did.”
“He tried to cash in his shares. Or for vengeance.”
“Two independent poisonings on the same day: lunch and dinner. They must have conspired. Can you imagine? Todd has the best and the worst morning of his life—he thinks he wins it all, then he loses everything, and then Alice feeds him a poison picnic and watches him die an agonizing death? She double crossed him.”
“I suspect she Alice found a way to let Sally know about the affair too,” said Joy. “She knew how possessive Sally could be.”
Max and Joy reached Alice’s apartment on the second floor.
A police guard informed them. “The manager unlocked the door. The evidence team is on the way.”
“Thanks,” said Max. “We’ll just take a peek.” He and Joy donned booties and gloves and entered Alice’s apartment, a corner unit with only one shared wall and a tentant living below her.
As soon as they strolled in, a sweet, flowery scent filled the air. Rinsed dishes filled the sink. The fridge had hardly any food. A pile of mail sat unopened on the kitchen counter. “I don’t think she was worried about paying her bills,” said Joy.
The living room had a light blue sofa, a lounge chair, a wooden coffee table, and end tables. Max noted, “No TV.”
“Probably streams to her computer,” said Joy. “I don’t think she cared much to entertain herself. She had a purpose.”
They meandered to her bedroom, which had a simple mattress, sheets, and a blanket. No headboard. Besides that, a single nightstand and a lamp whose shade was a size too small sat beside the mattress.
“She didn’t care,” said Joy. “She was ready to die. It looks like she barely moved in.”
The bathroom, too, held necessities, no frills.
There was a second bedroom, but it was locked. With gloved hands, Max reached up to the top of the casing. He pulled down a long pin with a hook on one end—the emergency key to open standard locks. “People are so predictable sometimes.” Max put the pin in the lock and turned it. He set the key back on the frame and turned the knob.
Max opened the door, immediately concerned about stepping inside. “Joy, what is this?”
Joy cautiously moved past Max. “Wait here.” As Joy stepped inside. She found a glass kitchen table on which sat beakers and burners and utensils. The table sat beneath the window, which would aerate the room when needed. But the window was closed. Another smaller table sat along the long wall where a bed would normally be. A yellow sheet covered some kind of boxes.
Joy stepped to the table with the beakers and burners. “She set up a lab. I think she’s distilling poison.”
“It could be dangerous in there. Let’s get out here,” said Max.
“Give me a minute.”
Joy approached the smaller table. She lifted the yellow sheet away from the boxes, only they weren’t boxes at all. “Max, you gotta see this.”
Max stepped over to the table. Joy had uncovered three rat cages. The occupants of two of the cages lay on their sides. Dead. Only one white rat survived. It raced around its enclosure, searching for food.
“Max, do you see that!” Joy pointed to the remains of a chocolate-cherry cordial. Barely a piece the size of a fingernail lay next to the dead mouse. The chocolate still had a piece of gold stuck to it.
“Lizzy had a box of chocolates on her desk!” Max yelled.
Without another word, Max and Joy rushed out of the apartment. Max barked orders to the cop standing guard. “Call Hazmat—that apartment is full of toxins!”
On the way down the stairs, Max and Joy raced past three members of the evidence collection team, carrying cases containing the materials they’d need for processing the scene.
“It’s full of poison, guys. Wait for clearance,” said Joy as she whisked by them.
25
Max flipped on the sirens and lights.
“The secretary said they’d gone to Lizzy’s,” said Joy.
“I’ll drive. You call them! Hurry.”
Max wound through traffic and flew across intersections with lights flashing. The sirens wailed.
Joy dialed Lizzy’s cell phone. It rang and rang. No one picked up. She dialed Elliot’s next. With one ring it sent her to voicemail. “His phone is either off or he’s on it. Lizzy isn’t picking up.”
Max swerved onto Via Vendage and swerved again onto the side road that would take him to the backside of the Wolf Estate Winery and Lizzy’s home.
Max pressed the gate buzzer. The gate began to open. Max pressed the intercom button. “Hello! Hello!” No one responded.
The second the car could squeeze through, Max slammed his foot on the gas pedal and the car shot up the long drive.
Max slammed on the brakes and parked. They bolted from the car.
Max pounded on the door and rang the bell, while Joy rang Lizzy’s phone again.
Rio swung the door open. Max pushed him aside and dashed past him. “Where’s the candy? It’s poisoned!”
“What? Oh my god!” shouted Rio, racing to the living room. “Oliver!”
Oliver was watching television. He
held a piece of chocolate that headed toward his mouth.
“Don’t eat it!” shouted Max. “It’s poisoned!”
Oliver jumped to his feet. He dropped the candy.
The red seats and wall tapestries of hunts, antique carpets, and a medieval knight in armor, created a gruesome image of impending doom and death.
Max scooped up the piece Oliver had tossed down and the box on the table, which held three more gold-topped candies.
“Where’s your mom?” Joy caught sight of a phone sitting on the kitchen counter—Lizzy’s. The screen flashed with eight missed calls.
“Oh, my God!” Rio pointed outside. “The patio!”
Max and Joy bolted through the French doors and spilled onto the patio, where Lizzy and Elliot sat enjoying a glass of red wine and laughing.
Rio and Oliver followed close behind.
Lizzy jumped to her feet. “Max? Joy? What’s wrong?”
Elliot had a gold-topped chocolate in his hand. It had almost reached his lips.
“I wouldn’t eat that if I were you,” said Joy. “It’s poisoned.”
“Poisoned!” Elliot threw the candy back in the gold box and jumped to his feet. “By whom?”
“Alice. She killed Sally and Todd.” Max’s chest swelled to suck in air. “And you, too, almost.”
Elliot stammered, “Todd? It wasn’t suicide?”
Lizzy jumped to her feet and rushed to her boys. She hugged them. “Oliver! Rio!”
Rio assured his mother, “We didn’t eat any. Max stopped Oliver in the nick of time.”
Max held up the box.
“Why did she do this?” asked Rio.
Lizzy put her fingers on both temples, as if trying to understand a complicated problem. “Rio, Oliver, give us some time with Max and Joy. I’ll talk to you in a bit.”
Rio pursed his lips, but he did as his nother asked and headed back toward the patio doors. “Come on, Oliver.”
Lizzy held onto the table and fell into her seat. “The candy was meant for you and me, Elliot.” Lizzy held her stomach. Her face contorted with unimaginable pain. “If you hadn’t showed up?”
Joy collected the box of candy on the table. “We tried to call.”
Elliot’s phone sat in the middle of the table. “I turned it off. For a few bloody minutes, I turned it off!”
“Elliot,” a tear slid down Lizzy’s cheek. “They almost ate it. Oliver and Rio.”
Elliot’s face turned grim. “But they didn’t eat it, Lizzy. Thanks to these brave souls.”
Lizzy wiped her tears away. She straightened her posture. “How did you know? About the candy? The card was from Sally’s attorney.”
“I suspect Alice wrote the card.” Max paused. Something didn’t feel right. Why wasn’t Elliot more distraught? Why had Lizzy conferred about the danger to Rio and Oliver directly to him, as if he had something to do with it? Max looked at Joy. He gave her the same kind of head tilt he’d seen her do many times. Like his brain was so heavy in thought, the ponderous weight of those thoughts had tilted it over.
Joy returned a quizzical glance.
Max grabbed a chair, turned it around, and sat on it so that he faced Lizzy. Joy grabbed a chair too.
“What a lovely view, Lizzy. You and Danny built this up from scratch after Elliot dumped you. And Alice almost destroyed it all. Crazy Alice.”
Lizzy muttered. “She’s obviously disturbed, Max.” Again, Lizzy looked to Elliot for support.
“Buy why, Lizzy?” asked Joy.
Elliot interjected, “You saw how Sally treated her. How she treated us all.”
“When did you two become chums?” Joy wagged her finger between Lizzy and Elliot. “Given the history.”
Lizzy’s voice softened. “Water under the bridge. Elliot has been a true friend to both Danny and me. He took care of Danny as much as I did after he got sick.”
“I did what I could, Lizzy. Sally used us both. But you found a good man—one far better than me.”
“You know, Lizzy,” said Max. “I’ve got a pretty wild imagination sometimes, and it has crossed my mind that neither of you has asked why Alice wanted to kill you.”
Elliot huffed. “Well, why did she?”
Max studied their faces. “Because four years after Sally terminated Alice’s father, Linus Tyler, and released MuscleToxA without making him a partner, as promised, he killed himself with hemlock.”
Lizzy stammered, “Alice Worth is really Alice Tyler?”
Elliot barked, “How were we supposed to know?”
Max repeated in a sarcastic tone, “Hmmm. How would you know?”
Joy interjected, “It occurred to me as I watched Alice dying an excruciating death from hemlock, gasping for every last breath, barely an hour ago, that you gave her a tour of the garden the day she interviewed, right Lizzy?”
Lizzy’s shoulders sagged. Another tear dribbled down her cheek. Her eyes fell to her lap. “I give lots of tours.”
Joy tilted her head, “I remembered Alice telling me that you practically ran her over when you stormed out of Sally’s office in a huff the day she interviewed. Wasn’t that fate incarnate?”
“What are you implying?” asked Elliot.
Max held up a finger to emphasize his point. “I believe my partner is saying that Lizzy worked in the lab with Linus for years.” He turned to Lizzy. “You knew his face. You knew Alice as a child. When you practically ran her over the day she interviewed, I think you recognized her.”
Lizzy folded her arms over her chest, sat straighter, and wiped the tears from her cheeks. Her voice donned a defensive tone. “That’s ridiculous. It was a long time ago.”
Joy pressed her. “Alice shared how knowledgeable you were in explaining the gardens many fruits. You told her one death cap could kill a person. Did you also mention that Sally loved mushroom soup?”
Elliot cross his legs, leaned back, and swept his hand through the hair as if to wipe away the assertion. “Alice poisoned this chocolate! And she confessed to killing Sally and Todd. Is that right?”
Max tensed. “She confessed to the mushroom soup and to killing Todd with hemlock.”
Elliot picked up his wine and brought it to his mouth, but he hesitated to consume it and set the glass back down.
Joy added, “But Alice didn’t confess to the foxglove or the belladonna.”
Elliot huffed, “Then look at Todd. He had a long-standing affair with Sally, and she cheated on him. He thought he would profit from Sally’s death.”
“Or…” Max put up his finger again and paused to make a point. “Two more people who hated Sally beyond endurance conveniently nudged Alice in the right direction and used her to exact their own retribution?”
Joy perked up. “Impressive, Max. If Lizzy recognized Alice, all she had to do was give her a tour of the garden and discuss how she’d ‘hypothetically’ kill someone.”
“And how would I know when Alice would strike?” asked Lizzy.
“That part is pretty easy, actually,” said Max. “Alice made sure the luncheon contained mushroom soup. It would have been easy for you to see a copy or make suggestions. I suspect you made sure it contained chocolate mousse and blueberries, which Kate has on the menu at the winery restaurant. It was easy to predict when Alice would strike, and—a double bonanza—it was your birthday party that night, in case Sally needed an extra shove over the cliff.”
“Max, I can’t believe you’re suggesting that Lizzy had anything to do with this!” snapped Elliot. “She’d never frame her mother-in-law!”
Joy piped up, “Well, crimes are like this box of chocolates, Elliot—you never know what you’re going to get. Some plans work out the way they’re supposed to, and others go awry.”
Max added, “You had no way of knowing Alice was smart enough to frame Kate by putting a plastic bag of mushrooms in her home freezer. Or that Alice laced the soup with hemlock, but when when Kate switched to salads, Alice had to improvise. She loaded Sally’s salad with hemlock,
which I suspect she placed before Sally, since no one else became sick, but Sally passed it to me.”
“She poisoned the soup? We would all have eaten it!” Elliot slumped in his seat.
“Yep,” confirmed Max. “Of course, you would all have made it, like I did, in all probability, but Sally would have been kicked over the ravine and into the ditch by that little extra flavoring.”
Joy leaned in for the kill. “Lizzy, you visited Todd Saturday morning and gave him a bottle of wine. It wouldn’t have been hard to stick a plastic bag of foxglove and belladonna in his freezer.”
Lizzy shot a glance at Elliot. She almost seemed to smile. “Or…” Lizzy paused as Max had. Her voice gained strength. “Todd and Alice plotted to kill Sally. Then Alice killed Todd. And then she poisoned us—or tried to, at least—before taking her own life.”
Max stared at Lizzy as if seeing a new person. Joy had called it right in her lecture—the best of people had thresholds. He glared at Elliot too. Sally had crossed the line with Rio. It had pushed Lizzy and Elliot too far.
Elliot waved a hand in the air to dismiss the idea. “My thought exactly, Lizzy.”
Lizzy added, “I offered to take a lie detector test. And I will pass. So will Elliot.”
Elliot nodded. “That’s right. That’s because we didn’t kill Sally.”
Max slammed a hand down on the table, as if suddenly filling in the missing piece. “Of course! Joy, your lecture—about poisons and LD.”
Joy’s face lit up. “You listened to my lecture! ‘Lethal dose.’ Lizzy is a chemist. Why don’t you explain it.”
“I prefer not to play your little game,” said Lizzy.
Max slammed a fist on the table, which made Lizzy and Elliot jump. “Your little ‘game’ put me on life support and nearly killed me! So, you’re playing. LD is the toxicity of a substance.” Max asked, “Joy, what if one individual poisoned Sally but worried it might fail or it might not be fast-acting enough, so others poisoned her on the same day? Or, maybe they just wanted to get a jab in?”
Joy nodded. “If the hypothetical ‘others’ did not administer a lethal dose, then they could all say, ‘I didn’t kill her,’ and they’d be right. Technically.”
Pinot Noir and Poison Page 17